preceptor in this refpect is like the inclofer of uncultivated land; his firft crops are not valued for their intrinfic excellence; they are fown that the land may be brought into order. The fprings of the mind, like the joints of the body, are apt to grow ftiff for want of employment. They must be exercised in various directions and with unabating perfeverance. In a word, the first leffon of a judicious education is, Learn to think, to difcriminate, to remember and to enquire *.

"

*Conjectures refpecting the ftudies to be cultivated in youth, not fo much for their own fake, as for that of the habits they produce, are stated in Effay VI,

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ESSAY

ESSAY II.

OF THE UTILITY OF TALENTS.

DOUBTS

OUBTS have fometimes been fuggefted
"Give to a

as to the defirableness of talents.

child," it has frequently been faid, "good fenfe and a virtuous propenfity; I defire no more. Talents are often rather an injury than a benefit to their poffeffor. They are a fort of ignis fatuus leading us aftray; a fever of the mind incompatible with the fober dictates of prudence. They tempt a man to the perpetration of bold, bad deeds; and qualify him rather to excite the admiration, than promote the interests of fociety."

This may be affirmed to be a popular doctrine; yet where almost is the affectionate parent who would seriously say, "Take care that my child do not turn out a lad of too much capacity?"

The capacity which it is in the power of edu-. cation to bestow, muft confift principally in information. Is it to be feared that a man fhould know too much for his happiness? Knowledge, for the most part confifts in added means of pleasure

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pleasure or enjoyment, and added difcernment to felect thofe means.

It must probably be partial, not extenfive, information, that is calculated to lead us aftray. The twilight of knowledge bewilders, and infufes a falfe confidence; its clear and perfect day must exhibit things in their true colours and dimenfions. The proper cure of mistake, muft be to afford me more information; not to take away that which I have.

Talents in general, notwithstanding the exception mentioned in the outset, hold a higher eftimation among mankind, than virtues. There are few men who had not rather you should fay of them, that they are knaves, than that they are fools. But folly and wifdom are to a great degree relative terms. He who paffes for the oracle of an obfcure club, would perhaps appear ignorant and confufed and vapid and tedious in a circle of men of genius. The only complete protection against the appellation of fool, is to be the poffeffor of uncommon capacity. A felf-satisfied, half-witted fellow, is the moft ridiculous of all things.

The decifion of common fame, in favour of talents in preference to virtues, is not fo abfurd as has fometimes been imagined. Talents are the inftruments of ufefulness. He that has them,

is capable of producing uncommon benefit; he that has them not, is deftitute even of the power, A tool with a fine edge may do mifchief; but a tool that neither has an edge nor can receive it, is merely lumber,

Again; the virtues of a weak and ignorant man fcarcely deferve the name. They poffefs it by way of courtefy only. I call such a man good, fomewhat in the fame way as I would call my dog good. My dog feems attached to me; but change his condition, and he would be as much attached to the ftupideft dunce, or the most cankered villain. His attachment has no difcrimination in it; it is merely the creature of habit.

Juft fo human virtues without difcrimination, are no virtues. The weak man neither knows whom he ought to approve nor whom to difapprove. Dazzled by the luftre of uncommon excellence, he is frequently one of the first to defame it. He wishes me well. But he does not know how to benefit me. He does not know what benefit is. He does not understand the nature of happiness or good. He cannot therefore be very zealous to promote it. He applies as much ardour to the thought of giving me a trinket, as to the thought of giving me liberty, magnanimity and independence.

The

The idea of withholding from me capacity, left I should abufe it, is juft as rational, as it would be to fhut me up in prifon, left by going at large I fhould be led into mifchief.

I like better to be a man than a brute; and my preference is juft. A man is capable of giving more and enjoying more. By parity of reafon I had rather be a man with talent, than a man without.. I fhall be fo much more a man, and lefs a brute. If it lie in my own choice, I fhall undoubtedly fay, Give me at least the chance of doing uncommon good, and enjoying pleafures uncommonly various and exquifite.

The affairs of man in fociety are not of so fimple a texture, that they require only common talents to guide them. Tyranny grows up by a kind of neceffity of nature; oppreffion dif covers itself; poverty, fraud, violence, murder, and a thousand evils follow in the rear. Thefe cannot be extirpated without great difcernment and great energies. Men of genius must rise up, to fhow their brethren that thefe evils, though familiar, are not therefore the lefs dreadful, to analyse the machine of human fociety, to demonftrate how the parts are connected together, to explain the immenfe chain of events and confequences, to point out the defects and the remedy. It is thus only that important reforms

can