The night before fhe died fhe was very happy, and told her mother the should die. A few hours before her departure, fhe looked very earnestly at her Aunt and faid, "Who waked me ?" Her Aunt replied, no body. "Then (faid fhe) it was the Lord! I fhall foon be with him!" She defired her brothers to be calied, and when they came, fhe intreated them to fear and serve the Lord, declaring she was very happy; and shortly after her spirit returned to God, in the fourteenth year of her age.

EXTRACT of a LETTER on EDUCATION.

THE

HE Education you propose giving your children will be only a varnish, if it is not founded upon religion. It is neceffary for the wifdom and happinefs of man, that he fhould have a view of the Deity from his tendereft infancy, as the principle and the end of all things; and reafon and faith fhould tell him, that it is defcending to the rank of beasts to be without either worship or law.

You should take a great deal of pains to elevate the fouls of your three young people, and to convince them that the greatest pleasure of man is to reflect and to be confcious of the end of his exiftence. This is a pleafure fo fublime, and fo worthy of a heavenly spirit, that I look upon him who knows not this happiness, as a wretched, or, at least, an infenfible being.

But in an age of infidelity fomething more is wanted than the alphabet of religion: you fhould therefore fill your children's minds with thofe pure lights which diffipate the clouds of modern philofophy, and the darkness of corruption.

A few, but folid books will make your children well-informed. Let them be read lefs with an intention to fix them in the memory, than to grave them on the heart.

When youth have studied religion from its first principles, they are not so easily seduced by fophiftry and impiety, unless the heart be entirely corrupted.

VOL. XV.

You should watch carefully to preserve them unblame able, not by employing informers and fpies, but by having your ears and your eyes every where to imitate the Deity whom we do not fee, but who feeth over all.

Children fhould not perceive that they are diftrufted and ob ferved, for that will difcourage them, and make them murmur; they will conceive averfion against thofe they ought to love, fufpect an evil which they would not have thought of, and feek only to deceive hence it is, that most scholars a&t only from fear, and are never more pleased than when at a distance from their fuperiors.

Be lefs the mafter than the friend of your children; and then they will be tranfparent to your eyes, and even tell their faults themselves. Young folks have a hundred times told me their griefs and their errors, because I always treat them with

ildnefs. They will give you the key of their hearts, when they find that you fincerely with them well, and that it is a pain to you to reprove them.

There are many reafons which induce me to advise a domeftic Education, and there are ftill more which hinder me from perfoading you to it. Domeftic Education is commonly the best calculated to fecure their morals; but it prefents fuch a famenefs, it is fo lukewarm and languid, that it difcourages all emu lation: befides, as they are watched too narrowly, they more frequently become hypocrites than good pupils.

Nevertheless, if you can find a Preceptor, gentle, patient, fociable, and learned, who cant unite condefcenfion with fteadiuefs, wildom with chearfulnefs, temperance with amiableness, I fhould defire you to make the trial; being perfuaded that you will do nothing but in concert with him, and that you will not leek' to control him. There are too many fathers who look upon a Preceptor as a mercenary, and illiberally think they are his masters because he receives their wages.

Truft your fons only to a man upon whom you can depend as upon yourself; but after you have found fuch a man, do not

hefitate

he fitate to leave them entirely at his difpofal. Nothing disgufte a Tutor fo much; as diftruft and a diffidence of his capacity. Take care what servants you admit about your children; it is generally through them that youth are corrupted.

Manage fo as to have an amiable ferenity conftantly fhining on your face and in your eyes, and that every thing be done as you would have it, without restraint or fear, Nobody loves a form; but all the world rejoices in fine weather,

Attach pleasures to every kind of ftudy which you propose for your fons, by exciting a keen defire of knowledge, and an ardent impatience of ignorance.

Take care that they have relaxation from their studies, that their memories and judgments may not grow tired. When dif guft is joined with ftudy, they conceive an averfion to books, and figh after idlenefs and fupineness,

Inftruct them by making them love your precepts, not by the fear of punishments; and for this purpose take care to enliven them by fome little hiftories or fallies, which may awaken attention. I knew a young man at Milan, who became fuch a lover of Audy, that he looked upon holidays as neceffary for relaxation, but confidered them as days of forrow; his books were his pleasure and his treasure. It was a good Preceptor who by chearfulness, and the refources of his imagination, had infpired him with a love for works of tafte and learning,

Adapt their ftudies to their time of life, and do not think of making them Metaphyficians at twelve years old; that is not educating young people, but teaching words to Parrots.

Learning is like food. The ftomach of a child requires light nourishment; and it is only by degrees that he is accustomed to more folid or substantial nourishinent,

Never fail to let an amufing fucceed a ferious book, and to intermix poetry with profe. Virgil is not lefs eloquent than Cicero; his defcriptions, images, and expreffions, give fancy and elocution to those who poffefs it not naturally. In poetry we find the perfection of language; but if people do not apply

D

to it when they are young, they seldom acquire a taste for it. Nevertheless, moderate the study of the Poets; for, befides that they very often take liberties contrary to good morals, it is dangerous to grow too fond of them.

Let the hiftory of the world, nations, and countries, be made familiar to your children, without becoming a dry study; it fhould be accompanied with short and accurate reflections, to teach them how to confider events with judgment, and to acknowledge an univerfal agent, of whom all mankind are but the inftruments, and all revolutions the combined and foreknown effects of his eternal providence.

History is only inanimate reading, if they attend only to the dates and facts; but it is a book full of life, if they obferve the playing of the paffions, the springs of the foul, the movements of the heart, and especially if they discover a God, who, always Mailer of events, produces, directs, and determines them, according to his good pleasure, and for the accomplishment of his fublime purposes.

Our carnal eyes fee in this world only a veil, which covers , the actions of our Creator; but the eyes of faith fhew us, that whatfoever happens is from one caufe, and that this cause is truly God.

Take care that your children acquire a tafte for true eloquence, rather by example than by precept. Make them comprehend, that what is really beautiful does not depend either upon modes or times; and that if there are different ways of exprefling things according to different ages, there is only one of conceiving them properly.

Guard them against that childish eloquence, which, playing on words, is difgufting to true tafle; and perfuade them that no extravagant ideas or expreffions ever enter into an elegant difcourfe.

There are men, and periods of time, which have established the ftandard of tafte in every thing; and it is on their productions that the eyes of your children fhould be conftantly

fixed, as the best models; not, however with flavish ftrictnefs, for they fhould not be fervile imitators of any perfon.

I love that the fancy fhould take wing, and act from itself, infead of being a mere copy from want of invention. We have men of fine parts; and we should have men of genius, if they He knows did not too mechanically follow the beaten road. little who knows only one path. The spirit of invention is inexhauftible when we dare make the attempt. I often tell my pupils, "Be yourselves-think in your own way." It is a melancholy thing to employ young people, for whole years in learning nothing but the art of repeating.

When your children have acquired the age of maturity, then it is high time to speak to them, as a friend, of the nothingness of the pleasures in which the world places its happiness; of the misfortunes in which they engage us; the remorfe they excite; the injury they do both to body and foul; the abyss they dig under our steps, while they appear only to scatter flowers.

It will be no difficult matter for you to point out to them the dangerous rocks of fenfuality, either by vigorous expreffions, or ftriking examples; and to perfuade them that without idleness, the greater part of the pleafures to which people addict themfelves so immoderately, would have no attractions. In idleness, as in fleep, they form to themselves the most brilliant ideas; and reprefent a thoufand agreeable chimeras which have no existence.

When a fon is perfuaded that a father talks only reason to him, and folely from tenderness, he hearkens to him, and his advice produces the best effects.

Lastly, after having erected this edifice, there ftill remains -I mean the what I look upon as the most difficult of allchoice of a profeffion. This is commonly the touchstone of fathers and mothers, and the most critical point for children.

If you will be perfuaded by me, you will give them a year to themselves to reflect upon the kind of life that fuits them, before you speak to them of one profeffion in preference to

another.