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CHAPTER V.

FARMER GILDRIG'S NUMEROUS ISSUE. ECONOMY WITH A VENGEANCE!-EDUCATION IN GENERAL; THAT OF SQUIRE GEORGE IN PARTICULAR.GOOD GRAFTING, AND BUT INDIFFERENT FRUIT. -ON PASSIONS, IRREGULAR PLEASURES, AND BAD

COMPANY.

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THE good Lady Gildrig had so well responded to the ardours of her spouse, as to bring him a round dozen of youthful sprigs, of both sexes, before this time. At a proper season, the edu• cation of the heir-apparent, 'Squire George, became, of course, the subject of consideration, and a reverend gentleman, of the name of Markbottom, was fixed upon as worthy of this most important trust.

A most important trust truly, and I will give the Spectator's ideas on the subject, as being much better than any which I can broach of my own, or borrow elsewhere."I consider," says the

famous Essayist, "a human soul without education, like marble in the quarry, which shews none of its inherent beauties, until the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein, that runs through the body of it. Education, after the same manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which, without such helps, are never able to make their ap pearance."

"If my reader will give me leave to change the allusion so soon upon him, I shall make use of the same instance to illustrate the force of education, which Aristotle has brought to explain his doctrine of substantial forms, wher he tells us that a statue lies bid in a block of marble; and that the art of the statuary only clears away the superfluous matter, and removes the rubbish. The figure is in the stone, and the sculptor only finds it. What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul. The philosopher, the saint, or hero; the wise, the good, or the great man, very often lie hid and concealed in a plebeian, which

a proper education might have dis-interred and have brought to light. Thus we see the block of marble sometimes only begun to be chipped, sometimes rough-hewn, and but just sketched into a human figure; sometimes we see the man appearing distinctly in all his limbs and features; sometimes we find the figure wrought up to great elegancy; but seldom meet with any to which the hand of a Phidias or a Praxiteles, could not give several nice touches and finishings."

To return from this digression, although we shall preserve the allusion in proceeding with our story---it was considered, with a view to economy, that two blocks of marble night as well be put into the hands of the sculptor as one, if they could be polished at the same time, and at the same expense. Accordingly, as Farmer Gildrig's second son, Frederic, was of an age to go to school, he, as well as Squire George, was put under the tuition of Mr. Markbottom. The plan was excellent, considering the embarrassed situation of the tenantry; but, like all other public schemes, it was miserably executed, The expense was more than sufficient.

to have founded seminaries for the education of half the youth of the manor in perpetuùm!

The generous tenants, however, never regarded the expense in the least, but they rea sonably expected, that it would have produced such a figure, as would leave little room for the hand of any modern Phidias, or Praxiteles, to give it any nice touches and finishings. they were very much disappointed.

But

No fault could be ascribed to the sculptor; the figure and polishing did him the highest credit; but the grain of the block was naturally flimsy, porous, and ungrateful.

As a proof that all his care and assiduity had failed in the most material point,---that of teaching one, who was to lord it over others, the very necessary point of subduing himself, his pupil evinced, before he was escaped from his hands, that he would be a slave to his passions, (particularly that for the fair sex) and that gratitude for the attachment of the tenantry to his family, and feeling for their vast sacrifices to its prosperity, had not the least weight with him; in short,---that he would sacrifice them to his pleasures.

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And what are those pleasures to which youth makes such vast sacrifices, as its morals, its constitution, and consequently, its happiness?--There are so many rocks and quicksands, on which thousands daily strike and sink before our eyes, without benefiting by their sad example. The love of pleasure, natural to man, in every stage of life, from the school-boy with his shining morning face," to "the lean and slippered pantaloon," glows in youth with excessive ardour. The world spreads a luxurious, and seemingly continual, banquet before his eyes, which, even with enjoyment, vanishes from his grasp. He loses the substance for the shadow. Health, vigour, and appetite, invite him to indulge his appetite, and it is in vain that the old and experienced pilot warns him of latent dangers. His Mentor is accused of having forgot that he himself was once young. And yet, to what do the counsels of age, with respect to pleasure, amount? Only not to hurt himself, nor injure others by an inordinate love of it. Within proper bounds, pleasure is lawful; beyond them, it becomes ruin, ous and criminal. Are these restraints any

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