will not say there is nothing new among the Moderns, yet I will assert, that there is much less new than is generally thought, particularly in Poetry, Oratory, Politics, and Metaphysics; and he that has read what the Antients have left on those subjects, will lose the rage of devouring every lean morsel as it comes fresh from the press: he will find that what is tolerable, is but a repetition of what he had met with before; what is bad, he will have too good a taste to relish; and as for what is excellent, he will gain the patience, by the experience of its rarity, to wait for a recommendation of it, and when it is recommended, will easily find leisure to read it. Multa lectio, non multorum, is the only secret that I know of for making much advancement by study; and common sense, as well as experience, ought to render us sensible of its use; for he that is master of the principles of any art or science, is always master of the detail, and the number of true geniuses has ever been small; but from mere indolence we labour all our lives to little purpose, when industry at the commencement would make the rest of our journey pleasant.

"Translations are recommended as an expedient to save this labour; but where are good translations to be found? Our own language affords very few; and I know of none in any other tongue which are not far beneath the originals. As for those in Latin,

C

they are generally so spiritless, that the fatigue of reading them far exceeds all that is required to master the difficulties of the Greek tongue; nay, it is often more difficult to understand the translation than the original."

T

CHAPTER III.

Letter from Mr. Stilling fleet to Mr. Windham on his coming of age.

MR. Windham was not sent to a public school, or to the University, but finished his education under the guidance of his respectable preceptor. Mr. Stillingfleet, considering his charge as terminating on the majority of his pupil, addressed to him a letter of advice relating to his future conduct in life, comprising such moral and practical instructions as his good sense, sound principles, and observation, suggested. This valuable document I present with pleasure to the Reader, as at once doing honour to the head and heart of the Author, and as likely to be useful to persons in the same circumstances as the youth to whom it was addressed.

F

Εδοξε δη και νυν έτι δοκει τα μεν αλλα επιτηδευμάλα πανία 8 σφοδρα χαλεπα είναι, το δε τινα τρόπον χρη γιγή νεται κρηςες ανθρωπες παγχάλεπον *.

PLATO in Epimenide.

"

DEAR SIR,

"As your friends will take this opportunity of paying their compliments to you, I ought not to let it pass by without notice; I who have at least as much reason as most of them to partake in the good or ill success of every thing which concerns you. I look on myself as interested in all the actions of your life; and doubt not but they will afford matter of joy to me, and all who really wish you well. It might perhaps be expected I should join with the rest in barely congratulating you on your coming of age; but, as I have something of a very different kind in view, I shall give it another turn, and consider this as a time, in which I may most properly be allowed to speak by way of advice; though I have no suspicion, but that you will give me leave to speak as freely hereafter when occasion shall offer.

"It is a long established and general opinion, that the most difficult of all kinds of instruction is, that of teaching men to be good."

"I profess not, however, to deliver any thing new in the following lines, or what you may not meet with

in

many books better treated; but a particular address will frequently have a different effect from what is said in general; and I may presume, that some regard to the person who makes it will not be inefficacious, especially when you shall observe, that I am not set down to display my reading or eloquence, but with a design to speak, as far as I am able, the words of truth and soberness.

"Too many young gentlemen look on coming of age with pleasure, as that time affords them an opportunity of indulging those appetites, which the kindness of parents had restrained them in before. The beginning of manhood to them is the beginning of debauchery. The power they acquire over themselves is a power to bring themselves to ruin; and the hand, which the laws had hitherto bound up, is then let loose to sign and sanction whatever acquired extravagance, fashionable folly, and the natural intemperance of youth shall dictate; that is, they rejoice at attaining that age in which they are presumed to arrive at reason, because they may then live in defiance of it, without controul.

"I am very certain you are not of that number. You are blessed with too good a parent to need wish for a greater share of reasonable liberty than you have already enjoyed; and I cannot imagine you