108 How to deal with Listlessness. [§§ 124, 125 Business: And if he has not done it in the time he might be well supposed to have dispatched it, expose and turn him into ridicule for it; but mix no chiding, only put on a pretty cold Brow towards him, and keep it till he reform; 5 and let his Mother, Tutor, and all about him do so too. If this work not the Effect you desire, then tell him he shall be no longer troubled with a Tutor to take Care of his Education, you will not be at the Charge to have him spend his Time idly with him; but since he prefers This or That 10 [whatever Play he delights in] to his Book, that only he shall do; and so in earnest set him to work on his beloved Play, and keep him steadily, and in earnest, to it Morning and Afternoon, till he be fully surfeited, and would, at any rate, change it for some Hours at his Book again. But 15 when you thus set him his Task of Play, you must be sure to look after him your self, or set some Body else to do it, that may constantly see him employed in it, and that he be not permitted to be idle at that too. I say, your self look after him; for it is worth the Father's while, whatever Busi20 ness he has, to bestow two or three Days upon his Son, to cure so great a Mischief as his sauntring at his Business.

§ 125. This is what I propose, if it be Idleness, not from his general Temper, but a peculiar or acquir❜d Aversion to Learning, which you must be careful to examine and 25 distinguish. But though you have your Eyes upon him, to watch what he does with the Time which he has at his own Disposal, yet you must not let him perceive that you or any body else do so; for that may hinder him from following his own Inclination, which he being full of, and not daring, 30 for fear of you, to prosecute what his Head and Heart are set upon, he may neglect all other Things, which then he relishes not, and so may seem to be idle and listless, when in Truth it is nothing but being intent on that, which the fear of your Eye or Knowledge keeps him from executing. 35 To be clear in this Point, the Observation must be made when you are out of the way, and he not so much as under the Restraint of a Suspicion that any body has an Eye upon him. In those Seasons of perfect Freedom, let some body you can trust mark how he spends his Time, whether he 40 unactively loiters it away, when without any Check he is left to his own Inclination. Thus, by his Employing of such

Times of Liberty, you will easily discern, whether it be Listlessness in his Temper, or Aversion to his Book, that makes him saunter away his Time of Study.

§ 126. If some Defect in his Constitution has cast a Damp on his Mind, and he be naturally listless and dream- 5 ing, this unpromising Disposition is none of the easiest to be dealt with, because, generally carrying with it an Unconcernedness for the future, it wants the two great Springs of Action, Foresight and Desire; which how to plant and increase, where Nature has given a cold and 10 contrary Temper, will be the Question. As soon as you are satisfied that this is the Case, you must carefully enquire whether there be nothing he delights in: Inform your self what it is he is most pleased with; and if you can find any particular Tendency his Mind hath, increase it all you 15 can, and make use of that to set him on Work, and to excite his Industry. If he loves Praise, or Play, or fine Clothes, &c. or, on the other Side, dreads Pain, Disgrace, or your Displeasure, &c. whatever it be that he loves most, except it be Sloth (for that will never set him on Work) let that 20 be made use of to quicken him, and make him bestir himself. For in this listless Temper, you are not to fear an Excess of Appetite (as in all other Cases) by cherishing it. 'Tis that which you want, and therefore must labour to raise and increase; for where there is no Desire, there will 25 be no Industry.

$127. If you have not Hold enough upon him this Way, to stir up Vigour and Activity in him, you must employ him in some constant bodily Labour, whereby he may get an Habit of doing something. The keeping him 30 hard to some Study were the better Way to get him an Habit of exercising and applying his Mind. But because this is an invisible Attention, and no body can tell when he is or is not idle at it, you must find bodily Employments for him, which he must be constantly busied in, and kept 35 to; and if they have some little Hardship and Shame in them, it may not be the worse, that they may the sooner weary him, and make him desire to return to his Book. But be sure, when you exchange his Book for his other Labour, set him such a Task, to be done in such a Time 40 as may allow him no Opportunity to be idle. Only after

ΙΟ

you have by this Way brought him to be attentive and industrious at his Book, you may, upon his dispatching his Study within the Time set him, give him as a Reward some Respite from his other Labour; which you may 5 diminish as you find him grow more and more steady in his Application, and at last wholly take off when his sauntring at his Book is cured.

§ 128.

We formerly observed, that Variety and Freedom was That that delighted Children, and Compulsion. recommended their Plays to them; and that therefore their Book, or any Thing we would have them learn, should not be enjoined them as Business. This their Parents, Tutors, and Teachers are apt to forget; and their Impatience to have them busied in what is fit for them 15 to do, suffers them not to deceive them into it: But by the repeated Injunctions they meet with, Children quickly distinguish between what is required of them, and what not. When this Mistake has once made his Book uneasy to him, the Cure is to be applied at the other End. And since 20 it will be then too late to endeavour to make it a Play to him, you must take the contrary Course: Observe what Play he is most delighted with; enjoin that, and make him play so many Hours every Day, not as a Punishment for playing, but as if it were the Business required of him. 25 This, if I mistake not, will in a few Days make him so weary of his most beloved Sport, that he will prefer his Book, or any Thing to it, especially if it may redeem him from any Part of the Task of Play is set him, and he may be suffered to employ some Part of the Time destined 30 to his Task of Play in his Book, or such other Exercise as is really useful to him. This I at least think a better Cure than that Forbidding, (which usually increases the Desire) or any other Punishment should be made use of to remedy it For when you have once glutted his Ap35 petite (which may safely be done in all Things but eating and drinking) and made him surfeit of what you would have him avoid, you have put into him a Principle of Aversion, and you need not so much fear afterwards his longing for the same Thing again.

40

$129. This I think is sufficiently evident, that Children generally hate to be idle. All the Care then is, that their

busy Humour should be constantly employ'd in something of Use to them; which, if you will attain, you must make what you would have them do a Recreation to them, and not a Business. The Way to do this, so that they may not perceive you have any Hand in it, is this proposed 5 here; viz. To make them weary of that which you would not have them do, by enjoining and making them under some Pretence or other do it, till they are surfeited. For Example: Does your Son play at Top and Scourge too much? Enjoin him to play so many Hours every Day, 10 and look that he do it; and you shall see he will quickly be sick of it, and willing to leave it. By this Means making the Recreations you dislike a Business to him, he will of himself with Delight betake himself to those Things you would have him do, especially if they be proposed as Rewards 15 for having performed his Task in that Play which is commanded him. For if he be ordered every Day to whip his Top so long as to make him sufficiently weary, do you not think he will apply himself with Eagerness to his Book, and wish for it, if you promise it him as a Reward of 20 having whipped his Top lustily, quite out all the Time that is set him? Children, in the Things they do, if they comport with their Age, find little Difference so they may be doing: The Esteem they have for one Thing above another they borrow from others; so that what those about 25 them make to be a Reward to them, will really be so. By this Art it is in their Governor's Choice, whether Scotchhoppers shall reward their Dancing, or Dancing their Scotchhoppers; whether Peg-Top, or Reading; playing at Trap, or studying the Globes, shall be more acceptable and 30 pleasing to them; all that they desire being to be busy, and busy, as they imagine, in Things of their own Choice, and which they receive as Favours from their Parents or others for whom they have Respect and with whom they would be in Credit. A Set of Children thus ordered and 35 kept from the ill Example of others, would all of them, I suppose, with as much Earnestness and Delight, learn to read, write, and what else one would have them, as others do their ordinary Plays: And the eldest being thus entered, and this made the Fashion of the Place, 40 it would be as impossible to hinder them from learn

5

ing the one, as it is ordinarily to keep them from the

other.

§ 130. Play-things, I think, Children should have, and of divers sorts; but still to be in the Custody Play-Games. of their Tutors or some body else, whereof the Child should have in his Power but one at once, and should not be suffered to have another but when he restored that. This teaches them betimes to be careful of not losing or spoiling the Things they have; whereas Plenty 10 and Variety in their own keeping, makes them wanton and careless, and teaches them from the Beginning to be Squanderers and Wasters. These, I confess, are little Things, and such as will seem beneath the Care of a Governor; but nothing that may form Children's Minds is to be overlooked 15 and neglected, and whatsoever introduces Habits, and settles Customs in them, deserves the Care and Attention of their Governors, and is not a small Thing in its Consequences.

One Thing more about Children's Play-things may be worth their Parents' Care. Though it be agreed they should 20 have of several Sorts, yet, I think, they should have none bought for them. This will hinder that great Variety they are often overcharged with, which serves only to teach the Mind to wander after Change and Superfluity, to be unquiet, and perpetually stretching itself after something 25 more still, though it knows not what, and never to be satisfied with what it hath. The Court that is made to People of Condition in such kind of Presents to their Children, does the little ones great harm. By it they are taught Pride, Vanity and Covetousness, almost before they 30 can speak And I have known a young Child so distracted with the Number and Variety of his Play-games, that he tired his Maid every Day to look them over; and was so accustomed to Abundance, that he never thought he had enough, but was always asking, What more? What more? 35 What new Thing shall I have? A good Introduction to moderate Desires, and the ready Way to make a contented happy Man!

"How then shall they have the Play-games you allow them, if none must be bought for them?" I answer, They 40 should make them themselves, or at least endeavour it, and set themselves about it; till then they should have none, and