STUDY VII. 125 



tling. For one who fucceeds in thefe trivial pur- 

 fuits, how many thoufands lofe, at once, their 

 health and their Latin ! 



It is emulation, we are told, which awakens ta- 

 lents. It would be an eafy tafk to demonftrate, 

 that the moft celebrated Writers, in every walk of 

 literature, never were brought up at college, frorti 

 Homer, who was acquainted with no language but 

 his own, down to John James Ronjfeau, who was a 

 very indifferent Latin fcholar. How many young 

 men have made a brilliant figure in the run of the 

 claffes, who were by and by totally eclipfed in the 

 vaft fphere of Literature Î Italy is crouded with 

 colleges and academies ; but can (he boaft, at this 

 day, of fo much as one man eminently diflin- 

 guilhed ? Do we not fee there, on the contrary, 

 talents diftrafted, by ill-afforted focieties, byjea- 

 loufies, by cabals, by intrigues, and by all the 

 reftlefsnefs of ambition, become enfeebled, and 

 melt away ? 



I think I am able to perceive flill another rea- 

 fon of this decline ; it is, that nothing is fludied 

 in thofe feminaries but the methods and forms of 

 learning, or what, in the Painter's phrafe, is called 

 manner. This ftudy, by fixing us in the track of 

 a mafter, forces us out of the path of Nature, 

 which is the fource of all talents. Look to France, 



and 



