tion or history of every place where you make any tay; and fuch a book however imperfect, will fill fuggeft to you matter for inquiry; upon which you may get better information from the people of the place. For example, while you are at Leipfig, get fome fhort account (and to be fure there are many fuch) of the prefent itate of that town, with regard to its magiftrates, its police, its privileges, &c. and then inform yourfelf more minutely, upon all those heads, in converfation with the most intelligent people. Do the fame thing afterwards with regard to the electorate of Saxony: you will find a fhort hiftory of it in Puffendorff's Introduction, which will give you a general idea of it, and point out to you the proper objects of a more minute inquiry. In short, be curious, attentive, inquifitive, as to every thing; lifteffhefs-and indolence are always blameable, but at your age, they are unpardonable. Confider how precious, and how important for all the reft of your life, are your mo¬ ments for thefe next three or four years, and do not lofe one of them. Do not think I mean that you fhould ftudy all day long; I am far from advifing or defiring it but I defire that you would be doing fomething or other all day long; and not neglect half hours and quarters of hours, which, at the year's end, amount to a great fum. For inftance, there are many fhort intervals in the day, between ftudies and pleafures: inftead of fitting idle and yawning, in thofe intervals, take up any book, though ever fo trifling a one, even down to a jeft book; it is ftill better than doing nothing. I knew once a very covetous fordid fel. low who ufed frequently to fay, "Take care of the pence; for the pounds will take care of themfelves." This was a juft and fenfible reflection in a mifer. I recommend to you to take care of minutes; for hours will take care of themfelves. I am very fure that many people lofe two or three hours every day, by not taking care of the minutes. Never think any portion of time whatfoever too fhort to be employed; fomething or other may always be done

in it.

Nor do I call pleasures idlenefs, or time loft, provided they are the pleafures of a rational being; on the contrary, a certain portion of your time, employed in thofe pleasures, is very ufefully employed. Such are fome public fpectacles, and good company; but then, these require attention, or else your time is quite loft.

There are a great many people, who think themfelves employed all day, and who, if they were to caft up their accounts at night, would find that they had done juft nothing. They have read two or three hours mechanically, without either attending to what they read, and, confequently, without retaining it, or reafoning upon it. Thence, they faunter into company, without taking any part in it, and without obferving the characters of the perfons, or the fubjects of the converfation; but are either thinking of fome trifle, foreign to the prefent purpose, or, often, not thinking at all; which filly and idle fufpenfion of thought they would dignify with the name of abfence and diftraction. They go afterwards, it may be, to the play, where they gape at the company and the lights; but without minding the very thing they went tothe play.

Pray do you be as attentive to your pleasures as to your ftudies. In the latter, obferve and reflect upon all you read; and in the former, be watchful and attentive to all that you fee and hear; and never have it to fay, as a thousand fools do, of things that were faid and done before their faces, "That, truly, they did not mind them, because they were thinking of fomething else." Why were they thinking of fomething elfe? and, if they were, why did they come there? The truth is, that the fools were thinking of nothing. Remember to do what you are about, be that what it will; it is either worth doing well, or not at all. Wherever you are, have (as the low, vulgar expreffion is) your ears and your eyes about you. Liften to every thing that is faid, and fee every thing that is done. But then keep all thefe obfervations to yourself, for your own private ufe, but rarely communicate them to others.

Obferve without being thought an obferver; for, otherwife, people will be upon their guard before you. Confider feriously, and follow carefully, I befeech you, my dear child, the advice which from time to time I have given, and fhall continue to give you; it is at once the refult of my long experience, and the efinfect of my tenderness for you. I can have no intereft it but yours. You are not yet capable of wifhing yourfelf half fo well as I wifh you; follow, therefore, for a time at leaft, implicitly, advice which you cannot fufpect, though poilibly you may not yet fee the particular advantages of it: but you will one day feel them.

Adieu !

DEAR BOY,

LETTER LI.

Learning and Pedantry.

Bath, February the 22 d.

EVERY excellency, and every virtue, has its kin

dred vice or weakness; and, if carried beyond certain bounds, finks into the one or the other. Generosity often runs into profufion, oeconomy into avarice, courage into rafhnefs, caution into timidity, and fo on :infomuch that, I believe, there is more judgment required for the proper conduct of our virtues, than for avoiding their oppofite vices. Vice, in its true light, is fo deformed, that it fhocks us at first fight; and would hardly ever feduce us, if it did not, at first fight wear the mafk of fome virtue. But virtue is, in itself, fo beautiful, that it charms us at first; engages us more and more upon further acquaintance; and, as with othbeauties, we think exeefs impoffible: it is here that judgment is neceffary, to moderate and direct the effects of an excellent caufe. I fhall apply this reafoning, at prefent, not to any particular virtue, but to an excellency, which, for want of judgment, is often the cause of ridiculous and blameable effects; I mean great learning, which, if not accompanied with found judgment frequently carries us into error, pride, and pedantr

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As I hope you will poffefs that excellency in its utmost extent, and yet without its too common failings, the hints, which my experience can fuggeft, may probably not be useless to you.

Some learned men, proud of their knowledge, only fpeak to decide, and give judgment without appeal. The confequence of which is, that mankind, provoked by the infult, and injured by the oppreffion, revolt; and, in order to fhake off the tyranny, even call the lawful authority in question. The more you know, the modefter you fhould be; and (by the way) that modesty is the fureft way to eminence. If you would convince others, be open to conviction yourself.

Others, to fhow their learning, or often from the prejudices of a fchool-education, where they hear of nothing else, are always talking of the ancients, as fomething more than men, and of the moderns as fomething lefs. They are never without a claffic or two in their pockets: they stick to the old good-fenfe; they read none of the modern trafh: and will fhow you plainly, that no improvement has been made, in any one art or fcience, thefe laft feventeen hundred years. I would by no means have you difown your acquaintance with the ancients; but ftill lefs' would I have you boast of an exclufive intimacy with them. Speak of the moderns without contempt, and of the ancients without idolatry; judge them all by their merits, but not by their ages; and if you happen to have an Elzevir claffic in your pocket, neither fhow it nor mention it.

Some great scholars, moft abfurdly diaw all their maxims, both for public and private life, from what they call parallel cafes in the ancient authors, without confidering, that, in the first place, there never were, fince the creation of the world, two cafes exactly parallel; and, in the next place, that there never was a cafe stated, or even known, by any hiftorian, with every one of its circumftances; which however, ought to be known, in order to be reafoned from. Reafon upon the cafe itself, and the feveral circumftances that attend it, and act accordingly; but not from the authority of

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ancient poets or hiftorians. Take into your confideration, if you pleafe, cafes feemingly analagous, but take them as helps only, not as guides. We are really fo prejudiced by our educations, that, as the ancients deified their heroes, we deify their mad men : of which, with all due regard to antiquity, I take Leonidas and Curtius to have been two diftinguished ones. yet a folid pedant would, in a fpeech in parliament, relative to a tax of two-pence in the pound upon fome commodity or other, quote thofe two heroes as examples of what we ought to do, and fuffer for our country. I have known thefe abfurdities carried fo far, by people of injudicious learning, that I fhould not be furprifed if fome of them were to propofe, while we were at war with the Gauls, that a number of geefe fhould be kept in the Tower, upon account of the infinite advantage which Rome received, in a parallel cafe, from a certain number of geefe in the Capitol. This way of reafoning, and this way of fpeaking, will always form a poor politician, and a puerile declaimer.

There is another fpecies of learned men, who, though lefs dogmatical and fupercilious, are not lefs impertinent. Thefe are the communicative and fhining pedants, who adorn their converfation, even with women, by happy quotations of Greek and Latin; and who have contracted fuch a familiarity with the Greek and Roman authors, that they call them by certain names or epithets denoting intimacy ;-as, old Homer; that fly rogue Horace; Marc, inftead of Virgil ; and Nafo, inftead of Ovid. Thefe are often imitated by coxcombs, who have no learning at all, but who have got fome names, and fome fcraps of ancient authors hy heart, which they improperly and impertinently retail in all companies, in hopes of paffing for fcholars. If, therefore, you would avoid the accufation of pedantry, on one hand, or the fufpicion of ignorance, on the other, abftin from learned oftentation. Speak the language of the company you are in; fpeak it purely, ard unlarded with any other. Never feem wifer, nor mc learned, than the people you are with. Wear yo