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fine men is to reafon, either prove too much , orprove nothing.
If our general characters were determined abfo-lutely. as they are certainly influenced, by ourconftitutions , and if our particular adtions were foby immediate objeefrs; all inftrudtion by precept,as well as example, and all endeavours to formthe moral charadter by education, would be unne-celFary. Even the little care that is taken, andfureiy it is impoffible to take lefs, in the trainingup our youth, would be too much. But thetruth is widely different from this reprelentation ofit; for, what is vice, and what is virtue? I fpeakof them in a large and philofophical i'enfe. Theformer , is , I think , no more than the excefs,abufe, and mifapplication of appetites, defires,and paffions, natural and innocent, nay ufeful andneceffary. The latter confifls in the moderationand government, in theufe and application of thefeappetites, d e fires, and paffions, according to therules of reafon , and therefore, often in oppofition,to their own blind impulfe.
What now is education ? that part, that prin-cipal and mod neglected part of it, I mean, whichtends to form the moral character? It is , I think,an inltitution defigned to lead men from theirtender years , by precept and example , by argu-ment and authority, to the practice, and to thehabit of practiling thefe rules. The ftronger ourappetites , defires , and paffions are, the harderindeed is the talk of education : but wtien theefforts of education arc proportioned to this
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