Having named company, I am almost ready to throw away my pen, and trouble you no farther on this subject: for since that does more than all precepts, rules and instructions, methinks it is almost wholly in vain to make a long discourse of other things, and to talk of that almost to no purpose. For you will be ready to say, what shall I do with my son? If I keep him always at home, he will be in danger to be my young master; and if I send him abroad, how is it possible to keep him from the contagion of rudeness and vice, which is every where so in fashion? In my house he will perhaps be more innocent, but more ignorant too of the world; wanting there change of company, and being used constantly to the same faces, he will, when he comes abroad, be a sheepish or conceited creature.

在讲过伙伴以后，我真想搁笔不再向你讲述这个题目。因为既然伙伴的影响比一切训诫、规则和教诲都大，我觉得再去多讨论别的事情差不多完全是白费力气，而且谈了也几乎是没有目标的。因为你一定会说，我对我的儿子有什么办法呢？假若我一直把他拴在家里，他有危险成为我的少主人；假若我把他放出去，又怎能让他不传染上到处流行的粗鲁与邪恶呢？在我家里，他也许会更单纯，但也更不谙世故；没有新的伙伴，习惯于同样的面孔，当他在外时，他就会胆怯或自高自大。

I confess both sides have their inconveniences. Being abroad, it is true, will make him bolder, and better able to bustle and shift among boys of his own age; and the emulation of school-fellows often puts life and industry into young lads. But still you can find a school, wherein it is possible for the master to look after the manners of his scholars, and can shew as great effects of his care of forming their minds to virtue, and their carriage to good breeding, as of forming their tongues to the learned languages, you must confess, that you have a strange value for words, when preferring the languages of the antient Greeks and Romans to that which made them such brave men, you think it worth while to hazard your son's innocence and virtue for a little Greek and Latin. For, as for that boldness and spirit which lads get amongst their play-fellows at school, it has ordinarily such a mixture of rudeness and ill-turned confidence, that those misbecoming and disingenuous ways of shifting in the world must be unlearnt, and all the tincture washed out again, to make way for better principles, and such manners as make a truly worthy man. He that considers how diametrically opposite the skill of living well, and managing, as a man should do, his affairs in the world, is to that mal-pertness, tricking, or violence learnt amongst schoolboys, will think the faults of a privater education infinitely to be preferred to such improvements, and will take care to preserve his child's innocence and modesty at home, as being nearer of kin, and more in the way of those qualities which make an useful and able man. Nor does any one find, or so much as suspect, that that retirement and bashfulness which their daughters are brought up in, makes them less knowing, or less able women. Conversation, when they come into the world, soon gives them a becoming assurance; and whatsoever, beyond that, there is of rough and boisterous, may in men be very well spared too; for courage and steadiness, as I take it, lie not in roughness and ill breeding.

我承认这二方面都有缺陷。小孩在外面，确实可以使他更大胆，更能使他与同龄的孩子玩在一块；而且同学之间的竞争也使年轻人有活力与干劲。虽然你可以找到这样的学校，里面的老师能够关照学生的礼貌，能象教他们学习博雅的语言一样有效地塑造他们优美的心灵、有教养的举止，但是你得承认，你对文字有奇怪的价值观，你看重古希腊、古罗马的语言使得古希腊人、古罗马人这样勇敢，因此你愿意以你儿子的纯真与德行去冒险，只为学习一点希腊语和拉丁语。因为少年从学校里的玩伴中得来的胆量与勇气，总是掺杂着粗鲁与不良的自信，那些不合适和虚伪的处世方法必须要忘掉，所有的影响都要清除，代以更好的原则和一个真有价值的人应有的举止。那些考虑到良好的生活技能和管理自己在世上的事务，是怎样与从同学那里学到的放肆、欺诈、或暴力完全对立的，就会认为再差的私家教育都比学校强很多，也就会在家小心地保持孩子的纯真与谦逊，因为孩子在家与亲人比较接近，更容易习得一些品性而成为有用的和能干的人。没有谁发现或担心，女孩子在退隐羞怯中长大，会使她们更无知，或更无能。她们一旦进入社会，与人交流，很快会使她们变得自信；无论如何，超出限度，就会成为粗鲁与喧闹，就是男子也应该避免的。因为我认为勇敢与镇定不存在于粗鲁与不良教养之中。

Virtue is harder to be got than a knowledge of the world; and if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered. Sheepishness and ignorance of the world, the faults imputed to a private education, are neither the necessary consequences of being bred at home, nor if they were, are they incurable evils. Vice is the more stubborn, as well as the more dangerous evil of the two; and therefore in the first place to be fenced against. If that sheepish softness which often enervates those who are bred like fondlings at home, be carefully to be avoided, it is principally so for virtue's sake; for fear lest such a yielding temper should be too susceptible of vicious impressions, and expose the novice too easily to be corrupted. A young man before he leaves the shelter of his father's house, and the guard of a tutor, should be fortified with resolution, and made acquainted with men, to secure his virtues, lest he should be led into some ruinous course, or fatal precipice, before he is sufficiently acquainted with the dangers of conversation, and has steadiness enough not to yield to every temptation. Were it not for this, a young man's bashfulness and ignorance in the world, would not so much need an early care. Conversation would cure it in a great measure; or if that will not do it early enough, it is only a stronger reason for a good tutor at home. For if pains be to be taken to give him a manly air and assurance betimes, it is chiefly as a fence to his virtue when he goes into the world under his own conduct.

美德比明了世理更难获得；年青人失去了美德是很少能恢复的。懦弱与不明世理，这归咎于私家教育的过错，并不是在家庭进行教育培养的必然结果，也不是不可纠正的罪恶。邪恶是二者之中更顽固、更危险的；因此要首先防范的。那些在家中溺爱长大的人，常常会显得懦弱，如果要小心避免这种情况，也主要是为了德行的缘故；因为惟恐这易屈从的脾性太容易接受邪恶的影响，也使初学者很容易堕落了。年轻人在离开父亲房屋的庇护和导师的看护以前，应该增强他的决心，应该熟悉人情，来保护他的德行，否则在他没有充分明白交友的危险、不能坚定抵御诱惑以前，他很容易走上毁灭的歧途，或陷入致命的险境。若不是因为这一点，年轻人的羞怯腼腆及不通人情世故原是用不着这样及早注意的。与人交往很大程度上可以治好这种毛病；如果不能及早治好，那就更是一个强大的理由要在家中有一个良好的导师。因为如果能努力使他及时养成男子汉的气概和自信，那就是他自主进入社会的时候，他的德行的主要保障。

It is preposterous therefore to sacrifice his innocency to the attaining of confidence and some little skill of bustling for himself among others, by his conversation with ill-bred and vicious boys; when the chief use of that sturdiness, and standing upon his own legs, is only for the preservation of his virtue. For if confidence or cunning come once to mix with vice, and support his miscarriages, he is only the surer lost; and you must undo again, and strip him of that he has got from his companions, or give him up to ruin. Boys will unavoidably be taught assurance by conversation with men, when they are brought into it; and that is time enough. Modesty and submission, till then, better fits them for instruction; and therefore there needs not any great care to stock them with confidence beforehand. That which requires most time, pains, and assiduity, is, to work into them the principles and practice of virtue and good breeding. This is the seasoning they should be prepared with, so as not easily to be got out again. This they had need to be well provided with, for conversation, when they come into the world, will add to their knowledge and assurance, but be too apt to take from their virtue; which therefore they ought to be plentifully stored with, and have that tincture sunk deep into them.

所以，为孩子获得自信和一点与人厮混的技巧，就要牺牲他的纯洁，让他与没有教养的和邪恶的男孩子交往，这是很荒谬的；坚毅自主的品性主要是为保持他的德行。因为一旦自信或狡猾与邪恶混在一起，支持他的不良行为，他就更是肯定毁掉了；而且你得从新撤销那影响，消除他从伙伴中得来的习气，否则只有放弃他、由他毁掉。男孩有与人交流的机会，他们必然会变得自信；那样的时间就足够了。在此以前，谦逊与顺服使他仍能更好地接受教导；因此事先不必过于注意自信的养成。最应该花时间、辛劳、努力的，是使他们获得德行的原则、实践和良好的教养。这才是他们应该尽力准备的事，免得后来容易失掉。这是他们需要好好预备的，因为他们一旦进入社会与人交往，固然可以增加他们的知识与自信，同时也易于损害他们的德行；所以他们对于德行理应多加准备，使美德的一点一滴都深深地滲入他们之中。

How they should be fitted for conversation, and entered into the world, when they are ripe for it, we shall consider in another place. But how any one's being put into a mixed herd of unruly boys, and there learning to wrangle at trap, or rook at span farthing, fits him for civil conversation or business, I do not see. And what qualities are ordinarily to be got from such a troop of play-fellows as schools usually assemble together from parents of all kinds, that a father should so much covet, is hard to divine. I am sure, he who is able to be at the charge of a tutor at home, may there give his son a more genteel carriage, more manly thoughts, and a sense of what is worthy and becoming, with a greater proficiency in learning into the bargain, and ripen him up sooner into a man, than any at school can do. Not that I blame the schoolmaster in this, or think it to be laid to his charge. The difference is great between two or three pupils in the same house, and three or four score boys lodged up and down: for let the master's industry and skill be never so great, it is impossible he should have fifty or an hundred scholars under his eye, any longer than they are in the school together: Nor can it be expected, that he should instruct them successfully in any thing but their books; the forming of their minds and manners requiring a constant attention, and particular application to every single boy, which is impossible in a numerous flock, and would be wholly in vain (could he have time to study and correct every one's particular defects and wrong inclinations) when the lad was to be left to himself, or the prevailing infection of his fellows, the greatest part of the four and twenty hours.

当他们长大准备好了，怎样使他们适应与人交往，并且走入社会，我们会在别的地方考虑。但是那种与粗野男童厮混，学会在困局中争斗，连最后一个铜子儿 也要骗取的人，我不看好他怎样能够适合文明的交往或事务。而且学校里玩伴的家长是各种各样的，做父亲的希望孩子与这些玩伴为伍能从中获得什么样的气质，真是很难预言的。我确信，那能请得起家庭导师的人，导师会比在学校里任何人更能使他的儿子举止更优雅，思想更有男子气概，又能明白什么是有价值的和合适的，而且学习也更容易，成熟也更迅速。关于这一点，我并不责怪学校的教师，也并不认为他应该负责。一个家庭里面的两三个学生和一个学校里面上上下下寄宿的七八十个学生，这差别是很大的。不管老师的精力和技巧再大，除了在学校里一起的时间，他是不可能看顾五十或一百个学生的。除了书本以外，也不可能期望他能成功地教给他们别的东西；塑造他们的心灵与仪态需要不断的关注，而且要特别针对每一个人，这在一大群学生中是不可能的，就算是老师有时间考察与纠正每个学生个别的缺点和错误倾向，但是学生一天二十四小时中的绝大部分时间都是由他自己去消磨，或者还要受到同伴恶习的影响，老师的努力也全是白费功夫。

But fathers, observing that fortune is often most successfully courted by bold and bustling men, are glad to see their sons pert and forward betimes; take it for an happy omen that they will be thriving men, and look on the tricks they play their school-fellows, or learn from them, as a proficiency in the art of living, and making their way through the world. But I must take the liberty to say, that he that lays the foundation of his son's fortune in virtue and good breeding, takes the only sure and warrantable way. And it is not the waggeries or cheats practised amongst school-boys, it is not their roughness one to another, nor the well-laid plots of robbing an orchard together, that make an able man; but the principles of justice, generosity, and sobriety, joined with observation and industry, qualities which I judge school-boys do not learn much of one another. And if a young gentleman bred at home, be not taught more of them than he could learn at school, his father has made a very ill choice of a tutor. Take a boy from the top of a grammar-school, and one of the same age bred as he should be in his father's family, and bring them into good company together, and then see which of the two will have the more manly carriage, and address himself with the more becoming assurance to strangers. Here I imagine the school-boy's confidence will either fail or discredit him; and if it be such as fits him only for the conversation of boys, he were better to be without it.

但是父亲们发现胆大闹腾的人常常最能成功走运，于是高兴看到自己的儿子也能及早变得鲁莽冒进；认为这是表示他们会长成健壮成人的一种吉兆，看见他们向同学玩诡计，或是从同学那里学到骗术，就以为他们学会了谋生的本领，可以闯世界了。但是我必须冒昧地说，把孩子的幸福奠定在美德与良好的教养上面，才是惟一可靠的和保险的办法。不是学生之间的戏弄欺骗、不是他们的粗鲁相待、也不是一起策划偷窃果园，能培养一个能干的人；是由正直、慷慨和严肃的品质，加上洞察与努力而成的，这些品质我认为不是学校同学之间能互相学到的。如果一个在家庭中教养成人的青年绅士，不能比在学校里面学到更多这样的品盾，那就只怪他的父亲选错了导师。你可以从文法学校里面挑出一个高年级的学生，再找一个在家中受过良好教养的、年岁相同的孩子，使他们成为好朋友，然后你可以观察，看谁的举止更有男子汉气概，看谁与生人交往的时候更能镇定自如。我相信那个学生的自信心这时一定会不够、或使他名誉扫地；假如他的自信心只能使他和孩子们交往，那还不如没有的好呢。

Vice, if we may believe the general complaint, ripens so fast now-a-days, and runs up to seed to early in young people, that it is impossible to keep a lad from the spreading contagion, if you will venture him abroad in the herd, and trust to chance or his own inclination for the choice of his company at school. By what fate Vice has so thriven amongst us these years past, and by what hands it has been nursed up into so uncontrouled a dominion, I shall leave to others to enquire. I wish that those who complain of the great decay of Christian piety and virtue every where, and of learning and acquired improvements in the gentry of this generation, would consider how to retrieve them in the next. This I am sure, that if the foundation of it be not laid in the education and principling of the youth, all other endeavours will be in vain. And if the innocence, sobriety, and industry of those who are coming up, be not taken care of and preserved, it will be ridiculous to expect, that those who are to succeed next on the stage, should abound in that virtue, ability, and learning, which has hitherto made England considerable in the world. I was going to add courage too, though it has been looked on as the natural inheritance of Englishmen. What has been talked of some late actions at sea, of a kind unknown to our ancestors, gives me occasion to say, that debauchery sinks the courage of men; and when dissoluteness has eaten out the sense of true honour, bravery seldom stays long after it. And I think it impossible to find an instance of any nation, however renowned for their valour, who ever kept their credit in arms, or made themselves redoubtable amongst their neighbours, after corruption had once broke through and dissolved the restraint of discipline, and vice was grown to such an head, that it durst shew itself barefaced without being out of countenance.

邪恶，如果我们相信大众的抱怨，它当今真是进展很快，而且早就在年轻人的身上撒下了种子，如果你冒险让他在外厮混，并且相信运气或他自己的意向来挑选他在学校中的伙伴，那么是不可能不让他受到这蔓延的邪恶的传染。至于什么使得邪恶在我们中间如此兴盛，又是谁养虎成患使它具有如此不可控制的支配地位，我打算留给别人来研究。我希望，那些抱怨到处基督徒的虔信与美德和这一代绅士阶层求学上进精神都大大衰落的人，能够考虑怎样在下一代中将这些挽回。我确信如果不从青年们的教育与原则性上去打好基础，其余一切的努力都将是白费。如果我们不去注意与保存下一代的纯洁、严肃和勤奋的美德，那么期待他们具有充分的美德，能力和学识是很荒谬，虽然这些品质使得英国成为世界上的一个重要国家。我本想加上勇敢，但勇敢被看作是英国人的天然遗传。最近大家谈到海上发生的一些事情，那在我们的先辈是从未发生过的，于此我不能不说，腐化堕落会消磨人的勇气；一旦荒淫侵蚀了真正的荣誉感，勇气是很少能够继续存在的。而且我认为任何国家，无论他们原来如何骁勇驰名，一旦腐败泛滥、消融了纪律的约束，邪恶猖狂、到了肆无忌惮的地步，都不可能凭借武力继续保持荣誉或者得到邻邦的敬畏。

It is virtue then, direct virtue, which is the hard and valuable part to be aimed at in education, and not a forward pertness, or any little arts of shifting. All other considerations and accomplishments should give way and be postponed to this. This is the solid and substantial good which tutors should not only read lectures, and talk of, but the labour and art of education should furnish the mind with, and fasten there, and never cease till the young man had a true relish of it, and placed his strength, his glory, and his pleasure in it.

教育中困难而又有价值的目标是美德，直接的美德，而不是鲁莽冒失，也不是任何一点混世的技能。其余一切的考虑与成就都应该让位于它。惟有美德才是坚实而又真正的善，导师应该不仅是劝谕灌输它，而且要用教育的工作与技巧，以美德装备心灵，让它坚固在心里，在年轻人对美德有真正兴趣，并把他的力量、荣誉和快乐放在美德中以前不要停止。

The more this advances, the easier way will be made for other accomplishments in their turns. For he that is brought to submit to virtue, will not be refractory, or resty, in any thing that becomes him; and therefore I cannot but prefer breeding of a young gentleman at home in his father's sight, under a good governor, as much the best and safest way to this great and main end of education, when it can be had, and is ordered as it should be. Gentlemen's houses are seldom without variety of company. They should use their sons to all the strange faces that come here, and engage them in conversation with men of parts and breeding, as soon as they are capable of it. And why those who live in the country should not take them with them, when they make visits of civility to their neighbours, I know not. This I am sure, a father that breeds his son at home, has the opportunity to have him more in his own company, and there give him what encouragement he thinks fit, and can keep him better from the taint of servants and the meaner sort of people, than is possible to be done abroad. But what shall be resolved in the case, must in great measure be left to the parents, to be determined by their circumstances and conveniences; only I think it the worst sort of good husbandry for a father not to strain himself a little for his son's breeding; which, let his condition be what it will, is the best portion he can leave him. But if, after all, it shall be thought by some, that the breeding at home has too little company, and that at ordinary schools, not such as it should be for a young gentleman, I think there might be ways found out to avoid the inconveniences on the one side and the other.

德行愈高的人，愈容易依次取得其他成就。因为凡是能服从美德的人，在对他合宜的任何事情上都不会执拗或倔强的；因此我推崇在家中、在父亲跟前教养年轻绅士，由好的导师来教导，只要能恰当地做到这一点，这是最好最安全的办法去达成教育的这一伟大而主要的目标。绅士们的家中很少会没有各种各样的客人。他们应当让他们的儿子习惯陌生的面孔，一旦孩子有能力与人交往，就应该让他们与有才能、有教养的人交往。为什么一些乡下的人，不带着他们的孩子一起去拜访邻居，这我就不明白了。我相信，父亲在家里教养儿子，比较在外面教育，他有更多的机会陪伴儿子，因而更能给他以应当的鼓励，使他更少受仆人与下层人的玷染。 但是事情究竟怎样处置，那主要应由父母根据他们的环境与方便来决定的；我只觉得，如果做父亲的一点也不肯自己承担来教养他的儿子，那是治家的最坏办法；无论他的情况如何，亲自教养儿子是对儿子最好的给予。不过有人认为家庭教育缺少伙伴，而一般学校又不适宜年轻的绅士，我想也许最终会找到办法避免这二者的弊病。

摘自Some Thoughts Concerning Education (English-Chinese Edition)(ISBN-10: 1537479857)