x

1799.] The Rural Economift, 307

chaſed an eſtate, which he calls TEmMeLE-BAR and LONG-SIDE; which 1s joined by a place called SMyTHFIELD; which occa- ſions the worthy artiſt jocularly to’ boaſt, he can walk from Temple-Bar to Smythfeld on his own ground.

Mr. BRoDIE made a purchaſe, laſt ſummer, of a houſe and eſtate at Upper Tutton, in the par1lh of Strotton; which enables him to retire to the country from buſineſs occaſionally.

The extraordinary ſucceſſes of Mr. BRoDIEF are not greater than his integrity. He is diſtinguiſhed for charitable donations, He 1s worth 100,0001. ſterling. M. N.

THE RURAL ECONOMIST.

NUMBER IV.

EDUCATION of the LABOURER in Huſbandry, and the Young FARMER, from the Age of EiGHT, ¿o that of TwELv* Years.

BOY who, to the age of eight years, has been educated nearly upon that plan which the RuRaL EcoNoM1sT en-

deavoured, in his Third Number, to explain, can ſcarcely fail to‘ prove, in an uncommon degree, healthy, vigorous, ative, intelligent, kind-hearted, and even Éruly, mot unmeaningnly, pious. He will be more of a man than at that age boys uſually are; and will, at the ſame time, poſſeſs, in an unuſual Propor- tion, thoſe happy 1ngenuous qualities which charm us in the amiable boy. He wil have begun to at as a conſcious moral agent, long before it is uſual for boys to have any corre notions ot moral obligation: and he will have acquired much more than many perſons at mature age, of that knowledge pf external na- ture and of the common arts of life, which, is-tg be indiſpen- fibly neceſſary to him, as a man, and as a huſbandman, He will Know as much of that which is to be learned from books as if he had hitherto done nothing but mope in a dame’s ſchool: and he will know more of fields, and cattle, and vegetables, of plowing, ſowing, and reaping, than 1f you had ſuffered kim to run abſo- lutely wild, conſtantly to interrupt your labourers in their work, and to ſtall with your oxen. What ſhall we do with bim next? how ſhall we continue his education through the more critical period into which he is advancing?

He can already read his nativêé language: he has a certain knowledge of the principles and the rules of morality: he uns derſtands the fundamental principles of’ religious duty. In his continuance gat ſchool, then, let him learn to read his'native language yet more perfe&ly, with a readier pronunciation of every poſlible combination of ſyllables, with an articulation more full, clear, and diſtin&t, with that graceful obſeryation of the pauſes which is neceſlary to render reading at once eaſy to the reader, and intelligible to the hearer, with that juſtneſs of emphaſis which ariſes from your underſtanding what you read,

Vus