d?
Our own notions then, our own writings, and our own customs, are more to
be blamed in this respect, than the literary compositions of ancient
times. But this, of all others, ought to be least an objection with the
Quakers to such an education; because, to their honour, they have a
constant counteraction of the effects of such sentiments and impressions
in the principles of their own constitution, and which counteraction
cannot cease, while, by the bearing of their testimony, they live in a
continual protest against them.

The last objection to a classical education is, that the system of the
Heathen morality is generally too deficient for those who are to be
brought up as Christians. To this I answer, that it is quite as good as
the system of the morality of the world. I could procure purer
sentiments, and this generally from the Heathen authors usually
called[54] classical, than I can collect from many, even of the admired
publications of our own times. The morality of the heathens is not so
deficient as many have imagined. If their best opinions were duly
selected and brought into one view, the only matter of surprise would
be, how, with no other than the law written upon the heart, they had
made such sublime discoveries. It was principally in their theology,
where the law written upon the heart could not reach, that the ancients
were deficient. They knew but little of the one true God. They did not
know that he was a Spirit, and that he was to be worshiped in spirit and
in truth. They were ignorant of his attributes. They had learnt nothing
of the true origin, nature, and condition of man, or of the scheme of
creation and redemption. These things were undoubtedly hidden from the
eyes of the ancient philosophers. And it was in knowledge of this kind
chiefly, that their deficiency was apparent. But how is this particular
deficiency detrimental to youth, or how rather might it not be rendered
useful to them in the way described? What a sublime contrast does
knowledge, as exhibited by revelation, afford to the ignorance of those
times, and what joy and gratitude ought we not to feel in the
comparison? And this is the only use which can be made of their
mythology? For when we send youth to the classical authors, we send them
to learn the languages, and this through a medium where the morality is
both useful and respectable, but we do not send them, living where the
blessings of revelation are enjoyed, to be instructed