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On Education.

JOWEVER widely the thinking part of mankind may have differed as to the proper mode of conducting education, they have always been unanimous in their opinion of its importance. The outward effects of it are obferved by the most inattentive. They know that the clown and the dancing-mafter are the fame from the hand of Nature; and, although a little farther reflection is requifite to perceive the effects of culture on the internal fenfes, it cannot be disputed that the mind, like the body, when arrived at firmnefs and maturity, retains the impreffions it received in a more pliant and tender age.

The greatest part of mankind, born to labour for their fubfiftence, are fixed in habits of industry by the iron hand of Neceffity. They have little time or opportunity for the cultivation of the understanding; the errors and immoralities of their conduct, that flow from the want of those sentiments which education is intended to produce, will, on that account, meet with indulgence from every benevolent mind. But those who are placed in a confpicuous ftation, whofe vices become more complicated and destructive, by the abuse of knowledge, and the mifapplication of improved talents, have no title to the fame indulgence. Their guilt is heightened by the rank and fortune which protect them from punishment, and which, in some degree, preferve them from that infamy their conduct has merited.

I hold it, then, incontrovertible, that the higher the rank, the more urgent is the neceffity for ftoring the mind with the principles, and directing the paffions to the practice, of public and private virtue.

It will be allowed by all, that the great purpose of education is to form the man and the citizen, that he may be virtuous, happy in himself, and useful to focie

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ty. To attain this end, his education fhould begin, as it were, from his birth, and be continued till he arrive at firmness and maturity of mind, as well as of body. Sincerity, truth, justice, and humanity, are to be cultivated from the firft dawnings of memory and observation. As the powers of thefe increase, the genius and difpofition unfold themselves; it then becomes neceffary to check, in the bud, every propenfity to folly or to vice; to root out every mean, felfish, and ungenerous fentiment; to warm and animate the heart in the pursuit of virtue and honour. The experience of ages has hitherto difcovered no furer method of giving right impreffions to young minds, than by frequently exhibiting to them those bright examples which history affords, and, by that means, infpiring them with thofe fenti ments of public and private virtue which breathe in the writings of the fages of antiquity.

In this view, I have confidered the acquifition of the dead languages as a most important branch in the education of a gentleman. The flownefs with which he acquires them, prevents his memory from being loaded with facts fafter than his growing reafon can compare and diftinguish; he becomes acquainted by degrees with the virtuous characters of ancient times; he admires their juftice, temperance, fortitude, and public fpirit, and burns with a defire to imitate them. The impreffions thefe have made, and the restraints to which he has been accustomed, ferve as a check to the many tumultuous paffions which the ideas of religion alone would, at that age, be unable to controul. Every victory he obtains over himself ferves as a new guard to virtue. When he errs, he becomes fenfible of his weaknefs, which, at the fame time that it teaches him moderation and forgiveness to others, fhows the neceffity of keeping a ftricter watch over his own actions. During these combats, his reafoning faculties expand, his judgment ftrengthens, and, while he becomes acquainted with the corruptions of the world, he fixes himself in the practice of virtue.

A man

A man thus educated, enters upon the theatre of the world with many and great advantages. Accuftomed to reflection, acquainted with human nature, the strength of virtue, and depravity of vice, he can trace actions to their fource, and be enabled, in the affairs of life, to avail himself of the wifdom and experience of past ages.

Very different is the modern plan of education followed by many, efpecially with the children of perfons of fuperior rank. They are introduced into the world almost from their very infancy. Instead of having their minds stored with the bright examples of antiquity, or those of modern times, the firft knowledge they acquire is of the vices with which they are furrounded; and they learn what mankind are, without ever knowing what they ought to be. Poffeffed of no fentiment of virtue, of no focial affection, they indulge, to the utmoft of their ability, the gratification of every felfifh appetite, without any other restraint than what felf-intereft dictates. In men thus educated, youth is not the season of virtue; they have contracted the cold indifference, and all the vices of age, long before they arrive at manhood. Finding no entertainment in their own breasts, as void of friends as incapable of friendship, they fink reflection in a life of diffipation.

As many of the bad effects of the prefent fyftem of education may be attributed to a premature introduction into the world, I fhall conclude by reminding those parents and guardians who are fo anxious to bring their children and pupils early into public life, that one of the finest gentlemen, the brightest geniuses, the most ufeful and beft-informed citizens of which antiquity has left us an example, did not think himself qualified to appear in public till the age of twenty-fix, and even continued his ftudies, for fome years after, under the eminent teachers of Greece and Rome,

On Envy.

NVY is almost the only vice which is practicable

which can never lie quiet for want of irritation; its effects, therefore, are every where discoverable, and its attempts always to be dreaded.

It is impoffible to mention a name which any advantageous diftinction has made eminent, but fome latent animofity will burft out. The wealthy trader, however he may abstract himself from public affairs, will never want those who hint, with Shylock, that ships are but boards, and that no man can properly be termed rich whofe fortune is at the mercy of the winds. The beauty, adorned only with the unambitious graces of innocence and modefty, provokes, whenever the appears, a thousand murmurs of detraction, and whispers of fufpicion. The genius, even when he endeavours only to entertain with pleasing images of nature, or instruct by uncontested principles of fcience, yet fuffers perfecution from innumerable critics, whofe acrimony is excited merely by the pain of seeing others pleased, of hearing applaufes which another enjoys,.

The frequency of envy makes it fo familiar, that it efcapes our notice; nor do we often reflect upon its turpitude or malignity, till we happen to feel its influence. When he that has given no provocation to malice, but by attempting to excel in fome useful art, finds himself purfued, by multitudes whom he never faw, with implacability of perfonal refentment; when he perceives clamour and malice let loose upon him as a public enemy, and incited by every ftratagem of defamation; when he hears the misfortunes of his family, or the follies of his youth, exposed to the world; and every failure of conduct, or defect of nature, aggravated and ridiculed; he then learns to abhor thofe artifices.

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at which he only laughed before, and discovers how much the happiness of life would be advanced by the eradication of envy from the human heart.

Envy is, indeed, a stubborn weed of the mind, and feldom yields to the culture of philofophy. There are, however, confiderations, which, if carefully implanted, and diligently propagated, might in time overpower and reprefs it, fince no one can nurse it for the fake of pleasure, as its effects are only fhame, anguish, and perturbation.

It is, above all other vices, inconfiftent with the character of a social being, because it facrifices truth and kindness to very weak temptations. He that plunders a wealthy neighbour, gains as much as he takes away, and improves his own condition, in the fame proportion as he impairs another's; but he that blasts a flourishing reputation, must be content with a small dividend of additional fame, so small as can afford very little confolation to balance the guilt by which it is obtained.

I have hitherto avoided mentioning that dangerous and empirical morality, which cures one vice by means of another. But envy is fo bafe and deteftable, so vile in its original, and fo pernicious in its effects, that the predominance of almost any other quality is to be defired. It is one of thofe lawless enemies of society, against which poisoned arrows may honeftly be used. Let it therefore be conftantly remembered, that whoever envies another, confeffes his fuperiority; and let those be reformed by their pride, who have loft their virtue.

It is no flight aggravation of the injuries which envy incites, that they are committed against those who have given no intentional provocation; and that the fufferer is marked out for ruin, not because he has failed in any duty, but because he has dared to do more than was required.

Almost every other crime is practifed by the help of fome quality which might have produced efteem or

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love,