DEAR SON,

You well know how much in vain philofophers of all ages have endeavoured to detach man from the love of pleasure, and to fix his attention on fome fole and highest good, which might render all others foreign and fuperfluous. The voice of nature within him has proved too ftrong to be filenced by artificial precepts; and mankind have ever made it a great object of their lives to enjoy as much and as various pleasure as they have been capable of procuring. Taking the word in its large fenfe, and extending the plan of enjoyment far enough, both as to fpecies and duration, I fee no reason to find fault with the purpofe; and I expect no benefit to arife from eftablishing one fystem of morals for the schools, and another for real life. Suppofing, then, the end of obtaining pleasure to be, within certain limits, an allowable one, the means are a fit fubject on which those who are experienced in the world may communicate their obfervations to thofe who have its leffons yet to learn. It is an interefting to pic, and its difcuffion is fairly within the compafs of human reafon and knowledge.

The advice of contracting our defires, fo much infifted on by all the moral preceptors of antiquity, is a very important one toward the attainment of true felicity. It would, however, be a mistake to fuppofe that the fuppreffion of defire, in itself, leads to happiness. There can be no enjoyments without defires; for in their gratification, all enjoyment, as well intellectual as fenfual, confitts. Thofe fects, therefore, which infifted on the entire abolition of defire, as neceflary to happiness, were influenced by an artificial philofophy, which fet out with misunderstanding man's real nature and destination. But, on the other hand, unfatisfied defires, or ra

ther, fuch as we have no reasonable profpect of being able to fatisfy, are the fource of the greatest calamities of life. The true art of happiness, then, confifts in proportioning defires to means, or, in other words, in acquiring a relifh for procurable pleajures.

There is fcarcely a station in life in which fome attention to this point is not neceffary; for defire is as much difpofed to exceed the range of prefent enjoyment in the higheft, as in the loweft. But it is more peculiarly neceflary in thofe conditions, where an enlarged plan of education, and free intercourie with the fuperior ranks in fociety, have foftered lively ideas of gratifications which fortune commonly refufes the means of obtaining. What are termed the genteel profeflions are eminently of this kind; and numbers belonging to them pay a fevere tax for the privileges an nexed to their fituation, in the perpetual torment of unattainable wishes.

The profeflion you have chofen, my fon, in a peculiar manner forbids indulging thofe defires which are connected with the poffeffion of opulence. To be made happy it is requisite that you fhould be made cheaply fo; and I pleafe myfelf with thinking that many fources of enjoyment will be fully acceffible to you, which will scarcely leave you behind the most fortunate in the power of fecuring genuine pleafures. Taking for granted that you will feek, and will find, the highest of all gratifications in the performance of your profeffional duty, I fhall now fuggeft to you fome of thofe voluntary objects of purfuit, which may moft happily employ your leisure.

At the head of all the pleasures which offer themselves to the man of liberal education, may confidently be placed that derived from boks. In variety, durability, and facility of

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attainment, no other can ftand in competition with it; and even in intenlity it is inferior to few. Imagine that we had it in our power to call up the thades of the greatcft and wifelt men that ever exifted, and oblige them to converfe with us on the most interesting topics-what an ineflimable privilege fhould we think it! how fuperior to all common enjoy ments! Bat in a well-furnished library we, in fact, poffefs this power. We can queftion Xenophon and Cafar on their campaigns, make Demoft henes and Cicero plead before us, join in the audiences of Socrates and Plato, and receive demonftrations from Euclid and Newton. In books we have the choice thoughts of the ableft men in their beft drefs. We can at pleasure exclude dul efs and impertinence, and open our doors to wit and good fenfe alone. It is needlels to re, eat the high commendat ons that have been beltowed on the flucy of letters by perfons, who had free access to every other fource of gratification. In ead of quoting Cicero to you, I fall in plain terms give you the refult of my own experience on this fubject. If domelic e joyments have contributed in the first degree to the happiness of my life, (and I fhould be ungrateful not to acknowledge that they have) the pleafures of reading have beyond all queftion held the fecond place. Without books I have never been able to pafs a fingle day to my entire fatisfaction: with them, no day has been fo dark as not to have its pleafure. Even pain and fickness have for a time been charmed away by them. By the eafy provifion of a book in my pocket, I have frequently worn through long nights and days in the molt dilagreeable parts of my profeffion, with all the difference in my feelings between calm content and fretful impatience. Such occurrences have afforded me full proof both of the poffibility of being cheaply pleafed, and of the confequence it is of to the fum of human felicity, not to neglect minute attentions to make the moit of life as it pafies.

Reading may in every fenfe be called a cheap amusement. A tafte for books, indeed, may be made expentive enough; but that is a talte for editions, bindings, paper and type. If you are fatisfied with getting at the fenfe of an author in fome commodious way, a crown at a fall will fupply your wants as well as a guinea at a fhop. Learn, too, to distinguish between books to be perujed, and books to be poffeffed. Of the former you may find an ample ftore in every fubfcription library, the proper ufe of which to a scholar is to furnish his mind, without loading his fhelves. No apparatus, no appointment of time and place, is neceffary for the enjoyment of reading. From the midft of bufte and bufinels you may, in an inflant, by the magic of a book, plunge into fcenes of remote ages and countries, and difengage yourself from prefent care and fatigue.Sweet pliability of man's fpirit, (cries Sterne, on relating an occurrence of this kind in his Sentimental Journey) that can at once furrender itfelf to illufions, which cheat expectation and forrow of their weary moments!'

The next of the procurable pleafures that I fhall point out to you is that of converfation. This is a pleafure of higher zeft than that of reading; fince in converfing we not only receive the fentiments of others, but impart our own; and from this reciprocation a fpirit and intereft arife which books cannot give in an equal degree. Fitness for converfation must depend upon the ftore of ideas laid up in the mind, and the faculty of communicating them. Thefe, in a great degree, are the refults of education and the habit of fociety, and to a certain point they are favoured by fuperiority of condition. But this is only to a certain point; for when you arrive at that clafs in which fenfuality, indolence, and diffipation, are foftered by excess of opulence, you lofe more by diminished energy of mind, than you gain by fuperior refinement of manner and elegance of expreflion. And, indeed, there are numbers of

the higher ranks among us, whofe converfation has not even the latter qualities to recommend it, but to poverty of expreffion adds the utmost coarfenefs of language and behaviour. There is a radical meannefs in debauchery, which even in the moft elevated conditions of all, communicates the taint of vulgarity. To hear the high-bred party loudly contending in the praifes of their dogs and horfes, and difcuffing gambling questions, intermixed with groffer topics, you could not poffibly difcover by the ftyle and matter, whether you were liftening to the matters above, or the grooms below. It is by no means unfrequent to find the btcmpany, the worst converfation. Should your character and fituation for ever exclade you from fuch focieties, you need not repine at your lofs. It will be amply compenfated by the opportunities you are likely to enjoy of free intercourfe with the most cultivated and rational of both fexes, among whom decency of manners and variety of knowledge will always be valued, though very moderately decorated with the advantages of fortune.

I would not, however, inculcate too fatidious a taste with respect to the fubject and flyle of converfation, provided it poffefs the effentials of found fenfe and ufeful knowledge. Among thofe who have enjoyed little of the benefit of education, you will often find perfons of natural fagacity and a turn for remark, who are capable of affording both entertainment and inftruation. Who would not wish to have been acquainted with Franklin when a journeyman printer, even though he had never rifen to be one of the mot difinguished characters of the age? Information, indeed, may be procured from almoft any man in affairs belonging to his particular way of life; and when we fall into company from which little is to be expected with regard to general topics, it is beft to give the converfation turn toward the technical matters with which they may be acquainted, whence

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fome profit may be made out of the most unpromifing materials. Man, too, in every condition, is a fubject well worthy of examination; and the fpeculatift may derive much entertainment from obferving the manners and fentiments of all the various claffes of mankind in their feveral occupations ad amufements.

Another fource of cheap pleasure is the study of nature. So many advantages with refpect to health, tranquillity of mind, ufe ful knowledge and inexhauftible amufement, are united in this ftudy, that I fhould not fail most warmly to recommend it to your notice, had you not already acquired a decided tafte for its puriuits. Here, again, I can fpeak from my own experience; for the ftudy of English botany caufed feveral fummer, to glide away with me in more pure and active delight than almost any other fingle object ever afforded me. It rendered every ride and walk interefting and converted the plodding rounds of bufinefs into excurfions of pleafare. From the impreffion of thefe feelings, I have ever regarded as perfectly fuperduous the pains taken by fome of the friends of natural history, to fhew its utility in reference to the common purposes of life. Many of their obfervations, indeed, are true, and may ferve to gain patrons for the study among thofe who meafure every thing by the ftandard of economica! value; but is it not enough to open a fource of copious and cheap amufement, which tends to harmonize the mind, and elevate it to worthy conception of nature and its author? If I offer a man happiness at an eafy rate, unalloyed by any debafing mixture, can I confer on him a greater bleifing? Nothing is more favourable to enjoyment than the combination of bodily exertion and ardour of mind. This, the refearches of natural hiftory afford in great perfection; and fuch is the iamente variety of its objects, that the labours of the longeft life cannot exhauft them.

The study of nature is in itfelf a cheap

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