18 AN ESSAY ON CHARITY-SCHOOLS. offices than others who have net had a tenth part of their capa- city or their improvement. I know at this time two servants in one large family, who were instructed in one of the charity- schools of thé'protestant dissenters, and yet according to their stations, they are as diligent, as humble, and as willing servants as any in the house. It is chiefly their temper, or their want of due instruction, rather than their learning, that renders servants either haughty or humble. Here perhaps, the great apostle shall be cited to counte- nance this objection ; 1 Cor. viii. 1. Knowledge puffeth up. Butwhy should not the next sentencealso be added, viz. that charity edifieth ? Let the charity of these gentlemen who make this objection, encourage these schools, where the pride of the poor may abated, where the souls of these young sinners may be edified, in humility and every virtue, where they may be taught their proper duty and behaviour both to God and man. 5. But I add in the last place, that if all the nation were as happy as I could wish, in the enjoyment of some degrees of good education, and if all the children of the poor were taught to read, then the art of reading would be as common as that of speaking, and no one would look on himself as superior to ano- ther, because he knows his letters, and could join syllables together. Then it would follow that no person would refuse to do the meanest services, if there were nonebeneath himself. For my part, I wish that there was not the meanest figure of man- kind in Great Britain, whether employed in the drudgeries of a family, or holding the plough, but knew how to read his bible, that he might be better acquainted with his duty in this world, and the way to attain happiness in the next. Objection III. But is there not a general complaint of bad servants in our clay ? Are they not high and haughty and wasteful ? Do they not claim larger wages, and at the saine time refuse to do the servile works that belong to their place ? And what can this be imputed to more than to their education in these charity-schools, wherein they are bred up to more learning and knowledge than the poor had in the days of our fathers. Answer 1. Give me leave in the first place to make a hum- ble enquiry, whether masters or mistresses are in our day so pious, so virtuous, so frugal, so regular in their conduct, and to humble as in the days of our fathers ? Whether families are regulated with so much care, and whether family religion is maintained with such a holy constancy ? Whether there be such wise government and order, as in the days of those who went, before us ? Whether children are educated in the practice of that modesty, that humility, that diligence as in the time of our
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