I
shall, therefore, communicate to you a maxim, which I have
observed with regard to my own children, that I may learn how far
it agrees with your practice. The method I follow in their
education is founded on the saying of an ancient, "That students
of philosophy ought first to learn logics, then ethics, next
physics, last of all the nature of the gods."12 This science of
natural theology, according to him, being the most profound and
abstruse of any, required the maturest judgement in its students;
and none but a mind enriched with all the other sciences, can
safely be entrusted with it.
Are you so late, says P/HILO\, in teaching your children the
principles of religion? Is there no danger of their neglecting,
or rejecting altogether those opinions of which they have heard
so little during the whole course of their education? It is only
as a science, replied D/EMEA\, subjected to human reasoning and
disputation, that I postpone the study of Natural Theology. To
season their minds with early piety, is my chief care; and by
continual precept and instruction, and I hope too by example, I
imprint deeply on their tender minds an habitual reverence for
all the principles of religion. While they pass through every
other science, I still remark the uncertainty of each part; the
eternal disputations of men; the obscurity of all philosophy; and
the strange, ridiculous conclusions, which some of the greatest
geniuses have derived from the principles of mere human reason.
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