HISTORY OF 



most rapid progress is made when they arrive 

 near the age of puberty. It is then that all the 

 powers of nature seem at work in strengthening 

 the mind, and completing the body: the youth 

 acquires courage, and the virgin modesty ; the 

 mind, with new sensations, assumes new powers ; 

 it conceives with greater force, and remembers 

 with greater tenacity. About this time, there- 

 fore, which is various in different countries, more 

 is learned in one year than in any two of the 

 preceding; and on this age, in particular, the 

 greatest weight of instruction ought to be thrown. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



OF PUBERTY. 



*y{?r% : ''. - . 



IT has been often said, that the season of youth 

 is the season of pleasures ; but this can only be 

 true in savage countries, where but little prepa- 

 ration is made for the perfection of human na- 

 ture, and where the mind has but a very small 

 part in the enjoyment. It is otherwise in those 

 places where nature is carried to the highest pitch 

 of refinement, in which this season of the greatest 

 sensual delight, is wisely made subservient to the 

 succeeding and more rational one of manhood. 

 Youth, with us, is but a scene of preparation ; a 

 drama, upon the right conduct of which all fu- 

 ture happiness is to depend. The youth who 



