which I am sensible is but small, and I am sorry for it; but, such as it is, I entirely dedicate and consecrate it to you. It will give me the highest satisfaction, if it can be of any service to you; but how would it grieve me, if, by misunderstanding my discourse, you should be hurt instead of being benefited by it. Take care therefore, virtuous youths; my design was to shew the dangers of an obstinate perseverance in study; but I was quite silent with regard to the use of polite learning, which[51] nourishes youth, delights old age, adorns prosperity, affords consolation in adversity, delights at home, is no hindrance abroad, passes the night with us, travels with us, accompanies us into the country. I have proved by examples, how dangerous it is to fatigue the minds of children with too great labour; but it was not my intention to banish all labour and study. “Nam certe quamlibet parum sit, quod contulerit ætas prior, majora tamen aliqua discet puer eo ipso anno, quo minora didicisset. Hoc per singulos annos prorogatum in summam proficit: & quantum in infantia præsumptum est temporis, adolescentiæ acquiritur[52].” “For though what is contributed by the first age of life is but inconsiderable, a boy will certainly learn some things of consequence in the very year that he learns trifles. This, increasing every year, will at last improve him, and what is learned in infancy is an acquisition to youth.” It is dangerous to break upon the rocks of too great learning; it is shameful to be wrecked upon the opposite shore. What path then must you tread? Hac urget lupus, hac canis angit. On one side the wolf urges, on t’other the dog worries us. You will be safe in the middle path, always remembering that sentence of your favourite Horace:
Est modus in rebus sunt certi denique fines,
Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum.
Some certain mean in all things may be found,
To mark our virtue, and our vices bound.
Francis’s Horace, lib. I. sat. I.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Now let those come to themselves who with difficulty admit, that the aliments are capable of rendering some more temperate, others more dissolute, some incontinent, some frugal, confident, timorous, mild, modest, or quarrelsome; let them come to me and hear what it would be proper for them to eat, and what to drink. They will find from hence a great assistance in moral philosophy; they will likewise find from hence a great accession to their intellectual faculties; they will become more ingenious, have better memories, and be more studious and wise. For besides the proper sort of food and liquors, I will instruct them in the nature of air and climates, and point out to them what countries they should chuse to reside in, what they should avoid. The book which proves that manners are influenc’d by bodily constitutions, Cap. 9ᵒ. Charterius, t. 5. p. 457. Observations of the like nature are to be found in Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Plato.
[2] Plato’s works, p. 648.
[3] ’Tis an admirable observation of Montesquieu: All things fatigue us at last, and above all great pleasures; the fibres, that were the organs of it, stand in need of rest: we must employ others better adapted to serve us, and thus, as it were, divide our labour. Essay upon taste.