LEARNING | You will wonder, perhaps, that I put learning last, especially if I tell you I think it the least part. This may seem strange in the mouth of a bookish man; and this making usually the chief, if not only bustle and stir about children, this being almost that alone which is thought on, when people talk of education, makes it the greater paradox. When I consider, what ado is made about a little Latin and Greek, how many years are spent in it, and what a noise and business it makes to no purpose, I can hardly forbear thinking that the parents of children still live in fear of the school-master's rod, which they look on as the only instrument of education; as a language or two to be its whole business. How else is it possible that a child should be chained to the oar seven, eight, or ten of the best years of his life, to get a language or two, which, I think, might be had at a great deal cheaper rate of pains and time, and be learned almost in playing?
学问 | 我把学问放在最后，特别是我如果告诉你我认为学问最不重要，你也许会很奇怪。这出自于一个书呆子之口看起来很奇怪；大家为小孩奔忙主要是为了学问，人们谈到教育时想到的几乎也只有学问，所以这就显得更不可思议。每当我想到多少无谓的功夫用在拉丁语和希腊语上，多少年的时间花在这上面，只是喧嚣和忙碌却没有任何结果，我不禁想到孩子的父母还生活在校长教鞭的恐惧中，认为教鞭是教育的唯一工具，认为一两门语言就是教育的全部事务。我认为可以用更少的力气与时间，用玩耍的方法来学习这一两门语言，怎么可以让一个小孩用他一生中最好的七、八年或十年的时光去学呢？
Forgive me, therefore, if I say, I cannot with patience think, that a young gentleman should be put into the herd, and be driven with a whip and scourge, as if he were to run the gauntlet through the several classes, "ad capiendum ingenii cultum. (Latin "In order to acquire an education of his natural ability")" "What then," say you, "would you not have him write and read? Shall he be more ignorant than the clerk of our parish, who takes Hopkins and Sternhold for the best poets in the world, whom yet he makes worse than they are, by his ill reading?" Not so, not so fast, I beseech you. Reading, and writing, and learning, I allow to be necessary, but yet not the chief business. I imagine you would think him a very foolish fellow, that should not value a virtuous, or a wise man, infinitely before a great scholar. Not but that I think learning a great help to both, in well-disposed minds; but yet it must be confessed also, that in others not so disposed, it helps them only to be the more foolish, or worse men. I say this, that, when you consider of the breeding of your son, and are looking out for a school-master, or a tutor, you would not have (as is usual) Latin and logic only in your thoughts. Learning must be had, but in the second place, as subservient only to greater qualities. Seek out somebody, that may know how discreetly to frame his manners: place him in hands, where you may, as much as possible, secure his innocence, cherish and nurse up the good, and gently correct and weed out any bad inclinations, and settle in him good habits. This is the main point, and this being provided for, learning may be had into the bargain, and that as I think, at a very easy rate, by methods that may be thought on.
所以请你原谅，如果我说我难以想象一个年轻的绅士好像被放进牛群中，要被鞭打驱策，又像是让他受"列队鞭刑"似的学过几门课程，是"为获得与他天生能力相称的教育" (ad capiendum ingenii cultum)。"然后呢，" 你会说，"难道你不想让他读书写字吗？我们教区的教士把霍普金斯 (Hopkins)与斯滕霍德 (Sternhold) 当作世上最好的诗人，但是他的不善读书却把他们弄得更糟，难道你想让他比这个教士更无知吗？" 不是这样，不要着急，我恳求你。读书、写作和学问，我认为是必要的，但却不是主要任务。我想，如果有人不把一个有德行或有智慧的人看得比一个有学问的人更无限宝贵，你一定会认为他是一个愚蠢的人。因为我觉得学问不仅对于心地善良的人在德行与智慧上都有很大的帮助；而且我们必须承认，对于那些心地不是那么善良的人，它却使他们变成更愚蠢、更糟糕的人。我这样说的意思是，当你考虑令郎的教养，并且为他寻找一个老师或家教的时候，你不该象通常做法一样只想着拉丁语与逻辑了。学问是必须要有的，但是它应该在第二位，只是对更重要品质的辅助。要找一个知道怎样小心去塑造他礼数的人；把他托付给这样的人，你就可以尽可能地保持他的纯真，维护与培养他的优点，并且温和地纠正和消除他的任何不良倾向。这是主要之点，这一点具备了，我认为学问可以用能想到的方法很容易地获得。
READING | When he can talk, it is time he should begin to learn to read. But as to this, give me leave here to inculcate again, what is very apt to be forgotten, viz. That great care is to be taken, that it be never made as a business to him, nor he look on it as a task. We naturally, as I said, even from our cradles, love liberty, and have therefore an aversion to many things for no other reason but because they are enjoined us. I have always had a fancy that learning might be made a play and recreation to children: and that they might be brought to desire to be taught, if it were proposed to them as a thing of honour, credit, delight, and recreation, or as a reward for doing something else, and if they were never chid or corrected for the neglect of it. That which confirms me in this opinion is, that amongst the Portuguese, it is so much a fashion and emulation amongst their children, to learn to read and write, that they cannot hinder them from it: they will learn it one from another, and are as intent on it as if it were forbidden them. I remember that being at a friend's house, whose younger son, a child in coats, was not easily brought to his book (being taught to read at home by his mother), I advised to try another way than requiring it of him as his duty. We therefore, in a discourse on purpose amongst our selves in his hearing, but without taking any notice of him, declared, that it was the privilege and advantage of heirs and elder brothers to be scholars; that this made them fine gentlemen and beloved by every body: and that for younger brothers, it was a favour to admit them to breeding; to be taught to read and write, was more than came to their share; they might be ignorant bumpkins and clowns, if they pleased. This so wrought upon the child, that afterwards he desired to be taught; would come himself to his mother to learn, and would not let his maid be quiet till she heard him his lesson. I doubt not but some way like this might be taken with other children; and when their tempers are found, some thoughts be instilled into them, that might set them upon desiring of learning themselves, and make them seek it as another sort of play or recreation. But then, as I said before, it must never be imposed as a task, nor made a trouble to them. There may be dice and play-things, with the letters on them to teach children the alphabet by playing; and twenty other ways may be found, suitable to their particular tempers, to make this kind of learning a sport to them.
阅读 | 当他会说话的时候，就应该开始教他阅读。但是对于这一点，我要再次强调一件很容易遗忘的事情，就是要极力注意不要把读书当作工作派给他，也不要让他把读书看作一个任务。我曾经说过，我们甚至还在摇篮的时候就开始天然地热爱自由，因此我们憎恶许多事情不为别的只是因为那些事情是强加于我们的。我总是希望学习能够成为小孩的一种游戏或消遣；假如我们把学习当作荣誉、成就、快乐和消遣的事情，或者当作完成别的事情之后的奖励，如果他们从来没有因为忽视学习而受责备与惩戒，那他们就会渴望受教的。有一件事更证实了我的看法，就是在葡萄牙人那里，他们的小孩把学习读书和写字当作一种如此时髦与竞争的事情，简直不能阻止他们去学习：他们互相学习，一心向学就好像有人禁止他们学习似的。我记得在一个朋友家里，他的小儿子还穿着童装，不爱读书(那时他妈妈在家教他读书)，我建议他们换一种方法，不要把它当作他的责任。所以我们自己交谈，有意让他听见，但却不注意他，我们声称成为学者是嗣子和长兄的特权与优势；这样他们可以成为高尚的绅士并且得到每个人的喜爱；至于弟弟们，教养他们是一种恩惠，教他们读书写字更是超出他们应得的本分；如果他们愿意，他们成为无知的乡巴佬和蠢货也没有关系。这谈话对他有如此大的影响，他后来就渴求学习；他自己到他妈妈面前要求学习，而且要他的女仆听他读书，否则不让她安宁。我毫不怀疑也可以用类似的方法对待别的孩子；当我们摸透他们的脾气，把有的想法灌输给他们，也许可以使他们自己渴望学习，让他们把学习当作游戏或消遣来追求。但是，就如我前面说过的，学习决不能当作他们的一项任务，也不能使其成为他们的烦恼。也许可以用骰子和玩具粘上字母来教小孩在游戏中学习字母表；还有许多适合他们特别脾性的方法，可以让他们把这种学习当作游戏。
Thus children may be cozened into a knowledge of the letters; be taught to read, without perceiving it to be any thing but a sport, and play themselves into that which others are whipped for. Children should not have any thing like work, or serious, laid on them; neither their minds nor bodies will bear it. It injures their healths; and their being forced and tied down to their books, in an age at enmity with all such restraint, has, I doubt not, been the reason why a great many have hated books and learning all their lives after: it is like a surfeit, that leaves an aversion behind, not to be removed.
小孩可以这样被诱导去学习字母的；可以这样教他们去阅读，让他们只觉得是一种嬉戏，他们自己就会在游戏中学会别人要被鞭打才肯学的东西。不应该把任何工作或严肃的事情放在小孩身上，这是他们身体或精神都承受不了的。它会伤害他们的健康；我相信，他们在这厌恶一切束缚的年纪，被强迫与被绑架去读书，是为什么非常多的人以后一生憎恨读书学习的原因；这就象饮食过度后引起的反感，是难以去除的。
I have therefore thought, that if play-things were fitted to this purpose, as they are usually to none, contrivances might be made to teach children to read, whilst they thought they were only playing. For example, what if an ivory-ball were made like that of the Royal-Oak lottery, with thirty two sides, or one rather of twenty four or twenty five sides; and upon several of those sides pasted on an A, upon several others B, on others C, and on others D? I would have you begin with but these four letters, or perhaps only two at first; and when he is perfect in them, then add another; and so on till each side having one letter, there be on it the whole alphabet. This I would have others play with before him, it being as good a sort of play to lay a stake who shall first throw an A or B, as who upon dice shall throw six or seven. This being a play amongst you, tempt him not to it, lest you make it business; for I would not have him understand it is any thing but a play of older people, and I doubt not but he will take to it of himself. And that he may have the more reason to think it is a play, that he is sometimes in favour admitted to; when the play is done the ball should be laid up safe out of his reach, that so it may not, by his having it in his keeping at any time, grow stale to him.
所以我觉得，假如一般没有这种用处的玩具可以被改做这种用途，那么我们就可以让他们在自以为是玩耍的时候学会阅读。例如，如果我们能够做一个象皇家橡树 (Royal-Oak)彩票摇奖用的象牙球，有三十二面，或者宁愿二十四或二十面；在某些面贴一个A，在别的几面贴个B，在另外几面贴C，在余下的几面贴D如何？我想你最初只贴这四个字母，抑或只贴两个字母；待他学会以后，再加另外一个字母；一直加到每一面都有一个字母，球上有了所有的字母。这我主张要别人在他面前玩，并且打赌看谁先掷出A或B，就好像掷骰子掷出六或七一样好玩。这是你们成人的游戏，不要诱使他加入，免得你让游戏成为他的工作；因为我希望他认为这只有年长的人的游戏，我相信他自己会被这游戏吸引的。而且他会更有理由认为这是一种游戏，他有时会被恩准去玩；当游戏完了之后，要把球收拾到他拿不到的地方，这样的话，他就不能随时保有这个球，让他渐生厌倦之情。
To keep up his eagerness to it, let him think it a game belonging to those above him: and when, by this means, he knows the letters, by changing them into syllables, he may learn to read, without knowing how he did so, and never have any chiding or trouble about it, nor fall out with books because of the hard usage and vexation they have caused him. Children, if you observe them, take abundance of pains to learn several games, which, if they should be enjoined them, they would abhor as a task and business. I know a person of great quality (more yet to be honoured for his learning and virtue than for his rank and high place) who by pasting on the six vowels (for in our language Y is one) on the six sides of a die, and the remaining eighteen consonants on the sides of three other dice, has made this a play for his children, that he shall win who, at one cast, throws most words on these four dice; whereby his eldest son, yet in coats, has played himself into spelling, with great eagerness, and without once having been chid for it or forced to it.
为了保持他对此的热忱，你要让他认为那是属于长辈的一种游戏：当用通过这种方法他认识了字母，你就可以把它们换成音节，他就可以不知不觉地学会阅读，一点也不需要呵斥或麻烦，也不会因为读书引起的用功过度或苦恼而厌弃书本。如果你观察小孩，你会发现他们费很大的劲去学几个游戏，假如那些游戏是命令他们去玩的，他们痛恨它们就象痛恨任务与工作一样。我认识一个很有身份的人(他的学问与美德比他的阶级和地位更令人可敬)，他把六个元音(在我们的语言中Y也算一个元音)贴在一个骰子的六面，把余下的十八个辅音贴在另外三个骰子的上面，将其作为他的孩子们的一种游戏，看谁一次用这四个骰子掷出单词最多，谁就获胜；这样他的长子还穿着童装，就很急切地自己学会了拼写，从来不需要呵斥或强迫他去学。
I have seen little girls exercise whole hours together and take abundance of pains to be expert at dibstones as they call it. Whilst I have been looking on, I have thought it wanted only some good contrivance to make them employ all that industry about something that might be more useful to them; and methinks it is only the fault and negligence of elder people that it is not so. Children are much less apt to be idle than men; and men are to be blamed if some part of that busy humour be not turned to useful things; which might be made usually as delightful to them as those they are employed in, if men would be but half so forward to lead the way, as these little apes would be to follow. I imagine some wise Portuguese heretofore began this fashion amongst the children of his country, where I have been told, as I said, it is impossible to hinder the children from learning to read and write; and in some parts of France they teach one another to sing and dance from the cradle.
我曾经看见小女孩连着几个小时在一起，费尽力气想成为掷石子的专家。我在一旁看着，我想它只是缺少一点好的设计让她们利用那努力去做一些对她们更有益的事情；我认为这完全是大人的错误与疏忽才导致的。小孩不象成人那样懒散；如果他们忙忙碌碌的性情不能部分用在有益的事情上，那成人是该受责备的；假如成人能有一半踊跃去领引，而这些小猴子肯去追随，有益的事情通常也会变得与他们玩的游戏一样令人愉快的。我猜想在此以前有一些英明的葡萄牙人开始在他国家的孩子们中养成这样的风气，就如我说过的，听说不可能阻止他们的小孩去学习读书和写字；而在法国的某些地方，他们很小就开始互相学习唱歌跳舞。
The letters pasted upon the sides of the dice, or polygon, were best to be of the size of those of the folio Bible, to begin with, and none of them capital letters; when once he can read what is printed in such letters, he will not long be ignorant of the great ones: and in the beginning he should not be perplexed with variety. With this die also, you might have a play just like the Royal Oak, which would be another variety, and play for cherries or apples, etc.
贴在骰子或多面体上的字母最好是对折的圣经的字体大小，而且起初不要用大写字母。一旦他能够阅读这些字体所印的东西，他就不会再对大写字母一无所知了；而开始的时候他不该为变化所困扰。用这种骰子，你还可以象皇家橡树一样地玩，这又是另一种玩法，象用来赌樱桃或苹果之类的。
Besides these, twenty other plays might be invented depending on letters, which those who like this way, may easily contrive and get made to this use if they will. But the four dice above-mentioned I think so easy and useful, that it will be hard to find any better, and there will be scarce need of any other.
除了这些，还可以发明许多别的以字母为基础的游戏，喜欢这种方法的人，如果他们愿意，可以很容易地设法用这些游戏学习字母。但是我觉得前面提到地四个骰子是极其容易和有用的，很难找到比它更好的方法，而且也没有必要去找。
Thus much for learning to read, which let him never be driven to, nor chid for; cheat him into it if you can, but make it not a business for him. It is better it be a year later before he can read, than that he should this way get an aversion to learning. If you have any contest with him, let it be in matters of moment, of truth, and good nature; but lay no task on him about A B C. Use your skill to make his will supple and pliant to reason: teach him to love credit and commendation; to abhor being thought ill or meanly of, especially by you and his mother, and then the rest will come all easily. But I think if you will do that, you must not shackle and tie him up with rules about indifferent matters, nor rebuke him for every little fault, or perhaps some that to others would seem great ones; but of this I have said enough already.
关于学习阅读就说这么多了，就是不要驱使他去学，不要为此责骂他；如果可能的话要诱使他去读，但是不要把它当作他的一种任务。宁愿他晚一年学会阅读，也不要他由此对学习产生反感。假如你与他有什么争斗，应该是争关系重大的、有关真理和善良的事情，而不是有关把学ABC当作他的任务。用你的技巧使他的意志柔顺，能够依从理性的指引；教他热爱荣誉和赞扬；使他不愿被人看轻或鄙视，尤其是不愿被你和他母亲看不起，而其余的一切都很容易达到。但是我觉得你如果打算那样做的话，你绝不要在无关紧要的事情上限制束缚他，也不要为每一个微小过失责备他，即或一些别人认为是重大过错的；但是关于这一点我已经说得够多了。
When by these gentle ways he begins to read, some easy pleasant book, suited to his capacity, should be put into his hands, wherein the entertainment that he finds might draw him on, and reward his pains in reading, and yet not such as should fill his head with perfectly useless trumpery, or lay the principles of vice and folly. To this purpose, I think "Aesop's Fables" the best, which being stories apt to delight and entertain a child, may yet afford useful reflections to a grown man; and if his memory retain them all his life after, he will not repent to find them there, amongst his manly thoughts and serious business. If his Aesop has pictures in it, it will entertain him much the better, and encourage him to read, when it carries the increase of knowledge with it: for such visible objects children hear talked of in vain and without any satisfaction whilst they have no ideas of them; those ideas being not to be had from sounds, but from the things themselves or their pictures. And therefore I think as soon as he begins to spell, as many pictures of animals should be got him as can be found, with the printed names to them, which at the same time will invite him to read, and afford him matter of enquiry and knowledge. "Reynard the Fox" is another book I think may be made use of to the same purpose. And if those about him will talk to him often about the stories he has read, and hear him tell them, it will, besides other advantages, add encouragement and delight to his reading, when he finds there is some use and pleasure in it. These baits seem wholly neglected in the ordinary method; and it is usually long before learners find any use or pleasure in reading, which may tempt them to it, and so take books only for fashionable amusements, or impertinent troubles, good for nothing.
当他通过这种温和的方法学会阅读，应该给他找一些容易、有趣而又适合他能力的书，他从书中得到的乐趣可以推动他前行，并且回报他读书的辛苦，却不会在他头脑中充满纯粹无用、华而不实的东西，或打下邪恶与愚蠢的行为准则。我觉得《伊索寓言》 (Aesop's Fables)是最适合这个目的，它里面的故事让小孩感到愉快和有趣，但又给成人提供有用的反思；假如他以后一生都能记住这些故事，他不会懊悔它们与他阳刚的思想和严肃的事务共存。如果他的《伊索寓言》有插图，它会带来更多的知识，那就更让他有兴趣，鼓励他多读书；因为对于视觉的东西，小孩只是听人说是没有用处，他们对此也没有概念，不会让他们满意的；这些概念不能从声音得到，只有从事物本身或它们的图像获得。所以我认为当他开始能拼写，就应该立即给他找尽量多的动物图片，上面印着它们的名字，这样在吸引他阅读的同时，提供他询问与求知的材料。《列那狐的故事》 (Reynard the Fox)是另外一本我认为适合同样目的的书。如果他周围的人能常常与他交谈他读过的故事，听他讲述那些故事，那么除了别的好处，这方法可以增加他阅读的兴趣，更加鼓励他读书，因为他发现阅读是有用和愉快的。通常的方法完全忽视这些诱导作用，常常读书的人要过很久才会发现能吸引他们去阅读的用处或乐趣，在此之前，他们只把书本当作时髦的消遣，或者无关的麻烦，没有一点用处。
The Lord's Prayer, the Creeds, and Ten Commandments, it is necessary he should learn perfectly by heart; but, I think, not by reading them himself in his primer, but by somebody's repeating them to him, even before he can read. But learning by heart, and learning to read, should not I think be mixed, and so one made to clog the other. But his learning to read should be made as little trouble or business to him as might be.
主祷文、信条和十诫他应该完全记住；但是我认为不该作为启蒙读本让他自己去读，应该在他能阅读之前，让人反复读给他听。但是不要把熟记与阅读混为一谈，以免彼此互相妨碍。当他学习阅读的时候，要尽量减少麻烦，或尽可能不作为他的任务。
What other books there are in English of the kind of those above-mentioned, fit to engage the liking of children, and tempt them to read, I do not know: but am apt to think, that children being generally delivered over to the method of schools, where the fear of the rod is to inforce, and not any pleasure of the employment to invite them to learn, this sort of useful books, amongst the number of silly ones that are of all sorts, have yet had the fate to be neglected; and nothing that I know has been considered of this kind out of the ordinary road of the hornbook, primer, psalter, Testament, and Bible.
至于是不是还有别的类似上面所说的英文书，可以激发小孩的兴趣，吸引他们去阅读，我不是很知道；但是我倾向认为，小孩普遍地交由学校的方法来管教，只是被用对教鞭的惧怕来强迫，不是用学习的快乐来吸引他们学习，这类有用的书，与其它种种糊涂的书一样，命定会为人所忽视；除了角帖书、入门书、诗篇、圣约书和圣经，我不知道任何别的书籍被认为能摆脱这种宿命。
As for the Bible, which children are usually employed in, to exercise and improve their talent in reading, I think the promiscuous reading of it, though by chapters as they lie in order, is so far from being of any advantage to children, either for the perfecting their reading, or principling their religion, that perhaps a worse could not be found. For what pleasure or encouragement can it be to a child, to exercise himself in reading those parts of a book where he understands nothing? And how little are the law of Moses, the "Song of Solomon", the prophecies in the Old, and the epistles and apocalypse in the "New Testament", suited to a child's capacity? And though the history of the evangelists, and the "Acts", have something easier; yet, taken all together, it is very disproportional to the understanding of childhood. I grant, that the principles of religion are to be drawn from thence, and in the words of the scripture; yet none should be proposed to a child, but such as are suited to a child's capacity and notions. But it is far from this to read through the whole Bible, and that for reading's sake. And what an odd jumble of thoughts must a child have in his head, if he have any at all, such as he should have concerning religion, who in his tender age reads all the parts of the Bible indifferently, as the word of God, without any other distinction! I am apt to think, that this, in some men, has been the very reason why they never had clear and distinct thoughts of it all their lifetime.
至于小孩通常用来练习和提高他们阅读能力的圣经，我觉得逐章乱读对小孩是没有任何益处的，不管是完善他们的阅读，还是建立他们宗教信仰的原则，都没有比这更坏的方法了。因为一个孩子怎么能从阅读一本他完全不懂的书中的章节来得到快乐与鼓舞呢？"摩西律" (Law of Moses)，"所罗门雅歌" (Song of Solomon )，"旧约" (Old Testament)里的预言，"新约" (New Testament)里的使徒书信和末日启示，哪一点是适合小孩的能力的呢？虽然福音传道者的历史，以及"使徒行传"，有一些东西相对容易，但是整体来说还是与小孩的理解力很不相称。我承认宗教原则应该从那里获得，应该根据圣经的话语；但是只有适合小孩能力与观念的部分才可建议他去读。但是这与通读整本圣经、只为阅读的缘故是差别很远的。一个小孩在幼小的年纪漫不经心地阅读全部的圣经，只是当作上帝的话，没有任何别的区分，即使他头脑中能记住一点有关宗教的思想，他那思想也只会是一团乱麻！我认为这就是为什么有些人对宗教一生都没有清楚而明确的思想的根本原因。
And now I am by chance fallen on this subject, give me leave to say, that there are some parts of the Scripture which may be proper to be put into the hands of a child to engage him to read; such as are the story of Joseph and his brethren, of David and Goliath, of David and Jonathan, etc. and others that he should be made to read for his instruction, as that, "What you would have others do unto you, do you the same unto them"; and such other easy and plain moral rules, which being fitly chosen, might often be made use of, both for reading and instruction together; and so often read till they are throughly fixed in the memory; and then afterwards, as he grows ripe for them, may in their turns on fit occasions be inculcated as the standing and sacred rules of his life and actions. But the reading of the whole Scripture indifferently, is what I think very inconvenient for children, till after having been made acquainted with the plainest fundamental parts of it, they have got some kind of general view of what they ought principally to believe and practise; which yet, I think, they ought to receive in the very words of the scripture, and not in such as men prepossessed by systems and analogies are apt in this case to make use of and force upon them. Dr. Worthington, to avoid this, has made a catechism, which has all its answers in the precise words of the Scripture; a thing of good example, and such a sound form of words as no Christian can except against as not fit for his child to learn. Of this, as soon as he can say the Lord's Prayer, Creed, the Ten Commandments, by heart, it may be fit for him to learn a question every day, or every week, as his understanding is able to receive and his memory to retain them. And when he has this catechism perfectly by heart, so as readily and roundly to answer to any question in the whole book, it may be convenient to lodge in his mind the remaining moral rules scattered up and down in the Bible, as the best exercise of his memory, and that which may be always a rule to him, ready at hand, in the whole conduct of his life.
我现在有机会谈到这个话题，我想说，圣经中有的部分是适合小孩去读的：例如约瑟 (Joseph)和他的兄弟们，大卫 (David)和歌利亚 (Goliath)，大卫 (David)和约拿单(Jonathan)等等，以及其它可以读来作教训的部分，譬如"你愿意别人怎样待你，你当怎样待别人"这类简单明了的道德规则，如果选择得当，常常可以学会阅读，同时得到教训；所以应该经常阅读直到完全记住；进而当他以后长大成熟，在适当的时机，谆谆教导他，把这些作为他生活和行为的标准与神圣规则。但是心不在焉地阅读整本圣经，我认为对小孩是很不相宜的，应该等他们熟悉圣经中最浅显最基本的部分，他们对自己原则上应当信仰和实行的东西有了一些总体的认识以后才行；而且这部分我觉得他们应该学习圣经的原文，而不是学习别人利用系统与类比预先处理后强加给他们的东西。沃辛顿(Worthington)博士为避免这种情况，写了一本"教义问答"，里面的回答用的完全是圣经的原文；这是一个好的范例，这种合理的言辞没有一个基督徒能够反对，认为不适合他的小孩去学习的。一旦小孩能够背诵主祷文、信条和十诫，就应该让他根据自己的理解力能接受的和记忆力能记住的，每天或每周学习一个问题。当他完全记住这本"教义问答"，能够迅速圆满地回答整本书中的任何问题的时候，他就可以把他的心思放在分散圣经中的其它道德规则，作为锻炼他的记忆力的最好练习，并且可以成为他一生行为的随身准则。
WRITING | When he can read English well, it will be seasonable to enter him in writing: and here the first thing should be taught him is to hold his pen right; and this he should be perfect in before he should be suffered to put it to paper. For not only children but any body else that would do any thing well, should never be put upon too much of it at once, or be set to perfect themselves in two parts of an action at the same time, if they can possibly be separated. I think the Italian way of holding the pen between the thumb and the forefinger alone, may be best; but in this you may consult some good writing-master, or any other person who writes well and quick. When he has learned to hold his pen right, in the next place he should learn how to lay his paper, and place his arm and body to it. These practices being got over, the way to teach him to write without much trouble, is to get a plate graved with the characters of such a hand as you like best: but you must remember to have them a pretty deal bigger than he should ordinarily write; for every one naturally comes by degrees to write a less hand than he at first was taught, but never a bigger. Such a plate being graved, let several sheets of good writing-paper be printed off with red ink, which he has nothing to do but go over with a good pen filled with black ink, which will quickly bring his hand to the formation of those characters, being at first shewed where to begin, and how to form every letter. And when he can do that well, he must then exercise on fair paper; and so may easily be brought to write the hand you desire.
写字 | 当他能够很好地读英文，就该及时教他写字：这里首先要教他正确的握笔；这应该在他在纸上写字之前就完全学好。因为不仅小孩而且别的任何人要想做好任何事情，都不能一次学得太多，如果一个动作能够分成两个部分，他们也不可能同时学好这两部分的。我认为意大利人只用拇指与食指握笔的方式是最好的；但是这你也许该请教一些好的书法老师，或者别的任何写字又快又好的人。当他学会正确握笔后，下一步他该学纸怎样放，手臂怎样搁和身体怎样坐。这些练习都做过之后，有一个教他写字的不太麻烦的方法，就是找一块板刻上你最喜欢的字体；但是你要记住，板上的字应该比他平常写的字要大；因为每个人写字都会比他初学的时候小一些，而决不会更大一些。刻好这样一个板后，你可以用红墨水将它印在几张好的写字纸上，告诉他从哪里起笔和怎样写每一个字母，他只要用一支装黑墨水的笔照着描画，这样他就会很快学会写那些字了。当他能做好这些以后，他一定要在一般的纸上练习；这样他就会很容易学会你希望他写的字体。
DRAWING | When he can write well, and quick, I think it may be convenient, not only to continue the exercise of his hand in writing, but also to improve the use of it farther in drawing, a thing very useful to a gentleman on several occasions, but especially if he travel, as that which helps a man often to express, in a few lines well put together, what a whole sheet of paper in writing would not be able to represent and make intelligible. How many buildings may a man see, how many machines and habits meet with, the ideas whereof would be easily retained and communicated by a little skill in drawing; which, being committed to words, are in danger to be lost, or at best but ill retained in the most exact descriptions? I do not mean that I would have your son a perfect painter; to be that to any tolerable degree, will require more time than a young gentleman can spare from his other improvements of greater moment; but so much insight into perspective, and skill in drawing, as will enable him to represent tolerably on paper any thing he sees, except faces, may, I think, be got in a little time, especially if he have a genius to it: but where that is wanting, unless it be in the things absolutely necessary, it is better to let him pass them by quietly, than to vex him about them to no purpose: and therefore in this, as in all other things not absolutely necessary, the rule holds, "Nihil invitâ Minervâ (Latin phrase, in English it means "Nothing contrary to inborn capacity".)."
绘画 | 当他能够写得又好又快，我觉得不仅应该让他继续写字来练手，而且要让他绘画来提高；而绘画在一些场合对一个绅士非常有用，特别是他旅行的时候，只要画寥寥的几条线，就可以帮助他表达出写满一整页纸也难以描绘和让人理解的景象。一个人无论看见多少建筑，遇到多少车辆和服装，他只要用一点绘画技巧就很容易把这些观念保留下来并且与人交流，如果诉诸文字则有失去的危险，即使最确切的描写也至多记录不全。我的意思不是希望你的儿子成为一个优秀的画家；要达到一个象样的程度，需要的时间是远多于一个绅士从其它更重要的、需要完善提高的事项上所能抽出的时间；但是对透视画法有一定的了解，绘画有一定技巧，除了人像外能把看见的任何东西在纸上象样地画出，我认为这花不了多少时间，特别是如果他有天赋的话，那就更快了；但是如果他缺乏天份，除非那是绝对必要的事情，最好悄悄地放过他，不要让他无故受到烦扰：因此在绘画上，就象其它所有不是绝对必要的事情一样，规则就是，"绝不要违反天性" (拉丁语"Nihil invitâ Minervâ")。
SHORT-HAND | Short-hand, an art, as I have been told, known only in England, may perhaps be thought worth the learning, both for dispatch in what men write for their own memory, and concealment of what they would not have lie open to every eye. For he that has once learned any sort of character, may easily vary it to his own private use or fancy, and with more contraction suit it to the business he would employ it in. Mr. Rich's, the best contrived of any I have seen, may, as I think, by one who knows and considers grammar well, be made much easier and shorter. But for the learning this compendious way of writing, there will be no need hastily to look out a master; it will be early enough when any convenient opportunity offers itself at any time, after his hand is well settled in fair and quick writing. For boys have but little use of short hand, and should by no means practise it till they write perfectly well, and have throughly fixed the habit of doing so.
速记 | 我听说速记这种艺术只在英国为人知晓，它也许值得学习，因为它既可以迅速地记下要记忆的东西，又能隐藏人们不愿意公开的事情。因为他一旦学会任何一种文字，他都可以改变它以适合他自己私下的用途或爱好，再多缩略一下还可以适合他工作的需要。里奇速记法是我见到过的最好的速记法，我认为一个很了解语法、对语法有很全面思考的人，还可以将它变得更容易、更简短。但是为学习这种简洁的记录方式，并不需要着急去找老师；在他的手练好而写字又快又好之后，还足够早，有合适的机会去学。因为孩子很少会用到速记，在他们写字很完美，完全养成写好字的习惯之前，没有任何必要练习速记。
摘自Some Thoughts Concerning Education (English-Chinese Edition)(ISBN-10: 1537479857)
