[b] Cornelia, the mother of the two Gracchi, was daughter to the first Scipio Africanus. The sons, Quintilian says, owed much of their eloquence to the care and institutions of their mother, whose taste and learning were fully displayed in her letters, which were then in the hands of the public. _Nam Gracchorum eloquentiæ multum contulisse accepimus Corneliam matrem, cujus doctissimus sermo in posteros quoque est epistolis traditus._ Quint. lib. i. cap. 1. To the same effect Cicero: _Fuit Gracchus diligentiâ Corneliæ matris a puero doctus, et Græcis litteris eruditus._ _De Claris Orat._ s. 104. Again, Cicero says, We have read the letters of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, from which it appears, that the sons were educated, not so much in the lap of their mother, as her conversation. _Legimus epistolas Corneliæ, matris Gracchorum: apparet filios non tam in gremio educatos, quam in sermone matris._ _De Claris Orat._ s. 211. Pliny the elder informs us that a statue was erected to her memory, though Cato the Censor declaimed against shewing so much honour to women, even in the provinces. But with all his vehemence he could not prevent it in the city of Rome. Pliny, lib. xxxiv. s. 14. [c] For Aurelia, the mother of Julius Cæsar, see _The Genealogical Table of the Cæsars_, No. 2. [d] For Atia, the mother of Augustus, see _Genealogical Table of the Cæsars_, No. 14. As another instance of maternal care, Tacitus informs us that Julia Procilla superintended the education of her son. See _Life of Agricola_, s. iv. Section XXIX. [a] Quintilian thinks the first elements of education so highly material, that he has two long chapters on the subject. He requires, in the first place, that the language of the nurses should be pure and correct. Their manners are of great importance, but, he adds, let them speak with propriety. It is to them that the infant first attends; he listens, and endeavours to imitate them. The first colour, imbibed by yarn or thread, is sure to last. What is bad, generally adheres tenaciously. Let the child, therefore, not learn in his infancy, what he must afterwards take pains to unlearn. _Ante omnia, ne sit vitiosus sermo nutricibus. Et morum quidem in his haud dubiè prior ratio est; rectè tamen etiam loquantur. Has primùm audiet puer; harum verba effingere imitando conabitur. Et naturâ tenacissimi sumus eorum, quæ rudibus annis percipimus; nec lanarum colores, quibus simplex ille candor mutatus est, elui possunt. Et hæc ipsa magis pertinaciter hærent, quæ deteriora sunt. Non assuescat ergo, ne dum infans quidem est, sermoni, qui dediscendus est._ Quint. lib. i. cap. 1. Plutarch has a long discourse on the breeding of children, in which all mistakes are pointed out, and the best rules enforced with great acuteness of observation. [b] Juvenal has one entire satire on the subject of education: