 Property. Whenever you think proper, I will cheerfully obey you.
Mr.
Fenton
now rose, and stepped into Town; and, calling upon a Neighbour whom he took to the Tavern, he sent for Mr.
Vindex
who came upon the Summons.
Mr.
Vindex,
says he, pray take your Seat. I am sorry, Mr.
Vindex,
for the Treatment you have got in my House, and still sorrier that you got it, so very deservedly.
I have long thought, Mr.
Vindex,
that the Method of School-masters, in the Instruction of our Children, is altogether the Reverse of what it ought to be. They, generally, lay hold on the human Constitution, as a Pilot lays hold of the Rudder of a Ship, by the Tail, by the single Motive, I say, of Fear alone.
Now, as Fear has no Concern with any Thing but Self, it is the most confined, most malignant, and the basest, though the strongest, of all Passions.
The Party, who is possessed with it, will listen to nothing but the Dictates of his own Terror, nor scruple any Thing that may cover him from the Evil apprehended. He will prevaricate, and lye; if that Lye is questioned he will vouch it by Perjury; and, if he happens to do an Injury, he will be tempted to commit Murder to prevent the Effects of Resentment.
Fear never was a Friend to the Love of God, or Man, to Duty, or Conscience Truth, Probity, or Honour. It, therefore, can never make a good Subject, a good Citizen, or a good Soldier; and, least of all, a good Christian. Except the Devils, who believe and tremble, are to be accounted good Christians.
How very different is the Lesson which our Master CHRIST teacheth, who commandeth us, not to fear what Man can do unto us; to smile in Sickness and Calamity; to rise superior to Pain and Death; and to regard nothing, but as it leads to the Goal of that Immortality which his Gospel has brought to Light.
There is, Mr.
Vindex,
but one Occasion, wherein Fear may be useful, in Schools or Common-wealths. That is, when it is placed as a Guard against Evil, and appears, with its Ensignia of Rods, Ropes, and Axes, to deter all, who behold, from approaching thereto.
But this, Mr.
Vindex,
is far from being the sole Occasion on which School-masters apply the Motive of Fear and Castigation
