description; the brightness of imagery; the distinction of characters; the pomp of machinery; the greatness of invention; the correctness of judgment; and I know not how many more particulars, might with success be enlarged upon in teaching youth about fifteen years of age, and upwards.

When a youth has acquired a readiness at writing and numbers, he may learn the beautiful and useful art of book-keeping according to the Italian method. Though this piece of knowledge is more immediately useful for traders, it ought not to be neglected by any person whatever. Many an estate might have been saved, had the owner of it known how to keep correct accounts of his income and expenses. Were there only the beauty and elegance of this art to recommend it, no wise parent would let his son be without what may be so easily ac quired. The best system of book-keeping, and the briefest, is Webster's.

About fourteen or fifteen years of age a youth of parts may be instructed in the use of the globes, which will require his having the terms in geography, and many of those used in astronomy, explained to him. To this may be joined an abridgement of the ancient and present state of nations, commonly called ancient and modern geography. The best books on the use of the globes, are Harris' and Randal's Geography, or Gordon's Geographical Grammar; which, with Hubner's Compend, and Wells' Geographia Classica, will be sufficient to introduce the pupil to a ge neral notion of ancient and modern geography. A set of maps ought to be turned to, and the pupil taught to understand the manner of constructing and using them.

The knowledge of the surface of our globe, and the present state of nations, is necessary and useful for men of all anks, orders, and professions. The statesman can have no distinct ideas of the interest and connexions of foreign nations; the divine no clear conception of Scripture or ecclesiastical history, nor the merchant of the voyages his ships are to make, the seats of commerce, and means of collecting its various articles; nor indeed the private gentleman bear a part in common conversation, without understanding the situations, distances, extent, and general state of kingdoms and empires. In a word, he, who does

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not know geography, does not know the world. And it is miserable, that a gentleman should know nothing of the world he lives in, but the spot, in which he was born.

Algebra is a science of admirable use in solving questions seemingly inexplicable. I would advise that every youth of fortune and parts have a tincture of it about this period of life. Hammond's, Simpson's and Maclaurin's treatises are proper to be made use of in teaching it.

About the same age, youth may be led into a general knowledge of chronology, or of the principal eras and periods of the world, and of the outlines of universal history. This cannot be better done, than by reading them lectures upon the Chart of the Universal History, lately published, showing them, at the same time, upon the terrestrial globe, and in maps, the situation and extent of kingdoms and empires. The chronological tables in the twenty-first volume of the Universal History may be consulted by those who would descend to more minute particulars in teaching youth the knowledge of chronology.

About the age of sixteen or eighteen, a youth of good parts may learn just so much of logic as may be useful for leading him to an accurate and correct manner of thinking, and judging of such truths as are not capable of mathematical demonstration. The Aristotelian method of reasoning in mood and figure might be proper, if the ideas we affix to all words were as precise as those of a right line, a surface, or a cube. But so long as we neither have in our own minds at all times, nor much less can communicate to those we converse with, the same invariable ideas to the same words, we must be content, if we mean either to receive or communicate knowledge, to recede a little from the rigid rules of logic, laid down by the Burgersdykes and the Scheiblers, which always hamper, and often mislead the understanding.

For the purpose of putting young persons in the way of reasoning justly, Dr. Watts' Logic may with success be read and commented on to them, and some of the easiest and most fundamental parts of Mr. Locke's Essay on Human Understanding. After which some parts of the writings of some of the closest reasoners in morals may be examined, and the force of the arguments shown, to lead the pupil to the imitation of their manner. Such writers

as Dr. Clarke, Woollaston, and Bishop Butler, author of the Analogy, will be proper for this purpose. It may also be useful to show how subtle men imperceptibly deviate from sound reason, and lead their readers into fallacies. The works of Hobbes, Morgan, and Hebrew Hutchinson, may, among innumerable others, be proper examples to show, that the semblance of reason may be, where there is no substance.

It would be of great advantage to youth, if they could, as a part of their education, have an opportunity of seeing a course of experiments, at first exhibited by Desaguliers, Whiston, and others. They would there learn, in the most entertaining and easy manner, the grounds, as far as known, of the noble science of physiology. And in seeing a regular series of experiments, and observations, in mechanics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, optics, astronomy, chemistry, and the like, would have their curiosity raised to the highest pitch, and would acquire a taste for knowledge, which might not only lead them, in afterlife, to pursue their own improvement in the most valuable ways, but likewise might, by furnishing an inexhaustible fund of entertainment, supply the continual want of taverns, plays, music, or other less innocent amusements, to fill up their vacant hours. For it is only the want of something within themselves to entertain them, that drives people to routs, rackets, or masquerades, to the fatal waste of time, and money, and the utter perversion of the true taste of life.

A person who understands this kind of knowledge, with the help of a very few instruments, as a telescope, a microscope, an air pump, and a pair of Mr. Neal's patent globes, may go through the grounds of this sort of knowledge, following the method given by Mr. Martin in his philosophical grammar (guarding against his errors) to the great entertainment and improvement of a set of pupils. Dancing, fencing, riding, music, drawing, and other elegant arts and manly exercises, may, according to the circumstances of parents, and genius of children, be carried greater or shorter lengths. For a person, whose edu. cation has fitted him for being a useful member of society, according to his station, and for happiness in a future state, may be said to have been well brought up, though he

should not excel in these elegancies. And it is not such frivolous accomplishments as these that will make a man valuable, who has not a mind endowed with wisdom and virtue. Above all things, to make the mere ornaments of life, the employment of life, is to the last degree prepos

terous.

It is evidently of advantage, that a young gentleman be, from his infancy almost, put into the way of wielding his limbs decently, and coming into a room like a human creature. But I really think it more eligible, that a youth be a little bashful and awkward, than that he have too much of the player or dancing master. Care ought therefore to be taken, that he do not learn to dance too well. The consequence will probably be, that, being commended for it, he will take all opportunities of exhibiting his performance, and will in time become a hunter after balls, and a mere dangler among the ladies.

The same caution ought to be used with respect to music. It is true, there are very few of the good people of England, who have so much true taste, as to be capable of excelling in that alluring and bewitching art. But there are instances of the bad effects of cultivating it too much,

So much of the riding school as is useful and necessary, there is nothing to be said against it. But it is deplorable to see many of our gentry study the liberal science of jockeyship to the neglect of all the rest.

Fencing, if practised to such a degree as to excel at it, is the likeliest means that can be contrived for getting a man into quarrels. And I see not, that the running a fellow-creature through the body, or having that operation performed upon one's self, is much the more desirable for its being done secundum artem. Yet whoever wears a sword, ought to know somewhat of the art of handling it.

Drawing is an ingenious accomplishment, and does not lead directly to any vice that I know of. It may even be put upon the same footing with a taste for reading, as a sober amusement, which may lead a young gentleman to love home and regular hours. But it is far from being friendly to the constitution. Like all sedentary employments which engage the attention, it is prejudicial to the health, espe

cially where oil colours are used, which is not indeed a necessary part in drawing. It likewise fixes and strains the eyes, and, in small work, fatigues them too much to be pursued to any great length with safety. At the same time, to know perspective, and the other principles of the art, and to have such a command of the pencil, as to be capable of striking out a draught of an object, or view, not so much with delicacy as with strength, swiftness, and fluency, is an accomplishment very ornamental, and often useful.

I will conclude this section with the following remark, That there is this difference between the conduct of education, and the improvement of the mind afterwards, that in education, the view being to open the mind to all kinds of knowledge, there is no absurdity in carrying on several studies together, nor in passing from one to another, before the pupil arrives at great perfection in the first; on the contrary, in maturity, the view being not to learn the first principles (which are supposed to have been studied in youth) but to acquire a perfect knowledge of subjects, it is then improper to pursue many different studies at once, or to give over one, and proceed to another, till one has carried the former a competent length.

SECTION IV.

Of many Studies. Of a Method of acquiring a competent Knowledge of the Sciences. Of proper Books and Appa

ratus.

BEFORE a young gentleman sets about any particular study, supposing his puerile education finished, he may prepare himself for more manly improvements, by a careful perusal of the following books, which will give him a general view or map of science, viz. The Preface to Chambers' Dictionary. Clark's Method of Study. Boswel's Method of Study. Locke's Conduct of Human Understanding. Watts' Improvement of the Mind. Baker's Reflections on Learning, (an ingenious work, except upon the subject of Astronomy and Philosophy, where the author has bewildered himself miserably.) Wootton's