i

leaft of leffening, the multiplicity of cares and attentions which now prefs upon him. The decline of life feems to call for refpite and confolation. But how fhall this recefs from business be fupported, without fome tafte for letters? I cannot figure to myself a more miferable fituation, than that of one, who retires from the hurry of the world, yet has no furniture of mind, to grace or to fweeten his retirement? Unqualified for every liberal and fuperior entertainment, he will probably fink down, into languor -intoxication-and lethargy.

It is the natural, the laudable with, of every parent, whom the bleffing of Providence has raised to any degree of affluence, that his fon may appear in the world, with character and accomplishments, worthy of the respectable line, into which his father's fortune may introduce him. Mere money, without knowledge or virtue, is contemptible and mischievous, in exact proportion to its amount. He must have amufements and companions. But thefe will be of the lowest, and most degrading caft. His money, however, he will deem fufficient to give him felf-confequence. With flatterers, with the mob, it may. But, deftitute of the beft poffeffions, he will be an object of contempt, to all men of fenfe-and of compaffion, to every man of humanity and seriousness.

Without

Without throwing the moft diftant reflection upon that plan of claffical education, which generally, and, in my idea, very properly obtains at our common schools, no one will imagine, that the knowledge there acquired is fufficient to improve and adorn the mind, in all its future ftages. Such knowledge must be scanty, and undigefted. There will be fome shining particles, probably mixed with a large quantity of alloy. Language is merely the fcaffolding of science. The fhreds and fragments of fentiment, which a boy picks up, in conning over the Latin and Greek authors, are not furely deferving of the name, of regular and systematic fcience. And yet, without fomething of fyftem and regularity, ideas float in the head in unformed maffes, without method, or arrangement.

The boy, who excels in one branch, the knowledge of languages, may appear manly. The man, who has gained no more, must appear a boy. He that does not add general fcience to profeffional knowledge, is a mere pedant. And he who has not looked abroad from the Greek and Roman claffics into the other branches of a polished and extenfive education, knows but little of what is either most truly ornamental or useful. But WHERE fhall that higher and more finished knowledge be obtained?

Here a boy muft ftop fhort-When, from names and words, he should rife to THINGS, he

is plunged immediately into the vortex of bufinefs and from that moment, almoft the whole of what he had been fo many years in learning, is forgotten. At leaft, little remains, but the withered fcraps of knowledge, gleaned in his school. All the fcience which a boy of an ingenuous turn acquires, AFTER THIS, must be acquired without affistance. He has no preceptor to direct him; he has no regular fyftem to pursue; his walks into the different ranges of literature must be defultory, folitary, and uncomfortable.

For, WHERE fhall this knowledge, or this tafte be obtained?In a college, or univerfity?But there, the expence deters: the danger terrifies. Numbers of young men, many of them irregularly educated, flushed with money, with confequence, with paffions, too often corrupt one another, and induce fatal habits of extravagance, diffipation, and indolencehabits, entirely inconfiftent with the fobriety, frugality, and attention neceffary to future fuccefs and reputation, in any line of life-and above all, in BUSINESS.

Hence it is, that fo very few of thofe young men, who are deftined for trade, enjoy any advantages beyond those of a grammar fchool.

It is granted, that the examples are too rare, of those who have united, the manners of the Gentleman, the tafte of the Scholar, and the

induftry

industry of the Tradefman. Yet fuch examples have been seen, and may fill be seen among us. For who will fay, that they are incompatible? or who would not wifh that his fon might exhibit fo fair, fo amiable an affemblage of excellence? Perhaps, one reason why they are fo uncommon may have been, that thofe places of education, which tend to form the Gentleman and the Scholar, have been unfriendly to the habits neceffary to the Tradefman; whilft the warehoufe, in which the Tradefman receives his mercantile mould, is, perhaps, equally unfavourable to fuperior ornaments. But would it not be poffible, that the advantages of both fhould be combined together? In the houfe of a parent, or refpectable mafter, and amidst general habits of bufinefs, a young man, who should continue to devote fome part of his time to ftudy, would not be fo much refined, as to be unfit for commerce. And, perhaps, the happy art might be learned, of CONNECTING TOGETHER, LIBERAL SCIENCE and COMMERCIAL INDUSTRY! If the fcheme appears vifionary, yet it deferves a trial. It is, indeed, as far as I know, NEW. I have never heard of a fimilar establishment. But it might eafily be dropped, as foon as it appeared not to anfwer the ends of its inftitution.

A plan of this nature, in a large town, it does not appear to me difficult to form, or to execute,

if there were a general conviction of its utility, and a proper encouragement for undertaking it. This course of study should not, I think, be a mere continuation of that of a school; but, the application of school learning to fuperior objects. Thofe objects would probably be, Natural Philofophy, the Belles Lettres, and Mathematics; together with fome attention to Hiftory, Law, Commerce, and Ethics. There are Gentlemen in this town, fufficiently eminent in thefe various departments of science, to lecture upon them with reputation and fuccefs. One part of a COLLEGE plan must indeed be dropped-that of living together in common apartments. But, probably, the omiffion of this would not be deemed a loss, by thofe, who know the temptations which often attend it. All the advantages of literary improvement might be here enjoyed.

A very important part of the plan would be, A courfe of lectures upon NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, in its extended fenfe, which fhould pay a very particular attention to CHEMISTRY, and MECHANICS, because of their intimate connection with our manufactures.

In addition to thefe, Courses of lectures upon HISTORY, COMMERCE, JURISPRUDENCE, CRITICISM,

and ETHICS, together with the whole range of the BELLES LETTRES might, I perfuade myself, be of effential fervice.

If