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O F

EDUCATION.

то

Mr. SAMUEL HARTLIB.

Written about the Year 1650.

Mr. Hartlib,

AM long fince perfuaded, that to say, or do ought worth Memory and Imitation, no purpose or refpect should fooner

move us, than fimply the love of God, and of Mankind. Nevertheless to write now the reforming of Education, tho' it be one of the greateft and noblest Designs that can be thought on, and for the want whereof this Nation perifhes, I had not yet at this time been induc'd, but by your earneft Intreaties and ferious Conjurements; as having my mind for the present half diverted in the purfuance of fome other Affertions, the Knowledge and the Ufe of which cannot but be a great furtherance both to the enlargement of Truth, and honeft Living, with much more Peace. Nor fhould the Laws of any private Friendship have prevail'd with me to divide thus, or transpose my former Thoughts, but that I fee thofe Aims, thofe Actions which have

L.

R5

won

won you with me the Efteem of a Perfon fent hither by fome good Providence from a far Country, to be the occafion and the incitement of great good to this Inland. And, as I hear, you have obtain❜d the fame Repute with Men of moft approved Wisdom, and fome of higheft Authority among us. Not to mention the learned Correfpondence which you hold in foreign Parts, and the extraordinary Pains and Diligence which you have us'd in this Matter both here, and beyond the Seas; either by the definite Will of God fo ruling, or the peculiar fway of Nature, which alfo is God's working. Neither can I think that, fo reputed, and fo valu'd as you are, you would, to the forfeit of your own difeerning Ability, impofe upon me an unfit and over-ponderous Argument, but that the Satisfaction which you profefs to have receiv'd from thofe incidental Difcourfes which we have wander'd into, hath preft and almost constrain'd you into a Persuasion, that what you require from me in this Point, I neither ought, nor can in confcience defer beyond this Time both of so much need at once, and so much Oppor◄ tunity to try what God hath determin'd. I will not refift therefore, whatever it is, either of Divine, or human Obligement, that you lay upon me; but will forthwith fet down in Writing, as you request me, that voluntary Idea, which hath long in filence prefented itself to me, of a better Education, in Extent and Comprehenfion far more large, and yet of Time far fhorter, and of Attainment far more certain, than hath been yet in Practice. Brief I fhalt

endeavour

endeavour to be; for that which

have to fay,

W

affuredly this Nation hath extreme need should be done fooner than fpoken. To tell you therefore what I have benefited herein among old renowned Authors, I fhall fparé; and to fearch what many modern Januas and Didatics, more than ever I shall read, have projected, my Inclination leads me not. But if you can accept of these few Obfervations which have flower'd off, and are, as it were, the burnishing of many ftudious and contemplative Years, altogether fpent in the fearch of religious and civil Knowledge, and fuch as pleas'd you fo well in the relating, I here give you them to difpofe

of.

The end then of Learning is to repair the Ruins of our first Parents, by regaining to know God aright, and out of that Knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the neareft by poffeffing our Souls of true Virtue, which being united to the heavenly Grace of Faith makes up the higheft Perfection. But becaufe our Understanding cannot in this Body found itfelf but on fenfible things, nor arrive so clearly to the Knowledge of God and things invifible, as by orderly conning over the visible and inferior Creature, the fame Method is neceffarily to be follow'd in difcreet teaching. And feeing every Nation affords not Experience and Tradition enough for all kinds of Learning, therefore we are chiefly taught the Languages of those People who have at any time been most industrious after Wisdom; so that Language is but

the

the Inftrument conveying to us things useful to be known. And tho' a Linguist should pride himself to have all the Tongues that Babel cleft the World into, yet, if he had not studied the folid things in them as well as the Words and Lexicons, he were nothing fo much to be esteem'd a Learned Man, as any Yeoman or Tradesman competently wife in his Mother Dialect only. Hence appear the many Miftakes which have made Learning generally fo unpleafing and fo unsuccessful; firft we do amifs to spend seven or eight Years merely in scraping toge ther fo much miferable Latin and Greek, as might be learnt otherwife easily and delightfully in one Year. And that which cafts our Proficiency there→ in fo much behind, is our time loft partly in too oft idle Vacancies given both to Schools, and Universities, partly in a prepofterous Exaction, forcing the empty Wits of Children to compofe Themes, Verfes and Orations, which are the Acts of ripest Judgment, and the final Work of a Head fill'd, by long reading and obferving, with elegant Maxims, and copious Invention. These are not Matters to be wrung from poor Striplings, like Blood out of the Nofe, or the plucking of untimely Fruit: Befides the ill Habit which they get of wretched barbarizing against the Latin and Greek Idiom, with their untutor'd Anglicifms, odious to be read, yet: not to be avoided without a well continu'd and judicious converfing among pure Authors digefted, which they scarce tafte; whereas, if after fome pre-> paratory grounds of Speech by their certain forms.

got

3

got into Memory, they were led to the Praxis thereof in fome chosen short Book leffon'd throughly to them, they might then forthwith proceed to learn the Substance of good things, and Arts in due Order, which would bring the whole Language quickly into their Power. This I take to be the most rational and most profitable way of learning Languages, and whereby we may best hope to give Account to God of our Youth spent herein. And for the ufual Method of teaching Arts, I deem it to be an old Error of Universities not yet well recover'd from the Scholaftick Grofsnefs of barbarous Ages, that instead of beginning with Arts moft eafy, (and those be such as are most obvious to the Senfe,) they present their young unmatriculated Novices at firft coming with the intellective Abftractions of Logick and Metaphyficks: So that they having but newly left thofe Grammatick Flats and Shallows where they ftuck unreafonably, to learn a few words with lamentable Conftruction, and now on the sudden transported under another Climate to be toft and turmoil'd with their unballafted Wits in fathomlefs and unquiet deeps of Con-' troverfy, do for the most part grow into hatred and contempt of Learning, mock'd and deluded all this while with ragged Notions and Babblements, while they expected worthy and delightful Knowledge; till Poverty or youthful Years call them importunately their feveral Ways, and haften them with the fway of Friends either to an ambitious and mercenary, or ignorantly zealous Divinity: Some*

allur'd

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