IT is an observation no less true than common, that the HUMAN MIND bears a strong resemblance to the wild and unmanured garden of nature, which (tho' amidst an infinite profusion of weeds and briers) by diligence and culture becomes fertile, fair and flourishing. Our minds being furnished with latent powers, it is the business of EDUCATION to unfold and bring them to light. EDUCATION is a kind of second creation; it gives form and comeliness to those rude and unwrought materials, which, like the natural World, in its chaotic state, are "without order and void." NATURE gives us talents; it is EDUCATION which applies them right or wrong; the first bestows propensities and af­fections which may be directed to good, either public or private; the latter improves or perverts them. The infant mind is pliant and ductile, like wax, you may mould it to any form; you may stamp a fair or deformed impression upon it; error or knowledge, indolence or industry, virtue or vice.

In youth the faculties are vigorous and alert, the concepti­on quick, and the memory retentive. We are endued with a general appetite for glory; EDUCATION determines it to this, or that particular object. Different virtues and vices are exposed to view, to captivate the attentive spectator, without always displaying their different concomitants or effects. As youth is unbiassed by prejudice; so it is susceptible of any im­pression, and withal credulous; curious, yet easily imposed on. [Page 4]Possessed of an innate and almost insuperable propensity to imitation, we imbibe opinions, as easily as we do manners. To nothing short of this can it be imputed, that many more are influenced by the idle reveries of the humorous, and fan­tastick notions of the capricious, than by the most excellent sentiments of the wise and counsels of the worthy. We must divest things of their false garnish, lest emerging from the shade of obsurity, we be dazzled with artificial splendor and rendered incapable of seeing objects in their real forms.

Allured by the delusive charms of a tempting World, the YOUTH as he advances in years, makes excursions, extends his acquaintance, and fixes upon some object as the darling or his pursuit. He proportions the worth of every thing around him, accordingly as it first strikes his imagination. All the gaieties of the world assault him at once—Pleasure allures him, riches sollicit, and honours court him—If he withstands the first attack, it is ten to one, but the second proves too powerful; he soon forms different ideas of virtue and merit, yields him­self a captive and becomes a slave. Has he been taught to despise Pleasure, the grand Mistress of the world? the deli­rious, thrilling sensation, strengthened by natural fire, will soon enervate his resolution and unsinew the most confirmed purposes of reason and philosophy; unless CULTURE has dis­closed the deceitful charms. Has he heard avarice contemn­ed; the narrow views of self-interest ridiculed? Has he been told that the fawning courtier of popular applause justly sinks into contempt? Till EDUCATION has taught him the d'shonour and infamy to which they lead, he will be liable to fall into the same beaten track, and in the end fail of that praise, which is the fair attendant of virtue.

Life is a masquerade, where a fictitious character is fre­quently assumed. Being fond of indolence, we content our­selves with a superficial survey of men and things, without [...] them behind the scenes, as well as in the open theatre. The world is variegated with objects, which make a [...] appearance without discovering their intrinsic worth; and these have a powerful influence to captivate the youthful spectator, whose education has been ill and partial; who has [Page 5]never been taught to look beyond the confines of his own narrow experience. EDUCATION draws the curtain which conceals their true character, gives us right ideas of honour and merit, and serves as a clue to direct us to right objects of choice.

While the passions are opening, curiosity is awake, and the young mind is ready to take its ply from the seducements of fashion and creditable examples. What makes the little MISS, so imperious and haughty; who swells with rage at every imaginary affront, and never thinks that She is treated with proper respect; what, but the early incense offered to her vanity? Why is almost every assembly crowded with flaunt­ing COQUETS, but because they have been accustomed from their cradles, to admire their own sweet figure? No sooner does she perceive respect paid to dress, beauty and external mien; but she uses every little artifice to catch the attention of beholders. This done, she grows important, in her own eyes, and imagines innumerable graces included in her beau­ty; while every little formality of the insinuating GALLANT, contributes to the unguarded charmer's delusion. Why does the Youth when freed from the restraints to which younger years are subject, prove a spend-thrift, an abandoned rake, but from the over-fondness of doating parents, and the bad company with which he is conversant? Why does the World swarm with shallow-pated BEAUS, but because intrigue has been the height of their ambition, and to make good their point, they have referred to dress and conquest all their views and intentions? If we hold the airy Nothing up to view, we shall find all its qualifications, the most general concomitants of a narrow, contracted education. View the empty bubble: a fickle, capricious mind with little or no genius; proud and ostentatious, yet for the most part of mean extraction; profuse, yet not generous; having much raillery with little wit; falsely delicate; unacquainted with virtue and truth; well versed in all the little arts of disguise and dissimulation; averse to industry; fond of noise and confusion; strongly tinctured with pedantry; in low intrigues no novice: and I wish it were a rara avis, to whom this character might just­ly [Page 6]be applied. What forms the quack, the supple courtier and the sham patriot; but that train of grovelling arts and low dealing, which hath led them the way to fraud and chi­cane? Whence such a spawn of wild enthusiasts, of blind bigots, but from their narrow education? Why, in a word, are mankind so ignorant, and withal so conceited; so ill founded, yet so obstinate, in their opinions; so prone to plea­sure and ease, and so impatient of industry and frugality; but because they have been hoodwinked before they had time to open their eyes, and nourished from their infancy in popular prepossession, in vanity and indolence? Nor is this the only mis-conduct we meet with, in an age where the views of edu­cation are directed more to manners than to morals; where prudence is but artifice; where graces cast a specious gloss upon vice, and the passions are allowed to give colouring to the objects of pursuit.

The grand affair of launching into the world, takes place in a period of life the most eventful that we ever experience. The wisdom of the serpent is as necessary as the innocence of the dove; and unless our minds are rightly attempered with both, we shall split upon the dangerous shoals before we spy them. It is a foible to which human nature is extremely in­cident, to be content with present attainments, and guard the safe side, while the weak one is left to defend itself. An Education (which deserves the name) inculcates maxims of honour and probity, inspires the noblest sentiments of moral duty, and impresses an equal detestation of all the vices of depraved humanity. A Youth elated with such sublime ideas, which his parents, his tutors, his books, or even his own ingenuous heart has rendered familiar to him, (little mis­trusting that vice can put on more than one garb) opens forth into the World; not that which he has so long dreamed of; but a World new, strange and inconsistent with all his former expectations. The most fashionable vices he beholds pa­tronised, prosperous and triumphant, virtue discountenanced, unsuccessful and degraded.—He finds the edge of ridicule turned on some of those qualities, he has hither to been most fond of.—If he quits the clamorous crowd, where impiety is [Page 7]made a point of honour, and profaneness esteemed a good recommendation; he will soon unite himself to the more specious and atractive party. At first, his simplicity in what they term Good breeding, makes him the dupe of this plausible society: but soon, their occasional hints, their negligent sar­casms, their sallies of wit and polite raillery, on what he has been accustomed to hold sacred, debauch his mind, and create a fondness for those scenes, which were once his greatest aver­sion. The truth is, the Youth should be fortified with a gradual intelligence of the World, that he may be prepared to see it without surprise, and live in it without danger. His first steps should be short and secure; his associates few, and of the best. The veil must be taken off from some parts, and left still upon others; while he has, painted out before him, what he does not see, and even more hinted at, than can be painted.

If his mind is at first contracted within a narrow circle, this gradual acquaintance with the things around him, will en­large his views, and teach him to regard himself as a CITIZEN OF THE WORLD, assert his native liberty, and despise a SLAVE of any sect or party. This will learn him to act with cauti­ousness in points where it is not impossible that he may be deceived; and on the other hand, it will as effectually guard him against every wrong bias, hung upon the mind by a favourite passion, or particular education.

An opinionative zeal for our own tenets, is the grand inlet, the unguarded avenue of the mind, by which a thousand er­rors find admission, unnoticed. We must search the inmost recesses of our thoughts, sift our own sentiments, and subject them to frequent reviews, that we may enable the mind to detect its own sophisms, and guard against the fallacies, upon which it practises. It is admirable to observe, how many artifices must be used, to procure admission for the most evi­dent truths, into minds, frightened by novelty, or rendered insensible by accidental prejudice. Nay, some are so very fond & tenacious of their own unerring principles, that when one of their darling positions is attacked, they use no other wea­pon [Page 8]but stupidity, to elude the force of argument. To have the mind warmed with a love for truth, and willing to divest itself of all prepossession and prejudice, it must be tempered with candour. This will prove no less an incentive to vir­tue, than a barrier against vice. REASON, the supreme law of our nature, will then be the standard by which we may correct our false notions of honour and pleasure.—Vice will appear as it is; a violation of our nature, and a fall from its true dignity: virtue its highest ornament and perfection.

Animated with such principles, the youth will dare to take a higher aim in life, than the pursuits of the idle rabble; will reverence his nature, and be ashamed of those stains which de­grade it. He will keep his head and heart equally poised for action; enter the busy scenes of life; suffer his passions to grow warm, without disturbing the coolness of reason; while every grateful emotion which he feels, resulting from a manly, generous conduct, fires him with a love for virtue and every noble principle.