4 Of Errors in Education. the unhappy ftripling's brains are on the rack in unravelling a logical quiddity or analyfing fyllogifms, when 'tis high time he were fit to appear in the world. To pafs through the education in vogue, without contracting vices, and thofe, grofs ones, there must be a rich fund of natural goodness, the moft hap py difpofitions, an abfolute bias to virrue, and a diftinguifhed complexion of foul. If a child is free and open, lying is made, as it were, neceffary, by the punishments which truth draws upon him. Is he generous? He is fure to be warned againit generofity, as a crime: His mafter draws him in to betray his fchoolfellows, commending him, nay, even paying him for being a fpy: Is he free of his money? he must be reprimanded, and fometimes punished; perhaps his allowance with-held: If his genius be of a happy turn, it is cramped; if flow, or a little heavy, crufhed. Can there be a more effectual method to croud the world with bad citizens, infignificant friends, and dull blockheads? When Pallades walks, comes into a room, bows or fpeaks, you fee the very picture of his tutor Callidefmus; a heavy afpect, an aukward politenefs, an arrogant and fupercilious manner, low-lived trivial difcourfe. If Pallades be in the bantering mood, his mother fhall not efcape a flirt from him: Has he then the turn for banter? "Tis not of the Attic kind, his was picked up among the markets. Again, have you heard Callidefinus you have heard Pallades; that contemp'tible copy of a contemptible original. Indeed, to expect every thing from the natural difpofition of young Perfons, is not lefs weak than totally to neglect it, as if no good could come from it. With care much may be done. Cleanthus has a delicious fruit-garden, where every tree is in its beft expofure; but a proper efpalier must be found out for a very curious peach-tree fent him; as the peach loves the fouth, that must be the quarter, and twenty fine apple-trees are dug up, lett they might intercept a beam from the new inhabitant. The favourite tree not only lives, it adorns the fucceeding fummer with its beauteous bloffoms, and enriches the antumn with its delicious fruits. Clean thus, at his return to his feat, blesses himfelf as the fight of the lovely tree; vifits it from morning to night, gazing upon it as if his looks could forward the fruit of it; at length the favourable season has ripened it: He gathers one, and opening it with a kind of anxiety, is charmed to view it; at first he bites it with a ferious air, then in an ecftacy cries, What taste and flavour! never grew a finer peach; my best friends alone fhall know the treafure I have. He is complimented upon it; and now its exquifitenefs feems improved. What pleasure, what gratulations are here! and all this for a peach, liable to deftruction in all its pride, by one accidental blatt. How low are the paffions of men' their fatisfactions and pleafures A peachtree, which might have died as well as flourished, the prefent of an indifferent hand, or at leaft of one to whom he is not accountable for it; with this is Cleanthus taken up. He has a fon, for whofe foul he is anfwerable to God, as he is for his behaviour to his country. What expofure has been chofen for him? His virtues and those of his acquaintance, should ripen the heart of his child, and every thing be cut down which may hinder the beans of good example from reaching him. Only deal with him as with your peach-tree; be as early and as long with him. Your all-powerful looks alone must ripen the fruits of his reafon; the feafon is come, already you are enraptured with the flavour of his excellent difpofitions, and your friends congratulate your felicity. Well, Cleanthus, what think you of the nectareous juice of your peach, in comparison of the pleafure the fight of fuch a fon affords you? Is it any thing to the joy of having placed that precious fhoot in a nutritive foil and favourable fituation, where he has acquired fo rich a taste, fuch an exquifite flavour! Maiters of all forts are to be found 'every where: mafters of languages; mafters in natural philofophy: matters of geometry and geography: and as for mufic and dancing-maiters, they fwarm and plume in the highest encouragement: but where are the mafters for masners, for the feveral branches of virtue ! Is the ufe of the fyllogistical fcience to a young perfon called in question: In deed, Of Errors deed, villagers, and people of plain fenfe, are strangers to it; 'tis to render the clearest things dark and intricate, by minors and confequences. When he comes to launch into a world he knows nothing of, he must neceffarily ftand the general ridicule offer to give him a few hints on customs and decencies, he has his fophifms at his fingers end to elude you. The cavilling fpirit, inculcated as a fcholaftic duty, is now become a fecond nature to him. Prefs nothing upon him; the contentious acrimony of his temper would four the most sprightly converfation. We too often imagine our deportment to be the beauty of nature refined; when 'tis in reality nothing better than rufticity. Vice may be faid to get admittance to us habited in velvet, but comes from us in a hop-fack: it infinuates itself into the heart with neat fingers; but the nails grow, and make difmal lacerations at leaving it. A large fund is infenfibly wafted by bonds and annuities, though each of them feparately of no confiderable amount; if intereft only nibbles, ufury devours. No lefs pernicious to the most hopeful heart are small faults when humoured, and fuffered to get footing. This is a negligence big with danger; a deitructive indulgence: When once we are put ck to bed, we grow daily more and more out of the knowledge of our friends. No tutor does Alcippus stand in need of for his fon; he takes upon himself the forming of his heart; he is an eyewitnefs of his proficiency; and tranffufes into his mind his own moft pure and generous principles; fo that his fon is likely to keep up the reputation of his ancestors; at least, Alcippus will never have caufe to be afhamed of him. How am I delighted every morning to behold him devoting an hour to his inftruction! This is to be a father; and he will foon fee the glorious fruits of fuch an exemplary attention. Good education and good examples are inheritances intailed from father to fon: the infallible method of conveying the virtues of the one to the other, is by that instruction which lies within the power of the parent: if they are virtuous, the children will eafily be brought 10 take the fame caft; if paflions govern in Education. 5 them, the child's unguarded heart too foon gives them admittance. In the first cafe, let children be kept at home; for the diffipations abroad will moft probably adulterate, if not efface, the ideas of all the good they obferve within doors. In the fecond, away with the child to a purer air, whilst he is free from the infection. It is not at the birth the child degenerates; his ruin is owing to the father's profligacy. Alcippus's fon is now in his feventh year, the hope of his family, the only heir of a name, to maintain which, with proper dignity, all the father's virtues are not too many. But Alcippus thinks of fending him to fchool: let him be careful not to fpoil fo happy a beginning; and of fuffering a mistaken faving to deceive him: let him retrench his expences of meer fafhion, and take a worthy preceptor for his fon; continue the invaluable morning-hour ten years longer, and give himself daily the rational pleafure of obferving his promifing advances in virtue and literature. In the first years are laid the foundations of all the honour and profperity of the other; they create and establish reputation; they anfwer for the whole remainder of life. Philip rushes out of his apartment with the rapidity of a whirlwind, makes but one ftep of the ftairs, and throws himself headlong into his coach; his pair of geldings dart forth like lightning; there is no keeping fight of him; and who can blame him? probably a wealthy uncle, near his departure, is just making his will: nothing like it, he alights; and all this hurry is about managing a new horfe. The riding-mafter for fix months fchooling afks indeed no fmall matter; however the bargain is foon ftruck; Philip is above haggling. But my eye keeps pace with him back to his houfe; there I fee the raw pedant lording it over his fon, and, in the impetuofity of ignorance, nipping in the bud every naturally good difpofition: Philip, how much better do'st thou love thy horfe than thy font? To relieve the distress of a friend, and . properly to educate a child is more than Philip, in Greek, fignifies a lover of horfes. giving 6 Of the Generation of Thunder and Lightning. giving them life. To preferve life, to T days: and let not thy will be fet to fin. If thou haft abundance, give alms accordingly; if thou haft but a little, be not afraid to give according to that little.---Beware of whoredom, and defpife not thy brethren; for in pride is deftruction, and in lewdnefs is decay. Afk counsel of the wife, and defire of God that thy ways may be directed." For the OXFORD MAGAZINE. Hunder and lightning are fo very Now, the principal ingredients in gun-powder are, nitre and fulphur, (the admillion of charcoal being chiefly to keep the parts, feparate for the better kindling of it) fo that if we imagine in the air a convenient mixture of nitrous and fulphureous vapours, and those by accident totake fire, fuch explofion might well follow, with fuch noife and light, as in the firing of gun-powder; and being once kindled, it will run on from place to place as the vapour leads it, as in train of gun-powder, and with like effects. This explofion, if high in the air, and at a diftance from us, produces no mifchief, or very inconfiderable; like a parcel of gun-powder fired in the open air, where there is nothing near enough to be injured by it; but if near, or amongst us, it may kill men or cattle, tear up trees, &c. as gun-powder would do in the like circumftances. This nearness or farnefs may be cftimated by the diftance of time between feeing the flash of lightning, and hearing the noife of the thunder: for tho' they are fimultaneous in their generation, yet light moving quicker than found, they come to us fucceflively. Commonly the noife is heard about fe ven or eight feconds, that is, about half a quarter of a minute; but fometimes much fooner, in a fecond or two, and even lefs than that; and fometimes almoft immediately upon the flafh; at which time the explotion must needs he very near us, if not actually amongst us; and in fuch cafe, I have more than once presaged mischief either to men or cattle, and it has proved accordingly. As once at Oxford a perfon was killed, and others had their lives endangered as I had expected: Another time at Towcefter, five others were killed near that place, fome received damage, befides other hurt being done. That there is in lightning a fulphureous vapour, is manifeft from the fulphureous fmell which attends it; efpecially when there is any mischief done by it; and even where there is no mifchief.-- A fultry heat in the air is commonly the fore-runner of lightning, which follows,foon after. Thefe materials being admitted, it remains how to account for their being kindled, in order to fuch explosion. Now, a mixture of fulphur, filings of fteel, with the admiffion of a little water, will not only cause a great effervefcence, but will of itfelf break forth into an actual fire: So that there wants only fome chalybeat or vitriolic vapour, or some what equivalent, to produce the whole effect, there being no want of aqueous matter in the clouds: nor is there any doubt, but that among the various effluvia from the earth, there may be copious fupplies of matter for fuch mixtions. A fum For the OXFORD MAGAZINE. A Summary Account of the HEBREW COINS. Shekel, with its parts, were the of their own; and therefore it is fometimes called Kefeph, filver, as we may gather from Gen. xx. 16. and xliii. 21. Likewife 2 Sam. xviii. 11, 12. It was two-fold; for there was the fhekel of the fanctuary, and another called the king's, or common fhekel. The fhekel of the fanctuary weighed exactly half an ounce: it fhewed on the one fide the veffel of manna, with thefe words, "Shekel Ifrael," i. e. the fhekel of Ifrael; and on the other, Aaron's rod budded, with this infcription, "Jerufcalaim Redaffak," i. e. Jerufalem the holy. It was worth half a crown of our money. The king's fhekel was in value half a fhekel of the fanctuary, and confequently worth fifteen pence of our money, and had the fame ftamp with the former. Of thefe, Alchazar, Vilalpandus, Clokier, and Wafferus, have written; who tell us of a brafs fhekel, bearing the figure of a fprig of balm-tree, or a palm-tree, with thefe words, "King David, and his fon Solomon." There was alfo a third and fourth part of a fhekel, Gherah, Agorah; and Refhitah, being the twentieth part of a fhekel, and in our money three halfpence: Refhitah fignifies a lamb, the image of which animal it had upon it. The fhekel of gold, called Lahah, weighed the fame as the common fhekel, worth seventeen fhillings and fixpence, at the rate of three pounds ten fhillings per ounce: for the alloy, or intrinfic value of all old gold, is equal to our angel gold, or old rofe nobles, which are of twentythree carats, and three grains finenefs. We read alfo of Adarcon, (Ezra viii. 27.) and of Drackman, (Ezra ii. 69.) both of them were of equal value with the abovementioned fhekel: but I imagine Adarcon they were foreign coins, as in reality to be a piece of Darius's, whofe coins, as Plutarch + testifies, were called Darius; because they bore his image on one fide, and on the other fide an archer. And probably Drackman might be an Ægyptian coin. The fums of the Hebrews were, first, their mina of gold, which contained 200 antique drams, i. e. 25 ounces, or 50 fhekels, after the weight of the fanctuary; or 100 gold fhekels, and was worth 871. Ios. fterling. The mina of filver was 60 facred fhekels, or of two pounds and an half weight, and worth 71. Ios. A talent of filver contained 3000 fhekels, or 125 pounds weight; which is in fterling money, after the rate of 5s. per ounce, or 31. fterling for one pound troy-weight, 3751. A talent of gold, after the rate of the fanctuary, and as Mofes reckoned it, was as much as the filver in weight; and therefore, after the rate of 31. 10s. per ounce troy-weight, was worth in our money 52501. I am of opinion, that when kings began to reign over Ifrael, they estimated a talent of filver after the rate of the vulgar fhekel, which was worth 1871. IOS. and it is probable, that the talent of gold was not worth more than that of Greece, which Pollux fays, was three pieces of gold; and fo it was worth 21. 12s. 6d. fterling. And whoever confiders that place in the rft of Chronicles xxii. 14. will find, that unless we come to thefe rates, thofe fums of gold and filver which David left for the building of the Temple, would exceed his ability, and the work itself. Oxford, July 26, 1772. + Herod. in Pelpom. An For the OXFORD MAGAZINE. An Effay on Harmony, as it relates to Situation and Building. To build, to plant, whatever you intend, In all let Nature never be forgot. POPE. HARMONY is that, which in other words we exprefs by fymetry, order, elegance, beauty, or propriety. It is the nice affemblage of parts juftly connected together in one general form, ftructure, or arrangement. There are three general divifions of it, which might be diftinguished by the terms, ideal, oral, and ocular. Ideal harmony arifes from an elegant defcription, a beautiful reprefentation, or a flow of eloquent images: Oral harmony fprings from the juft connection, analogy and agreement of founds, the fympathetic concurrence of the parts in concert to each other; the variety, changes, and fymphony; the rifing and falling of notes and tones in due diftances and proportions, strength, and appropriation, or in language, eloquence, or rhetoric: Ocular harmony is the most pleating and extensive, as its perfections arife from nature, and as the fubjects of it are the whole animal kingdom, in infinite degrees and forms of magnitude, beauty, and propriety; the profpect of hills and woods, rivers and vales; of fcenes noble, rural and entertaining. The foul by fympathy, to fcenes of elegance and proportion, is infenfibly drawn and attracted: The murmuring rivulets, the filent grove, the verdant meads, the particoloured gaieties of nature have their charms which harmonioufly pleafe. Ocular harmony ariling from Art, flows from the nice affinity which it hath with nature; whether it be in copying her, or forming a fyftem of beauties which may fpring from fancy. But to confine my obfervations to harmony as it relates to fituation in building..- Pliny, in his defcription of his feats at Tufculum and Laurentinum has finely pictured thofe villas; he has elegantly defcribed the affinity of art and nature, in the conveniencies and beauties, blended with the juft appropriation of his defigns to the fpot on which they were erected: His fcenes are picturefque images of a delightful, pleasant, and fertile foil; one more nours and magnificent, the is other more rural fecreted. Monfieur Balzac has ftill added a beauty more rural than Pliny's, to a feat of his, defcribed in a letter to Monfieur de la Motte, in which every line conveys an image fo finely poetical, that we are at a lofs to diftinguish, whether the fcene be real, or romantic. As we can claim a fhare of equal propriety and grace, in feveral villas and feats in our own country, it were needlefs to trace foreign climates for examples. Every county has its peculiar enchantments of fituation; either in extent of profpect, its woods, rivers, vales, paftures, or fomething to attract, fome beauty to charm, fome image to allure the eye, fix the attention, and fill us with agreeable ideas.. Profpects of extent have various.excellencies, which differently affect us: Shooter's-hill, has the noble, the grand, and magnificent, the populous, and busy profpect: The images are moving, or great, the river Northward, with so many veffels of magnitude, which almost every tide difplays; the great city, and towns and buildings, weftward; the vale of Effex and contiguous country have all a fameness of grandeur; the ideas impreffed on us are great and fingular: Trade, commerce, government, fhow, and external pomp poffefs the imagina tion: Till we turn caftward, which has a kind of blended pleafure mingled with its magnificence; a noblenefs mixed with folitude; and to the fouth, fomething ftill more rural and entertaining. Richmond hill, though advantageous for profpects of beauty, has lefs of grandeur, is lefs popular, bufy, and extenfive; the Images are fewer, more retreated, more feparate and rural than the former; though from the north and west |