There is not, perhaps, in the kingdom, a more dogmatical, or luxurious ſet of men, than the pedantic tyrants who reſide in colleges and preſide at public ſchools. The vacations are equally injurious to the morals of the maſters and pupils, and the intercourſe, which the former keep up with the nobility, introduces the ſame vanity and extravagance into their families, which baniſh domeſtic duties and comforts from the lordly manſion, whoſe ſtate is awkwardly aped on a ſmaller ſcale. The boys, who live at a great expenſe with the maſters and aſſiſtants, are never domeſticated, though placed there for that purpoſe; for, after a ſilent dinner, they ſwallow a haſty glaſs of wine, and retire to plan ſome miſchievous trick, or to ridicule the perſon or manners of the very people they have juſt been cringing to, and whom they ought to conſider as the repreſentatives of their parents.
Can it then be a matter of ſurpriſe that boys become ſelfiſh and vicious who are thus ſhut out from ſocial converſe? or that a mitre often graces the brow of one of theſe diligent paſtors?
The deſire of living in the ſame ſtyle, as the rank juſt above them, infects each individual and every claſs of people, and meanneſs is the concomitant of this ignoble ambition; but thoſe profeſſions are moſt debaſing whoſe ladder is patronage: yet, out of one of theſe profeſſions the tutors of youth are, in general, choſen. But, can they be expected to inſpire independent ſentiments, whoſe conduct muſt be regulated by the cautious prudence that is ever on the watch for preferment?
