Where

conscious that my abilities are inadequate to the magnitude of my subject, I shall do what in me lies to enforce its importance. To the neglect of this faculty, all the follies, and many of the vices which abound among us, may be fairly traced. the judgment is sound and unperverted, the unruly desires and affections will not revel without control; but in order to the cultivation of sound judgment, it is not only necessary that the affections be uncorrupted, but that they be early engaged on the side of truth.

Having dwelt at large on the cultivation of Judgment, we shall then proceed to an examination of the faculty of ABSTRACTION. This faculty, though common to all, and susceptible of great improvement, is seldom cultivated to any perfection, but by the few whose course of studies has led them to cherish a turn for speculative inquiry. If general reasoning were indeed useful to none but the philosopher, we should leave the philosopher to

enjoy it as his peculiar prerogative. But if it can be proved to be no less necessary in the conduct of life than in the speculations of philosophy, it becomes our business to endeavour to find out the means which are best adapted to its improvement. These, the circumscribed limits of my present plan will not permit me to explain at large; neither are my abilities equal to such a task: but having proved the advantages which result from the cultivation of this faculty, the hints which I shall offer may be sufficient to direct the mind in search of higher guides.

Subsequent to Abstraction I shall place what offers upon the cultivation of TASTE and IMAGINATION, because the faculty of Abstraction is necessary to both. A few hints concerning the necessity of cultivating the power of REFLECTION will conclude the series.

Though I have not seen any necessity for departing from this plan, I do not contend for the absolute fitness of my arrange

ment. A better might perhaps have been devised; hut candour will make allowances for the imperfections of one who makes no pretensions to superior abilities. Placed by Providence in a situation undisturbed by the pressure of life's cares, though by an experience of its sufferings called to serious reflection; blessed with leisure, and early inspired with such a taste for inquiry as gives that leisure full employment, I should have deemed myself highly culpable if I had declined a task to which I was in the first instance called by friendship; and to which I am still urged by a hope dear to every generous mind, the hope of being in some degree useful. The arrogance and ambitions of a dictator are alike foreign to my heart. But to be an humble instrument in rousing my sex from the lethargy of quiescent indolence, to the exertion of those faculties which the bounty of a kind Providence has conferred; to be the means of turning the attention to those objects which tend to the progressive im

provement of the human race; is a species of glory, so which, I confess, I am not indifferent. If in this way

"to covet honour be a sin,

"I am the most offending soul alive."

LETTER II.

PERCEPTION.

Progressive Development of the Faculties.-Perception explained.-Hints towards its Cultivation in early Infancy.-Its Connexion with the benevolent Affections.

THERE is no subject more curious in its nature, or that can possibly be more universally interesting, than the manner in which Nature operates in the development of the rational faculties of man. The slowness of the progress is apt to excite our impatience, while, in fact, it ought to call forth our highest admiration.

A cursory view of what a child acquires in the first two years of its life, will con