HINTS

ΤΟ

YOUNG PEOPLE.

YOU are now at that season of life when your minds are susceptible of improvement. Your faculties are expanding; and exercise will increase their powers. Your understanding is now inquisitive, and eager for information. Let it be your study to direct it to the contemplation of proper objects, and to the acquisition of useful knowledge. If it be left uncultivated, you may conceive false notions of things; and you will probably imbibe such prejudices, as may give a wrong bias to your conduct through life, and in a great measure deprive you of the satisfaction and benefit that may be derived from civil society.

Now is indeed the seed time of life; and according to what you sow, you shall reap. The direction which you now give to your desires and passions, will be likely to continue. Beware, then, at your first setting out in life, of those seducing appearances of pleasure that surround you. It often happens, that, by a continued series of loose, though apparently trivial gratifications, the heart is thoroughly corrupted. Guard, therefore, against accounting any thing small or trivial, which is in hazard of introduçing disorder into your hearts. Set out with the intention, that usefulness and active goodness shall direct your pursuits thus will each in his place, contribute to the general welfare, and reap the benefit of his own improvement.

All the duties of civil life, are embraced in our obligations to do good. Civil life is a commerce of mutual assistances, to which the most virtuous bring the greatest share. In seeking the good of others, you will generally ensure your own. People who live only for themselves, are despicable creatures. Self-love sometimes occasions us to commit great crimes; and, in its most innocent state, it weakens the virtues and harmonies of society, and conceals from us our own faults.

By reflecting frequently upon your own failings, and showing them to yourselves without disguise, you will at once derive sentiments of humility and benevolence.

Upon your first entering on the stage of action in the world, to keep good company, will be of great importance to you. It will give you a relish for such company; and thus you will be likely to receive proper impressions: and early impressions, whether right or wrong, often determine our future conduct in life. Associate, therefore, with those from whose conduct and conversation, you may, by proper attention, gain instruction and useful knowledge. You may rest assured that you will sink or rise to the level of the company you keep. People will, and not without reason, judge of you by that. Bad company is often fatal to young people. If you associate with those whose habits of life are immoral and irregular, you can hardly fail to be corrupted by the pernicious influence of their example, and by the destructive tendency of the sentiments which they will endeavour to insinuate into your minds, to the exclusion of the better principles which you may have possessed. Cautiously avoid the company of such persons.

Even if the company you keep be not of the libertine or vicious kind, yet if it withdraw you from that attention to yourselves and your domestic concerns which becomes a good man, it must be unprofitable, and may be very injurious.

There is a class of young men, who think to distinguish themselves by an air of libertinism, but which degrades them in the opinion of sensible persons. It shows not a superiority of mind, but a depravity of heart. Purity of manners, and respect for religion, are necessary to those who would wish to be respected by worthy people. Virtue exalts the condition of man, as much as vice degrades it. The basis of happiness is that peace of mind which results from the testimony of a good conscience.

It is our duty as well as interest, to endeavour to promote intellectual and moral improvement in conversation. Seek not to shine. Remember that simplicity, accompanied with a pleasing mildness, and a proper regard for the feelings of others, is the first charm in manner, as truth is in mind. Remember also, that this mildness, and regard for others' feelings, ought not to be an occasional ornament, but an every-day habit-not put on merely when you go into company, but steadily worn when at home, where it is most needed. If people would always observe it at home, it would prove an efficacious preventive to the frequent recurrence of those jars and wranglings by which the happiness of many families is destroyed.

If a due regard for the feelings of others were properly. cherished both at home and abroad, that gentleness and strict civility which give security and pleasure to our social intercourse, would, in all companies, and on all occasions, be maintained. Civility and true politeness are near akin : they consist not in an adherence to unmeaning forms of ceremony; but in a nice observance of the feelings of others, and an invariable respect for those feelings. To express (without an indispensable necessity) what you suspect may wound the feelings of any present, whether it respects themselves, their profession in life, their religious opinions, or their manners, is uncivil, and is neither a trait of a good education, nor an improved mind. If any present have a

particular weakness or infirmity, genuine civility will not allow you to exercise your wit by inventing occasions which may expose or betray it; but will lead you to give as favourable a turn as you can to the weakness of such.

To treat the frailties of our fellow-creatures with tenderness, to correct their errors with kindness, to view even their vices with pity, and to induce, by every friendly attention, a mutual good will, are not only important moral duties, but means of increasing the sum of earthly happiness.

Polite or well-behaved people discover a modesty without bashfulness, a candour without bluntness, a freedom without assurance. They do not rudely contradict each other. They are attentive to what is said, and reply with mildness and condescension. They neither intermeddle unnecessarily with the affairs, nor pry into the secrets, of others. Thus, their conduct being easy, agreeable, and consistent with sincerity, they command respect. In short, true civility or politeness, is that kind of behaviour which unites firmness with gentleness of manners, and which springs from a disposition to please, but never at the expense of integrity.

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But there is a description of people who style themselves plain dealers; they speak what they think, with a rough bluntness, and uncontrolled freedom, without respect to time or place. They openly reprove the faults of others, and throw out their satire indiscriminately. Such persons, however unexceptionable their morals, and however true their remarks, are, notwithstanding, unpleasant companions.

In conversation, mark well what others say or do. Accurate observation, and reflection upon men and things, give wisdom. Those are the great books of learning, too seldom read. Be always on your watch, but particularly in company. Interrupt none. Be swift to hear, slow to speak. This gives time to understand, and ripens an an

swer. Aim not to use fine words, but rather to convey good sense; and chiefly to be pertinent and plain. The truest eloquence is the plainest; and the most concise style is generally the best. Never exchange simplicity of manners, speech, or behaviour, for that which is the effect of false taste, or servile imitation. Banish art and affectation; for you will not make yourselves agreeable by either. Strict sincerity, with unassuming manners, will gain you the esteem and confidence of your acquaintance.

Do good when you can-Speak evil of none-these are important lessons; the latter should be so indelibly imprinted on your mind, as to keep you on your guard, in all company, and on all occasions; so that you may avoid saying any thing of an absent person that will tend to lessen his reputation. For, although evil-speaking too frequently forms a considerable part of common conversation, this does not lessen its criminality, nor palliate the injury done to the reputation of our neighbour. Avoid, therefore, and discourage every kind of detraction. Listen not to slander. Never judge with rigour, nor condemn any person unheard. Remember, there are things resembling truth, that are not true. In private judgment we should imitate the equity of public decisions. Judges never decide without examining the grounds of accusation, and hearing the defence of the accused. It would indeed be great injustice, if they did so. And let me impress it upon you, that a sense of justice should be the principle on which you should act. In your earliest intercourse with the world, and even in your youthful amusements, permit no unfairness of any kind. Despise that gain which cannot be obtained without mean arts. Stoop to no dissimulation; for it will sink you into contempt. Engrave on your minds this sacred rule; " all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."

And as justice is due to man, so is tenderness to the