Page images
PDF
EPUB

value, may be excused for enlarging fo particularly on this head. But to me, who am of a plainer make and cooler difpofition, they appear, if not frivolous, yet of little importance, when compared with thofe other things, which are the proper and more immediate objects of education.

It would, I doubt, difguft your Lordfhip, fhould I fpeak my mind freely of them; or even infinuate, that I take these ftudies, when entered upon in early youth, and propofed as matters of ferious purfuit and application, to have indeed the most pernicious tendency; as breaking the nerves and force of the mind, and inspiring I know not what of a trifling and fuperfluous vanity.

To render thefe pursuits ferviceable in any degree, or even harmlefs, they fhould in all reafon be poftponed to riper. years, when the confirmed judgment will

of

of courfe take them but for what they are, for nothing more than elegant and polite amusements.

NOT to infift, that to excel in this fpecies of tafte, as in all others, a previ ous foundation is required, of reflexion and good fense: for I agree with

your favourite poet; of every polite ftudy and indulgence even of the imagination,

SAPERE, eft et principium et fons.

THESE and ftill ftronger objections might be made to your partiality for the fine arts. But I am contented to wave them all; as indeed they would come with an ill grace from one, who must acknowledge himself to have no particular fkill or difcernment in them, and who fhould not therefore prefume to enter the lifts with fo confummate a master of them as your Lordship.

LORD

LORD SHAFTESBURY.

AND fo, under the cover of a civil fpeech, you escape from the most speci ous, at least, of thofe arguments, which are alleged in favour of an early travelled education. For, whether it be true, or no, that other accomplishments may be as well acquired at home, it is past a doubt that the polite and liberal arts can only be learnt abroad. And of their use and ornament to our noble youth

MR. LOCKE.

Your Lordship, I know, can fay more, and finer things, than you expect I should seriously dispute with you, on this occafion.

I HAVE NOW, my Lord, (at leaft if my old memory has not betrayed me) gone. over the several heads and topics of your defence; and faid enough, I believe, on each, to fhew that foreign travel is not,

on

on whatever fide we view it, the most proper method of a young gentleman's education.

THE benefits, you propofe by it, are either of small account in themselves, at leaft of much lefs account than thofe you must facrifice to them; or, when their importance is real and confeffed, may be attained more conveniently in fome other way, and at fome other feafon.

FOR, after all I have faid, your Lordfhip is not to conclude that I am wholly bent against the practice of foreign travel. I am as fenfible, as any man, of its important ufe, when undertaken at a proper time and by fit perfons. For, though I esteem it idleness, and fomething worse, for a young boy to wafte his prime and moft precious years in fauntering round Europe, yet I know what ends of wisdom

3

wisdom and of virtue may be answered by a capable man's furvey of it.

BUT then, my Lord, I reckon that capacity at no vulgar rate. He must be of worth and confideration enough to be received into the wifeft, nay the greatest company. His natural insight into men and things must be quick and penetrating. His faculties must all be at their height; his ftudies matured; and his reading and obfervation extenfive. With these accomplishments, if a man of rank and fortune can find leifure to employ a few years among the neighbouring nations, I readily agree, his voyage may turn out to his own benefit, and to that of his country.

In this way it may be true, as your Lordship infifted, that our island prejudices will be usefully worn off, and much real civility and politenefs be imported among us.

LORD

« PreviousContinue »