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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	new_a	testament_n	write_v	6,542	5	5.9777	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42610	A censure upon Lilly's Grammar wherein, besides a discourse on the reason of education, are shewn : the contradictions, falsities and false words, omissions, repetitions, superfluous rules, and misplaced words in our grammar / by R.G., formerly of the Free-School in New-Castle.	R. G. (Richard Gower); Garthwaite, Richard, 1621 or 2-1690.	1684 (1684)	Wing G51; ESTC R18350	30,394	114

in the New Testament in a morning should any question the truth hereof the young Gentleman is not far remote While I write this I am credibly inform'd that in the late times Dr. Tully taught School in Glocestershire after this method and did far outstrip other Masters Neither know I any difficulty in practising this method even in a Free School were there authority for it I am sure they would have like benefit if not with advantage to what a private Master can make for good Masters f Magni interest quos quisque audiat quo tidie domi quibuscun loquatur à puero Cic. like a rich soil will make the plant of a taller growth 32. And as we hav so many famous Schools in our Land I wonder how it is that runagate rabble suoque simillima coelo g At Emollit gentes elementia coeli com so thick in among us having more need themselvs to be taught English and our Royal Grammar than to be Masters these are the pest of our Country by these have our Boys their learning so mangled that in Free-Schools we are forc'd to make a seat of every one sent from those petty places 33. By the former method a Child might be taught almost without a Book in one year playing which noble things if we made our aim and brought to pass we should leav no room for those pedling merchants to possess or insinuate into the heart of an English man but rather if they will like Hornets swarm in among us we should imploy them as Gibeonites 34. When Latin were thus understood they might procede in their Studies and in a little time it would appear what peculiar gifts of nature they were endued with and if there were any secret excellency h A puero adamaram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cic. ad Fr. Q. l. 3. Ep. 5. among them it would be fetched out and a fair opportunity be given to advance it self by which must greatly redound to the good of this Nation and bring even into fashion the old admired vertues with much improvment i Sic honor nomen divinis vatibus a que Carminibus venit post hos insignis Homerus Tyrtaeusqut mares animos in Martià bella Versibus exacuit Hor. now in this purity of Christian knowledge 35. Neither should we need the Mounsieurs of Paris to take those flowrs of our Country into their sleight and prodigal keeping and send them back again transform'd only into Mimics ●nd Apes but other Nations then would be glad to visit us for their breeding or at least would imitate us in their own Countreys 36. I do not say they will in this time com to an excellent well composed style in speaking or writing for with Plutarch k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As natural disposition without institution is blind so instruction without a genius and disposition is defectiv and exercise without both is lame and imperfect Without which three things a man cannot be accurat in any art or discipline And sure I am the readiest way to attain it is by being well verst in those Authors to which if the Mother hav luckily contributed store of her wit they may in time imitate Tertullian for his sententiousness Cyprian for his gravity Jerom for his resoluteness Chrysostom's mellifluous flowing Divine Ambrose devout Bernard Heavenly Augustin who alone is all the former Courtly Esay learned Paul elegant Luke facetious Erasmus pitthy and concise Bishop Hall like a second Seneca 37. Or to com to our School Authors it is a commendable part in Scholars to be grave as Cato Senior was in his praises sharp in his reproofs witty in discours subtil in teaching illustrious both in words and matter eloquent as Laelius and P. Africanus majestical as Scipio of a flagrant wit as C. Gracchus and learned from a Child and with M. Anthony relate things to best advantage with M. Crassus to be accurat in the Latin tongue and copious in discours with Hortensius to hav a vast memory studious as Piso Tully's Son in Law and with Julius Caesar to take the advantage of a good light for well drawn Pictures by these they may in time be admired with Salust a Prince among the Latins for his nervous brevity and could they com to thē height of eloquence with Cicero they might be compared to the Roman Empire and run style it self unto the uttermost very perfection of Eloquence Their prudence and judgment with Corn. Tacitus's would be in esteem their great eloquence like Livy's in discours would not be conceal'd whom though Lipsius call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and frigid in som places yet is he copious for the grandure and majesty of his Work before others Curtius for his admired plainness in speech and grace in discours subtil and clear without care most accurat Thucydides almost divine in his speech grave and brief in elocution and Polybius not much unlike him were sit examples for them I were injurious should I pass over Homers excellency giv'n him by the best of Writers Solon's great liberty in speaking Pisistratus his golden Fishing Net the palms of Themistocles his eloquence and laurels of Victory Herodotus in History compared to a Garden full of trees whose walks are decked with flowers casting forth perpetual odors or Theopompus his perspicuity Plato's eloquence abov what is human whom Jove would imitate were he to speak unto us Aristotle so neat a flower of eloquence in Isocrates his style whose glory none could equal Lycurgus his prudence Demosthenes as bright as the Sun polite Phalereus heroic Virgil smooth Ovid great Theophrastus sweet Xenophon whose praises none can sing without his Muse 38. And whoso can equal any of these were he born a Prince then Brutus like would grace the Crown for as all hav an inbred propensity to this or that strain so might our Youth be improv'd beyond what is ordinary would but the Masters shorten the way and release the prisoners from such drudgery as Erasmus terms it 39. And thus I hav presented the Reader with what I had to say concerning this Subject Overlook the mistakes with candour and account me not imperfect l Neque est omnino ars ulla in qua omnia illa quae ar te effici possunt à doctore traduntur Cic. de Or. 2. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist 2. Pol. c. 6. or deficient becaus I hav left him work who shall com after And seing I know there are many who will be displeas'd hereat I hav therfor chosen to bring in the learned speaking and tell mine opinion in their words And if as I confess m Est enim plenum ingenui pudoris fateri per quos profecer is non ut plerique ex iis quos attig● secerunt Plin. ad vesp I hav transscrib'd most of what is written I do but as the Latins did with the Greeks and the Greeks with the Latins Thus Justin

can entertain you in elegant Latin and defend Priscians head from a blow as well as those who hav for many years bin train'd up in that Fencing-school After which said he puts an opprobrium upon such Bragadocians of their Grammar who yet can neither write nor speak the Latin tongue making it his observation that he found those the choisest men who least used it and these were most accurate in Speech and the most eloquent Orators who no doubt would hav recommended it to posterity had they looked upon it with another eye than as milk for a Babe or as spelling for a Reader 25. Thus Ascham sais plainly of Q. Eliz. who though she borrowed nothing of Grammar but Declension and Conjugation yet had a most ready way of expressing her self and that both smooth and elegant so that he must be more than ordinary who could do the like Scaliger also is said without Grammar to hav attain'd the Greek and so for many thousand years were all languages learnt and still may be with greater expedition and less toil where Grammar is less and Authors more us'd 26. Thus Schorus sais also that Children may by imitation example and custom not only come to speak but be made better linguists than by Precepts and if so what need this toil upon Grammar this Cicero u De Or. l. 1. sets his hand unto and Quintilian w Or. l. 1. c. 10. tels us it has no ground or foundation other than custom to which Gellius x Noct. Att. givs his suffrage saying that among the best of Writers the sweet sound of words Euphonia was more observ'd than Grammar Rules And lastly Corderius y l. 3. Coll. 34. affirms that Latin consists rather in Use and Authority than in Reason or Rule Say not then that Latin differs from all Languages becaus of Conjugations and Declensions as if others wanted them or they could not be better kept by use when once they are got without Book It is also frivolous to say that use may do much in others but Latin being mainly founded in the works of ancient Authors no expedient can be deviz'd like to Grammar as though it did not rather follow that those Authors are the fitter for us to learn by for it is best drinking at the Fountain Head as the Poet has it Dulcius ex ipso fonte but this is like the Papists locking up the Bible Wheras practice makes the impression when Rules are not so effectual and sure it were more tolerable as Fabius sais to speak after the example of Cic. or Caes or Virgil though we com short in imitating them For any by a secret feeling may discern without art what is right or wrong by art and so in Latin 27. Thus I hav set down the reason of our Youths slow proficiency and ignorance even in the idiom of Latin Let me now chalk out that way which is as ready as easy and delightful in which one years recreation will recompens the toil of many without preposterous tasking the Boys z Inopes rerum nugaeque canorae to compose Themes Orations or Verses acts of ripest judgment and the product of an head well stored with great reading a Ex rerum cognitione efflorescat oportet redundet Oratio quae nisi subest res ab Oratore percepta cognita inanem quandam habet elocutionem p●nè puerilem Cle. de Or. l. 1. Quinque faciunt quasi membra eloquentiae invenire quod dicas inventa disponere deinde ornare verbis post memoriae mandare tum ad extremum agere ac pronunciare Id. and diligent observance of elegant Maxims digested into common places b Verbaque provisam rem non invitasequentur Which alone can make a copious invention and without which they cannot be squeez'd out of raw Youth For Nemo potest de eâ re quam non novit non turpissime dicere Cic. de Or. 2. and neither are Boys so confident as to think with the Poets Ad rem non pertinere verum dicere who being either straitned of necessity or by grace in speaking corrupted id quaeque vocari jubent quod belle facit ad versum Sen. de ben and hence it was called Ineptia poëtandi by Ausonius so Angelus Pol. sais scribat Joan. Scotus quidem carmine ut sit ineptior so Ter. Varro Poëtae transilire lineas impune possunt 28. Were a Child to take it in as his Mother tongue from his infancy the only way to make him prompt were to follow Montaign's whose Father took in a Master into his Hous of which se § 4. and experience tels us a Nativ tongue is soon attain'd and if we follow the same Method we shal no question accomplish our purpose 29. But where a Boy can read English well he may learn to decline Nouns and conjugate Verbs with the Syntax which are not taught for lov of themselvs c In. Gram. sufficit eas observationes didicisse quibus possis ipse latinè loqui quae ab iis latine scripta sunt intelligere non dutem anxiè innumeras loquendi regulas aucupari literasque inter syllabas insenescere Morus but to be our guides in Construing and so will better be taken in by use than by so frequent repetitions the Master may then use him to talk in the same language having a well composed Pueriles Sententiae the way I learned French 30. It were not amiss if at the same time he carried about him a Vocabulary with the Latin of the most usual words we frame our discours in for with Erasmus d Ep. de utilitate Coll. I know not whether any thing be better learnt than what is learnt by play not that I would hav it got off Book as now at Schools for that is like to making a rope of sand words being wing'd if unchain'd by a sentence e Erasmus de Arte Notoriâ but to look a word upon occasion as discours brings it in By this means having learnt his Grammar which is but a few months task I would enter him upon som good Latin Author the matter of which should be suited to the Scholars capacity still the longer he should procede to the more sublime and so Latin would be as ready as English for Vsus promptos facit 31. Let no man laugh at this and call it a difficult work or impossible while I am ready to demonstrate the truth as I think I hav in a pretty good measure som years before I taught in a Free School upon a Youth who had bin three years from School in all which time he had laid aside his Latin whom notwithstanding in four months time with only one hours instruction daily I led to the reading of a Physick Book needing the Dictionary and that but in som words more than my help and in the Greek to an handsom improvment so as he could Construe me six or eight verses