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cloven, and not entire and ingenuous.-Such are a few of the many blessings which result from knowledge.

OF THE LOVE OF EXCELLING.

IF, from some obtuseness or some warp of the mind of the student; or from some inability, mental or moral, in the preceptor; or from any of the many obstacles which exist to the advancement of learning, the love of knowledge cannot be excited, recourse must be had to the love of wealth, the love of fame, to any sort of distinction, whether it be of intellectual superiority, or of external splendour. If the mind cannot be influenced by the love of excellence, it must be stimulated by the love of excelling. And such are the motives by which the generality of our young men are actuated.— "We enter into a desire of knowledge sometimes from a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite;

sometimes to entertain our minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; sometimes to enable us to victory of wit and contradiction, and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of our gift of reason, for the benefit and use of man:-as if there were sought in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down, with a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for profit or sale; and not a rich store-house for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate."

It is true, indeed, that these motives are relatively bad; that they are only temporary; that they are stimulants which are attended with collapse; that from such seeds true doctrine is seldom the fruit; and that they have scarcely any influence upon the noblest minds. "It is commonly

found," says Lord Bacon," that men have views to fame and ostentation, sometimes in uttering and sometimes in circulating the knowledge they think they have acquired. But for our undertaking, we judge it of such a nature, that it were highly unworthy to pollute it with any degree of ambition or affectation; as it is an unavoidable decree with us ever to retain our native candour and simplicity, and not attempt a passage to truth under the conduct of vanity; for, seeking real nature with all her fruits about her, we should think it a betraying of our trust to infect such a subject either with an ambitious, an ignorant, or any other faulty manner of treating it." And in the same spirit, Milton says, "I am not speaking to the mercenary crew of false pretenders to learning, but the free and ingenuous sort of such as evidently were born to study, and love learning for itself, not for lucre, or any other end, but the service of God and of truth, and perhaps that lasting fame and perpetuity of praise which God and good men have consented shall be

the reward of those whose published labours advance the good of mankind."

These motives are not, however, without their advantages; they not only lead to the acquisition of that portion of knowledge, for which they operate, but they are attended with the chance of generating a habit to acquire knowledge, which may continue when the motives themselves have ceased to act. They are baits for pride, which, when seized, may sink into the affections.

Whether, in the formation of a noble mind, we ought to any and what extent, to resort to the love of excelling, is a question which has been so repeatedly agitated and so ably treated in that most valuable work "The Light of Nature pursued", that the author of this tract is satisfied he cannot do better than subjoin it.

"But it will probably be asked, would I then extinguish every spark of vanity in the world, all thirst of fame, of splendour, of magnificence, of show,

• See note X at the end of this tract.

all desire of excelling or distinguishing one's self from the common herd? What must become of the public service, of sciences, arts, commerce, manufactures? The business of life must stagnate. Nobody would spend his youth in fatigues and dangers to qualify himself for becoming a general or admiral. Nobody would study, and toil, and struggle, and roar for liberty to be a minister. The merchant would not drudge on through the infirmities of age to fill his own coffers, and supply his country with foreign commodities. The artificer, having acquired an independence, would leave his business to be practised by novices and bunglers. The man of learning would not waste his time and spirits to enrich the public with knowledge, to combat error, or defend his favourite truths against all opposers. Poetry, painting, music, elegance, wit and humour, would be lost from among us; affability, politeness, gallantry, and the pleasures of refined conversation be things unknown. How would you keep your children from rolling in the dirt without

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