SECTION VII: 551 sinn ; when to lie stilland when to be active ; when to keep si- lence and when to speak ; what to avoid and what to pursue ; how to act in every difficulty ; what means to make use of to com- pass such an end ; how to ijehave in every circumstance of life, and in all companies ; how to gain the favour of mankind in order to promote our own happiness, and to do the most service to God and the most good to men, according to that station we possess, and those opportunities which we enjoy. For this purpose there is no book better then the proverbs of Solomon. Several of the first chapters seem to be written for young men, under the name of Solomon's son : and all the rest of them should be made familiar to youth by their frequent con - verse with them, and treasuring them up in their head and heart. Among human writings of this kind, perhaps the book called Ec clesiasticus, though it be among the apocryphal writings, is equal to the best of the ancients. And among the moderns, I know not a better collection than the little book of Directions, Counsels and Advices, lately published by Dr. Fuller for the use of his son : though I could wish he had rendered it universally accept- able to all readers, by avoiding some severities on the other sex ; and that had he spared his little railleries on the name of saints, though those offensive sentences -are but few. SECT. VII. The Ornaments and Accomplishlments of Life. THE last part of instruction which I include in the idea of a good education, is an instruction of youth in some of the useful ornaments and accomplishments of life. It has been the custom of our nation, for persons of the middle and the lower ranks of life, who design their children for trades and manufactures, to send them to the Latin and Greek schools. 'There they wear out four or five years of time in learn- ing a number of strange words, that will be of very little use to them in all the following affairs of their station ; and this'very learning also, is generally taught in a very tiresome and most irrational method, when they are forced to learn Latin by gram- mars and rules written in that unknown tongue. When they leave the school they usually forget what they have learned, and the chief advantage they gain by it, is to spell and pronounce hard words better when they meet them in English : whereas this skill of spelling might be attained in a far shorter time and at an easier rate by other methods,* and much of life might be saved and improved to'better purposes. As for the sons of those who enjoy more plentiful circum- stances in the world, they may be instructed in the Latin and Greek languages for several valuable ends in their station ; and * See my Art of Reading and Writing, chap. 21.
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