AN ESSAY ON CHARITY-SCHOOLS. 2I disadvantages on the nation, than the injury that is done by, here and there, an ill- tempered boy or girl, who have made an ill use of the knowledge they have attained, and grow vain and conceited. Objection IV. But if the poor were permitted to learn to read their bibles, this might be done by the labour of half an hour in the day. A very little time will serve to have their letters pointed out to them, and to teach them to spell their syllables, and put them together. There is no need of whole days' instruction for rich a purposeas this. They ought to em- ploy their lives in work, and their limbs in bodily labour; they should chiefly be taught to gettheir own bread : And if they were thus educated, they would be made much fitter for servants and labourers. Answer I. Have-all the children of the richer world such sharp parts and such a sprightly genius, as to learn the art of reading with so much ease, and in so little a time ? Do the persons who make this objection, find all their own children so ingenious as to improve one daily half-hour so happily, and find it sufficient to acquire a good talent in reading ? Why then should it be expected, that the children of the poor should learn with so little pains, and so scanty a share of instruction : Do these gentlemen suppose that the poor are of a sharper make, and have greater penetration than the children who are born in better circumstances ? I am verily persuaded that one half-hour in a day, is by no means sufficient to acquaint the younger parts of mankind with this useful science.'If they had no more labour bestowedon them, they would never attain a competency of skill to make sense of what they read. I have known several persons, who for want of being taught the art of reading well in their younger years, blunder so often, and mis-name their words, that they can hardly understand the plainest chapter in their bible when they read it. And if we consider the capacities of the greatest part of mankind, I think two or three hours in a day, may well be em- ployed for this purpose, if we would ever make their skill in reading serviceable to them for the business of this life or that of another. Such a portion of time is little enough to make chil- dren become good readers except where the genius of a child is very extraordinary, or 'where there are several years allotted for this learning. 2. I much approve the joining of labour and learning,toge- ther in the education of the poorer parts of mankind. I think it necessary that they should be bred up to work with their hands, since the providence of God calls them to gain their bread by the sweat of their brows: And they ought not to eat the `bread of idleness. I would never have them educated in the B 3
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