Note 600 — Chapter IV · ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION.

Cf. Plat. de Legg. t. viii. p. 62. where he describes the Egyptian method of teaching arithmetic by rewards and allurements. Locke, however, condemned the practice. “He that will give to his son apples or sugar-plums, or what else of this kind he is most delighted with, to make him learn his book, does but authorise his love of pleasure, and cocker up that dangerous propensity, which he ought by all means to subdue and stifle in him.” Education § 52. Vid. Plat. de Rep. t. vi. p. 340. seq. Muret. Orat. iv. 43. Sir Josiah Child has some good remarks on the value of arithmetic as a branch of education: “It hath been observed in the nature of arithmetic, that, like other parts of the mathematics, it doth not only improve the natural faculties, but it inclines those that are expert in it to thriftiness and good husbandry, and prevents both husbands and wives in some measure from running out of their estates, when they have it always ready in their heads what their expenses do amount to, and how soon by that course their ruin must overtake them.”—Discourse of Trade, p. 5.