14

CHILDHOOD OF COWPER.

him, not because his sins were small and few, but many and great, that he might give point and power to that "faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of 'whom I am chief." And David in his very prayer, "For Thy name's sake pardon mine iniquity, FOR IT IS GREAT," expresses the same wondrous theology, wondrous and always new in the world, for its amazing mercy.

Let then sin have its full merit, as well as grace; justice to the one is but justice to the other. No extenuation of human offences, whether in boyhood or manhood, can glorify God, but the manifestation of God's glory most powerfully sets off the baseness of every kind of sin, in every age and place. Set down, if you please, those equivocations, deceits, concealments, and false excuses, which Cowper rudely describes as the infernal art of lying; set them down as mere harmless boyish tricks and stratagems; yet they shew the corrupting power of evil example in a public school, even upon a nature constitutionally so frank and indisposed to falsehood as the youthful Cowper's. His character as yet, while at school, was not firm, but irresolute and yielding, and he had no religious principles or habits to bear him through temptation unharmed.

THE MORALITIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

15

CHAPTER II.

-Cowper's

Public schools and private tuition- "The Tirocinium experience at Westminster-Cowper's habits while a student-at-law -His residence in the Temple-His convivial and literary companions.

An admirable judge of English schools in his day, Mr De Quincey, has expressed the opinion that Cowper was far from doing justice to the great public schools of the kingdom in his "Tirocinium," or review of the school-discipline. He affirms that Cowper was disqualified, by delicacy of temperament, for reaping the benefit from such a warfare, and having suffered too much in his own Westminster experience, he could not judge the great public schools from an impartial station; "but I," continues he, "though ill enough adapted to an atmosphere so stormy, yet having tried both classes of schools, public and private, am compelled, in mere conscience, to give my vote (and if I had a thousand votes, to give all my votes) for the former."

So, too, as between the public and private schools that Cowper had attended, the proof in his experience was in favour of the former, for he suffered much more at the private school than he did at the public. But this by no means invalidates his testimony as to the essential evils

16

THE MORALITIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

of the latter. And a system of education which proves good only for the rougher and more rugged natures and constitutions, but injurious for the shrinking, the sensitive, the gentle, and refined, and for the sensibilities of exquisite genius hidden in its childhood, cannot, on the whole, be the best. Cowper, however, was not disqualified, either by excessive delicacy of temperament or delicacy of constitution, for the rough-and-tumble even of a town school; it was the moral influences that he commented upon with such just and graphic severity in "The Tirocinium,” which is a poem recommending private tuition in preference to an education in any public school whatever. Cowper delighted in the athletic sports of boyhood, and was foremost in them for skill and energy, so that thus far, at least, it was nothing in his own idiosyncracies that created the prejudice, or unfitted him to bear an impartial testimony. But what he saw in others, and knew from experience, of the injurious, desolating moral effect, the mining and sapping of religious principle, if such principle had been taught in early childhood, the precocious instruction in fashionable vices, the exclusion or dishonour of religious truth and a religious example, the forming and fixing of habits and a character that, whatever might be the sphere moulded of hereditary fortune here, could prepare the being for nothing but misery hereafter;-these are the things presented with such caustic satire, and at the same time affectionate and solemn warning, in this admirable poem. The reader of it, knowing that Cowper drew his description from reality, and that he did not exaggerate nor set down anything in malice, cannot wonder at the feelings of the poet, nor at his calling the public schools menageries.

THE MORALITIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

"What cause can move us (knowing as we must
That these menageries all fail their trust)

To send our sons to scout and scamper there,
While colts and puppies cost us so much care?"

17

How beautiful, how impressive, is the opening of that poem, and the argument, from which the writer deduces the rule and foundation of its criticisms !

"That we are bound to cast the minds of youth
Betimes into the mould of heavenly truth,
That, taught of God, they may indeed be wise,
Nor, ignorantly wand'ring, miss the skies."

From the Creation, the chain of reasoning proceeds to man, placed by its Author as its intelligent, majestic head, the state, the splendour, and the throne being an intellectual kingdom. And thus intelligent, and standing as the crown of such a world, the wildest scorner of the laws of his Maker may, in a sober moment, find time to pause and to ask himself, why so framed and placed in such a position, so fearfully and wonderfully made? If only to see and feel by the light of reason, and with an aching heart, the contradiction, chaos, and fury of passions which reason can indeed condemn, but can bring no force to conquer them; if, impotent and self-wretched, in this world there is here no cure; and if, when this demonstration of folly, guilt, and helplessness is at an end, there is nothing better beyond, or nothing at all; then, of all the objects and creatures of this world, man stands self-impeached— though at the head of creation, the creature of least worth.

"And, useless while he lives, and when he dies,
Brings into doubt the wisdom of the skies;
What none could reverence, all might justly blame,
And man would breathe but for his Maker's shame."

But it is perfectly plain that if all the objects of the

B

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THE MORALITIES OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

verse shew forth the glory of the Maker, fulfilling some wise and obvious purpose, and demonstrating a divine intelligence and goodness, certainly not divine unless both good and intelligent, then he to whom is given or appointed the dominion over such a world, has been invested with faculties and powers to fill that station for the same great purpose, and stands arrayed in his kingship of intelligence and power, that he may reflect, not less than earth, sea, and air, the attributes of his Creator.

ance.

"That first or last, hereafter, if not here,

He too might make his Author's wisdom clear;
Praise Him on earth, or, obstinately dumb,

Suffer His justice in a world to come."

Such is the truly sublime argument with which Cowper introduces his rugged and profoundly satirical "Review of Schools." The close of it reminds the reader of a passage in Coleridge's "Statesman's Manual," by which he means the Bible, with its lessons of God's wisdom for man's guid"The root is never detached from the ground. It is GOD EVERYWHERE: and all creatures conform to His decrees the righteous by performance of the law, the disobedient by the sufferance of the penalty." If such the destiny of man, then, exclaim both poets, what combined madness and dishonesty to set up any system of public education of which the end is not man's highest interest, and the means God's truth!

Now the truths (Cowper continues) found out only with great pains by men of great learning, are not always as important as they are dear-bought.

"But truths on which depends our main concern,
That 'tis our shame and misery not to learn,

Shine by the side of every path we tread
With such a lustre, he that runs may read."