Life of Agricola_, s. iv.

Section XXIX.

[a] Quintilian thinks the first elements of education so highly
material, that he has two long chapters on the subject. He requires,
in the first place, that the language of the nurses should be pure and
correct. Their manners are of great importance, but, he adds, let them
speak with propriety. It is to them that the infant first attends; he
listens, and endeavours to imitate them. The first colour, imbibed by
yarn or thread, is sure to last. What is bad, generally adheres
tenaciously. Let the child, therefore, not learn in his infancy, what
he must afterwards take pains to unlearn. _Ante omnia, ne sit vitiosus
sermo nutricibus. Et morum quidem in his haud dubie prior ratio est;
recte tamen etiam loquantur. Has primum audiet puer; harum verba
effingere imitando conabitur. Et natura tenacissimi sumus eorum, quae
rudibus annis percipimus; nec lanarum colores, quibus simplex ille
candor mutatus est, elui possunt. Et haec ipsa magis pertinaciter
haerent, quae deteriora sunt. Non assuescat ergo, ne dum infans quidem
est, sermoni, qui dediscendus est._ Quint. lib. i. cap. 1. Plutarch
has a long discourse on the breeding of children, in which all
mistakes are pointed out, and the best rules enforced with great
acuteness of observation.

[b] Juvenal has one entire satire on the subject of education:

Nil dictu foedum visuque haec limina tangat,
Intra quae puer est. Procul hinc, procul inde puellae
Lenonum, et cantus pernoctantis parasiti.
Maxima debetur puero reverentia.
SAT. xiv. ver. 44.

Suffer no lewdness, no indecent speech,
Th' apartment of the tender youth to reach.
Far be from thence the glutton parasite,
Who sings his drunken catches all the night.
Boys from their parents may this rev'rence claim.
DRYDEN'S JUVENAL.

[c] The rage of the Romans for the diversions of the theatre, and
public spectacles of every kind, is often mentioned by Horace,
Juvenal, and other writers under the emperors. Seneca says, that, at
one time, three ways were wanted to as many different theatres:
_tribus eodem tempore theatris viae postulantur_. And again, the most
illustrious of the Roman youth are no better than slaves to the
pantomimic performers. _Ostendam nobilissimos juvenes mancipia
pantomimorum._ Epist. 47. It was for this reason that Petronius lays
it down as a