ANIMALS. 309 



modesty ; the mind, with new sensations, assumes new powers ; 

 it conceives with greater force, and remembers with gi-eater ten- 

 acity. About this time, therefore, which is various in different 

 countries, more is learned in one year than in any two of the 

 lireceding ; and on this age, in particulai', the greatest weight of 

 instruction ought to be thrown. 



CHAP. IV. 



OF PUBERTY. 



[t has been often said, that the season of youth is the season 

 CI 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 pLices where nature is car- 

 ried to the highest pitch of refinement, in -which this season of 

 the greatest sensual delight is wisely maae 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 plea- 

 sures, 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 al- 

 ways more late in men than in women. In the warm countries 

 of India, the v/omen are marriageable at nine or ten, and the 

 men at twelve or thirteen. 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 symj)toms 

 an," seldom alike in different persons, 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 delicate effe- 

 minacy of countenance which they had when boys. 



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



