their own inexperience, and the overbearing influence of ill principles and bad examples. Though some copies of these Letters were gone out of his hands, and he was solicited by his friends to the publication, he lays no stress upon these considerations : his only motive is the desire of making an experiment for the benefit of youth; and if this little volume should be found capable of answering, in any degree, so desirable end, it will be accepted by such parents and teachers, as wish not only to cultivate the understanding of their scholars, which perhaps is their first object, but to secure them against the errors and miscarriages to which they are more particularly exposed in the present age; and to such he begs leave to recommend it for their patronage and protection. If his design should meet with the approbation of those who are the proper judges, he may be encouraged to send abroad hereafter another volume upon the same plan. CONTENTS, XII. On the Origin and Use of Fables. XIII. On the Use of Heathen Learning. XIV. On the Consent between the Scriptures and the XVI. On Horace's Love of Solitude. XVII. On the Effect of Learning upon the Manners. XVIII. On True and False Honour. LETTER I. ON A TEACHABLE DISPOSITION. WOLFE instructed his soldiers, that if The solthings of And is not the French should land in Kent, as they were then expected to do, actual service in that inclosed country would shew them the reason of several evolutions, which they had never been able to comprehend *. dier, therefore, submits to learn which he does not see the use. every learner under the same obligation? If he desires to be taught, must not he bring with him that teachable disposition, which receives the rules and elements of learning implicitly, and trusts to the future for the knowlege of those reasons on which they are grounded? This is not a matter of choice: he can be taught on no other principle; for * See General Wolfe's Instructions, p. 51. second edition. though VOL. XI. though the practice of a rule may seem very easy, the reason of that rule will generally lie too deep for a beginner; and long experience will be necessary before it can be understood: indeed there are many rules established, for which we have no reason but experience. If a learner will take his own judgment concerning the propriety of what is proposed to him, before he is capable of judging rightly, he will cheat himself, and preclude his future improvement. At best, he will lose a great deal of time, and go the farthest way about; and, which is the greatest misfortune, he will contract bad habits in the beginning, and perhaps find himself unfit to be taught, when he would be glad to learn. I have seen some examples of young persons who have been disappointed by trusting at first to their own shallow conceptions, and supposing, what is very pleasant in idea, that Nature may be a master before it has been a scholar. If the consequences of this error are so bad in arts and sciences, and matters of accomplishment, they will be much worse in those things, which relate to the economy of human life. It is indeed a very dangerous mistake to imagine, that the mind can be cultivated, and the manners formed, on any principle but that |