preme Being are comprehended; but fuch is the powerful influence of early prejudice, that we applaud ourselves as exercifing a virtuous indignation against vice, in our indifcriminate hatred of all who differ from us; without reflecting, that by thus indulging the spirit of malevolence, we are rendering ourselves guilty in the eyes of that Being, in whose service we erroneously imagine our zeal to be exerted. Nor is a difpofition to prejudice lefs inimical to the cultivation of the mental faculties, than to the exercise of the moral. Few people who have made any progress in the improvement of their understandings, will hesitate to acknowledge, that they have often prejudged the tendency of opinions, which, on examination, they have adopted from a conviction of their truth; they have often been obliged to admire what they had previously condemned, and to condemn the subject of their former admiration. It is, perhaps, one of the best uses of hiftory to obferve from it the variety of opinions that have at different periods agitated the world, and been the occafion of hatred and bloodfhed among thofe who were commanded to love as brothers;' and yet we fuffer ourselves to be influenced by the fame fpirit, and to hate with the fame vivacity those who differ from us in points that in a few ages will likewife be configned to oblivion, or only found in the pages of the historian. If from these confiderations (added to the thousand other inftances your own reflections must fuggeft) it appears that deeprooted prejudice is inimical to our mental and moral faculties, it only remains to fhew, whether by preferving the infant mind from contracting the habits that lead to its formation, we may not in fome degree prevent the effects we deprecate. "I hate demotats!" fays a little boy, whose organs of fpeech cannot yet be formed formed to the word; and " I abhor arristocats," fays another urchin with equal fymptoms of zeal and averfion. Perhaps the parents of the first think they are thus imprinting the principles of loyalty in the breast of their fon, while those of the latter, with an equal degree of judgment, imągine they are fowing the feeds of patriotism in theirs. They are equally deceived, All the idea that either of them can give to the infant mind, is that something is to be hated. That there are defcriptions of their fellow-creatures whom it is their duty to abhor. They learn to hate, or to say they hate, they know not what; and this facility of hatred, while it affifts the growth of pride and indolence, is a fatal blight in the opening bud of virtue. Those who agree with me in the propriety of making the morals taught by JESUS CHRIST, and his Apoftles, their guide and standard, will furely not hesitate to pronounce the cultivation of the feelings of hatred to be incompatible with duty, But it is not enough that we refrain from inculcating the principles of hatred; we must carefully preferve them from those affociations of ideas that lead to it. On this account we ought to watch over `our own expreffions of difapprobation and contempt. All national reflections, and general cenfures, ought to be avoided before children; and indeed I believe it often happens, that these are most severe, when, if we would examine our minds, we should find that the indignation which excites them has its foundation in fome early prejudice, which has been implicitly adopted, and is. on that very account the more obftinately adhered to. Whether we acknowledge this to be the cafe or no, I believe it would be well for our children if in their prefence we observed the example of the archangel, who, as St. Jude informs us, when contending with Satan himself, " brought not a railing accufation against him." A little A little girl, who for the first time of her life was prefent at a political difpute, gave, in my opinion, an admirable reproof to one of the angry declaimers who had poured forth a torrent of abuse against the leaders of an opposite faction which he concluded by declaring with much vehemence that he hated them all. O fye, fir!" faid the infant, looking earneftly up in his face, we fhould hate, nothing but fin, you know.” "And what is fin my dear?" said the political champion, a little out of countenance by her remark. "It is not doing as we are bid," replied the child with great fimplicity. * Difobedience is indeed the only idea of moral turpitude of which a child is capable. The reafoning faculties must be long exercifed on fenfible objects, and circumftances familiar to common obfervation, and level to the understanding and capacity, before they become capable of abstraction, which they muft arrive at, before they can compare and combine, fo as to form precife notions |