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"be judged according to the deeds done in the body, "whether they be good or bad."

Say not that thefe juft and fober views will cruelly wither her young hopes, blaft her budding profpects, and deaden the innocent fatisfactions of life. It is not true. There is, happily, an active fpring in the mind of youth which bounds with fresh vigour and uninjured elafticity from any fuch temporary depreffion. It is not meant that you should darken her profpect, fo much as that you fhould enlighten the eyes of her understanding to contemplate it. And though her feelings, taftes, and paflions, will all be againft you, if you fet before her a faithful delineation of life, yet it will be fomething to get her judgment on your fide. It is no unkind office to aflift the fhort view of youth with the aids of long-fighted experience; to enable them to discover spots in the brightness of that world which dazzles them in profpect, though it is probable they will after all choose to believe their own eyes rather than the offered glass.

CHAP. VIII.

On Female Study, and Initiation into Knowledge.-Error of cultivating the Imagination to the neglect of the Judgment. -Books of Reafoning recommended.

As this little work by no means affumes the characS ter of a general fcheme of education, the author has purposely avoided expatiating largely on any kind of inftruction, but as it happens to be connected, either immediately or remotely, with objects of a moral or religious nature. Of course fhe has been fo far from thinking it neceffary to enter into the enumeration of thofe popular books which are used in general inftruction, that he has purposely forborne to mention any. With fuch books the rifing generation is far more copiously and ably furnished than any that has preceded it; and out of an excellent variety the judicious inftructor can hardly fail to make fuch a felection as fhall be beneficial to the pupil.

But while due praise ought not to be withheld from the improved methods of communicating the elements of general knowledge; yet is there not fome danger that our very advantages may lead us into error, by caufing us to repofe fo confidently on the multiplied helps which facilitate the entrance into learning, as to render our pupils fuperficial through the very facility of acquirement? Where fo much is done for them, may they not be led to do too little for themselves? and be fides that exertion may flacken for want of a fpur, may there not be a moral difadvantage in poffeffing young perfons with the notion that learning may be acquired without diligence, and knowledge be attained without labour? Sound education never can be made a "prim"rofe path of dalliance." Do what we will we cannot cheat children into learning, or play them into knowledge, according to the conciliating fmoothness of the modern creed, and the selfish indolence of modern habits. There is no idle way to any acquifitions which really deserve the name. And as Euclid, in order to imprefs the impetuous vanity of greatness, told his Sovereign that there was no royal way to geometry; fo the fond mother may be affured that there is no fhort cut to any other kind of learning; no privileged bye-path cleared from the thorns and briars of repulfe and difficulty, for the accommodation of opulent inactivity or feminine weakness. The tree of knowledge, as a punishment, perhaps, for its having been at first unfairly tafted, cannot now be climbed without difficulty; and this very circumftance ferves afterwards to furnish not only literary pleasures, but moral advantages. For the knowledge which is acquired by unwearied affiduity is lafting in the poffeffion, and fweet to the poffeffor; both perhaps in proportion to the coft and labour of the acquifition. And though an abler teacher ought to endeavour, by im. proving the communicating faculty in himself, (for many know what they cannot teach,) to soften every difficulty; yet in fpite of the kindness and ability with which he will smooth every obftruction, it is probably among the wife inftitutions of Providence that great difficulties fhould still remain. For education is but

an initiation into that life of trial to which we are introduced on our entrance into this world. It is the firft breaking-in to that ftate of toil and labour to which we are born, and to which fin has made us liable; and in this view of the subject the pains taken in the acquifition of learning may be converted to higher uses than fuch as are purely literary.

Will it not be afcribed to a captious fingularity, if I venture to remark, that real knowledge and real piety, though they may have gained in many inftances, have fuffered in others from that profufion of little, amufing, fentimental books with which the youthful library overflows? Abundance has its dangers as well fcarcity. In the first place, may not the multiplicity of thefe alluring little works increase the natural reluctance to thofe more dry and uninteresting studies, of which after all, the rudiments of every part of learning must confist? And fecondly, is there not fome danger (though there are many honourable exceptions) that fome of thofe engaging narratives may ferve to infuse into the youthful heart a fort of fpurious goodnefs, a confidence of virtue, a parade of charity? And that the benevolent actions with the recital of which they abound, when they are not made to flow from any fource but feeling, may tend to infpire a felf-complacency, a felf-gratulation, a "ftand by, for I am ho"lier than thou?" May not the fuccefs with which the good deeds of the little heroes are uniformly crowned; the invariable reward which is made the instant concomitant of well-doing, furnish the young reader with falfe views of the condition of life, and the nature of the divine dealings with men? May they not help to fuggeft a falfe ftandard of morals, to infuse a love of popularity and an anxiety for praife, in the place of that fimple and unoftentatious rule of doing whatever good we do, because it is the will of God? The univerfal fubftitution of this principle would tend to purify the worldly morality of many a popular little story. And there are few dangers which good parents will more carefully guard against than that of giving their children a mere political piety; that fort of religion

which juft goes to make people more refpectable, and to ftand well with the world; a religion which is to fave appearances without inculcating realities; a religion which affects "to preach peace and good will to men," but which forgets to give "glory to God in the higheft." *

There is a certain precocity of mind which is much helped on by thefe fuperficial modes of inftruction; for frivolous reading will produce its correfpondent effect, in much lefs time than books of folid inftruction; the imagination being liable to be worked upon, and the feelings to be fet a-going, much fafter than the understanding can be opened, and the judgment enlightened. A talent for converfation fhould be the refult of inftruction, not it precurfor; it is a golden fruit when fuffered to ripen gradually on the tree of knowledge; but if forced on the hot-bed of a circulating. library, it will turn out worthlefs and vapid in proportion as it was artificial and premature. Girls who have been accustomed to devour a multitude of frivolous books, will converfe and write with a far greater appearance of skill as to ftyle and fentiment at twelve or fourteen years old, than those of a more advanced age who are under the difcipline of feverer ftudies; but the former having early attained to that low ftandard which had been held out to them, become stationary; while the latter, quietly progreffive, are paffing through juft gradations to a higher ftrain of mind; and thofe who early begin with talking and writing like women, commonly end with thinking and acting like children.

I would not however prohibit fuch works of imagination as fuit th early period. When moderately ufed they ferve to stretch the faculties and expand the mind; but I fhould prefer works of vigorous genius, and pure unmixed fable to many of those tame and

An ingenious (and in many refpects useful) French Treatife on Education, has too much encouraged this political piety; by confidering religion as a thing of human invention, rather than of divine inftitution; as a thing creditable, rather than commanded: by erecting the doctrine of expediency in the room of Chriftian fimplicity and wearing away the fpirit of truth, by the fubftitution of occafiona deceit, equivocation, subterfuge, and mental reservation.

more affected moral stories which are not grounded on Christian principle. I should fuggeft the ufe on the one hand of original and acknowledged fictions; and on the other, of accurate and fimple facts; fo that truth and fable may ever be kept feparate and distinct in the mind. There is fomething that kindles fancy, awakens genius, and excites new ideas in many. of the bold fictions of the Eaft. And there is one peculiar merit in the Arabian and fome other orientaltales, which is, that they exhibit ftriking and in many refpects faithful views of the manners, habits, cuftoms, and religion of their refpective countries; fo that fome tincture of real local information is acquired by the perufal of the wildeft fable, which will not be without its ufes in aiding the future affociations of the mind in all that relates to Eastern history and literature.

The irregular fancy of women is not fufficiently fubdued by early application, nor tamed by labour, and the kind of knowledge they commonly acquire is cafily attained; and being chiefly fome flight acquifition of the memory, fomething which is given them to get off. by themselves, and not grounded in their minds by comment and converfation, it is easily loft. The fuperficial question-and-answer-way, for inftance, in which they often learn hiftory, furnishes the mind with little to lean on: the events being detached and separated, the actions having no links to unite them with each other; the characters not being interwoven by mutual relation; the chronology being reduced to difconnected dates, inftead of presenting. an unbroken feries; of courfe, neither events, actions, characters, nor chronology, faften themfelves on the understanding, but rather float in the memory as fo many detached epifodes, than contribute to form the mind and to enrich the judgment of the reader, in the important fcience of men and manners.

The fwarms of Abridgments, Beauties, and Compendiums, which form too confiderable a part of a young lady's library, may be confidered in many inftances as an in-fallible receipt for making a fuperficial mind. The names of the renowned characters in hiftory thus become familiar in the mouths of those who can neither

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