BOOK n. C H A P. XII. 249 



[^would foon be overftocked in the ifland, if every youth configncd 

 from thence was to be trained to phyfick, divinity, or law, and 

 becaufe ex qnovis ligno non ft Mercurius. They generally leavv.^ 

 Britain at that critical age when the blood beats high. They re- 

 gret their exile from the gay delights of Loiidon, from the connect 

 tions of early friendfhip, and perhaps the foftcr attachments of 

 love. The impreffions of all thefe remain lively and forcible. 

 With this riveted prejudice againft a colony-life, it is not to be 

 wondered at, that they embrace the firfl convenient opportunity of 

 returning to their favourite purfuits and focial intimacies. Such is 

 often the over-fond liberality of Wefl-India parents, in "ordering a 

 too large allowance for their fons in Biitain, that thefe youths are 

 not only invited by this means to negled their ftudies, and com- 

 mence men of pleafure, but are readily elevated into a deftru£tive 

 opinion, that they have been fent thither merely to pafs away their 

 time agreeably, and that it is not meant they fliould perplex them- 

 felves with dry and abftrufe literature, as their fortune will enable 

 them to live independent of fcience or bufmefs, Senfible there- 

 fore of their exemption from paternal reflraint, they joyoufly ad- 

 here to this conclufion, and follow the fedudlions of levity, caprice, 

 and vicious indulgence, without refle£l:ion. Of the many (Indents 

 at law, natives of Jamaica, who after compleating their terms in 

 London have returned to aflume the gown, I have not heard of one 

 who ever gained 5 /. a year by his practice. I'his ilTue we muft not 

 afcribe to any defe^l of parts, but to a youth fpent in foppery, li- 

 centioufnefs, and prodigality, under a total renunciation of every 

 other fludy. Many I have noted, who, arriving there after having ^ 

 (as it is called) finiped their education in England, appeared un^- 

 pardonably illiterate, and poflefled of few attainments beyond what 

 I have already enumerated. Some I have obferved, who, being 

 endued with tolerable genius, acquired more real knowledge and 

 gentlemanly accomplifliments, in one twelvemonth after their ar- 

 rival, than they had gained by fixteen years refidence in London ; 

 and this from being led at once into a fcene of public bufmefs, and 

 the company and converfation of intelligent men. Having pointed 

 out fome principal fources of that imperfedt education which our 

 young men in general receive, I fhall add a few thoughts in refpefl 

 Vol. 11. K k to 



