s rests. And it does rest much
in our power, for all false thoughts and seeings come mainly of our
thinking of what we have no business with, and looking for things we
want to see, instead of things that ought to be seen.

99. "Do not talk but of what you know; do not think but of what you
have materials to think justly upon; and do not look for things only
that you like, when there are others to be seen"--this is the lesson
to be taught to our youth, and inbred in them; and that mainly by our
own example and continence. Never teach a child anything of which you
are not yourself sure; and, above all, if you feel anxious to force
anything into its mind in tender years, that the virtue of youth and
early association may fasten it there, be sure it is no lie which you
thus sanctify. There is always more to be taught of absolute,
incontrovertible knowledge, open to its capacity, than any child can
learn; there is no need to teach it anything doubtful. Better that it
should be ignorant of a thousand truths, than have consecrated in its
heart a single lie.

100. And for this, as well as for many other reasons, the principal
subjects of education, after history, ought to be natural science and
mathematics; but with respect to these studies, your schools will
require to be divided into three groups: one for children who will
probably have to live in cities, one for those who will live in the
country, and one for those who will live at sea; the schools for these
last, of course, being always placed on the coast. And for children
whose life is to be in cities, the subjects of study should be, as
far as their disposition will allow of it, mathematics and the arts;
for children who are to live in the country, natural history of birds,
insects, and plants, together with agriculture taught practically; and
for children who are to be seamen, physical geography, astronomy, and
the natural history of sea-fish and sea-birds.

101. This, then, being the general course and material of education
for all children, observe farther, that in the preface to 'Unto this
Last' I said that every child, besides passing through this course,
was at school to learn "the calling by which it was to live." And it
may perhaps appear to you that after, or even in the early stages of
education such as this above described, there are many callings which,
however much called to them, the children might not willingly
determine to learn or live by. "Probably,"