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a confiderable length of time before he was first taken. Hence fome have fuppofed he was really an idiot, although he had by no means the countenance of one; and Lord MONBODDO affures us, that he knew an officer, a man of very good fenfe, who was quartered where PETER lived for fome months, and faw him almoft every day, and who affirmed, that he was no idiot, but fhewed marks of common understanding, which was all that could be expected from one in his ftate. order of the Queen he was put under the care of Dr. ARBUTHNOT, with proper mafters to attend him. But notwithilanding there feemed to be no natural defect in his organs of fpeech, after all the pains that had been taken with him, he could never be brought to say more than PETER and King GEORGE, and proved incapable of receiving inftruction. PETER could therefore never be more than tamed, fo weakened were the powers of his understanding for want of its proper and early culture.

SECT.

SECT. LVI.

ON THE PLEASURES OF THE POOR MAN.

-Turn we to furvey

where rougher climes a nobler race difplay,

where the bleak Swifs their ftormy mansions tread,

and force a churlish foil for fcanty bread.

No product here the barren hills afford,

but man and steel, the foldier and his sword.
No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array,
but winter lingering chills the lap of May;
no zephyr fondly fues the mountain's breast,
but meteors glare, and ftormy glooms invest.

Yet ftill, e'en here, CONTENT can spread a charm,

redress the clime, and all its rage difarm.→

Cheerful at morn, he wakes from fhort repose,
breathes the keen air, and carols as he goes;
with patient angle trolls the finny deep,

or drives his vent'rous plough-fhare to the steep;
or feeks the den where snow-tracks mark the way,
and drags the struggling favage into day.
At night returning, every labour sped,
he fits him down the monarch of a fhed;
fmiles by his cheerful fire, and round furveys
his childrens' looks, that brighten at the blaze;
while his lov'd partner, boastful of her hoard,
displays her cleanly platter on the board;
and haply too some pilgrim, thither led,
with many a tale repays the nightly bed,

VOL. IV.

4 Q

SECT.

SECT. LVII.

ON THE PLEASURES OF A CULTIVATED MIND.

SUCH are the charms to barren states affign'd.
Their wants but few, their wishes all confin'd.
Yet let them only fhare the praises due;

if few their wants, their pleasures are but few;
every want that ftimulates the breast

for

becomes a fource of pleasure when redrest.
Whence from fuch lands each pleasing science flies,
that first excites defire, and then fupplies;
unknown to them, when fenfual pleasures cloy,
to fill the languid paufe with finer joy;
unknown thofe powers that raife the foul to flame,
catch every nerve and vibrate through the frame.
Their level life is but a mould ring fire,
unquench'd by want, unfann'd by ftrong defire;
unfit for raptures; or, if raptures cheer

on fome high feftival of o

once a year,
in wild excefs the vulgar breaft takes fire,
till, buried in debauch, the blifs expire.

There is not, fays Dr. JOHN BROWN, a finer ftimulus, than the pleasurable feeling proceeding from a happy train or flow of thinking; hence the delight, that arises from a flight of wit, or from a pleasant vein of humour; hence all the fine feelings of the belles lettres; hence in youth, the enthufiafm, fo natural to the human feelings, to out-ftrip all others in every mental excel

lency.

lency. The arts, the fciences, every department of human knowledge, are all the effects of that intellectual propenfity. How happy would it be for mankind were this noble stimulus duly cherished! What benefits, which fociety is deprived of, would not accrue from a proper cultivation of it! What must have been the delight of PYTHAGORAS, when he found out the forty-feventh propofition! He jumped about in an ecstasy, crying out Eupиxa; and was fo much more substantial than his other few brother difcoverers, as to poffefs the means of offering a facrifice of an hundred fat bullocks to the gods! How delightful muft the feelings of MILTON have been, in whofe works every page is an effort of the most beautiful, and of the moft fublime, conceptions of human genius!

What were the lively fenfations of POPE, COWLEY, and DARWIN, whofe fportive imaginations called at will myriads of beautiful fcenes! How delightful the emotions of those orators, whofe eloquence hath faved their respective countries; of thofe preachers, who have rooted out the malignant paffions, and implanted in their room the most perfect philanthropy; and lastly, of that physician, from whose philosophy a NEW MEDICINE hath arifen with healing on her wings.

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SECT. LVIII.

ON EDUCATION.

Would NEWTON, had he been born in the most remote part of California of barbarous parents, have discovered the fyftem of the world?

BONNET.

An human foul without education is like marble in the quarry, which fhews none of its inherent beauties, until the skill of the polifher fetches out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, fpot, and vein, that runs through the body of it. Education, after the fame manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which, without such helps, are never able to make their appearance.

If the reader will give me leave to change the allufion fo foon upon him, I fhall make use of the fame inftance to illuftrate the force of education, which ARISTOTLE has brought to explain his doctrine of subftantial forms, when he tells us, that a ftatue lies hid in a block of marble, and that the art of the statuary only 7 clears

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