writers of Biographia Britannica, is a vaft treasure of this kind of knowledge. One cannot propofe to peruse thoroughly fuch voluminous works. They are only to have a place in a gentleman's library, and to be turned to at times, and select parts to be read and digested.

A general infight into the theoretical part of government, and law, feems neceffary to the complete improvement of the mind. This may be beft acquired by a careful attention to hiftory, which fhews the original of government; its neceffity and advantage to the world, when properly adminstered; its corruptions and errors; changes and revolutions; ruin and fubverfion, and their caufes. This is the proper fcience of a gentleman of eminent rank, who has weight and influence in his country.

Proper helps for this ftudy are the following, viz.

Bacon, Locke, and Sidney, on Government; Harrington's and Sir Thomas More's Works; Grotius on the Rights of War and Peace; Puffendorff's Law of Nature and Nations, with Barbeyrac's Notes; Milton's Political Works, which are to be read with large allowances, for his zeal for the party he was engaged in; Sir William Temple's Works; Caftiglione's Courtier; Rymer's Fadera; Wood's Inftitutes; L'Esprit des Loix; Domat's Civil Law; and The Statutes abridg'd.

The theory of commerce is clofely connected with the foregoing. It is a fubject highly worthy the attention of any perfon, who would improve himself with a general and extenfively-ufeful knowledge; and for perfons in eminent and active ftations is indifpenfably neceffary. Those who have any concern with the legislature, and those who are at the head of cities and corporations, if they be deficient in knowledge of the interefts of trade, are wanting in what is there proper calling. Every perfon, who has either vote or intereft in choofing a Reprefentative in Parliament, ought to make it his bufinefs to know fo much of the commerce of his country, as to know how, and by whom, it is likely to be promoted or difcouraged. And if all was rightly regulated, it is to be queftioned if any one

ought

ought to be an elector, who could not make a tolerable figure in the house, if not as a fpeaker, at least as

a voter.

To acquire fome general understanding of the theory of trade and commerce, a gentleman may, with advantage, ufe the following books, viz. Poftlethwaite's Dictionary of Trade and Commerce; The British Merchant, 3 vols. in 12mo; Sir Jofiah Child on Trade; Urtariz's Theory of Trade and Commerce; Univerfal Library of Trade and Commerce; The Merchant's Map of Commerce; Locke on Trade and Coin; Lex Mercatoria Rediviva; Oldenburgh's, Stevens's, and Lockyer's Pieces on Trade and Exchange; Davenant on Trade and Revenues; Gee on Trade; Tracts by Mr. Tucker of Bristol; and Anderfon's Hiftory of Commerce.

But whoever, from a view to public good, would perfectly understand the prefent ftate of the commerce of these kingdoms, as it is continually varying and fluctuating, he cannot expect to have a juft account of it by any other means than the informations of thofe actually engaged in it.

A gentleman may afterwards read the works of those writers who have treated of the human nature and faculties, their extent and improvement, in a peculative or theoretical way. After having ftudied history, he will be qualified to judge whether fuch authors treat the fubject properly or not; and will be capable of improving and correcting their theory from the examples of real characters exhibited in hiftory.

Mr. Locke's Effay on The Human Understanding is the foundation of this fort of knowledge. There is no good author on the fubject, who has not gone upon his general plan. His conduct of the understanding is alfo a work worthy of its author. The great Bishop Butler, author of the Analogy, in fome of his Sermons, which might be more properly called philofophical difcourfes, has with much fagacity corrected feveral errors of the writers on this fubject, on the theory of the paffions, S and other particulars. The works of Mr. Hutchefon of Glasgow may be perufed with advantage. He is both, en moft points, a good reafoner, and an elegant writer.

3

Befides

Befides thefe authors, and others, who have written exprefsly on this fubject, many of whom have faid good things; but have run into fome difputable peculiarities of opinion, on account of which I do not choose to recommend them; befides thefe, I fay, the writings of almost all our celebrated English Divines and Moralifts contain valuable materials on this fubject.

The inimitable Authors of the Spectator, Tatler, and Guardian, have difplayed the whole of human life, in all the fhapes and colours it appears in. Thofe admirable effays may be read as a ground-work of economics, or the knowledge of the arts of life.

There would be no end of giving a lift of books on this head. The few following are fome of the beft, viz. The Rule of Life in Select Sentences, from the Ancients; Apophthegms of the Ancients; Mafon's Selfknowledge; Charron on Wifdom; Bacon's, Collier's, and Montaigne's Effays; Fuller's Introductions to Wifdom and Prudence; The Moral Mifcellany; The Practical Preacher; and The Plain Dealer, in 2 vol.

Of all parts of knowledge, which may be properly termed fcientific, there is none, that can be fo ill difpenfed with by a gentleman, who would cultivate his mind to the utmost perfection, as that of Ethics, or the grounds of morality. The knowledge of right and wrong, the obligations and confequences of virtue, and the ruinous nature and tendency of vice, ought to be perceived by every well-cultivated mind in the moft clear and perfect manner poflible. But of this moft important branch of fcience, and what is very closely connected with it, viz. revealed religion, I fhall treat in the two following books.

The beft ancient moralifts are Plato, Ariftotle, Epicte tus, Hierccles, Xenophon, Ajop, Plutarch, Cicero, Seneca Antoninus. Among the moderns, befides those mentioned under other heads, and befides our beft divines, as Barrow, Tillotson, and the reft, the following are excellent moral treatifes, viz. Woolafton's Religion of Nature delineated; Groves's Syftem of Morality; Balguy's Tracts; Cudworth's Immutable and Eternal Morality; Cumberland de Legibus. Add to thefe, Glover's, Camp

bell's,

bell's, and Nettleton's Pieces on Virtue and Happinefs; Wilkins on Natural Religion; Fiddes on Morality; The Minute Philofopher; and Pafchal's Thoughts. But no writer, ancient or modern, on this fubject, exceeds, in clofenefs of reafoning, Price's Review of Morals, lately published.

Of all studies, none have a more direct tendency to aggrandize the mind, and confequently, none are more fuitable to the Dignity of Human Nature, than those, which are included under the general term of phyfiology, or the knowledge of nature, as aftronomy, anatomy, botany, mineralogy, and fo on. The study of nature appears in no light fo truly noble, and fit to ennoble the human mind, as when compared with thofe of the works of men, as criticifm, antiquities, architecture, heraldry, and the like. In the former, all is great, beautiful, and perfect. In the latter, the fubjects are all comparatively mean and defective. And whatever is otherwife, owes its excellence to nature, as in poetry, painting, fculpture, and fo forth. The first leads us to know and adore the greatest and most perfect of beings. The laft, to fee and regret our own weaknefs and imperfection.

The fyftem of nature is the magnificent palace of the King of the univerfe. The ignorant and incurious, to ufe the comparison of a great philofopher, is as a fpider, which retires into fome dark corner, and wraps itself in its own dufty cobweb, infenfible of the innumerable beauties which furround it. The judicious inquirer into nature, in contemplating, admiring, and moralifing upon the works of its infinite Author, proves the justnefs of his own understanding, by his approbation of the perfect productions of an infinite-perfect Being.

The fneers of fuperficial men, upon the weakness which has appeared in the conduct of fome inquirers into nature, ought to have no influence to difcourage us from thofe refearches. If fome few have spent too much time in the ftudy of infects, to the neglect of the nobler parts of the creation, their error ought to fuggeft to us not a total neglect of thofe inferior parts of na

ture;

ture; but only to avoid the mistake of giving 'ourfelves wholly to them. There is no fpecies, which infinite Wisdom has thought worth making, and preserving for ages, whofe nature is not highly worthy of our inquiring into. And it is certain, that there is more of curious workmanship in the ftructure of the body of the meaneft reptile, than in the most complicated, and most delicate machine, that ever was or will be constructed by human hands.

To gain the great advantage which ought to be kept in view, in inquiring into nature, to wit, improvement of the mind, we muft take care to avoid the error of fome, who seem to have no scheme but the finding out a fet of mere dry facts, or truths, without ever thinking of the inftruction which may be drawn from the obfervations made. An inquirer into nature, (fays the above eminent author, who himself went as great lengths as any one ever did in that ftudy) who carries his refearches no farther the mere finding out of truths, acts a part as much beneath him, who ufes philofophy to lead him to the knowledge of the Author of Nature, as a child who amufes himself with the external ornaments of a telescope, is inferior to the aftronomer, who applies it to difcover the wonders of the heavens.

The truth is, a man may be a great aftronomer and phyfiologift, and yet by no means a truly great man. For mere fpeculative knowledge alone will not make a great mind; though, joined with the other neceffary endowments, it gives the proper idea of an accomplished character. Sir Ifaac Newton, Mr. Boyle, and thofe who, like them, look through nature up to nature's God, can alone be faid to have purfued and attained the proper end of philofophy, which can be no other way of any real fervice to moral agents, than in fo far as it has proper moral effects upon them.

It is ftrange that any man can think of the feveral wonders of nature, as the two extremes of ftupendous greatnefs and inconceivable minutenefs, the immenfe variety and wonderful uniformity, the frightful rapidity, and yet unvarying accuracy, of motions; the countless

numbers,