as a quadrant, the apparent altitude of the pole at one place, and travelling on, till we find it elevated a degree, that from thence we fhould determine with undoubted certainty, the real circuit of the whole globe of the earth, and confequently its diameter and femidiameter! That by an obfervation of the parallax of the moon, which is not difficult to take, with a few deductions and calculations, we fhould, by knowing the proportion between the unknown fides and angles of a triangle and thofe which are known, and by forming a triangle according to obfervation, the bafe of which to reprefent the earth's femi-diameter, be as fure of the distance from the earth to the moon, as we are of the distance and height of a tower, viewed at two ftations! That aftronomers fhould thence proceed through all their wonderful difcoveries and calculations: The confideration of these things gives no contemptible idea of human knowledge. If we proceed to the calculation of eclipfes, determining the revolutions and paths of comets, and fo forth, we cannot help looking upon the degree of knowledge we are capable of attaining, as highly worthy our attention, and viewing our own nature as truly great and fublime, and the Divine Goodnefs as highly adorable, which has endowed our minds with abilities in themfelves fo wonderful, and promifing of endless improvements and enlargements!

In what light then ought we to view thofe groveling and mean-fpirited mortals, who make a pride of declar ing their contempt of knowledge? Did one hear a vicious perfon expreffing his contempt of honefty and virtue, should we think the more meanly of them, or of him? In the fame manner, when a fhallow fop fneers at what he does not understand, his low raillery ought to caft no reflection upon learning; but he is to be confidered as funk from the dignity of reason, and so far degenerate as to make his ignorance his pride, which ought to be his fhame.

If we caft our eyes backward upon paft times, or if we take a view of the prefent ftate of the world, if we confider whole nations, or fingle perfons, nothing fo fills the imagination, or engages the attention, as the confpicuous

fpicuous and illuftrious honours of knowledge and learning. The ancient Egyptians, the fathers of wifdom; the ftudious Athenians, the cultivators of every elegant art; the wife Romans, the zealous imitators of learned Greece; how come these nations to fhine, like conftellations, through the deeps of that univerfal mift which involves the reft of antiquity? How come the Pythago ras's, the Ariftotles, the Tullys, the Livys to appear, even to us at this distance, as ftars of the firft magnitude. in the vaft fields of æther? How comes it that fic, fince the setting of learning in that quarter of the world, has been the habitation of obfcurity and cruelty? What is the difgrace of wild Indians, and fwinith Hottentots ? Is it not their brutish ignorance? What makes cur ifland to differ fo much from the afpect it had when Julius Cafur landed on our coat, and found us a flock of painted favages, fcampering naked through the woods? What nation makes fuch an appearance now, as England, wherever knowledge is valued? What names of ancient warriors make fo great a figure on the roll of fame, or fhine fo bright in wifdom's eye, as thofe of the improvers of arts and sciences, who have arifen in our ifland? Who would not rather, in our times, who know to defpife romantic heroifm, choose to have his name enrolled with thofe of a Bacon, a Boyle, a Clarke, or a Newton, the friends of mankind, the guides to truth, the improvers of the human mind, the honours of our nature, and our world; than to have a place among the Alexanders, the Cæfars, the Lewis's, or the Charles's, the scourges and butchers of their fellow-creatures?

SECT. I.

Of Education from Infancy. Abfolute Neceffity, and proper Method, of laying a Foundation of Moral Knowledge.

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AVING already treated in part, of fo much of the education of young children as falls under the care of the parents, I will now, for the fake of exhibiting at once a comprehenfive view of the whole improvement of the mind, begin from infancy itlelf; and K

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lay down a general plan of knowledge, and the method of acquiring it. And I doubt not but the reader will own, that a genius naturally good, and which has been cultivated in the manner here to be defcribed, may be faid to have had moft of the advantages neceffary for attaining the highest perfection of human nature, of which this ftate is capable.

First, and above all things, it is to be remembered, and cannot be too often inculcated, that, from the time a child can speak, throughout the whole course of education, the forming of the temper to meeknefs and obedience, regulating the paffions and appetites, and habituating the mind to the love and practice of virtue, is the great, the conftant, and growing labour, without which all other culture is abfolute trifling. Nor is this to be done by fits and ftarts, nor this most important of all knowledge to be fuperficially or partially communicated. Every obligation of morality; every duty of life; every beauty of virtue, and deformity of vice, is to be particularly fet forth, and reprefented in every different light. It is not a few feraps of good things got by memory, nor a few particular leffons given from time to time, that can be called a religious education. Without laying before the young mind a rational, a complete and perfect fyftem of morals, and of Chriftianity, the work will be defective and unfinished. These important leffons must be begun early; conftantly inculcated; never loft fight of; raised from every occafion and opportunity; improved and enlarged as reafon opens; worked into every faculty of the foul; begun by parents; carried on by the mafter or tutor; eftablished by the man himself, when of age to inquire and to act for himself; ftudied every day and every hour, while one faculty remains capable of exerting itfelf in the mind; and the man, when full of years, muft ftill proceed, and at laft go out of the world engaged in the important ftudy of his duty, and means for attaining the happiness and perfection for which he was brought into being.

The knowledge of morality and Chriftianity is the abfolutely indifpenfable part of education. For

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what avails it how knowing a perfon is in fpeculative fcience, if he knows not how to be useful and happy? If this work be neglected in the earlier part of life, it must be owing to fome very favourable circumftances, if the perfon turns out well afterwards. For the human mind resembles a piece of ground, which will by no means lie wholly bare; but will either bring forth. weeds or fruits, according as it is cultivated or neglected. And according as the habits of vice and irreli- ! gion, or the contrary, get the firft poffeffion of the mind, fuch is the future man like to be.

We fee that the grofs fuperftitions and monftrous abfurdities of popery, by the mere circumftance of their being early planted in the mind, are not to be eradicated afterwards, though it is certain, that, as reafon opens, and the judgment matures, they muft appear ftill more and more fhocking. With how great advantage, then, may we establish in the minds of young ones the principles of a religion ftrictly rational, and that will appear the more fo, the more it is examined.

It is plain, that early youth is the fittest feafon of life for establishing first principles of any kind, because then the mind is wholly difengaged from the purfuits which afterwards take poffeffion of it. And the knowledge of right and wrong is indeed the most level to all capacities of any science whatever. For we are properly moral agents, and are naturally qualified with fufficient abilities to understand the obligations of morality, when laid before us, if we can but be prevailed with to obferve them in our practice; for which purpofe the most effectual method, no doubt, is to have them early incul cated upon us.

We do not think it proper to leave our children to themselves, to find out the fciences of grammar, or numbers, or the knowledge of languages, or the art of writ ing, or of a profeffion to live by. And fhall we leave them to fettle the boundaries of right and wrong by their own fagacity; or to neglect, or misunderstand, a religion, which God himfelf has condefcended to give us, as the rule of our faith and practice? What can it fignify to a youth, that he go through all the liberal fciences,

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fciences, if he is ignorant of the rules by which he ought to live, and by which he is to be judged at laft. Will Greek and Latin alone gain him the esteem of the wife and virtuous? or will philofophy and mathematics fave his foul?

I know of but one objection against the importance of what I am urging, which is taken from the deplorable degeneracy, we fometimes obferve the children of pious and virtuous parents run into, who have had the utmost pains taken with them, to give them a turn to virtue and goodness.

But is it not in fome cafes to be feared, that parents, through a mistaken notion of the true method of giving youth a religious turn, often run into the extreme of furfeiting them with religious exercifes, inftead of labouring chiefly to enlighten and convince their underftandings, and to form their tempers to obedience. The former, though noble and valuable helps, appointed by Divine Wisdom for promoting virtue and goodness, may yet be fo managed as to difguft a young mind, and prejudice it against religion for life; but the latter, properly conducted, will prove an endlessly-various entertainment. There is not a duty of morality, you can have occafion to inculcate, but what may give an opportunity of raifing fome entertaining obfervation, or introducing fome amusing history; and nothing can be more ftriking than the accounts of fupernatural things, of which Holy Scripture is full. And though it may fometimes happen, that a youth well brought up may, by the force of temptation, run into fatal errors in afterlife, yet fuch a one, it must be owned, has a much better chance of recovering the right way, than one, who never was put in it. I am afhamed to add any more upon the head; it being a kind of affront to the underftandings of mankind, to labour to convince them of a truth as evident as that the fun fhines at noon-day.

That it may unquestionably appear to be fully practicable for a parent, or tutor, to establish youth, from the tendereft years, in principles of virtue and religion, by reafon, not by authority, by understanding, not by

rote;