rated dialects of the Latin, they
are apt to mix in conversation. I have never seen a person speaking the
three languages, who did not mix them. It is a delightful language, but
late events having rendered the Spanish more useful, lay it aside to
prosecute that.

2. Spanish. Bestow great attention on this, and endeavor to acquire an
accurate knowledge of it. Our future connections with Spain and Spanish
America, will render that language a valuable acquisition. The ancient
history of a great part of America, too, is written in that language. I
send you a dictionary.

3. Moral Philosophy. I think it lost time to attend lectures on this
branch. He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if he had
made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one man
of science, there are thousands who are not. What would have become of
them? Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be
formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong,
merely relative to this. This sense is as much a part of his nature,
as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; it is the true foundation of
morality, and not the [Greek: no alon]

[Illustration: Greek phrase page216]

truth, &c, as fanciful writers have imagined. The moral sense, or
conscience, is as much a part of man, as his leg or arm. It is given to
all human beings, in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of members
is given them in a greater or less degree. It may be strengthened
by exercise, as may any particular limb of the body. This sense is
submitted, indeed, in some degree, to the guidance of reason; but it is
a small stock which is required for this: even a less one than what we
call common sense. State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor.
The former will decide it as well, and often better than the latter,
because he has not been led astray by artificial rules. In this branch,
therefore, read good books, because they will encourage, as well as
direct your feelings. The writings of Sterne, particularly, form the
best course of morality that ever was written. Besides these, read the
books mentioned in the enclosed paper: and, above all things, lose no
occasion of exercising your dispositions to be grateful, to be generous,
to be charitable, to be humane, to be true, just, firm, orderly,
courageous, &c. Consider every act of this kind, as an exercise which
will strengthen your moral faculties, and increase your worth.

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