But is it impossible, by dear Sir, to find some person of your own age--if of the other sex, the more agreeable perhaps--whose information, like your own, has rather lagged behind their years, who should be willing to set out from the same point with yourself, to undergo the same tasks--thus at once inciting and sweetening each other's labours in a sort of friendly rivalry. Such a one, I think, it would not be difficult to find in some of the western parts of this island--about Dartmoor for instance. Or what if, from your own estate--that estate which, unexpectedly acquired so late in life, has inspired into you this generous thirst after knowledge, you were to select some elderly peasant, that might best be spared from the land; to come and begin his education with you, that you might till, as it were, your minds together--one, whose heavier progress might invite, without a fear of discouraging, your emulation? We might then see--starting from an equal post--the difference of the clownish and the gentle blood. A private education then, or such a one as I have been describing, being determined on, we must in the next place look out for a preceptor:--for it will be some time before either of you, left to yourselves, will be able to assist the other to any great purpose in his studies. And now, my dear Sir, if in describing such a tutor as I have imagined for you, I use a style a little above the familiar one in which I have hitherto chosen to address you, the nature of the subject must be my apology. _Difficile est de scientiis inscienter loqui_, which is as much as to say that "in treating of scientific matters it is difficult to avoid the use of scientific terms." But I shall endeavour to be as plain as possible. I am not going to present you with the _ideal_ of a pedagogue, as it may exist in my fancy, or has possibly been realized in the persons of Buchanan and Busby. Something less than perfection will serve our turn. The scheme which I propose in this first or introductory letter has reference to the first four or five years of your education only; and in enumerating the qualifications of him that should undertake the direction of your studies, I shall rather point out the _minimum_, or _least_, that I shall require of him, than trouble you in the search of attainments neither common nor necessary to our immediate purpose. He should be a man of deep and extensive knowledge. So much at least is indispensable. Something older than yourself, I could wish him, because years add reverence.