having nothing at all to do with the mind, which is invariably debilitated and debased by profligate indulgences.  Yet this miserable piece of sophistry, the offspring of parental weakness, is in constant use, to the incalculable injury of the rising generation.  What so amiable as a steady, trust-worthy boy?  He is of real use at an early age:  he can be trusted far out of the sight of parent or employer, while the ‘pickle,’ as the poor fond parents call the profligate, is a great deal worse than useless, because there must be some one to see that he does no harm.  If you have to choose, choose companions of your own rank in life as nearly as may be; but, at any rate, none to whom you acknowledge inferiority; for, slavery is too soon learned; and, if the mind be bowed down in the youth, it will seldom rise up in the man.  In the schools of those best of teachers the JESUITS, there is perfect equality as to rank in life:  the boy, who enters there, leaves all family pride behind him:  intrinsic merit alone is the standard of preference; and the masters are so scrupulous upon this head, that they do not suffer one scholar, of whatever rank, to have more money to spend than the poorest.  These wise men know well the mischiefs that must arise from inequality of pecuniary means amongst their scholars:  they know how injurious it would be to learning, if deference were, by the learned, paid to the dunce; and they, therefore, take the most effectual means to prevent it.  Hence, amongst other causes, it is, that their scholars have, ever since the existence of their Order, been the most celebrated for learning of any men in the world.

37.  In your manners be neither boorish nor blunt, but even these are preferable to simpering and crawling.  I wish every English youth could see those of the United States of America; always civil, never servile.  Be obedient, where obedience is due; for, it is no act of meanness, and no indication of want of spirit, to yield implicit and ready obedience to those who have a right to demand it at your hands.  In this respect England has been, and I hope always will be, an example to the whole world.  To this habit of willing and prompt obedience in apprentices, in servants, in all inferiors in station, she owes, in a great measure, her multitudes of matchless merchants, tradesmen, and workmen of every description, and also the achievements of her armies and navies.  It is no disgrace, but the contrary, to obey, cheerfully, lawful and just commands.  None are so saucy and disobedient as slaves; and, when you come to read history, you will find that in proportion as nations have been free has been their reverence for the laws.  But, there is a wide difference between lawful and cheerful obedience and that servility which represents people as laying petitions ’at the king’s feet,’ which makes us imagine that we behold the supplicants actually crawling upon their bellies.  There is