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all perfons. Some words and actions are fo trivial and light, that they are not fit to be faid or done before thofe for whom we have a reverence. There is a certain freedom of converfation only proper among equals in age and quality, which, if we ufe before our fuperiors and betters, we feem to contemn them; if before our inferiors, they will go nigh to co temn us.

It ought to be confidered, t at children do not understand the exact limits of good and evil; fo that, if in our words or actions we go to the utmoft bounds of that which is lawful, we shall be in danger of fhewing them the way to that which is unlawful. Children are not wont to be careful of their

fteps, and therefore should not be ventured to play about a precipice, or near a dangerous place, where yet men that take care, may go fafe enough. To place unwary youth at as great a distance, as poffible, from the confines of evil, all words aud actions should ever be tempered with gravity and circumfpection, that nothing may be seen or heard, which may carry them to the borders of vice; left they might not ftop just there, but take a step further than was intended they should go.

In matter of reproof and correction, as making a part of education, many are guilty of great mifcarriages. The firft experiment on children fhould be to allure them to their duty, and by reasonable inducements to gain them to the love of goodness; by praise and reward, and fometimes by fhame and difgrace: And, if this will not do, there will be no occafion to proceed to feverity; especially not to great severities, which are very unfuitable to human nature. A mixture of prudent and seasonable reproof or correction, when there is occafion for it, may do very well; but whips are not for a man: Human nature may be driven by them, but it must be led by fweeter and gentler ways.

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Speufippus caufed the pictures of Joy and Gladness to be fet round about his school, to fignify that the business of education ought to be rendered as pleasant as may be: And indeed youth stand in need of all enticements and encouragements to learning and goodness. Metus haud diuturni magifter officii, fays Tully, Fear alone will not teach a man his duty, and hold him to it for any long time;' for, when that is removed, nature will break loofe, and do like itself. Befides, frequent corrections make punishments to lose their awe and force, and are apt to fpoil the difpofition of children, and to harden them against fhame; and after a while they will defpife correction, when they find they can endure it,

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Great feverities often work an effect quite contrary to that which was intended; and many times those who were bred up in a very fevere fchool, hate learning ever after, on account of the cruelty ufed to force it upon them. The fame may be faid of all endeavours to inculcate virtuous principles into children by an unreasonable strictness and rigour, which often beget in them a lafting difguft, and make them, as Erafmus fays, Virtutem fimul odiffe & nôfle,' To hate virtue at the same time that they teach them to know it: For thus virtue is reprefented to their minds under a great difadvantage, and good and evil are brought too near together: So that, whenever they think of virtue, they remember the severity which was wont to accompany the inftruc tions about it; and the natural hatred men have for punishment, is by this means derived on virtue itself.

This fhould be the more infifted upon, becaufe notorious intances of great milcarriage have been obferved in children, who were under the care or tuition of very ftrict and severe parents, guardians, and mafters. No other account of fuch mifconduct can be given, than that nature, when thus overcharged, recoils the more terribly. It hath fomething in it like the fpring of an engine, which, being forcibly preffed, does upon the first liberty return back with fo much the greater violence: In like manner the vicious difpofitions of children, when reftrained merely by feverity, break forth ftrangely, as foon as ever they get loofe and from under difcipline.

Another miscarriage happens, when reproof and correction are accompanied and managed with paffion. This is to betray one fault, and perhaps a greater, in the punishment of another. It also makes reproof and correction to look like revenge and hatred, which ufually does not perfuade and reform, but provoke and exafperate. Correction is a kind of phyfic, which ought never to be administered in paffion, but upon counsel and good advice. A father is, as it were, a Prince and a Judge in his family; there he gives laws, and inflicts cenfures and punishments upon offenders. But how mifbecoming a thing would it be to fee a Judge país fentence upon a man in choler? It is the fame thing to fee a father in the heat and fury of his paffion correct his child. If a father could but fee himself in this mood, and how ill his paffion becomes him, instead of heing angry with his child, he would be out of patience with himself.

There are, it is true, fome wild and favage natures, oftrous and prodigions A 2 tempers,

tempers, hard as the rocks, and barren as the fand upon the fea-fhore; which difcover ftrong and early propenfions to vice, and a violent antipathy to goodness. Such tempers are next to defperate, but yet are not utterly untractable. They fometimes appear in the world, as inftances of the great corruption and degeneracy of human nature; but furely there is no temper that is abfolutely and irrecoverably prejudiced against that which is good. Therefore moft tempers should be reputed tractable to good education, and there is very great probability of the good fuccefs of it, if it be carefully and wifely managed.

Good education gives virtu: the advantage of the first poffeffion. The mind of man is an active principle, and will be employed about fomething or other. It cannot ftand idle, and will therefore take up with that which first offers itself. So foon as reafon puts forth its light, and the understanding begins to be exercifed, the mind of man discovers a natural thirst after know. ledge, and greedily drinks in that which comes firft. If it has not the waters of life and the pure ftreams of goodness to allay that thirst, it will feek to quench it in the filthy puddles and impure pleasures of this world.

As therefore youth will be bufying their minds about fomething, it is good they fhould be entertained with the beft things, the best notions and principles their understanding and age are capable of. It is a happy thing to be principled, and, as it were, prejudiced the better way, and that virtue thould get the firft poffeffion of their hearts; for it is certainly a great advantage to virtue to be planted in a tender and fresh foil.

Good education gives likewife the advantage of habit and custom; and custom is of mighty force. It is, as Pliny in one of his epiftles fays, Efficaciffimus omnium rerum magifter, The most powerful and effectual mafter in every kind.' It is an acquired and a fort of fecond nature, and, next to nature itself, a principle of greatest power. Cuftom bears a great fway in all human actions. Men love those things, and do them with eafe, to which they have been long inured and accustomed; and, on the contrary, men go against custom with great regret and uneasiness.

Among all others, that custom is most ftrong which is begun in childhood; and hence it is that the good education of children has fo good and lafting an influence upon their whole lives. Now education is nothing but certain customs planted in

childhood, and which have taken deep root whilft nature was tender.

We see also, in common experience, how dangerous an evil habit and cuftom is, and how hard to be altered. Therefore the Cretians, when they would curfe a man to purpofe, wifhed that the gods would engage him in fome bad cuftom; looking upon a man, after that, to be irrecoverably loft. So, on the other fide, to be engaged in a good cuftom is an unfpeakable advantage, efpecially for children to be habituated to a virtuous course, before the habits of vice have taken root and are confirmed in them.

We are too naturally inclined to that which is evil; yet this ought not to difcourage us, because it is certain in experience, that a contrary cuftom hath done much in many cafes, even where nature has been strongly inclined the other way. Demofthenes did, by great resolution and almoft infinite pains, and after a long habit, alter the natural imperfection of his speech, and, even in defpite of nature, became the most eloquent man, perhaps, that ever lived: And this amounts even to a demonftration; for what hath been done may be done. So that it is not univerfally true, what Ariftotle fays, That nature cannot be altered.' It is true indeed in the inftance he gives of throwing a ftone upward: You cannot, fays he, by any cuftom, nay, tho' you fling it up ever fo often, teach a stone to afcend of itself: And fo it is in many other inftances in which nature is peremptory. But nature is not always fo; but fometimes hath a great latitude; as we fee in young trees, which, though they naturally grow ftraight up, yet, being gently bent, may be made to grow any way. But above all, moral inclinations and habits admit of great alteration, and are subject to the power of a contrary custom.

Doft thou love thy child? This is true love to any one, to do the best for him we can. Of all your toil and labour for your children, this may be all the fruit they may reap, and all that they may live to enjoy, the advantage of a good education. All other things are uncertain. You may raise your children to honour, and fettle a noble eftate upon them to fupport it; you may leave them, as you think, to faithful guardians, and by kindness and obligation procure them many friends: And, when you have done all this, their guardians may prove unfaithful and treacherous; and in the changes and revolutions of the world their honours may flip from under them, and their riches may take to themselves wings and fly away; and, when these are

gone,

gone, and they come to be nipped with the frofts of adverfity, their friends will fall off like leaves in autumn. This is a fore evil, which yet we have feen under the fun.

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But, if the good education of your children hath made them wife and virtuous, you have provided an inheritance for them, which is out of the reach of fortune, and cannot be taken from them. Crates the Philofopher used to stand in the highest places of the city, and to cry out to the inhabitants, O ye people! Why do you tuil to get eftates for your children, when you take no care of their education? This is, as Diogenes faid, To take care of the fhoe, but none of the foot that is to wear it; to take great pains for an estate for your children, but none at all to teach them how to use it; that is, to take great care to undo them, but none to make them happy.' By the good education of your children, you provide for yourselves fome of the best comforts both for this world and the other. For this world; and that at such a time when you moft ftand in need of comfort, the time of fickness and old-age. Wife men have been wont to lay up fome fidia fenectutis', 'Something to fupport them in that gloomy and melancholy time, as books and friends, or the like. But there is no fuch external comfort, at fuch a time, as good and dutiful children. They will then be the light of our eyes, and the cordial of our fainting fpirits; and will recompenfe all our former care of them, by their prefent care of us: And, when we are decaying and withering away, we shall have the pleasure to see our youth as it were renewed, and ourselves flourishing again in our children. The fon of Sirach fpeaking of the comfort which a good father hath in a well educated fon: Though he die, fays he, yet he is as if he were not dead; for he hath left one behind him that is like himself. While he lived he faw and rejoiced in him, and when he died he was not forrowful.'

Præ

It may be further confidered, that the fureft foundation of the public welfare and happiness is laid in the good education of children. Families are increased by children, and cities and nations are made up of families: And this is a matter of fo great concernment to the civil happiness of a nation, that anciently the best conftituted commonwealths did commit this care to the Magiftrate more than to parents.

When Antipater demanded of the Spartans fifty of their children for hostages, they offered rather to deliver to him twice as many men; fo much did they value the lofs of their country's education. There are

feveral ways of reforming men, as, among others, the laws of the civil power; but the moft likely and hopeful reformation of the world mult begin with children. Wholefome laws are but flow and late ways; the timely and the most compendious way is good education. This may be an effectual prevention of evil, whereas all after-ways are but remedies, which do always fuppofe fome neglect and omiflion of timely care.

And, because our laws leave fo much to parents, our care should be so much the greater; and we fhould remember, that we bring up our children for the public, and that, if they live to be men, as they come out of our hands, they will prove a public happiness or mischief to the age. So that we can no way better deferve of mankind, and be greater benefactors to the world, than by peopling it with a juft and righteous offspring. Good and well disciplined children are the hopes of pofterity, and we cannot leave the world a better legacy.

Though integrity of heart fhould be the main point attended to in education, yet it fhould be so ordered as not to be incompatible with politeness of manners and elegant eafy converfation. One kind of education fhould not be thought neceffary to furnish a learned head, and quite another to form a Gentleman. People prefume, without examining, because some men, reputed learned, have been mere fimpletons in the common affairs of life, that therefore all men of learning must be so: They take it for granted, that a man, who has a deal of book-lumber about him, is, on that very account, unqualified for the practice of the world. Formerly the divorce between fcience and capacity for bufinefs, between politeness and learning, was not fo common a fight as it has been perhaps in later times. How many great men, in ancient ages, have united the characters of the scholar and the Gentleman? Some of the ableft philofophers of antiquity were men of action as well as ftudy; they fhone in the courts of Princes no less than in the walks of philofophers, and were as eminent in camps as in academies.

There is no occafion to produce examples to prove that genuine learning, and the brightest active accomplishments, are not incompatible. Modern times afford many inftances of the fame truth; but probably they are rarer. Many eminent Statelinen, Captains, and men in the highest stations, of a late date, have been able fcholars ; and several great characters, now in public life and luftre, excel in arts and fciences, and have added, to the culture received in the established feats of literature, farther improve

improvement from private inftruction, and an extenfive intercourfe with the world.

From this detail it will appear, that the principal end of education is, To form us wife and good, useful to others, and hap. py ourfelves. The whole art of education lies within a narrow compafs, and is reducible to a very fimple practice, namely, • To affift in unfolding and exercifing thofe natural and moral powers with which man is endued, by prefenting proper objects and occafions; to watch their growth, that they be not diverted from their end, or disturbed in their operation, by any foreign violence; and gently to conduct and apply them to all the purposes of public and private life.' This is but repeating the maxim of ancient wifdom, To follow nature.'

But, as man is frequently debauched in his principles and manners very early by various unavoidable accidents, it becomes a fecondary and inferior part of education, To rectify his difpofition, to weed out thofe principles and habits which have been planted in his mind, and to reftore it to its found and healthful ftate,',

The firft may be called the plastic or forming part of education; the last the fanatory or restorative, which comes in as fubfidiary to the other, and is often neceflary to fupply its defects and rectify its errors. Let man's genius and difpofitions be what they will, it is plain that it is not the intention or bufinefs of education to give him any new capacities or fprings of action, but to direct and cultivate thofe he has. The grand question is, How this aim is to be attained? It may be attained principally by these three ways: First, by inftruction ;

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fecondly, by habit; and, thirdly, by example; all which are comprehended under the common name of culture. These are the great engines by which the whole bufi nefs of education is conducted, the tools with which the tutor is to work, or the fcaffolding by which a child is to be reared up to a man; any one of which being wanting, it must be lame, and generally abortive.

To thefe correfpond as many principles of our nature, which are the handles that culture takes hold of to render those several methods effectual, and make us fuch as it would have us. To instruction answers the love of knowledge, or curiofity and docility. To the second correfponds that aptitude we have to contract habits, or a certain readiness and proneness to repeat what we have often done. To the third is adapted the spirit of mimicry, or the love of imitation, than which there is not a more powerful principle in human nature. This was the Aurauis Miμntixn of the ancients, to which they traced many of the arts and pleafures of life.

By means of thefe difpofitions man becomes a fit fubject of culture, and is laid open to the influence of its engines; and, according to the inftructions which he imbibes, the habits he contracts, and the example by which he is formed, fuch will he become, virtuous or vicious, ufeful or infignificant. As thofe principles lay out education into three important branches or parts, fo it will be the more perfect, in proportion as they are difcreetly mixed and difcreetly applied.

A new Experiment upon VITRIOL; by Dr. Lemery, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris.

TH

HE fpirit of vitriol, being mixed with iron, produces, after an indifferent fermentation, a green vitriol, like the natural one; but if, inftead of the fpirit of vitriol, one ufes the oil of vitriol, which is the most acid part of that mineral, there happens immediately a small fermentation, which is quickly over; that fermentation begins again in a few days, under the form of a white fmoke, which arifes to the furface of the liquid; and the whole mafs of iron turns into a very white pap, which fmells like common fulphur. Lastly, when the fermentation is over, the iron, instead of turning into a green vitriol, as in the first operation, becomes all of a fudden white vitriol: There appears on its surface a black

duft, which it feems to have thrown up; and it is likely it would have made it green; for, when white vitriol is mingled with that duft, it acquires a green dye.

Several obfervations might be made upon this experiment, particularly on the double fermentation. It is obfervable, that by this method one may have white vitriol, all of a fudden, by a fingle operation; whereas the ufual way of making it is by calcinating green vitriol, and then diffolving and filtrating it, and letting the liquor evaporate. I fhall not for the present inquire into the reasons of this experiment, being contented to relate the fact, which is very remarkable.

Some

Some Critical REMARKS upon a Paffage in the fourth Eclogue of Virgil. VIRGIL defcribes a new age which farily involves the most learned of poets in

the wonders of those happy times, he ob-
ferves, that there would be no more any
need of dying cloaths; and that fheep
would naturally have all manner of beau-
tiful colours on their fleeces, fome purple,
fome scarlet, others yellow, &c.

Nec varios difcet mentiri lana colores:
Ipfe fed in pratis aries jam fuave rubenti
Murice, jam croceo mutabit vellera luto:
Sponte fua SANDYX PASCENTES veftiet
Verf. 42, & feq.

agnos.

Such is the reading of all the copies now extant, which has prevailed ever fince Vefpafian's time, as it appears from Pliny the elder, in the XXXVth book of his natural hiftory, chap. VI, where, fpeaking of the sandyx, or fandarach, a mineral pigment, he adds, Quanquam animadverto Virgilium exiftimâffe her bam id effe, illo verfu : Sponte fua fandyx pascentes vestiet agnos.

When he fays that Virgil took the fandyx to be an herb, and not a mineral, he argues from the word Pafcentes, which can mean nothing else, but that the lambs, browfing upon the fandyx, fhould receive the dye in their fleeces from that aliment. And fo Servius, the ancient Commentator, underfood it Sandyx herba eft, fays he, de qua tingitur Sandycinus color. The Greek verfion of Virgil's words, in Eufebius de Vita Conftantini, is fo loofe and inaccurate that no-body can guess whether that tranf

lator read Pafcentes or not.

The herb fandyx is a mere fiction; fuch a plant was unknown to all the ancient naturalifts, and to Pliny himself, as it plainly appears from this very paffage; and therefore fome moderns, to vindicate Virgil, have found fault with Pliny for drawing this inference, that the poet took the fandyx to be a plant.

But in this they fhew no great judgment; for, if Virgil did not take it fo, to what purpose did he use the word Pafcentes ? Why must the lambs take the dye only when they are Feeding? Why not alfo when they are refting in the fhade? Why not at night, while they are in the fheepfolds? Whoever admits of the reading Pafcentes, Feeding,' muft allow the fandyx was the food of the lambs; or elfe that circumstance is wholly impertinent, and even abfurd.

We have reason therefore to be difpleafed with the word Palcentes, which necef

neral.

But the worst of all is, that, even allowing fandyx to be a plant, and calling Hefychius to the poet's allittance, who defines fandyx, divdgor Japerŵdes, a fhrubby tree, that has a flower of a fcarlet colour", yet the word Pafcentes lies open to fo many objections, that we must either find a better, or leave our poet under a cenfure very injurious to his great reputation.

For, firft, fuppofing the fandyx to be a plant, yet, if the lambs took that tincture only Pafcentes by Feeding on it, no Italian lambs could have that dye on their fleeces for it is plain from Pliny that plant did not grow in Italy, if it grew any-where at all. And then what will become of the compliment to Pollio's fon, or to Auguftus, who lived in Italy? It is true this objection may be in fome meafure antwered by the fiction of a preceding miracle, Verf. Omnis feret omnia tellus.

39.

Secondly, by the defcription of the fuppofed plant, dader Gardes, it is molt likefood is ftill more improperly affigned to ly that sheep do not feed upon it; and that the lambs than if it had been to the grown fheep.

Thirdly, thefe lambs for fome months, while they were fucking their dams, mult have their fleeces of the common natural colour; and till they were weaned, and had adventitious dye; which is a fuppofition browfed upon the fandyx, could have no of Virgil. unworthy

Fourthly, fuppofing the juice of the fandyx dyed their fleeces, yet Pafcentes is ignorantly put here; for the tincture must be acquired not only while they are Feeding, but also afterwards, when the nourishment is diftributed through the body in rest and fleep.

Fifthly, the whole notion of the aliment dying the fleeces of lambs is very foolish; for the grafs, which is the greatest part of their food, would more probably dye their fleeces green, than the fandyx dye them Scarlet. And, when the rams are dyed murice, with purple, muft we fuppofe them to feed upon shell-fish?

Thefe exceptions, and more that might be offered, will eafily induce one to believe that Virgil could not fo forget himself as to ufe here the word Pafcentes; we mult try therefore to fubftitute another word, that will make a fenfe worthy of the author, and

plainly

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