SECTION XXIII, ON INSPIRING A LOVE OF LETTERS, AND THE AMBITION OF OBTAINING A LITERARY CHARACTER. Mati efte animo et virtute, juvenes, quibus jucunda induftria eft, odiofa ceffatio; quibus labori, quies; labor, quieti; qui tum demum vitâ ac fpiritu frui vobis videmini, cum in literis tempus omne confumitis. Go on in your career of virtue and Spirit, ye generous youth, to whom industry is pleafant, and inaction a pain; to whom reft appears as labour, and labour as reft, who then only feem to enjoy life, when ye are able to spend all your time in letters. MURETUS. T THEY who have arrived at any very eminent degree of excellence in the practice of an art or profeffion, have commonly been actuated by a species of enthusiasm in their pursuit of it. They have kept one object in view, *Obferve that learned man who ftudies till the life-blood feems to have quitted his cheeks; is he impelled by any fenfual pleasure ? is it the hope of gain makes him read fo much? Very far from it. On the contrary, he too frequently ftudies at the expence both of his health and fortune. The inward fatisfaction he feels in contemplating on the truth he discovers, and, if you will have it fo, the defire of fame, are the motives which animate and fupport him. Father GERDIL. Mihi ille detur puer, quem laus excitet, quem gloria juvet, qui victus fleat; hic erit alendus ambitione, hunc mordebit objurgatio, hunc honor ex. citabit in hoc defidiam- nunquam verebor. QUINTILIAN. amidst all the viciffitudes of time and fortune. Such, indeed, is the condition of human affairs, that fcarcely any great improvement is to be attained, unless it poffefs one of the first places in the heart*, and be long and laboriously pur * Unless it is purfued con amore with affection, and with UVID. Impetus ille facer, qui vatum pectora nutrit. An impetus towards all learning. PLATO. Aft ubi fponte fua ftudia hæc affuerit amare, Jam non laudis amor, non illum gloria tantùm Sollicitat, fed mirâ operum dulcedine captus Mufarum nequit avelli complexibus arctis. Nonne vides, duris natos ubi fæpe parentes Dulcibus amovent ftudiis, et difcere avaras Jufferunt artes, mentem fi quando libido Nota fubit, folitaque animum dulcedine movit, Ut læti rurfum irriguos accedere fontes Ardefcant ftudiis, et nota revisere Tempe? Exultant animis cupidi, pugnantque parentum Imperiis, nequit ardentes vis ulla morari: Sic affuetus equus jam duris ora lupatis, Forte procul notis fi armenta afpexit in arvis, Huc veterum ferri cupit haud oblitus amorum, Atque hic atque illic hæret, frænifque repugnat, Quove magis ftimulis inftas, hoc acrius ille Perfurit; it tandem multo vix verbere victus Coeptum iter: ipfa tamen refpectans crebra moratur Pafcua, et hinnitu latè loca complet acuto. Ah! quoties aliquis facros reminifcitur æger Fontes incaffum, et lucos fufpirat amatos Dulcibus ereptus mufis puer, atria ut alta Incoleret regum rebus præfectus agendis ! Tybure quàm mallet, gelido aut fubTufculo iniquam Pauperiemque pati, et ventos perferre nivales! L. 4 VIDA. fued. fued. Inftances often appear of extraordinary performances in the literary world, without much apparent application. But they are more frequently talked of, than found to exift. Who, indeed, can tell what degree of labour paffes in -the mind of another? A writer, for instance, may not confine himself to the retirement of his library, but apparently unite in the amusements. and employments of mankind, while he is compofing a work of learning and genius. We fee his perfon among the haunts of men, but we cannot fee how his mind is engaged. His powers of invention are all in exercife on the chofen topic; and while he appears an idler, he ftudies more effectually than he who always reads, and never thinks. Many an one who has wished to avoid the imputation of a laborious plodder, has devoted the night to ftudy, and the day to diffipation. This at least will be undifputed. We all fucceed beft in the ftudies which we love. One of the first objects, then, of a parent and an inftructor, muft be, to caufe in a child fuch an affociation of ideas as fhall connect pleafures, honours, and rewards with the idea of that purfuit which is to be the purfuit of life *. This end *He muft fhew that he is not one of those who "cenfent ftudendum eft ut vivamus molliter .. qui non perpendunt quàm fpeciofa, quàm cœleftis, quàm divina, quædam res. fit, MENS ORNATA DISCIPLINIS VARIIS. Ego fanè non video, quid hæc hominum monftra quæ corpus grandè circumferunt vel ægrè trahunt potius, a bobus diftent, end may be eafily obtained, if the fuperintendant of the child represents the object in its faireft form, nifi quòd loquantur, non mugiant; facies ftupida, afpectus hebes, craffa labra, femper terram et pabula fpectant, venter ingens, quem quater aut quinquies quotidie replent. . . . Agite ergo, nobilior propago juventutis, quibus corpus omne ardore tremit; agite, inquam, animi noftri pulchritudinem queramus, hujus decore gloriemur, atque: contra brevitatem ævi, memoriam noftri quàm maximè longam efficere conemur." Who think the first object in fudy should be to live luxuriously-who confider not how beautiful, how heavenly, how divine a thing is a mind embellished with a variety of learning. I indeed do not fee how these monsters of men, who carry about a great body, or rather drag it along with difficulty, differ from oxen, unless it be. that they talk, and do not low like an ox. Their face is ftupid, their afpect dull, their lips thick, they are.. always looking on the earth, and on their provender; their belly is of a vast fize, and they fill it four or five times every day. Come on, then, ye noble race. of youth, whofe whole body trembles with warm fenfibility; come on, I fay, let us feek the beauty of the mind, let us boast of the graces of this, and to compenfate the shortness of life, let us endeavour torender the remembrance of us as durable as poffible. JOACH. FORT. RINGEL. This extraordinary author has written a very warm exhortation to ftudy, not without fome pueri.. lities, mixed with good obfervations.. "But here (fays Milton) the main skill and ground-work will be, to temper them with fuch lectures and explanations upon every opportunity, as may lead and draw them in WILLING OBEDI-. ENCE, inflamed with a ftudy of learning, and the admiration La 5 form, and at the fame time vigilantly takes care, left the impreffion, once received, be effaced by the company of fervants, or of any ignorant affociates. The child is defigned to fupport the character of the fcholar and the gentleman, whatever may be his engagements in focial life. Never let his book be spoken of, fo as to convey the leaft idea of difagreeable labour. Let it be reprefented as the fource of amufement, fame, profit, and of every thing defirable. It must be owned, great judgment and attention, much knowledge of the emotions of the human heart, conftant vigilance, unwearied patience, and a natural talent for the bufinefs, are required to regulate the mind of a child at that very early period when ideas first rush into the fenforium.. All thefe qualities are required in a greater de-. gree than they are often found. Wrong affociations are therefore formed, and it becomes a great part of the bufinefs of a preceptor to remedy in future what it could not prevent. At the age of ten or twelve, the task may be more easy. The mind is then not merely paffive. It can co-operate voluntarily with its inftructor, in rejecting, according to the dictates of judgment, all improper affociations of ideas,. admiration of virtue; ftirred up with high hopes of living to be men, and worthy patriots, DEAR.. TO GOD, and famous to all ages. MILTON'S Tractate.. . . Infufing into their young breasts such an ingenuous and noble ardour, as would not fail to make many of them renowned and matchlefs men." Idem. |