AN ESSAY ON CNAftITY- SCHOOLS: äs ancestors'? And if there be such a sad degeneracy found amongst the higher part of mankind, it is no wonder, if the lower ranks of human nature are corrupt, and grow degenerate too : So that you see this corruption among servants, may be accounted for; without laying all the load on our schools of charity. 2. SOtne persons who have made their observations otï human affairs, are ready to think that the luxury and finery of this age is very much increased, and that in one particular in- stanCe, which has no good influence on the temper and deport- rient of servants. " Do we not desire; say they, that oursee- vants now-a-days should make a better appearance and shine brighter than is necessary for personsof their rank ? Are there no masters who Hive to be waited on by servants in such apparel: as may make them think too well of themselves ? Have mistresses done nothing to support that pride, haughtiness and vanity of mind in servants, which they afterwards complain of? And it may be enquired, whether some servants have not been encou- raged to think themselves too good for the lowest and meanest offices of life, when at other seasons, they appear as gay, and glistering and as well dressed as their superiors, and can hardly be distinguished from them. " I would only hint this way of reasoninghere, not to undertake the vindication of it, but merely to be made the matter of further enquiry and consideration For I would not have those crimes of servants charged on our charity- schools, which perhaps may have their foundation in the impru- dence of their superiors: 3. If it can be laid at all to the charge of any charity- schools that they have been the unhappy instruments of increas- ing pride among some servants, yet I am well assured, that those schools amongst protestant dissenters have done very little or none of this mischief. For amongst the vast multitudes of servants that are in Great Britain', I am persuaded that there is scarce one menial servant in two hundred, which has been bred tip in the dissentingCharity-schools: And it is a very hard case, if' these schools must bear the accusation and the guilt of those crimes in general, whereof not one in two hundred can possibly belong to them. For my part, I could wish where there is one servant of either sea bred up in out charity-schools, there were twenty educated there : I should then hope for fewer complaints of this kind in the world; And if we do not take care to train up more children of the lower rank in our schools, in order to fit them for servants I have good reason to say that we shall scarce find servants who wilt comply with the religious customs of our families, and we shall see cause to repent it on more ac- counts than one.
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