years, to travel at a venture in places where there is danger to health, to life, to conduct, far from the chances of succour and rescue--the thought is so repugnant to me that I know not what to say. Gentlemen should take up the Professions. I do wish then that well-disposed young gentlemen would be pleased to betake themselves betimes to some kind of learning that is indeed liberal, seeing that their circumstances protect them from interested motives, and enable them to serve their country honourably. Instead of all becoming lawyers or court officials, why do not some of them choose to be divines, or physicians, or to take up some other learned profession? Any gentleman in our country who is now so qualified is esteemed and honoured above all others of his calling, and indeed gets some honour even if he is not particularly well qualified. Are not these professions to be reverenced for their subject-matter and for their influence? And are they not therefore proper for the nobility? I do not hold the conduct of barbarous invasions to be the true field of activity for the nobility; they should be for the most part peaceful, and warlike only for defence if the country be assailed, or for attack if previous wrongs are to be avenged. Nor do I take wealth to be any worthy cause of honour to the owner, unless it be both got by laudable means and employed in commendable ways, nor any quality or gift that adorns the body, unless it serves a good purpose, nor any endowment of the mind which is not exercised in conformity with reason and wisdom. Such gifts are demanded in the callings I have named as worthy of the nobility. Who dare think lightly of divinity in itself? There is more hesitation now about adopting it as a profession than formerly, when the emoluments were greater, and the dignity more generally recognised, but the position grows better again, and a good gentleman may find in it the honour which he seeks. As for medicine, if gentlemen will not study and practise it, they must pay the penalty of ignorance, as they will suffer in their own bodies as well as in their pockets by leaving the profession to those of meaner rank, whose attendance is often rather flattering and fawning than intelligent services. This caution, however, young gentlemen must bear in mind, that it were a great deal better they had no learning at all and knew their own ignorance, than a mere smattering, incomplete of its kind, and insecurely held in their minds. For their acknowledged ignorance harms only themselves, as others more skilful may supply their places, but unripe learning puffeth them up, and their rank encourages them to be superficial, either in not digesting what they have read, or in not reading sufficiently, or in doing desultory work, or presuming on their station to defend ill-considered notions. To conclude, I wish young gentlemen to be better than ordinary men in the best kind of learning, as they have