and remember it, we are not entitled to make it an object of general attention, unless we have reafon to believe it will be generally agreeable.

At this rate, you will perhaps imagine that General Converfation cannot be very edifying.And true it is, that people do not join in it, with a view to inftruct, or to be instructed, in the arts and fciences. These are to be acquired by study and contemplation, by frequenting fchools of learning, or by attending thofe private focieties or clubs, which men fometimes form for the fake of mutual improvement. But people refort to general company, to relieve themselves for a while from the anxieties of life, to refresh the mind after the fatigues of ftudy or of labour, and to improve and please one another by a mutual interchange of kind words and benevolent attentions.

Nor think, because idle words are prohibited in Scripture, that therefore every thing we fay in company ought to tend to the illuftration of truth. Idle words ought furely to be prohibited, and avoided. And all those words may be fo called, which produce either no effect, or a bad one; or which proceed from motives that are either not good, or pofitively evil. But that Converfation which promotes the innocent amufement of our friends, and fo contributes to their health and happiness; or which, by expreffing our benevolence towards them, cherishes that temper in us, and gives an example for the encouragement of it in others;-Conversation, I fay, of this character, is not idle, because it is favourable to virtue, and friendly to mankind.

Nor

Nor is Converfation, even in general company, uninstructive. From it we may derive much material information, in regard to the characters and paffions of men, the customs of the world, the tranfactions of past and prefent times, and many other particulars of no lefs moment. Illiterate men, by frequenting polite circles, often acquire fuch a fund of intelligence, as makes them equally inftructive and entertaining. Books are certainly very useful. But the time was, when they were not common. Yet, at that time, men had sense, and knowledge too; and there were great ftatefinen, great poets, and great philofophers; and greater commanders, and orators, than have appeared in the world ever fince. Whence, then, did they derive their greatnefs? From genius, from experience, from thought; partly no doubt from books; and alfo, from that grand vehicle of neceffary knowledge, Converfation.

Sermons are almost the only fort of continued discourses, which it is in this country the cuftom to get by heart. To fuch readers, as may at any time think fit to comply with this cuftom, the following directions will be useful. They are intended for the benefit of thofe, whofe Memory is neither very bad nor very good. Extraordinary Memories have no need of them.

1. As a general preparative both to the remembrance, and to the compofition of Sermons, let it be your care to acquire a competence of theological learning, and to be intimately acquainted with the fentiments and phrafeology of Scripture. For that is well remembered, which is well understood: and paffages of Holy Writ form

form a confiderable, and, when judiciously felected, the most valuable, part, of the preacher's difcourfe. If, therefore, you are well inftructed in theology, the argument of every Sermon will be familiar to you; on every fuch argument your mind will be ftored with a great variety of expreffion; you can never be at a lofs for topicks; and your quotations will be no burden to your Memory.

2. The discourse we are to get by heart we muft ourselves compofe; otherwife, the labour of committing it to Memory will be fuch as to moft minds would be infurmountable. And it must be accurately compofed, and have in it nothing obfcure or fuperfluous. For whatever puzzles the understanding is an incumbrance to Memory; and what Horace obferves of words is equally true of thoughts,

Omne fupervacuum pleno de pectore manat; every fuperfluity is loft, like water poured "into a veffel already full."

Befides, let it be obferved, that a Sermon is defigned for the good of thofe who hear it; and ought therefore to be attended to, and remembered by them. But, if you mix it up with words, phrafes, or doctrines, which they do not understand, they will not attend, and they cannot remembr; fo that, inftead of good, it will do harm, by inuring them to habits of inattention in regard to religious truth. It must alfo be a regular difcourfe, tending to the illuftration of fome one important topick; and properly divided into diftinct heads, whereof each is connected with, and ferves to explain, the rest,

and

and none can be mifplaced or omitted, without injury to the whole. For regularity and unity of defign make men attentive, and, as formerly remarked, produce clearness of perception and diftinct remembrance. But let the heads of the discourse be few, and affect not too great fubtlety of divifion and fub-divifion; for this would diftract the Attention, and overpower the Memory of the audience; and never can be requifite in a practical differtation, that is addreffed to the people, and, as many wife men think, ought not to be very long.

3. Let the difcourfe be written out, not in hafte, but deliberately, with your own hand, in bright-coloured ink, and in characters that are diftinct and legible, and moderately and uniformly large; without contractions, without long ftrokes or flourishes of the pen, and as much as may be without blots or interlineations; with reasonable and equal fpaces between the lines: and accurately pointed, and divided into paragraphs, as the fubject requires. To fome, who have not ftudied the laws of Memory, this may feem a frivolous rule: but I have formerly accounted for it; and am confident, that whoever makes the trial will foon have experience of its propriety.

4. Let the fubject of the difcourfe be interefting to us, and the doctrine fuch, as we feriously believe, and are anxious that others fhould believe and remember. This may look more like a precept of common honefty, than a rule for the affiftance of Memory. And a precept of common honefty it is, no doubt; for that man must be a moft audacious hypocrite, who can

folemnly

folemnly deliver, as conformable to the Divine Will, and recommend to the belief of others, what he himself difbelieves. But neither is this rule foreign from the prefent purpose. For it was mentioned, as a law of Memory, that what is agreeable to our own inclinations, and way of thinking, has a chance to be better remembered, than what we confider as a matter of indifference.

5. The task of committing to Memory should be entered upon, when the mind is difengaged from business, and the body in health. If the mind is not vacant, Attention will be painful, and interrupted, and the Memory flow to receive any durable impreffion. And if the health be difordered, intellectual exertion, without conveying any improvement to the mind, will only do harm to the body. There are certain hours of the day, during which one is better qualified, than at any other time, for invention, remembrance, and other mental exercises. But the fame hours will not fuit all conftitutions, as already was obferved; and therefore no general rule can be given in regard to the time that may be most fuccessfully employed in the work we now fpeak of. I think it is Lord Verulam who fays, that, in exerting any faculty with a view to form a habit, two feafons are chiefly to be laid hold on; the one, when we are beft difpofed to act; the other, when we are worst difpofed that, by improving the former, we act eafily, and make great progrefs; and that, by a frequent ufe of the latter, we overcome reluctance, and at laft acquire a habit of doing the action with ease, whenever it is neceffary. This may be an excellent method of cherishing mo

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