too childishly bold through noting nothing except what he breeds in his own mind in his solitary training, where he thinks only of himself, and has none to control him, not even his master, whatever show there may be of obedience to authority in this private cloistering. Surely it is reasonable for one in his childhood to become acquainted with other children, seeing he has to live with them as men in his manhood. Is it good for the ordinary man to be brought up on a well-regulated public system, and not good for the man of higher position? By ‘private’ I do not mean what is done at home for public uses--in that case almost everything might be called private--but what is kept at home by preference, in order to serve the better the interest of a particular individual. It would seem to be generally a question not of the matter or the method of education, but of the select privacy of the place where it is given. I must beg leave to say that the results are in favour of public training, which from the midst of mediocrity brings up scholars of such excellence that they take a worthy place in all ranks, even next to the highest, whereas private education with all its advantages of wealth, doth rarely show anything in learning and judgment above bare mediocrity. There is no comparison between the two kinds, if prejudice be set aside. If the privately-taught pupil chance to come to speak, it mostly falleth out dreamingly, because seclusion in education is a punishment to the tongue; and in teaching a language to exclude companions to speak to, is like seeking to quench thirst, yet closing the mouth so that no moisture can get in. If such a pupil come to write, it is lean, and nothing but skin, betraying the great pains the master hath had to take, in default of any helping circumstances through the pupil’s intercourse with companions. The boy can but repeat what he hears, and he hears only one person who, though he knew everything, cannot say much, for he hath no sufficient audience to provoke him to utterance. If the master made an effort to deliver himself of anything weighty, methinks an unobserved listener would hear a strange discourse, and would find the boy asleep; or, if he had a companion, playing with his hands or feet under the table, with one eye on his talking master and the other on his playmate.