516 ON THE EDUCATION OF YOUTH. life, and without omitting any more necessary business that may belong to their station's ? I might add here also, true spelling is such a part of know- ledge as children ought to be acquainted with, since it is a mat- ter of shame and ridicule in so polite an age as ours, when per- sons 'who have learned to handle the pen cannot write three or four words together without a mistake or blinder ; and when they put letters together in such an aukward and ignorant man- ner, that it is liard to make sense of them, or to tell what they mean. .Arithmetic, or' the art of numbers is, as was observed before, to be reckoned also a necessary part of a good éducation. With- out seine degrees of this knowledge, there is indeed no traffic among men. And especially it is mere needful at present, since the world dealt, much more upon trust and credit than it did in former times ; and therefore the art of keeping accounts is made, in same measure necessary to persons even in meaner stations of life, below the rank of merchants or great traders. A little knowledge of the art of accounts is also needful, in some degree, in order to' take a true survey, and make a just judgment of the common expences of a person or a family : but this part of learn- ing, in the various degrees of it, is more or less useful and need- ful ; according to the different stations and businesses for which children are designed. As the sons of a family should be educated in the knowledge of writing, reading, spelling, and accounts, so neither should the slaughters he trained up without them. Reading is as needful for one sex as the other ; nor should girls be forbidden to handle the pen or to cast up a few figures, since it may be Very much for their advantage in almost all circumstances of life, except in the very lowest rank of servitude or hard labour. And I beg leave here to intreat the female youth, especially those of better circum- stances in the world, to maintain their skill in writing which they have already learned, by taking every occasion to exercise it : and I would fain persuade them to take pains in acquainting themselves with true spelling, the want of which is one reason why many of them are ashamed to write ; and they are not ashamed to own and declare this, as though it were a just and sufficient excuse for neglecting and losing the use of the pen. SacT. V. Of a Trade or Employment. IN a good education it is required also that children, in the common ranks of life, be brought tip to the knowledge of some proper business or employment for their lives ; some trade or traf- fic, artifice or manufacture, by which they may support their ex- pences, and procure for themselves the necessaries of life, and by which they may be enabled to provide for their families in due
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