fant mind! So that to break the ſpirit, allowed to become vicious at home, a child is ſent to ſchool; and the methods taken there, which muſt be taken to keep a number of children in order, ſcatter the ſeeds of almoſt every vice in the ſoil thus forcibly torn up.
I have ſometimes compared the ſtruggles of theſe poor children who ought never, to have felt reſtraint, nor would, had they been always held in with an even hand, to the deſpairing plunges of a ſpirited filly, which I have ſeen breaking on a ſtrand: its feet ſinking deeper and deeper in the ſand every time it endeavoured to throw its rider, till at laſt it ſullenly ſubmitted.
I have always found horſes, an animal I am attached to, very tractable when treated with humanity and ſteadineſs, ſo that I doubt whether the violent methods taken to break them, do not eſſentially injure them; I am, however, certain that a child ſhould never be thus forcibly tamed after it has injudiciouſly been allowed to run wild; for every violation of juſtice and reaſon, in the treatment of children, weakens their reaſon. And, ſo early do they catch a character, that the baſe of the moral character, experience leads me to infer, is fixed before their ſeventh year, the period during which women are allowed the ſole management of children. Afterwards it too often happens that half the buſineſs of education is to correct, and very imperfectly is it done, if done haſtily, the faults, which they would never have acquired if their mothers had had more underſtanding.
