Nor is Education what I principally engaged in, in this Treatise; Manners alone, I have declared to be my Design; and if I can do the present or future Age any real Service by the Plan of puerile Government already laid down, I shall be happy in considering myself as a useful Member of Society. Still it will appear that Education and Manners have so great a Connection, that they are not always to be separated: many of the Writers on these Subjects have considered them as one and the same thing; many just Sentiments are imbibed at the same time that we are acquiring Languages, and other Parts of Learning: and notwithstanding a Truth which was advanced at our first setting out, that much Manners might be acquired without School-learning, yet it is not to be doubted that they ought to rise in proportion to the Education bestowed on us. Two things therefore I aim at in pursuing this Subject, without attempting to teach, or invading the Province of the Preceptor; the one, to point out what seems necessary for both Boys and Girls, in different Spheres of Life, to learn or avoid; the other, to shew how far the Education bestowed on them is applicable to the Improvement of their Manners; or to their Engagement in any Art, Profession, or Science. As entering on the Subject of Education will naturally carry the Ideas of Parents back to the Childhood of their Offspring, I will, in Conformity with that, suppose, that the Rules already laid down chiefly regard the first Stage of Life; at most, that they are the Ground-work of a future Superstructure: this granted, I will suppose too, that Parents have employed these first seven Years in moulding their Children, and rendering them so far pliable, as readily to submit to whatever their Parents think proper for them to engage in. There is a strong Passion in many Parents to have their Children forward and early in their Learning; where there is really a Genius, a very great Propensity and Aptness to learn, this may certainly not only be allowed, but improved; yet in general I think very little Account is to be made of what they can learn before seven Years old: it is commonly Rote-work, and often forgot almost as soon as learned. However, let these things be taken as they are found: if a Child has a great Quickness and Facility in learning, let it by no Means be check’d; on the other hand, let not another be severely chastised, or it’s Life rendered miserable, who has not the same early Aptness. Those who would avoid Error on this Point must consider, that a Child’s Memory and Judgment are yet too weak to be much exercised; that close Application and intense Labour are very unfit for this Infant Age; that it is putting their tender Minds too much upon the Stretch; and endangers either a fix’d Aversion to learn, or an incurable Dulness: let them farther consider, that such a quick Child as I have been speaking of, learns without the least Difficulty; and if they oblige one of