428 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 
The drefs of children is free from ligatures, their diej: fimplcy 
and they are accuftomed to variations of feafon, and enured to 
fatigue. Thefe are a part of the advantages of Oriental edu- 
cation. Among its more ferious inconveniences may be 
enumerated, an exceflive credulity, the offspring of profound 
ignorance, and a keennefs bordering on difhonefty and falfhood. 
It is not eafy to gain knowlege which is not fought. The boy 
refpeds his father, and the fummit of his ambition is to imitate 
his fire. The parent is guided chiefly by the refledtion, how far 
he may extend his purfuit of gain with impunity ; of courfe a 
very refined morality is not to be expedled from the fon. 
Happinefs once confined to the fmall circle of a family, little 
anxiety remains for the world at large. Hence the faintnefs 
of the conception of a community, and the duties arifing; 
from it. 
In Europe, education is the art of moulding the foul to the 
times ; and the preceptor is commonly fuccefsful in conveying 
the inftrudlion, of which experience has taught him the advan- 
tage, and which he is no ftranger to the mode of applying. 
Advancement is the objed; and to obtain it activity is re- 
quired. This end is gained j but in the art of directing the 
powers of his mind to the attainment of his own happinefs, 
or to the public utility, or of preferving his body fane and 
vigorous, the man remains ftill a child ; and thus the true ob- 
ject of education is fruftrated. We have on this head then, it 
would feem, no great reafon to boaft our fuperiority. 
The 
