132 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



critical, envious, ugly, and wicked. In propor- 

 tion as they increafe in age, they increafe alfo in 

 malignity, and the fpirit of contradiélion. There 

 is not a lingle fchool-boy who knows any thing of 

 the laws of his Country, but there are fome who 

 may have heard talk about thofe of the Twelve 

 Tables. No one of them can tell how our own 

 wars are conduced j but many are able to enter- 

 tain you with fome account of the wars of the 

 Greeks and Romans. Not one of them but knows 

 that fingle combat is prohibited j and many of 

 them go to the fencing-fchools, where the only 

 thing taught is to fight duels. They are fent thi- 

 ther, we are told, merely to learn a graceful car- 

 riage, and to walk like gentlemen ; as if a gentle- 

 man muft walk in the pofitions oï tierce and quarte, 

 and as if the gait and attitude of a citizen ought 

 to be that of a gladiator. 



Others, deftined to fundions more peaceful, 

 are put to fchool to learn the art of difputation. 

 Truth, they gravely tell us, is ftruck out of the 

 collifion of opinions. There may be fomething 

 like wit in the expreffion. But for my own part, 

 I (liould find myfelf incapable of diflinguifhing 

 truth, if I met with her in the heat of a difpute. 

 I fliould fufped that I was dazzled either by my 

 own paflion, or that of another man. Out of dif- 

 putations havearifenfophifms, herefies, paradoxes, 



errors 



