thst the mind, like the body, feems every year to 
make flower advances ; and, in order to excite at- 
tention, many various fyftems of education have 
been invented and adopted. 
AhTioft every writer who has treated on the 
education of children, has been ambitious to point 
out a mode of his own, chiefly profefling to ad- 
vance the health and improve the intelle6ts at the 
fame time. Thefe ufually begin with inveftives 
againfl: the common praftice, and by urging a to- 
tal reformation. In confequence of this, nothing 
can be more wild and imaginary than their dif- 
ferent fyfl:em„s of improvement. Some recom- 
mend, that children fliould every day be plunged 
in cold water, in order to flrrengthen their bodies. 
They will have them converfe with the fervants in 
nothing but Latin, in order to ftrengthen their 
mental faculties. Every hour of the day muft be 
appropriated to it's peculiar fl:udies ; and the child 
muft be taught to make thefe very ftudies an 
amufement, till, about the age of ten or eleven, it 
becomes a prodigy of premature improvement. 
Dire£lly oppofite to this, we have others, whom 
the courtefy of mankind call philofophic writers; 
and they recommend, that the child ihould learn 
nothing till the age of ten or eleven, at which the 
former has attained fo much perfedlion: with 
them the mind is to be kept void till it acquires 
a proper diftinftion of fome metaphyfical ideas 
about ti'uth; and the promifing pupil is debarred 
the ufe even of his own faculties, left they fhould 
conduft him into prejudice and error. After 
this manner fome men, whom fafiiion has cele- 
brated for profound and fine thinkers, have given 
their hazarded and untried conjeclures on one of 
the moft important fubjefts in the world, and the 
moft interefting to humanity. When men fpe- 
culate at freedom on innate ideas, or the ab- 
iftrafted diftin£lions between will and power, 
they may be permitted to enjoy their vagaries at 
pleafure, as they are harmlefs, though they may 
be wrong: but when they alledge that children 
are every day to be plunged in cold water, and 
indifcriminately inured to cold and moifture, 
■whatever be their conftitutions; that their feet are 
to be kept conftantly wet, to prevent their catch- 
ing cold; and never to be corrected when young, 
for fear of breaking their fpirits when old ; thefe 
are fuch noxious errors, that all rational men 
Ihould exert their endeavours to oppofe them. 
Many children have thefe opinions, begun in fpe- 
culation, injured or deftroyed in praftice; for as 
firft principles are of the laft importance, fo no- 
thing can be more fital than when pernicious 
ones are early imbibed. 
Should any particular fyftem be requifite, it is 
one that would ferve to prove a very plain point, 
that very little fyftem is necefl^ary. The natural 
and common courfe of education is in every re- 
lpe6t the beft; namely, that in which the child is 
permitted to play among it's equals and coevals, 
from whofe fimilar inftruflions it often gains the 
moft ufeful ftores of knov^ledge. A child is not 
to be deem.ed perfectly idle becaufe playing about 
the fields, or hunting butterflies; it is all this 
time ftoring it's mind with objefts, on the nature, 
properties, and relations of which, future curio- 
lity may fpeculate. 
It has ever been found chimerical to attempt 
making a child's learning it's fole amufement: 
nor, if this could be attained, would it anfv/er 
, any important purpofe. A child ought to be 
MAN 
allowed it's proportion of play, and it will re- 
ceive benefit thereby; and for every reafon alfo it • 
ought to have it's proportion of labour. The 
mind, by early exertion, will be thus habituated • 
to fatigue and fubordination; and whatever be 
the perfon's future employment in life, he will be 
the better qualified to endure it ; he will thus be 
enabled to fupport the drudgeries of office with 
content, or to fill up the vacancies of life v/ith 
variety. The child fliould therefore be early ini- 
tiated in it's duty; and be taught to know, that 
the talk is to be performed, or the punifhment 
endured. If it be pofTible to alkire it to it's duty 
by reward, no ill confequences can refult from 
fuch a humane praftice: but it is too generally 
found, that on moft minds rewards have little 
cogency; and if fear and apprehenfion are totally 
banifhed, the moft powerful ftimulants to a6lion 
will be wanting. Perhaps, on fome occafions, 
and on fome difpofitions, both rev/ards and pu- 
nifhments may operate in their turn: in this man- 
ner a child, by playing with it's equals abt-oad, 
and ftudying with them at fchool, v/ill acquire 
more health and knowledge than by being train- 
ed up under the tuition of any fpeculative fyftem- 
builder; and will be thus qualified for a life of 
aflivity and obedience, of elegance or autho- 
rity. 
It is true indeed that, when educated in this 
manner, the boy may not be fo feemingly fenfi- 
ble as one bred up under folitary inflruftionj 
and, perhaps, this early maturity is more fpeci- 
ous than ufefuL It has frequently been found, 
that many of thofe children who have been fuch 
early prodigies of literature before the age of teri 
years, have not made an adequate progrefs till 
twenty: it fliould therefore feem, that they only 
began learning manly things before their time; 
and while others were bufied in picking up that 
knowledge adapted to their age and curiofity, 
thefe were forced on fubjeds unlliitable to their 
years; and, on that account alone, appearing ex- 
traordinary. The fund of knowledge in both may 
be nearly equal; but with this difference, that each 
is yet to learn what the other knows. 
But whatever may have been the acquifitions 
of children at ten or twelve years of age, their 
greateft and moft rapid progrefs is made when 
they arrive near the age of puberty. It is then 
that all the powers of nature feem at work in. 
ftrengthening the mind, and perfefting the body: 
the youth acquires courage, the virgin modetly; 
the mind aflTumes new powers, with new fenla- 
tions; it conceives with greater force, and re- 
members with greater energy. About this time, 
therefore, which is various in different coun- 
tries, more is learned in one year than in any 
two of the preceding; and on this age in parti- 
cular the greateft weight of education fhould be 
thrown. 
Both poets and philofophers have united in 
painting the feafon of yoUth as that of pleafure: 
but this can only be true in favage countries, 
where but little preparation is made-for the per- 
fe£lion of human nature, and where the m.ind is 
of little afliftance in filling up the meafure of en- 
joyment. It is otherwife in thofe climates where 
nature is carried to the higheft pitch of refine- 
ment; in which this feafon, which fom^e devote to 
the excefs of fenfual delight, is wifely made fub- 
fervient to the fucceeding and more rational one of 
I manhood. Youth, with us,, is but a fcene of pre- 
paration^ 
