forbid me, then said he, "Can you possibly doubt, whether this is disreputable and injurious, when this man and that man are notorious for an evil report. As the funeral of a neighbour frightens to death the intemperate when sick, and, through dread of their own end, makes them careful, so minds still docile are often deterred from vice by the disgrace of others." 1. 6 (65–88) sacrifice for the And yet, if the faults and defects of my nature are A father's moderate ones, and with their exception my life is upright, care and (just as if one were to censure blemishes found here and there on a handsome body,) if no one can truly lay to my education of charge avarice, meanness, or frequenting vicious haunts, his son. if (that I may praise myself) my life is pure and innocent, and my friends love me, I owe it all to my father; he, though not rich, for his farm was a poor one, would not send me to the school of Flavius,1 to which the first youths of the town, the sons of the centurions, the great men there, used to go, with their bags 2 and slates3 on their left arm, taking the teacher's fee on the Ides of eight months in the year; but he had the spirit to carry me, when a boy, to Rome, there to learn the liberal arts which any knight or senator would have his own sons taught. Had any one seen my dress, and the attendant servants, so far as would be observed in a populous city, he would have thought that such expense was defrayed from an old hereditary estate. He himself was ever present, a guardian incorruptible, at all my studies. Why say more? My modesty, that first grain of virtue, he preserved untainted, not only by an actual stain, but by the very rumour of it; 1 A schoolmaster at Venusia, the poet's native place. 2 Bags of counters for arithmetical calculations, more frequently performed in this way than with characters as with us. 8 Ciphering tables. These were covered with sand or dust, thus permitting characters to be made. A bold proceeding for a poor farmer, when the rich centurions were content with provincial schools. 5 Instead of assigning him, as was the custom, to the care of a pedagogue, usually a family slave. Character of early education. Poetry the substance of early literary education. not fearing that any one hereafter should make this a reproach, if as auctioneer,1 or collector, like himself, I should follow a trade of petty gains; nor should I have grumbled at my lot; but as the case is now, to him more praise is due, I owe him greater thanks. Selections from the Epistles of Horace II. I (70-75) When I was little,2 Orbilius, my master, dictated to me the poems of Livius; he was fond of flogging me, but I am not dead set against those poems, nor think they ought to be destroyed; but that they should be considered faultless and beautiful and almost perfect, does astonish me. II. I (126-138) The tender lisping mouth of a child the poet forms; even in their early days he turns the ears of the young from evil words; presently he fashions the heart by kindly precepts, he is the corrector of roughness, of malice, of anger; he tells of virtuous deeds, the dawn of life he furnishes with illustrious examples; the helpless and sad of soul he comforts. Whence could the pious boys and virgins learn their hymns of prayer, had not the Muse granted us a bard? The chorus prays for aid, and Heaven's presence feels, and in set form of persuasive prayer implores rain from above, averts disease, drives away dreaded dangers, obtains peace, and a season rich with its crops: appeased by hymns are gods above, and gods below. * 1 The father of Horace became at Rome either a tax-gatherer or an officer attendant upon sales at auction, whose duty it was to collect the purchase money. 2 Orbilius Puppillus, a native of Beneventum, came to teach at Rome in the consulship of Cicero. He was noted for his severity. 8 Livius Andronicus. The poet in the passage is enumerating the advantages that result from his art. Selections from the Ars Poetica of Horace later Roman (323-333.) The Greeks had genius, the Greeks could Materialistic speak with well-rounded mouth: this was the Muse's gift ideals of to them; they coveted nought but renown. But the Roman education. boys are taught to divide the as by long calculations into a hundred parts. Supposing the son of Albinus says: "If from five ounces be subtracted one, what is the remainder?" At once you can answer, "A third of an as."1 "Good, you will be able to keep your property. If an ounce be added, what does it make?' "The half of an as." Ah! when this rust of copper, this slavish love of saving money has once imbued the soul, can we hope for the composition of verses worthy to be rubbed with oil of cedar, or to be kept in cases of polished cypress? What right have you to disturb me, abominable schoolmaster, object abhorred alike by boys and girls? Before the crested cocks have broken silence, you begin to roar out your savage scoldings and blows. Not with louder noise does the metal resound on the struck anvil, when the workman is fitting a lawyer on his horse; 2 nor is the noise so great in the large amphitheatre, when the conquering gladiator is applauded by his partisans. We, your neighbours, do not ask you to allow us to sleep for the whole night, for it is but a small matter to be occasionally awakened; but to be kept awake all night is a heavy affliction. Dismiss your scholars, brawler, and take as much for keeping quiet as you receive for making a noise. 1 Originally a pound of copper, of the value of 16 cents. It was the Roman unit of monetary value. 2 A sneer at the equestrian statues of lawyers. Method of direct imitation. Schoolmaster, be indulgent to your simple scholars; if you would have many a long-haired youth resort to your lectures, and the class seated round your critical table love you. So may no teacher of arithmetic, or of swift writing, be surrounded by a greater ring of pupils. The days are bright, and glow under the flaming constellation of the Lion, and fervid July is ripening the teeming harvest. Let the Scythian scourge with its formidable thongs, such as flogged Marsyas of Celænae,1 and the terrible cane, the schoolmaster's sceptre, be laid aside, and sleep until the Ides of October.2 In summer, if boys preserve their health, they do enough. Selection from the Epistles of Seneca EPISTLES XCIV. 51 He must therefore be governed till he begin to be able education by to govern himself. Children are taught to form their letters, their fingers are held and their hands directed and led, to teach them to fashion and counterfeit letters; then are they commanded to follow such and such examples, and by them to remodel their writings. So is our mind strengthened, if it be instructed by setting up some example after which it may pattern. First imperial support of public education. Selection from the Lives of the First Twelve Cæsars, by LIFE OF VESPASIAN XVIII. He was a great encourager of learning and learned men. He first appointed the Latin and Greek professors of rhetoric the yearly stipend of a hundred thousand sesterces3 1 Reference to a legend concerning a Phrygian god, of the river Marsyas. Becoming skilful upon the flute, Marsyas challenged Apollo, god of the lyre, to a contest. The Muses declared Marsyas vanquished, and the gods flayed him. 2 The usual time for the opening of the school term. At this time a sestertius was worth about five cents of our money. each out of the exchequer. He was likewise extremely generous to such as excelled in poetry, or even the mechanic arts, and particularly to one that brushed up the picture of Venus at Cos, and another who repaired the Colossus. A mechanic offering to convey some huge pillars into the Capitol at a small expense, he rewarded him very handsomely for his invention, but would not accept of his service, saying, "You must allow me to take care of the poor people. Selections from Musonius, on the Education of Women women have the same education as men? XIX. The conversation having turned on the question Should whether people's sons and daughters should receive the same education, the philosopher (after referring to the analogy furnished by the identical training received by both the males and the females of two of the species of animals employed by men to render them active service, horses and dogs) asks whether men ought to receive any special education and training superior to those allowed to women, as if both alike should not acquire the same virtues, or if it is possible for the two sexes to attain to the same virtues otherwise than by the same education. But it is easy to learn that a man has not different virtues from a woman. For, first, the one should have good sense as well as the other; for of what use would either a foolish man or a foolish woman be? Then the man could not be a good citizen if he were unjust. And the woman could not carry on the concerns of the household virtuously if not being just, but the contrary, she should first wrong her husband, as they say Eriphyle2 did. It is also good that the woman as well as the man should be self-controlled. . . . Perhaps some one would say that courage is a quality befitting men alone; but even this is not so, for the best woman also should be 1 I am indebted to Professor Laurie's Historical Survey of Pre-Christian Education for this reference. The translation is by Professor Muir of the University of Edinburgh. 2 Of Greek mythology. Bribed by the gift of a necklace, she persuaded her husband to take part in the war of the Seven against Thebes, in which he lost his life. In revenge for this, she was slain by her son. The same virtues are required of each. |