N° 330. Wednesday, March 19.

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Maxima debetur pueris reverentia

Juv.

HE following Letters, written by two very confiderate Correspondents, both under twenty Years of Age, are very good Arguments of the Neceffity of taking into Confideration the many Incidents which affect the Education of Youth.

SIR,

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HAVE long expected, that in the Course of your Obfervations upon the feveral Parts of Human Life, you would one time or other fall upon a Subject, which, fince you have not, I take the liberty to recommend to you. What I mean, is the Patronage of young • modest Men to fuch as are able to countenance and in⚫troduce them into the World. For want of fuch Affiftances, a Youth of Merit languishes in Obfcurity or Po6 verty, when his Circumftances are low, and runs into Riot and Excefs when his Fortunes are plentiful. I can⚫ not make myself better understood, than by fending you an Hiftory of myself, which I fhall defire you to infert in your Paper, it being the only Way I have of expreffing my Gratitude for the higheft Obligations imaginable.

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I am the Son of a Merchant of the City of London, who, by many Loffes, was reduced from a very laxuriant Trade and Credit to very narrow Circumftances, in comparison to that of his former Abundance. This took away the Vigour of his Mind, and all manner of Attention to a Fortune which he now thought defperate; in⚫ fomuch that he died without aWill, having before buried my Mother in the midft of his other Misfortunes. I was fixteen Years of Age when I lost my Father; and an Eftate of 200l. a Year came into my Poffeffion, without Friend or Guardian to inftru&t me in the Manage

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⚫ment or Enjoyment of it. The natural Confequence of this was, (though I wanted no Director, and foon had Fellows who found me out for a finart young Gentleman, and led me into all the Debaucheries of which I was capable) that my Companions and I could not well be fupplied without running in Debt, which I did very frankly, till I was arrefted, and conveyed with a Guard ftrong enough for the moft defperate Affaffin, to a Bayliff's Houfe, where I lay four Days, farrounded with very merry but not very agreeable Company. As foon as I had extricated my felf from this fhameful Confinement, I reflected upon it with fo much Horror, that I ⚫ deferted all my old Acquaintance, and took Chambers in an Inn of Court with a Resolution to study the Law ⚫ with all poffible Application. But I trifled away a whole Year in looking over a thousand Intricacies, without Friend to apply to in any Cafe of Doubt; fo that I only lived there among Men, as little Children are fent to • School before they are capable of Improvement, only to 'be out of harm's way. In the midst of this State of fufpence, not knowing how to difpofe of myfelf, I was fought for by a Relation of mine, who, upon obferving a good Inclination in me, used me with great Familiarity, and carried me to his Seat in the Country. When I came there, he introduced me to all the good Company in the County; and the great Obligation I have to him for this kind Notice and Refidence with him ever fince, has made fo ftrong an Impreffion upon me, that he has an Authority of a Father over me, founded upon the Love of a Brother. I have a good Study of Books, a good Stable of Horfes always at my command; and tho' ⚫ I am not now quite eighteen Years of Age, familiar Con⚫ verfe on his part, and a strong Inclination to exert my felf on mine, have had an effect upon me that makes me acceptable wherever I go. Thus, Mr.SPECTATOR, by this Gentleman's Favour and Patronage, it is my own fault if I am not wifer and richer every day I live. fpeak this as well by fubfcribing the initial Letters of my Name to thank him, as to incite others to an Imitation " of his Virtue. It would be a worthy Work to fhew what great Charities are to be done without Expence, and how many noble Actions are loft, out of Inadvertency

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in Perfons capable of performing them, if they were put in mind of it. If a Gentleman of Figure in a County 'would make his Family a Pattern of Sobriety, good Senfe, and Breeding, and would kindly endeavour to • influence the Education and growing Profpects of the younger Gentry about him, I am apt to believe it would fave him a great deal of ftale Beer on a publick Occafion, and render him the Leader of his Country from their 'Gratitude to him, instead of being a Slave to their Riots ⚫ and Tumults in order to be made their Reprefentative. The fame thing might be recommended to all who have ⚫ made any Progrefs in any Parts of Knowledge, or arrived at any Degree in a Profeffion; others may gain Preferments and Fortunes from their Patrons, but I have, I hope, receiv'd from mine good Habits and Virtues. I repeat to you, Sir, my Request to print this, in return for all the Evil an helpless Orphan fhall ever efcape, and all the Good he fhall receive in this Life; both which are wholly owing to this Gentleman's Favour to,

SIR,

Your most obedient humble Servant,

Mr. SPECTATOR,

S. P.

AM a Lad of about fourteen. I find a mighty Pleafure in Learning. I have been at the Latin School ⚫ four Years. I don't know I ever play'd truant, or neg ⚫lected any Task my Mafter fet me in my Life. I think on what I read in School as I go home at noon and night, and fo intently, that I have often gone half a 'mile out of my way, not minding whither I went. Our Maid tells me, fhe often hears me talk Latin in my fleep. And I dream two or three Nights in the Week I am reading Juvenal and Homer. My Mafter feems as well pleafed with my Performances as any Boy's in the fame Clafs. I think, if I know my own Mind, I would choose • rather to be a Scholar, than a Prince without Learning. I have a very good affectionate Father; but tho' very rich, yet fo mighty near, that he thinks much of the Charges of my Education. He often tells me he believes my Schooling will ruin him; that I cost him God. knows what in Books. I tremble to tell him I want one.

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I am forced to keep my Pocket-Money and lay it out for a Book, now and then, that he don't know of. He has order'd my Master to buy no more Books for me, but fays he will buy them himself. I asked him for Horace 6 t'other Day, and he told me in a Paffion, he did not be6 lieve I was fit for it, but only my Master had a mind to 'make him think I had got a great way in my Learning. I am sometimes a Month behind other Boys in getting the Books my Mafter gives Orders for. All the Boys in ' the School, but I, have the Claffick Authors in ufum Delphini, gilt and letter'd on the Back. My Father is often reckoning up how long I have been at School, and tells me he fears I do little good. My Father's Carriage fo difcourages me, that he makes me grow dull and melancholy. My Mafter wonders what is the matter with me; I am afraid to tell him; for he is à Man that loves to encourage Learning, and would be apt to chide my Father, and not knowing my Father's Temper, may 'make him worse. Sir, if you have any Love for Learning, I beg you would give me fome Inftructions in this cafe, and perfuade Parents to encourage their Children when they find them diligent and defirous of Learning. I have heard fome Parents fay, they would do any thing for their Children, if they would but mind their Learning I would be glad to be in their place. Dear Sir, 'pardon my Boldnefs. If you will but confider and pity my Cafe, I will pray for your Profperity as long as I live.

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London, March

2, 1711.

Your humble Servant,

James Difcipulus.

Thursday

331. Thursday, March 20.

N° 331.

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Solidam præbet tibi vellere barbam.

Perf.

HEN I was laft with my Friend Sir ROGER in Westminster-Abby, I obferved that he flood longer than ordinary before the Buft of a venerable old Men. I was at a lofs to guess the reason of it, when after fome time he pointed to the Figure, and asked me if I did not think that our Forefathers looked much wifer in their Beards than we do without them. For my part, fays he, when I am walking in my Gallery in the Country, and fee my Ancestors, who many of them died before they were of my Age, I cannot forbear regarding them as fo many old Patriarchs, and at the fame time looking upon my felf as an idle fmock-fac'd young Fellow. I love to fee your Abrahams, your Ifaacs, and your Jacobs, as we have them in old Pieces of Tapestry with Beards below their Girdles, that cover half the Hangings. The Knight added, if I would recommend Beards in one of my Papers, and endeavour to reftore human Faces to their antient Dignity, that upon a Month's warning he would undertake to lead up the Fashion himself in a pair of Whiskers.

I fmiled at my Friend's Fancy; but after we parted, could not forbear reflecting on the Metamorphofes our Faces have undergone in this Particular.

THE Beard, conformable to the Notion of my Friend Sir ROGER, was for many Ages look'd upon as theType of Wisdom. Lucian more than once rallies the Philofophers of his Time, who endeavour'd to rival one another in Beards; and represents a learned Man who stood for a Profefforship in Philofophy, as unqualify'd for it by the Shortness of his Beard.

ÆLIAN, in his Account of Zoilus, the pretended Critick, who wrote against Homer and Plato, and thought himself wiser than all who had gone before him, tells us

that