{15} Our concluding subject is Education; and some attempt is made
to describe its various seminaries, from that of the poor widow who
pronounces the alphabet for infants, to seats whence the light of
learning is shed abroad on the world. If, in this Letter, I
describe the lives of literary men as embittered by much evil; if
they be often disappointed, and sometimes unfitted for the world
they improve; let it be considered that they are described as men
who possess that great pleasure, the exercise of their own talents,
and the delight which flows from their own exertions: they have joy
in their pursuits, and glory in their acquirements of knowledge.
Their victory over difficulties affords the most rational cause of
triumph, and the attainment of new ideas leads to incalculable
riches, such as gratify the glorious avarice of aspiring and
comprehensive minds. Here, then, I place the reward of Learning.
Our Universities produce men of the first scholastic attainments,
who are heirs to large possessions, or descendants from noble
families.
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