them; but these awkward airs are worn out by degrees in company: the rust and the mould are filed and brushed off by polite conversation. The scholar now becomes a citizen or a gentleman, a neighbour and a friend; he learns how to dress his sentiments in the fairest colours, as well as to set them in the strongest light. Thus he brings out his notions with honour, he makes some use of them in the world, and improves the theory by the practice,

But before we proceed too far in finishing a bright character by conversation, we should consider that something else is necessary besides an acquaintance with men and books: and therefore I add,

V. Mere lectures, reading and conversation without thinking, are not sufficient to make a man of knowledge and wisdom. It is our own thought and reflection, study and meditation must attend all the other methods of improvement, and perfect them. It carries these advantages with it:

1. Though observation and instruction, reading and conversation may furnish us with many ideas of men and things, yet it is our own meditation and the labour of our own thoughts that must form our judgment of things. Our own thoughts should join or disjoin these ideas in a proposition for ourselves: it is our own mind that must judge for ourselves concerning the agreement or disagreement of ideas, and form propositions of truth out of them. Reading and conversation may acquaint us with many truths and with many arguments to support them, but it is our own study and reasoning that must deter

mine whether these propositions are true, and whether these arguments are just and solid.

It is confest there are a thousand things which our eyes have not seen, and which would never come within the reach of our personal and immediate knowledge and observation, because of the distance of times and places : these must be known by consulting other persons; and that is done either in their writings or in their discourBut after all, let this be a fixed point with us, that it is our own reflection and judgment that must determine how far we should receive that which books or men inform us of, and how far they are worthy of our assent and credit.

ges.

2. It is meditation and study that transfers and conveys the notions and sentiments of others to ourselves, so as to make them properly our own. It is our own judgment upon them as well as our memory of them that makes them become our own property. It does as it were concoct our intellectual food, and turns it into a part of ourselves: just as a man may call his limbs and his flesh his own, whether he borrowed the materials from the ox or the sheep, from the lark or the lobster; whether he derived it from corn or milk, the fruits of the trees, or the herbs and roots of the earth; it is all now become one substance with himself, and he wields and manages those muscles and limbs for his own proper purposes, which once were the substance of other animals or vegetables; that very substance which last week was grazing in the field or swimming in the sea, waving in the milk-pail, or growing in the garden, is now become part of the man.

3. By study and meditation we improve the hints that we have acquired by observation, conversation and reading: we take more time in thinking, and by the labour of the mind we penetrate deeper into themes of knowledge, and carry our thoughts sometimes much farther on many subjects, than we ever met with either in the books of the dead or discourses of the living. It is our own reasoning that draws out one truth from another, and forms a whole scheme of science from a few hints which we borrowed elsewhere.

By a survey of these things we may justly conclude, that he that spends all his time in hearing lectures or poring upon books without observation, meditation or converse, will have but a mere historical knowledge of learning, and be able only to tell what others have known or said on the subject. He that lets all his time flow away in conversation without due observation, reading or study, will gain but a slight and superficial knowledge, which will be in danger of vanishing with the voice of the speaker: and he that confines himself merely to his closet and his own narrow observation of things, and is taught only by his own solitary thoughts, without instruction by lectures, reading or free conversation, will be in danger of a narrow spirit, a vain conceit of himself, and an unreasonable contempt of others; and after all he will obtain but a very limited and imperfect view and knowledge of things, and he will seldom learn how to make that knowledge useful.

These five methods of improvement should be pursued jointly, and go hand in hand, where our circumstances Are so happy as to find opportunity and conveniency to

enjoy them all: though I must give my opinion, that two of them, viz. reading and meditation, should employ much more of our time than public lectures or conversation and discourse. As for observation, we may be always acquiring knowledge that way, whether we are alone or in company.

But it will be for our further improvement if we go over all these five methods of obtaining knowledge more distinctly and more at large, and see what special advances in useful science we may draw from them all.

CHAPTER III.

Rules relating to Observation.

THOUGH observation, in the strict sense of the word, and as it is distinguished from meditation and study, is the first means of our improvement, and in its strictest, sense it does not include in it any reasonings of the mind upon the things which we observe, or inferences drawn from them; yet the motions of the mind are so exceeding swift, that it is hardly possible for a thinking man to gain experiences or observations without making some secret and short reflections upon them: and therefore in giving a few directions concerning this method of improvement, I shall not so narrowly confine myself to the first mere impression of objects on the mind by observation; but include also some hints which relate to the first, most easy, and obvious reflections or reasonings which arise from them.

I. Let the enlargement of your knowledge be one constant view and design in life; since there is no time or place, no transactions, óccurrences, or engagements in life, which exclude us from this method of improving the mind. When we are alone, even in darkness and silence, we may converse with our own hearts, observe the working of our own spirits, and reflect upon the inward motions of our own passions in some of the latest occurrences in life; we may acquaint ourselves with the powers and properties, the tendencies and inclinations both of bo