The beauty and advantage of method; the force of expreffion fuited to the thought; the causes of perfpicuity or confufion, in a writer, the peculiar delicacy in the turn of a phrafe; the importance, or infignificancy, of a thought; the aptnefs of a fimile; the mufic of cadence in profe, and measure in verfe; the liveliness of defcription; the brightnefs of imagery; the diftinction of characters; the pomp of machinery; the greatness of invention; the correctness of judgment; and I know not how many more particulars, might with fuccefs be enlarged upon in teaching youth about fifteen years of age, and upwards.

When a youth has acquired a readinefs 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 ufeful for traders, it ought not to be neglected by any perfon whatever. Many an eftate might have been faved, had the owner of it known how to keep correct accounts of his income and expences. Were there only the beauty and elegance of this art to recommend it, no wife parent would let his fon be without what may be fo eafily acquired. The beft fyftem of book-keeping, and the briefeft, is Webster's.

About fourteen or fifteen years of age a youth of parts may be inftructed in the ufe of the globes, which, will require his having the terms in geography, and many of those used in aftronomy, explained to him. To this may be joined an abridgment of the ancient and prefent ftate of nations, commonly called ancient and modern geography. The best books on the use of the globes are Harris's and Randal's Geography, or Gordon's Geographical grammar; which, with Hubner's Compend, and Wells's Geographia Claffica, will be fufficient to introduce the pupil to a general notion of ancient and modern geography. A fet of maps ought to be turned to, and the pupil taught to understand the manner of conftructing and ufing them.

The knowledge of the furface of our globe, and the prefent ftate of nations, is neceffary and ufeful for men

of all ranks, orders, and profeffions. The ftatefman can have no diftinct ideas of the intereft and connections of foreign nations; the divine no clear conception of Scripture or ecclefiaftical hiftory, nor the merchant of the voyages his fhips are to make, the feats of commerce, and means of collecting its various articles; nor indeed the private gentleman bear a part in common converfation, without understanding the fituations, diftances, extent, and general ftate of kingdoms and empires. In a word, he, who does not know geography, does not know the world. And it is miserable, that a gentleman fhould know nothing of the world he lives in, but the spot, in which he was born.

Algebra is a science of admirable use in folving queftions feemingly 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 ufe of in teaching it.

About the fame age, youth may be let into a general knowledge of chronology, or of the principal æras and periods of the world, and of the outlines of univerfal hiftory. This cannot be better done, than by reading them lectures upon the Chart of the univerfal history, lately published, fhewing them, at the fame time, upon the terrestrial globe, and in maps, the fituation and extent of kingdoms and empires. The chronological tables in the twenty-first volume of the Universal History may be confulted by those who would defcend to more minute particulars in teaching youth the knowledge of chronology.

About the age of fixteen or eighteen, a youth of good parts may learn juft fo much of logic as may be useful for leading him to an accurate and correct manner of thinking, and judging of fuch truths as are not capable of mathematical demonftration. The Ariftotelian method of reasoning in mood and figure might be proper, if the ideas we affix to all words were as precife as thofe of a right line, a furface, or a cube. But fo long as we neither have in our own minds at all times, nor much lefs can communicate to those we con

verfe with, the fame invariable ideas to the fame 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 Burgerfdykes and the Scheiblers, which always hamper, and often mislead the understanding.

For the purpose of putting young perfons in the way of reasoning juftly, Dr. Watts's Logic may with fuccefs be read and commented on to them, and fome of the eafieft and moft fundamental parts of Mr. Locke's Effay on human understanding. After which fome parts of the writings of fome of the clofeft reafoners in morals may be examined, and the force of the arguments fhewn, to lead the pupil to the imitation of their manner. Such writers as Dr. Clarke, Woollafton, and Bishop Butler, author of the Analogy, will be proper for this purpose. It may also be useful to fhew how fubtle men imperceptibly deviate from found reafon, and lead their readers into fallacies. The works of Hobbes, Morgan, and Hebrew Hutchinfon, may, among innumerable others, be proper examples to fhew, that the femblance of reafon 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 feeing a course of experiments, at firft exhibited by Defaguliers, Whifton, and others. They would there learn, in the most entertaining and eafy manner, the grounds, as far as known, of the noble fcience of phyfiology. And in feeing a regular feries of experiments, and obfervations, in mechanics, hydroftatics, pneumatics, optics, aftronomy, chemistry, and the like, would have their curiofity raifed to the highest pitch, and would acquire a taste for knowledge, which might not only lead them, in after-life, to purfue their own improvement in the most valuable ways, but likewife might, by furnishing an inexhauftible fund of entertainment, fupply the continual want of taverns, plays, mufic, or other lefs innocent amufements, to fill up their vacant hours. For it is only the want of fomething within themfeves, to entertain them, that drives people to routs, rackets, or mafquerades, to the fatal wafte of

time and money, and the utter perverfion of the true taste of life.

A perfon who understands this kind of knowledge, with the help of a very few inftruments, as a telescope, a microscope, an air pump, and a pair of Mr. Neal's patent globes, may go through the grounds of this fort of knowledge, following the method given by Mr. Martin in his philofophical grammar (guarding against his errors) to the great entertainment and improvement of a fet of pupils.

Dancing, fencing, riding, mufic, drawing, and other elegant arts and manly exercises, may, according to the circumstances of parents, and genius of children, be carried greater or fhorter lengths. For a perfon, whose education has fitted him for being a useful member of fociety, according to his flation, and for happiness in a future ftate, may be faid to have been well brought up, though he thould not excel in thefe elegancies. And it is not fuch frivolous accomplishments as thefe 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 prepofterous.

It is evidently of advantage, that a young gentleman be, from his infancy almoft, 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 confequence 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 fame caution ought to be used with refpect to mufic. It is true, there are very few of the good people of England, who have fo much true tafte, as to be capable of excelling in that alluring and bewitching art. But there are inftances of the bad effects of cultivating it too much.

So

So much of the riding-fchool as is ufeful and neceffary, there is nothing to be faid against it. But it is deplorable to fee many of our gentry ftudy the liberal fcience of jockeyfhip to the neglect of all the reft.

Fencing, if practifed to fuch a degree as to excel at it, is the likelieft means that can be contrived for getting a man into quarrels. And I fee not, that the running a fellow-creature through the body, or having that operation performed upon one's felf, is much the more defirable for its being done fecundum artem. Yet whoever wears a fword, ought to know fomewhat 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 fame foot with with a tafte for reading, as a fober amufement, which may lead a young gentleman to love home and regular hours. But it is far from being friendly to the conftitution. Like all fedentary employments which engage the attention, it is prejudicial to the health, efpecially where oilcolours are used, which is not indeed a neceffary part in drawing. It likewife fixes and ftrains the eyes, and, in fmall work, fatigues them too much to be pursued to any great length with fafety. At the fame time, to know perfpective, and the other principles of the art, and to have fuch a command of the pencil, as to be capable of striking out a draught of an object, or view, not fo much with delicacy as with ftrength, fwiftnefs, and fluency, is an accomplishment very ornamental, and often useful.

I will conclude this fection 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 abfurdity in carrying on several studies together, nor in passing from one to another, before the pupil arrives at great perfection in the firft; on the contrary, in maturity, the view being not to learn the first principles (which are fuppofed to have been ftudied in youth) but to acquire a perfect knowledge of fubjects, it is then impro