But this is not the thing I now mean; the education that I here intend, is such as children generally receive from virtuous _parents_, and learned _tutors_ and governors. *Had we continued perfect, as God created the first man, perhaps the perfection of our nature had been a sufficient _self-instruction_ for every one. But as _sickness_ and _diseases_ have created the necessity of _medicines_ and _physicians_, so the disorder of our rational nature has introduced the necessity of _education_ and _tutors_. *And as the only end of the physician is, to restore nature to its own state; so the only end of education is, to restore our rational nature to its proper state. Education therefore is to be considered as _reason_ borrowed at _second hand_, which is, as far as it can, to supply the loss of _original_ perfection. And as physic may justly be called the _art_ of restoring health, so education should be considered in no other light, than as the art of recovering to man the use of his reason. 2. Now as the instruction of every _art_ or _science_ is founded upon the _wisdom_, _experience_, and _maxims_ of the several great men that have laboured in it; so that _right use_ of our reason, which young people should be called to by their education, is nothing but the _best experience_, and _finest reasonings_ of men, that have devoted themselves to the improvement of human nature. All therefore that _great saints_ and _dying_ men, when the fullest light and conviction, and after the highest improvement of their reason, have said of the necessity of _piety_, of the excellency of _virtue_, of the emptiness of _riches_, of the vanity of the _world_; all the _sentences_, _judgments_, _reasonings_ and _maxims_ of the wisest philosophers, when in their highest state of wisdom, should constitute the _common lessons_ of instruction for youthful minds. This is the only way to make the _young_ and _ignorant_ part of the world the better for the _wisdom_ and _knowledge_ of the wise and ancient. 3. *The youths that attended upon _Pythagoras_, _Socrates_, _Plato_, and _Epictetus_, were thus educated. Their every day lessons and instructions were so many lectures upon the nature of man, his true _end_, and the right use of his faculties; upon the immortality of the soul, its relation to God, the beauty of virtue, and its agreeableness to the divine nature; upon the necessity of temperance, fortitude, and generosity, and the shame and folly of indulging our passions. *Now as Christianity has, as it were, new-created the _moral_ and _religious_ world, and set every thing that is reasonable, wise, holy and desirable, in its true point of light: so one would expect, that the education of youth should be as much bettered and amended by Christianity, as the _doctrines_ of religion are amended by it.