232 



be inculcated. But every thing which has a 

 tendency to produce a precision of shot, all the 

 nicer dexterities of the art, may equally well, 

 and in one-tenth part of the time, be acquired 

 by a studious appeal to principle at home, in 

 the regular course of education prescribed, as 

 by the chance of its being picked up in the 

 field, and imprinted, a man hardly knows how, 

 upon his practice, during a random course of 

 years of ordinary service. A man will not 

 gallop up to a pack of foxhounds the worse, if 

 he has previously acquired a seat, and the means 

 of managing to advantage the noble animal he 

 bestrides, at a riding-school : and he who will 

 take the trouble of finding out why he has done 

 a thing well hitherto, will to a certainty find the 

 means of doing it better hereafter. 



A due consideration of this will, I flatter 

 myself, reconcile to me this class of men ; for 

 whom, as brothers in arms, I entertain great 

 good-will, and with whom I have therefore been 

 endeavouring to reason a little. I can not but 

 respect their attainments ; and I am willing to 

 admit them as the P. A/s, or Practical Adepts, 

 and to hold a kind of exotic rank as Licen- 

 tiates, of the profession; who having already 

 taken their degrees, like some licentiates of a 



