EDUCATION.

1. So important a concern did the right education of children appear to Augustus Cæsar, that, when master of the world, he himself attended to that of his grandchildren. Nepotes et literas, et alia rudimenta, per se plerumque docuit: ac nihil æque laboravit quam ut imitarentur chirographum suum.

Neque canavit una, nisi ut imo lecto assiderent: neque iter fecit, nisi ut vehiculo anteirent, aut circa adequitarent. Sueton. August. 64. Ernest.-He himself instructed his grandsons in the rudiments of literature and science, and was peculiarly assiduous to teach them to imitate his own hand writing. They always supped in his company, and were placed on the lowest couch; and on all his journies they either preceded him in another carriage, or rode on horseback by his side.

So in the same place, with respect to the girls→→→→ Filiam & neptes ita instituit, ut etiam lanificio assuefaceret, vetaretque loqui aut agere quidquam, nisi propalam, & quod in diurnos commentarios referretur.-His daughter and grand-daugliters by his direction were carefully taught to spin; and they were habituated to speak and act on all occa sions so openly, that every word and deed might be entered in a journal.

2. The Neapolitan jockies break in their colts with so rough a hand, and such want of temper, that the animal's spirit is quite beaten down: I once saw one thrown down by a brutal fellow, and almost strangled.-Travels in the Sicilies.

3. Such is the force of education and habit, that there is hardly a quaker to be found, young or old, who has not the command of the irascible passions. Why can it not be so with others?

4." In the schools of philosophy anciently," says Goldsmith (i. 339.)" were taught the great maxims "of true policy; the rules of every kind of duty; "the motives for a true discharge of them; what "we owe to our country; the right use of authority; "wherein true courage consists; in a word, the qua"lities that form the good citizen, statesman, and "great captain; and in all these Epaminondas ex"celled."-See his character there drawn, for eloquence, knowledge, modesty: he knew not what it was to be ostentatious. Spintherus said of him, "he had never met with a man, who knew more or

spoke less."-O that our young statesmen and officers would copy him!-Agesilaus, himself a great commander, seeing him passing at the head of his infantry, after having attentively considered and followed him with his eyes a long time, could not help

crying out, in admiration of him, O the wonderworking man!

5. Indulgence,when shown in too great a degree by parents to children, generally meets with a bad return. It seems to awaken a strange malignity in human nature towards those who have thus displayed an injudicious fondness. Children delight in vexing such parents. There may be two reasons--1. It makes them feel foolish, to be so cockered and teased with kindness.-2. It discovers a weakness over which they can insult and triumph. But whatever may be the cause, it furnishes an argument to parents, why they should never practise this behaviour towards their children.-The present miseries of France arose under the government of a kind and indulgent mouarch.

6. We are all in a state of education for the kingdom of heaven, in statu pupillari, upon earth: the education of our immortal spirits is our sole business. For this we are formed in the womb, and pass through the several stages of infancy, youth, and manhood. Studies of the school fit us for manhood; so manhood, and the several occupations consequent upon it, is a state of preparation for something else. Faith and practice are the end of wisdom and knowledge, and prepare us for the conversation,

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society and intercourse of angels, as wisdom and knowledge prepare us for the conversation of men.

7. Milton's plan of education has more of show than value. He does not recommend those studies to boys, which, as Cicero says, adolescentiam alunt. Instead of laying a stress on such authors as open and enlarge a young understanding, he prescribes an early acquaintance with geometry and physics: but these will teach no generous sentiments, nor inculcate such knowledge as is of use at all times and on all occasions. Mathematics and astronomy do not enter into the proper improvement and general business of the mind-such sciences do not apply to the manners, nor operate upon the character. They are extraneous and technical. They are useful; but useful as the knowledge of his art is to the artificer. An excellent writer observes, we are perpetually moralists, but we are geometricians only by chance. Our intercourse with intellectual nature is necessary; our speculations upon matter are voluntary and at leisure. Physical knowledge is of such rare emergence, that one man may know another half his life, without being able to estimate his skill in hydrostatics or astronomy: but his moral and prudential character immediately appears. Those authors therefore are to be read at schools,

that supply most axioms of prudence, most principles of moral truth, and most materials for conversation; and these purposes are best served by poets, orators, and historians. (Warton, 117.)Milton afterwards reasoned better on this subject, P. L. viii. 191.

EIDER.

THIS is a bird in Iceland. It lays most eggs in rainy weather: as soon as the young ones are out of the egg, the mother leads them to the shore: when they come to the water side, she takes them upon her back, and swims with them for the space of a few yards, when she dives, and the young ones, who are left floating on the water, are obliged to take care of themselves. So the parent carries children into the world, dives, and leaves them to combat with its waves.-Van Troil's Letters.

ELOQUENCE.

FOR the difference between Cicero's eloquence and that of some who styled themselves Attic, dealing in short sentences and turns, like Pliny afterwards, see Middleton's Life of Cicero, iii. 332.-Is there not at this time a similar decline in England from