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of nature, he feels a satisfaction far more delicate and more pleasing than that which is experienced by the tasteless owner of the largest estate. He is persuaded that riches are only valuable either as ministering to the wants of the necessitous, or as bestowed upon the external decorations of life, which indeed are childish and frivolous, if they do not display elegance of mind. The cabinets, galleries, palaces, and parks of others administer to his pleasure; and he finds an agreeable companion in every picture, medal, and statue. By the pursuits of Taste, the attention is drawn off from sensual indulgence and low amusements. They promote tranquillity of temper, and thus become the allies of virtue, and the friends of the social affections. They form the middle link in the chain of pleasures, as they exceed those which are merely corporeal, and lead to such as are speculative and abstract. They give an elegant turn and cast of sentiment; they divert the attention from the turbulence of passion, and the sordidness of interest, and dispose it for tranquillity and reflection. They fill the mind with beautiful images, furnish agreeable subjects of conversation, and, as they are connected with a knowledge of mankind, and the operations of human intellect, they contribute to prepare us for the business of life, and the intercourse of society.

An intimate acquaintance with the works of genius, nature, and art, as displayed in their most sublime and beautiful forms, has an immediate tendency to expand the faculties of the mind, and to give the most engaging views of mankind and of Providence. By the cultivation of Taste upon such principles, the connexion between the feelings of natural and moral beauty is discovered, and the pleasures derived from

the eye and the ear terminate in the enlargement of the heart, and the improvement of the social affections; and thus is the cultivation of Taste carried to its most exalted height. Hence, as from being conversant with the works of the best masters, the man of taste dislikes whatever is unnatural, affected, and vulgar, and is gratified only with what is beautiful and fair; so he will be disposed, by a congeniality of sentiment, to reject whatever is depraved and vicious, and to adhere to that which is noble and honourable. The sensibility of the excellence of art and nature is favourable to the enjoyment of moral beauty; for if the mind has been duly improved by education, and is not corrupted by intercourse with the world, the heart may be softened, the manners refined, and the temper sweetened by a well directed attention to the arts of imitation. The improvement of Taste, therefore, will, if thus pursued, answer the most valuable of all purposes, and not only form a refined critic and connoisseur, but give to magnanimity, generosity, and every amiable quality, their proper ascendency above meanness, depravity, and selfishness. It will not only impart much of that refinement and elegance of thinking, which characterised an ADDISON, a SPENCE, a GRAY, and a REYNOLDS; but contribute to the love and the improvement of those virtues, which were the fairest ornaments of their minds.

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CLASS THE SIXTH.

THE SOURCES OF OUR NATIONAL
PROSPERITY, &c.

CHAPTER I.

IN recommending agriculture and commerce, as proper subjects of attention in a general scheme of liberal education, I am am not only justified by the importance of the subjects themselves, but by the institutions of respectable seminaries, and the opinions of writers of high character. The art of agriculture has been for several years publicly taught in the Swedish, Danish, and some of the German universities; and I am informed that a professorship for this purpose has been founded at Edinburgh. In addition to the advice of Milton and Locke, I have moreover the concurrence of Bishop Watson. His remarks upon the best mode of improving academical education are so much to the purpose, that my readers, I doubt not, will be pleased with the following remarks.

"I have spent the best part of my life in the university of Cambridge; and have not been wholly incurious in observing what, I thought, were either excellencies or defects in our mode of education. I mean not, upon this occasion, to enlarge upon either, but simply to take the liberty of suggesting an hint, which

has often engaged my attention. The hint respects→→→→ the utility of an academic institution for instructing young men of rank and fortune in the elements of agriculture; in the principles of commerce; and in the knowledge of our manufactures.

"This kind of study would agreeably solicit, and might probably secure, the attention of that part of our youth, which, in being exempted from the discipline of scholastic exercises, has abundant leisure for other pursuits; which, in being born to opulence, is (I will say) unhappily deprived of one of the strongest incentives to intellectual exertion-narrowness of fortune;-it would prepare them for becoming at a proper age, intelligent legislators of their country; and it would inspire them with such a taste for husbandry as might constitute the chief felicity of their future lives.

"When the treaty with Ireland was agitated in parliament, the utility of a comprehensive knowledge of our commerce and manufactures was perfectly understood both by those who possessed it, and by those who lamented their want of it. The commerce of wool, corn, cotton, hemp, flax, silk, beer, wine, spirits, salts, sugar, tar, glass, earthen ware, iron, copper, lead, tin, &c. &c. are subjects of great importance to this country; and it is humbly apprehended, that they are subjects also on which there are but few persons in either house of parliament, who have had an opportunity of being instructed during the course of their education.

"Of all the amusements or employments in which country gentlemen are engaged, that of superintending with intelligence the cultivation of a farm is one of the most useful to the community, as well as to the

individual who applies himself to it. Great improvements have been made in agriculture within the last fifty years; there is a chaos of printed information on the subject, which wants to be digested into form, in order to be made generally useful. The several agricultural societies which have been established by gentlemen in different parts of the kingdom, have done great service; we owe to their endeavours, and to the patriotic exertions of one deserving citizen, (A. Young,) the present flourishing condition of our husbandry; but far more gentlemen would probably have been induced to turn their thoughts that way, and all of them with better prospects of succeeding in their inquiries, had they, in their youth, been carefully instructed in the principles of vegetation, in the chemical qualities of soils, and in the natures and uses of different manures."

AGRICULTURE.

The pursuits of agriculture are connected with that love of the country, which may be called an universal passion. The charms of nature are there fully displayed; and every mind, which is not debased by vicious refinement, or enslaved by irregular desires, is eager to enjoy them. A principle so universally felt has never failed to call forth the powers of genius; and writers of all ages have expatiated on rural scenes and occupations with the most lively satisfaction. Every poet more especially claims the country as his peculiar province; from it he derives the most beautiful and striking descriptions, and is enabled to represent

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