we may not take upon us more than is becoming, for then we shall never affect anything. It is the grand mistake of the wellintentioned to aim always at doing mighty matters; but true industry lies attentive to small profits whenever accruing.

A private man must not think of introducing new practices into vogue, nor giving a sudden check to those he dislikes; yet he may a little weaken the torrent he cannot stop, and add a trifle of briskness to the stream he did not set agoing. For customs prevail by degrees and subside by degrees, as individuals successively fall into them, or lay them aside, so that each has his proportionable share in the force that makes the stream; nor can it be foreseen what effect one man's perseverance may have to give it a general turn, at least his example may have an influence upon his family, his neighbors, or his intimates, or by their means may sometimes extend elsewhere further than he could have imagined. Therefore let him not think himself so insignificant as to make it wholly indifferent with respect to other persons how he behaves, nor so important as to pretend an authority over them, to dictate, to rebuke, to censure, or stand in open defiance against them: for gentle bending will do more than force, nor need this bending be attempted avowedly by premeditated design, for a steady tenor of conduct pursued upon good foundations for a man's own convenience or good liking, will attract the courses of other persons to warp the same way, almost without their perceiving it.

By this means a man may enlarge his scheme of conduct and add many little strokes to fill up his plan of rectitude, so as scarce ever to stand idle or useless for want of some commendable aim to pursue. For his virtue will not be confined to arduous and burdensome tasks, but taught to tread the paths of pleasantness, and will find employment in his familiar conversations: so he will not think the time lost that is not spent in devotion or important services, while it can be bestowed in adding something to the good order, the decency, the convenience, or innocent enjoyment of those about him. He will seldom proceed solely by the impulse of pleasure, but for the most part find some good end whereto his pleasures may be made subservient, which he can reflect on afterwards as a profit gained; thus by continual practice learning more and more the art of sanctifying his common actions in the intercourse of the world: for whatever makes a little profit, the best that the occasion would permit, will bear a reference to his great ultimate aim, the glory of God pursued by every accession of happiness among his creatures.

CHAP. XXXVI.

EDUCATION.

As much as a man may be counted by nature a reasonable creature, certain it is from constant experience that he is not born in possession of that faculty: Nature only furnishes the soil and sows the seeds whereout reason is to grow afterwards, in long process of time. The plant is not reckoned to show itself until seven years old, and then appears feeble and scarce perceptible; during the warmth of youth, it lies choked under the weeds of passion, appetite, whimsy, and inordinate desire, nor is believed to arrive at maturity until forty. But whether it shall ever come to full maturity at all, or what condition of health and vigor it shall then attain, depends as much upon cultivation, upon favorable circumstances, and upon fortune, as upon nature. Nay, the gifts of nature herself may be ranked among those of fortune: for it was chance to us at what time, in what country, and of what family we were born, what was the constitution and state of health of those from whom we derived our own, what intemperances, follies, and accidents our mothers have escaped which might have ruined our bodily or mental powers: and when come forth into the world, we lie at the mercy of nurses and servants by whose carelessness or giddiness we might have contracted diseases, or received hurts, the bad effects of which we could never have gotten over.

But when safe from these hazards with all our organs and faculties entire, still the degree of improvement to be made with them, depended upon the care or negligence, the prudence or indiscretion of our parents or tutors; nor upon that alone, but upon the examples before our eyes, the companions consorting with us, the incitements to good behavior striking our notice, the temptations falling in our way, the secret turns our inclination happened to take, and a thousand external accidents which no prudence could foresee, no care nor judgment certainly provide or prevent. While under the government of others the danger is not so great or not so apparent, for what mischiefs have been contracted early may be generally, though not always, discovered and rectified by their authority and good management; but when the reins of liberty begin to be loosened, then is the critical time, for the latent seeds of evil weeds will then sprout vigorously, and others be received from quarters where the ground was well sheltered before. So that it is impossible to know certainly how a

lad will prove, notwithstanding all the good governance that has been bestowed upon him; but some fond passion miscalled love, some ill-placed friendship, some extravagance or debauchery, some violent fancy or eagerness of pleasure may frustrate the best culture, and overturn the most promising hopes.

The years from sixteen to twentyfive may be reckoned the most important part of life, as determining the color of all the rest : the time lost then can very rarely be retrieved by subsequent diligence, nor is there room to expect any subsequent diligence, after a habit of idleness contracted then; but the manner of disposing that interval must decide whether the man shall be good for something or nothing, or what he shall be good for ever after: and the disposal depends principally upon himself; he may receive assistance from friends and parents, but it lies in his own breast what use he shall make of their assistance. In this important season which is to fix his fate as well in this as in the other world, what sure direction has he to carry him through the business of it? his passions are then most impetuous, the joy of new-gotten liberty urges him to throw off the restraint even of his own reason, or if he has a notion of reason, he lies liable to mistake the impulses of passion for its dictates, and think whatever he stands strongly inclined to demonstrably right: his judgment is crude, hasty, opinionated and obstinate, founded upon two or three favorite maxims as upon absolute certainty, which if they happen to lead the right way, it is rather an effect of good luck than of discernment.

Thus, how true soever it be that each man makes his own fortune in happiness, it is as true that the previous indulgence of fortune led him into the proper dispositions and methods for making it and any one who will reflect impartially on the follies, the erroneous notions, and strong propensities of his youth, must think it almost a miracle that he has escaped the mischiefs of them so tolerably as he has done.

2. But Fortune is but another name for Providence, from whose disposition of causes all fortuitous events as well as the stated laws of nature flow; therefore to that origin is owing that we are what we are, as well in our moral character, as in our situation with respect to externals. For though we have undoubtedly a freedom of will and our actions follow precisely upon our volitions, yet we shall use our freedom according to the judgments and sentiments of our mind, derived to us from external causes not of our own procurement; so that we have as much reason to thank Heaven for any good deeds we have performed, as for the daily bread we eat.

Thus without entering into the subtilties of Freewill, we may sat

isfy ourselves by experience of the world around us, and by contemplating the progress of the human faculties in their several stages of growth, that there is a certain line of life marked out to every man, not by a compulsive fate or predestination, but by the provision of causes, for furnishing him with those natural parts and subsequent acquirements, those ideas, habits, inclinations, and ways of thinking which shape the whole of his conduct. He is left in numberless instances to do as he pleases, but derives from prior sources the springs of action determining what he shall please to do in every one of them. Had he been otherwise constituted or instructed, beheld other examples, fallen into other company, met with other accidents of the disgustful or alluring kind, though his choice might still have been equally free, he would have made it in anoth

er manner.

From this consideration that nothing falls out either in the moral or natural world, either among the actions of man or of matter, without the permission or appointment of our almighty Governor, arises a stumbling-block not presently to be gotten over, for we cannot easily reconcile ourselves to the thought of evil proceeding originally from the same fountain with good. But the ways of Heaven are all established in perfect wisdom, goodness, and equity therefore we may rest assured that whatever is evil, so far as we can see of it, terminates in some greater good, to us unseen: we can discern that vices often correct one another, and the miseries they involve some persons in, serve for a warning to deter multitudes from incurring the like; so although a grievous hurt to particulars, they are a benefit to mankind in general, and we can understand them sent in inercy to those who profit, not in anger to those who suffer by them.

But the first fall of man and that proneness in human nature to offend, which renders a continual warning and an opposition of contrary vices necessary, cannot be thought permitted in kindness to the human species, therefore we must conclude them redounding to some necessary service of the universe, and that there are other creatures to whom the profits accruing therefrom are greater than any sufferings occasioned by them. This reflection may serve for a clue in the most mysterious dispensations of Providence, and afford us comfort under all the evils of sin and suffering we see in others, or have fallen into ourselves, being persuaded that all things are ordered ultimately for the best, and whatever yields nothing but mischief to man, tends by some unknown way to the advantage of the spiritual host, whose numbers are infinitely larger, and their interests more valuable than those of the visible creation. And as we have hope in the divine Equity of being

ourselves incorporated into that host, though perhaps at a very remote distance of time, yet the remotest time will one day be the present, and we shall then find our happiness supported by the like dispensations among inferior creatures with those which afflict and gall us now.

Yet such reflection can only furnish ground of content in what evils we cannot help, but none for being remiss in warding off those we can any ways avoid: Providence indeed, which is styled Chance in the language of men, disposes all things for the best; yet it is of the essence of prudence to leave as little to chance as possible but prudence must take her measures, not upon what is best in the all-seeing eye which we can never know, but upon what appears so to our best discernment.

We have nothing to do with the line of causes lying behind, which brought us our knowledge, our sentiments, and abilities; it is our business to look before, along the line of consequences which may result from our actions, and steer our course according to what we discover there. We have a certain compass of power and freedom allotted, and a portion of understanding to direct us in the proper uses to be made of them; but our understanding is of the provision of Heaven, therefore what good conduct flows from thence, may be presumed to promote the general interest of the universe, as well as what flows by any other channel: so that since we cannot certainly know in what instances our good or evil conduct will prove most beneficial to invisible creatures, it behoves us to pursue our own advantage, and that of our fellow-creatures with whom we have a visible intercourse, by such methods as our reason and those salutary rules which were the result of former reasonings shall direct; and the rather because, so far as we can judge, the doing good to any single member is the most likely way to increase the common stock and promote the good of the whole.

Therefore our contrivance and industry is due to the good of our neighbor, that is, any creature to whom we have a prospect of being able to do a service. The spiritual host lies too remote from our knowledge to stand in any degree of neighborhood with us, so we have no care to take for their service, but may trust Providence to guide us unknowingly into the measures that shall best answer their occasions: but our concern lies with our own species, whose interests more or less general we may have opportunities of promoting. And since the introduction into life is made by helpless infancy, capable in great measure of being made the prelude to a happy or miserable life, of being moulded into an useful or mischievous member of society according to the hands wherein it falls, therefore we ought to look upon our children and other