ch him a lesson of effeminacy and cowardice. On the contrary
it is necessary that he should learn that human life is a state of
hardship, that the adversary we have to encounter does not always
present himself with his fangs sheathed in the woolly softness which
occasionally renders them harmless, and that nothing great or eminently
honourable was ever achieved but through the dint of resolution, energy
and struggle. It is good that the winds of heaven should blow upon him,
that he should encounter the tempest of the elements, and occasionally
sustain the inclemency of the summer's heat and winter's cold, both
literally and metaphorically.

But the preceptor, however he conducts himself in other respects, ought
never to allow his pupil to despise himself, or to hold himself as of no
account. Self-contempt can never be a discipline favourable to energy or
to virtue. The pupil ought at all times to judge himself in some
degree worthy, worthy and competent now to attempt, and hereafter to
accomplish, things deserving of commendation. The preceptor must never
degrade his pupil in his own eyes, but on the contrary must teach him
that nothing but resolution and perseverance are necessary, to enable
him to effect all that the judicious director can expect from him. He
should be encouraged through every step of his progress, and specially
encouraged when he has gained a certain point, and arrived at an
important resting-place. It is thus we are taught the whole circle of
what are called accomplishments, dancing, music, fencing, and the rest;
and it is surely a strange anomaly, if those things which are
most essential in raising the mind to its true standard, cannot be
communicated with equal suavity and kindness, be surrounded with
allurements, and regarded as sources of pleasure and genuine hilarity.

In the mean time it is to be admitted that every human creature,
especially in the season of youth, and not being the victim of some
depressing disease either of body or mind, has in him a good obstinate
sort of self-complacency, which cannot without much difficulty be
eradicated. "Though he falleth seven times, yet will he rise again."
And, when we have encountered various mortifications, and have been many
times rebuked and inveighed against, we nevertheless recover our own
good opinion, and are ready to enter into a fresh contention for the
prize, if not in one kind, then in another.

It is in allusion to this feature in the