304 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



graces of their mafters by flattery, and to fupplant 

 iheir equals by calumny. If thefe means fucceed 

 not, they conceive an averfion for the objedts of 

 their emulation, which, to their comrades, has all 

 the value of applaufe, and becomes, to themfelves, 

 a perpetual fource of depreffion, of chaftifement, 

 and of tears. 



This is the reafon that fo many grown men, en- 

 deavour to banifh from their memory, the times 

 and the objeds of their early ftudles, though it be 

 natural, to the heart of Man, to recolleft with dc' 

 light the epochs of infancy. How many behold, 

 in the maturity of life, the bowers of ofiers, and 

 the ruftic canopies, which ferved for their infant 

 lleeping and dining apartments, who could not 

 look, without abhorrence, upon a Turfdlin^ or a 

 Defpauter ! I have no doubt that thofe difgufts, of 

 early education, extend a moft baleful influence to 

 that love with which we ought to be animated to- 

 ward Religion, becaufe it's elements, in like man- 

 ner, are difplayed only through the medium of 

 gloom, pride, and inhumanity. 



The plan of moft mafters confifts, above all, in 

 compofing the exterior of their pupils. They form, 

 on the fame model, a multitude of characters, 

 which Nature had rendered effentially different. One 

 will have his to be grave and ftately, as if they v.'ere 



fo 



