The difficulty of fimplicity is, that it borders on the mean, although in itself most expreffive and beautiful; while there is a wide distance between a figurative ftyle and bombaft. There is very little vanity in feeling a neceflity for rank or important ftation to attract notice. The heroilm that refults from juft morals interefts few; the heroilm that is most destructive, is the admiration of the multitude. Ariftotle and Horace have told us of the virtues of their forefathers, and the degeneracy of their own times; and authors, from age to age, have done the fame; but if they had spoken the truth, men at this day would be degenerated into brute animals. Raillery is a panegyric on the fpeaker's wit, at the expenfe of his humanity. People whofe minds are never profoundly occupied, are generally great talkers, Obfcure people, who are ambitious of making a large fortune, are only preparing for the moment when they will be in defpair for their want of birth. A greater number of vices are occafioned by our not fufficiently esteeming ourselves, than from a too high opinion of our merit. In the whole courfe of my life, I never faw any perfons univerfally defpifed but fuch as univerfally kept bad company. Experiments make the hiftory of phyfics, and theories its fables. Every nation and every man ought to be civilized; but every nation and man ought alfo to be free. Modesty becomes every one; but though we should give it a place in our minds, we fhould keep it in fubjection to greater qualities. Be fingular, if you will; but let it be in the elevation of your thoughts. He that can diftinguifh himfelf no otherwife than by his drefs, is a defpicable creature in every country. I once had the curiofity to keep an account of the number of times I heard a ftory repeated, that never deferved to have been related; during three weeks that it occupied the polite world, I heard it told two hundred and twenty-five times, which I thought quite fufficient. Modefty is a fpecies of fund that brings its owner great interest. I vifited the galleys, and faw not one unhappy face; here, I fee many unhappy faces, whofe owners are feeking to be happy in the purfuit of blue ribbands. This is a fine faying of Seneca"Sic præfentibus utaris voluptatibus, ut futuris non noceas."—" Enjoy the prefent hours, fo as not to injure thofe that follow." There is an error which pervades the whole of the Greek philofophy its phyfics, morals, and metaphyfics, were incorrect for want of the diftinction between pofitive and relative qualities. Thus Ariftotle falls into miftakes, fpeaking of heat and of cold; and Plato and Socrates, of the beautiful, the good, the great, and the perfect. It is a great difcovery, that there are no pofitive qualities. The terms, beautiful, good, great, &c. are attributes of objects relative only to the beings that contemplate them. This principle is a fponge to wipe away almoft every prejudice. The dia logues of Plato are a tiflue of fophifms, wove through ignorance of this principle. Malebranche com mitted a thousand mistakes from the fame caufe, Never did a philofopher make men more perfectly feel the íweetness of virtue, and the dignity of their nature, than Marcus Antoninus; he touches the heart, elevates the mind, enlarges the foul! We must read the politics of Ariftotle, and the two republics of Plato, to have a juft idea of the laws and manners of the ancient Greeks. To look for thofe in their hiftorians, is as fruitlefs as to look for French laws and cuftoms in the hiftory of Lewis the Fourteenth's /wars. The republic of Plato is not more chimerical than that of Sparta. To judge juftly of men, we muft overlook the prejudices of their times. Our comedies begin to degenerate, because our writers are in fearch of the ridiculous in the pas fions, inftead of the ridiculous in manners: the paffions are not ridiculous in themselves. If I were to give the character of our poets, I would compare Corneille to Michael Angelo; Kacine to Raphael; Marat to Correggio; La Fontaine to Titian; Defpreaux to Dominichino; Crebillon to Guerchino; Voltaire to Guido; Fonte nelle to Bernini; and La Motte to Rembrandt. I have feldom given my opinion of any authors but thofe I admire, having as feldom as poffible read any authors but the beft. Fanaticism will find reafons to justify a bad action, that an honeft man could not find. Priefts are the fycophants of princes when they cannot be their mafters. The English efteem but two things -wealth and merit. The English are too much employed to be polished. The pride of ordinary people is quite as well founded as that betrayed by the cardinal de Polignac one day that I dined with him. He took the hand of the duke d'Elbœuf, heir of the houfe of Lorraine; and when the prince had retired, he gave me his hand. When he gave me his hand, it was a mark of his fuperiority; when he took the hand of the prince, it was an expreffion of his efteem. It is in the fame fpirit that princes are familiar with their inferiors: these think it a proof of their regard; it is connected with no idea but of their condefcention. I confefs my partiality for the ancients. I am ready to fay with Pliny-" You are going to Athens, once the refidence of the gods." Thoughts on Education, by Michael de Montagne and others; from Seward's Biographiana... THE HERE is not, perhaps, a country in Europe where education cofts fo much as in England, and where it is attended with fo little advantage to thofe on whofe account the money is expended. The plan of it is indeed excellent, but it is not fuited to every difpofition of mind. The claffical page is in vain opened, the thoughts and the actions of the Greek and Romans are in vain inculcated, to thofe who have no relifh for their energies their grandeur; and there occafion ally appear minds upon which the moft excellent inftruction is thrown away, as there are soils upon which the higheft culture has no opera and tion,* "Montagne, in his Effay upon the Education of Children,' addreffed to the countefs of Foix, fays very forcibly, If your pupil be of fo perverfe a difpoion, that he had rather hear one of Mother Goofe's Tales, than the relation of an interesting voyage, or a wife faying; if, at the found of the drum, which animates his young companions to arms, he flies off to that which anounces the tricks of a merry andrew; if in his heart he is not better pleafed returning home covered with duft, and victorious, from a battle with the trophy of his fuccefs, than if he had gained the prize at a tennis match, or at a ball, there feems to be nothing' better to do with him, than to make him a pastry-cook in fome provincial town (even if he was the fon of a duke); according to that excellent obfervation of Plato, that children fhould be educated, not according to the fituation of their father, but according to their own degree of understanding." "It is now," adds he, "an opinion commonly received, that it is a foolish thing to bring up a child at his mother'st apron-ftring. Her natural affection (however wife fhe may be) renders her too tender of her fon, and makes her cocker him too much. She is incapable of correcting his faults, and cannot bear to fee him fed hardly, and by chance, as he ought to be. She cannot bear to fee him fweating and covered "You must not ftiffen his mind, but his mufcles. The mind is too hard preffed if it is not affifted, and has too much to do if it alone is to fupply the duty of both. I know but foo well how much my mind fuffers by keeping company with a body fo tender, fo fufceptible, and that poffeffes fo little power of refiftance." The education of Montagne was fo well conducted in the opinion of Buchanan himfelf, who affifted in it, that when he faw his old pupil many years after, he told him, "that he was writing on education, and fhould make that of Montagne his model." *Doctor Johnson said one day, in talking of the difference between English and Scotch education, that if from the first he did not come out a fcholar, he was fit for nothing at all; whereas," added he, " in the laft, a boy is always taught fomething that may be of use to him; and he who is not able to read a page of Tully, will be able to become a furveyor, or to lay out a garden." "An infancy of indulgence," fays the learned mafter of an English great school, "produces a youth of diffipation, a manhood of infignifiance, and an old age of con. tempt." Dr. Vincent's Sermon before the Philanthropic Society. manner manner of getting them at a cheaper rate, for the fake of thofe who may wifh to make ufe of it. My father, having made all the inquiries that a man could poffibly make of men of fenfe and learning, refpecting the best method of education, was well apprized of the inconvenience of the common method, and was told that the length of time which we take to learn the languages of the ancients (thai coft them hardly any pains) was the only reafon why we did not obtain the greatnefs of mind and extent of knowledge which they possessed. (In my opinion, however, it is not the only reafon). The firft expedient my father made ufe of was when I was in the nurse's arms, and almoft before my tongue was to intrust me was to the care of a German, who is fince dead, a famous phyfician in France, entirely ignorant of the French language, and an excellent Latin fcholar. cut, "This perfon, who was hired on purpofe, and at a great expenfe, had me continually in his arms. He bad two perfons of lefs learning than himfelf to attend upon me, and to affift-him, who understood no other language but Latin. With refpect to the reft of the family, it was an invariable rule that neither my father nor my mother, nor any of the laċqueys, or the chambermaids, ever fpoke in my prefence any other words than a few Latin ones, which they had got by heart. It is aftonifhing what a progrels every one made in that language. My father and my mother learned Latin enough to understand it, and acquired it fufficiently to make ufe of it upon occafion, as did all the fervants who came more particularly in my way. In fact, among us we Latinized every thing fo much, that words in that language had even reached the neighbouring villages (where they ftill remain), and where many Latin names of trades and of tools have gained ground. With refpect to myself, I was more than fix years of age before I understood any more French, or the patois of my country (that of Perigord), than I did of Arabic; and without pains, without reading any books, without grammar, without rules, without a rod, and without tears, I learned Latin as well as my fchool-mafter could teach me; for I had no op portunity of changing it or of mixing it with any other language. Whenever I had a theme fet me (as they do in colleges, where it is given in French), to me they gave it in bad Latin to turn it into good; *Montagne," fays M. D'Argenfon (dans les Loisirs d'un Miniftre,) " had been taught Latin, if not entirely without a mafter, yet without the grammar, by practice and by ufe. In my time, the Jefuits obliged their pupils to fpeak Latin to the fervants and the attendants of their colleges, when they wanted any of them. The Latin indeed that was gabbled upon these occafions was very bad, it went by the name of Latin de Cuitine (Scullion Latin); but fuch as it was, it begot a habit of speaking that language. They have fince left off this cuftom, under a pretence that it taught young folks to fpeak Latin ill and ungrammatically. I have, however, often obferved how ufeful this habit of fpeaking Latin was to thofe perfons, who, having occafion to travel in Germany, Hun gary, Bohemia, and Poland, were obliged to have recourfe to it to make themselves understood. The habit they had acquired from their childhood made it very easy to them, Whilft thofe perfons in our times who have been at college, however well they have been able to tranflate, and though they have made rhymes and verfes in that language, have son very much embarraffed when they attempted to fpeak it." and and Nicolas Gronchi, who wrote de Comitiis Romanorum; William Gronchi, one of the commentators upon Ariftotle; George Buchanan, that great Scotch poet; Marc Antony Muret, (that both France and Italy esteemed the moft eloquent men of our times), my private tutors, have often affured me, that in my infancy I had Latin fo readily and fo fluently, that they were afraid to speak to me in that language. With refpect to the Greek language (of which I knew little or nothing), my father intended that I should learn it by art, by a new method, as a matter of fport and paftime. We ufed to tofs about our declenfions like thofe who learn arithmetic and geometry by a backgammon table. For, befides other things, he had been advifed to make me have a tafte for knowledge and for duty, by my own free will and my own defire, and to cultivate my understanding without conftraint, and with perfect freedom. Indeed, he carried this fo very far, that because fome perfons have fuppofed that it hurts the tender brains of children to wake them in a morning haftily and to drag them out of their ficep (into which they are more deeply plunged than we are) of a fudden and by violence, he caufed me to be awakened by the found of fome musical inftrument, and was never without a perfon for that purpofe. This one example will fuffice for the reft, and will evince the providence my and the affection which my kind father ever fhewed to me". Montagne, as a man who thought more than he acted, was subject to that affection of the ftomach which is known by the name of the hypochondriacal difeafe; he therefore fays feelingly, that he was never fo well as when he was on horfeback.* Montagne, like our doctor Johnfon, feems to have had the extremeft horror of that contemptible and pernicious vice, lying. "Lying," fays he," is indeed a fcoundrel vice. We are men only, and we are connected one with the other only by the gift of (peech. If we did but confider the enormity and the pernicious effects of this vice, we should condemn a liar to death oftner than most other criminals. "One is forry to fee how often foolish parents correct their childre for innocent errors, and that they chaftife them for rafh actions that are of no confequence, and are altended with no ill effects. Lying alone, and perhaps in a certain de gree obftinacy, feem to me to ba two vices of which we ought in every inftance to withstand the birth and the progrefs. They are continually on the increafe; and it is aftonishing when the tongue has acquired a habit of lying, how impoffible it is for it to break it offIndeed it often happens that men, whom you oblerve men of honour *The great obferver of nature Sydenham fays, "That were a man poffeffed of a re. medy that would do equal good to the human body as riding flowly on horfeback twice a day, he would be in poffeffion of the philofophers ftone. Yet how is this falutary remedy abufed! How many hectical perfons are fent out of the world by the ufe of it in their particular complaints by the ignorance of thofe who do not know that every thing in this world is relative, and that there is nothing fo dangerous, as well in medicine aş in every thing elfe, as the improper application of excellence itself." |