Yet, with all his liking for study, he
sometimes revolted against the sway of the pedagogue who wrote letters
of complaint to his father protesting against the "judgments of the
vulgar, who, contrary to the experience of ages, say that if children
are well reproved they will correct their faults." Dumas, however, was
not without sense, as is shown by another letter to the elder Montcalm,
in which he says that the boy had better be ignorant of Latin and Greek
"than know them as he does without knowing how to read, write, and speak
French well." The main difficulty was to make him write a good hand,--a
point in which he signally failed to the day of his death. So refractory
was he at times, that his master despaired. "M. de Montcalm," Dumas
informs the father, "has great need of docility, industry, and
willingness to take advice. What will become of him?" The pupil, aware
of these aspersions, met them by writing to his father his own ideas of
what his aims should be. "First, to be an honorable man, of good
morals, brave, and a Christian. Secondly, to read in moderation; to know
as much Greek and Latin as most men of the world; also the four rules of
arithmetic, and something of history, geography, and French and Latin
_belles-lettres_, as well as to have a taste for the arts and sciences.
Thirdly, and above all, to be obedient, docile, and very submissive to
your orders and those of my dear mother; and also to defer to the advice
of M.
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