QUERY XIV.

when the mind like the body is not yet firm enough for labo- rious and clofe operations. If applied to fuch, it falls an early vidim to premature exertion: exhibiting, indeed, at firft, in thefe young and tender fubjecSs, the flat- tering appearance of their being men while they are yet children, but ending in re- ducing them to be children when they Ihould be men. The memory is then moft fufceptible and tenacious of impref- fions; and the learning of languages being chiefly a work of memory, it feems precifely fitted to the powers of this period, which is long enough too for ac- quiring the mod ufeful languages ancient •and modern. I do not pretend that lan- guage is fcience. It is only an inftrument for the attainment of fcience. But that [ 289 1 time is not loft which is employed in pro- viding tools for future operation: more elpecially as in this cafe the books put into the hands of the youth for this purpofe may be fuch as will at the fame time im- prefs their minds with ufeful fafts and good prmciples. If this period be fuffered to pafs in idlenefs, the mind becomes lethargic and impotent, as would the body it inhabits if unexercifed during the fame time. The fympathy between body and mind during their rife, progrefs and de- cline, is too ftrid: and obvious to endanger our being miffed while we reafon from the one to the other.—As foon as they are of fufRcient age, it is fuppofed they will be fent on from the grammer fchools to the univerfity, which conftitutes our third and laft ftage, there to ftudy thofe fciences which may be adapted to their views.—By that part of our plan which prefcribes the feleiSlion of the youths of genius from among the claffes of the poor, we hope to avail the ftate of thofe talents which nature has fown as liberally among the poor as the rich, but vv^hich perifh pp without ufe, if not fought for and cultivated.—But of the views of this law none is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people the fafe, as they are the ultimate, guardians of their own liberty. For this purpofe the reading in the firfl: ftage, where they will receive their whole education, is pro- pofed, as has been faid, to be chiefly hif- torical. Hiftory by apprifing them of the paft will enable them to judge of the fu- ture; it will avail