him out of society, and doom him to starve!  This lesson, at any rate, he has given us:  not to rely on the judgment of Doctors and other pretenders to literary superiority.  Every young man, when he takes up a book for the first time, ought to remember this story; and if he do remember it, he will disregard fashion with regard to the book, and will pay little attention to the decision of those who call themselves critics.

80.  I hope that your taste would keep you aloof from the writings of those detestable villains, who employ the powers of their mind in debauching the minds of others, or in endeavours to do it.  They present their poison in such captivating forms, that it requires great virtue and resolution to withstand their temptations; and, they have, perhaps, done a thousand times as much mischief in the world as all the infidels and atheists put together.  These men ought to be called literary pimps:  they ought to be held in universal abhorrence, and never spoken of but with execration.  Any appeal to bad passions is to be despised; any appeal to ignorance and prejudice; but here is an appeal to the frailties of human nature, and an endeavour to make the mind corrupt, just as it is beginning to possess its powers.  I never have known any but bad men, worthless men, men unworthy of any portion of respect, who took delight in, or even kept in their possession, writings of the description to which I here allude.  The writings of SWIFT have this blemish; and, though he is not a teacher of lewdness, but rather the contrary, there are certain parts of his poems which are much too filthy for any decent person to read.  It was beneath him to stoop to such means of setting forth that wit which would have been far more brilliant without them.  I have heard, that, in the library of what is called an ‘illustrious person,’ sold some time ago, there was an immense collection of books of this infamous description; and from this circumstance, if from no other, I should have formed my judgment of the character of that person.

81.  Besides reading, a young man ought to write, if he have the capacity and the leisure.  If you wish to remember a thing well, put it into writing, even if you burn the paper immediately after you have done; for the eye greatly assists the mind.  Memory consists of a concatenation of ideas, the place, the time, and other circumstances, lead to the recollection of facts; and no circumstance more effectually than stating the facts upon paper.  A JOURNAL should be kept by every young man.  Put down something against every day in the year, if it be merely a description of the weather.  You will not have done this for one year without finding the benefit of it.  It disburthens the mind of many things to be recollected; it is amusing and useful, and ought by no means to be neglected.  How often does it happen that we cannot make a statement of facts, sometimes very interesting to ourselves and our friends, for the want of a record