the Capacity and Inclination of the
Child: And are governed by some or other external Circumstance,
or lower Consideration; as, what they shall give with them, or to
whom to commit the Care of them, &c. Thus they after contrive
unsuitable Marriages, on the single View of worldly Advantage.
From this Cause proceed fatal Effects, and many young Men of
great Hopes, and good Capacities, miscarry in the after Conduct
of Life, and prove useless or mischievous to the World. They turn
off from a disagreeable Employment, and run into Idleness and
Extravagance. If People better consider'd the peculiar _Genius_
or proper Talents of their Children, and took their Measures of
Treatment and Disposal thence, we should certainly find
answerable Improvements and lasting good Effects. The several
Kinds of Learning and Business would come to be more advanced,
and the Lives of Men become more useful and significant to the
World.

I have known a large Family of Children, with so remarkable a
Diversity of _Genius_, as to be a little Epitome of Mankind. Some
studious and thoughtful, and naturally inclin'd to _Books_ and
_Learning_; Others diligent and ambitious, and disposed to
_Business_ and rising in the World. Some bold and enterprizing,
and loved nothing so well as the _Camp_ and the _Field_; or so
daring and unconfined, that nothing would satisfy but _going_ to
_Sea_ and visiting Foreign Parts. Some have been gay and airy,
Others solid and retired. Some curious and Observers of other
Men; Others open and careless. In short, their Capacities have
been as various as their Natural Tempers or Moral Dispositions.

Now what a Blunder would be committed in the Education of such a
Family, if, with this different Turn of Mind in the Children,
there should be no difference made in the Management of them, or
their Disposal in the World. If all should be put into one Way
of Life, or brought up to one Business. Or if in the Choice of
Employment for Them, their several Biass and Capacity be not
consulted, but the roving _Genius_ mew'd up in a Closet, and
confounded among Books: And the studious and thoughtful _Genius_
sent to wander about the World, and be perfectly scattered and
dissipated, for want of proper Application and closer
Confinement. Whereas, one such a Family wisely educated, and
dispos'd in the World, would prove an extensive Blessing to
Mankind, and appear with a distinguished Glory; was the proper
_Genius_ of every Child first cu