-medies, and hence effects a cure; while the precipitate phyfician infallibly kills.

But where, will it be faid, muft we place an infant thus to be educated as an infenfible being, as a mere automaton? Shall we take him to the world in the moon, or to fome defart ifland? Shall we feparate him from the reft of his fpecies; will he not, if in the world, have before him continually the profpect and example of the paffions of others? Will he never meet in company with children of his own age? Will he not fee his parents, his neighbours, his nurfe, his governefs, his fervant, and at laft his governor himself, who after all will be no angel? This objection is reafonable and folid. But have I told you the natural education of a child was an eafy undertaking? Is it my fault, ye men of fociety! that you have made every thing which is right fo difficult to be put in execution? I perceive the difficulties, I acknowledge them ; and perhaps they are infurmountable. It is, however, certain, that, by endeavouring to obviate them, we may fucceed to a certain degree. I only take upon me to point out the end we should aim at. I don't affirm it is poffible to reach it; but I affirm that he, who approaches the nearest this end, hath fucceeded the best.

One thing, however, is to be remembered; and that is, before any one undertakes to form a man, it is proper he should be formed fuch himfelf; it is proper he fhould find in himself the model he propofes to imitate. While a child 1S as yet without knowledge, there is time to prepare every thing that approaches him, and to introduce to his first obfervations thefe objects which are proper for him to

fee. Render yourself refpectable to all: begin by making yourself beloved, fo fhall every one be de-. firous to please you. You will never be mafter over your pupil, if you are not mafter of all those about him; nor will your authority be of any fervice, if it be not founded on virtuous'efteem. It will be to no purpofe to empty your purfe, or give your money away by handfuls; I never knew money make any one beloved. It is doubtless wrong to be covetous and niggardly, and to content ourselves with lamenting the miferable objects we might relieve; but you may in vain open your coffers; if you do not alfo open your heart, the hearts of others will remain ftill shut against you. It is your time, your care, your af fections, it is yourself you must give; for otherwife do what you will, it will always be remarked that your money is not you. There are inftances of concern and benevolence which have a greater effect, and are really more useful than all pecuniary gifts. How many of the unfortunate, and of the fick, have more need of confolation than alms! How many are there of the oppreffed whom protection would ferve more than money! Reconcile those who are at variance, prevent lawfuits; bring children to a fenfe of their duty, and parents to that of indulgence; promote happy marriages; oppofe oppreffion; spare not the credit and interest of your pupil's family, in favour of the poor and helpless, to whom juftice is refufed, or whom wealth overpowers. Declare yourfelf boldly the protector of the unhappy. Be juft, humane, and beneficent. Do not only give alms, but perform the deeds of charity. Acts of mercy and compaffion relieve more evils

Q4

than

money. Love others, and they will love you; ferve them, and they will ferve you; be a father to them, and they will be your children.

Here prefents itself, alfo, another reafon for educating Emilius in the country, at a distance from the mob of fervants, who, excepting their mafters, are the vileft of mankind; at a distance from the deteftable manners of the town, which are varnifhed over fo fpecioufly as to become feductive and contagious to children; whereas the vices of the peafants, grofs and without difguife, are more apt to difguft than feduce fuch as are not interested in their imitation.

Befides this, a tutor would, in fuch a fituation, be more completely mafter over the objects that might be prefented to his pupil; his reputation, his difcourfe, his example, would carry with them an authority, that would not accompany them in town. By rendering himself generally useful in his neighbourhood, ve y one would be eager to oblige him, to merit in return his efteem, and to appear before his pupil fuch as he himself in fact would wish; and tho' they should not be corrected of their vices, they would abftain from giving the public fcandal by them; which is all that is required for our prefent purpose.

eve:

Forbear to change your own faults on others: children are lefs corrupted by the ill examples they fee, than by the wrong precepts you teach them. Always moralizing, fententious and pedantic, for one idea that you gave them, thinking it a good one you infill at the fame time twenty others that are good for nothing full of what paffes in your own head, you fee not the effect it produces in thofe of your

pupils. Amidft that profufion of words, with which you confound and weary them out in your fermons, do you think there are none whofe meaning they take wrong? Do you think they do not make their own comments on your diffuse explications, and that they do not find means to patch up a little system of their own, to oppose to yours as occafion offers ?

Liften but to one of these young gentlemen who have been thus lectured; let him talk, ask questions, and run on at pleafure; you will be furprised to find what a ftrange turn your fine reasonings have taken in his mind he confounds all you have faid, perverts every thing; he will tire out your patience and almoft diftract you by unforeseen and unthought-of objections. Thus will he reduce you to filence; or oblige you to impofe filence on him; and what can he think of the filence of a man who loves talking fo much? If once he gains this advantage, and is fenfible of it, adieu to education; all is at an end at once; he will no longer feek opportunities to inftruct himself, but the means of refuting you.

A

Ye zealous tutors, be plain, therefore, difcreet and referved; be never in hafte to act, unless it be to prevent the action of others. gain, I prevent it, defer your good inftructions, if poffible, for fear of inculcating bad ones. This earth was conftituted by nature to be the firft paradife of men: beware of acting the part of the tempter, in corrupting innocence by the knowledge of good and evil. As you cannot prevent children from inftructing themfelves by external examples, confine your folicitude to the imprinting thofe examples on

their minds in the form beft adapted to their circumftances.

Violent paffions produce a great effect on a child who is witness ot them, because their marks are ftriking, and command attention. Anger, in particular, is fo boisterous in its expreffions, that it is impoffible not to perceive it when near at hand. You will afk, perhaps, if this does not afford a fine opportunity for a pedagogue to make an excellent difcourfe. No. No excellent discouyfe at all; not a word fhould be faid on the occafion. Let the child only be a witness to the fcene; he will be too much furprifed at the fight not to afk you the meaning of it. Your answer is very fimple, and naturally arifes from the very objects that ftrike his fenfes. He fees an inflamed countenance, fparkling eyes, menacing geftures; he hears violent exclamations: all figns that the body is out of order. Tell him therefore, feriously, and without appearance of affectation, the poor man is taken fuddenly ill; that he is feized with a fit of an ague.

You may hence take occafion to give him, in few words, a general notion of diseases and their effects: for thefe depend immediately on nature, and form one of thofe chains, by which he fhould perceive himself bound to the immoveable weight of neceffity." Vol. i. p. 132.

"To the activity of the body, making conftant efforts to difplay its abilities, fucceeds that of the mind, as conftantly feeking after information. Children, when very young, feem endowed only with a capacity and inclination for motion; they afterwards become inquifitive and curious, and this curiofity, well directed, becomes, at the age they

have now attained, their chief fpring of action. Let us be always careful to diftinguish thofe propenfities which are implanted by nature, from thofe which are ingrafted by the dictates of prejudice and opinion. A thirst after knowledge may proceed merely from the vanity of defiring to be thought learned; it may alfo arife from that curiofity, which naturally excites us to enquire after every thing, in which we may be either directly or indirectly interefted. Our innate defire of happiness, and the impoffibility of our fully gratifying that defire, are the caufe of our conftant researches after new expeditions, to contribute to that end.

This is the firft ptinciple or motive of curiofity; a principle which is natural to the heart of man, but which difplays itself only in obedience to our paffions, and in proportion to our acquirements of knowledge. Let us fuppofe a philofopher caft afhore on a defart ifland, together with his books and inftruments, and that he was under an abfolute certainty of spending in that folitude the remainder of his days. He would never trouble himfelf farther about the fyftem of the univerfe, the laws of attraction, or the fluctionary calculus. It is probable he would never after look in a book, during his whole life: but he certainly would not fail to explore the island, however extenfive, even to its remoteft corners. us, therefore, in our early ftudies, reject thofe fciences for which man has not a natural turn, and confine ourselves to those which instinct directs up to pursue.

Let

This earth is the island on which mankind are caft, and the most ftriking object of their obfervation

is

is the fun. As foon as our ideas begin to extend beyond ourselves, our attention will therefore naturally be engroffed between two fuch interefting fubjects. Hence the philofopher of almost every favage nation is confined folely to the imaginary divifions of the earth, and the divinity of the fun. "What an excursion! cries the reader. We were but just now employed about objects that immediately furround us, and we are now traverfing the globe, and foaring to the diftant extremities of the univerfe." This excurfion, however, is the fimple effect of the progrefs of our facultics, and of the bent of our underftanding. During our infant ftate of weakness and incapacity, all our thoughts, influenced by felf-prefervation, are confined within ourfelves. On the contrary, in a more advanced age, as our abilities increafe, the defire of improving our exiftence carries us out of ourselves, and our ideas extend to the utmost limits. As the intellectual world, however, is as yet unknown to us, our thoughts cannot extend farther than we can fee; but our comprehenfion dilates itself with the bounds of space.

Let us convert our fenfations into ideas; but let us not fly at once from fenfible to intellectual objects. It is only by a due and rational attention to the former we can attain the latter. In the first operations of the understanding, let our fenfes then always be our guide, the world our only book, and facts our fole precepts. Children, when taught to read, learn that only; they never think; they gain no information; all their learning con. fits in words.

Direct the attention of your pupil to the phenomena of nature, and you will foon awaken his curiofity; but to keep that curiofity alive, you must be in no hafte to fatisfy it. Put questions to him adapted to his capacity, and leave him to resolve them. Let him take nothing on trust from his preceptor, but on his own comprehenfion and conviction : he fhould not learn, but invent, the sciences. If ever you fubftitute authority in the place of argument, he will reafon no longer; he will be ever afterwards banded like a fhuttlecock between the opinions of others.

You intend, we'll fuppofe, to teach your child geography, and for that purpose provide for him maps, fpheres, and globes. What an apparatus! wherefore all these mere reprefentations of things? why do you not rather begin by fhewing him the object itself, that he may, at leaft, know what it is you are talking about?

Walk out with him, fome fine evening, to a convenient spot, from whence an extenfive horizon may give you a full view of the fetting fun; and then take particular notice of fuch objects as mark the place of its going down. Return the next morning, with a profeffed defign only of taking the fresh air, to the fame place, before the fun rifes. There you will find the firey rays, it fcatters among the clouds, as harbingers of its approach. The illumination increases, the east feems all in flames, and you expect the glorious orb long before it difcovers itself above the horizon; you think you fee it every moment; it at length appears. Its rays dart like lightning o'er the face of na

ture,

ture, and darkness vanishes at the fight. Man glories in his habitation, and fees it embellished with new beauty. The lawn is refreshed by the coolness of the night, and the light of the morn difplays its increafing verdure: the dew-beSpangled flowers that enamel its furface glitter in the fun-beams, and, like rubies and emeralds, dart their colours on the eye. The chearful birds unite in choirs, and hail in concert the parent of life: not one is filent, at this inchanting moment none are mute; though in feeble notes, more flow and foft than those they chaunt all day, as if from peaceful flumbers fcarce awoke, they join in languid har mony. The affemblage of fo many pleafing objects imprints a glowing fenfation that feems to penetrate the foul. Who can withstand the rapture of this fhort interval of enchantment? It is impoffible fo grand, fo beautiful, fo delightful a fcene can be ever beheld with indifference. Full of that enthufiaftic rapture, with which a preceptor is infpired on fuch an occafion, he endeavours perhaps to communicate it to his pupil; he expects to excite the fame emotions in the child, by attracting its attention to thofe fenfations which he experiences within himfelf. Ridiculous expectation it is the heart only that contemplates the beauties of nature: to be seen, they fhould be always felt a child indeed may perceive the feveral objects, but their connection to him is invifible; he is infenfible to the harmony of the fpheres. He requires an experience, which he hath not yet attained, and fentimenss to which he is as yet a ftranger, to be fufceptible of that complex impreffion which is

the general result of all these sensations. If he has not travelled over defarts; if his feet have never been parched by burning fands; if he never hath felt the fcorching funbeams reflected from the furrounding rocks, how can he taste the fresh air of a fine morning? How fhould he be enraptured with the fragrance of the flowers, the refreshing verdure of the grafs, the dew-drops fparkling in the fun, or the foft carpet of the downy mofs? How fhould the warbling of birds infpire him with glowing raptures, who is a ftranger to the foft accents of love and delight? How can he behold with transport the dawn of fo lovely a day, whofe imagination cannot paint to itself the joys it is capable of beftowing? In a word, what tender fenfations can be excited by the charms of nature, in him, who is ignorant by whose hand fhe is fo beautifully adorned? Talk not to children in a language they do not comprehend; make ufe of no pompous defcriptions, no flowers of speech, no tropes and figures, no poetry; tafte and fentiment are at prefent quite out of the queftion: fimplicity, gravity and precifion are all that are yet required: the time will come, but too foon, when we must affume a different ftyle.

A pupil educated agreeable to thefe maxims, and accustomed to receive no affiftance till he has difcovered his own inabilities, will examine every new object with a long and filent attention. He will be thoughtful without asking queftions. Content yourfelf, therefore, with presenting proper objects opportunely to his notice; and when you fee they have fufficiently excited his curiofity, drop fome

leading