Besides, to excel in those arts, which, though merely ornamental, are yet well enough adapted to ladies who have only a subordinate part to fill in life, would rather lessen than augment the dignity of a sovereign. It was a truly royal reply of Themistocles, when he was asked if he could play on the lute-No, but if you will give me a paltry village I may perhaps know how to improve it into a great city.' These are imperial arts, and worthy kings. As to these inferior accomplishments, it is not desirable, and is it not sufficient that a sovereign should possess that general knowledge and taste which give the power of discriminating excellence, so as judiciously to cherish, and liberally to reward it? But, not only in works of mere taste; even in natural history, botany, experimental philosophy, and other generally valuable sciences, a correct but unlaboured outline of knowledge, it is presumed, will, in the present instance, be thought sufficient. Profitable and delightful as these pursuits are to others (and no one more admires them than the writer of this essay) yet the royal personage must not be examining plants, when she should be studying laws; nor investigating the instincts of animals, when she should be analyzing the characters of men. The time so properly devoted to these studies in other educations, will be little enough in this, to attain that knowledge of general history, and especially that accurate acquaintance with the events of our own country, which, in her situation, are absolutely indispensable. Geography and chronology have not unfitly been termed the two eyes of history. With chronology she should be completely acquainted. It is little to know events, if we do not know in what order and succession they are disposed. It is necessary also to learn how the periods of computation are determined. Method does not merely aid the memory, it also assists the judgment, by settling the dependence of one event upon another. Chronology is the grand art of historical arrangement. To know that a man of distinguished eminence has lived, is to know little, unless we know when he lived, and who were his contemporaries. Indistinctness and confusion must always perplex that understanding, in which the annals of past ages are not thus consecutively linked together. Would it not be proper always to read history with a map, in order to keep up in the mind the indissoluble connexion between history and geography; and that a glance of the country may recall the exploits of the hero, or the virtues of the patriot who has immortalized it? Respecting the study of geography, I would observe that many particulars, which do not seem to have been considered by the generality of writers, ought to be brought before the view of a royal pupil. The effects of local situation, and geographical boundary, on the formation and progress of nations and empires.-The consequences, for example, which have resulted as well in the political, as in the civil and religious circumstances of mankind, from the Mediterra. nean being so aptly interposed, not so much as VOL. II. it should seem to be a common barrier, as to form a most convenient and important medium of intercourse between Europe, Asia, and Africa.-The effect of this great Naumachia of the ancient world, in transferring empire from east to west;-the want of tides in the Mediterranean, so as to adapt this scene of early maritime adventure to the rudeness of those who were first to navigate it, and whose success might have been fatally impeded, by that diversity of currents, which in other seas the ebb and flow of the tides is perpetually creating. In connection with this, though somewhat locally remote from it, is to be remarked the regularity of the monsoons in the Erythræan* sea, by means of which, the earlier traders between Africa and India were carried across the Persian gulf, without the exercise of that skill, which as yet did not exist. And, as if to facili. tate the conveyance of those most interesting commodities to the Mediterranean, in order that the commerce of that inland ocean might never want an adequate stimulus, the Red Sea is carried onward, till it is separated from the Mediteranean by a comparatively narrow isthmus: an isthmus that seems providentially to have been retained, that while the maratime activity and general convenience of the ancient world was provided for, there might still be sufficient difficulty in the way, to excite to a more extended circumnavigation, when the invention of the compass, the improvement of maritime skill, and the general progress of human society,should concur in bringing on the proper season. And, in this geographic sketch, let not the remarkable position of Judea be forgotten :† placed in the very middle parts of the old world (whose extent may be reckoned from the pillars of Hercules to the utmost Indian isle Tabrobane,') as the sun in the centre of the solar system, and at the top of the Mediterranean, both that it might be within the vortex of great events, and also that when the fulness of time should come, it might be most conveniently situated for pouring forth that light of truth, of which it was destined to be the local origin, upon all the nations of the earth, and especially on the Roman empire. Such are the less common particulars to which attention may advantageously be drawn. With geography in general should of course be * A name given formerly to all that portion of the sea which lies between Arabia and India, though latter. ly confined to the Arabian gulf. It is worthy of notice, that in all probability Judea was the country by means of which a trade was first opened between the Mediterranean and India. David had taken from the Edomites two cities at the Red Sea, Ezion Geber and Elath; these, we are told, Solomon made sea-ports, and colonized them with navigators, furnished by the king of Tyre, of whom it is said, 2 Chron viii. 18, that he sent unto Solomon ships and servants, who had knowledge of the sea, and they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir; and, 1 Kings, x. 22, we are told that Solomon had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Iliram, which came once in three years, bringing gold and silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. Thus, Tyre, the great emporium of the Mediterranean was evidently indebted to David and Solomon, for access to that commerce of the east, which was carried on by means of the Red Sea, and brought from the above-mentioned ports, across the isthmus of Suez, probably to the same place where the Tyrians in later times unshipped their Asiatic commodities, the port of Rhinocorura. B connected some knowledge of the natural and civil history of each country; its chief political revolutions, its alliances, and dependencies; together with the state of its arts, commerce, na tural productions, government, and religion, CHAP. III On the importance of forming the mind. friends; preserve her from a blind prejudice in choosing them, from retaining them through fear or fondness, and from changing them through weakness or caprice. When we are abused through specious appearances,' says the judicious Hooker, it is because reason is negligent to search out the fallacy.' But he might have added, if reason be not cultivated early, if it be not exercised constantly, it will have no eye for discernment, no heart for vigorous exertion. Specious appearances will perpetually deceive that mind which has been accustomed to acquiesce in them through ignorance, blindnees, and inaction. A prince should be ignorant of nothing which it is honourable to know; but he should look on mere acquisition of knowledge not as the end to be rested in, but only as the means of arriving at some higher end. He may have been well instructed in history, belles lettres, philosophy, and languages, and yet have received a defective education, if the formation of his judgment has been neglected. For, it is not so important to know every thing, as to know the exact value of every thing, to appreciate what we learn, and to IT is of the highest importance that the royal pupil should acquire an early habit of method and regularity in her studies. She should, therefore, be particularly guarded against that desultory manner of reading, too common at this day, and particularly with women. She should be trained always to study some valuable purpose, and carefully to attend to the several way. marks, by means of which that end may most effectually be attained. She should be accustomed to call forth the forces of her mind, and to keep them alert, well disciplined, and ready for service. She should so cultivate settled principles of action, as to acquire the habit of ap-arrange what we know. plying them, on demand, to the actual occasions Books alone will never form the character. of life; and should possess a promptitude, as Mere reading would rather tend to make a pewell as soundness, in deducing consequences, dantic, than an accomplished prince. It is conand drawing conclusions. Her mind should be versation which must unfold, enlarge, and apply exercised with as much industry in the pursuit the use of books. Without that familiar comof moral truth and useful knowledge, as that of ment on what is read, which will make a most a young academic in the studies of his profes- important part of the intercourse between a royal sion. The art of reigning is the profession of a pupil and the society around him, mere reading prince. And, doubtless, it is a science which might only fill the mind with fallacious models requires at least as much preparatory study as of character, and false maxims of life. It is any other. Besides, one part of knowledge is conversation which must develope what is oboften so necessary for reflecting light on another scure, raise what is low, correct what is defective, part, that perhaps no one who does not under-qualify what is exaggerated, and gently and alstand many things, can understand any thing well. But, whatever may be the necessary degree of knowledge, it is most certain that it cannot be attained amidst the petty avocations which occupy a modern lady's time.-Knowledge will not come by nature or by chance. Precepts do not always convey it. Talents do not always insure it. It is the fruit of pains. It is the reward of application. Dii laboribus omnia vendunt. most insensibly raise the understanding, form the heart, and fix the taste; and by giving just proportions to the mind, teach it the power of fair appreciation, draw it to adopt what is reasonable, to love what is good, to taste what is pure, and to imitate what is elegant. But this is not to be effected by cold rules, and formal reflections; by insipid dogmas, and tedious sermonizing. It should be done so indirectly, so discreetly, and so pleasantly, that the pupil shall not be led to dread a lecture at every turn, nor a dissertation on every occurrence. While yet such an ingenious and cheerful turn may be given to subjects apparently unpromising, old truths may be conveyed by such new images, that the pupil will wonder to find herself improved when she thought she was only diverted. Folly may be made contemptible, affectation ridiculous, vice hateful, and virtue beautiful, by such seemingly unpremeditated means, as shall have the effect, without having the effort, of a lesson. Topics must not be so much proposed as insinuated. Let her ever bear in mind, she is not to study that she may become learned, but that she may become wise. It is by such an acquisition of knowledge as is here recommended, that her mind must be so enlarged and invigorated as to prepare her for following wise counsels, without blindly yielding to fortuitous suggestions; as to enable her to trace actions into their multifarious consequences, and to discover real analogies without being deceived by superficial appearances of resemblance. It is thus that she must be secured from the dominion of the less en- But above all, there should be a constant, but lightened. This will preserve her from credu-imperceptible habit of turning the mind to a love lity; prevent her from overrating inferior talents, and help her to attain that nil admirari, which is so necessary for distinguishing arrogant pretension from substantial merit. It will aid her to appreciate the value of those around her; will assist her penetration in what regards her of TRUTH in all its forms and aspects; not only in matters of grave morality, but in matters of business, of common intercourse, and even of taste; for there is a truth both in moral and mental taste, little short of the exactness of mathematical truth; and the mind should acquire an habit of seeking perfection in every thing. This habit should be so early and insensibly formed, that when the pupil comes afterwards to meet with maxims, and instances of truth and virtue, in historical and moral writings, she may bring to the perusal tastes, tempers, and dispositions so laid in, as to have prepared the mind for their reception. As this mode of preparatory and incidental instruction will be gradual and inwoven, so it will be deep and durable; but as it will be little obvious to ordinary judges, it will excite less wonder and admiration than the usual display and exhibition so prevalent in modern education. Its effects will be less ostensible, but they will be more certain. When it is considered how short is that period of life in which plain unvarnished truth will be likely to appear in all its naked simplicity before princes, is there a moment of that happy, that auspicious season to be lost, for presenting it to them in all its lovely and engag. ing forms? It is not enough that they should possess truth as a principle; they should cherish it as an object of affection, delight in it as a matter of taste, and dread nothing so much as false colouring and artifice. He who possesses a sound principle, and strong relish of truth in his own mind, will possess a touchstone by which to try this quality in others, and which will enable him to detect false notions, to see through false manners, and to despise false attractions. This discerning faculty is the more important, as the high breeding of every polished society presents so plausible an imitation of goodness, as to impose on the superficial observer, who, satisfied with the image and superscription, never inquires whether the coin be counterfeit or sterling. The early habit of sifting questions, turning about a truth, and examining an argument on all sides, will strengthen the intellectual powers of the royal pupil; prevent her thoughts from wandering; accustom her to weigh fairly and resolve soundly; will conquer irresolution in her mind; preserve her from being easily deceived by false reasoning, startled by doubts, and confounded by objections. She will learn to digest her thoughts in an exact method, to acquire a logical order in the arrangement of them, to possess precision in her ideas, and its natural concomitant, perspicuity in her expression; all which will be of the highest importance to one who may hereafter have so much to do and to say in public. With the shades of expressions she should also be well acquainted, and be habituated to use the most apposite and the most correct; such are neither too high nor too low, too strong nor too weak, for the occasion, such as are obvious, but not vulgar, accurate but not pedantic, elegant but not artificial. from all regular instruction, a passage from the history of England, a story out of Plutarch, or any similar author; and require of her to repeat it afterwards, in her own words? This would not only add, daily, one important fact to her stock of knowledge, but would tend to form a perspicuous and elegant style.-Occasion would also be furnished for observing whether she exhibited that best proof of good sense, the seizing on the prominent features of the story, laying less stress on what was less important. But while accuracy is thus sought the still more important habit of comprehensiveness must not be overlooked. Her mind should be trained to embrace a wide compass; it should be taught to take in a large whole, and then subdivide it into parts; each of which should be considered distinctly, yet connectedly, with strict attention to its due proportions, relative situations, its bearings with respect to the others, and the dependence of each part on the whole. Where, however, so many things are to be known, and so many to be done, it is impossible to attend equally to all. It is therefore im portant, that, in any case of competition, the less material be left unlearned and undone; and that petty details never fill the time and mind, at the expense of neglecting great objects. For those, therefore, who have much business and little time, it is a great and necessary art to learn to extract the essential spirit of an author from the body of his work, to know how to seize on the vital parts; to discern where his strength lies; and to separate it from those portions of the work which are superfluous, collateral, or merely ornamental. On the subject of economizing time, the writer would have been fearful of incurring the charge of needless strictness, by suggesting the utility of accustoming princes to be read to while they are dressing, could not the actual practice of our admirable queen Mary be adduced to sanction the advice.-That excellent princess, from a conscientious regard to the value of time, was either read to by others, or condescended, herself, to read aloud, that those who were employed about her person might share the benefit, which she enhanced by such pleasant and judicious remarks as the subject suggested. But there is an additional reason why the children of the great would be benefited by this habit; for it would not only turn idle moments to some account, but would be of use in another way, by cutting off the fairest occasions which their inferior attendants can have for engaging them, by frivolous or flattering discourse. It would be well to watch attentively the bent of the mind in the hours of relaxation and amusement, when caution is dismissed by the pupil, and control by the preceptor; when no studies are imposed, and no specific employment suggested. In fact when vigilance apThe memory should be stored with none but pears to sleep, it should be particularly on the the best things, that when, hereafter, the judg-alert, in order to discern those tendencies and ment is brought into exercise, it may find none but the best materials to act upon. Instead, therefore, of loading the memory, might it not be useful to establish it into a rule to read to her every day, as an amusement, and distinctly dispositions which will then most naturally un. fold themselves; and because that the heart, being at those seasons less under discipline, will be more likely to betray its native character. And as the regulation of the temper is that part of education on which the whole hap- | piness of life most materially depends, no occasion should be neglected, no indication slighted, no connteraction omitted, which may contribute to accomplish so important an end. nounced his mistresses at home, and his unjust wars abroad, even though his mind seems to have acquired some pious tendencies, his life became a scene of such inanity and restlessness, that he was impatient at being, for a moment, left alone. He had no intellectual resources. The agitation of great events had subsided. From never having learned either to employ himself in reading or thinking, his life became a blank, from which he could not be relieved by the sight of his palaces, his gardens, and his aqueducts, the purchase of depopulated villages and plundered cities. Indigent amid all his possessions, he ex The peculiar defects, not merely such faults as are incident to childhood, but the predomi. nating faults of the individual, should be care. fully watched, lest they acquire strength through neglect, when they might have been diminished by a counteracting force. If the temper be restless, ardent, and impetuous, weariness and discontent will, hereafter, fill up the dreary intervals between one animating scene and another, unless the temper be subdued and tran-hibited a striking confirmation of the declaquillized by a constant habit of quiet, though varied, and interesting occupation. Few things are more fatal to the mind, than to depend for happiness on the contingent recurrence of events, business, and diversions, which inflame and agitate it; for as they do not often occur, the intervals which are long are also languid; the enjoyment is factitious happiness; the pri vation is actual misery. ration of Solomon, concerning the unsatisfying nature of all earthly pleasures; and showed, that it is in vain even for kings to hope to obtain from others those comforts, and that contentment, which man can derive only from with in himself. CHAP. IV. tion. Reading, therefore, has, especially to a prince, its moral uses, independently of the nature of the study itself. It brings no small The Education of a Sovereign a specific Educagain, if it secure him from the dominion of turbulent pursuits and agitating pleasures. If it snatch him on the one hand, from public THE formation of the character is the grand schemes of ambition and false glory; and if it object to be accomplished. This should be conrescue him on the other, from the habit of form-sidered to be not so much a separate business, ing petty projects of incessant diversion, the rudiments of a trifling and useless life. Knowledge, therefore, is often the preservative of virtue, and, next to right habits of senti. ment and conduct, the best human source of happiness. Could Louis the fourteenth have read, probably the edict of Nantz had not been revoked. But a restless temper, and a vacant mind, unhappily lighting on absolute power, present, in this monarch, a striking instance of the fatal effects of ignorance and the calamity of a neglected education. He had a good natural understanding, loved business, and seemed to have a mind capable of comprehending it. Many of his recorded expressions are neat and elegant. But he was uninstructed upon system; cardinal Mazarine, with a view to secure his own dominion, having withheld from him all the necessary means of education. Thus, he had received no ideas from books; he even hated in others the learning which he did not himself possess: the terms wit and scholar, were in his mind, terms of reproach; the one as implying satire, the other pedantry. He wanted not application to public affairs; and habit had given him some experience in them. But the apathy which marked his latter years strongly illustrated the infelicity of an unfurnished mind. This, in the tumult of his brighter days, amidst the succession of intrigues, the splendour of festivity, and the bustle of arms, was scarcely felt. But ambition and voluptuousness cannot always be gratified. Those ardent passions, which in youth were devoted to licentiousness, in the meridian of life to war, in a more advanc. ed age to bigotry and intolerance, not only had never been directed by religion, but had never been softened by letters.-After he had re as a sort of centre to which all the rays of instruction should be directed. All the studies it is presumed, of the royal pupil should have some reference to her probable future situation. Is it not, therefore, obviously requisite that her understanding be exercised in a wider range than that of others of her sex; and that her principles be so established, on the best and surest foundation, as to fit her at once for fulfilling the peculiar demands, and for resisting the peculiar temptations of her station? Princes have been too often inclined to fancy, that they have few interests in common with the rest of mankind, feeling themselves placed by Providence on an eminence so much above them. But the great aim should be, to correct the haughtiness which may attend this superiority, without relinquishing the truth of the fact. Is it not, therefore, the business of those who have the care of a royal education, not so much to deny the reality of this distance, or to diminish its amount, as to account for its existence, and point out the uses to which it is subservient? A prince is an individual being, whom the hand of Providence has placed on a pedestal of peculiar elevation: but he should learn, that he is placed there as the minister of good to others; that the dignity being hereditary, he is the more manifestly raised to that elevation, not by his own merit, but by providential destination; by those laws, which he is himself bound to observe with the same religious fidelity as the meanest of his subjects. It ought early to be impressed that those appendages of royalty, with which human weakness may too probably be fascinated, are intended not to gratify the feelings, but to distinguish the person of the monarch; that, in themselves, they are of little value; that they are beneath the attachment of a rational, and of no substantial use to a moral being; in short, that they are not a subject of a triumph, but are to be acquiesced in for the public benefit, and from regard to that weakness of our nature, which subjects so large a portion of every community to the influence of their imagination, and their senses. While, therefore, a prince is taught the use of those exterior embellishments, which, as was before observed, designate, rather than dignify his station; while he is led to place the just value on every appendage which may contribute to give him importance in the eyes of the multitude; who not being just judges of what constitutes true dignity, are consequently apt to reverence the royal person exactly so far as they see outward splendour connected with it; should not a royal pupil himself be taught, instead of overvaluing that splendour, to think it a humbling, rather than an elevating consideration, that so large a part of the respect paid to him, should be owing to such extrinsic causes, to causes which make no part of himself? Let him then be taught to gratify the public with all the pomp and circumstance suitable to royalty; but let him never forget, that though his station ought always to procure for him respect, he must ever look to his own personal conduct, for inspiring veneration, attachment, and affection; and ever let it be remembered that this affection is the strongest tie of obedience; that subjects like to see their prince great, when that greatness is not produced by rendering them less; and as the profound Selden observes, the people will always be liberal to a prince who spares them, and a good prince will always spare a liberal people.' and vigorous exercise of necessary authority, may prove as injurious to the interests of a community as the most lawless stretch of power. Defects of this very kind were evidently among the causes, of bringing down, on the gentlest of the kings of France, more calamities than had ever resulted from the most arbitrary exertion of power in any of his predecessors. Feebleness and irresolution, which seems to be little more than pardonable weaknesses in private persons, may, by their consequences, prove in princes fatal errors; and even produce the effect of great crimes. Vigour to secure, and opportunity to exert their constitutional power, is as essential as moderation not to exceed it.* It serves to show the inestimable value of well-defined laws, and the importance of making the prince acquainted with them, that Louis the thirteenth conceived a jealousy respecting his own power, because he did not understand the nature of it; and his favourites were unable or unwilling to instruct him. But his usurpation of extraordinary power tended to exalt his minister still more than himself; and in setting the king above the laws, he still set the cardinal above the king. The power of the monarchs of France had never been defined by any written law. Charles V. Louis IX. and perhaps a very few other wise and temperate princes, did not conceive their power to be above the laws, but approved of those moderating maxims which had become, by degrees, the received usages of the state, and which, while they seemed, in some measure, a constitutional check upon the absolute power of the crown, formed also a guard against that popular licentiousness, which, in a pure despotism, appears to be the only resource left to the This is not a period when any wise man people. But France has had few monarchs like would wish to diminish either the authority, or Charles V. and still fewer like Louis IX. Henry the splendour of kings. So far from it, he will IV. seems to have found and observed the happy support with his whole weight, an institution medium. He was at once resolute and mild; which the licentious fury of a revolutionary spi- determined and affectionate; politic and humane. rit has rendered more dear to every Englishman. The firmness of his mind, and the active vigour On no consideration, therefore would he pluck of his conduct, always kept pace with the geneven a feather from those decorations of royalty, tleness of his language. He fought for his prewhich, by a long association, have become inti-rogatives bravely, and defended them vigorously; mately connected with its substance. In short, every wise inhabitant of the British isles must feel, that he who would despoil the crown of its jewels, would not be far from spoiling the wearer of his crown. And as nothing but domestic folly or frenzy would degrade the monarch from his due elevation, so democratic envy alone would wish to strip him, not only of a single constituent of real greatness, but even of a single ornamental appendage on which the people have been accustomed to gaze with honest joy. Nevertheless, those outrages which have lately been committed against the sanctity of the throne, furnish new and most powerful reasons for assiduously guarding princes by every respectful admonition, against any tendency to exceed their just prerogatives, and for checking every rising propensity to overstep, in the slight-pretend to pronounce how much we owe to the steady est degree, their well-defined rights. At the same time it should be remembered, that there may be no less dangerous faults on the other side, and that want of firmness in maintaining just rights, or of spirit in the prompt yet, it is said, he ever carefully avoided the use of the term. He also loved and sought popularity, but he never sacrificed to it any just claim, nor ever made a concession which did not also tend to guard the real prerogatives of the crown.t And it seems to be the true wisdom of a prince, that, as he cannot be too deliberate in his councils, nor too cautious in his plans, so when those counsels are well matured, and those plans well May it not be observed, without risking the impu tation of flattery, that perhaps never, in the history of the world, has any country been so uninterruptedly blessed with that very temperament of government, which is here implied, as this empire has been under the dominion of the house of Hanover? There has, on no occasion been a want of firmness; but with that firmness, there has been a conscientious regard to the has occurred in his reign-the riots of the year 1780. |