that they will not be displeased to affift at it. I AM aware, as you faid, that the practice may be fometimes inconvenient, as it is commonly managed, on the fide of morals; and I would not be thought to have benefited fo little by yours, and the inftructions of my other masters, as not to lay the greatest ftrefs on that confideration. BUT, after all, thefe inconveniences may be pretty well avoided, by the choice of an honeft and able governor. Such an one it will not be impoffible to find, if the perfons concerned be in carneft to look out for him: I do not say, in Cells, for a Pedant without manners; and still lefs, you will fay, in Camps, for a mannered man, without principles or' letters; but, in the world at large, for some learned and well-accomplished perfon, who, yet, may not difdain to be engaged gaged in this nobleft office of conducting a young gentleman's education. UNDER fuch a Governor, as this, the danger, to which a young man's morals may be exposed by early travel, will be tolerably guarded againft; and to make amends for the hazard he runs in this refpect, I fee, on the other hand, fo many reafons for breeding young men in this way, fo many benefits arifing from it at all times, and fuch peculiar inducements with regard to the prefent ftate of our own country, that, I think, we shall hardly be of two minds, when you have attended to them. MR. LOCKE. WE fhall fee that in due time. For the prefent, the ferious air, you affume, fo different from your wonted manner, fecures my attention. LORD LORD SHAFTESBURY. I CANNOT tell what may be the opinion of others; but ignorance and barbarity feem to me to be the parents of the most and the worft vices. Conceit, pride, bigotry, infolence, ferocity, cruelty, are the native product of the human mind, kept uncultivated. Self-love, which makes fo predominant a part in the constitution of man, that some sufferers by its exceffes have mistaken it for the fole spring of all his actions, naturally engen. ders these vices, when no care is taken control its operations by another principle. On this account, wife men have had recourfe to various expedients; fuch as the provision of Laws; the culture of Arts and Letters; and, in general, all that discipline which comes under the notion of early tutorage and education. But none of these has been found fo ef fectual fectual to the end in view, or is fo immediately directed to the purpose of enlarging the mind, and curing it, at once, of all its obftinate and malignant prejudices, as a knowledge of the world, acquired in the way of fociety, and general converfation. To fay nothing of the folitary sequestered life, which all men agree to term Savage, loak only on those fmaller knots and fraternities of men, which meet together in our provincial towns and cities, and, without any larger commerce, are confined within the narrow enclosure of their own walls or diftricts. In as much as this condition is more focial than the other, it is, without doubt, more eligible. Yet fee how many weak views are entertained by thefe feparate clans, how many fond conceits, and over-weening fancies! The world feems to them fhrunk up into their own private circle; just as the heavens appear appear to children to be contained within the limits of their own horizon. EXTEND this profpect of mankind to ftill greater combinations, to ftates, kingdoms, nations, and what we call a whole people. By this freer intercourse, indeed, their thoughts take a larger range, and their minds open to more generous and manly conceptions. Yet their native barbarifm fticks clofe to them, and requires to be loofened and worn off by a more focial habit, by the experience of a ftill wider and more thorough communication. Tribes of men, although very numerous, yet, if thut up within one territory, and held clofely together under the influence of the fame political conftitution, easily affimilate, as it were; run into the fame common fentiments and opinions; and prefently take, in the whole extent of their community, one uniform prevailing character. 200 2644 HENCE |