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its consolations, would yet have the humanity to consider the very different situation of the rest of mankind; and not endeavour to deprive them of what habit, at least, if they will not allow it to be nature, has made necessary to their morals, and to their happiness. It might be expected, that humanity would prevent them from breaking into the last retreat of the unfortunate, who can no longer be objects of their envy or resentment; and tearing from them their only remaining comfort. The attempt to ridicule religion may be agreeable to some, by relieving them from restraint upon their pleasures; and may render others very miserable, by making them doubt those truths, in which they were most deeply interested; but it can convey real good and happiness to no one individual.

Filial Piety and Obedience.

1. FILIAL piety is the prime affection of the soul, and one of the most sacred and important of all social relations. It is the voice of nature, sanctioned by the authority of reason and revelation, and derived from the best and purest feelings of the heart. Consider that its violation was always regarded, by the wisest and most enlightened people, as the most flagrant breach of morality, and therefore was punished with the severest rigour. Reason fully justifies the principle upon which the laws of the Jews, the Romans, and the Chinese, against refractory and undutiful children, were founded; for filial disobedience is a sure mark of that insensibility, as well as of that ingratitude and injustice, which have a direct tendency to a violation of order, and the commission of crimes.

2. Filial love, on the contrary, is the certain indication of such an amiable temper, as will display itself with uniform benevolence in all relations, in which hereafter, as a man, you will stand to society. It is the root of the most endearing charities; its branches are vigorous, and will bear the most precious, and the most delicious fruit. There is the best reason to presume that an affectionate son will become an affectionate brother, friend, husband, and father. When arrived at the age of mature reason, you will be sensible that the restraints formerly laid upon you by your parents were the effects of true regard, intended to shield you from evil, not to debar you from good, to guard you from danger, not to contract the circle of your pleasures, for the sake of asserting authority, or display

ing power.

3. Let, therefore, no foolish vanity, no levity or caprice of temper, no arrogance, arising from superiour fortune, or the

consciousness of superiour or more fashionable accomplishments, so far possess your mind, and blind your understanding, as to induce you to treat your parents with inattention or disrespect. Always remember that your duty to them is inferiour only to that which binds you to the great Author of your being; and that neither the implicit submission of childhood, nor the return of affectionate offices in a more advanced age, can ever cancel your obligations for a father's protection, or repay the solicitudes of a mother's tenderness.

4. Reflect that time pursues his flight on rapid wings, and that the hours of youth, like the waters of an impetuous stream, roll on never to return. You must be sensible, that the portion of life appropriated to your education, is not, if duly considered, a season for pleasure and pastime alone; that the days will come, when you will have no leisure, from the engagements of the world, to increase your stock of knowledge by study, and to improve by regular application those talents which Providence has committed to your care, for the use of which you are accountable to conscience, to society, and to Heaven; from the abuse and neglect of which will spring sad regret and unavailing sorrow; but from the cultivation of which will arise the delights of a self-applauding mind, and the respect and honour of the virtuous and the wise.

5. In whatever station you may be placed, fail not to improve every opportunity, and to seek every means of acquiring knowledge, afforded by tutors and professors; cultivate the acquaintance of the learned, the accomplished, the serious, and well disposed; disregard the solicitations of the idle, and resist the allurements of the dissipated, the intemperate, and the irregular, who may urge you to drain the bowl of intoxication, and transgress the bounds of discipline. Look to the result of their misconduct, and you will remark, that far from affording any true pleasure to an ingenuous mind, it terminates in disgrace, punishment, and ruin.

6. Consider that no habit is so conducive to the accomplishment of the great ends of education, as a habit of diligence. Idleness is the parent of every vice; but well directed activity is the source of every laudable pursuit, and honourable attainment. It is peculiarly adapted to the frame and constitution of youth, promotes good humour, and is conducive to health. Indolence and inactivity are no less subversive of every purpose of mental improvement than of the general happiness of life. An idle boy will gradually lose the energy of his mind, will grow indifferent to the common objects of pursuit, except such as sti

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mulate his passions with force; and when he advances into life, he will with difficulty be prevailed upon to make any important exertion, even for the promotion of his own interest, and much less for that of his friends.

7. The character of a sluggard—of him, who loses the pleasant, the healthy, and the precious hours of the morning in sleep, and the remaining part of the day in indolence, is justly reputed contemptible. While his powers of mind remain torpid, the diligent applies his activity to the most useful ends. His steps may not be uniformly rapid, or his actions always conspicuous; he may not attract the gaze of mankind, or move in the circle of fashionable levity and dissipation: but you may observe, that by habitual dexterity of conduct, and the practice of business, he is qualified to meet the difficulties, and fulfil the duties of any situation in which he may be placed; and you will frequently see him, by his unremitting perseverance, acquire objects of fortune, distinction and honour, which men of unimproved talents very rarely, if ever, obtain.

8. Excellence is never granted to man, but as the reward of labour. It argues indeed no small strength of mind to persevere in habits of industry, without the pleasure of perceiving those advances, which, like the hand of a clock, whilst they make hourly approaches to their point, yet proceed so slowly as to escape observation.'

9. If you take an extensive survey of the world, you may remark that nothing great or laudable, nothing splendid or permanent, can be effected without the exertion of diligence. Are not the treasures of fortune, the fruits of industry, the acquirements of learning, and the monuments of glory, to be attributed to its animating influence? Behold the student engaged in poring over the volumes of knowledge by his midnight lamp, and stealing his hours of study even from the season of repose; be hold the peasant, roused by the dawn of the morning to pursue his daily toils along the furrowed field repair to the manufac tory of the artificer, and amidst the various divisions of labour, observe with what alacrity all the sons and daughters of indus try are plying their incessant tasks; or visit the crowded haven, where the favourable gales call the attention of the vigilant mariners; and you will remark that the whole scene is life, motion and exertion.

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10. In these various situations, in every nation of the globe, from the ardent and enterprizing sons of America, to the almost countless myriads which people the wide plains of China, you may observe that the principle of diligence, like the great law

of creation, which causes the planets to perform their invariable revolutions, pervades each busy scene, and throughout the world actuates the race of men for some useful purpose.

Education of Youth.

See the Author's Mirror and Academician.

1. THE great and extensive advantages which must necessarily accrue to society at large, from the proper education of youth, will appear from considering the influence of their examples upon all around them. If ignorance should be suffered to cloud their understandings, and immorality, resulting from a want of proper discipline, should disgrace their conduct, the injury done to society will extend to all its members. But if our youth be well instructed in their duty, and their conduct prove the rectitude of their principles, the beneficial effects of their actions, like the overflowing waters of a fertilizing stream, will spread far and wide in every direction, and the final result to the state will be highly important and eminently beneficial, as it will consist in general stability of principles, general regularity of conduct, and general happiness.

2. The rising generation, brought up in the true principles of religion, enlightened by general knowledge, and encouraged not less by the examples, than improved by the advice of their parents and their teachers, will be freed from the imputation of degeneracy; they will follow their ancestors in the paths of integrity, honour, and true nobleness of conduct; they will be fortified against the attacks and the artifices of infidelity, and will persevere, as they advance in life, in every virtuous and honourable pursuit.

3. And may this indispensable and invaluable truth be forever inculcated by parents and teachers, with a degree of solicitude and zeal proportioned to the importance of the subject, and forever remembered by the young, that the honour, liberty, and independence of America must depend upon religion, virtue and knowledge, as their firmest and best supports. In all ranks of society, and more particularly among professional men, it is more immediately requisite that these constituents of personal merit should be carried to the greatest perfection.

4. Every sincere lover of his country, therefore, will be eager to promote, by all expedients in his power, that rational, enlightened and comprehensive system of education, which improves and perfects all of them; and he will determine that every channel to useful information ought to be opened, every suitable reward proposed, and every honourable incitement held out, which may stimulate our ingenious youth to improve

to the utmost of their power, the faculties with which Provi dence has blessed them, in order that the seeds of instruction may produce the most copious harvest of virtue, and their conscien tious and able discharge of all the duties of life may contribute equally to the happiness of themselves and their friends, and to the general prosperity and true glory of their country.

Learning our own Language.

See the Juvenile Instructer, Expositor, and Academician.

1. A GOOD foundation in the general principles of grammar, is in the first place, necessary to all those who are initiated in a learned education; and to all others likewise, who shall have occasion to learn modern languages. Universal grammar cannot be taught abstractedly: it must be taught with reference to some language already known, in which the terms are to be explained, and the rules exemplified. The learner is supposed to be unacquainted with all but his native tongue; and in what other can you, consistently with reason and common sense, explain it to him? When he has a competent knowledge of the main principles of grammar, in general, exemplified in his own fanguage, he then will apply himself with great advantage, to the study of any other. To enter at once upon the science of grammar, and the study of a foreign language, is to encounter two difficulties together, each of which would be much lessened by being taken separately, and in its proper order.

2. For these plain reasons, a competent grammatical knowledge of our own language is the true foundation upon which all literature, properly so called, ought to be raised. If this method were adopted in our schools; if children were first taught the common principles of grammar, by some short and clear system of English grammar, which happily, by its sim plicity and facility is perhaps fitter than any other language for such a purpose; they would have some notion of what they were going about, when they should enter into the Latin grammar; and would not be engaged so many years as they now are, in that most irksome and difficult part of literature, with so much labour of the memory, and with so little assistance of the understanding.

3. Whatever the advantages or defects of the English language be, as it is our own language it deserves a high degree of our study and attention, both with regard to the choice of words which we employ, and with regard to the syntax, or the ar rangement of those words in a sentence. We know how much the Greeks and the Romans, in their most polished and flourish

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