remote ages and countries, as they are delivered down to posterity by the best historians; besides, many such revelations are still in use, and ascertained by innumerable people, equally candid, who are living to this day? To expect any further help from matter, which can neither give, nor receive any intelligence of predictions, is idle and impertinent. If the sceptic, or freethinker, vainly expects more illustration, on a subject confessedly abstruse, one would think, as it is of such importance, he ought to give a public intimation of the mode and standard of his faith, with the means to settle and compose his conviction, without which it is impossible to satisfy his scruples, any other way than from those hints and facts already mentioned.

THEOPHILUS INSULANUS.

THE

MISCHIEVOUS EFFECTS

OF

LOOSE PRINCIPLES

CONSIDERED.

Being a Supplement to the Treatise on the Second Sight.

THE source of this dismal distemper of the mind, manifestly arises from the corrupt fountain of a vicious or neglected education, which insinuates itself through the several stages of life, and strongly accompanies the unfortunate sufferer to his grave. The mind of all men, at the first dawn of reason, is alike tender and pliable; and, in that raw condition, whatever impression it receives of vice or virtue, seldom fails to exert itself in conformity thereto thereafter, unless some extraordinary circumstance breaks in upon it, which is not to be expected, as it is next to a miracle. The influence of education and habit, stand uncontested in all

ages and countries; so that Lycurgus, the wise Lacedæmonian lawgiver, being sensible of its effects, gave a notable instance of the prevalent force of custom, to his countrymen, which I take the liberty to insert, as related by Plutarch: he took two whelps of the same litter, and ordered them to be bred in a different manner; a while thereafter, he took occasion, in an assembly of the people, to discourse of what great advantage the customary practice of wholesome instruction and precepts, was to the attainment of virtue; in the close of his harangue he told them, that, to convince them the more, he would make an appeal to their own senses; and let them see a demonstration of his words by example. Upon this, the two whelps were ordered to be brought into the hall, and there being set down to them a dish of fragments and a live hare, one of the dogs immediately, as he was bred, run at the hare, and the other as greedily devoured the fragments: while the people were racking their brains to find out the moral of this singular proceeding; this, says Lycurgus, is pursuant to what I before told you: for you see these dogs do as they were bred; and though both are of the same litter, yet the diversity of breeding hath made the one, a good hound, and the other a contemptible cur, good for nothing but to lick pots and dishes.

-This leads me to consider how unreasonable it is to expect, that the delicate youth, who now buy commissions in the British army, that are brought up in the height of luxury, and the fashionable vices of the age, by which their minds are

enervated, and their bodies enfeebled, should be equally fit for the service of their king and country, with those veterans, who, of a stamp with the Macedonian Argyraspides, are brought up with hardships and inured to the toils of war.

The glittering beaux, before-mentioned, must excuse me to think the latter would, with all alacrity, tread in the glorious paths of honour they have been accustomed to so early, and rush at all hazards on the enemies of Britain; while the dressy brilliant gentleman of the city, such as Pompey led at Pharsalia, would turn their backs on the enemy, to storm Champaign at night, and feast in a sound skin on the beloved flesh-pots of Egypt. Since, then, so much depends on education, great care should be taken to form the minds of children early to the principles of religion, which alone (besides the importance of it in other respects) directs mankind to yield obedience to lawful magistrates, to be honest in our dealing; and, in so far as we are able, to defend our just properties, and, vi et armis, to promote the interest and glory of the kingdom or state to which we belong. The bias should be set right at first, and the mind prepossessed for the interest of virtue; this is the way to smooth the passage to a happy life, to reconcile appetite with reason, aud render the affections more manageable ever afterwards. Motion is strongly directed, and the bent taken from the first impression: custom will make a good practice as easy as a bad one: for, as in childhood the memory is strong, and the body capable of application, the