he cause
or the cure of any of the diseases of the mind; we only persuade
ourselves that we know something, when we are really ignorant.

We have sedulously avoided entering into any metaphysical
disquisitions; but we have examined with care the systems of theoretic
writers, that we may be able to avail ourselves of such of their
observations as can be reduced to practice in education. With respect
to the arts, imagination may be considered practically in two points
of view, as it relates to our taste, and as it relates to our talents
for the arts. Without being a poet, or an orator, a man may have a
sufficient degree of imagination to receive pleasure from the talents
of others; he may be a critical judge of the respective merits of
orators, poets, and artists. This sensibility to the pleasures of the
imagination, when judiciously managed, adds much to the happiness of
life, and it must be peculiarly advantageous to those who are
precluded by their station in society from the necessity of manual
labour. Mental exercise, and mental amusements, are essential to
persons in the higher ranks of life, who would escape from the fever
of dissipation, or from the lethargy of ennui. The mere physical
advantages which wealth can procure, are reducible to the short sum of
"_meat, fire, and clothes_." A nobleman of the highest birth, and with
the longest line of ancestry, inherits no intuitive taste, nor can he
purchase it from the artist, the painter, or the poet; the possession
of the whole Pinelli library could not infuse the slightest portion of
literature. Education can alone give the full power to enjoy the real
advantages of fortune. To educate the taste and the imagination, it is
not necessary to surround the heir of an opulent family with masters
and connoisseurs. Let him never hear the jargon of amateurs, let him
learn the art "not to admire." But in his earliest childhood cultivate
his senses with care, that he may be able to see and hear, to feel and
understand, for himself. Visible images he will rapidly collect in his
memory; but these must be selected, and his first associations must
not be trusted to accident. Encourage him to observe with attention
all the works of nature, but show him only the best imitations of art;
the first objects that he contemplates with delight, will remain long
associated with pleasure in his imagination; you must, therefore, be
careful, that these early associations accord with the decisi