not poffibly have found me in a fitter feafon.

I HAPPENED just then to amufe myself with recollecting a converfation, which, not many days before, had paffed be tween me and a certain Philofopher of great note, on that very subject.

You know the efteem I have of this Philofopher; I mean, for fuch of his writings, as are most popular, and deferve to be fo; fuch as his pieces on Government, Trade, Liberty, and Education. No man understands the world better; or reafons more clearly on thofe fubjects, in which that world takes itfelf to be moft of all, and is, in truth, very nearly concerned.

His Philofophy, properly fo called, is not, I doubt, of fo good a taste, at leaft, his notion of morals is too modern for my relish: I had put myself to school

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to other masters, and had learnt, you know, from his betters what to think of Life and Manners; which they treat in a ftyle quite out of the way of these subverters of ideal worlds [b], and architects on material principles [c].

BUT on this head, my dear Sir, you have heard me fpeak often, and may hear from me more at large on fome other occafion. With exception to this one article (an important one, however), no man is more able, than Mr. Locke, or more privileged by his long expe rience, to give us Lectures on the good old chapter of Education; which many others indeed have difcuffed; but none with fo much good fenfe and with fo

[6] Such as certain philofophers amused themfelves with building, on Innate Ideas.

[c] Ideas of Senfation-on which principles, indeed, a late writer has conftructed, but by no fault of Mr. LocKE, a material fyllem of the groffeft Epicurifm. See a work entitled, De l'Esprit, in 2 tom. Amft. 1759.

conftant

conftant an eye to the ufe and business of the world as this writer.

THE purpose of your inquiry, then, cannot, as I fuppofe, be any other way fo well answered, as by putting into your hands a faithful account of his fentiments on the conduct and ufe of Travelling: especially, as you will perceive at the fame time what my notions are (if that be of any importance to you) on the fame fubject.

If I were compofing a Dialogue in the old mimetical, or poetic form, I fhould tell you, perhaps, the occafion that led us into this track of converfation. Nay, I fhould tell you what accident had brought us together; and fhould even omit no circumftance of time or place, which might be proper to let you into the scene, and make you, as it were, one of us.

BUT these punctilios of decorum are thought too conftraining, and, as fuch, are wifely laid afide, by the easy moderns. Nay, the very notion of Dialogue, fuch as it was in the politeft ages of antiquity, is fo little comprehended in our days, that I queftion much, if these papers were to fall into other hands than your own, whether they would not appear in a high degree fantastic and vifionary. It would never be imagined that a point of morals or philosophy could be regularly treated in what is called a converfation-piece; or that any thing fo unlike the commerce of our world could have taken place between men, that had any ufe or knowledge of it.

THIS, I fay, might be the opinion of men of better breeding; of those, who are acquainted with the fashion, and are themselves practifed in the converfations, of the polite world. The formalifts, on

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the

the other hand, would be out of patience, I can suppose, at this fceptical manner of debate, which ends in nothing; and, after the wafte of much breath, leaves the matter at laft undecided, and just as it was taken up.

ALL this, it must be owned, is very true. But as it is not my intention to fubmit the following draught to fuch critics, you, who know me, will accept this recital, made in my own way, and pretty much as it paffed. You may well be trufted to make your own conclufions from what is offered on either fide of the argument, and will need no officious monitor to instruct you on which side the truth lies.

NoT to detain you, by further preliminaries, from the entertainment (fuch as it is) which I have promised you; you may suppose, if you please, Mr. LOCKE and me, in company with fome other of B 4

our