( 54 ) 
that you will read with great pleafure and 
profit, as foon as you are capable of clofe 
application. Intenfe thinking is an ope- 
ration of the mind, to which, at fchool, you 
were not accuftomed. It is a habit of which 
young minds are incapable, and, like ftrength 
of body, to be acquired only by gradual ex- 
ercife. But, though Locke be very juftly 
confidered as a claflical author at the Uni- 
verfities, let me advife you never implicitly 
to fubmit your own reafon to any of his 
opinions. Whenever you are not perfectly 
convinced, mark the paflage, and difpute the 
matter with your companions. Remember 
however in all your difputations, that the 
difcovery of truth is your fole object; that 
it is of no confequence whether it be found 
by your antagoriift or yourfelf j that an ha- 
neft difputant will admit the arguments of 
his opponent in all their energy -, that every 
fpecies of fophifm is inadmiflible; and that 
the leaft appearance of paflion is not only 
difadvantageous to the difputant, but is, at 
the fame time, a decided proof of his want 
of that uibanity, which diiiinguifhes a gen- 
tleman from thole who have not had the 
advantage of a liberal education. 
I have dwelt a little upon this fubjec~l of 
dii- 
