155 



very ill-judged in us to follow their example in this in- 

 stanoe. There is a certain period of life, say from ei^ht 

 to fifteen or sixteen years of age, when the mind like 

 the hody is not yet firm enough for laborious and close 

 operations. If applied to such, it falls an early victim 

 to premature exertion: exhibiting, indeed, at first, in 

 these young and tender subjects, the flattering appear- 

 ance of their being men while they are yet children, 

 but ending in reducing them to be children when they 

 should be men. The memory is then most susceptible 

 and tenacious of impressions; and the learning of lan- 

 guages being chiefly a work of memory, it seems pre- 

 cisely fitted to the powers of this jjeriod, which is long 

 enough too for acquiring the most useful languages an- 

 cient and modern. I do not pretend that language is 

 science. It is only an instrument for the attainment of 

 science. But that time is not lost which is employed in 

 providing tools for future operation : more especially as 

 in this case the books y)ut into the hands of the youth 

 for this purpose may be such as will at the same time 

 impress their minds with useful facts and good princi- 

 y)les. If this period be suflTered to pass in idleness, the 

 mind becomes lethargic and impotent, as would the 

 body it inhabits if unexercised during the same time. 

 The symj)athy between body and mind during their rise, 

 j>rogress and decline, is too strict and obvious to endan- 

 ger our being missed while we reason from the one to 

 the other. As soon as they are of sufficient age, it is 

 su})posed they will be sent on from the grammar schools 

 to the university, which constitutes our third and last 

 stage, there to study those sciences which may be adapt- 

 ed to their views. By that part of our |)lan which pre- 

 scribes the selection of the youths of genius from among 

 the classes of the poor, we hope to avail the state of 

 those talents which nature has sown as liberally among 

 the poor as the rich, but which perish without use, if not 

 souffht for and cultivated. But of the views of this law 

 none is more important, none more legitimate, than that 

 of rendering the people the safe, as they are the ulti- 

 mate, guardians of their own liberty. For this purpose 



