No 330. Wednesday, March 19.

Maxima debetur pueris reverentia - Juv.

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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.

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SIR,

I HAVE long expected, that in the Course of your Obfervations upon the several Parts of Human Life, you would one time or other fall upon a Subject, which, fince you have not, I take the liberty to recom' mend to you. What I mean, is the Patronage of young • modest Men to such as are able to countenance and introduce them into the World. For want of fuch Affiftances, a Youth of Merit languishes in Obscurity or Poverty, when his Circumstances are low, and runs into • Riot and Excess when his Fortunes are plentiful. I cannot make myself better understood, than by sending you an History of myself, which I shall defire you to infert • in your Paper, it being the only Way I have of expreffing my Gratitude for the highest Obligations imaginable.

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I am the Son of a Merchant of the City of London, who, by many Losses, was reduced from a very luxuriant Trade and Credit to very narrow Circumstances, 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 a Will, having before buri'ed my Mother in the midst of his other Misfortunes. I was fixteen Years of Age when I lost my Father; and an Estate of, 2001. a Year came into my Poffeffion, with• out Friend or Guardian to inftrust me in the Manage

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ment or Enjoyment of it. The natural Consequence of ⚫ this was, (though I wanted no Director, and soon had • Fellows who found me out for a fimart young Gentle

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man, 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 arrested, and conveyed with a Guard strong enough for the most defperate Affaffin, to a Bayliff's House, where I lay four Days, furrounded with very merry but not very agreeable Company. As foon • as I had extricated my felf from this shameful Confinement, I reflected upon it with so 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; so that I only • lived there among Men, as little Children are sent 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 dispose of myself, 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 Impression 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 Horses always at my command; and tho • I am not now quite eighteen Years of Age, familiar Con• verse 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. I

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speak 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 shew ' what great Charities are to be done without Expence, and how many noble Actions are loft, out of Inadvertency

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in Persons 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 Sense, and Breeding, and would kindly endeavour to influence the Education and growing Prospects of the younger Gentry about him, I am apt to believe it would fave him a great deal of stale Beer on a publick Occasion, 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 Representative. • The same thing might be recommended to all who have • made any Progrefs in any Parts of Knowledge, or arrived at any Degree in a Profession; 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 shallever escape, and all

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the Good he shall receive in this Life; both which are

• wholly owing to this Gentleman's Favour to,

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SIR,

Your most obedient humble Servant,

Mr. SPECTATOR,

S. P.

• A Ma 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 Master set me in my Life. I think on what I read in School as I go home at noon and night, and so intently, that I have often gone half a mile out of my way, not minding whither I went. Our • Maid tells me, she 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 Master seems as well pleased with my Performances as any Boy's in the same • Class. 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 so 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 t'other Day, and he told me in a Passion, he did not believe 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 Master gives Orders for. All the Boys in the School, but I, have the Clafssick 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 a 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 Instructions in this cafe, and perfuade Parents to encourage their Children ' when they find them diligent and defirous of Learning. ' I have heard some Parents say, they would do any thing " for their Children, if they would but mind their Learn'ing: I would be glad to be in their place. Dear Sir, pardon my Boldness. If you will but consider 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

No 331. Thursday, March 20.

- Solidam præbet tibi vellere barbam.

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Perf.

HEN I was last with my Friend Sir ROGER in Westminster-Abby, I observed that he stood

longer than ordinary before the Bust of a venerable old Men. I was at a loss to guess the reason of it, when after some 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, says he, when I am walking in my Gallery in the Country, and see my Ancestors, who many of them died before they were of my Age, I cannot forbear regarding them as so many old Patriarchs, and at the fame time looking upon my self as an idle smock-fac'd young Fellow. I love to see 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 restore 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 smiled at my Friend's Fancy; but after we parted, could not forbear reflecting on the Metamorphoses 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 the Type 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 Philosophy, 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