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pretty copiously in the third book, I shall add nothing farther at present, but refer the reader thither for a method of treating them, which may with advantage be used in instructing youth, excluding what may be thought too abstract for their apprehension. For masters are to proceed with prudence, according to the various capacities of the youth under their care; never taking it for granted, that such and such parts of moral knowledge are beyond their reach; but putting their capacities to a thorough trial, which will show, contrary to common opinion, how early the human mind is capable of comprehending very noble and extensive moral views.

To treat of the due regulation of the bodily appetites, as they are commonly called, will be employment for several evenings. The love of life, of riches, of food, of strong liquors, of sleep, of the opposite sex, (a subject to be very slightly touched on) of diversions, of finery; the due regulation of each of these is to be pointed out, and the fatal consequences of too great an indulgence of them as strongly as possible set forth; with cautions against the snares by which young people are first led into sensuality, and methods of prevention or reformation. Of all which I shall likewise have occasion to treat in the third book. The virtues contrary to the excessive indulgence of passion and appetite, ought to be strongly recommended, as humility, meekness, moderation in desires, consideration, and contentment. And it is not enough that young persons understand theoretically wherein a good disposition of mind consists. They are to be held to the strict observance of it in their whole behaviour. One instance of malice, cruelty, or deceit, is a fault more necessary to be punished, than the neglect of some hundreds of tasks. And it must appear to every understanding, that the keeping a youth under proper regulations, even by mechanical means, is of great advantage, as he will thereby be habituated to what is good, and must find a vicious course unnatural to him. And there is no doubt but the minds of youth may be rationally, as well as mechanically formed to virtue, by the prudent conduct and instructions of masters, where parents will give their concurrence and sanction.

Several evenings may be employed in giving the youth

a view of our duty to our neighbour, under which the relative duties ought to be considered; and particularly that fundamental, but now unknown, virtue of the love of our country, very strongly recommended. Materials, and a method of instructing the youth in the duties of negative and positive justice and benevolence, may be drawn from what will be said on social virtue in the third book.

Young people of good understanding may be rationally convinced of the certainty of the Divine existence, by a set of arguments not too abstract, but yet convincing. The proof a posteriori, as it is commonly called, is the fittest to be dwelt upon, and is fully level to the capacity of a youth of parts at fourteen years of age. An idea of the Supreme Being, a set of useful moral reflections upon his perfections, and an account of the duty we owe him, may be drawn from what is said on that subject in the following book.

To habituate young people to reason on moral subjects, to teach them to exert their faculties in comparing, examining, and reflecting, is doing them one of the greatest services that can be imagined.-And as there is no real merit in taking religion on trust; but on the contrary, a reasonable mind cannot be better employed than in examining into sacred truth: and as nothing is likely to produce a lasting effect upon the mind, but what the mind is clearly convinced of; on these, and all other accounts, it is absolutely necessary that young people be early taught to consider the christian religion, not as a matter of mere form, handed down from father to son, or as a piece of superstition, consisting in being baptized, and called after the author of our religion, but as a subject of reasoning, a system of doctrines to be clearly understood, a set of facts established on unquestionable evidence, a body of laws given by Divine authority, which are to better the hearts, and regulate the lives of men. To give the youth at a place of education, a comprehensive view of only the heads of what they ought to be taught of the christian religion, will very nobly and usefully employ several evenings. The particulars to be insisted on may be drawn from the fourth book.

The whole course may conclude with an explanation of

our Saviour's discourse on the mount, Matth. v. vi. and vii. which contains the christian law, or rule of life, and is infinitely more proper to be committed to memory by youth, than all the catechisms that ever were or will be composed.

This may be a proper place to mention, that from the earliest years, youth ought to be accustomed to the most reasonable of all services, I mean worshipping God. It is no matter how short the devotions they use may be, so they offer them with decency and understanding; without which they had better let them alone; for they will be a prejudice instead of an advantage to them.

Besides all other improvements, endeavours ought to be used to lead young persons to study, to love, and to form themselves by the holy Scriptures, the fountain of knowledge, and rule of life. For this purpose, some of the time allotted for moral instruction, in a seminary of learning, may be interchangeably bestowed in reading, commenting, and questioning the youth upon select parts of Scripture, as the account of the creation and flood, the remarkable characters of Noah, Lot and Abraham, the miraculous history of the people of Israel, the moral writings of Solomon, some of the most remarkable prophecies, with accounts of their completions, the Gosple-history, and the moral parts of the epistles. An hour every morning may be very well employed in this manner.

A course of such instructions continued, repeated, and improved upon, for a series of years, will furnish the young mind with a treasure of the most valuable and sublime knowledge, and must, with the divine blessing, give it a cast toward the virtuous side, which it must at least find some difficulty in getting the better of in afterlife.

For any man to put himself at the head of a place of education, who is not tolerably qualified for explaining the nature and obligations of morality, and who has not some critical knowledge of Scripture, is intolerable arrogance and wickedness. And that teacher of youth, who does not consider the forming of the moral character of his pupils as the great and indispensable part of his duty, has not yet learned the first principles of his art.

SECTION II.

Intention and Method of Education.

Parents necessary.

Concurrence of the

THE sooner a boy is sent from home for his education, the better. For though the parents themselves should be abundantly capable of judging of, and resolute enough to keep up a proper conduct to the child, which is very seldom the case, yet there will always be enough of silly relations coming and going, and of visitants flattering and humouring him in all his weaknesses; which, though they be entertaining, as indeed every thing is from a pretty child, ought without all question to be eradicated as soon as possible, instead of being encouraged. The very scr vants will make it their business to teach him a thousand monkey tricks, and to blame the parents for every reproof or correction they use, though ever so seasonable and ne

cessary.

It is surprising that ever a question should have been made, whether an education at home or abroad was to be chosen. In a home education, it is plain, that the advantage arising from emulation, the importance of which is not to be conceived, must be lost. It is likewise obvious, that by a home education youth misses all the advantage of being accustomed to the company of his equals, and being early hardened by the little rubs he will from time to time meet with from them, against those he must lay his account with meeting in life, which a youth, who goes directly out of his mother's lap into the wide world, is by no means prepared to grapple with, nor even to bear the sight of strange faces, nor to eat, drink, or lodge differently from the manner he has been used to at his father's house. A third great disadvantage of a home education, is the missing a number of useful and valuable friendships a youth might have contracted at school, which, being begun in the innocent and disinterested time of life, often hold through the whole of it, and prove of the most important advantage. The sooner a young person goes from the solitary state of home into the social life of a place of education, the sooner he has an opportunity of knowing what it is to be a member of society, of seeing a differ

ence between a right and a wrong behaviour, of learning how to conduct himself among his equals, and in short the sooner he is likely, under proper regulations, to become a formed man.

The view of education is not to carry the pupils a great length in each different science; but only to open their minds for the reception of various knowledge, of which the first seeds and principles are to be planted early, while the mind is flexible, and disengaged from a multiplicity of ideas and pursuits. Those seeds and principles are afterwards to be cultivated by the man when grown up, and, by means of constant diligence and application, may be expected, through length of time, to produce the noblest and most valuable fruits. From hence it is evident, what constitutes the character of a person properly qualified for being at the head of the education of youth. Not so much a deep skill in languages only, or in mathematics only, or in any single branch of knowledge, exclusive of the rest; but a general and comprehensive knowledge of the various branches of learning, and the proper methods of acquiring them, with clear and just notions of human nature, of morals, and revealed religion.

The most perfect scheme that has yet been found out, or is possible for the whole education of youth, from six years of age and upwards, is where a person, properly qualified, with an unexceptionable character for gentleness of temper and exemplary virtue, good breeding, knowledge of the world, and of languages, writing, accounts, book-keeping, geography, the principles of philosophy, mathematics, history, and divinity, and who is disengaged from all other pursuits, employs himself and proper as sistants, wholly in the care and instruction of a competent number of youth placed in his own house, and under his own eye, in such a manner, as to accomplish them in all the branches of useful and ornamental knowledge, suitable to their ages, capacities, and prospects, and especially in the knowledge of what will make them useful in this life, and secure the happiness of the next.

There is no one advantage in any other conceivable plan of education which may not be gained in this, nor any one disadvantage that may not be as effectually avoided in this way as in any. If there is any thing good in a child,

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