ral confequences of his ftate; he feels the weight of his hard lot; no-length of time nor habit, can ever render him insensible of fatigue and hunger: neither wisdom, nor good humour can annihilate the evils which are infeparable from his fituation." Can there be a more grofs and palpable instance of misreprefentation and fallacy, than we meet with in this paffage? Is there no difference between ill treating a flave, or letting a beg gar perifh, and changing entirely their fituations? Doth our Author affert, that it is in the power of wealth to make people happy? And is it true, that no length of time, habit, wifdom, nor good humour, can alleviate, or even annihilate, ma ny of the evils of poverty? That men, while they are men, must be fenfible of thofe neceffities which urge them to felf-prefervation, cannot be denied; but, as for all the happiness and mifery that is of a moral or political nature, we will venture to fay, there is not a maxim better established in all philofophy than that it is equally diftributed through every rank in life. A fentiment beautifully illuftrated by the following lines of M Pope: See fome ftrange comfort every flate attend; The ftarving chymift in his golden views There are, it is true, fome Philofophers who have gone fo far as to alert, that all mankind, confidered as individuals, are equally happy thefe, however, have always taken into the account, the fum of the pains and pleasures each was supposed to enjoy during his whole life; to which cafe, it is plain our Author's objections are by no means pertinent. But to return to his practical fyftem. After ftrenuously advis ing openness and fincerity to be ufed on all occafions with a Pupil, he proceeds to direct what steps ought to be taken with him, as the critical age of puberty approaches. "Exhibit to him, fays he, fuch fcenes as may reftrain, rather than accelerate the growth of his paffions. Carry him from the town, where the immodeft drefs and behaviour of the women anticipate the inftructions of Nature; where every fcene prefents him with pleafures, with which he ought to remain unacquainted, till ħe is able to chufe with propriety. Carry him back to his first habitation, whose rural fimplicity will fuffer his paffions to unfold in their natural gradation. But if a tafte for the arts fhould attach him to the town, let that tafte ferve to prevent a dangerous inactivity. Be extremely circumfpect in the choice of his companions, his employment, his pleafures. Shew him fuch pictures as are affecting, but modeft; fuch as will nourish his fen-fibility, without enflaming his defires. But let us not forget, that whilft we endeavour to avoid one extreme, there is a poffibility of falling into the other. It is not my intention to afflict my young Pupil continually with objects of horror and diftrefs; to carry him from hofpital to hofpital, and from one prifon to another. We must not, by too frequent repetition, harden, inftead of foftening, his heart at the fight of human wees. What we too often behold, we cease to imagine, and it is in imagination only that we feel the miferies of others. Hence,: from their conftant vifits to the dying and the fick, the hearts of Pricfts and Phyficians grow callous and obdurate. Let your Pupil, therefore, be made acquainted with the lot of man, and. the fufferings of his fpecies; but let him not be too frequent a witness of fuch calamity. A fingle object, judiciously chofen, and fhewn at a proper time, will inspire him with tenderness, and afford him reflection for a whole month. It is not fo much the object itself, as his return to it in idea, which determines his judgment; and the permanency of the impreflion upon his mind, depends alfo lefs upon the object, than the point of view in which it is recalled to his mind. By this management of our examples, leffons, and images, we fhall, for a long time, blunt the dangerous edge of inclination, and divert the attention of nature whilst we follow her own dictates.. "In proportion as he becomes more enlightened, let the ideas. which you mean to excite, be adapted to his understanding; and in proportion as his defires take fire, make choice of fuch objects as will moft effectually ftifle the flame. I remember to have been told by an old military Gentleman, who was as much diftinguished for his morals as for his courage, that his father, who was a fenfible man, but extremely devout, feeing that he was naturally too much inclined to women, fpared no pains to curb this propenfity; but finding, notwithstanding all his care, that his fon ftill perfifted in his vices, he carried him to an hof-. pital established for the cure of people in the venereal disease, and without any previous intimation of his defign, led him into a gallery full of those unhappy wretches, who were feverely expiating the folly which had brought them thither. At this hideous fpectacle, fo offenfive to all his fenfes, the young man grew fick. Go thou wretched debauchée, faid the father, with a fignificant look and emphafis, follow thy loofe inclinations; it will not be long before thou wilt think thyself happy in being admitted into B4 this this place, or, perhaps, a victim to the most infamous fufferings thou wilt compel thy father to thank God for thy death. "Thefe few words, joined to the affecting fcene before him, made an impreffion upon the young man which time could never efface. Condemned by his profeffion to spend his youth in garrifons, he chofe rather to bear the raillery of his companions than imitate their vices. I was a man, faid he, and have had my foibles; but during my whole life, I never could behold a public prostitute without horror. Tutors! let me advife you to put little confidence in words; but learn to make a proper choice of time, place, and circumftances: let examples be your lectures, and reft affured of their effect. : "During infancy, our employment is inconfiderable; the neglects or mistakes of that age are not without remedy, and the good 'we imbibe might be communicated at a later period : but it is otherwife with regard to the age when man first begins really to live. This age is always too fhort for the ufe which we ought to make of it, and its importance requires an unwearied attention for this reafon I dwell upon the art of extending it beyond its natural duration. One of the first precepts in the art of cultivation, is, to retard nature as much as poffible, that her progress may be flow but certain. We must not suffer' our youth to commence man the moment it is in his power. Whilft the body is growing, thofe fpirits which give life to the blood, and ftrength to the fibres, are yet unprepared and imperfect. If they be carried into a different channel, and that which was intended to compleat an individual, be employed in the formation of another, they will both remain feeble, and the work of nature will be left imperfect. The operations of the mind are alfo influenced by this perverfion: the functions of the foulare as languid and fpiritlefs as thofe of the body. Robust limbs, indeed, do not conftitute courage or genius; and I can conceive that ftrength of mind will never accompany that of body, if the organs of communication between the body and mind are improperly difpofed but how perfect foever they may be in this refpect, they will always. act feebly, if the blood which gives the motion be exhaufted, impoverished, and devoid of that fubftance which ought to give life and power to every fpring in the machine. I have generally obferved more vigour of mind among those people whofe youth are preferved from a premature corruption of manners, than in more civilized communities, where the diorder commences with the power; and, doubtles, this is one of the reafons why a people, whofe manners are uncorrupted, furpals their profligate neighbours, in valour and good fenfe. The latter fhine only in certain fubiile qualities which they call wit, fagacity, cunning; but thofe grand and noble. functions functions of wisdom and reason which, in great actions, distin-. guish and honour mankind, are rarely to be found, except among the former." Having given thefe precautions, our Preceptor enters on his fyftem of moral relations; with which he now thinks it neceflary to make his Pupil acquainted. He next proceeds to recom-' mend the knowlege of mankind; and as he thinks it dangerous. for him as yet, to hazard a perfonal introduction to the world,, he enquires into the propriety of inftructing him, by means of history. Our Readers will probably be curious to know fomething of Mr. Rouffeau's fentiments on this fubject. To make my Pupil acquainted with the human heart, "I would fhew' him mankind at a distance, in other times, and other places; fo that he might be a spectator of the scene, without having it in his power to become an actor. This is the proper time to in-, troduce hiftory: there he will read the heart of man, without, the affiftance of philofophical lectures; there he will behold mankind, not as their accomplice or accufer, but as their impartial judge. "If we would know men, it is neceffary that we fhould fee them act. Our cotemporaries expofe their words, and conceal their actions; but hiftory lifts the veil, and we found our judg ment upon facts. In hiftory, even the words of men serve to ascertain their character; for by comparing them with their actions, we fee at once what they really are, and what they would appear to be the more they difguife themfelves, the better they are known, "Unfortunately, the study of history is not without its dangers and inconveniencies of various kinds. It is a very difficult matter to place one's felf in such a point of view, as to be able to judge equitably of our fellow-creatures. It is one of the common vices of history, to paint man in a difadvantageous, rə ther than a favourable, light. Revolutions and fatal catastrophes being moft interefting, fo long as a people have continued to increafe and profper in the calm of a peaceable government, history hath remained filent; it speaks of nations only when, growing infupportable to themselves, they begin to interfere with their neighbours, or to fuffer their neighbours to interfere with them it begins not to make them illuftrious till they are already on the decline in fhort, all our hiftories begin where they ought to end. We are favoured with very exact accounts of thofe nations which verge towards deftruction; but of those which have been flourishing, we have no hiftory at all: they have been fo wife and fo happy, as to furnish no events worth recording. Even in our own times,, we fee that thofe govern ments ments which are best conducted," are leaft mentioned. Only bad men are celebrated, whilft the good are forgotten, or turned into ridicule: thus hiftory, as well as philofophy, never ceafes to calumniaté mankind." "But the hiftorical relation of facts is, by no means, an accurate delineation of them, as they really happened: they change their afpect in the brain of the Hiftorian, they bend to his intereft, and are tinctured by his prejudices." What Hiftorian ever brought his Reader to the fcene of action, and fhewed the event exactly as it happened? Every thing is difguifed by ignorance. or partiality. How eafy it is, by a different reprefentation of circumstances, to give a thoufand various appearances to the fame facts? Shew an object in different points of view, and. we hardly believe it to be the fame, and yet nothing is changed, except the eye of the fpectator. Is it fufficient for the honour. of truth, to exhibit a real fact in a falfe light? How often has it happened, that a few trees more or lefs, a hill upon the right. or left, or a fudden cloud of duft, have turned the fcale of victory, without the caufe being perceived? nevertheless the Hiftorian will affign a reafon for the victory or defeat, with as much confidence as if he had been at the fame inftant in every part of the battle. Of what confequence are mere facts, or what am I to learn from a relation of events of whose causes I am totally ignorant? The Hiftorian, it is true, affigns caufes, but they are of his own invention; even criticism itself, is nothing more than the art of conjecturing; the art of felecting, from a number of lies, that which bears the nearest resemblance to truth. :1. Probably you have read Cleopatra, or Caffandra, or otherbooks of the fame kind. The Author makes choice of a known event, which he accommodates to his defign, adorns with circumftances of his own invention, and perfonages which never exifted, crowding fiction upon fiction, to make his ftory more entertaining. Now, I fee little difference between thofe romances and our real hiftories, except that the Romance-writer gives a greater fcope to his own imagination, and the Hiftorian accommodates himself, more to that of other people: to which I may add, that the former has a moral object in view, either good or bad, about which the latter gives himself no concern." 136 It will be urged, that the veracity of hiftory is of lefs confequence than the truth of manners and characters; provided,, we have a faithful delineation of the human heart, no matter.. whether events are truly reported or not; for, after all, what concern have we with facts that happened two thousand years ago You are quite in the right, if your Hiftorian has painted + his manners and characters from nature; but, fince they are chiefly |