from it by the bulk of mankind, and that is to furnish our tongues with the richest and the most polite variety of phrases and words upon all occasions of life or religion. He that writes well in verse will often find a necessity to send his thoughts in search through all the treasure of words that express any one idea in the same language, that so he may comport with the measures, or the rhyme of the verse which he writes, or with his own most beautiful and vivid sentiments of the thing he describes. Now by much reading of this kind we shall insensibly acquire the habit and skill of diversifying our ideas in the most proper and beautiful language, whether we write or speak of the things of God or men.

It is pity that some of these harmonious writers have ever indulged any thing uncleanly or impure to defile their paper and abuse the ears of their readers, or to offend against the rules of the nicest virtue and politeness: but still amongst the writings of Mr. Dryden, and Mr. Pope, and Dr. Young, as well as others, there is a sufficient choice in our own language, wherein we shall not find any indecency to shock the most modest tongue or ear.

Perhaps there has hardly been a writer in any nation, and I may dare to affirm there is none in ours has a richer and happier talent of painting to the life, or has ever discovered such a large and inexhausted variety of description, as the celebrated Mr. Pope. If you read his translation of Homer's Iliad, you will find almost all the terms or phrases in our tongue that are needful to express any thing that is grand or magnificent; but if you peruse his Odyssey, which descends much more into coinmon life, there is scarce any useful subject of discourse or thought, or any ordinary occurrence, which he has not cultivated and dressed in the most proper language; and yet still he has ennobled and enlivened even the lower subjects with the brightest and most agreeable orna

ments.

I should add here also, that if the same author had more frequently employed his pen on divine themes, his short poem on the Messiah, and some part of his letters between Abelard and Eloisa, with that ode on the

dying Christian, &c. sufficiently assure us that his pen would have honourably imitated some of the tender scenes of penitential sorrow, as well as the sublimer odes of the Hebrew Psalmist, and perhaps discovered to us, in a better manner than any other translation has done, how great a poet sat upon the throne of Israel.

After all that I have said, there is yet a further use of reading poesy, and that is, when the mind has been fatigued with studies of a more laborious kind, or when it is any ways unfit for the pursuit of more difficult subjects, it may be as it were unbent, and repose itself awhile on the flowery meadows where the Muses dwell. It is a very sensible relief to the soul, when it is over-tired, to amuse itself with the numbers and the beautiful sentiments of the poets; and in a little time this agreeable amusement may recover the languid spirits to activity and more important service.

XXXVII. All this I propose to the world as my best observations about reading of verse. But if the question were offered to me, Shall a student of a bright genius never divert himself with writing poesy? I would answer, Yes, when he cannot possibly help it; a lower genius, in mature years, would heartily wish that he had spent much more time in reading the best authors of this kind, and employed much fewer hours in writing. But it must be confessed, or supposed at least, that there may be seasons when it is hardly possible for a poetic soul to restrain the fancy or quench the flame, when it is hard to suppress the exuberant flow of lofty sentiments, and prevent the imagination from this sort of style or language: and that is the only season, I think, wherein this inclination should be indulged, especially by persons who have devoted themselves to professions of a different kind; and one reason is, because what they write in that hour is more likely to carry in it some appearance above nature, some happy imitation of the dictates of the muse*.

* The muse, in the ancient Heathen sense, is supposed to be a goddess: but in the philosophic sense, it can mean no more than a bright genius, with a warm and strong imagination elevated to an uncommon degree.

XXXVIII. There are other things besides history, grammar, and languages, rhetoric and poesy, which have been included under the name of philological knowledge; such as, an acquaintance with the notions, customs, manners, tempers, polity, &c. of the various nations of the earth, or the distinct sects and tribes of mankind. This is necessary, in order to understand history the better; and every man who is a lawyer or a gentleman ought to obtain some acquaintance with these things, without which he can never read history to any great advantage, nor can he maintain his own station and character in life, with honour and dignity, without some insight into them.

XXXIX. Students in divinity ought to seek a larger acquaintance with the Jewish laws, polity, customs, &c. in order to understand many passages of the Old Testament and the New, and to vindicate the sacred writers from the reproaches of infidels. An acquaintance also with many of the Roman and Grecian affairs is needful to explain several texts of scripture in the New Testament, to lead sincere inquirers into the true and genuine sense of the evangelists and apostles, and to guard their writings from the unreasonable cavils of men.

XL. The art of criticism is reckoned by some as a distinct part of philology; but it is in truth nothing else than a more exact and accurate knowledge or skill in the other parts of it, and a readiness to apply that knowledge upon all occasions, in order to judge well of what relates to these subjects, to explain what is obscure in the authors which we read, to supply what is defective and amend what is erroneous in manuscripts or ancient copies, to correct the mistakes of authors and editors in the sense of the words, to reconcile the controversies of the learned, and by this means to spread a juster knowledge of these things among the inquisitive part of mankind.

Every man who pretends to the learned profession, if he doth not arise to be a critic himself in philological matters, he should be frequently conversing with those books, whether dictionaries, paraphrasts, commentators, or other critics, which may relieve any difficulties he

meets with, and give him a more exact acquaintance with those studies which he pursues.

And whensoever any person is arrived to such a degree of knowledge in these things as to furnish him well for the practice of criticism, let him take great care that pride and vanity, contempt of others, with inward wrath and insolence, do not mingle themselves with his remarks and censures. Let him remember the common frailties of human nature, and the mistakes to which the wisest man is sometimes liable, that he may practise this art with due modesty and candour.

END OF THE FIRST PART.

THE

IMPROVEMENT

OF

THE MIND.

THE SECOND PART.

INTRODUCTION.

THE chief design of the former part of this book is to lead us into proper methods for the improvement of our own knowledge. Let us now consider what are the best means of improving the minds of others, and of communicating to them the knowledge which we have acquired. If the treasures of the mind should be hoarded up and concealed, they would profit none besides the possessor; and even his advantage by the possession would be poor and narrow in comparison of what the same treasures would yield, both to himself and to the world, by a free communication and diffusion of them. Large quantities of knowledge acquired and reserved by one man, like heaps of gold and silver, would contract a sort of rust and disagreeable aspect by lying in everlasting secrecy and silence; but they are burnished and glitter by perpetual circulation through the tribes of mankind.

The two chief ways of conveying knowledge to others, are that of verbal instruction to our disciples, or by writing and publishing our thoughts to the world.