Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century
And here I cannot help remarking, how anxious the greater part of
Fashionable parents are, to guard the minds of their children against the
_permanent_ influence of that religion, which they yet have caused them
to be taught. The fact is, that they would have them acquainted with the
technical language, and expert in the liturgical formalities of
Christianity; for these acquirements can neither disparage their
character, nor impede their pleasures: but a serious impression of its
truths upon their hearts, might disaffect them to the follies and vices
which they are destined to practise; and therefore is the thing, of all
others, that is most to be dreaded. The parents are, to say the truth,
not a little hampered by the engagements under which they have bound the
child, on the one part; and the character which they wish him to sustain,
on the other. To leave him in ignorance of a covenant in which he has
been involuntarily included, would be a fraud upon his conscience; and
yet, to have him renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh, would be
the utter ruin of his Fashionable reputation. What other course, then,
can parents thus circumstanced pursue, than that of inculcating these
lessons before they can be understood, and removing their impression
before they can be practised?
It is, I presume, upon the principle of precaution already mentioned,
that our Fashionable young men are not always intrusted to the care of
persons distinguished for the practice of piety. It is not impossible,
indeed, that, either from the conversation, the connexions, or the
example of the preceptor, the pupil may contract certain habits, which it
was not the precise object of his education to produce. But then the
evil is not so great as fastidious moralists would insinuate. For, as
the youth is to figure in the circles of Fashion, he will only have
learnt, a little before the time, those practices which are to form a
part of his manly character: and though it might, perhaps, be as well, if
he did not learn to swear and rake quite so soon; yet it is some
consolation, that he has escaped those methodistical impressions, which
would have prevented him from swearing and raking as long as he lived.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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