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Untitled Article
clearly shown . Is it credible , then , that men Bhould teach their sons those things , to be ignorant of which carries with it no evil consequences , and not attempt to teach them that , which , if they do not learn , death , banishment , confiscation , destruction of their fortunes and prospects , will fall upon them ? Not so . From infancy upwards they instruct their children in these things ; they tell them what is just and unjust ,
honourable and dishonourable , holy and unholy ; they bid them practise the one and avoid the other ; and if they disregard the admonition , correct diem by threats and blows . And in placing them with teachers , they enjoin care of the child ' s morals still more earnestly than of his learning ; and the teachers make them read and commit to memory those passages of poets and other authors , by preference , which commend virtue and reprove vice . Music also is taught them , chiefly to soften the mind and
accustom it to harmony , and order , and proportion ; and they are delivered to the gymnast , in order that their bodies , being in good order , may be fitter to obey the commands of a well-ordered mind . When they leave school , the State requires them to learn its laws , and regulate their lives by them , as those who learn to write follow the copy which is set to them by the writing-master ; and if they deviate from this rule they are punished ; and the very name given to punishment indicates its objectit is termed correction *
' Nor is it wonderful , notwithstanding this , that good fathers should have sons of no particular merit . If there were any other branch of knowledge , the cultivation of which by every citizen were necessary to the being of the state ; if society could not exist unless all could play on the flute , and if all were taught to play , and reproached if they played ill , instead of being envied for playing well—( as at present men are not envied for being just and virtuous , since it is every man ' s interest that
others Bhould be just and virtuous , for which reason we are all eager to teach justice and virtue to all men)—do you suppose that the sons of good flute-playera would be better players than other men ? Not so . Whoever had the best natural disposition for music would be the best player : * a good player ' s son would often play ill—the son of a bad player , well ; but all would be competent players , compared with those who knew nothing of music whatever . In like manner all civilized
men , even the most unjust , if compared with men among whom there is no training , no tribunals , no laws , with the wild men of whom poets tell us , would appear a perfect master in virtue : and after mixing with such men , you would be delighted to meet with the greatest villains of our own country . But now you are fastidious , and because all are teachers of virtue , you will not allow that any are so : just as if you were to inquire in this city who teaches Greek , you would find nobody ; or if you sought somebody competent to teach the son of a mechanic his
father ' s art , which he had learned in his father's shop as well as his father could teach it , you might find nobody ; but of men who could teach those who were totally ignorant of the art , you would find abundance . It is thus with virtue : all men teach it ; and we may think ourselves fortunate if we find one who is a little more capable than others of advancing men towards it . Such a man I profesa to be ; and I am willing that my scholars should judge of my pretensions . Accordingly , the terms of my contract with them are , that when they have received my instruc-* if tvSvrovnu rm Vi * Htj i&S ? wm .
Untitled Article
98 Plato * Dialogue * ; the Protagoras .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1834, page 98, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2630/page/10/
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