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verfities, and perfons of every profeffion educated at Edinburgh, excepted.

Collins and I fell one day into an argument relative to the education of women; namely, whether it were proper to inftruct them in the fciences, and whether they were competent to the ftudy. Collins fupported the negative, and affirmed that the. tafk was beyond their capacity. I maintained the oppofite opinion, a little perhaps for the pleafure of difputing. He was naturally more eloquent than I; words flowed copioufly from his lips; and frequently I thought myfelf vanquished, more by his volubility than by the force of his arguments. We separated without coming to an agreement upon this point; and as we were not to fee each other again for fome time, I committed my thoughts to paper, made a fair copy, and fent it him. He anfwered, and I replied. Three or four letters had been written by each, when my father chanced to light upon my papers and read them. Without entering into the merits of the caufe, he embraced the opportunity of speaking to me upon my manner of writing. He obferved that though I had the advantage of my adverfary in correct spelling and pointing which I owed to my occupation, I was greatly his inferior in elegance of expreffion, in arrangement and perfpicuity. Of this he convinced me by feveral examples. I felt the juftice of his remarks, became more attentive to language, and refolved to make every effort to improve my ftyle. Amidst thefe refolves an odd volume of the Spectator fell into my hands. This was a publication I had never fren. I bought the volume, and read it again and again. I was enchanted with it thought the style excellent, and wished it were in.

my power to imitate it; With this view, I selected fome of the papers, made fhort fummaries of the fenfe of each period, and put them for a few days afide. I then, without looking at the book, endeavoured to restore the effays to their true form, and to exprefs each thought at length, as it was in the original, employing the most appropriate words that occurred to my mind. I afterwards compared my Spectator with the original; I perceived fome faults, which I corrected: but I found that I wanted a fund of words, if I may fo express myself, and a facility of recollecting and employing them, which I thought I fhould by that time have acquired, had I continued to make verfes. The continual need of words of the fame meaning, but of different lengths for the meafure, or of different founds for the rhyme would have obliged me to feek for a variety of fynonymes, and have rendered me mafter of them. From this belief, I took fome of the tales of the fpectator, and turned them into verfe; and after a time, when I had fufficiently. forgotten them, I again converted them into profe,

Sometimes alfo I mingled all my fummaries toge ther; and a few weeks after, endeavoured to arrange them in the beft order, before attempted to form the periods and complete the effays. This. I did with a view of acquiring method in the arrangement of my thoughts. On comparing afterwards my performance with the original, many faults were apparent, which I corrected; but I had fometimes the fatisfaction to think, that, in certain particulars of little importance, I had been fortunate enough to improve the order of thought or the ftyle; and this encouraged me to hope that I should fucceed, in time, in writing the English lareVOL. H C

guage, which was one of the greatest objects of my ambition.

The time which I devoted to thefe exercises, and to reading, was the evening after my day's labour was finished, the morning before it began, and Sundays when I could efcape attending divine fervice. While I lived with my father, he had infifted on my punctual attendance on public worship, and I ftill indeed confidered it as a duty, but a duty which I thought I had no time to practife.

When about fixteen years of age, a work of Tryon fell into my hands, in which he recommends vegetable diet. I determined to obferve it. My brother, being a bachelor, did not keep houfe, but boarded with his apprentices in a neighbou ing family. My refufing to eat animal food was found inconvenient, and I was often fcolded for my fingularity. I attended to the mode in which Tryon prepared fome of his dishes, particularly how to boil potatoes and rice, and make hafty puddings,

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then faid to my brother, that if he would allow me per week half what he paid for my board, I would undertake to maintain myfelf. The offer was inftantly embrac'd, and I foon found that of what he gave me I was able to fave half. This was a new fund for the purchafe of books; and other advantages refulted to me from the plan. When my brother and his workmen left the printing-houfe to go to dinner, I remained behind; and dispatching my frugal meal, which frequently confifted of a bifquit only or a flice of bread and a bunch of raifins, or a bun from the pastry cook's, with a glais of water, I had the reft of the time, till their return, for ftudy; and my progrefs therein was proportioned to that clearness of ideas, and quickneis of

conception, which are the fruit of temperance in eating and drinking.

It was about this period that, having one day been put to the blufh for my ignorance in the art of .calculation, which I had twice failed to learn while at fchool, I took Cocker's Treatife of Arithmetic, and went through it by myself with the utmofteafe. I alfo read a book of Navigation by Seller and Sturmy, and made myfelf mafter of the little geometry it contains, but I never proceeded far in this fcience. Nearly at the fame time I read Locke on the Human Understanding, and the Art of Thinking by Meffis. du Port Royal.

While labouring to form and improve my flyle, I met with an English Grammar, which I believe was Greenwood's having at the end of it two little effays on rhetoric and logic. In the latter I found a model of difputation after the manner of Socrates. Shortly after I procured Xenophon's work, entitled Memorable Things of Socrates, in which are various examples of the fame method. Charmed to a degree of enthufiafm with this mode of difputing, I adopted it, and renouncing blunt contradiction, and direct and pofitive argument, I affumed the character of a humble queftioner. The perufal of Shaftsbury and Collins had made me a fceptic; and being previoufly fo as to many doctrines of Chriftianity, I found Socrates's method to be both the fafeft for myself, as well as the most embarrafling to thofe against whom I employed it. It foon afforded me fingular pleafure; linceffantly practifed it; and became very adroit in obtaining, even from perfons of fuperior understanding, conceffions of which they did not foresee the confequences. Thus I involved them in difficulties from

which they were unable to extricate themselves, and fometimes obtained victories, which neither my caufe not my argumen's merited.

This method I continued to employ for fome years but I afterwards abandoned it by degrees, retaining only the habit of expreffing myfelf with modeft diffidence, and never making ufe, when I advanced any propofition which might be controverted, of the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any others that might give the appearance of being obfinately attached to my opinion. I rather faid I imagine, I fuppofe, or it appears to me, that fuch a thing is fo or fo, for fuch and fuch reafons; or it is fo, if I am not mistaken. This habit has, I think been of confiderable advantage to me, when I have had occafion to imprefs my opinion on the minds of others and perfuade them to the adoption of the measures I have fuggefted. And fince the chief ends of converfation are, to inform or to be informed, to please or to perfuade, I could with that intelligent and well-meaning men would not themselves diminish the powers they poffefs of being ufeful, by a pofitive and prelumptuous manner of expreffing themfelves, which fearcely ever fails to difgull the hearer, and is only calculated to excite oppofition and defeat every purpose for which the faculty of fpeech has been bestowed upon man. In fhort, if you wish to inform, a pofitive and doginatical manner of advancing your opinion may provoke contradiction, and prevent your being heard with attention. On the other hand, if with a defire of being informed, and of benefiting by the knowledge of others, you exprefs yourselves as being frongly attached to your own opinions, modeft and fenfible men, who do not love difputation,

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