never become a Christian, and he who learns of a bad man will never become a good man. The actions of teachers should always agree with their words; they should never be known to promise what they do not intend to perform, nor endeavour to teach others what they do not understand and practice themselves, for youth are sooner taught by the eye than by the ear.

When Nicias was extolling the abilities of those who pretended to teach the youth of Athens, Laches replied, "how can those be good teachers who never did a good action in the whole course of their lives?" To educate youth properly, they should have good models for their studies, the beauties and defects of which should be made apparent, and pointed out clearly to them. They should be taught wisely to avoid all evil, and to pursue all the good they can attain, which practice should be observable in their teachers, lest their doctrines should escape the memory of their pupils, and thereby fail in their effect. The words and actions of teachers should be of a piece, or they will otherwise be disregarded.

Protagoras, who was a fashionable and the most considerable teacher of the Sophists, at Athens, had the art of poisoning the minds of youth and of men, or of leading them to whatever principles he pleased, for he had acquired the greatest reputation, and the greatest riches, of any man that ever practised that art. Who then would not listen to such

a teacher? As we are not all capable of judging for ourselves, we apply to others for the knowledge we wish to possess; and to save us enquiry and to prevent trouble and labour to ourselves, we take it for granted that the man who has acquired the greatest reputation, and at the same time the greatest riches, by any particular art, is the person to whom we ought to apply for any information we may wish to obtain upon that particular subject or science.

Men have a veneration for every thing that comes from a source in which they have confidence, and therefore the advice and opinions of those who have established a credit and reputation are followed wherever they go. How necessary then is it that reputation should be well founded, or that situation and circumstance alone should not determine what is right or wrong, unless they are blended with what is just and good. But it will ever be the case, and it is an unhappy evil attending human life. Mankind always want high authority, and wisdom would never be sought for if it were only to be found in a state of poverty and rags.

It would be hard that the poor should not be instructed, but in this they must depend upon the liberality and example of others; for in order that. they should improve by such instruction, it is necessary that they should see the benefits of education in the higher orders of the community, or they will not be convinced of its utility. Men look to

their superiors for knowledge and wisdom, as well as for the rules of their conduct in life; and if they cannot find the proper rules there, and obtain good instruction from them, they despair of ever finding any benefit from them elsewhere, and give up the pursuit.

Education should, therefore, teach the ignorant not only how it has made men more wise, but how it has bettered their condition and circumstances, as well as made them more happy; for these arethe allurements by which men are caught. And what is it the quality of reputation and general opinion in this respect will not do? All other opinions ebb and flow like the tides; " for who is it that is capable to discover the false glosses of opinion from the true light of knowledge*?" Instances are daily seen that all knowledge is guided not only by opinion, but by its success. When any doctrine is pleasing, the passions are prejudiced, and therefore whilst men are in the pursuit it fills them with a full conceit of themselves, and they scarcely take the trouble to examine whether its maxims be true or false; what promises pleasure or happiness is sufficient, and they never enquire the means by which it is to be conveyed or produced.

Modern education attends more to theory than to the practical rules of conduct in life. It gives nothing but confused notions of things, such as may be scraped up from undigested reading; and

* Socrates.

instead of conveying true knowledge on solid and practical principles, it collects only a monstrous mass of crude opinions, which puzzle and contradict each other, when they are compared together. For what judgment can youth form if they read the various opinions of different authors upon every subject? Those who read Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, Condorcet, and others, will have one bend or turn of sentiment, and form their minds and characters accordingly. Those who only study the amiable Fenelon, Kotzebue, Atterbury, Richardson, and other such writers, will take another stamp of character; but those who study the whole will make nothing of either. Something like this are the different sentiments and sects of religion, though not so bad; for those who do not entirely discard and deride religion mean the same thing, although they have different modes of conveying or expressing it; for the meaning of all is alike, which is to make mankind happy. It is, however, a pity that all could not be of one mind upon this subject, for until that is fully established mankind cannot be in perfect peace and happiness in this world; nor will education be certain to have its full effect until there is only one form and rule for happiness; for although happiness may consist of many things, yet there is only one path to pursue by which it may be permanently obtained.

Before any one can be said to be capable of

teaching others, he should himself first know what is right, and what he ought to teach, and he should not only know all this, but he should practice it. Parents should therefore be very careful to select good and proper masters, and to know the characters of those to whom they send their children to be taught, for in this their conduct and happiness in life must entirely depend. The youth who is instructed by a good master will most likely become a good man. He who is tutored by a vulgar and depraved character will certainly become vulgar and depraved; and he who studies my Lord Ches terfield, will, if his nature admits of it, become a finished gentleman.

The things to be taught youth are, first, the means and rules by which they can obtain an honest livelihood, if those means be not already pro vided; or if they be, the modes should be pointed out by which they can be rendered most conducive to their own happiness as well as that of others, which is the first study and requisite in life, and with this are blended the acquirements which make life agreeable, so as to ensure a continuance of that happiness. These form the principles of conduct in life, for which there should be only one steady line or rule; for although civil, religious, and moral government, make a part of the education of youth, yet they all tend to the same end, for the end and aim of all is, or should be, happiness.

The general depravity of mankind leads youth