14 Mr. Henry on the Couftjlency of 
and the reading of our bed: authors; or at an air 
pump, an electrical machine, or a microfcope, 
than, as is too often the cafe with thofe youths 
who have not received that culture which their 
fortunes entitled them to, at the tavern, the gam¬ 
ing table, or the brothel ; or, if their minds be 
not fufficiently aCtive, and paffions ltrong, to im¬ 
pel them to thefe exceffes, in idlenefs, low com¬ 
pany, and mean and degrading purfuits ? “ There 
are indeed, but very few,” fays an excellent ob- 
ferver of human nature, <c who know how to be 
idle and innocent, or have a reiilh of any plea- 
fures that are not criminal ^ every diverfion they 
take is at the expence of fome one virtue or ano¬ 
ther, and their very firft ftep out of bufinefs is 
into vice or folly. A man fnould endeavour, there¬ 
fore, to make the fphere of his innocent pleafures 
as wide as poflible, that he may retire into them 
with fafety, and find in them fuch a fatisfaCtion, 
as a wife man would not blufh to take.” 
The arguments, which have hitherto been ad¬ 
duced in favour of commercial men endeavour¬ 
ing to attain liberal knowledge, have been prin¬ 
cipally confined to thofe, whofe parents have 
already acquired fuch fortunes, as raife their fons 
above the level of the more necefTitous tradefman, 
in whom a greater degree of afiiduity in bufinefs 
is necefiary. But, even in this cafe, if his dili¬ 
gence and application degenerate into an in¬ 
ordinate defi e of accumulating wealth, and this 
ruling 
