English Dictionary, and, after all, will acquire but an imperfect idea of the many words which are directly derived from the Latin or the Greek *. an objection which is triumphantly urged by every innovator, we may fay in the words of Felton: "A boy will be able to repeat his Latin Grammar over two or three years before his understanding opens enough to let him into the reafon of the rules; and when this is done fooner or later, it ceafeth to be jargon; fo that all this clamour is wrong founded; . . . . and therefore I am for the old way in schools ftill, and children will be furnifhed there with a stock of words at least, when they come to know how to use them." I wish thofe parents and inftructors who rail fo much against employing boys in learning words, and terms, and rules, would inform us how they can be employed fo INNOCENTLY. Would they introduce boys into company, take them to all public places, and initiate them in all the vice and vanity of the world? The time will come when they will repent fuch a choice, and will with their fons had been learning LILLY'S RULES, inftead of HOYLE'S. Natura enim ipfa fic hominum ftudia dispertiviffe videtur, ut primam ætatem LINGUÆ, mediam eloquentiæ et artibus, poftremam ufui et communi utilitati diftribuerit. For nature herself seems thus to have allotted the ftudies of man, fo as to devote the first part of life to language, the middle to eloquence and the arts, the last to practice and general utility. Anon. Differt. de Rat. difcend. Ling. * Græco fonte cadunt parcè detorta. Ho&. SECTION XV. ON THE PREPARATION FOR A MERCANTILE LIFE. Τὸ μὲν αργύριον, ἐςὶ κοινὸν τι πάλων ανθρώπων κημα τὸ δὲ καλὸν, καὶ πρῶς ἔπαινον κὶ τιμὴν ἀνῆκον, θεων και των ἔγγις ο τούτους πεφυκότων ανδρων ἐσι. Money indeed can be pof Jeffed by any fort of man whatever; but the HONOURABLE, and that which leads to praise and glory, is peculiarly the property of the gods, and of men who come nearest to them. POLYBIUS. Pueri longis rationibus affem A HORAT FRANCIS. Great wit of antiquity, no lefs remarkable for the liberality of his mind, and his knowledge of the world, than for his excellence in poetry, has cenfured that mode of education which is confined to arithmetic. He has fuggefted that the mind, from a conflant attention in early youth to pecuniary and mercantile computations, contracts a degree of ruft totally destructive of genius. There is certainly fome truth in his obfervation; but it muft must be confidered, that our country differs from his in many effential particulars. Arms and arts were the chief objects of attention in Rome; but Britain, from her fituation and connections, is naturally commercial. Commerce in Britain has acquired a dignity unknown in antient times, and in other countries of Europe. They who have been engaged in it have added a grace to it by the liberality of their education, and the generofity of their minds. This has introduced them to the company of those to whom their fortunes made them equal; and they have appeared in the fenate, and in society, with peculiar grace and importance. I mean, however, in this fection, to advise, that they who are deftined to a commercial life, fhould not devote their time and attention, exclufively, to penmanship and to arithmetic. In whatever degree thefe excellences may be poffeffed, they will never exalt or refine the fentiments. They will never form the gentleman. They are the qualifications of a hireling fcrivener, and are at this time in poffeffion of fome of the lowest and meaneft perfons of the community. But I would not be misapprehended. I know the value of a legible and expeditious hand, and the beauty of arithmetic as a science, as well as its ufe as a practical qualification *. They are * Numerorum notitia cuicunque primis faltem literis erudito neceffaria eft. The knowledge of numbers is neceffary for every one who is acquainted with the first elements of learning. QUINTILIAN. Arithmetic, are abfolutely necessary to the merchant; they are highly useful to all. My meaning is, that they should not form the whole of education, nor even the chief part of it, even when the ftudent is defigned for a mercantile life. For what is the propofed end of a mercantile life? The accumulation of money. And what is the use of money? To contribute to the enjoyment of life t. But is life to be enjoyed with a narrow Arithmetic, indeed, when ftudied as a fcience for its own fake, assɑmes new grace, and furnishes a fine exercise for the mind in its favourite employment, the pursuit of truth. "Tis here," fays a fine writer, fpeaking of quantity, “we see the rife of thofe mathematical fciences, arithmetic, geometry, mufic, &c. which the antients esteemed fo effential to a liberal education. Nor can we believe there is any one now, but must acknowledge that a mind, properly tinged with fuch noble fpeculations (fuppofing there be no want of genius or of courage), is qualified to excel in every fuperior scene of life. Far more honourable they surely are, than the arts of riding a borse, or of wielding a fword, thofe accomplishments, ufually affigned our youth of diftinction, and for the fake of which alone they are often sent into distant countries, as if there were nothing to be taught them at home, nor any thing in a gentleman worth cultivating but his body. We would not undervalue thefe bodily accomplishments (for perfection of every fort is certainly worth aiming at); but we would wish them to be rated as much below the mental, as the body itself is inferior to the mind." HARRIS. In order to which it is neceffary to have acquired a fort of knowledge, ου τὴν περὶ τον ΖΗΝ, άλλο την προ τὸ ΕΥ ΖΗΝ. Not that which regards mere a narrow and unenlightened mind? If it is, what must be the enjoyment? It must be low, and difgraceful. A rich man, without liberal ideas, and without fome fhare of learning *, is an unfit companion for thofe in the rank to which he is advanced; a melancholy confideration, that after all the toils and cares of bufinefs, when a man has acquired a princely fortune, he must be excluded from the society of men of equal condition, but fuperior education, or be ridiculous in it; that he must be unfit for parliamentary or civil employments, though the influence of money may procure him admiffion to them! I really do not mean, in any thing I have faid, to difcourage an attention to writing and arithmetic. If I did, I fhould with reafon raife a very numerous party, who would not fail to be clamorous against my doctrine. My advice is, and I offer it with unaffected deference, that those who are intended for a genteel line of commercial life, fhould beftow at least as much attention on the cultivation of their minds as on mechanical attainments, or on a animal life, mere eating, drinking, &c. but that which contributes to WELL LIVING-the pleasures of a reasonable nature. EPICTETUS. Qui uti fcit ei bona. Riches are goods to him alone who knows how to use them. TERENCE. * Petite hanc juvenefque fenefque Miferis viatica canis. Seek this, both young and old HOR. This furnishes a Jupply for the evil days of old age. mere |