186 A HISTORY OF 



gies of literature before ten, have not made an adequate progress to 

 twenty. It should seem that they only began learning manly things 

 before their time ; and, while others were busied in picking up that 

 knowledge adapted to their age and curiosity, these were forced upon 

 subjects unsuited to their years : and, upon that account alone, appeal- 

 ing extraordinary. The stock of knowledge in both may be equal , 

 but with this difference, that each is yet to learn what the other 

 knows. 



But whatever may have been the acquisitions of children at ten or 

 twelve, their greatest and most rapid progress is made when they ar- 

 rive 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, therefore, which 

 is various in different countries, more is learned in one year than in 

 any two of the preceding ; and on thrs age in particular, the greatest 

 weight of instruction ought to be thrown. 



CHAPTER IV. 



OF PUBERTY. 



IT has been often said, that the season of youth is the season oi 

 pleasures : but this can only be true in savage countries, where but 

 little preparation is made for the perfection of human nature, 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 future happiness is to depend. 

 The youth who follows his appetites, too soon seizes the cup, before 

 it has received its best ingredients ; and, by anticipating his pleasures, 

 robs the remaining parts of life of their share ; so that his eagerness 

 only produces a manhood of imbecility, and an age of pain. 



The time of puberty is different in various countries, and ahv;ty.s 

 moie late in men than in women. In the warm countries of India, the 

 women are marriageable at nine or ten, and the men at twelve or thir- 

 teen. It is also different in cities, where the inhabitants lead a more 

 soft, luxurious life, from the country, where they work harder, and 

 fare less delicately. Its symptoms are seldom alike in different per- 

 sons ; but it is usually known by a swelling of the breasts in one sex, 

 and a roughness of the voice in the other. At this season, also, the 

 women seem to acquire new beauty, while the men lose all that deli- 

 rate effeminacy of countenance which they had when boys. 



All countries, in proportion as they are civilized or barbarous, im- 

 prove or degrade the nuptial satisfaction. In those miserable regions, 

 where strength makes the only law, the stronger sex exerts its power, 



