tions, which are instructive, agreeable and entertaining in almost all Companies. Natural History will also afford Opportunities of introducing many observations, relating to the Preservation of Health, which may be afterwards of great use. Arbuthnot on Air and Aliment, Sanctorius on Perspiration, Lemery on Foods, and some others, may now be read, and a very little Explanation will make them sufficiently intelligible to Youth.
While they are reading Natural History, might not a little Gardening, Planting, Grafting, Inoculating, &c., be taught and practised, and now and then Excursions made to the neighboring Plantations of the best Farmers, their Methods observ'd and reason'd upon for the Information of Youth? The Improvement of Agriculture being useful to all, and Skill in it no Disparagement to any.
The History of Commerce, of the Invention of Arts, Rise of Manufactures, Progress of Trade, Change of its Seats, with the Reasons, Causes, &c., may also be made interesting to Youth, and will be useful to all. And this with the Accounts in other History of the prodigious Force and Effect of Engines and Machines used in War, will naturally introduce a Desire to be instructed in Mechanicks, and to be informed of the Principles of that Art by which weak Men perform such Wonders, Labour is sav'd, Manufactures expedited, &c., &c. This will be the Time to show them Prints of antient and modern Machines, to explain them, to let them be copied, and to give Lectures in Mechanical Philosophy.
With the whole should be constantly inculcated and cultivated, that Benignity of Mind, which shows itself in searching for and seizing every opportunity to serve and to oblige; and is the Foundation of what is called Good Breeding; highly useful to the Possessor, and most agreeable to all.
The Idea of what is true Merit, should also be often presented to Youth, explain'd and impress'd on their Minds, as consisting in an Inclination join'd with an Ability to serve Mankind, one's Country, Friends and Family; which Ability is (with the Blessing of God) to be acquir'd or greatly increas'd by true Learning, and should indeed be the great Aim and End of all Learning.
Note.—Thomson's lines are found near the close of his Spring, and begin:
By degrees
The human blossom blows; and every day,
Soft as it rolls along, shows some new charm,
The father's lustre, and the mother's bloom.
Then infant reason grows apace, and calls
For the kind hand of an assiduous care,
Delightful task! &c., &c., &c.
