respecting my education.

This was a source of flattery to me. I was universally allowed the best scholar in the seminary from whence I had been taken, and, for three years past, had been little obliged to my instructors. Exclusive of the classics, I had made a tolerable stride into mathematics, and had often surprised old Declension himself with philosophical experiments, which I had learnt from two or three books, that, till I condescended to look at them, had been neglected, and thrown about the school, among other lumber. I was the more powerfully induced to these exercises by the wonder they excited, and the fame I acquired. Mr. Seldon expressed much satisfaction at my progress; and, after paying me some compliments, told me he would now recommend other subjects to my notice. The study of jurisprudence, the knowledge of the natural and

civil rights of mankind, and in what manner they are preserved or injured by the laws existing in this country, he said, would make me valuable to society; and recommended me to the care of Mr. Turnbull, a man whom I am sure you must have observed, during your intimacy at our house.
MR. SELDON was upwards of fifty, had no wife nor family, except Julia Gowland, an orphan niece, of about twelve years old, whom he had taken from a boarding-school, where he had placed her, being not only dissatisfied with the oeconomy of the house, but likewise desirous of her company, and taking himself, in a great measure, the care of inuring her to proper habits. His turn of thinking respecting education and habit was singular, yet, in my opinion, just. Boys, he said, should

be steeped in adversity, case-hardened in misery, during their youth; it gives them fortitude to support every change of fortune; it makes them sensible of the simplicity with which man ought to live; and shews them the folly and real inutility of numberless things, which, by some, are deemed absolutely necessary to existence. It is the best school of morality to a strong mind. Girls should be made sensible how much mildness and resignation contribute to their happiness; should be taught to support contradiction with chearfulness and smiles. This is the duty as much of man as woman; but it is the great source of pleasure to the latter. Husbands are enchanted by mildness and acquiescence from their wives; they feel their own superiority in point of strength; they fancy it in point of understanding; their free commerce with the world, which is

denied to the other sex