or a little idle, and will, it is hoped, grow more thoughtful as they
grow up; or your ushers have neglected their duty; and you have
therefore thought it necessary to change them.

SECT. 7. In all kinds of Latin or Greek exercises it is best to mark
the faults, and let the boys mend them, it puts them on enquiring into
the exact meaning of the words they use, and will make them more
careful of committing blunders.

SECT. 8. If your highest attainments be only some small smattering in
the English language, and the command of the pen, it were to be wished
you could impress upon the boys a higher opinion of you than you
deserve: and, for this purpose, I know nothing better than to inform
yourself of the merit of the different authors of the learned
languages. Declaim on this subject to your boys, and order all their
exercises to be publickly submitted to your inspection regularly every
evening. This was an infallible rule with our friend Gerundivy Leech,
and he acquired an easy fortune, has taken out his Dedimus for the
county of Wilts, and lives in great repute.

SECT. 9. If you are a Dissenter, or a Roman Catholic, you will not fail
to make the young gentlemen committed to your care, sensible of the
truth of your particular tenets; it will prevent their being bigots.

CHAP. VII.

ADDRESS and BEHAVIOUR before Parents.

SECT. 1. When a gentleman or lady pays you a visit, run out, the more
slovenly the better; it will shew your attention to business, and a due
sense of the honour they do you. It would be proper also that your wife
hold the door open; your ushers be all ready to bow as they pass; and
that your best looking boys be called into the parlour.

SECT. 2. If a parent unfortunately call to see a boy who has been just
whipped, call the boy to you, and threaten, if he promises not to
behave better, to tell his parents; then carry him into the parlour,
pat him upon the head; tell them how prettily he reads, that he is
sometimes in fault--but you never tell, and he will do so no more.

SECT. 3. If a fond mother come too often to see a favourite child,
never fail to tell her, how the child cries when she is gone.

SECT. 4. Write always to ministers of state, and your brethren of the
_Birch_, in Latin or Greek, and the more blunders the better; the
former will take them for elegances which they have forgot; and the
latter which they never knew.

SECT. 5. Never ask the parents or friends of the boys to