you,
sufficiently prove, that no man was ever more deeply indebted to the
bounty of nature than your lordship. And yet of all those qualities she
has bestowed upon you, there is not one that I hold in half so much
esteem, as that docility, which has ever induced you to receive my
instructions with implicit veneration. It is true, my coat is fustian,
and my whole accoutrement plebeian. My shoes are clouted, and it is long
since the wig that defends this penetrating brain, could boast a crooked
hair. But you, my lord, have been able to discover the fruit through the
thick and uncomely coat by which it was concealed; you have cracked the
nut and have a right to the kernel.

My lord, I thought it necessary to premise these observations, before I
entered upon those important matters of disquisition, which will form
the object of my present epistle. It is unnecessary for me to inform a
person of so much discernment as your lordship, that education is, by
its very nature, a thing of temporary duration. Your lordship's
education has been long, and there have been cogent reasons why it
should be so. God grant, that when left to walk the world alone, you be
not betrayed into any of those unlucky blunders, from the very verge of
which my provident hand has often redeemed your lordship! Do not mistake
me, my lord, when I talk of the greatness of your talents. It is now too
late to flatter: This is no time for disguise. Pardon me therefore, my
dear and ever-honoured pupil, if I may seem to offend against those
minuter laws of etiquette, which were made only for common cases. At so
important a crisis it is necessary to be plain.

Your lordship is very cunning, but I never imagined that you were
remarkably wise. The talents you received at your birth, if we were to
speak with mathematical strictness, should rather be denominated knacks,
than abilities. They consist rather in a lucky dexterity of face, and a
happy conformation of limb, than in any very elevated capacities of the
intellect. Upon that score, my lord,--you know I am fond of comparisons,
and I think I have hit upon one in this case, that must be acknowledged
remarkably apposite. I have sometimes seen a ditch, the water of which,
though really shallow, has appeared to careless observers to be very
deep, for no other reason but because it was muddy. Believe me, my lord,
experienced and penetrating observers are not so to be taken in.

But, as I was saying, education is a t