The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and his Friend, Mr. Abraham Abrams/Book III, Chapter V

CHAPTER V.

_A disputation on schools held on the road between Mr Abraham Adams and

Joseph; and a discovery not unwelcome to them both._

Our travellers, having well refreshed themselves at the gentleman's

house, Joseph and Fanny with sleep, and Mr Abraham Adams with ale and

tobacco, renewed their journey with great alacrity; and pursuing the

road into which they were directed, travelled many miles before they

met with any adventure worth relating. In this interval we shall

present our readers with a very curious discourse, as we apprehend it,

concerning public schools, which passed between Mr Joseph Andrews and

Mr Abraham Adams.

They had not gone far before Adams, calling to Joseph, asked him, "If

he had attended to the gentleman's story?" He answered, "To all the

former part."--"And don't you think," says he, "he was a very unhappy

man in his youth?"--"A very unhappy man, indeed," answered the other.

"Joseph," cries Adams, screwing up his mouth, "I have found it; I have

discovered the cause of all the misfortunes which befel him: a public

school, Joseph, was the cause of all the calamities which he

afterwards suffered. Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and

immorality. All the wicked fellows whom I remember at the university

were bred at them.--Ah, Lord! I can remember as well as if it was but

yesterday, a knot of them; they called them King's scholars, I forget

why--very wicked fellows! Joseph, you may thank the Lord you were not

bred at a public school; you would never have preserved your virtue as

you have. The first care I always take is of a boy's morals; I had

rather he should be a blockhead than an atheist or a presbyterian.

What is all the learning in the world compared to his immortal soul?

What shall a man take in exchange for his soul? But the masters of

great schools trouble themselves about no such thing. I have known a

lad of eighteen at the university, who hath not been able to say his

catechism; but for my own part, I always scourged a lad sooner for

missing that than any other lesson. Believe me, child, all that

gentleman's misfortunes arose from his being educated at a public

school."

"It doth not become me," answered Joseph, "to dispute anything, sir,

with you, especially a matter of this kind; for to be sure you must be

allowed by all the world to be the best teacher of a school in all our

county." "Yes, that," says Adams, "I believe, is granted me; that I may

without much vanity pretend to--nay, I believe I may go to the next

county too--but _gloriari non est meum_."--"However, sir, as you are

pleased to bid me speak," says Joseph, "you know my late master, Sir

Thomas Booby, was bred at a public school, and he was the finest

gentleman in all the neighbourhood. And I have often heard him say, if

he had a hundred boys he would breed them all at the same place. It was

his opinion, and I have often heard him deliver it, that a boy taken

from a public school and carried into the world, will learn more in one

year there than one of a private education will in five. He used to say

the school itself initiated him a great way (I remember that was his

very expression), for great schools are little societies, where a boy

of any observation may see in epitome what he will afterwards find in

the world at large."--"_Hinc illae lachrymae_: for that very reason,"

quoth Adams, "I prefer a private school, where boys may be kept in

innocence and ignorance; for, according to that fine passage in the

play of Cato, the only English tragedy I ever read--

"'If knowledge of the world must make men villains

May Juba ever live in ignorance!'

"Who would not rather preserve the purity of his child than wish him to

attain the whole circle of arts and sciences? which, by the bye, he may

learn in the classes of a private school; for I would not be vain, but I

esteem myself to be second to none, _nulli secundum_, in teaching these

things; so that a lad may have as much learning in a private as in a

public education."--"And, with submission," answered Joseph, "he may get

as much vice: witness several country gentlemen, who were educated

within five miles of their own houses, and are as wicked as if they had

known the world from their infancy. I remember when I was in the stable,

if a young horse was vicious in his nature, no correction would make him

otherwise: I take it to be equally the same among men: if a boy be of a

mischievous wicked inclination, no school, though ever so private, will

ever make him good: on the contrary, if he be of a righteous temper, you

may trust him to London, or wherever else you please--he will be in no

danger of being corrupted. Besides, I have often heard my master say

that the discipline practised in public schools was much better than

that in private."--"You talk like a jackanapes," says Adams, "and so did

your master. Discipline indeed! Because one man scourges twenty or

thirty boys more in a morning than another, is he therefore a better

disciplinarian? I do presume to confer in this point with all who have

taught from Chiron's time to this day; and, if I was master of six boys

only, I would preserve as good discipline amongst them as the master of

the greatest school in the world. I say nothing, young man; remember I

say nothing; but if Sir Thomas himself had been educated nearer home,

and under the tuition of somebody--remember I name nobody--it might have

been better for him:--but his father must institute him in the knowledge

of the world. _Nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit_." Joseph, seeing him

run on in this manner, asked pardon many times, assuring him he had no

intention to offend. "I believe you had not, child," said he, "and I am

not angry with you; but for maintaining good discipline in a school; for

this."--And then he ran on as before, named all the masters who are

recorded in old books, and preferred himself to them all. Indeed, if

this good man had an enthusiasm, or what the vulgar call a blind side,

it was this: he thought a schoolmaster the greatest character in the

world, and himself the greatest of all schoolmasters: neither of which

points he would have given up to Alexander the Great at the head of

his army.

Adams continued his subject till they came to one of the beautifullest

spots of ground in the universe. It was a kind of natural amphitheatre,

formed by the winding of a small rivulet, which was planted with thick

woods, and the trees rose gradually above each other by the natural

ascent of the ground they stood on; which ascent as they hid with their

boughs, they seemed to have been disposed by the design of the most

skilful planter. The soil was spread with a verdure which no paint could

imitate; and the whole place might have raised romantic ideas in elder

minds than those of Joseph and Fanny, without the assistance of love.

Here they arrived about noon, and Joseph proposed to Adams that they

should rest awhile in this delightful place, and refresh themselves with

some provisions which the good-nature of Mrs Wilson had provided them

with. Adams made no objection to the proposal; so down they sat, and,

pulling out a cold fowl and a bottle of wine, they made a repast with a

cheerfulness which might have attracted the envy of more splendid

tables. I should not omit that they found among their provision a little

paper containing a piece of gold, which Adams imagining had been put

there by mistake, would have returned back to restore it; but he was at

last convinced by Joseph that Mr Wilson had taken this handsome way of

furnishing them with a supply for their journey, on his having related

the distress which they had been in, when they were relieved by the

generosity of the pedlar. Adams said he was glad to see such an instance

of goodness, not so much for the conveniency which it brought them as

for the sake of the doer, whose reward would be great in heaven. He

likewise comforted himself with a reflection that he should shortly have

an opportunity of returning it him; for the gentleman was within a week

to make a journey into Somersetshire, to pass through Adams's parish,

and had faithfully promised to call on him; a circumstance which we

thought too immaterial to mention before; but which those who have as

great an affection for that gentleman as ourselves will rejoice at, as

it may give them hopes of seeing him again. Then Joseph made a speech on

charity, which the reader, if he is so disposed, may see in the next

chapter; for we scorn to betray him into any such reading, without first

giving him warning.