The New Hampshire Gazette

To the Publisher of the New Hampshire Gazette.

Surprizing, to consider the Prevalence of
Ignorance in a Country where the most superior
Blessings are enjoyed, for the obtaining Knowledge,
rational Acquirments are become remark-
ably cheap and easy.

It must be confessed, by every
One who has any tolerable Acquaintance with the Situation
of Affairs in our Country Towns, that nothing is so univer-
sally neglected as the Education of Children: It is true,
our Legislators have made a sufficient Provision, for the
Encouragement of Learning ; and the greatest Part of our
Towns are actually furnished with Schools, so that even the
poorest Children among us, may in the Compass of those
Years they usually trifle away, in a perpetual Round of
Idleness and Play, make considerable Improvements, and
acquire a seasonable Acquaintance, with the Concerns both
of this and a future World-- But all these Advantages are
entirely lost, through the Carelessness, or Indiscretion of
Parents, who are induced by some present profitable Con-
sideration, to bring up their tender Offspring, in cheap and
inexpensive Ignorance, and thereby not only deprive them
of those lasting Benefits, which commonly flow from a vir-
tuous and learned Education ; but do an irreparable Injury
to the World, by obstructing the Improvement of Persons,
who might reasonably be expected in advanced Years, to
become useful Members of Society. I am certain, that
great Numbers of Children, instead of being sent to School,
are permitted to trifle at Home, to rove up and down the
Streets, in search of mischievous Adventures ; or constantly
exercised in some hard and laborious Employment, 'till the
happy Season for gaining Knowledge is over-- They now
enter upon the Stage of Action unfurnished with every Sci-
ence but that of getting Money, and have scarce any other
Views, but to increase their Patrimony. These Persons are
commonly Strangers to all Generosity, to all noble and en-
larged Sentiments ; they seldom feel the soft movings of
Pity and Compassion, and are utterly regardless of all the
Interests of Mankind, as they stand unconnected with their
private Interest.-- We shall generally perceive, these
People endowed with a prodigious Stock of Arrogance and
Pride ; we shall find them the greatest Extortioners, and
the most severe Oppressors of the Poor; and though they
refuse to part with any of their Estates, in the Defence of
our invaluable Liberties, either sacred, or civil ; yet they
prove without Exception the most liberal Dealers of Dam-
ation, to all who differ from them in their religious Senti-
ments, or Notions of Government. In short, it is almost
impossible but that such Consequences as these should follow
from a narrow and sordid Education : People that have no
Acquaintance with any thing beyond the narrow Limits of
the Family or Parish where they were born, are naturally
led, to draw all their Notions and Ideas from these familiar
Objects, their Measures of human Actions, their Concepti-
ons of Vice and Virtue, are all borrowed from hence : and
when they have a Prospect of any Persons, or Things, dif-
fering from those which surround them, they are presently
disgusted, conceive an ill Opinion of them, and look upon
every Body, except their own ignorant and rough Compa-
nions, with a sovereign Scorn and Contempt. -- Nothing else
is more evident, than that the future Conduct of a Child, in
a great Measure depends upon the first Impressions it re-
ceives ; how careful then, should those be who have such
important Concerns committed to their Trust, early to in-
still the Principles of Virtue and Honour, into tender Minds.
I presume that all Meanness of Spirit, all Narrowness in
censuring the Sentiments and Conduct of others, and what-
ever has the remotest Appearance, of Revenge or sordid
Avarice, ought from their earliest Infancy, to be severely
inspected and condemned ; while Generosity, and every
Thing noble and disinterested should be encouraged, and
even rewarded. Young Minds ought to be led into this
Temper, from a Consideration of the gracious and diffusive
Manifestations of the bountiful Author of Nature, who con-
stantly sustains, enlivens, and recreates, the whole Crea-
tion, by his kind and undistinguishing Influences.