Blair Collection > Practical grammar of the antient Gaelic, or, Language of the Isle of Man, usually called Manks

advantages which are not to be found in them. There, the chikl
is taken away from his parents and his friends, and fed, clothed,
and taught, without any care, thought, or industry of his own ;
where his filial and domestic affections have not their natural
objects to exercise themselves upon ; the child is estranged from
his parent, and the parent deprived of all interest in the acts and
conduct of his child : whereas, according to this excellent iu-
stitution, the sweet sympathies of natural affection are daily
cherished, and the moral principle more certainly preserved ;
habits of industry are gradually acquired by the child, and the
influence of imitation operates powerfully on his mind ; and as
he beholds, in the labour of his parents, the source and means of
their general subsistence, he naturally applies to the samo cause
to produce the same effect.
Such is the advantage of the children of the poor being
domesticated, and not altogether separated from their families.
And the governors of this charity should not lament that they
can only instruct, clothe, and apprentice these poor ; it is, per-
haps, all that is left for them to do ; it is certainly what is most
beneficial for the children to receive. In the present improved
state of arts and manufactures, strength alone is not sufficient
for the artist, the manufacturer, or even the peasant in the fields;
a certain quantity of education furnishes them with the means of
accomplishing many objects, to which mere strength and ignor-
ance would be unequal. And when we look into society, and
observe the men who succeed best in their sevei-al occupations,
we find that they generally come from those parts of the king-
dom where institutions of this kind have been the longest estab-
lished ; nay, manufactures themselves, and that ingenuity which
can invent or improve them, seem to be peculiar to them also,
where useful instruction is almost gratuitously imparted to the
body of the people.
From the loom and the plough, I would turn your attention
to other essential points. In the navy, the army, the connting
house, and the garden, wlio are tlie uk'h whose luunljle kibours