principal consideration. From the story of Socrates we may learn, that the literary spirit was keener at Athens, even in that corrupted age, than at any period in any other country. If a person of mean condition, and of the lowest fortune, with the talents and temper of Socrates, were now to appear, inculcating virtue, dissuading from vice, and recommending a right use of reason, not with the grimace of an enthusiast, or the rant of a declaimer, but with good humour, plain language, and sound argument, we cannot suppose, that the youth of high rank would pay him much attention in any part of Europe. As a juggler, gambler, or atheist, he might perhaps attract their notice, and have the honour to do no little mischief in some of our clubs of young worthies; but from virtue and modesty, clothed in rags, I fear they would not willingly receive improvement. The education of the Romans, from the time they began to aspire to a literary character, was similar to that of the Athenians. The children were taught to speak their own language with purity, and made to study and translate the Greek authors. The laws of the twelve tables they committed to memory. And as the talent of publick speaking, was not only ornamental, but even a necessary qualification, to every man who wished to distinguish himself in

a civil or military capacity, all the youth were ambitious to acquire it. The study of the law was also a matter of general concern. Even the children used in their diversions to imitate the procedure of publick trials; one accusing, and another defending, the supposed criminal: and the youth and many of the most respectable statesmen, through the whole of their lives, allotted part of their leisure to the exercise of declaiming on such topicks as might come to be debated in the forum, in the senate, or before the judges. Their domestick discipline was very strict. Some ancient matron, of approved virtue, was appointed to superintend the children in their earliest years; before whom every thing criminal in word or deed was avoided as a heinous enor mity. This venerable person was careful both to instil good principles into her pupils, and also to regulate their amusements, and, by preserving their minds pure from moral turpitude, and intellectual depravation, to prepare them for the study of the liberal arts and sciences. It may also be remarked, that the Greeks and Romans were more accurate students than the moderns are. They had few books, and those they had were not easily come at: what they read, there fore, they read thoroughly. I know not, whether their way of writing and making up their vo

lumes, as it rendered the perusal more difficult, might not also occasion a more durable remembrance. From their conversation pieces, and other writings it appears, that they had a singular facility in quoting their favourite authors. Demosthenes is said to have transcribed Thucydides eight times, and to have got a great part of him by heart. This is a degree of accuracy which the greater part of modern readers have no notion of. We seem to think it more creditable to read many books superficially, than to read a few good ones with care; and yet it is certain, that by the latter method we should cultivate our faculties, and increase our stock of real knowledge, more effectually, and perhaps more speedily, than we can do by the former, which indeed tends rather to bewilder the mind, than to improve it. Every man, who pretends to a literary character, must now read a number of books, whether well or ill written, whether instructive or insignificant, merely that he may have it to say, that he has read them. And therefore I am apt to think, that, in general, the Greeks and Romans must have been more improved by their reading, than we are by ours. As books multiply, knowledge is more widely diffused; but if human wisdom were to increase in the same proportion, -what children would the ancients be, in comparison of the moderns! of whom every subscriber

to the circulating library, would have it in his power to be wiser than Socrates, and more accomplished than Julius Cesar!

I mention these particulars of the Greek and Roman discipline, in order to show, that, although the ancients had not so many languages to study as we have, nor so many books to read, they were however careful, that the faculties of their chil dren should neither languish for want of exercise, nor be exhausted in frivolous employment. As we have not thought fit to imitate them in this; as most of the children of modern Europe, who are not obliged to labour for their sustenance, must either study Greek and Latin, or be idle (for as to cards, and some of the late publications of Voltaire, I do not think the study of either half so useful or so innocent as shuttlecock) I should be apprehensive, that, if classical learning were laid aside, nothing would be substituted in its place, and that our youth would become altogether dissipated. In this respect, therefore, namely, as the means of improving the faculties of the human mind, I do not see, how the stu dies of the grammar school can be dispensed with. Indeed, if we were, like the savages, continually employed in searching after the necessa-> ries of life; or if, like the first Romans, our situa tion or temper involved us in perpetual war, J

should perhaps allow literary improvement of every kind to be little better than a costly superfluity: and if any one were disposed to affirm, that in such a state men may enjoy a greater share of animal pleasure, than all the ornaments of art and luxury can furnish, I should not be eager to controvert his opinion. But I take for granted, that man is destined for something nobler than mere animal enjoyment; that a state of continual war or unpolished barbarity is unfavourable to our best interests, as rational, moral, and immortal beings; that competence is preferable to want, leisure to tumult, and benevolence to fury: and I speak of the arts, not of supporting, but of adorning human life; not of rendering men insensible to cold and famine, but of enabling them to bear without being enervated, and enjoy without being corrupted, the blessings of a more prosperous condition.

4. Much has been said by some writers on the impropriety of teaching the ancient languages by book, when the modern tongues are most easily acquired, without the help of grammars or dictionaries, by speaking only. Hence it has been proposed, that children (to whom the study of grammar is conceived to be a grievous hardship) should learn Latin by being obliged to speak it; for that, however barbarous their style may be at first, it will gradually improve; till at