248 JAMAICA. 



return to- liis native country with any other acquifitlon than the 

 art of fvvearing, drinking, drefling, gaming, and wenching. It is, 

 I own, a laudable zeal in a parent, who is fohcitous to confer on his 

 children the bleflings of hberal education. But it is furely a pal- 

 pable miftake, that leads hin^ to give their minds a wrong turn ; 

 and really pernicious to their welfare, that they fhould be brought 

 up in a manner totally unfuitable to their future ftation. He fhould 

 learn to diftinguifli, that to train up his fon to no profeffion is, by 

 no means, the way to make a gentleman of him ; zdly, that, if he 

 intends him for a profeflion, the fyftem of his education fhould be 

 particularly adapted to it; jdly, that to aflign him a profeflion, and 

 at the fame time leave it in his own free choice to apply to the 

 lludy of it or not, or to furnifli him with the inftruments of idle- 

 iiefs and diflipation, when his mind fliould be engaged in the pur- 

 fuits of ufeful knowledge, is no more than enjoining him to per- 

 form a talk, and bribing him at the fame time to leave it unper- 

 formed ; 4thly, that one uniform plan, or fyflem, of fcholaftic in- 

 ftrudlion cannot be indilbriminately proper for all youths, however 

 various their fortunes, capacities, or the refpe<Slive walks of life 

 into which they are afterwards to pafs. 



Let me now afk, what are the mighty advantages which Britain, 

 or the colony, has gained by the many hundreds who have received 

 their education in the former ? The anfwer may be, they have 

 fpent their fortunes in Britain, and learned to I'enounce their native 

 place, their parents, and friends. Would it not have been better 

 for both countries, that three-fourths of them had never crofTed 

 the Atlantic r Their induflry is, in general, for ever lofl to the 

 place where it might have been ufefully exerted ; and they wafte 

 their patrimony in a manner that redounds not in the leafl to the 

 national profit, having acquired a tafte for pleafure and extravagance 

 of every kind, far fuperior to the ability of their fortunes. Surely 

 this can be no public acquifition, unlefs it be proved, that the king- 

 dom is more enriched and benefited by a thoughtlefs prodigal, than 

 by a thrifty, iuduflrious citizen. The education they ufually re- 

 ceive in Great-Britain does not qualify them for ufeful employment 

 in Jamaica, unlefs they are bred to fome of the learned profeflions ; 

 which neverthelefs are not fuitable to all, becaufe thofe profeflions 



would 



