particular Genius of a Youth, we expect from the young Man, that he should adapt his Genius to his Studies.  This, I must confess, is not so much to be imputed to the Instructor, as to the Parent, who will never be brought to believe, that his Son is not capable of performing as much as his Neighbours, and that he may not make him whatever he has a Mind to.

If the present Age is more laudable than those which have gone before it in any single Particular, it is in that generous Care which several well-disposed Persons have taken in the Education of poor Children; and as in these Charity-Schools there is no Place left for the over-weening Fondness of a Parent, the Directors of them would make them beneficial to the Publick, if they considered the Precept which I have been thus long inculcating.  They might easily, by well examining the Parts of those under their Inspection, make a just Distribution of them into proper Classes and Divisions, and allot to them this or that particular Study, as their Genius qualifies them for Professions, Trades, Handicrafts, or Service by Sea or Land.

  How is this kind of Regulation wanting in the three great
  Professions!

Dr. South complaining of Persons who took upon them Holy Orders, tho altogether unqualified for the Sacred Function, says somewhere, that many a Man runs his Head against a Pulpit, who might have done his Country excellent Service at a Plough-tail.

  In like manner many a Lawyer, who makes but an indifferent Figure at
  the Bar, might have made a very elegant Waterman, and have shined at
  the Temple Stairs, tho he can get no Business in the House.

  I have known a Corn-cutter, who with a right Education would have
  been an excellent Physician.

To descend lower, are not our Streets filled with sagacious Draymen, and Politicians in Liveries?  We have several Taylors of six Foot high, and meet with many a broad pair of Shoulders that are thrown away upon a Barber, when perhaps at the same time we see a pigmy Porter reeling under a Burthen, who might have managed a Needle with much Dexterity, or have snapped his Fingers with great Ease to himself, and Advantage to the Publick.

The Spartans, tho they acted with the Spirit which I am here speaking of, carried it much farther than what I propose:  Among them it was not lawful for the Father himself to bring up his Children after his own Fancy.  As soon as they were seven Years old they were all listed in several Companies, and disciplined by the Publick.  The old Men were Spectators of their Performances, who often raised Quarrels among them, and set them at Strife with one another, that by those early Discoveries they might see how their several Talents lay, and without any regard to their Quality, dispose of them accordingly for the Service of the Commonwealth.  By this Means Sparta soon became the Mistress of Greece, and famous through the whole World for her Civil and Military Discipline.

  If you think this Letter deserves a place among your Speculations, I
  may perhaps trouble you with some other Thoughts on the same Subject. 
  I am, &c.