Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

and extensive knowledge and learning, who would be willing to undertake the education of his two sons. The Doctor, in a letter to Mr. Walker on this occasion, observes, "You "were the first I thought of, and I have " mentioned you to him, and represented you "as possessed of all the qualifications he "wants.... You would find yourself un"der no disagreeable restraints, and he "would consider you as his companion and "friend.... Indeed I shall think, that I "have well rewarded him for the civility '" with which he has treated me, could I be "the means of helping him to such a com"panion for himself and tutor for his chil"dren, as I believe you would be, for there "are few of whom I think so highly. I am, "with great regard and esteem, your very "humble servant, R. PRICE. August 3, 1771."

In a subsequent letter, he says, "His lord"ship proposed staying abroad six or seven "months, he has left this business wth

me, and he seemed very anxious about it. "But while I can have you in view, I shall £ 4

not

"not think of applying to any

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

other per

son. The treatise I have lately pub"lished has gone off better than I expected. "The London Societies are in general alarm"ed. I wish I may prove the means of "either breaking them, or engaging them "to reform. They have in their present "state a very pernicious tendency. But "what I most wish is, that the observations "I have made on the national debt may be "attended to. I look upon you as one of "the best judges of this work, and should "it have merit enough to recommend itself "to your approbation, I shall be happy. "It is the fruit of much study, and I am glad now to turn my thoughts to other subjects."

[ocr errors]

Mr. Walker's sole objection to this proposal was the idea, that the services required in such a situation would have interfered too much with his domestic comfort as a married man; it was however afterward accepted by Dr. Priestley under the same cir

cumstances.

It

It is rather a singular circumstance, though one which reflects no little honour on Mr. Walker, as showing the general estimation in which his character was held, that he should have been separately selected, by two persons so capable of appreciating individual merit, as the most competent in their opinion to discharge the duties of an office, which perhaps of all others requires the greatest union of natural and acquired talents. It is not merely sufficient for the tutor of youth, that he possesses a knowledge of such elemental parts of learning as generally form the basis of education; but to this it is requisite that he should unite such other qualities, as are calculated to engage the esteem and confidence of those who are intrusted to his care. Where he can thus gain the hearts of his pupils, he is enabled to be of far more advantage to them, than by any knowledge he can communicate in the mere formal lessons of tuition: every moment of their connexion he is conveying to them the most valuable instruction-by

1

his example and conversation he is gradually forming their minds to the most liberal and generous sentiments. That Mr. Walker really had this influence over his pupils, their strong and continued attachment to him through the whole of his life is the strongest testimony. No man perhaps ever possessed in so high a degree the art of conciliating the affections of young minds. For a period of thirty years, during which he engaged in the business of education, whether in a private, or in a public capacity as a professor in the dissenting colleges of Warrington and Manchester, it would be no exaggeration of the truth to affirm, notwithstanding the variety of character and disposition which he must necessarily have encountered, that he nevertheless universally inspired the minds of his pupils with sentiments of respect and attachment to his person. There is in youth a wonderful discrimination of character. The pretender to qualities which he does not possess, to attainments of which he is ignorant, will not escape the ordeal of

their examination; the imposture never fails to be detected, and the discovery of his insufficiency is productive only of contempt. If by a pompous and affected exterior he attempt to preserve that respect, which is due only to real merit; if he be characterized by a cold and forbidding manner, by a morose and austere deportment; if there be any thing mean and sordid in his views if in the treatment of his pupils a spirit of selfishness too visibly predominate; he never fails to become the object of their scorn and aversion. In the present instance they met with every thing that was eminently the reverse; they discovered an understanding not circumscribed within the boundaries of their own immediate pursuits, but extending to almost every walk of science, embracing even those more abstract and profound studies, the comprehension of which confessedly requires the utmost stretch of the human intellect. And these high attainments were unaccompanied with any of the superciliousness of literary pride; in his deportment

there

« AnteriorContinuar »