The Essays, vol 5 | Page 9

the opinion of Plato,
who says, that constancy, faith, and sincerity, are the true philosophy,
and the other sciences, that are directed to other ends; mere adulterate
paint. I could wish that Paluel or Pompey, those two noted dancers of
my time, could have taught us to cut capers, by only seeing them do it,
without stirring from our places, as these men pretend to inform the
understanding without ever setting it to work, or that we could learn to
ride, handle a pike, touch a lute, or sing without the trouble of practice,
as these attempt to make us judge and speak well, without exercising us
in judging or speaking. Now in this initiation of our studies in their
progress, whatsoever presents itself before us is book sufficient; a
roguish trick of a page, a sottish mistake of a servant, a jest at the table,
are so many new subjects.
And for this reason, conversation with men is of very great use and

travel into foreign countries; not to bring back (as most of our young
monsieurs do) an account only of how many paces Santa
Rotonda--[The Pantheon of Agrippa.]--is in circuit; or of the richness of
Signora Livia's petticoats; or, as some others, how much Nero's face, in
a statue in such an old ruin, is longer and broader than that made for
him on some medal; but to be able chiefly to give an account of the
humours, manners, customs, and laws of those nations where he has
been, and that we may whet and sharpen our wits by rubbing them
against those of others. I would that a boy should be sent abroad very
young, and first, so as to kill two birds with one stone, into those
neighbouring nations whose language is most differing from our own,
and to which, if it be not formed betimes, the tongue will grow too stiff
to bend.
And also 'tis the general opinion of all, that a child should not be
brought up in his mother's lap. Mothers are too tender, and their natural
affection is apt to make the most discreet of them all so overfond, that
they can neither find in their hearts to give them due correction for the
faults they may commit, nor suffer them to be inured to hardships and
hazards, as they ought to be. They will not endure to see them return all
dust and sweat from their exercise, to drink cold drink when they are
hot, nor see them mount an unruly horse, nor take a foil in hand against
a rude fencer, or so much as to discharge a carbine. And yet there is no
remedy; whoever will breed a boy to be good for anything when he
comes to be a man, must by no means spare him when young, and must
very often transgress the rules of physic:
"Vitamque sub dio, et trepidis agat In rebus."
["Let him live in open air, and ever in movement about something."
--Horace, Od. ii., 3, 5.]
It is not enough to fortify his soul; you are also to make his sinews
strong; for the soul will be oppressed if not assisted by the members,
and would have too hard a task to discharge two offices alone. I know
very well to my cost, how much mine groans under the burden, from
being accommodated with a body so tender and indisposed, as eternally
leans and presses upon her; and often in my reading perceive that our

masters, in their writings, make examples pass for magnanimity and
fortitude of mind, which really are rather toughness of skin and
hardness of bones; for I have seen men, women, and children, naturally
born of so hard and insensible a constitution of body, that a sound
cudgelling has been less to them than a flirt with a finger would have
been to me, and that would neither cry out, wince, nor shrink, for a
good swinging beating; and when wrestlers counterfeit the philosophers
in patience, 'tis rather strength of nerves than stoutness of heart. Now to
be inured to undergo labour, is to be accustomed to endure pain:
"Labor callum obducit dolori."
["Labour hardens us against pain."--Cicero, Tusc. Quaes., ii. 15.]
A boy is to be broken in to the toil and roughness of exercise, so as to
be trained up to the pain and suffering of dislocations, cholics, cauteries,
and even imprisonment and the rack itself; for he may come by
misfortune to be reduced to the worst of these, which (as this world
goes) is sometimes inflicted on the good as well as the bad. As for
proof, in our present civil war whoever draws his sword against the
laws, threatens the honestest men with the whip and the halter.
And, moreover, by living at