his learning; for that is a fure good. I would let him at first read any English book which happens to engage his attention; because you have done a great deal when you have brought him to have entertainment from a book. He'll get better books afterwards."

Johnfon advised Mr. Bofwell not to refine in the education of his children. "Life (faid he) will not bear refinement; you must do as other people do. Above all, accuftom your children conftantly to tell the truth; if a thing happened at one window, and they, when relating it, fay that it happened at another, do not let it pass, but inftantly check them; you do not know where deviation from truth will end."BOSWELL. "It may come to the door: and when once an account is at all varied in one circumftance, it may by degrees be varied fo as to be totally different from what really happened." A Lady in the company, whofe fancy was impatient of the rein, fidgeted at this, and ventured to fay, Nay, this is too much. If Mr. Johnfon fhould forbid me to drink tea I would comply, as I fhould feel the reftraint only twice a day; but little variations in narrative must happen a thousand times a day, if one is not perpetually watching."-JOHNSON. Well, Madam, and you ought to be perpe

tually

tually watching. It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentional lying, that there is fo much falfehood in the world."

Talking of inftruction, "People have nowa-days (faid he) got a ftrange opinion that every thing should be taught by lectures. Now I cannot fee that lectures can do fo much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken. I know nothing that can be beft taught by lectures, except where experiments are to be fhewn. You may teach chemistry by lectures; you might teach making of fhoes by lectures!"

tion.

He allowed very great influence to educa"I do not (he faid) deny but there is fome original difference in minds; but it is nothing in comparison of what is formed by education. We may inftance the science of numbers, which all minds are equally capable of attaining; yet we find a prodigious difference in the powers of different men, in that refpect, after they are grown up, because their minds have been more or lefs exercised in it; and I think the fame caufe will explain the difference of excellence in other things, gradations admitting always fome difference in the first principles."

He often took occafion to enlarge upon the wretchednefs of a fea life. "A fhip (faid he)

is worse than a gaol. There is in a gaul better air,
better company, better conveniency of every
kind; and a ship has the additional disadvantage
of being in danger. When men come to like a
fea life, they are not fit to live on land."-
"Then (faid Mr. B.) it would be cruel in a
father to breed his fon to the fea."-JOHNSON.
"It would be cruel in a father who thinks as I
do. Men go to sea before they know the un-
happiness of that way of life; and when they
have come to know it, they cannot escape from
it, because it is then too late to choose another
profeffion; as indeed is generally the cafe with
men, when they have once engaged in any par-
ticular way of life."

In one of Mr. Dilly's literary parties, fomebody was mentioned as having wished that Milton's Tractate on Education' fhould be printed along with his Poems in the edition of the English Poets then going on. Johnfon faid, "It would be breaking in upon the plan; but would be of no great confequence. So far as it would be any thing it would be wrong. Education in England has been in danger of being hurt by two of its greatest men, Milton and Locke. Milton's plan is impracticable, and I fuppofe has never been tried; Locke's, I fancy, has been tried often enough, but is very imperfect; it gives too much to one fide,

and

and too little to the other: it gives too little to literature.

On another occafion he faid, "Where there is no education, as in favage countries, men will have the upper hand of women. Bodily ftrength, no doubt, contributes to this; but it would be fo, exclufive of that; for it is mind that always governs. When it comes to dry understanding, man has the better."

Mr. Bofwell obferved, that he was well af fured, that the people of Otaheite who have the bread tree, the fruit of which ferves them for bread, laughed heartily when they were informed of the tedious process neceffary with us to have bread;-plowing, fowing, harrowing, reaping, threshing, grinding, baking."JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, all ignorant favages will laugh when they are told of the advantages of civilized life. Were you to tell men who live without houfes, how we pile brick upon brick, and rafter upon rafter, and that after a houfe is raised to a certain height, a man tumbles off a fcaffold, and breaks his neck, he would laugh heartily at our folly in building; but it does not follow that men are better without houses. No, Sir, (holding up a flice of a good loaf) this is better than the bread tree.'

He repeated an argument, which is to be found in his "Rambler," against the notion

that

that the brute creation is endowed with the faculty of reason:"birds build by instinct; they never improve; they build their firft neft as well as any one that they ever build." Goldfmith faid, "Yet we fee if you take away a bird's neft with the eggs. in it, fhe will make a flighter neft, and lay again."-JOHNSON. "Sir, that is becaufe at firft fhe has full time and makes her neft deliberately. In the cafe you mention fhe is preffed to lay, and must therefore make her neft quickly, and confequently it will be flight."-G. "The nidification of birds is what is leaft known in natural hiftory, though one of the most curious things in it."

The mafter of a public fchool at Campbelltown, in Scotland, had been suspended from his office, on a charge againft him of having ufed immoderate and cruel correction, Mr. Bofwell was engaged to plead the cause of the mafter, and confulted Dr. Johnson on the subject, who made the following obfervations: "The charge is, that he has used immoderate. and cruel correction. Correction, in itself, is not cruel; children, being not reasonable, can be governed only by fear. To imprefs this fear, is therefore one of the first duties of thofe who have the care of children. It is the duty of a parent, and has never been thought inconfiftent with parental tenderness. It is the duty of a mafter,