you under her cruel laws of honour, from which if you swerve, she will disown you. Now I beseech you tell me, which you think you would prefer, the discipline of the goddess Fashion, or that of the good old mistress which you may have wished to leave? The one kindly points out to you, and invites and warns you to avoid, every dangerous precipice that may be before you. The other is often not satisfied but with your destruction. She will force you, for a single word uttered in a thoughtless moment, to run the hazard of your life, or to lose what she calls your character. The one, by preserving you in innocence, preserves you happy. The greater your obedience to her, the greater is your freedom; and it is the best species of freedom, because it is freedom from the pollutions of the world. The other awakens your conscience, and calls out its stings. The more obedient you are to her, the greater is your slavery; and it is the worst species of slavery, because it is often slavery to vice. In consequence of the freedom which the one bestows upon you, you are made capable of enjoying nature, and its various beauties,

beauties, and, by the contemplation of these, of partaking of an endless feast. In consequence of the slavery to which the other reduces you, you are cramped as to such enjoyments. By accustoming you to be pleased with ridiculous and corruptive objects, and silly and corruptive changes, she confines your relish to worthless things. She palsies your vision, and she corrupts your taste. You see nature before you, and you can take no pleasure in it. Thus she unfits you for the most rational of the enjoyments of the world in which you are designed to live.

CHAP

CHAPTER VIII.

Conclusory remarks, as they relate to those who com pose the world at large-Advantages which these may derive from the contents of this work-from a view of many of the customs and of the principles explained in it-from secing practically the influence of these customs and principles in the production of character and happiness-and from seeing the manner of their operation, or how they produce the effects described.

I SHALL now endeavour to make my conclusory remarks useful, as they may relate to those who may be called the world.

To state the object which I have in view, I shall observe at once, that men are divided in opinion as to the lawfulness, or expediency, or wholesomeness of many of the customs, fashions, and accomplishments of the world. We find some encouraging in their families, and this without any hesitation and to an almost unlimited extent, those which many, on account of religious. considerations, have expelled. We find

others

others, again, endeavouring to steer a course between the opinions and practice of these. The same diversity of sentiment prevails also with respect to principles. The virtuous or moral are adopted by some, the political by others. That the political often obtain both in education and in subsequent life, there is no question. Thus, for example, a young man is thought by some to be more likely to make his way in the world with the address which fashionable accomplishments may give him, even if he be a little dissipated, than one of strict virtue with unpolished manners. Thus, again, in actions and transactions, policy is often preferred to express and open declarations of the truth. Others, again, are of opinion that the general basis of principle should be virtue, but that a latitude may be allowed for a seasonable policy. Thus an education is going on under Christian parents, as if Christianity had objects in view which were totally opposite to each other.

It is in this point of view chiefly that I can hope to be useful in this conclusory part of my work. We have seen, in the course of it, both customs and principles laid open

and

and explained. We have seen the tendencies and bearings of these. We have seen them probed, and examined by a moral standard. We have seen their influence on character and happiness. We have seen the manner in which they act, or how these effects are produced. A revision therefore of these cannot but be useful, but more particularly to parents, as it may enable some of these, in conjunction with the knowledge they possess, to form, probably, a more correct system than they may have had it in contemplation to adopt for the education of their youth.

The first advantage, then, which those who compose the world at large may derive from the contents of this work, will be from a review of some of the customs which have been censured in it.

In looking into customs, the first that obtrudes itself upon our notice is that of allowing to children those amusements, which on account of the use of them may be called Gaming. A view is offered us here, which is divested of all superstition. It is no where contended at random, in speaking against these, that their origin is objectionable. It is no where insisted upon, that