by Walter Scott
CHAPTER III
EDUCATION
The education of our hero, Edward Waverley, was of a naturesomewhat desultory. In infancy his health suffered, or wassupposed to suffer (which is quite the same thing), by the air ofLondon. As soon, therefore, as official duties, attendance onParliament, or the prosecution of any of his plans of interest orambition, called his father to town, which was his usual residencefor eight months in the year, Edward was transferred to Waverley-Honour, and experienced a total change of instructors and oflessons, as well as of residence. This might have been remediedhad his father placed him under the superintendence of a permanenttutor. But he considered that one of his choosing would probablyhave been unacceptable at Waverley-Honour, and that such aselection as Sir Everard might have made, were the matter left tohim, would have burdened him with a disagreeable inmate, if not apolitical spy, in his family. He therefore prevailed upon hisprivate secretary, a young man of taste and accomplishments, tobestow an hour or two on Edward's education while at BrerewoodLodge, and left his uncle answerable for his improvement inliterature while an inmate at the Hall. This was in some degreerespectably provided for. Sir Everard's chaplain, an Oxonian, whohad lost his fellowship for declining to take the oaths at theaccession of George I, was not only an excellent classicalscholar, but reasonably skilled in science, and master of mostmodern languages. He was, however, old and indulgent, and therecurring interregnum, during which Edward was entirely freed fromhis discipline, occasioned such a relaxation of authority, thatthe youth was permitted, in a great measure, to learn as hepleased, what he pleased, and when he pleased. This slackness ofrule might have been ruinous to a boy of slow understanding, who,feeling labour in the acquisition of knowledge, would havealtogether neglected it, save for the command of a taskmaster; andit might have proved equally dangerous to a youth whose animalspirits were more powerful than his imagination or his feelings,and whom the irresistible influence of Alma would have engaged infield-sports from morning till night. But the character of EdwardWaverley was remote from either of these. His powers ofapprehension were so uncommonly quick as almost to resembleintuition, and the chief care of his preceptor was to prevent him,as a sportsman would phrase it, from over-running his game--thatis, from acquiring his knowledge in a slight, flimsy, andinadequate manner. And here the instructor had to combat anotherpropensity too often united with brilliancy of fancy and vivacityof talent--that indolence, namely, of disposition, which can onlybe stirred by some strong motive of gratification, and whichrenounces study as soon as curiosity is gratified, the pleasure ofconquering the first difficulties exhausted, and the novelty ofpursuit at an end. Edward would throw himself with spirit upon anyclassical author of which his preceptor proposed the perusal, makehimself master of the style so far as to understand the story,and, if that pleased or interested him, he finished the volume.But it was in vain to attempt fixing his attention on criticaldistinctions of philology, upon the difference of idiom, thebeauty of felicitous expression, or the artificial combinations ofsyntax. 'I can read and understand a Latin author,' said youngEdward, with the self-confidence and rash reasoning of fifteen,'and Scaliger or Bentley could not do much more.' Alas! while hewas thus permitted to read only for the gratification of hisamusement, he foresaw not that he was losing for ever theopportunity of acquiring habits of firm and assiduous application,of gaining the art of controlling, directing, and concentratingthe powers of his mind for earnest investigation--an art far moreessential than even that intimate acquaintance with classicallearning which is the primary object of study.
I am aware I may be here reminded of the necessity of renderinginstruction agreeable to youth, and of Tasso's infusion of honeyinto the medicine prepared for a child; but an age in whichchildren are taught the driest doctrines by the insinuating methodof instructive games, has little reason to dread the consequencesof study being rendered too serious or severe. The history ofEngland is now reduced to a game at cards, the problems ofmathematics to puzzles and riddles, and the doctrines ofarithmetic may, we are assured, be sufficiently acquired byspending a few hours a week at a new and complicated edition ofthe Royal Game of the Goose. There wants but one step further, andthe Creed and Ten Commandments may be taught in the same manner,without the necessity of the grave face, deliberate tone ofrecital, and devout attention, hitherto exacted from the well-governed childhood of this realm. It may, in the meantime, besubject of serious consideration, whether those who are accustomedonly to acquire instruction through the medium of amusement maynot be brought to reject that which approaches under the aspect ofstudy; whether those who learn history by the cards may not be ledto prefer the means to the end; and whether, were we to teachreligion in the way of sport, our pupils may not thereby begradually induced to make sport of their religion. To our younghero, who was permitted to seek his instruction only according tothe bent of his own mind, and who, of consequence, only sought itso long as it afforded him amusement, the indulgence of his tutorswas attended with evil consequences, which long continued toinfluence his character, happiness, and utility.
Edward's power of imagination and love of literature, although theformer was vivid and the latter ardent, were so far from affordinga remedy to this peculiar evil, that they rather inflamed andincreased its violence. The library at Waverley-Honour, a largeGothic room, with double arches and a gallery, contained such amiscellaneous and extensive collection of volumes as had beenassembled together, during the course of two hundred years, by afamily which had been always wealthy, and inclined, of course, asa mark of splendour, to furnish their shelves with the currentliterature of the day, without much scrutiny or nicety ofdiscrimination. Throughout this ample realm Edward was permittedto roam at large. His tutor had his own studies; and churchpolitics and controversial divinity, together with a love oflearned ease, though they did not withdraw his attention at statedtimes from the progress of his patron's presumptive heir, inducedhim readily to grasp at any apology for not extending a strict andregulated survey towards his general studies. Sir Everard hadnever been himself a student, and, like his sister, Miss RachelWaverley, he held the common doctrine, that idleness isincompatible with reading of any kind, and that the mere tracingthe alphabetical characters with the eye is in itself a useful andmeritorious task, without scrupulously considering what ideas ordoctrines they may happen to convey. With a desire of amusement,therefore, which better discipline might soon have converted intoa thirst for knowledge, young Waverley drove through the sea ofbooks like a vessel without a pilot or a rudder. Nothing perhapsincreases by indulgence more than a desultory habit of reading,especially under such opportunities of gratifying it. I believeone reason why such numerous instances of erudition occur amongthe lower ranks is, that, with the same powers of mind, the poorstudent is limited to a narrow circle for indulging his passionfor books, and must necessarily make himself master of the few hepossesses ere he can acquire more. Edward, on the contrary, likethe epicure who only deigned to take a single morsel from thesunny side of a peach, read no volume a moment after it ceased toexcite his curiosity or interest; and it necessarily happened,that the habit of seeking only this sort of gratification renderedit daily more difficult of attainment, till the passion forreading, like other strong appetites, produced by indulgence asort of satiety.
Ere he attained this indifference, however, he had read, andstored in a memory of uncommon tenacity, much curious, though ill-arranged and miscellaneous information. In English literature hewas master of Shakespeare and Milton, of our earlier dramaticauthors, of many picturesque and interesting passages from our oldhistorical chronicles, and was particularly well acquainted withSpenser, Drayton, and other poets who have exercised themselves onromantic fiction, of all themes the most fascinating to a youthfulimagination, before the passions have roused themselves and demandpoetry of a more sentimental description. In this respect hisacquaintance with Italian opened him yet a wider range. He hadperused the numerous romantic poems, which, from the days ofPulci, have been a fav
ourite exercise of the wits of Italy, andhad sought gratification in the numerous collections of novelle,which were brought forth by the genius of that elegant thoughluxurious nation, in emulation of the 'Decameron.' In classicalliterature, Waverley had made the usual progress, and read theusual authors; and the French had afforded him an almostexhaustless collection of memoirs, scarcely more faithful thanromances, and of romances so well written as hardly to bedistinguished from memoirs. The splendid pages of Froissart, withhis heart-stirring and eye-dazzling descriptions of war and oftournaments, were among his chief favourites; and from those ofBrantome and De la Noue he learned to compare the wild and loose,yet superstitious, character of the nobles of the League with thestern, rigid, and sometimes turbulent disposition of the Huguenotparty. The Spanish had contributed to his stock of chivalrous andromantic lore. The earlier literature of the northern nations didnot escape the study of one who read rather to awaken theimagination than to benefit the understanding. And yet, knowingmuch that is known but to few, Edward Waverley might justly beconsidered as ignorant, since he knew little of what adds dignityto man, and qualifies him to support and adorn an elevatedsituation in society.
The occasional attention of his parents might indeed have been ofservice to prevent the dissipation of mind incidental to such adesultory course of reading. But his mother died in the seventhyear after the reconciliation between the brothers, and RichardWaverley himself, who, after this event, resided more constantlyin London, was too much interested in his own plans of wealth andambition to notice more respecting Edward than that he was of avery bookish turn, and probably destined to be a bishop. If hecould have discovered and analysed his son's waking dreams, hewould have formed a very different conclusion.
