they cannot be prevailed upon to forego either, for the purpose of inveftigating elaborate and literary performances. To such characters this work will be peculiarly suitable: it will perhaps give them a relish for reading, and stimulate them, when they have perused this, to investigate larger performances on the same subject: it will give them to see the vanity of riches; fatality of folly; the futility of flattery; the utility of virtue, and, above all, the indispenfable necessity of religion; which alone can. Lay the rough paths of peevish nature even, If this performance has all or any of these intrinsically excellent tendencies, my object is gained. In order to accomplish this end, I have, in the miscellaneous department of this work selected a number of entertaining pieces, all of which have a tendency to inculcate on the volatile mind the necessity of virtue and religion. To profound erudition; refinement in sentiment, or per fection in composition, I do not pretend: it is my especial design to simplify my langague, and accomodate my matter to the capacities of my uninfo med readers; and to compress that matter in as small a compass as possible. I give, or attempt to give, the essence of the subjects I discuss. The pieces, therefore, in the different departments of this work have been partly composed and partly compiled on purpose for it: and with respect to the subsequent addresses, those, who for one moment reflect on the degeneracy of the age in which we live, and the deleterious examples placed before the rising generation, will not, I am morally certain, conceive them to be superfluout or nugatory. The judicious critic will, I am confident, draw a vail over the literary inaccuracies in the subsequent addresses, when I declare to him that they did not undergo a single transcription. What can be more important than to inculcate the precepts of moral rectitude on the juvenile mind; and to guard the rising generation from the evil examples placed before them, in this degenerate age. How many poor unhappy children, are prematurely ruined by the bad examples of their parents, or the licentious precepts of their tutors. The present work is therefore, not only intended to illuminate the understanding, but also to inspire the heart with the love of virtue. PRELIMINARY ADDRESSES. To Parents, on the Necessity of Cultivating the Intellectual Faculties of their Children. A PERSON previous to his intellectual improvement is like an image in the heart of the solid marble, that has not as yet experienced the ingenuity of the artist. Aristotle says, "That the figure is in the stone, and the sculptor only finds it;" whose business, no doubt, is to polish and beautify it. This similitude will hold good with respect to children unlettered and uncultivated: they may possess great natural talents, which, without some improvement, will remain in eternal obscuri. ty; hence on account of the impolitic, the parsimonious, or I should rather have said, the barbarous neglect of many parents, their children live and die in ignorance, when they might, with little cultivation, have become philosophers or statesmen. We often see even the blaze of genius bursting thro' every barrier, and producing prodigies of valour in the savage, which, for the want of refinement, is more proper. ly fierceness: cunning in the plebian, which with caltivation would be metamorphosed to wisdom. Obstinacy in the slave, which with the benefit of instruction would be admirable patience; and a thousand other instances might be adduced to prove the propriety of our suppositions. What a profusion of super-excellent, ornamental, as well as beneficent objects, the enlightened mind reads in the book of creation from day to day, which the illiterate are utter strangers to. What magnificient spectacles to attract our attention. What munificence to impregnate the mind with gratitude. What plenty, boundless plenty, spread abroad to supply our wants. What exhilerating benedictions are bestowed upon man, unthoughtful man, to cheer his heart, to employ his thoughts, to improve his intellects; but alas, for want of posterior cultivation, all nature and nature's God bestow accumulated and complicated blessings in vain. How culpable, how blame-worthy, then must the parents be in the sight of God and good men, who thus neglect their childrens' dearest best interest, and yet forsooth they will gratify them in any and in every thing they desire, but the one thing needful; and the chil dren do not know the want of learning till it is too late, when they perhaps reflect on their parents while in their silent graves, für being the primary cause of precluding |