be called learned, that from the habit they have acquired of 

 submitting their opinions to the authority of others, or from 

 some otlier principle, that operates more powerfully than the 

 love of truth, suffer their judgment to be carried along to the 

 end of their days, either by the authority of a leader, or of 

 a part}', or of a multitude, or" by their own passions. Such 

 persons, however learned, however acute, may be said to be 

 children all their lives. : 



Having thus seen that the improvement of the reasoning 

 faculty is indispensably necessary to all those who would aim 

 »t excellence in any department of polite literature, even in 

 poetry with which it is apparently' least connected, we ai'e 

 now to examine what description of study is best adapted for 

 this purpose, what mode of instruction might correct the 

 judgment without encumbering or retarding the fancy, might 

 confirm the strength and sagacity of the reason in its pursuit, 

 and enlarge the field of the imagination by its possession. 

 And first, for the discipline of the understanding no study has 

 ever been thought so proper as tliat of mathematics, almost 

 all the ablest writers on the subjects of education and human^ 

 faculties have recommended it, and their opinion has been 

 sanctioned by the approbation of those learned and enlight- 

 ened men of every country, to whom has been committed 

 the superintendance of academic instruction. Quinctilian 

 expressly inculcates the advantage of mathematical learning 

 to an orator ; and Locke says that he would have all children 

 leiirn mathematics, "not, says he, to make them mathema- 



