H

ERE I concluded my defence: When Mr. LOCKE, perceiving, by the attention we all paid to him, that we were now prepared to receive his answer, raised himself in his chair, and with a firmer tone and look, than I expected, addressed himself to me in the following manner.

MR. LOCKE.

WERE the fubject before us a matter of indifference or curiofity, fuch as idle

men are used to difcourfe of, I could allow your Lordship to purfue it in this way of Socratic raillery and declamation. But, if ever there was a question, that deferved the examination of a philofopher, properly fo called, it is, furely, this of EDUCATION; and, among the various parts of it, none is more strictly to be in quired into, as none is, perhaps, fo big with important confequences, as that which comes recommended to us under the specious name of FOREIGN TRAVEL.

I COULD not, therefore, but wonder to hear your Lordship enlarge so much, and fo long, on I know not what varnish of manners and good breeding; of the knowledge of men and the world; of arts, languages, and other trappings and fhewy appendages of education: Just as if an architect fhould entertain you with a difcourfe on Feftoons, and Foliage, or the finishing of his Freeze and Capitals, when you expected him to inftruct you

in what way to erect a folid edifice on firm walls and durable foundations.

WHAT a reasonable man wants to know, is, The proper method of building up men: Whereas your Lordship feems follicitous for little more than tricking but a fet of fine Gentlemen. It feemed, indeed, as if your Lordship had calculated your defence of travelling for a knot of Virtuofi, or a ftill more fafhionable circle (where, doubtless, it would pafs with much eafe and without contradiction); and had, fome how, forgotten that your hearers are all plain men ; one of them, an old one; and he too, as your Lordship loves to qualify him, a Philofopher.

To fpeak my mind frankly, my Lord, your defence of foreign travel, as lively and plaufible as it feemed, has no folid bafis to rest upon. You tell us of many defects in the breeding of our English youth,

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youth, and you would willingly redrefs them: But in what way this is best done, can never be known from vague and general declamation.

To make this inquiry to purpofe, fome certain principles must be laid down; fome fcheme of life and manners must be formed; fome idea or model of the character, you would imprint on young minds, must be defcribed; to which we may conftantly refer, as we go along; and by which, as a Rule, we may estimate the fitnefs and propriety of that fort of breeding, you would recommend to us as

SINCE your Lordship then will needs have me dictate to you on the fubject of Education, I must have leave to do it in another way, and after a more folemn manner, than you perhaps expect from me in this freedom of converfation.