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happiness of families, and prepares the destruction of kingdoms. Magnificent houses and furniture, and parks, and equipages, and great entertainments, and fashionable company, are desired not so much for the pleasure they really afford, as for the distinction which they confer. Men are, wę see, as proud of plain coats, as of gold and embroidery, according as the one or the other happens to be the mode; and in the same manner one person may be proud of paying his debts, and living within his income, while another is vain of bilking duns, and spending twice as much as he is worth. Young people may be taught to consider certain good qualitics as greater distinctions than those external marks of wealth, of which the generality are so ambitious. From his childhood, the son of a country gentleman should hear, and see in his own family, that independence of character is respected; principles of honour, and the first feelings of generosity, should be joined in his young mind with the habits of economy. He should be encouraged to give, but never to waste his playthings, his clothes, his money, or any thing that can be useful to himself or others. He should be taught a few honest maxims, of which he will feel the value and force. when he begins to reason and to act for himself; he should learn, that a gentleman ought to live within his income, and pay his debts that he should scorn to take a bribe, or to be the hanger-on of a court. These are wholesome truths, which, once fixed in a boy's mind, will form a firm foundation for the plain character of a country gentleman. Even before a child can have an accurate idea of what constitutes a good master, a good landlord, or a good magistrate, his ambition may be excited to become what his ancestors have been before

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him, or what his parents and friends commend and respect. These impressions may be made without formal lessons, by seizing proper opportunities, as they occur. If the child hear his father speak to his domestics or tenants, or the country people in the neighbourhood, with kindness; if the boy sees that his father exerts himself to improve their houses, to add to their comforts, to prevent them from disputing, and to do justice among them, he will early acquire some notions of the true duty of a country gentleman: and if he hear his father's dependants and neighbours speak of him with gratitude and respect, he will even in his childhood be touched by these praises, and will probably resolve to imitate his father's conduct when he grows up to be a man. Many things occur between the forming and the keeping such a resolution; but it is well even to have formed it; such impressions may be weakened by time, or apparently effaced by succeeding events: but it often happens, that notions, which seem to have been obliterated, recur when people are placed in circumstances similar to those in which the thoughts were first introduced into the mind. Much has been attributed to hereditary propensities, which arise from the recollection of examples seen in childhood; these recur to the mind at the ages when they can be imitated: hence it has often been observed, that children, who had no resemblance to their parents when they were young, become like them as they grow older.

To strengthen the impressions made by example and conversation, preceptors and parents should select from books illustrations that may amuse while they instruct. The works of Goldsmith, of Day, and many periodical papers of Addison,

are well suited to inspire a boy both with the independence of manly character, and the benevolent feelings and amiable manners, which make a country gentleman beloved and respected.

The boy will hear conversations about elections and members of parliament; he may happen to see an election: the time should then be taken to impress on his mind the idea of the duties of a member of parliament, and to inspire his young soul with the generous sentiments of a true Briton. He should, for instance, hear the account of the Lord Treasurer Danby's visit in King Charles the Second's time to the patriot Marvel in his garret; he should hear, or he should read, of the noble firmness, with which Marvel rejected the temptations that were presented to him; he refused a thousand pounds laid down before him, though he was at the time so poor, that he was obliged to borrow a guinea from a friend as soon as the Lord Treasurer departed. The boy should hear also of the independent patriot, who was found by Sir Robert Walpole supping upon a cold shoulder of mutton; a circumstance which convinced the minister, that he could not succeed in any attempt to corrupt integrity, that was supported by unblushing frugality. Anecdotes such as these are not above the capacity of boys of ten or twelve years old, for they require no knowledge of the world to be tasted; and the enthusiasm, that generous conduct excites, is always most felt in early youth. A few such facts, related when the heart is warm, may make an indelible impression. The contrast to the sturdy respectable character may be shown in such lives as that of Sir Richard Steele, who, though he had excellent

intentions, was so weak, so imprudent, and so extravagant, as to become utterly contemptible. Once, when he was reproached by Whiston with his political venality, he replied, "I must ride in a coach; but you can walk." This answer contains much in a few words. Anecdotes such as these, told at happy moments, will make a strong impression on the mind of youth and thus, even when very young, the spirit of independence may be excited among children. All this must be effected by domestic education, during the years which boys spend at home, before they are sent to school, and during the vacations, which they pass with their parents. The heirs of opulent gentlemen should not be brought up in their father's house, or near their father's estate, lest they should imbibe undue ideas of their own importance, and grow up with the contracted notions common to persons, who hear only of their own possessions, and see only their own dependants. Young squires are apt to fancy, that there is nothing in the universe equal to their father's house, and their own neighbourhood; and that no opinions can be rational or right, but those which they have been accustomed to hear from half a dozen domestic oracles. For this reason they should be sent to public schools, at a distance from their friends and connexions, where, mixing with strangers and equals, they will be forced to seek distinction by other merits than merely those of bearing a certain name, or being heir to a certain number of acres. Measuring themselves with others, they will learn of what small importance they are; and how very little the world thinks of those things, which have perhaps occupied their exclusive attention. These practical moral lessons are some of the most salutary, which a great school

teaches; and they are peculiarly useful and necessary to boys who are not intended for any of those professions, where continual competition keeps the self-importance of men in order, and where variety of circumstances must prevent them from contracting habits of dogmatizing obstinacy. The obstinacy of ignorance and of imaginary selfimportance used to be one of the common ludicrous characteristics of our English squires; but the Sir Wilful of Congreve, the Western of Fielding, and the Tony Lumpkin of Goldsmith, are not now to be found in the most remote parts of England. The ignorant, hunting, drunken, obstinate, jovial, freedom-loving tyrant is no more to be seen, except in old novels and plays. The ptarmigan, the bustard, the cock of the woods, and the country squire, are nearly extinct. Instead of country squires, we have now country gentlemen. The diffusion of knowledge, and the advantages of polite and literary education, have silently and gradually operated this melioration. They must now beware, lest, to avoid the faults and foibles of their predecessors, they should run into the contrary extremes. It is said, that a Yorkshire country gentleman, not many years ago, gave an annuity of 3001. for the possession of a statue of Venus, the price of which he could not pay. It is true, that the understanding cannot in any class of men be too much enlarged; but it may be too much refined; it may be misapplied to subjects of little use to the possessor, in the situation in which he is destined to live this must lead to the neglect of substantial duties, consequently to the degradation of the character of the individual. A youth may be warned of this danger, but he should not be discouraged from cultivating a taste for painting,

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