and amusing attainments, may please, indeed, during a fhort period of youth; but, alas! the old age which has no more than these to support*, and recommend it, would be ridiculously contemptible, if it were not truly pitiable. Men are too little inclined to look fo far before them, and to provide for that period, which, if it is deftitute of rational amusement and of folid improvements, must be spent either in a state of ftupid infenfibility, or in wretchedness.

If the antediluvian duration of life ftill continued, what accomplishment is there at which an ingenuous mind would not aspire? But to fpend the greatest portion of threescore years and ten, in trifling or useless pursuits, is pitiable folly t

• Oberve what fupports the great Cicero provided for his old age: In his letters to Atticus he fays; Bibliothecam tuam cave cuiquam defpon deas, quamvis acrem amatorem inveneris ; nam ego omnes meas vindemiolas eò refervo, ut illud

SUBSIDIUM SENECTUTI PAREM.

Noli

defperare ut libros tuos facere poffim meos. Quod fi affequor, fupero Craffum divitiis: atque omnium agros, lucos, prata contemno. Take care you do not engage your library to any one, though you should find an eager purchaser; for I referve all my little property, that I may purchase this fupport for my old age. Do not defpair of my being able to make your books my own, which if I do, I shall furpafs Craffus in riches, and fhall defpife all their lands, woods, and meadows.

+ Quid BREVI FORTES jaculamur Ævo

Multa?

CIC.

Why do we, who have spirit but for a short time, form fo many projeās?

HORACE.

Quid quod æftimatione nocturnæ quietis dimidio quifque fpatio vitæ fuæ vivit. Pars æqua morti fimilis exigitur nec reputantur infantiæ anni, qui fenfu carent, nec fenectæ, in pœnam vivacis, tot morbi, tot curæ - hebefcunt fenfus, membra torquentur, præmoritur vifus, auditus, inceffus, dentes etiam-et tamen vitæ hoc tempus annumeratur.If you compute the time spent in fleep, you will find, that a man actually lives only half his space. The other half passes in a state refembling death. You do not take into the account the years of infancy which are deftitute of reafon, nor the many difeafes and the many cares of old age, thofe penalties of longevity. The fenfes grow dull, the limbs are racked, the fight, the hearing, the power of walking, the teeth alfo die before us, and yet all this time is reckoned in the period of a life.

PLINIUS.

Thus it appears, that, deducting the time of childhood, of fleep, of pain, of disease, of fuperannuation, there remain, even in a long life, fcarcely more than fifteen or twenty years of REAL ACTIVITY; that is of REAL LIFE, for the rest is VEGETATION, or worfe. When we confider this, we cannot help being fhocked at the inconfiderateness of thofe many ghoft-like forms, which hover about the public places of pleasure, and bow the hoary head to the only object of their worship, ALMIGHTY FASHION. Their error arifes from the DEFECTS OF THEIR EDUCATION. They acquired in youth nothing but THE ORNAMENTAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS, and they find in age none of the SOLID comforts which books, philofophy, and religion always afford in abundance.

LIFE IS NOT A JEST; and it was a fool, whe faid in his heart,

Πάνω ΓΕΛΩΣ, καὶ πάλα κόνις, καὶ παλα τὸ μηδέν.

Every thing is laughter, and every thing is duft, and every thing is nothing.

INCERTI.

The

The following paffage, on introducing boys into company, and infifting too much on the fhining and external accomplishments, may correct the judgment of THE MANY on an important point.

"When lefs attention was paid to thofe exterior accomplishments which qualify young men to bear a part in the converfation of their feniors, when they were kept close at fchool, and were feldom brought into company, or at leaft allowed to fay but little in company, fo that they had but little fociety except with their parents and fchool fetlows, they contracted a bafhfulness, which, by dif qualifying them from appearing to advantage in what is called POLITE COMPANY, made them rather fhun it.

"By THIS MEANS A GREAT DEAL OF VERY VALUABLE TIME WAS SAVED; AND HAVING NO ROAD OF AMBITION OPEN TO THEM, BUT THAT OF EXCELLING IN THEIR STUDIES, they of courfe 'applied their time, and bent their application, that way; SO THAT THEY WERE POSSESSED OF THE UNDERSTANDING, AND HAD ACQUIRED THE KNOWLEDGE OE MEN, when they exhibited nothing but the appearance of ruftic boys.

"Of these two extremes (bringing them too early and too much into mixed company, and keeping them entirely out of it), I own myfelf inclined to lean rather to the latter than the former; becaufe EXTERNAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS are certainly of lefs value than INTERNAL ONES, and becaufe the former can be acquired when the latter cannot. The elements of knowledge can only be acquired to any good purpofe in early life, because they depend chiefly on memory, which is peculiarly quick and retentive in youth, and the exercife of it is peculiarly irkfome in riper years." Dr. PRIESTLEY.

SECTION XVIII.

ON THE NECESSITY AND METHOD OF LEARNING GEOGRAPHY, &c.

Totam licet animis, tanquam oculis, luftrare terram mariaque omnia. One may furvey the whole earth, and all the feas which surround it, in the mind, just as if they were prefented to the eyes. CIC,

TH

HERE is nothing which contributes more to accelerate the improvement of the fcholar, and to render his progress agreeable, than a proper care to prefent all the ideas with which he is to be furnished, clearly to his apprehenfion. This is not often fufficiently regarded. Boys learn much of what they are taught, by rote, often without any ideas at all,

"The firft ftrokes which form the sketch of a picture cannot be pencilled with too much truth. If you fail in these first lineaments, let the colouring be ever fo brilliant and rich, far from concealing this want of proportion, it will only make the deformity more apparent. Indeterminate ideas ferve only to confufe the minds of children; they afford no inftruction to them, and prevent their future improvement; because the falfe ideas they receive, will always contradict the true ones which we endeavour to give them. The first impreffions will be in oppofition to the fecond, and the confequence, confufion.” Father GERDIL.

and almost always with confused and imperfect ideas. They are apt to confider their business merely as a task, without any view to valuable improvement; and if they can go through it with impunity, they are little folicitous concerning the advantage to be derived from it.

Among other proofs of the imperfection and the confufion of boys ideas may be numbered their frequent ignorance of geography, at the time they are reading history. At many capital fchools, fcarcely any attention is paid to geography, especially among the younger boys; who are, however, often engaged in reading Eutropius, Justin, Cæfar, and many other hiftorians antient and modern, Latin and English.

Obfcurity and confufion are at all times painful. It is no wonder that boys, while they are unacquainted with geography, appear to receive little entertainment from hiftories which abound in amusing events. They are travelling in the dark. They fee nothing around them diftinctly; and, at the end of their journey, they find the confequence little more than fatigue.

At a very early age, then, I would introduce the pupil to a knowledge of geography. But I would

* Sexenni vel feptenni utiliter cenfeo datum iri chartas tres vel quatuor geographicas, ut inde distinguere difcat tres continentes, et in primâ Asiam, Africam, et Europam. In fingulis harum nobiliores regiones, et terminos primariafque urbes, velut, Romam, Carthaginem, Athenas, Spartam, Conftantinopolim, Hierofolyma. Oftendatur ubi Chriftus natus; ubi imperator Germanicus dominetur, ubi Turcicus; ubi Caftiliæ rex, ubi Luj

fitaniæ;