knowledge; any honourable knowledge which your reach.

comes within

The works of nature are multifarious, ever new, ever leaving much more to be known. Do not shrink from the contemplation, because the subjects are endless, but determine rather, out of so many, to seize hold on a few. A walk in the country will be made far more interesting by even a slight acquaintance with natural history. The flower, which many pass as a weed, will become a prize, if a little skill in botany enable you to discern its qualities, its beauties, or its scarcity. To have so fair, so large a book as that of nature, presented to us, and we not able to read it, is a state of ignorance, which the energetic mind ought not patiently to bear. Whatever page is open to you, con it well; but to do this, it will be requisite that you borrow the assistance of some able authors.

There is a knowledge of man too, highly important for every one to obtain. He will be liable to much deception who is ignorant of the common principles by which human

C

nature is actuated. He will expect more than he ought, and will be disappointed; he will address himself to principles which have generally but feeble influence, and will wonder he does not succeed.

Read authors who have

seen life, and display it. Travellers show the species in many varieties; history marks the grander movements of the multitude; biography shows you more minutely some single individual. You will from each, and especially from all, gain an insight into the true nature of the world you live in, and the beings with whom you must encounter, either in a friendly or in an adverse manner. To know your company is of great importance to your own proper behaviour, to your comfort, and your safety.

As the mind of man is his prime excellence, emanations of mind are peculiarly valuable. General literature has peculiar charms, and dull must our eye-sight be if we are not more or less fascinated by them. The mind should not only be cultivated, but dressed into neatness: let the rose-bush find a place, as well as

the apple-tree, both must be pruned, and guided, to display themselves in the most elegant, or most productive manner. Facts are the solid treasures of the mind; reasoning assorts, and shapes them into their most useful forms. With a few of them, or with only their mere semblances, will taste, and fancy, and literature, as by magic, conjure up visions delightful, ennobling, highly stimulative to mental energy; which not merely amuse as speculations, but instruct, by bringing into view possibilities, which plain facts have never realized, but which sometimes start into being by the mere circumstance of having had such visionary existence.

I refrain from specifying authors and books, because a just catalogue would be almost endless; because your personal opportunities must regulate your choice, in a great degree; and because if once the principle of always having a book in reading shall appear in its due importance, you will not rest till all that is within your reach is actually obtained.

When I say all that is within your reach, it may perhaps be proper to put in a word of caution. Never suffer yourself to peruse what you perceive to be trash, never debase your mind to ribaldry, never contaminate your principles with infidelity. He who would seduce you to such a conduct, under the notion of trying all parties, and judging for yourself, ought, to be consistent, to recommend you not to account as poison what has been usually so esteemed; but make the trial, how much arsenic you can take without producing death; the experiment is not likely to be made in this shape; were any hardy enough to try, should his life not be the forfeit of his rashness, yet probably his health would ever after feel the injury. Dread the effect then upon the mind, of any thing which the wise, the experienced, tell you may inflame the imagination, or stupify conscience, give a permanent distortion to the judgment, or paralyze the customary exertions of genuine piety. If you are arrived at that point which undervalues the wisdom of age, and sets up the self-conceit of ignorant youth as a better guide, there is little hope of

self-cultivation effecting much with you. No rules which can be given will appear to you so proper as your own notions. It is in hopes you know yourself better, that I proffer to you my assistance.

There is one mode of instruction, which I cannot but recommend to you. Those periodical works, entitled Reviews, have an especial claim upon you. If you have much time for reading, those will of course gain your attention; and if your opportunities are scanty, some one of them will give you a variety of information, such as no single work of equal size can afford, and in a shape which may make it extremely useful to you. These cast a capacious eye over general literature, present you with something of books whose price may put them quite out of your reach, bring into view sciences after which you would not seek, and will lead you with a gentle hand, but a firm step, to many a topic important, delightful, and highly improving to the opening mind. Instead of invidiously naming any one, I shall only entreat you to confine your