Children in Private and if they will have them to Study it is by sending them to the Publick Schools But perhaps before I go any farther it will not be out of the way to say a word of that which should invite those who are very Poor to Study or diswade them therefrom Regularly Study is not the means to acquire Wealth and belongs only to those who have an honest Leisure Good sense requires that a Man should first begin by purveying for his Subsistance before he satisfies his Curiosity For they who apply themselves to Study when they have not whereupon to live are like those Travellers who being Landed in a Desert Island should amuse themselves in Contemplating the Stars and discoursing upon the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea in stead of making themselves Cottages and seeking out Provisions It may be said to them If you desire to have the Goods of Fortune as the most part of Men do Why do you thus amuse your selves Why do you not take the ordinary and natural Means to procure them You are born for the Country continue there Till the Lands of your Fathers or if he has left you none serve a Master do Journey-work Learn a Trade Traffick if you have wherewithal chuse some Profession whereby you may live honestly and leave Studies unto those who have leisure who are Rich or else do not concern themselves to be so But may some say Studies themselves are one of those Professions whereby Men gain a Livelihood at least they lead to several Profitable Professions The Church the Court Physick and in any of these ways a Man may live more Comfortably than by Tilling the Earth and Labouring at a Trade Behold the vain hope which makes so many poor Priests and so many poor Advocates I do not say that all who are Poor ought to be debarr'd from Studies for then few who could live at their own ease would give themselves the trouble of Teaching and bringing up Children much less would they take upon themselves the Charge of Parishes especially in the Country I should desire therefore no more but that the number of these Poor Students were not so great that those of them might be chosen who have better Abilities and more Vertue and the others who Study for base and sordid ends rejected For it cannot be enough Lamented to see into what Extremities Young Persons often are cast who rashly Embark themselves in Studies and then find it too late to Learn a Trade yet think any other way of Living unworthy of them Several not knowing what to do betake themselves without any Calling unto Religious Societies or if they be afraid of being shut up and becoming subject to a Rule they seek after some practical Imployment belonging either to the Treasury or as their Genius is they turn Musicians Poets Comedians Mountebanks or any thing you can imagine Also Studies themselves suffer by being handled by Ill-bred and Selfish Persons who are either wholly Sollicitous how to get a Livelihood or how to grow Rich. Their end is not the Knowledge of Truth and the Perfection of Reason but Interest So that they force their Thoughts to make them comply therewith They Study not that which is best in it self but what makes the best Return They endeavour not really to become more Skilful but to be thought so and to please others In a word with them those are Profitable Studies not which tend to the Publick Advantage as the Advancement of Arts and the Perfection of Manners but those which make the Students Rich. But let us return to our Subject Hitherto I have endeavour'd to speak of those Studies which are of Use to all sorts of persons to Women as well as Men Rich and Poor These Studies are such as respect Religion Manners and the Conduct of the Mind for Reasoning Justly and Health I treated of them in all the Latitude wherein he may Teach them who Instructs a Child that is Honourably Born Design'd to Great Imploys and on whom the Master bestows all his Care having all the Encouragements he desires Proportionably it may be Judged how much of them ought to be Taught to an ordinary person a Woman or an Artisan Thus to the Poor the Instructions of a Curate careful of his Duty of a Master of the private Schools or of an Intelligent Father will suffice They may also for the most part omit Learning either to Write or Read for I account it much more necessary that they should be Instructed in all that I have mentioned as far as they shall be capable I now come to Studies which are useful for Business and consequently are likewise common to all who have Estates of what Sex and Condition soever they be And these Studies are Grammar Arithmetick Oeconomicks Skill in Law But I must explain in what Sense I understand all these words BY Grammar I onely understand Reading and Writing Speaking French well and Writing Correctly so that a Man is not at a loss either for Choice of Words or Construction of Discourse and also can Write well even the most Common Things as a Letter of Business I do not think a Child should he Taught to Read before he be Six years old unless he be naturally one of very happy Intellectuals For this is a troublesome Study there is nothing of that in it which Children seek after which is Pleasure and there is need of a great deal of Patience of which they have none Let us Judge of them by our selves How difficult is it at the Age when Reason is perfect to begin to Read Hebrew or Arabick We are push'd on by Curiosity we desire with all our hearts to Learn these Languages and we are accustomed to Study and Industry Nevertheless 't is very ungrateful to fix our eyes a long time upon the same Figures so often to gather together the same Letters to supply by Memory what is wanting in the Writing as there wants something in all sorts of Languages and at last for all the Fruit of our Labour onely to pronounce words which we do not understand And yet we take it ill that poor Children who seek after nothing but their Play do not take all this trouble in good part and Severely Chastise them because they do not pore long enough upon their Book But after all Why should we press them on so much especially if their manner of Living will oblige them to Write and Read all their Lives Are we afraid that they shall not know how to do so when they are grown up But do we see any of them who when they are Ten or Twelve years old are without this Learning It may be said we do not see any such because there are none who are not obliged to Learn these things in their Childhood But do we think that Emulation The shame of not being like others and the Necessity of Writing and Reading in all our other Studies will not also do very
ordinary to the Joy of the Father and Credit of the Teacher be better grounded in real Learning and more capable to use it than we commonly see Young Scholars are after they have been several Years at School and not a few at the University In Truth the Scheme which He Proposes is Founded upon the certain Principles of Reason and Experience and not upon the sole Authority of any Great Name how Famous soever He freely inquires after the best Rules and Method of Instructing Youth not obliging himself to maintain the Systems and Practices of others farther than he finds them agreeable to the Dictates of Eternal Reason our Common Master and confirmed by his own particular Experience The Princes of Conte whose Studies he had the Honour to Direct as their Quality required a more Ingenuous and Liberal way of Education so I doubt not but when they came out of their Tutors Hands they found themselve furnished with a Morality and a sort of Learning answerable to their Birth that is Wise Generous and Active Built upon the solid Foundations of Reason and Experience As to the Translation I have observed as Faithfully as I could the Author 's own Rules P. 137. not scrupulously rendering one Word for another but the French Idiom into the English way of Speaking yet always as near as possibly preserving his Sense Excepting P. 50. where what He calls the Heresie I only Term the Doctrin of Luther Such Complements as these must be expected from one who professes himself to be of the Roman Catholick Communion We have some more of them P. 177 where he refers to the Vulgar Latin as the version which the Church hath made Authentick recommends the knowledge of the Hebrew Tongue if for no other Reason yet to silence the Hereticks and Advises his Priest to Read the Trent Catechism and Council and Romish Ritual These and such like Characteristicks of his Communion I thought once to have accommodated to the English Church as likewise the Honours he bestows on the French Nation to our own But upon second Thoughts I judged it more suitable with a Translation to let these Passages go unaltered Since the Weakest are in no danger of being harmed by them and the Wiser will only conclude from them that Custom and Education in some things are apt to prevail over the Judgments of the most Reasonable Men. To conclude since Translations out of the French have of late been so much encouraged and to so good purpose 't is hoped this will find some place amongst the Excellent Books we have already received and do still expect out of that Language Du Pin and Malbranch have been worthily looked upon as Originals in their respective Labours And when the Learned shall have Impartially considered Mr. Fleury's Writings they 'll find him to be one of those French Writers who abating their peculiar Roman Shibboleth have Written as if they design'd to serve the Interest of the Church of England that is of Primitive Christianity rather than that of Rome THE CONTENTS THe Design of the Treatise Pag. 1 The First Part. The History of Studies The Studies of the Greeks 2 Pag. 2 The Studies of the Romans Pag. 5 The Studies of the Christians Pag. 11 The Studies of the Franks Pag. 17 The Studies of the Arabians Pag. 22 The Studies of the School-Men Pag. 28 Vniversities and their four Faculties Pag. 33 The Faculty of the Arts Pag. 34 Medicks or Physick Pag. 41 Civil and Canon-Law Pag. 44 Divinity Pag. 45 The Restoration of Humanity Pag. 47 The Second Part. The Choice of Studies Pag. 54 The Way and Method to give Attention Pag. 62 The Division of Studies Pag. 71 Religion and Morality Pag. 73 Civility and Good Breeding Pag. 86 Logick and Metaphysicks Pag. 89 That Men ought to have a Care of their Bodies Pag. 100 Men ought not to Study purely for Interest Pag. 108 Grammar Pag. 111 Arithmetick Pag. 117 Oeconomick p. Pag. 117 Civil Law or Jurisprudence Pag. 123 Policy Pag. 132 Of Languages Latin c Pag. 136 History Pag. 140 Natural History Pag. 148 Geometry Pag. 150 Rhetorick Pag. 161 Poetry Pag. 157 Curious Studies Pag. 160 Vseless Studies Pag. 163 The Order of Studies according to the several Ages Pag. 167 The Studies of Women Pag. 171 The Studies of Clergy-men Pag. 175 The Studies of Sword men Pag. 181 The Studies of the Men of the Robe Pag. 184 THE HISTORY Choice and Method OF STUDIES ALthough at present I only intend to Treat of private Studies and to give Advice to those alone who Instruct Children in Houses and are at liberty to use what Method they shall think the Best I have nevertheless judg'd it necessary First to Consider the course of Studies which we find settled in the publick Schools to the end that we may conform our selves unto them as much as possible But to understand well the Order of our publick Studies it seems to me Adviseable to go to the Fountain-head that so we may see whence every part is deriv'd down to us and how the whole body of these Studies has been form'd in the Succession of many Ages Containing the History of Studies GRammar Rhetorick and Philosophy came from the Greeks even the Names themselves of these Studies import as much From the Greeks they pass'd to the Romans and from the Romans to us Now the Greeks had great Reason to apply themselves to these Three Sorts of Studies as they understood them By Grammar they in the first place meant the Knowledge of Letters that is the Art to Read and Write and consequently Speak well It was of great moment to them to know how to Read Write and Speak correctly in their own Language with which they contented themselves for they Learnt none of Strangers Under the Name of Grammar they also comprehended the Knowledge of the Poets Historians and other good Authors whom their Grammarians profess'd to explain And 't is easie to see how useful this Study was to them At the First they had no other Books but their Poets and there they found all kind of Instructions All their Religion and all their History were contain'd in them For hitherto they had no more certain Traditions than these Fables which now seem so Ridiculous unto us And as for their Religion their Poets were their Prophets whom they looked upon as Friends of the Gods and Men inspir'd and for their works they had a Respect not much inferiour if I may make the Comparison to that which we have for the holy Scriptures Moreover they found in them Rules for the Government of themselves and Lively Representations of Humane Life And they had this Advantage that these Books so full of Instructions were perfectly well written Insomuch that they were a divertisement to the Reader and besides the Substance of things they learnt from them to Speak well and to express their Thoughts nobly In short all their verses were made to be Sung and
for the Service and Government of the Churches And they who were thus drawn out of the Monasteries did usually continue the exercises of the Monastick Life in the state of the Priesthood and taught them to their Disciples from whence came the near Relation betwixt the Monastick Life and the Clerical which was so ordinary after the Fifth Age. Many Bishops lived in common with their Priests which made it more easie for them to instruct them in Ecclesiastical knowledge and as for the younger Clerks they who were not near the person of the Bishops lived with some holy Priest who particularly took Care of their Education There were still some prophane Schools where was taught Grammar so far as 't was necessary to write and speak correctly Rhetorick which daily became more affected and childish History which they began altogether to reduce into Abridgments Civil Law which always continued because it depended no more upon Religion than the other and the Mathematicks which are the Foundations of many Arts necessary unto Life Learning suffer'd very much by the Ruine of the Western Empire and the Establishment of the Northern People so that there was scarce any thing of it left but amongst the Clergy and the Monks In Truth excepting the Clergy there were scarce any remainders of the Romans except Peasants and Artificers who were generally Slaves The Franks and other Barbarians did not Study at all and if they made any use of Letters for the usual correspondencies of Life it was only of Latin for they knew not so much as how to Write in their own Language Profane Studies as Philology and History were most of all neglected It did not become Clergy-men to busie themselves with them It is well known how sharply St. Gregory Reproved Didier Bishop of Vienna because he Taught Grammar Besides having fewer Books and less Convenience of Studying than in the foregoing Ages they betook themselves to that which was more necessary that is to what immeadiately concern'd Religion CHarlemaign who was truly great in all his Actions did all that was in his power towards the Re-establishment of Learning He drew together from all quarters the most knowing Men by Honour and Rewards He himself Studied too He setled Schools in the Chief Cities of his Empire and even in his own Palace which was like a walking City It appears by many Articles of the Capitularies what was Taught therein For it is recommended to the Bishops who by the Duty of their place are concern'd to provide for the Instruction of Youth that they shou'd take Care that Children were Taught Grammar Singing Casting Account or Arithmetick It may be seen in Bede's Works who Lived Sixty Years before wherein their Studies and all the liberal Arts did consist Grammar was then necessary because Latin was altogether Corrupted and the Roman Language Rustick as the Vulgar Language whence the French is Derived was termed This Language I say was nothing but an uncertain and monstrous Jargon which Men were ashamed to write or use in any serious Business As for the German Language which was that of the Prince and of all the Franks it began to be Written and to be used in some Translations of the holy Scriptures and Charlemaign himself made a Grammar for it The Singing which was taught was that of the Ecclesiastical Office reformed at this time according to the Roman Custom and thereunto were joined some Rules of Musick Calculation or Computation served for the finding out on what day Easter was to be kept and for the Regulating the Year It comprehended also the most necessary Rules of Arithmetick by all which it appears that these Studies were only for those who design'd for the Clergy Thus all Lay persons were either the Noblemen who concern'd themselves in nothing but War or the Commonalty busied in Husbandry and Trades Charlemaign was careful to disperse all over his Territories that Code of the Canons which he received from Pope Adrian the Roman Law and other Laws of all the People under his Obedience whereof he made new Editions He had a great many ancient Histories and he was so curious as to cause the Verses which preserved the Memory of the brave Actions of the Germans to be Written and put together Thus together with the Holy Scriptures and Fathers of the Church then very well known he furnished his Subjects with all things necessary for their instruction And if Men had gone on to have Studied according to this Platform and Lay-men had been more ingaged in the pursuits of Learning the French might easily have attain'd and perfected that Knowledge which is most useful for Religion for Policy and for the particular Conduct of Life which things ought in my Opinion to be the end of Studies But curiosity which has always been injurious to Learning insinuated it self into Study from this time Many Studied Astronomy many believed Astrological Predictions There were some who in order to Write good Latin did scrupulously Criticize upon the Words and Phrases of ancient Authors The greatest mischief was that the Monks enter'd upon these Curiosities and began to value themselves upon their Knowledge to the prejudice of their Hand-labour and silence which hitherto had been so advantageous to them The Court of Lewis the Debonnair was full of them and no business pass'd in his Court wherein they had not a share Afterwards the State falling into the greatest Confusion by the sudden fall of the House of Charlemaign Studies also fell with it all at once In the time of Charles the Bald Publick Acts are to be seen even of the Capitularies Written in a sort of Latin altogether Barbarous without Rule and without Construction and Books were so scarce that Lupus Abbot of Ferrier sent as far as Rome to receive from the Pope the Works of Cicero to Copy over which at present are so very common insomuch that when the little particular Wars and Ravages of the Normans had taken away the Liberty of Travel and broken off Commerce Studies became very difficult I mean to the Monks themselves and the Clergy as for others they never Dream'd of them besides they had more pressing business to dispatch They were often forc'd to remove in disorder and carry the Reliques with them to save them from the Fury of the Barbarians abandoning their Houses and Churches to them or else the Monks and Clergy were necessitated to take up Arms in defence of their Lives and to hinder the Prophanation of the Holy Places In such great Extremities it was as easie for them to lose their Books as 't was difficult to Study them and Write new Copies of them Nevertheless there were some preserved there being always some Bishop or Monk remarkable for his Learning But wanting Books and Masters they Studied without choice and without any other direction than the example of their Predecessors Thus it is Recorded of St. Abbo the Abbot of the Benedictins upon the Loire in
good also to Exercise them without Books upon the subjects of which they can talk as upon the occurrences of Life chiefly upon their little differences if several of them be brought up together the Matter will more affect them and they will better understand the Maxims For here we ought not to deceive our selves as if Study consisted only in reading of Books All that is useful to know has not yet been Written and 't is impossible to Read all that has been Written We should account Reflexion and Conversation to be a great part of our Study There are a great many things not to be learn'd but by Tradition and Viva voce and also there are some which every one apprehends by observing what others do and Reflecting upon himself But 't is chiefly Morality which is thus learn'd Every one Forms his Maxims much less from that which he reads than from that which he hears spoken especially in familiar Conversation which he thinks more sincere than publick Discourses and from that which he sees those do whom he accounts most rational Hence it is that Example and Authority have so great an effect upon Manners For seeing there are but few Persons who have Strength and Patience enough for Reasoning especially amongst Youth and yet none would willingly be deceived It follows that they will believe the Wisest yet not so much what they say as what they do because Actions are surer Proofs of their Sentiments than Words And here behold the great difficulty we meet with in Teaching Morality I mean ill Example and the Corruption of Manners not only in publick but often also in private For you do well to tell a young Person what you know to be the best and to convince him by strong Reasons But he has always in the bottom of his Soul a violent Prejudice which renders all your Reasonings Suspicious and this is the common Opinion It seems to him that common sense requires he should prefer it to yours and that 't is more reasonable to suppose that you are deceived than that all the rest of Mankind are so And if by chance the Master shall discover any Weakness as where is the Man who doth not betray something of it sometimes If he be peevish if his Manners be ungrateful or singular in a word if he comes through his own fault or otherwise to be hated or despised Presumption presently becomes a Conviction and his Remonstrances have no further effect unless it be to prejudice the Truth and to render good Maxims odious or ridiculous to the Scholar all the rest of his Life Men much rather follow the Maxims of those whom they Esteem and Love and seeing Men Act by imagination especially in their younger Years they esteem or love those who are grateful to them or seem to be happy as Persons of Quality the Rich those who have a good Mien who Speak well who are Straight and handsom Men. Now these shining Qualities are much more ordinarily to be met with in those who have less Vertue and more rarely in those who Teach than in others Besides there are some Men by general Prescription are supposed to be Wise and Vertuous and yet are not so in effect as some Fathers old Men Magistrates and perhaps also Clergymen and Religious Insomuch that young Persons though never so well inclin'd are very hard put to it how to chuse those whom they ought to follow In the mean time their Passions grow become stronger and hold Intelligence with those many Enemies which attack them from without Yet all these difficulties should not discourage us and though we ought to hope for nothing but by the Power of the Divine Grace yet it is not sufficient only to implore this Assistance by continual Prayer all Human means should also be imploy'd The Success which doth not depend upon us shall not be reckoned to us neither shall we be Reproached for it and whatsoever shall become of the Scholar the Master shall be punished for his negligence or rewarded for his pains Admonish therefore your Charge that to do well he must draw himself out of the Crowd and not follow the greatest number Prove it to him both by the Authority of the Gospel and by Reason since whatsoever Principle of Morality you ground him in all that you can account good in the World will be very little in Comparison of the contrary Evil. There are few Rich Men a great many Poor few that enjoy Pleasure and Honours few Learned few Wise Men abundance of Sots and ignorant Persons very little Vertue in what sense soever you understand it Make him observe that there is scarce any one whose actions are all of a piece and who follows the same Principle whether it be good or bad Make him sensible how Ridiculous these Contradictions so ordinary in common Life appear The same Father who Preaches to his Son in general Wisdom and a Regular Life at other times unwarily uses before him Licentious Discourses with Pleasure relates the Follies of his Youth and thus teaches him to be a good Companion and a Spark amongst the Ladies The Mother who carries her Daughter often to Prayers carries her also to a Ball and to a Play and holding the Catechism in one Hand which she makes her repeat with the other she puts on her Ribbons and Patches to make her fine It cannot be avoided but that Men will fall into these absurdities unless they stick to one only Principle with an immovable firmness In truth it is not Morality if it be not perfectly one and built upon one only Principle You ought not therefore to speak to your Scholar of Human Morality of Worldly Wisdom of Politicks or the Prudence of this World Nothing of this should enter into his Mind but it ought presently to be balanced with the Maxims of the Gospel by making him comprehend well that we must be Christians altogether or not at all that it avails nothing to be so by halves least being abandoned of God we should renounce our Baptism It is to belye our selves not to follow the Law without reserve which we have owned as Divine But to establish a young Man in this Doctrine it will not be unuseful to remove certain gross Calumnies which are often Form'd against Christian Piety There are some so little acquainted with it that they think it allows or at least excuses Sottishness and meanness of Spirit and that bravery and greatness of Mind are Vertues only to be found in the Men of the World Nevertheless Prudence and Magnanimity are Vertues recommended in the Scripture as well as Temperance and Justice and the contrary Vices render us no less culpable before God than before Men. The difference is that Men often are not reasonable enough to excuse Defects which are purely involuntary Besides Devotion is accused for making Men sad and if they durst say it Unhappy because a great many of those who pass for Devout Persons are ill Humour'd
THE HISTORY Choice and Method OF STUDIES BY Monsieur Fleury Sometime Preceptor to the Princes of Conty Monsieur D' Vermandois and to the Dukes of Burgoyne and Anjou Lycensed D. Poplar LONDON Printed for S. Keble at the Turks-head in Fleet street Iohn Hindmarsh against the Exchange in Cornhil D. Brown without Temple-Barr and R. Sare at Grays-Inn Gate in Holborn 1695. THE PREFACE TO THE Reader REading not long since in the Lipsick Translations I therein met with so Fair a Character of this Author and this Piece of his that I presently procured the Book and having Read it over I was so well pleased with the Argument and the Way of handling it That having some Spare-time upon my hands I thought it might not be altogether an Vseless Diversion to try how that would appear in English which gave me such Satisfaction in French and which the Editors of the Lipsick Transactions wish'd to see in the German Tongue A work of this Nature is so necessary and yet so very difficult that several who convin't of the usefulness of it have attempted it yet being Discouraged in the Prosecution or else unfit for the Vndertaking have either left us only some Models-Vnfinish'd or some Gothick Platforms more agreeable to the Barbarous Ages of Learning than to the State of that wherein we Live Some have been too Subtle and Scholastical in their Instructions others too gross and material The one seem to suppose their Scholars to be meer Intelligences the other Treat them as if they were altogether Material and both have too much restrain'd their Rules to some particular sorts of Studies and Professions As if all Men besides had either no Thoughts or were under no Obligation to order them after the best manner and apply them to the most proper Subjects Our Author therefore thought himself oblig'd to extend his Instructions to all Mankind and consider all Reasonable Creatures who have Minds to Improve as Students in some sort or other And indeed since all Men have Thoughts and Study is nothing but the Attentive Application of their Thoughts to those Objects which they are the most concern'd to know 't would be great Injury to the rest of Mankind to exclude all except two or three Orders of Men from the benefit of Studies Our Author that he might not be thus partial in a matter where all Persons have an Interest suits his Instructions to all Ages Sexes Conditions and ways of Life He First Prescribes Rules for such Studies as are absolutely Necessary to all sorts of Men whatever Then he passes on to those which are proper for them whose Birth and Parts enable them to make some further progress in Learning In the next place he applys himself unto those whose Condition requires greater Improvements than may be requisite for the Common Student Afterwards he gives Directions about Studies that are Curious as he calls them not because they are in no Sense necessary but because they are not of so much use as the others before-mention'd tho' they be laudable and good in themselves Whereas those which he calls useless are such vain and unprofitable Curiosities as are just good for nothing at all but to fill the head with Superstitious Conceits and Fanciful Chymera's Lastly He tells us how Children are to be Instructed according to their several Ages What Studies are fit for Women What for Clergy-men Sword-men and Lawyers This is a short View of the Design of his Second Part after he has in the First given us an Historical Account of Studies which may well pass for a very Ingenious and Learned Essay upon that which my Lord Bacon calls the Historia Literata and puts amongst the Desiderata under the Title of Oculus Polyphemi I would by no means derogate from the Learned and Vseful Labours either of the Ancients or Moderns who have Written upon this Subject Yet I must needs say that to my Apprehension none ever Managed it with such a Judicious Cboice and Vnaffected Gravity as he seems to have done His Great Care is not to make a vain shew and Barade of his Learning He Writes not like a Man who is full of himself and possest with the troublesom Spirit of Polymathy his Business is to give the most useful and solid Advice in the plainest and most simple Words He is not too tedious and Operose upon some Heads too scantly and defective in others but with an equal and steddy hand has drawn all the parts so as to agree with one another and strengthen the Whole In short if I did not think that I do Present the Réader with a BOOK of more Value than any thing I have yet seen in this kind I should not have given him a needless trouble Several both of former times and of late have laid down many wise and and excellent Rules for the skilful management of Youth but I know no Treatise which in so short a Compass and such a natural Method comprehends the whole Circle of Instruction as it relates both to the Scholars Studies and his Manners So that I hope the Reader will have Reason to Esteem this little Book above many others which have been Written upon this Subject either with too little Judgment or too much Criticism 'T is to be observed that the Author takes upon him to Prescribe to the Universities and Publick Schools He undertakes not to be a Doctor of the Chair or to indicate unto those Celebrated Places of Education whose Rules and Methods have been Approved and Established both by Law and Custom But because Private and Domestick Education has of late been so much in Fashion and withal usually so wretchedly managed He thought himself concerned to visit the Family take an account of the Miscarriages in this Matter and do what in him lay to Redress them And he did not Intrude himself into this Office before he was called For in the Preface He tells us That he Composed this Book at the desire of a certain Gentleman for the Use of his Child Now since there is the same Reason for such kind of Treatises in English as in French He hopes that He shall be accounted no more in our own County than in his own a busie Body in other Mens Matters But though the Book is not Calculated for the Universities and Publick Schools yet if the Tutors of the one and the Masters of the other will Examin his Rules and Method with Judgment and Candour I presume they will see Reason to acknowledge their Obligations to the Author and will not I hope have much Reason to be offended with the Translatour However we do with some Assurance promise our selves a favourable Reception from all those Gentlemen who Educate their Children in Private as well as from the Instructers who shall take the care of them For I question not but upon Experiment it will be found that a Child of tolerable Parts Educated after this Manner will in a far less time than
the time of Hugh Capet that he had Studied Logick Arithmetick and Astronomy and that afterwards he betook himself to the Study of the Holy Scripture and the Canons and to Collect passages out of the Fathers From this time as the Royal Authority became Re-established and Hostilities began to cease Studies also revived so that in the time of Philip I. about the Year 1060. Men famous for their Learning were to be seen in several Churches of France There were likewise some Schools in the Cathedrals as there were in the Monasteries where there were Schools within for the Monks and without for the Seculars They Studied as before Divinity the Fathers of the Church the Canons Logick the Mathematicks Thus they continued during the following Age always advancing and perfecting themselves as we see by the Writings of Ivo of Chartres the Master of the Sentences Gratian St. Bernard and other Authors of the same time whose Stile and Method is so different from later Schoolmen In the mean time the first of these Schoolmen followed them so near that the Change must needs have happened in the time of these great Men that is to say about the end of the Twelfth Age And I can find out no other Causes of it but the Knowledge of the Arabians and the imitation of their Studies The Jews were they who imitated them first They Translated their Books into Hebrew and there being then Jews in France and all over Christendom the Books which they had Translated into Hebrew were render'd in Latin Some of them might be received even from the Arabians themselves with whom the Communication was easie by the Neighbourhood of Spain of which they as yet held more than half and by the Travels of those who went upon the Croisado THe Vulgar Opinion that all Mahometans without distinction did always profess Ignorance is a great mistake They had an incredible number of Men Famous for their Learning particularly many of the Arabians and Persians and they have written enough to fill large Libraries Four Hundred Years before the Twelfth Age of which I speak they had diligently given themselves to Study and Learning was never at so great an height with them as when it was at the lowest with us that is in the tenth and eleventh Ages These Arabians I mean all those who call themselves Musulmen of what Nation or Country soever had two kinds of Study the one proper to themselves the other taken from the Greeks who were Subject to the Emperours of Constantinople Their particular Studies were in the first place their Religion that is the Alcoran the Traditions which they attributed to Mahomet and his first Disciples the Lives of their pretended Saints and the Stories which they relate of them the Cases of Conscience upon the practical part of their Religion as Prayer Purifications Fasting Pilgrimage and their Scholastical Theology which contains so many Questions about the attributes of God upon predestination the Judgment the Succession of Prophesie whence proceed so many Sects amongst them who treat one another as Hereticks Others Studied the Alcoran and its Commentaries rather as Lawyers than Divines to find therein Rules for the management of Affairs and the Decision of differences For this Book is their only Law even in Temporals Others apply'd themselves unto History which had been very carefully Written from the beginning of their Religion and their Empire and has been continued down ever since But they were very ignorant of ancient Histories despising all Mankind who lived before Mahomet and calling all that time the time of Ignorance because their Religion was not known They contented themselves with the Arabian Antiquities contained in the Works of their ancient Poets which to them served instead of the History for those times wherein it can't be denied they have followed the same Principle which the Old Greeks did of improving their own Traditions how Fabulous soever But it must be acknowledged also that their Poetry never had any Beauty but what was very Superficial as flashy Thoughts and bold Expressions They never apply'd themselves to that sort of Poetry which consists in imitation and is most proper to move the Passions and that perhaps which made them avoid it was the despicable Opinion they had of those Arts which any wise related thereunto as Painting and Sculpture which their hatred of Idolatry made them abhor Moreover their Poets were useful for the Study of the Arabick Tongue which then was the Language of the Masters and most of the People of all this great Empire and still at this Day is the common Language of the greatest part and every where the Language of the Religion They Studied it chiefly in the Alcoran and to learn it by Conversation with the Living The most Curious went from all Parts to the Province of Irac and particularly to the City Bassora which was to them what Athens was to the ancient Greeks And there being then powerful Princes in Persia many things were Written in their Language which have been much improved since These are the Studies proper to the Musulmen and were as ancient as their Religion Those which they had received from the Greeks were later by Two Hundred Years for it was about the Year 820. when the Calif Almamon desired of the Emperour of Constantinople the best Greek Books and caused them to be Translated into Arabick Nevertheless it doth not appear that they ever Studied the Greek Tongue it was sufficient to make them despise it because it was the Language of their Enemies Besides there were so many Christians in Syria and Egypt who understood both Arabick and Greek that they could not want Interpreters and these Christians Translated the Greek Books into Syriack and Arabick for themselves and for the Musulmen Amongst the Greek Books there were a great many which were of no use to the Arabians they could not see the Beauty of the Poets in a strange Language and with a genius so quite different from them Add this further that their Religion would not permit them to Read them they had such an horrour of Idolatry that they did not think it lawful to pronounce so much as the names of the false Deities And amongst so many Millions of Volumes which they have Written you shall scarce find one which mentions them They were very far from Studying all those Fables about which our modern Poets have been so Curious and the same Superstition might restrain them from reading Histories besides that they despised as I have already said all that was older than Mahomet As for Eloquence and Policy which were brought forth and nourish'd in the most free Commonwealths the Form of the Musulmen's Government gave them no occasion to make use of them They lived under an Empire absolutely despotick where they were not to open their Mouths but to Flatter their Prince and Extol every Thought of his and where they were not concern'd for that which might conduce to the
advantage of the State or to the Art of perswading but how to obey the Will of their Master So that there were no Books of the Ancients which were useful to them but those of Mathematicks of Physicians and Philosophers But seeing they neither sought after Policy nor Eloquence Plato was not for them besides to understand him the Knowledge of the Poets the Religion and History of the Greeks was necessary Aristotle with his Logick and Metaphysicks was more proper for them and accordingly they Study'd him with incredible earnestness and diligence They also apply'd themselves to his Physicks chiefly to Eight Books which contain nothing but Generals For natural Philosophy in particular which requires Observations and Experiments was not so suitable to them They did not omit to Study Medicks very closely but they founded it chiefly upon the general notions of the four Qualities and the four Humours and upon the Tradition of Medicines which they had not at all examin'd and which they mixed with an infinite number of Superstitions As to other parts of it they did not in the least improve Anatomy which they had received from the Greeks very imperfect 'T is true that we owe Chymistry to them which they have carry'd very far if not invented but they have mingled therewith all those corruptions which we can yet hardly separate therefrom vain Promises extravagant Reasonings superstitious Operations and all those fond things which have produced nothing but Montebanks and Impostors From Chymistry they passed easily to Magick and and all sorts of Divinations with which Men easily take up when they are ignorant of natural Philosophy History and true Religion as we have seen by the example of the ancient Greeks That which wonderfully assisted them in these Illusions was Astrology which was the chief aim of their Mathematical Studies In truth this pretended Science has been so much cultivated under the Empire of the Musulmen that Princes took delight therein and upon this Foundation ordered their greatest Enterprizes The Calif Almamon did himself Calculate Astronomical Tables which were very famous and it must be confess'd that they were very serviceable for his Observations and other useful parts of Mathematicks as Geometry and Arithmetick We owe to them Algebra and the way of Cyphering by Multiplying by Ten which has render'd the Arithmetical Operations so easie As for Astronomy they had the same advantages which excited the ancient Egygtians and Chaldeans to apply themselves thereto seeing they Inhabited the same Country And moreover they had all the observations of the Ancients and all those which the Greeks had added unto them The Arabians who made it their business to Study their Religion were not only no Philosophers but their declared Enemies and decry'd them as an impious sort of Men and Enemies to their Religion Indeed it was no difficult matter for any who could but reason in any degree to destroy the foundation of a Religion which was built neither upon Reason nor any Evidence of a Divine Mission The Philosophers there fore being excluded from the Functions of Religion and other profitable Imployments sought the more after Reputation and they endeavour'd to get it either from the Names of the Masters under whom they had Studied or from their great Travels or from the singularity of their Opinions A Learned Man in Spain was always much more Learned in Persia or Corasan and there was a wondrous Emulation betwixt them each of them Zealously affecting to distinguish himself by some new Logical or Metaphysical subtilty And this same Humour run through all their Studies and all their Works They apply'd themselves only to that which seemed most wonderful most rare and most difficult for this end disreguarding Pleasure Convenience and even profit its self The Franks and other Latin Christians received from the Arabians only what the Arabians had taken from the Greeks that is the Philosophy of Aristotle Medicks and Mathematicks disregarding their Language their Poetry their Histories and their Religion as the Arabians had neglected those of the Greeks But what is most surprising is That our Learned Men did little less than the Arabians neglect the Greek Tongue so useful for the Study of Religion For it was not before the beginning of the Fourteenth Age that it was that the Languages might very much contribute to this end chiefly in order to the Conversion of Infidels and Schismaticks It was with this design that the Council of Vienna held in the Year 1315. ordered that Professours for the Greek Arabick and Hebrew should be Established which yet was not put into Execution till a long time afterwards Men did not begin to Study Greek before the end of the Fifteenth Age Hebrew in the beginning of the Sixteenth and Arabick in our Age. Hitherto there were but some few curious Persons who apply'd themselves thereto and they seldom bestow'd their pains upon Books of History which would have been most useful TO return to the Twelfth Age. They who Studied then were not at all concerned to be curious in Languages not so much as in Latin which they used for their Studies and in all Affairs of Moment But I cannot accuse them for this but the unhappiness of the Times The Incursions of the Normans and the particular Wars which yet continued had made Books so scarce and Studies so difficult that they were forc'd first to Labour in that which was of most importance There was as yet no Printing and there were scarce any but Monks who could Write and they were fully imploy'd in Writing Bibles Psalters and such-like Books for the use of Churches They Write also some Works of the Fathers as they fell into their Hands some Collections of Canons and some Formularies of Acts which were most ordinary in transacting business For 't was to them Application was made to cause them to be Written and 't was from amongst them or the Clergy that Princes had their Notaries and their Chancellours they had scarce any time to Transcribe the Prophane Histories and the Poets 'T is true that the Knowledge of Languages and Histories is necessary to understand the Fathers well and even Scripture it self but either they did not apprehend it to be so or else the extraordinary difficulty of attaining this Knowledge through the want of Dictionaries Glossaries Commentaries and the scarceness of the Text it self made them lose all hopes of it Hence it was that they who would superadd any thing to the meer reading of the Scripture and the Fathers did it only by Reasoning and Logick as St. John the Sophist the first Author of the Nominals who lived in the time of Hen. I. and his followers Arnold of Laon Roscelin of Compeign Master Abalard This way of Philosophizing upon Words and Thoughts without examining things in themselves was most certainly a good expedient to ease themselves of the Knowledge of Matter of Fact which is not to be attained but by reading and it was an easie way to confound the
The Decretal also was taught there that is Gratian's Compilation which was look'd upon as an intire Body of the Canon Law There also Medicks were Studied And thus joyning these four principal Studies which were called Faculties together they named the Compound of them all Vniversity of Studies And at last simply Vniversity To denote that in one City alone all things were Taught which were useful to know This Establishment seemed so considerable that the Popes and Kings favoured it with great Privileges Persons came to Study at Paris from all Parts of France Italy Germany and England in a word from all Parts of Latin Europe and thus the private Schools of Cathedrals and Monasteries came to be neglected Let us see more particularly what was Taught in each Faculty UNder the Name of Arts were comprehended Grammar and Humanity the Mathematicks and Philosophy But to speak properly this Name ought only to comprehend the Seven Liberal Arts of which we find Treatises in Cassiodore and Bede viz. Grammar Rhetorick Logick Arithmetick Musick Geometry and Astronomy A Master of Arts should be one capable to teach all these For Grammar they read Priscian Donatus or some other of the ancients who had Writ upon th◠Latin Tongue rather to acquaint the Roman of their Times to whom it was natural with its utmost Niceties than to teach its Elements to Strangers In the Thirteenth Age Latin was no longer in Common use amongst the People in any place of the World and in France the ordinary Tongue was that which we see in Ville-hardoüin in Joinville and other Romancers of the same time It seems to me that they ought to have apply'd the Art of Grammar to this Language chusing the most proper Words and the most natural Phrases fixing the inflexions and giving Rules for Construction and Orthography The Italians did so and about the end of the same Age there were some Florentines who Studied to Write well in their Vulgar Tongue as Brunetto Latini John Villani and the Poet Dante As for our Language it was not purified but by Time and they did not set upon it by publick order in the French Academy till Four Hundred Years after the Institution of Vniversities 'T is true that Latin was still necessary for the reading of good Books and the Exercise of Religion and they who Studied at that time were all Church-men Latin also was necessary for business and for publick Acts and so it was for Travel so that Interpreters were called Latinizers It was therefore impossible to be without Latin but it was also impossible to Establish the ancient purity of it by reason of scarcity of Books and upon other accounts which I have observed They were forc'd to be contented with speaking and Writing it meanly They made no scruple of mixing therewith many Barbarous Words and to follow the Phrase of the Vulgar Tongues they were satisfied with barely observing the Cases Numbers Genders Conjugations and Principal Rules of Syntax To this they wholly reduc'd the Study of Grammar looking upon all the rest as an unprofitable Curiosity seeing Men speak only to be understood and a more Elegant sort of Latin would have been more hardly understood And thus that Barbarous Latin came to be formed which has so long been used in the Palace which is with difficulty corrected in the Schools and which is spoken yet in Germany and Poland for the convenience of Travel Thence comes the necessity of Glosses and Commentaries for the Explication of the ancient Books Written in a pure Style Poetry consisted only in knowing the measure of Latin Verse and the quantity of Syllables for they went not so far as to distinguish the Characters of Composures and the difference of Styles This appears by the Poems of Gunther and William of Breton which are only meer Histories of a flat Style and as bad Latin as that wherein they wrote in Prose To the restraint of quantity and cuttings off they added that of Rhimes which made their Leonine Verses and often neglecting even quantity they only made simple Rhimes in Latin as in French and this was that which they called the Church Hymns this was all the Poetry of Men which were serious As for the Vulgar Poetry which began to be in request about the Twelfth Age as may appear by so many Romances and Ballads it soon became the peculiar Talent of Debauchees and Libertines Such generally were the Country Trombadours and other Poets of this time who followed the Courts of Princes In the mean time it must be confess'd that several of them were Men of Wit and considering the time of Politeness also yet their Works were full of fulsom Love and Extravagant Fictions From this time they continued more and more to separate the pleasure of Discourse from reasoning and solid Studies and this is that which made Rhetorick neglected in the Schools for there they were not solicitous either to please or to move the Passions They chiefly apply'd themselves to Philosophy and they believed that it needed no Ornament of Language or any Figure of Discourse Thus endeavouring to render it Solid and Methodical they made it very dry and ungrateful not considering that a Natural and Figured Discourse spares a great many Words and helps the Memory by the lively Images it imprints upon the Mind In the mean time there being no Study without Curiosity and Emulation Our Learned Men did as the Arabians had done either through imitation or by the same principle and stuff'd their Philosophy with an infinite number of Questions more subtle than solid falling short extreamly of the Idea of the ancient Graecians The Logick of Socrates which we see in Plato and Xenophon was an Art of seriously seeking after Truth and he call'd it the Dialectick Art because this search cannot be well made but by Conversation betwixt two Persons both careful to reason well This Art then consisted in answering rightly to every Question in making exact Divisions in well defining Words and Things and attentively weighing every Consequence before 't was granted without being in an Heat without fearing to be overcome and to confess their Errours and without desiring through Prejudice or any By-respects that one proposition should be true rather than another So that in this Logick Morality enter'd and Eloquence found a Place For since Men are usually Passionate or prevented with some Errour their Passions must first be calm'd and their Prejudices removed before Truth be proposed which without this preparation would only offend them Now this Method requires marvellous Discretion and Address for Men to accommodate themselves to the infinite variety of Minds and their Distempers And this is that which we admire in Plato 'T is upon this Foundation that Aristotle Parallels Logick with Rhetorick and says that both the one and the other has the same Design which is to perswade by Discourse Logick uses more solid and convincing Reasons because in particular Conversation we better know
reckoned from the Year 1450 and the Taking of Constantinople which made so many Learned Greeks retire into Italy with their Books For though Petrarch and Bocace had revived these Studies in the foregoing Age yet hitherto they had made but little progress But in Greece Studies were yet well enough preserved The Commentary of Eustathius upon Homer is enough to shew that to these latter Ages there were remaining an infinite number of Learned Books and Men. Thus after the Middle of the Fifteenth Age a Whole Shoal of Learned Men appeared all at once first in Italy then in France and proportionably in the rest of Europe who with incredible diligence ayply'd themselves to the Reading all the Books of the Ancients they could find to the Writing Latin as purely as 't was possible and Translating Greek Authors The Art of Printing found out at the same time made it much easier for them to procure Books and to have them Correct So that several afterwards labour'd in putting out excellent Editions of all the Good Authors according to the best Manuscripts enquiring after the most Ancient and comparing several together Others made very exact Dictionaries and Grammars others Commentaries upon difficult Authors others Treatises upon all those Requisites which might help to the Understanding of them as their Fables their Religion their Government their Art of War and even to the least particulars of their Manners their Habits their Eating their Diversions Insomuch that they have taken all the pains necessary to make us understand as much as 't is possible after such a Long Interval all the rest of the Ancient Greek and Latin Books But some have too much dwelt upon these Studies which are onely Instruments for other Studies more Serious For there have been some Curious Persons who have spent their Lives in Studying Latin and Greek and in Reading all Authors for the Laaguage sake or only to understand the Authors and explain some difficult passages of them without going any farther or making any use of them There have been some who have gone no farther than Mythology and some other Antiquities which I have mentioned who have sought after Inscriptions Medals and all that might give any Light to Authors seeking onely the pleasure which they found in these Curiosities Some proceeding farther have Studied the Liberal Arts according to the Ancient Rules as Eloquence and Poetry nevertheless without Practising them whence it came that we have so many Modern Treatises of Poetry and Rhetorick and yet so few True Poets and Orators and so many Political Tracts made by those who never were concern'd in Business Lastly The diligent reading the Books of the Ancients produc'd in many such a blind Respect for them that they chose rather to follow their Errors than to give themselves the Liberty to Judge of them Thus it was believed that Nature was in all Respects such as Pliny has describ'd her to be and that she could do nothing but according to the Principles of Aristotle The worst of it is that many have admired their Morality and did not consider how much it was below that Religion which they had learn'd from their Cradle Others though but a few have exceeded on the other hand having affected to contradict the Ancients and run as far as they could from their Principles But of those who have admired them the most ordinary fault has been an aukward Imitation of them It has been believed that to Write as they did it was necessary to Write in their Language without Considering that the Romans Writ in Latin and not in Greek and that the Greeks Writ in Greek and not in the Egyptian or Syriack Language They thought themselves happy if they could attain to the making good Verses in Latin they have also composed some in Greek at the peril of not being understood by any Body And they who as Ronsard and his Followers began to make French Verses after their Reading of the Ancients have fill'd them with their Words their Poetical Phrases their Fables their Religion without concerning themselves whether such Poems might please those who had not Studied as they had done It was sufficient that they made them Admired for their Profound Learning They imitated also the Oratours they made Harangues in Latin and stuff'd their Discourses in French with Latin sayings In a word they thought to make use of the Ancients was to get them by heart to speak of the things of which they spake and to repeat their own proper words in stead of which well to have imitated them they ought to have pitcht upon Subjects which had more relation to us as they had chosen those which appertain'd unto them to have treated them as they did after a solid and diverting way and to have Explained them as well in our Language as they had Explained them in theirs This new kind of Study rais'd a sort of War amongst the Learned The Humanists Charm'd with the Beauty of their Ancient Authors and valuing themselves upon their New Discoveries despised the common sort of Doctors who following the Tradition of the Schools neglected Style to follow Things and preferr'd what was profitable to what was pleasant and agreeable The Doctors on their side I mean the Divines and Canonists lookt upon these New Philologers as Grammarians and Poets who amus'd themselves with Childish Toys and Vain Curiosities But the Humanists made themselves heard because they Writ Politely and by the Reading of the Ancients had learnt to Railly with a good Grace The Doctrine of Luther who arose a little while after fomented these Quarrels and made them more serious He was for Reforming Studies as well as Religion He was for having no Philosophy and no Prophane Sciences He was for Burning Plato Aristotle Cicero and all the Ancient Books that nothing might be Studied but the Scripture and all the remaining part of time spent in Hard-Labour Thus carrying the thing too high he exposed the most Holy Maxims of Antiquity to Censure The Resistance which he found among the Doctors of Divinity and the Censures of the Faculty of Paris and other Vniversities made him their Irreconcileable Enemy He treated them with the last degree of Contempt and Melancthon his Faithful Disciple imploy'd all his Wit and all his fine Learning to render them Ridiculous But the Reformers did not long continue in this their first Severity against Prophane Studies They soon became more Zealous in Studying Humanity seeing that Eloquence and an Opinion of their singular Learning had drawn a great many Followers to them They now lookt upon these Studies as a necessary Means towards the Reformation of the Church and would have this Restoration of Learning pass for a Principal Sign of the Will of God in this Matter It seemed if you wou'd have believed them as if this Knowledge of Languages and Histories which they had by constant Pains acquired was a certain Mark of an Extraordinary Mission and making them
much in these In the mean time the harshness of these first Lessons makes them for a long time disgust all Study We should have a great deal of Patience with them make them Read but a little at a time and insensibly increase as it becomes more easie to them and at the same time Teach them Histories or other Things which may divert them At first we make them Read in Latin because 't is pronounced more as it is Written than the French But I believe that the Pleasure a Child would have to understand what he should Read and to see the Fruit of his Labour would make him go on faster For this Reason I should presently give him some French Book which he might understand It easily appears that the same difficulties which there are in Learning to Read are also to be found in Latin and other Languages and that they continue longer There is also by the Custom of the Schools added to them another difficulty which is that of the Rules and all the Art of Grammar For tho' we are not accustomed to Learn Latin but with the Grammar nor the Grammar but in Latin or upon the Foundation of the Latin Grammar it is clear nevertheless that these are two different Studies since there is no Language which may not be Learnt by Use as likewise there is none which has not its Grammar I have shewed that this Method began at the time when Latin was the Vulgar Language and that the Greek Grammar which is the first which we know was made also by the Greeks Thus to imitate these Ancients whom we do with so much Reason esteem the Grammar should be Studied in our own Language before it be Studied in another Since this Study would consist onely in causing the Child to make Reflexions upon a Language which he already knows he would often take pleasure therein and the Difficulties which he should meet with would be less than they would be when added to those of Learning a Language There would be always this advantage that he might be made perfectly to understand all the Precepts by familiar Examples But I would not load him with over many Rules since the great Curiosity in Grammar consumes much time and is of no use You have perhaps labour'd a whole day to get by heart one Exception whereof probably you 'll have no use three times in all your Life I should content my self with the Principal Definitions and the most General Rules and should propose no more to my self than to Speak and Read well to observe a very exact Orthography in Writing to understand all that I Say and all that I Read as far as the Knowledge of the Tongue may conduce thereunto For this it would suffice to know the Divisions of the Letters the Parts of Speech and their Subdivisions and other things which I cannot mention in particular at least unless I should make a Grammar Now that these Precepts should not be dry and jejune as they are in Books I would render them sensible and pleasant by the way of Teaching them When a Child should have Read in his own Language for some time the things which he understood and wherein if possible he should take pleasure One would begin to make him observe that all that Writing consisted onely in Two and twenty Letters and that all the Large Discourses are Composed onely of Nine sorts of Words that there are two kinds of Articles that there are Genders in Nouns Tenses and Persons in Verbs Numbers both in the one and the other and thus of the rest As soon as he shall know how to Write a little you might cause him to digest those Histories which have been recited unto him and here the mean and improper Words the bad Constructions and the faults of Orthography should be Corrected He might be told the Rules of Etymologies and Taught many of them occasionally They serve very much for the Understanding the meaning of Words and Orthography and are diverting Thus by a few Precepts and a great deal of Exercise he might Learn in two or three years as much Grammar as a Gentleman need to have for the Use of Life and more than ordinarily they know who have been Eight or Ten years in the College The greatest part might stop here and Learn no other Language at all Sword-men Practicioners Accountants Merchants and all below these as also the greatest part of Women may let Latin alone Experience shews this But if they knew as much Grammar as I have said it would be very easie for them to use good French Books and the Translations of the Ancients and perhaps at last they might be disabused and not imagin That that Person must be a Fool who does not understand Latin 'T is true Latin is necessary for Clergy-men and Men of the Robe and that it is very useful for Souldiers tho' it was onely for their Travels and amongst Women to the Religious for understanding the Office which they Read But I believe it would be much more easie to Learn if it was not Embarassed with so many Rules of Grammar Not that I believe it should be Taught by use alone though there have been some examples of it even in our time but the Method of doing this is not sufficiently established to propose it to the World Add to this that whatever habit of Speaking Children might have I should scarce believe that it would continue constant in a Language which is not continually used without the help of Rules 'T is true we have an Example in the Jews who Teach their Children Hebrew without any Rule and make them very knowing therein but this is with a very long time Let us therefore rather make use of Rules provided that they do assist and not over-burthen Children Now if they know them in their own Language the rest will be very easie It will be onely making them observe what is different in the Latin Language The want of Articles the Declension of Nouns the Passive in Verbs the Liberty of placing the Words differently and the like This for the most part onely would be Exceptions from the General Rules which they had learnt To Conclude They should be continually exercised in Reading some Author which they understood with Pleasure if it might be and they should be Taught the Rules much rather by use than the strength of Memory though it should not be forgotten also to cause them to get things by heart That which will best Imprint them upon their Minds will be Composing but yet it must not be begun so soon nor continued so long as Reading which ought to be their Chief Exercise and continue during the whole course of their Studies For there is this Advantage in Grammar and the Study of Languages that being as Instruments he who has once Learnt them will confirm himself therein proportionably as he shall use them Because the Books wherein he Learns things are Compounded of
often change yet they who have known them once will not be so much to seek especially if they be once well told why some Commodities are so dear in respect of others and the most ordinary Causes of the Change of Price I should also desire that a young Man be soon instructed either by Experience or an exact Relation in all that is necessary for Travel This is the Study which I call Aeconomicks It easily appears that I do not pretend to make it a Study in Form or that it should be learn'd by Books It might be learn'd by Conversation and Practice and would be not so much the Office of a Master as the care of a good Father or an affectionate Tutor Other Studies would assist it and it would help them To Exercise the Rules of Arithmetick the young Person might make up the Accounts and keep a Register of Receipts and Expences which is so necessary a Practice to every Man who has any thing to take care of that it is recommended in Scripture it self In Human Authors as Cicero and Virgil it may be observed to them how much the Romans did then esteem Husbandry and a diligent application to their Domestick Affairs This might be seen more in those Authors which treat of Country Businesses as Cato and Columella and in some Books of the Law The young Romans must needs have been very soon fit to Act and manage their Affairs since at Fourteen Years they were out of Tuition were accounted grown Men at Eighteen and took their Place and argued freely before the Magistrates As for the Greeks the Aeconomicks of Xenophon Aristophanes Theocritus Hesiod and Homer do shew that they busied themselves very much within their Houses in Management and all kind of Husbandry and that the Richest and most Civilized Persons did then make that their business and delight which at this day is looked upon as the Lot of the miserable The Authority of these great Names and the Consent of such Excellent Writings might give Noble Ideas of all even the most common things of Life This also might make the Scholar much more capable of profiting even by the Holy Scripture seeing that all which is accounted so mean and dull came from the simple and solid Manners of that wise Antiquity when no Person disdain'd to Labour more than he did to Eat And this I think I have shewn in the Manners of the Israelites But whether the Scholar shall read these Authors or the Master relate to him what they say I would have him careful to make all things very sensible and refer all to our own Country Usage and Custom Let us leave it to the Grammarians by Profession curiously to inquire after all the Plants which Virgil names and the Description of all the Instruments of Agriculture which Hesiod mentions Let us only take occasion from what they say to make our Scholar understand that which at present is done in our Country and let us not be discouraged if they use some word which we may not understand provided that we know our way of Management as well as they did theirs AS for the Law since it depends less upon the imagination and has more Reasoning in it we should wait till the Mind be more accustomed to attend and the Judgment be form'd that is till Thirteen or Fourteen Years and till our Scholar be towards the end of his Studies Nevertheless it is much more easie to make this sensible and agreeable than it is Philosophy which is the ordinary Study at this Age especially after this Foundation of Aeconomicks of which I have spoken it would be a great deal more easie You may suppose that by skill in the Law I do not here understand that long and difficult Study which makes Lawyers by Profession and which contains the Knowledge not only of all the Laws that are used in a Country upon any subject whatsoever but of all that also which serves to explain and apply them to particular Matters I only speak here of those Studies which are necessary to all Men of ingenuous Birth Thus as to Law I only understand that which every private Person is obliged to know of it in order to keep what he has and to do nothing against the Laws Every one is thus far obliged by the Laws themselves which presume that all Citizens are instructed therein since they impute the Ignorance of them as a Fault and Punish it either by the loss of Goods if they have failed to observe the Laws in getting or preserving them or by more severe Punishments if this Ignorance has betray'd them to some Crime Nevertheless no care is taken to instruct young Persons in them except those who are designed for the Gown and questionless it will be thought strange that I desire this should be done But to examine things without Prejudice this Study is as useful at least as Philosophy which they are Taught and is not more difficult But Philosophy it may be said Exercises the Minds of young Persons and makes them subtle So will also the subtleties of Law by which the Principal points will be better understood But 't is feared that they would be tired should they be told of the Vsus fructus and Propriety of the difference betwixt the right of Heir-ship and Bodies Hereditary betwixt the parts Individible and the parts Divised although solid effects of all these distinctions may be shown to them Is it not to be feared likewise least the Universals the Categories the Infinite in Act and in Power and the Entia rationis should put them out of Humour In short the knowledge of Right whether pleasant or not is necessary to all who live under the same Laws This Study would be very easie if we had certain and fix'd Laws as the Romans had those of the Twelve Tables the Athenians those of Solon the Hebrews those of Moses or rather of God A Man should need only to read these Laws to know his Duty But it is not thus a great deal of Experience is required to distinguish in the large Volumes of the Edicts of our Kings those which are observed from those which are not Customs speak not but of certain Matters We follow a great many Rules of the Roman Law the greatest part of which nevertheless is not received at least not into the number of our Customs Our Law therefore being so mixed and so uncertain there is great need of Study to understand it I mean to have such an indifferent knowledge of it as is to be supposed in private Persons For to know it exactly it is the Study of a Man's whole Life Now this indifferent Knowledge thereof necessary to all I make to consist in these things First in understanding the Terms ordinarily used in speaking of Business and which we meet with in the Ordinances Customs and other Law Books as fief Censive propres acquest déguerpir garantir and all the rest which are not
are there which never were Writ in Latin Even in the Discourses which we think we understand best there are certain Elegancies which we cannot Relish as those which Aulus Gellius observes in some places of Cicero and Virgil. And if it be almost impossible to Learn even the Living Languages which are not Natural to us in the utmost Perfection What can be hoped as to those which subsist onely in Books But our Comfort is that it would be useless to know them better We have no need of Latin but for understanding Books or for making our selves understood by Strangers As to Books we can understand no more than is Written and to make our selves understood by Strangers we should Speak Latin much after the same rate that they do Nevertheless I would not Imitate the Germans and Polanders who make no Scruple of using the baldest Latin provided that they speak it easily But yet I would more carefully avoid the Affectation of some Learned Men who striving to speak Latin very finely are hard to be understood I should rather chuse to speak worse and be better understood I would then Accommodate my Style to the capacity of the Generality of the Learned without neglecting it so that it should be Barbarous or taking such pains about it that it should be obscure Above all I would have the Character of Books observed and not have the Jests or Proverbs which Plautus makes his Slaves speak put into a Treatise of Divinity or any other serious Matter nor into a Familiar Letter Poetical Phrases and Lofty Figures taken out of Cicero's Philippicks These Advices are necessary since the vanity of some of our Modern Learned Men has given occasion for them in respect of all these Indecencies They often also mix Greek Words in their Latin Writings wherein in my opinion they do themselves no great honour since this is silently to confess that they know not how to express in Latin that which they say in Greek for he cannot be said to know a Language well who knows not therein how to express what he will at least by a Circumlocution besides thus to interrupt the Discourse by Words which make the Readers lose what follows is to insult over them if they know not Greek But if I should be necessitated to insert a Greek or an Hebrew or any word of another Language into a Latin Discourse I should always Write it in Latin Letters that I might not puzle my Reader THE Second of these Useful Studies is History But seeing it is difficult for one Man to Read all those we have of all Times and all Countries and it is not convenient that many Persons should wholly imploy themselves in this sort of Reading there is need of Choice and Order in this as much or more than in any other Study He who as is usual shall think it enough to Read at a venture the first Book of History which shall come to his hands will be in danger of charging his Memory with a great many Fables or of retaining nothing for want of Understanding that which he Reads Some Principles therefore should be given to young Men for discerning what Histories will be useful to them and how they may Read them Profitably But to doe this well the Foundations of this Study should be laid from their Infancy For though Novelty be a great Charm in History yet nothing is more ungrateful than to find nothing therein but what is New to see therein nothing that you know not so much as one Place or one Person The History of China is full of great Occurrencies and rare Examples of Vertue yet because we never have heard any thing of Jao nor of Chimtamyou and even the latest Geography of this great Country is not at all familiar to us This History at the first especially is very tedious to us The Memory is continually in Labour When we find a proper Name we know not whether we have already seen it or no or we remember that we have seen it but we have forgotten what it is or take a Country for a Man or a Man for a Woman we see not the Interest which one had to Love or Hate another In short the Mind is opprest with so many Novelties all at once that it is in continual pain On the contrary when a Man who has studied but a little Reads Herodotus or Titus Livius he meets every where with what he knows the greatest Objects are familiar to him He has all his Life long heard Men talk of Cyrus of Croesus of Rome and Carthage But he sees a great many particulars which he had no knowledge of and 't is this knowledge which makes his Reading pleasant to him because he knows whither to refer what he Learns and because he labours not to understand or retain the Principal matters The trouble is much more to them who have no Learning at all accordingly they complain for the most part of their ill Memory But they ought rather to complain of their ill Education which makes the Greek or Roman History almost as troublesom to them as that of the Chinese or Musul-men is to those who have gon through the more ordinary Studies Yet there is here a great difference for there are few among us who have not heard of Alexander Caesar and Charlemaign But who except some few who are curious knows any thing of Almamon or Ginguiscan We cannot begin too soon to Teach Children the Principles of History At the same time when we Acquaint them with the Matters of Fact which serve as a Foundation to the Instructions concerning Religion we should also relate unto them those which are the most considerable surprising pleasant and easie to be remembred in Prophane History Those rather than others should be chosen which strike the Imagination Romulus's Wolf The Death of Lucretia The Sacking of Rome by the Gauls The Triumph of Pompey or that of Paulus Aemylius The Death of Caesar And if they could have a Sight of Medals Statues or Pictures the Images of them would be more lively and be imprinted deeper in the Memory This doubtless is the greatest use of Painting and Engraving and it was a great advantage to the Ancient Greeks that they might Learn History even without Reading only by walking about in their Cities For wheresoever they turn'd their Eyes they found either Imbossed Works or Excellent Pictures in their Temples in their Publick Halls which Represented Battels and other Famous Events or the Statues of Illustrious Men whose Countenances resembled the Originals and whose Habit and Posture denoted what was the occasion of their Advancement Even in the Countrey it self there were to be seen Trophies Tombs and Pyramids which were as so many Monuments of History Great care also there should be to acquaint children with a great many proper Names of Men and Places that they might soon be familiar to them and excite their Curiosity Especially I would mention
those to them which make the greatest Figure in the History of the World Sesostris Ninus Nabucodonosor Cyrus Hercules Achilles Homer Lycurgus and the Romans proportionably But I would joyn thereto the Names of Modern History which yet are usually much less spoken of to Children William the Conquerour Godfrey of Boüillon Sancho the Great King of Navarre and all the other who have been most Famous these Six hundred years Neither would I altogether omit even the Orientals I would have a Child to have heard some talk of the Cailiffs of Bagdad and Cairo of the great Power of the Turks and that of the Moguls their Names would not appear to them so Barbarous afterwards if they were accustomed to them betimes They should also make use of Geographical Maps for the Names of Places which also they might learn according to the difference of all Times and all Languages as far as may be In the beginning of these Instructions I would not confine my self to any order of Dates or Chronology but follow the Curiosity of Children as occasion should be given to recount to them all these Names and Actions The Matter of History being thus prepared I would begin to put it into order as soon as my Scholar should be Ten or Twelve years old I would then make him observe the Epochs which are used in the reckoning of time The Olympiades the Foundation of Rome Alexander the Incarnation the Mahometan Hegira But I would not Embarass him with an Exact Chronology nor oblige him to Retain the meer Simple Dates for this requires a great Effort of Memory I would also carefully abstain from speaking to him of the Julian Period and I would not use even the years of the Creation of the World for 't is very Difficult not to say Impossible to fix them and besides they are not of great Use since to the Times of the Foundation of Rome and the Olympiades which are the same almost there scarce is any History but the Sacred The Succession of which I should be satisfied if he knew well according to the ordinary Epochs of the Flood of Abraham Moses and Solomon without concerning himself much about the Total Sum of Years which cannot without much difficulty be drawn into a Sum And unto those Persons and Occurrencies which are most known to us I would have him to refer that little of Prophane History which there is in these times Danaus and Cecrops to Moses Cadmus to Joshua Homer to the Prophet Elias leaving the Care of Computing the years of the World to those who have Leisure and Curiosity to Study Chronology more profoundly Moreover I would often Repeat unto him certain General Observations which render the Study of History more short more easie and more useful You must know would I say to him that we have not the Histories of all Times nor of all Countries There have always been a great many ignorant Nations and of those who have Written there are very few whose Books we know All the Histories of the Ancient Orientals of the Egyptians Syrians Chaldeans and Persians are perished and the most Ancient which we have except that of God's People is the History of Herodotus which was not Written till about Two thousand years after the Flood and Twelve hundred after Moses To the Time of JESVS CHRIST we have scarce any Books but those of the Greeks and Romans wherein are Recorded any Histories which are certain and worthy of Belief more Ancient than the Foundation of Rome For Five hundred years after JESVS CHRIST you have onely one History to follow which is the Roman But after the Ruin of the Western Empire Spain France Italy and England Composed each of them their particular History To which must be added those of Germany Hungary Poland Sweedland and Denmark proportionably according to the time when they began Nevertheless all these Histories may be referr'd to that of France because the Empire of Charlemaign Comprehended the Greatest part of these Countries and in others he was so Respected that the People accounted it their honour to imitate the Manners of his Subjects Whence it is that the Levantines comprise all the Nations I have mentioned under the Name of Franks This is the Succession of the History which is most known to us except you will add thereunto the Byzantine History which we have for Two hundred years As for that of the Musulmen which contains all that hath passed for a Thousand years in Egypt Syria Persia Africa and all the other Countries where the Mahometan Religion is spread we are ignorant of it to this day The Reason of this is not as is commonly believed because the Mahometans have Written nothing or because their Books are lost for there is as much of their History alone as would make a whole Library but their Books are neither Printed nor Translated excepting two or three which go about in the hands of the Curious We know also that the Chinese have a Long Succession of History whereof we have had in Latin an Abridgment about Thirty years since We know that the Indians have very Ancient Traditions Written in a particular Language We know something of the History of Mexico and the Incaes which yet doth not rise very high And within these Two hundred years we have had an infinite number of Relations of several Voyages This is all that we know of Histories We see how little it is in comparison with the whole Compass of the Earth and all Successions of Ages yet nevertheless as little as it is 't is too much for one single Man So that it is in this Study especially we should chuse carefully and limit our selves First we ought to know what to hold to as to the beginnings of each History that we may not give credit to Fables which affect to advance too high The surest Rule is to look upon all that as Suspicious which precedes the time when each Nation received the use of Letters Besides the Quality and the Times of the Historians should be diligently observ'd It may be said in general that no Histories deserve credit but of those who have Written of their own Times or of those who have Collected out of such Historians whose Books by a Successive Tradition may have been delivered down to us But when there are Interruptions in an History and large obscure Vacuities all that went before ought to be suspected I should content my self with this Order and these General Rules for Universal History and oblige my Scholar to have a more special insight into the particular History of his own Country Furthermore This Study should be very differently extended or contracted according to the Quality of Persons A Man of indifferent condition needs but a very little History He who is likely to have some share in Publick Affairs should know a great deal more thereof and a Prince cannot know too much The History of his own Country makes him see his own
or Fifteen or later as his Understanding and Leisure will permit the more solid Rules of true Eloquence may be made known unto him I do not propose this Study as necessary because one may be a good Man and also expert to such a degree without being Eloquent as also because Eloquence depends at least as much upon Nature as Study It must nevertheless be confest that it is of great use and that ordinarily it makes the most important and difficult Affairs to succeed well For here by Eloquence or Rhetorick I do not understand what is generally understood thereby by abusing a word which Pedants and Declamers have brought into disrepute I do not I say understand that which enables Men to make Ceremonious Harangues and other such-like Studied Discourses which tickle the Ear for the present but usually do nothing but raise Disturbances I understand hereby the Art of perswading effectually whether a Man speaks in Private or in Publick I mean that which makes one Advocate to carry more Causes than another one Preacher Humanly speaking to Convert more Souls one Magistrate to have a greater sway in the Debates of his Company one Agent to make a more advantageous Treaty for his Prince one Minister of State to Govern more in his Counsels than another In a word That which makes a Man become Master of other Men's Minds by Speech I know well that they who succeed in the greatest Affairs have more of natural Parts and Experience than Study but I doubt not but that Study would be very useful to them They would have never the less of those fine natural accomplishments and that great Experience And yet over and besides they would have some more certain Rules and the Examples of the greatest Men of Antiquity A Prince or Minister of State who should be so well Educated as to be from his Youth well acquainted with Cicero Demosthenes and Thucydides would find great pleasure in Reading them over again when he comes to the Age of Maturity and receive great benefit from them But these Authors usually become useless and are despised for want of fit Readers They are Read to Children who would not understand even in French such-like Discourses for want of Experience in the World and attention unto Matters of Moment Or if they be Read by Men they are the Learned by Profession as Regents Priests and Religious who are Sequestered from the World and are fill'd with Ideas quite different from those which imploy'd the Thoughts of these Authours Cicero and Demosthenes were Men brought up in the World and in Business They Rose by their Merit much above their Birth which yet was honest according to the Custom of their Nation and they arrived to the greatest Power they could have in their Commonwealths Cicero was Consul that is for the space of a Year he was at the Head of an Empire as large as Twelve such as any we now see in Europe He Governed a Province he Commanded Troops he was equal in Dignity to Caesar and Pompey Kings Courted him Yet because we have read these Authors at School we often retain a very unbecoming Idea of them because we know that they Pleaded Causes we take them for such Advocates as Ours are and do not consider that Caesar Pleaded also and might have disputed Eloquence with Cicero himself Besides we see many who Study them all their Lives without becoming thereby more fit for the World and Business and we do not Reflect that these Persons seek for nothing in them but Language and Figures of Rhetorick which they often imitate very wretchedly they seek nothing less in them than the way of managing great Affairs The more things the Scholar shall know and the more his Reason shall be Form'd the more capable he will be of this Study of Eloquence For it only gives the Form to Discourses good Sense and Experience must furnish the Matter I should therefore wait till the young Man should have Thoughts and be able to say something of himself before I would Teach him the Way and Manner of speaking First I would secure Morality and give him to understand as soon as he should be capable that Eloquence is a good accomplishment being only the perfection of Speech That as Speech is given Us only that we may speak the Truth Eloquence is given to make this Truth esteemed and to hinder it from being stifled by the ill Artifices of those who oppose it or the bad Disposition of them who hear it That it is to abuse Eloquence to make it serve Interests and Passions though Cicero and the greatest part of Orators have made this use of it That its regular use is to perswade Men to that which is truly good and especially that which may make them better Painting out to them the horrour of Vice and Beauty of Vertue in lively Colours as the Prophets and the Fathers of the Church have done This is what I call the Morality of Eloquence The Art consists in knowing how to Speak and Write well upon all occasions of Life not only in publick Actions as those Harangues which are made only to comply with some certain Formalities but in the more ordinary Debates about Business and in simple Conversations in knowing how to give a relation of any Matter to Write a Letter All this is Matter of Eloquence proportionably as the Subject requires it To shew him the Secret of it I would Principally use Examples and Exercise The Examples might be taken out of Cicero or Demosthenes according as the Scholar should be acquainted with these Languages If he knew no Latin the Translations of Cicero might be recommended to him or some good Modern Book as the Cardinal D' Ossat's Letters which are full of solid Eloquence by which he had Success in Business These Examples would give substance and pleasure to the Precepts For naked Precepts given in general would always be Dry and Barren and as St. Augustin says one of good natural parts would acquire Eloquence rather by hearing Eloquent Discourses than by Studying Precepts of Eloquence He will thus gain by all sorts of Reading He will every where find Examples of that which he ought to follow and avoid and this Exercise would settle his Judgment For he must be accustomed to Judge of what he Reads to give a Reason why he thinks it good or bad These Reasons make up the whole Art of Rhetorick which has been Form'd upon Examples by observing what did effectually perswade and what was prejudicial to Perswasion and making Rules thereupon to the end that they might not talk meerly at a venture but by Rule and Discretion Not only Reading but Conversations and the most common Discourses of Life are good Lessons of Eloquence These living and familiar Examples might render it more solid and real than Books and all that which smells of the School can It is therefore adviseable to learn a young Man how
Poetry in Theory and the Reading of the ancient Poets Not but that a Man if he knows them well may profit thereby especially by the Greeks But to read them with pleasure a Man should so well know their Language their Mythology and their Manners 〈◊〉 that the profit or the pleasure which would come thereby seems to me not worth all this Toil considering that there are so many things besides that are necessary to be known To Poetry I joyn Musick I do not mean only the Exercise of Singing and the Rules for Managing the Voice but the Art and Principles of these Rules With these also I joyn Painting Designing and all the Arts which depend thereon I put also amongst the number of Curious Studies all those parts of Mathematicks which go beyond the Elements of Arithmetick and Geometry Herein I count Perspective Opticks Astronomy the Theory of the Planets Exactness in Chronology The inquiry after Antiquities as Medals and Inscriptions The Reading of Travels The Study of Languages For excepting Latin the rest may be Rank'd amongst the Curiosities Not but that the Greek may be very useful to all who desire to be well skill'd in Philology principally to Clergy-men The Italian and the Spanish are so nearly Ally'd to the French that as little as our Genius lies towards Languages we ought not to neglect them As for other strange Languages as the English and German there is nothing but particular profit which can countervail the difficulty of Learning them But the most dangerous Curiosity of this kind is that of the Oriental Languages It Flatters our Vanity as being singular and having something prodigious in it Besides it denotes a profound Learning because these Languages are not ordinarily Learn'd but after those which are more common But in Truth its usefulness is not so great as to pay for the time and trouble which it costs As whole Nations reap Advantage from the Courage and Curiosity of some few Travellers who have discovered the most remote Countries and from the industry of the Merchants who daily Trafick therein So 't is sufficient that some few of the Curious by their Translations and Extracts should let us know the Books of the Arabians Persians and other Orientals Curiosity goes much beyond the extent of the Memory or even of Life it self and amongst the Curious themselves it is to be wish'd that each of them would limit himself to one Language that he might know it well or at most to two or three which have a great Connexion betwixt one another rather than to have an imperfect Knowledge of a great number of them I except the Hebrew Language in respect to the Holy Scripture which 't is hard well to understand without having some Tincture thereof And I account it very advantageous to the Church that there are always several Clergy-men who understand it if it was for no other Reason but to silence the Hereticks who think to Fortifie themselves thereby and to Labour in the Conversion of the Jews in those Countries where they are But excepting the necessity of this Controversie I would not oblige my self to Read many Rabbins There is more to be lost than gotten by this Study Let us not suffer our selves to be deceived by the Vanity of knowing that which all others are ignorant of let us consider what use it is really of If there should be any thing useful in the Rabbins it would be the Matters of Fact and Traditions of their ancient Customs of their Nation But they are for the most part so Modern that 't is very difficult to believe that they have preserved these Traditions There are scarce any of them older than Five Hundred Years so that though the Talmud should have been Written but a Thousand Years ago there would still be Five Hundred Years wherein these Traditions must have been preserved without Writing A thing which is scarce probable The Time and the Style of their Books seem to shew that they Writ only in Emulation of the Mahometans Nevertheless if any one have so much inclination for this kind of Study as to give himself wholly up to it I would have him to confine himself chiefly to the Talmud where he will doubtless find their most ancient and profitable Traditions for the knowledge of the Manners of the Jews principally after their return out of Captivity to their intire dispersion under the Romans But this Labour is too painful and unpleasant to invite many Men to undertake it Another Curious Study which yet may be very useful is the Theory of the different Trades and Manufactures In this Rank also I place the Knowledge of Plants not only such as are useful but of all that has been said of them and likewise of Animals and all natural History proportionably The Experiments of Chymistry or of other Arts whereby new Secrets have been discovered The different Systems which the Philosophers have invented for the Explaining the effects of Nature That is to say in a word all Physicks or natural Philosophy I call all this Curiosity It is better to be busied therein than to be Idle or devote ones self to Play But a Man ought to be very cautious on the other Hand that he doth not so deliver himself up to Curiosities as to quit the Essential Duties of Life as to neglect Business and more useful Studies though less pleasant as to deprive himself of Bodily Exercise which preserves his Health or of necessary Diversion for unbending the Mind and putting it into a condition of applying it self to more useful things It is this Passion of Curiosity which doth most harm to Learned Men though otherwise it often conduces to the carrying on certain pieces of Knowledge very far But for this end 't is sufficient that some private Men suffer themselves to be Transported with this Passion I Put a great deal of difference betwixt those Curiosities which are laudable and good in themselves and those Studies which are bad or altogether useless I had rather a Man should do nothing than seek after the Philosopher's Stone I had rather he should be ignorant than know the great or the little Art of Raymund Lully which makes a Man to know nothing truly and yet to believe that he knows every thing because he knows the Alphabets and Tables wherein under certain Words and Figures are placed Notions so general which none can be ignorant of even without Study and which also lead to nothing In this Rank likewise I place every thing that deceives under the Name of Philosophy The Physicks which give a Man no knowledge of Nature The Metaphysicks which doth not at all conduce to the inlightening the Mind and do not lay down the great and Fundamental Principles of the Sciences Judiciary Astrology is still more despicable than bad Philosophy seeing it has less appearance of Reason And it is much more dangerous because its Design is to know what is to come and engages Men
to be very well skill'd in Logick and Metaphysick such as I have represented them that he may be able to Demonstrate by Solid Reasons that every Man of Good Sense ought to submit himself to the Authority of the Catholick Church He should also be capable to defend Religion against the Hereticks and for this end to know the positive Proofs of our Belief drawn from the Scripture the Councils or the Fathers He should know Ecclesiastical History the Canon-Law not onely the Practical Beneficial and that which is curious in the ancient Canons but also the true Rules of Ecclesiastical Discipline upon which all that is Practical is founded and how that which is not practised has been abolished He should know Christian Morality in all its extent not contenting himself only with the Decisions of Modern Casuists concerning what is Sin and what is not But he should proceed further and see how the Fathers have judged thereof and also be acquainted with their Method of Teaching Vertue and guiding Souls to Perfection This is what we will find in Cassian and the Monastick Rules A great esteem ought to be had of these Works which are the Product of so many Holy Experiences Lastly He should know the Ceremonies of the Publick Office the Administration of the Sacraments the Practice of all Ecclesiastical Functions But this Study consists not so much in Reading of Books as in the observation of Living Tradition When once he has the Great Principles of Scripture and the Fathers he will be much instructed by seeing the Labours of others and by labouring himself together with them Seeing that a Clergyman is designed to instruct others it is not enough for him to know all that I have mentioned he must also know how to Speak and Perswade He therefore stands in need of that sort of Logick and that solid Eloquence I have spoken of For let us not deceive our selves a Man without Gifts is not proper for the Ministry of the Church A good Priest is not onely a Man who Prays unto God and leads an Innocent Life such an one at most is no more than a good Monk He is a Priest to assist others and as he is not accounted a good Physician who doth not heal a great many Diseases neither is he to be called a good Priest who doth not Convert a great many Sinners I do not say that none ought to be made Priests but such as have a florid Imagination an happy Memory a pleasant Voice and such like qualities which usually make Preachers Famous but I should desire that there were not any who have not a Solid Judgment and a right way of Reasoning who should not know how to Instruct both in Publick and in Private with all the Sweetness and Authority which the difference of Subjects and Persons do require In a word who should not have some Ray of that Apostolick Eloquence the perfect Model of which we have in St. Paul A Clergy-man unto whom so many Pieces of Knowledge are necessary should not lose his time in Prophane Studies or useless Curiosities He should also use great choice in the Studies appertaining to his Profession Let him not bestow too much time upon those Large Commentaries on Scripture the sight of which alone is enough to terrifie by the Bigness and Multitude of the Volumes and to make one despair of ever understanding the Text Let him not amuse himself with useless Speculations and the vain Wranglings of the School-men Let him not suffer himself to be Transported too far with the humour of Criticizing upon matters of Fact and Inquiring too Curiously into Ecclesiastical Antiquities for there are all these Rocks to be avoided even in the Studies which belong unto him He ought always to remember that the Christian Religion is not an Humane Art or Science wherein every one is permitted to seek and invent that his business is onely to Collect and faithfully preserve the Tradition of the Church He should Meditate Attentively upon those Rules which St. Paul gives to Timothy and Titus against Curious Questions that he may avoid Vain Disputes and referr all to Charity Thus he will fix his Mind on those Studies which are necessary and which relate the most to Practice For a Clergy-man should not be a professedly Learned Man who spends all his Life in his Closet in Studying and Composing Books He is to be a Man of Action and above all of Prayer These are the two parts of the Apostolick Life Prayer and Ministry of the Word He should therefore every day spend a considerable time in Conversing with God for the cleansing himself from those Spots which he has contracted by action and intercourse with Men for representing unto him his own needs and those of the whole Church We ought to give unto our Neighbour all that assistance which we owe unto him according to the Place we have in the Church and the particular occasions which Charity shall present Study is to be the business of our Youth and in the rest of our Lives only our Rest and Diversion usefully to fill up the Intervals of Action When you shall find your self Tired by Visiting the Sick or the Poor by the Administration of Sacraments or Instruction When you shall perceive you Voice weakened your Breast heated you 'll find a great pleasure in Reading some Good Passage of the Fathers or Ecclesiastical History in Meditating calmly upon some place of Scripture or in hearing the Conversation of a Learned and Pious Friend These are the Divertisements proper for Clergy-men WE now come to the Sword-men These are the Men who ordinarily Study the least and yet there are two Reasons of Studying which are peculiar to them A Man who is naturally brave fierce and inclin'd to courageous Actions whose Birth or Imploy heightens his Courage who has his Arms in his hand and Men under him ready to obey without asking a Reason This Man is in a capacity of exercising all sorts of Violence and if he be wicked or only Passionate and Humoursome he is insufferable to all the rest of Mankind He is a Lyon let loose he is an Armed Madman It is therefore of great moment that they whose Inclination and Profession do put them into so dangerous a Condition should have a great deal of Reason and Power over themselves to the end that they may use their Courage and Strength only for the Publick Good and against the Enemies of the State It would be better that the House should not be Guarded at all than that it should be kept by Dogs who without distinction should fall upon those who belong to the House as well as upon the Thieves The other Reason is the great Idleness which usually attends a Soldiers Life He knows not what to do when in Garrison in Winter Quarters in a place where he must stay any time when his Wounds are under Cure and oblige him to think of them
for a while Happy then is he if he have a Book and can take pleasure in Reading Further I doubt not but that many more Soldiers would love Study if they knew or did consider that Alexander and Caesar were very Learned and that Ignorance joyned to Valour never produced any other than Brutal Conquerours and Destroyers of Mankind as the Turks and Tartars Now the Studies which seem to me most proper for Sword-men are these Amongst the Tongues the Latin yet rather for the conveniency of Travel than for Reading And upon this account they should be able to speak it if not Elegantly yet at least Fluently With this Tongue a Man may Travel all over the North it supplying the place of several others Nevertheless 't is very fit they should know the German Tongue and the sooner they learn it 't will be the better When they shall be once well acquainted with the Latin they 'll easily learn Italian and Spanish Thus in what Country soever they may have been born they will understand the Neighbouring-Languages which are the most necessary They should know a great many Histories The Ancient to see therein the Examples of Great Captains Greek and Roman to know as particularly as may be that Military Discipline and that Art of War which made them so strong above other Men. The Modern History will give them a Knowledge of the present State of Affairs and their Original the Right of the Prince whom they serve and the Interests of other Soveraigns Geography also is very necessary for them and as for the Countries especially where they make War they cannot know them too particularly nor have a too exact Topography of them As to the Mathematicks they chiefly need Arithmetick Geometry and Mechanicks for knowing these well they 'll easily apprehend the practice of Fortifications and all that either Books or Masters use to Teach concerning the Art of War But there is one Study which Sword-men seldom undertake and which yet to me seems very necessary at least to those who are in Command and that is the Policy and Law of War I mean that they should know the Jus belli or Right of War in all its extent as What are the lawful causes thereof What Formalities ought to be observed for the beginning of it How far Acts of Hostility should proceed What Places and Persons are exempt therefrom In a Word all that which respects this part of Publick Right the Execution of which is committed to them They should be well-inform'd of the Edicts of their Prince and the particular Regulations for the Subsistence and Discipline of the Troops and above all they should know the Rules of those severe Judgments which must be executed against Desertion and other Military Crimes The rest of the Art of War which is the most Essential part of it cannot be Learn'd by Books or Lectures for it depends upon the Exercise of Body upon Conversation with Persons Experienced in the Trade and upon the actual Service of him who would be Instructed therein But if he be well Educated if he be early accustomed to seek after what is real and solid in all things to make Reflection upon every thing he sees and put useful Questions to all sorts of People he 'll know more of it in Two Campaigns than others in Ten. War is a more serious Mystery than young Men who ingage in it do represent it to themselves who very often seek nothing else thereby but Libertinism and Pleasure To conclude The better Born he is who is Instructed therein the more extensive ought his Knowledge to be He who is likely to be no more than a simple Officer or to Command only particular Parties should be much better acquainted with little particularities and much less with general things than he who probably will one day Govern Provinces or Command Armies And this Rule is common to all Professions The higher a Man is brought up the more Objects his Sight takes in at a time to see their Order in general but he is less concern'd to know every Object exactly than another Man who is near it and sees but one such at a time THE Men of the Gown have truly more need of Learning than the Sword-Men but yet they ought not to burthen themselves with it over much They are design'd for Business and are to Study only to make themselves capable thereof They are therefore to avoid that Studious Spirit opposite to the Spirit of Business which only hunts after the Pleasure of knowing or the Glory of being reputed Learned They are to inquire after the middle betwixt the Scholastical Knowledge of the Law-Doctors and the gross ignorance of the meer Practitioners For these are as I may say two Nations altogether different The Doctors ordinarily are concern'd to know how to supply Antinomies and Solutions for the Reception of an Officer or for any other Dispute To understand the Laws of the Code and the Digest which are most remarkable for their difficulty or else to give a new Explication of them To restore some Passage To Explain a difficult Word To discover in some Author of Humanity some piece of Antiquity or Law To reduce the Law into Order by new Divisions To find out some singular Method In the mean time they do not apply themselves enough to the Custom of France It has been observed that Cujacias himself was very ignorant in Business On the other side the Practitioners know nothing but the Retail of that which they Practise without Ascending higher than Twenty or Thirty Years they may have spent in Business and without looking further than the Jurisdiction under which they Practise without knowing the Original or Reason of any thing They only say this is done and this is not done not knowing again that which has changed its Name They understand neither how to put things together to divide nor place them in Order In a word they Work like Artisans who for their Art have nothing to alledge but the Example of their Master To this ignorance of Practitioners we owe the Style of the Law-Proceedings in Matters of Bargain and Sale of Royal Letters of the Edicts themselves and Customs which are for the most part Digested with so little Method and Perspicuity But the greatest Evil which comes from thence is the Wrangling and Confusion in Business The Study therefore of Lawyers has for its end the furnishing them with the great Principles of the most ordinary Matters of Business and inlightening their Minds that they may treat of these Matters naturally so entangled and obscure with Order and Distinctness So that the Gentlemen of the Robe have great need of Logick that they may know how to divide and define well not according to Mathematical Exactness but so far as may be useful to the better carrying on of Business They have need of Arithmetick Oeconomicks and a great knowledge of all the particulars of Life of the Management of