Susanna Wesley (Clarke 1886)/Chapter 5
CHAPTER V.
TEACHING AND TRAINING.
John Wesley certainly could not have remembered the beginning of his mother's educational work, as it commenced before his birth; but he must have experienced its benefits, as she, with some assistance from her husband in rudimentary classics and mathematics, prepared him to enter the Charterhouse at eleven years of age with considerable credit to himself and his teachers. He pressed her repeatedly in after life to write down full details for his information, and she was evidently somewhat loath to do it, for at the end of a letter dated February 21st, 1732, she says:-
"The writing anything about my way of education I am much averse to. It cannot, I think, be of service to anyone to know how I, who have lived such a retired life for so many years, used to employ my time and care in bringing up my children. No one can, without renouncing the world, in the most literal sense, observe my method; and there are few, if any, that would entirely devote above twenty years of the prime of life in hopes to save the souls of their children, which they think may be saved without so much ado; for that was my principal intention, however unskilfully and unsuccessfully managed."
Happily she did ultimately allow herself to be persuaded, and wrote to her son John as follows:—
"Dear Son, "Epworth, July 24th, 1732.
"According to your desire, I have collected the principal rules I observed in educating my family.
"The children were always put into a regular method of living, in such things as they were capable of, from their birth; as in dressing and undressing, changing their linen, &c. The first quarter commonly passes in sleep. After that they were, if possible, laid into their cradle awake, and rocked to sleep, and so they were kept rocking till it was time for them to awake. This was done to bring them to a regular course of sleeping, which at first was three hours in the morning, and three in the afternoon; afterwards two hours till they needed none at all. When turned a year old (and some before) they were taught to fear the rod and to cry softly, by which means they escaped abundance of correction which they might otherwise have had, and that most odious noise of the crying of children was rarely heard in the house, but the family usually lived in as much quietness as if there had not been a child among them.
"As soon as they were grown pretty strong they were confined to three meals a day. At dinner their little table and chairs were set by ours, where they could be overlooked; and they were suffered to eat and drink (small beer) as much as they would, but not to call for anything. If they wanted aught they used to whisper to the maid that attended them, who came and spake to me; and as soon as they could handle a knife and fork they were set to our table. They were never suffered to choose their meat, but always made to eat such things as were provided for the family. Mornings they always had spoon meat; sometimes at nights. But whatever they had, they were never permitted at those meals to eat 'of more than one thing, and of that sparingly enough. Drinking or eating between meals was never allowed, unless in case of sickness, which seldom happened. Nor were they suffered to go into the kitchen to ask anything of the servants when they were at meat: if it was known they did so, they were certainly beat, and the servants severely reprimanded. At six, as soon as family prayer was over, they had their supper; at seven the maid washed them, and, beginning at the youngest, she undressed and got them all to bed by eight, at which time she left them in their several rooms awake, for there was no such thing allowed of in our house as sitting by a child till it fell asleep.
"They were so constantly used to eat and drink what was given them that when any of them was ill there was no difficulty in making them take the most unpleasant medicine; for they durst not refuse it, though some of them would presently throw it up. This I mention to show that a person may be taught to take anything, though it be never so much against his stomach.
"In order to form the minds of children, the first thing to be done is to conquer their will and bring them to an obedient temper. To inform the understanding is a work of time, and must with children proceed by slow degrees, as they are able to bear it; but the subjecting the will is a thing that must be done at once, and the sooner the better, for by neglect ing timely correction they will contract a stubbornness and obstinacy which are hardly ever after conquered, and never without using such severity as would be as painful to me as to the child. In the esteem of the world they pass for kind and indulgent whom I call cruel parents, who permit their children to get habits which they know must be afterwards broken. Nay, some are so stupidly fond as in sport to teach their children to do things which in a while after they have severely beaten them for doing. When a child is corrected it must be conquered, and this will be no hard matter to do, if it be not grown headstrong by too much indulgence. And when the will of a child is totally subdued, and it is brought to revere and stand in awe of the parents, then a great many childish follies and inadvertencies may be passed by. Some should be overlooked and taken no notice of, and others mildly reproved ; but no wilful transgression ought ever to be forgiven children without chastisement less or more, as the nature and circumstances of the case may require. I insist on the conquering of the will of children betimes, because this is the only strong and rational foundation of a religious education, without which both precept and example will be ineffectual. But when this is thoroughly done, then a child is capable of being governed by the reason and piety of its parents, till its own understanding comes to maturity, and the principles of religion have taken root in the mind.
"I cannot yet dismiss the subject. As self-will is the root of all sin and misery, so whatever cherishes this in children ensures their after wretchedness and irreligion: whatever checks and mortifies it, promotes their future happiness and piety. This is still more evident if we farther consider that religion is nothing else than doing the will of God and not our own; that the one grand impediment to our temporal and eternal happiness being this self-will, no indulgence of it can be trivial, no denial unprofitable. Heaven or hell depends on this alone, so that the parent who studies to subdue it in his child works together with God in the renewing and saving a soul. The parent who indulges it does the Devil's work ; makes religion impracticable, salvation unattainable, and does all that in him lies to damn his child body and soul for ever.
"Our children were taught as soon as they could speak the Lord's prayer, which they were made to say at rising and at bedtime constantly, to which, as they grew bigger, were added a short prayer for their parents, and some collects, a short catechism, and some portion of Scripture as their memories could bear. They were veiy early made to distinguish the Sabbath from other days, before they could well speak or go. They were as soon taught to be still at family prayers, and to ask a blessing immediately after, which they used to do by signs, before they could kneel or speak.
"They were quickly made to understand they might have nothing they cried for, and instructed to speak handsomely for what they wanted. They were not suffered to ask even the lowest servant for aught without saying ' Pray give me such a thing'; and the servant was chid if she ever let them omit that word.
"Taking God's name in vain, cursing and swearing, profanity, obscenity, rude ill-bred names, were never heard among them ; nor were they ever permitted to call each other by their proper names without the addition of brother or sister. There was no such thing as loud playing or talking allowed of, but everyone was kept close to business for the six hours of school. And it is almost incredible what may be taught a child in a quarter of a year by a vigorous application, if it have but a tolerable capacity and good health. Kezzy excepted, all could read better in that time than the most of women can do as long as they live. Rising out of their places, or going out of the room, was not permitted except for good cause ; and running into the yard, garden, or street, without leave, was always esteemed a capital offence.
"For some years we went on very well. Never were children in better order. Never were children better disposed to piety, or in more subjection to their parents, till that fatal dispersion of them after the fire into several families. In these they were left at full liberty to converse with servants, which before they had always been restrained from, and to run abroad to play with any children, bad or good. They soon learned to neglect a strict observance of the Sabbath, and got knowledge of several songs and bad things which before they had no notion of. That civil behaviour which made them admired when they were at home, by all who saw them, was in a great measure lost, and a clownish accent and many rude ways were learnt which were not reformed without some difficulty.
"When the house was rebuilt, and the children all brought home, we entered on a strict reform; and then was begun the system of singing psalms at beginning and leaving school, morning and evening. Then also that of a general retirement at 5 o'clock was entered upon, when the eldest took the youngest that could speak, and the second the next, to whom they read the psalms for the day and a chapter in the New Testa ment; as in the morning they were directed to read the psalms and a chapter in the Old Testament, after which they went to their private prayers, before they got their breakfast or came into the family.
"There were several bye-laws observed among us. I mention them here because I think them useful. "First, it had been observed that cowardice and fear of punishment often lead children into lying till they get a custom of it which they cannot leave. To prevent this, a law was made that whoever was charged with a fault of which they were guilty, if they would ingenuously confess it and promise to amend should not be beaten. This rule prevented a great deal of lying, and would have done more if one in the family would have observed it. But he could not be prevailed upon, and therefore was often imposed on by false colours and equivocations which none would have used but one, had they been kindly dealt with; and some in spite of all would always speak truth plainly.
"Second, that no sinful action, as lying, pilfering at church or^on the Lord's day, disobedience, quarrelling, &c. should ever pass unpunished."
(One feels that in the last sentence Mrs. Wesley must have been interrupted, or that possibly a line or two of her letter may have been lost (it has been several times printed), for usually she was very clear-headed and precise in what she wrote, and certainly would have considered pilfering on any day and in any place sinful.)
"Third, that no child should be ever child or beat twice for the same fault, and that if they amended they should never be upbraided with it afterwards.
"Fourth, that every signal act of obedience, especially when it crossed upon their own inclinations, should be always commended, and frequently rewarded according to the merits of the case.
"Fifth, that if ever any child performed an act of obedience, or did anything with an intention to please, though the performance was not well, yet the obedience and intention should be kindly accepted, and the child with sweetness directed how to do better for the future.
"Sixth, that propriety (the rights of property) be invariably preserved, and none suffered to invade the property of another in the smallest matter, though it were of the value of a farthing or a pin, which they might not take from the owner without, much less against, his consent. This rule can never be too much inculcated on the minds of children; and from the want of parents and governors doing it as they ought, proceeds that shameful neglect of justice which we may observe in the world.
"Seventh, that promises be strictly observed; and a gift once bestowed, and so the right passed away from the donor, be not resumed, but left to the disposal of him to whom it was given, unless it were conditional, and the condition of the obligation not performed. "Eighth, that no girl be taught to work till she can read very well; and that she be kept to her work with the same application and for the same time that she was held to in reading. This rule also is much to be observed, for the putting children to learn sewing before they can read perfectly is the very reason why so few women can read fit to be heard, and never to be well understood.
"Susanna Wesley."
A wise and generous nature found expression in these eight rules, and the last of them bespoke a woman who valued mind above matter. Very few of her country men and women at the present day ever attain the art of reading aloud audibly and intelligibly, as may be observed by diligent attendance at church, where the average clergy mumble and murder both liturgy and lessons.
Perhaps school-books of the ordinary sort were scarce at Epworth certainly there was no money to spare for the purchase of them or perhaps it was on principle that Mrs. Wesley's children were taught their very letters and small words from the first chapter of Genesis, and made perfect in reading each verse before going on to the next. As soon as the fifth birth-day was passed the house was set in order, and the mother devoted the six school-hours of one whole day to teaching her youngest pupil its letters, with what success she herself has told us. She must have had a great deal of uninterrupted time for her educational work, as her husband spent most of his days in his study when at home, and was chosen by his clerical brethren in Lincolnshire to represent them three several times in Convocation. This took him to London for many months at a time; and though the journey and the expense of remaining in the metropolis so long were heavy drains on his purse, the occupation was congenial and kept him before the public eye, thus causing a readier sale for his literary productions and giving him the opportunity of distinguishing himself and communicating with publishers. During these absences Mrs. Wesley had everything in her own hands, the glebe, the parish, and the family; she kept the books, did the best she could with regard to farming operations; though having, like her husband, spent her youth in London, and among books, she could hardly have been very conversant with anything of that kind ; corresponded with her lord and master, and diligently instructed her children.
Just a little ease from pecuniary difficulties seems to have dawned on the Wesleys in the spring of 1702. The rector's " History of the Old and New Testament attempted in verse, and adorned with three hundred and thirty sculptures " had appeared a few months before, and doubtless was expected to prove a source of considerable profit. The money, however, came in very slowly, and creditors pressed so hard for what was due to them, that in March Mr. Wesley once more mounted his horse and rode to London for aid. His appeal was responded to in various quarters, for the Dean of Exeter gave him ten pounds, the Archbishop of Canterbury ten guineas, the Marquis of Normanby twenty, and the Marchioness five. A few other small sums raised the amount to sixty pounds, and the good man rode joyfully home with it, paid off some debts entirely, and a portion of others, and kept ten pounds in his own hands towards the expense of getting in his harvest. It need not necessarily be assumed that these moneys were given him out of charity pure and simple, for publishing was then, as now, an expensive process, and authors who had no capital accomplished it by subscription. It is very possible that the Marquis and the Archbishop and others had promised their subscriptions but not paid them up, so that Mr. Wesley may only have collected money justly due to him.
But loss and poverty pursued him, for the summer proved hot and the thatched roof of the parsonage got very dry, and perhaps the kitchen chimney wanted sweeping. At all events, some sparks fell upon it, and though the house was not burnt down, a great deal of mischief was done. It must have occurred either when Anne was a very few weeks old or just before she was born. Mr. Wesley gave an account of it in writing to his kind and constant friend the Archbishop of York, to whom he had commenced a letter on July 25th, writing only the date and the words "My Lord." This identical sheet of paper was partly burnt and wetted with the water that extinguished the flames; but as it was saved, with other books and papers, the letter was ultimately completed on it and forwarded to Dr. Sharpe.
"He that's born to be a poet must, I am afraid, live and die poor, for on the last of July 1702, a fire broke out in my house, by some sparks which took hold of the thatch this dry time, and consumed about two-thirds of it before it could be quenched. I was at the lower end of the town to visit a sick person, and thence to R. Cogan's. As I was returning they brought me the news. I got one of his horses, rode up, and heard by the way that my wife, children, and books were saved, for which God be praised, as well as for what He has taken. They were altogether in my study and the fire under them. When it broke out she got two of the children in her arms, and ran through the smoke and fire; but one of them was left in the hurry, till the other cried for her, and the neighbours ran in and got her out through the fire, as they did my books and most of my goods; this very paper amongst the rest, which I afterwards found as I was looking over what was saved.
"I find 'tis some happiness to have been miserable, for my mind has been so blunted with former misfortunes that this scarce made any impression upon me. I shall go on, by God's assistance, to take my title (tithe?); and when that's in, to rebuild my house, having at last crowded my family into what's left, and not missing many of my goods."
There is a story concerning this part of Mrs. Wesley's life which, though it rests on the authority of her son John, must be either a mistake or an exaggeration; and, as the circumstance related occurred before his birth, he, of course, repeated it only from hearsay, and not of his own personal knowledge. It is to the effect that Mrs. Wesley, never having viewed William of Orange as the rightful Sovereign of England, did not respond to the prayer for the King as read by her husband at their family worship. He asked the reason why, and was favoured with a plain but full exposition of her political views; whereupon he retorted hotly, "Sukey, if that be the case, you and I must part; for if we have two kings we must have two beds," and declared that unless she renounced her opinions he would not continue to live with her. So much, runs the story, did he take her contumacy to heart that he left the room without another word, retired to his study, and in the course of the day rode off to Convocation without taking leave or holding any further communication with her. He remained in London for a year without corresponding, and only returned after Queen Anne's accession. There could be no dispute between the pair as to her right to reign, so the ordinary habits of life were resumed, and John Wesley was the first child born afterwards. So the story goes ; but it is manifestly wrong, for in the first place neither the dates given nor the events mentioned fit in; and in the second place, John Wesley was born on the 17th of June Old Style, or the 28th New Style, 1703, when his sister Anne was twelve months old; so that the tale of his father's absence from home for a whole year falls to the ground. The strength and tenacity of Mrs. Wesley's political feelings is shown by passages in her "Occasional Papers," written two or three years later. The country was at war, and the object of Marlborough's campaigns was to break the power of France, though there were some special pleaders who declared that their end and aim was the preservation of Protestantism. "As for the security of our religion," she writes, "I take that to be a still more unjustifiable pretence for war than the other. For, notwithstanding some men of a singular complexion may persuade themselves, I am of opinion that as our Saviour's Kingdom is not of this world, so it is never lawful to take up arms merely in defence of religion. It is like the presumption of Uzzah, who audaciously stretched out his hand to support the tottering ark ; which brings to mind those verses of no ill poet:
In such a cause 'tis fatal to embark,
Like the bold Jew, that propped the falling ark;
With an unlicensed hand he durst approach,
And, though to save, yet it was death to touch.
And truly the success of our arms hitherto has no way justified our attempt; but though God has not much seemed to favour our enemies, yet neither hath He altogether blest our forces. But though there is often many reasons given for an action, yet there is commonly but one true reason that determines our practice, and that, in this case, I take to be the securing those that were the instruments of the Revolution from the resentments of their angry master, and the preventing his return and settling the succession in an heir. Whether they did well in driving a prince from his hereditary throne, I leave to their own consciences to determine; though I cannot tell how to think that a King of England can ever be accountable to his subjects for any mal-administration or abuse of power. But as he derives his power from God, so to Him only he must answer for his using it. But still, I make great difference between those who entered into a confederacy against their Prince, and those who, knowing nothing of the contrivance, and so consequently not consenting to it, only submitted to the present Government, which seems to me the law of the English nation, and the duty of private Christians, and the case with the generality of this people. But whether the praying for a usurper, and vindicating his usurpations after he has the throne, be not participating his sins, is easily determined"
It appears, also, that when a national fast day was proclaimed and observed, Mrs. Wesley stayed at home instead of going to church, and she justifies her action thus: "Since I am not satisfied of the lawfulness of the war, I cannot beg a blessing on our arms till I can have the opinion of one wiser, and a more competent judge than myself, in this point, viz., whether a private person that had no hand in the beginning of the war, but did always disapprove of it, may, notwithstanding, implore God's blessing on it, and pray for the good success of those arms which were taken up, I think, unlawfully. In the meantime I think it my duty, since I cannot join in public worship, to spend the time others take in that in humbling myself before God for my own and the nation's sins; and in beseeching Him to spare that guilty land wherein are many thousands that are, notwithstanding, compara lively innocent, and not to slay the righteous with the wicked; but to put a stop to the effusion of Christian blood, and, in His own good time, to restore us to the blessing of public peace. Since, then, I do not absent myself from Church out of any contempt for authority, or out of any vain presumption of my own goodness, as though I needed no solemn humiliation, and since I endeavour, according to my poor ability, to humble myself before God, and do earnestly desire that he may give this war such an issue as may most effectually conduce to His own glory, I hope it will not be charged upon me as a sin, but that it will please Almighty God, by some way or other, to satisfy my scruples, and to accept of my honest intentions, and to pardon my manifold infirmities."
It was probably a month or two before the birth of John that Samuel, the eldest boy, was placed at the school of Mr. John Holland, at Epworth, that there might be no break or loss of time in his preparation for Westminster School, and he was the only one of the brothers who received any other assistance on entering at a public school than that which could be given by his parents. John was probably a delicate babe, as he was baptized by his father when only a few hours old. He received the names of John Benjamin, after two baby boys (the tenth and eleventh children) who had preceded him and died in infancy. He was the only one of the family who had a second name, and it was never used, as he was simply called Jack, or Jacky, at home, and never signed himself otherwise than plain John.