entered with the permiffion of the guard endeavoured to climb. But though they furveyed the way cheerfully before they began to rife, and marked out the feveral ftages of their progrefs, they commonly found unexpected obftacles, and were obliged frequently to ftop on the fudden, where they imagined the way plain and even. A thousand intricacies embarraffed them, a thoufand flips threw them back, and a thousand pitfals impeded their advance. So formidable were the dangers, and fo frequent the mifcarriages, that many returned from the first attempt, and many fainted in the midst of the way, and only a very fmall number were led up to the fummit of HOPE by the hand of FORTITUDE. Of these few, the greater part, when they had obtained the gift which HOPE had promised them, regretted the labour which it coft, and felt in their fuccefs the regret of disappointment; the reft retired with their prize, and were led by WISDOM to the bowers of CONTENT.

Turning then towards the gate of FANCY, I could find no way to the feat of HOPE; but though fhe fat full in view, and held out her gifts with an air of invitation, which filled every heart with rapture, the mountain was on that fide inacceffibly steep, but fo channelled and shaded, that none perceived the impoffibility of afcending it, but each imagined himself to have discovered a way to which the reft were ftrangers. Many expedients were indeed tried by this industrious tribe, of whom fome were making themselves wings, which others were contriving to actuate by the perpetual motion. But, with all their labour, and all their artifices, they never rose above the ground, or quickly fell back, nor ever approached the throne of HOPE, but continued still to gaze at a distance, and laughed at the flow progrefs of those whom they faw toiling in the Strait of Difficulty.

Part of the favourites of FANCY, when they had entered the garden, without making, like the reft, an attempt to climb the mountain, turned immediately to the vale of IDLENESS, a calm and undisturbed retire

ment,

ment, from whence they could always have HOPE in profpect, and to which they pleafed themselves with believing that the intended fpeedily to defcend. These were indeed scorned by all the reft; but they seemed very little affected by contempt, advice, or reproof, but were refolved to expect at ease the favour of the goddess.

Among this gay race I was wandering, and found them ready to answer all my queftions, and willing to communicate their mirth; but, turning round, I faw two dreadful monsters entering the vale, one of whom I knew to be AGE, and the other WANT. Sport and revelling were now at an end, and an univerfal fhriek of affright and diftrefs burft out and awaked me.

An Address to a young Scholar, supposed to be in the Course of a liberal Education.

YOUR parents have watched over your helpless infancy, and conducted you, with many a pang, to an age at which your mind is capable of manly improvement. Their folicitude still continues, and no trouble nor expense is spared in giving you all the instructions and accomplishments which may enable you to act your part in life, as a man of polished fenfe and confirmed virtue. You have, then, already contracted a great debt of gratitude to them. You can pay it by no other method but by using the advantages which their goodnefs has afforded you.

If your endeavours are deficient, it is in vain that you have tutors, books, and all the external apparatus of literary pursuits. You must love learning, if you intend to poffefs it. In order to have it, you must feel its delights; in order to feel its delights, you must apply to it, however irksome at firft, closely, conftantly, and for a confiderable time. If you have resolution enough to do this, you cannot but love learning; for the mind always loves that to which it has been long, fteadily, and voluntarily attached. Habits are formed, which render what was at firft difagreeable, not only pleasant, but neceffary.

Pleasant, indeed, are all the paths which lead to polite and elegant literature. Yours, then, is furely a lot particularly happy. Your education is of such a fort, that its principal fcope is to prepare you to receive a refined pleasure during your life. Elegance, or delicacy of tafte, is one of the first objects of a claffical difcipline; and it is this fine quality which opens a new world to the fcholar's view. Elegance of tafte has a connexion with many virtues, and all of them virtues of the most amiable kind. It tends to render you at once good and agreeable. You must therefore be an enemy to your

own

own enjoyments, if you enter on the difcipline which leads to the attainment of a claffical and liberal education with reluctance. Value duly the opportunities you enjoy, and which are denied to thousands of your fellow-creatures.

Without exemplary diligence, you will make but a contemptible proficiency. You may indeed pass through the forms of fchools and univerfities, but you will bring nothing away from them of real value. The proper fort and degree of diligence you cannot poffefs, but by the efforts of your own resolution. Your inftructor may, indeed, confine you within the walls of a school a certain number of hours; he may place books before you, and compel you to fix your eyes upon them; but no authority can chain down your mind. Your thoughts will efcape from every external restraint, and, amidst the most serious lectures, may be ranging in the wild purfuit of trifles or vice. Rules, restraints, commands, and punishments may, indeed, affist in strengthening your refolution; but, without your own voluntary choice, your diligence will not often conduce to your pleasure or advantage. Though this truth is obvious, yet it feems to be a fecret to thofe parents who expect to find their fon's improvement increase in proportion to the number of tutors and external affiftances, which their opulence has enabled them to provide. These affistances, indeed, are fometimes afforded, chiefly that the young heir to a title or estate may indulge himself in idleness and nominal pleafures. The leffon is conftrued to him, and the exercise written for him by the private tutor, while the hapless youth is engaged in fome ruinous pleafure, which at the fame time prevents him from learning any thing defirable, and leads to the formation of deftructive habits which can seldom be removed.

But the principal obstacle to improvement at your school, especially if you are too plentifully supplied with money, is a perverfe ambition of being diftinguished as a boy of spirit in mischievous pranks, in neglecting the tasks and leffons, and for every vice and irregularity

which the puerile age can admit. You will have fenfe enough, I hope, to difcover, beneath the mask of gaiety and good-nature, that malignant fpirit of detraction, which endeavours to render the boy who applies to books, and to all the duties and proper bufinefs of the school, ridiculous. You will fee, by the light of your reason, that the ridicule is misapplied. You will discover, that the boys who have recourfe to ridicule are, for the most part, ftupid, unfeeling, ignorant, and vicious. Their noify folly, their bold confidence, their contempt of learning, and their defiance of authority, are, for the most part, the genuine effects of hardened infenfibility. Let not their infults and ill-treatment difpirit you. If you yield to them with a tame and abject fubmiffion, they will not fail to triumph over you with additional infolence. Difplay a fortitude in your pursuits, equal in degree to the obftinacy with which they perfift in theirs. Your fortitude will foon overcome theirs, which is feldom any thing more than the audacity of a bully. Indeed you cannot go through a school with eafe to yourself, and with fuccefs, without a confiderable share of courage. I do not mean that fort of courage which leads to battles and contentions, but which enables you to have a will of your own, and to pursue what is right, amidst all the perfecutions of furrounding enviers, dunces, and detractors. Ridicule is the weapon made use of at schools, as well as in the world, when the fortreffes of virtue are to be affailed. You will effectually repel the attack by a dauntless spirit and unyielding perfeverance. Though numbers are against you, yet, with truth and rectitude on your fide, you may be IPSE AGMEN, though alone, yet equal to an army.

By laying in a store of useful knowledge, adorning your mind with elegant literature, improving and establishing your conduct by virtuous principles, you cannot fail of being a comfort to thofe friends who have fupported you, of being happy within yourself, and of being well received by mankind. Honour and fuccefs