All the Foreign Help must be procured, that can be had, towards this Improvement.  The Instruction and Example of such as excell in that particular way, to which a Man’s Mind is turned, is of vast Use.  A good Master in the Mechanical Arts, and careful Observation of the nicest and most dextrous Workmen, will help a Genius of this sort.  A good Tutor in the Sciences, and free Conversation with such as have made great Proficiency in them, must vastly improve the more liberal Genius.  Reading, and careful Reflection on what a Man reads, will still add to its Force, and carry the Improvement higher.  Reading furnishes Matter, Reflexion digests it, and makes it our own; as the Flesh and Blood which are made out of the Food we eat.  And Prudence and the Knowledge of the World, must direct us how to employ our Genius, and on all occasions make the best Use of it.  What will the most exalted Genius signify, if the World reaps no Advantage from it?  He who is possess’d of it, may make it turn to Account to himself, and have much Pleasure and Satisfaction from it; but it is a very poor Business, if it serves no other Purpose, than to supply Matter for such private and narrow Satisfaction.  It is certainly the Intention of Providence, that a good Genius should be a publick Benefit; and to wrap up such a Talent in a Napkin, and bury it in the Earth, is at once to be unfaithful to God, and defraud Mankind.

Those who have such a Trust put into their Hands, should be very careful that they do not abuse it, nor squander it away.  The best Genius may be spoiled.  It suffers by nothing more, than by neglecting it, and by an Habit of Sloth and Inactivity.  By Disuse, it contracts [J]Rust, or a Stiffness which is not easily to be worn off.  Even the sprightly and penetrating, have, thro’ this neglect, sunk down to the Rank of the dull and stupid.  Some Men have given very promising Specimens in their early Days, that they could think well themselves; but, whether from a pusillanimous Modesty, or a lazy Temper at first, I know not; they have by Degrees contracted such an Habit of Filching and Plagiary, as to lose their Capacity at length for one Original Thought.  Some Writers indeed, as well as Practitioners in other Arts, seem only born to copy; but it is Pity those, who have a Stock of their own, should so entirely lose it by Disuse, as to be reduc’d to a Necessity, when they must appear in Publick, to borrow from others.

  [J] Otium ingera rubig. [Transcriber’s Note:  “rubig” not readable,
       may be the word for rust or stiffness.]