University of Virginia Library

10. CHAPTER X.

Sir Walter Raleigh.

The first thing which Mr. Bacon had done after taking
possession of his vicarage, and obtaining such information
about his parishioners as the more considerate of them
could impart, was to inquire into the state of the children
in every household. He knew that to win the mother's
good-will was the surest way to win that of the family, and
to win the children was a good step toward gaining that
of the mother. In those days reading and writing were
thought as little necessary for the lower class, as the art
of spelling for the class above them, or indeed for any
except the learned. Their ignorance in this respect was
sometimes found to be inconvenient, but by none, perhaps,
except here and there by a conscientious and thoughtful
clergyman, was it felt to be an evil, — an impediment in
the way of that moral and religious instruction, without
which men are in danger of becoming as the beasts that

perish. Yet the common wish of advancing their children
in the world, made most parents in this station desire to
obtain the advantage of what they called book-learning for
any son, who was supposed to manifest a disposition likely
to profit by it. To make him a scholar was to raise him a
step above themselves.
Partly for this reason, and still more that industrious mothers
might be relieved from the care of looking after their
children, there were few villages in which, as in Mr.
Bacon's parish, some poor woman in the decline of life and
of fortune did not obtain day-scholars enough to eke out her
scanty means of subsistence.

The village schoolmistress, such as Shenstone describes
in his admirable poem, and such as Kirke White drew from
the life, is no longer a living character. The new system
of education has taken from this class of women the staff
of their declining age, as the spinning-jennies have silenced
the domestic music of the spinning-wheel. Both changes
have come on unavoidably in the progress of human affairs.
It is well when any change brings with it nothing worse
than some temporary and incidental evil; but if the moral
machinery can counteract the great and growing evils of
the manufacturing system, it will be the greatest moral
miracle that has ever been wrought.

Sunday schools, which make Sunday a day of toil to the
teachers, and the most irksome day of the week to the children,
had not at that time been devised as a palliative for
the profligacy of large towns, and the worsened and worsening
condition of the poor. Mr. Bacon endeavored to make
the parents perform their religious duty toward their children,
either by teaching them what they could themselves
teach, or by sending them where their own want of knowledge

might be supplied. Whether the children went to
school or not, it was his wish that they should be taught
their prayers, the Creed, and the Commandments, at home.
These he thought were better learned at the mother's knees
than from any other teacher; and he knew also how wholesome
for the mother it was, that the child should receive
from her its first spiritual food, the milk of sound doctrine.
In a purely agricultural parish, there were at that time no
parents in a state of such brutal ignorance as to be unable
to teach these, though they might never have been taught
to read. When the father or mother could read, he expected
that they should also teach their children the
Catechism; in other cases this was left to his humble
coadjutrix, the schoolmistress.

During the summer and part of the autumn, he followed
the good old usage of catechising the children, after the
second lesson in the evening service. His method was to
ask a few questions in succession, and only from those who
he knew were able to answer them; and after each answer
he entered into a brief exposition suited to their capacity.
His manner was so benevolent, and he had made himself
so familiar in his visits, which were at once pastoral and
friendly, that no child felt alarmed at being singled out;
they regarded it as a mark of distinction, and the parents
were proud of seeing them thus distinguished. This practice
was discontinued in winter; because he knew that to
keep a congregation in the cold is not the way either to
quicken or cherish devotional feeling. Once a week during
Lent he examined all the children, on a week-day; the last
examination was in Easter week, after which each was sent
home happy with a homely cake, the gift of a wealthy
parishioner, who by this means contributed not a little to
the good effect of the pastor's diligence.

The foundation was thus laid by teaching the rising generation
their duty towards God and towards their neighbor,

and so far training them in the way that they should go.
In the course of a few years every household, from the
highest to the lowest, (the degrees were neither great
nor many,) had learned to look upon him as their friend.
There was only one in the parish whose members were
upon a parity with him in manners, none in literary culture;
but in good-will, and in human sympathy, he was
upon a level with them all. Never interfering in the concerns
of any family, unless his interference was solicited, he
was consulted upon all occasions of trouble or importance.
Incipient disputes, which would otherwise have afforded
grist for the lawyer's mill, were adjusted by his mediation;
and anxious parents, when they had cause to apprehend
that their children were going wrong, knew no better
course than to communicate their fears to him, and request
that he would administer some timely admonition.
Whenever he was thus called on, or had of himself perceived
that reproof or warning was required, it was given
in private, or only in presence of the parents, and always
with a gentleness which none but an obdurate disposition
could resist. His influence over the younger part of his
flock was the greater because he was no enemy to any innocent
sports, but, on the contrary, was pleased to see them
dance round the May-pole, encouraged them to dress their
doors with oaken boughs on the day of King Charles's
happy restoration, and to wear an oaken garland in the
hat, or an oak-apple on its sprig in the button-hole; went
to see their bonfire on the 5th of November, and entertained
the morris-dancers when they called upon him in
their Christmas rounds.

Mr. Bacon was in his parish what a moralizing old poet
wished himself to be, in these pleasing stanzas: —