It will remain,
therefore, to those now coming on the stage of public affairs, to
perfect what has been so well begun by those, going off it. Mathematics,
Natural Philosophy, Natural History, Anatomy, Chemistry, Botany, will
become amusements for your hours of relaxation, and auxiliaries to your
principal studies. Precious and delightful ones they will be. As soon
as such a foundation is laid in them, as you may build on as you please,
hereafter, I suppose you will proceed to your main objects, Politics,
Law, Rhetoric, and History. As to these, the place where you study them
is absolutely indifferent. I should except Rhetoric, a very essential
member of them, and which I suppose must be taught to advantage where
you are. You would do well, therefore, to attend the public exercises
in this branch also, and to do it with very particular diligence.
This being done, the question arises, where you shall fix yourself for
studying Politics, Law, and History. I should not hesitate to decide
in favor of France, because you will, at the same time, be learning to
speak the language of that country, become absolutely essential under
our present circumstances.
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