Philip of Macedon would not suffer Alexander to be taught to read by any but Aristotle. We are told, that in the education of the first of Roman orators, that his father was particularly careful from the boy's infancy, that he should keep company only with those who spoke correctly. correctly. Cicero was therefore early committed to the care of a man of the first dignity, as well as eloquence, in Rome. "The Romans were, of "all people," says Middleton, "the most careful and exact "in the education of their children; their attention to it began from the moment of their birth: when they committed "them to the care of some prudent matron of reputable "character and condition, whose business it was to form their "first habits of acting and speaking. The best judges advised "that no time of culture should be lost; and that their literary "education should keep pace with their moral: that three

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years only should be allowed to the nurses, and when they "first began to speak, they should begin also to learn. It was reckoned a matter, likewise, of great importance, what "kind of language they were first accustomed to hear at home, " and in what manner, not only their nurses, but their fathers, "and even mothers spoke, since their first habits were then necessarily formed either of a pure or corrupt elocution; "thus the two Gracchi were thought to owe that elegance of speaking, for which they were famous, to their mother "Cornelia: a woman of great politeness, whose epistles were "read long after her death, for the purity of their language."

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The concurrent testimony of many respectable ancient authors proves, that, during the era when eloquence flourished

most, sedulous attention was paid to the early education of the children

Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnes

Circum doctores aderat.

The celebrated " Essay on the Causes of the Decline of "Eloquence amongst the Romans," which is attributed either to Tacitus or Quintilian, thus states the causes of that degeneracy: "The infant is delegated to some Greek (French) maid, to whom one or two of the lowest servants are added as assistants. By the stories and errours of these attendants, "the tender uncultivated mind of the child is tainted; nor "does any person in the house take the least care what they

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say or do before their young master, when his parents "neither accustom him to truth nor modesty, but to play and liberty: by which means, impudence by degrees steals upon "him, and contempt of others and of himself."

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Next to good habits of speaking, the cultivation of the memory will probably occur to every parent, as the object of most importance in the education of a lawyer. Natural weakness of memory should be considered as an insuperable objection in the first instance. The common opinion that

Dialogus de Oratoribus. Sec. 29. Tacitus. At nunc natus infans delegatur Græculæ alicui ancillæ, cui adjungitur unus aut alter, ex omnibus servis plerumque vilissimus, nec cuiquam serio ministerio accommodatus. Horum fabulis et erroribus teneri statim et rudes animi imbuuntur. Nec quisquam in totâ domo pensi habet, quid coram infante domino aut dicat, aut faciat ; quando etiam ipsi parentes nec probitati neque modestiæ parvulos adsuefaciunt, sed lasciviæ et libertati: per quæ paullatim impudentia inrepit, et sui alienique contemptus.

that memory is the essential, hurries on parents and preceptors to cultivate this faculty exclusively, and by methods which not only defeat the purpose as to the memory, but which also essentially injure the judgment. There are methods of exercising, without fatiguing the attention, and of rousing those powers of judgment and invention, which assist the efforts, and diminish the labour, both of retaining and recollecting ideas. In the early education of a lawyer's memory, care should be taken to make it exact, as well as prompt. Whenever the boy recollects any thing that is applicable, either in conversation or reading, he should be listened to with approbation; and when he, by this means, is encouraged to recollect quickly, he should be further excited to remember exactly, by being questioned closely as to the facts or terms of what he relates: he should be shown, that inaccurate knowledge is often utterly useless, and that for want of remembering some slight particular, the whole of what he recollects loses its value and effect. He should be asked, where he read any circumstance, which he mentions, and this will accustom him early to that habit, which is indispensable in a lawyer, of being able to give authorities for his assertions. Even the power of finding a given passage quickly in a book will be of advantage; and such habits of promptitude and precision early acquired may afterwards be extended beyond the volumes of his lilliputian library, to the formidable folios of the law. The exercise of the memory should not be confined to books; the boy should be encouraged to relate any entertaining or instructive facts and circumstances which occur, and this will improve his elocution, as well as his memory. To be able to narrate clearly is a talent, which few

the

people possess; yet it is of daily utility, and it is peculiarly requisite in the profession of the law. Without formal reprehension, or grammatical lectures, a child may, by playful raillery, be made to perceive the errours and deficiencies in his juvenile narrations, and he may be taught to avoid that confusion of pronouns, and those elisions of meaning, which make some story-tellers and some evidences incoherent and unintelligible.

Few peculiar rules can be given for the early education of a lawyer's judgment; for if the general power be cultivated, it may be afterwards applied to whatever is necessary for his profession. Children may early be led to form judgments of the probabilities of events, moral or physical, and of the value of direct or indirect, verbal or written evidence. A boy intended for the bar should have his judgment exercised as early as possible in these particulars. Whenever any story that is thought incredible is related, let him be called upon to give his reasons for disbelieving it; or when any circumstance happens, which is told differently by various persons, let him decide which narration is the most likely to be true, and let him be excited to support his opinion by argument; and if it be fallacious correct it, or if it be judicious confirm it, by afterwards inquiring minutely into the truth. young lawyer should be allowed to be rather disputatious, and his acuteness must make amends for any want of politeness in questioning the accuracy of assertions, or the probability of evidence. At the same time that he is encouraged and protected in this freedom of inquiry, and spirit of investigation, he must himself be enured to bear contradiction,

The

and accustomed to have his reasons refuted, and his errours of expression cavilled at and ridiculed. This will be early discipline for his temper, which, if properly managed, will teach him self-command. These little trials of temper should not, however, be hazarded in publick, till the pupil has been practised and seasoned in private: two or three people even of the same family constitute a publick to a child. He must be carefully trained to feel confidence in his own reasons when he is in the right, and to abide by them without being baffled by contrary assertions, or by those foolish sophisms, which are sometimes practised upon children.

When the boy feels the triumph of success, when he has established his argument, or produced an apt quotation or precedent in any even of his playful conversations then is the moment to associate with the pleasure of approbation the prospect of his future profession, and to excite the first ambition to distinguish himself hereafter. Children are very attentive to the judgments that are given of them, and the prophecies which they hear of their future destinies. "That boy has talents for the law," or, "that boy will make a

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figure at the bar, if he go on as he has begun, and if he "have application enough for the study"-are prophecies, which may sometimes prove the cause of their own accomplishment. But, whenever they are made, it must be done with sincerity; not merely with the idea of encouraging the pupil, or prepossessing him in favour of a profession, by persuading him, that he has talents, which he really does not possess. Such artifices are soon detected even by inexperienced childhood, and then they defeat their own purposes.