These she studied with all that enthusiasm, which is an indubitable characteristic of genius;. with unabating ardour, and indefatigable industry. Her own progress, and that of her pupils, exceeded even her most sanguine expectations; and as she had herself so recently experienced the difficulties of acquisition, she was peculiarly qualified to remove them; for in this extraordinary course of education, it frequently occurred that the preceptress acquired the morning's lesson by an application protracted from the preceding evening till midnight. These exertions were extraordinary; and ample have been their remuneration, since they have been the means of procuring every member of this amiable family, virtue, wisdom, reputation, and competency; and these it must be acknowledged, constitute ingredients in the highest felicity which humanity is capable of enjoying.

Accept then, friend of my youth, the testimony of my veneration for excellence, of which, till I knew thee, I thought humanity incapable. Thy countenance diffusing cheerfulness, and beaming with benevolence, is an animated picture of the beauty of virtue, to behold which, and not to detest every degree of vice, is impossible. From the wish of obtaining thy approbation, my heart first panted

with the love of praise, and from thee I learned to despise the applause, which found no responsive echo in my heart. And in this my wishes have long been concentrated, that when my years shall equal her's, the sources of my enjoyment may be the same as those of Maria Donville-in retrospection virtuous activity, and in prospect a felicitous immortality.

L.

THE PONDERER. No. 25.

Sapere aude.

"Dare to be wise."

HOR,

It was a favorite observation of Dr. Franklin's,

that few men had attained distinction, who had not been altogether, or in a great degree, their own instructors. Gibbon, in his memoirs of himself, has a similar sentiment, but expressed in somewhat different language, the substance of which however is, that every man who has reached an elevated rank in literature, has generally received two educations: the first from his tutors-and the

second from his own exertions. These opinions are corroborated by the history of almost every literary character, and amply justify the assertion, that the education of the schools can do no more than lay a foundation for future eminence, and that the superstructure must always be the result of individual and solitary application.

From the conduct of Mrs. Donville, it would appear at least probable that she had formed similar conclusions respecting education; because it is certain that she directed her principal attention to inspire her pupils with a taste for knowledge, and made her uniform care consist in affording facilities for its acquisition, rather than in ceaseless exertions for its communication. It was thus that my friend George early imbibed a love for solitary study, and thus became from childhood his own instructor. It is also for this reason, that what he acquired in youth made impressions, which no power, except that of death, will be able to efface.

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The circumstances of Mrs. Donville necessarily contracted the period during which the entire attention of my friend could be directed to science or to literature. Among the several means of procuring a competency or acquiring a fortune which were presented to his choice, commerce

received his preference. He obtained an inferior situation in a merchant's counting-house, the duties of which he discharged with the diligence and punctuality of a thoughtful man, and continued to appropriate his hours of leisure to the pleasures of literature. His assiduity raised him through several gradations to the first station a mere clerk can occupy; and the whole of this worthy family at present enjoy a liberal competency from the exertions of Mr. G. Donville, who is now a partner in that concern, for which he once acted in the most humble sphere. His leisure is still dedicated to reading; and in a highly cultivated mind he possesses sources of satisfaction, which no accumulation of wealth could procure, and which the riches of a Nabob never purchased.

In politics, my friend Donville is neither Whig nor Tory; and much less is he the partizan of any modern faction. To the British Constitution he is ardently attached, from an attentive study of its excellencies, as well as an accurate knowledge of its defects. A form of government, approaching more nearly to perfection, he says, may no doubt be conceived, but one more practically excellent never yet existed, and if it were established could not continue in existence, except the people were highly enlightened and eminently

virtuous. For this reason I have often heard him express considerable doubts upon the advantages which would be derived from any change in the present system of the representation of the people in parliament. He believes that no reform will produce the smallest benefit, except a reform in the great mass of the people. Though he is generally grave and uniformly placid, I have seen his eye sparkle with enthusiasm when he has been de nouncing ignorance as the cause of all evils, political as well as moral, and contending that the noblest characteristic of genuine patriotism, is a life of exertions devoted to its extermination. He is of opinion that an enlightened population will of necessity produce a perfect government, and that these generally maintain an exact proportion to each other; but he thinks that the English government is more perfect than the population is enlightened. With these sentiments it cannot be surprising tha the should venerate the British Constitution-that he should always speak of it with profound respect, and recommend the extreme of caution in proposing its improvement, lest that which appears an excellence in theory should prove a practical deterioration.

In religion, Donville has formed to himself a system to which the most liberal philosophy can