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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	speak_v	time_n	write_v	3,365	5	5.2822	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B09714	The guardian's instruction, or, The gentleman's romance. Written for the diversion and service of the gentry; particularly those educated in Cambridge and Oxford.	Penton, Stephen, 1639-1706.	1697 (1697)	Wing P1439B; ESTC R181647	38,301	105

complain that it spoil'd either their Health Beauty or their Wit Of all Hardships use the Child to Rise early 5. Care must be taken what Company the Child keeps I am not yet come to the inconvenient mixture of Persons of Quality in the same School with Tinkers and Coblers Children which perhaps may teach them base dirty Qualities they were never Born to of Lying Filching Railing Swearing c. because I have not yet resolved my self how it can be avoided I am only now speaking of a Child very young and bred at Home I have observed that the Eldest Sons of Great Families lose Three Years at least For the common Cry is that it is time enough to learn their Books when they come to be seven or eight years Old This might in a degree be true enough if in the mean time they did only converse with Wise and Serious Companions But when they are able to speak and prate they begin to be exceedingly acceptable and the Dalliance of every Creature towards them is obliging but all this while this doth but invite the useless Tattle of a foolish Nurse a Foot-Boy or a Kitchin-wench and if his Mastership is to be pleased with seeing the Stable and Sitting on an Horse then he is farti●e● accomplish'd with the ill-bred Language and Actions of the out-lying Servants also This I mention because I know some Familes in which Children sometimes better Beloved then the rest or else because there were no more having had constant familiarity and scarce any other converse with their Parents and Those Persons of Experience and Thought The Children have grown apace into Sense and Reflection and made wiser Persons asham'd of their own Age. But for a Child to be most in the Company of Servants and so many Livery-men always waiting and bare-headed if it doth not make the Living-Creature Proud Idle and think himself fit to be a Lord before the King and Nation doth truly he is less of kin to Adam than I am 6. Since this Youth of Quality must be bred up at Home my next Advice is To get a grave experienc'd well-temper'd Person to manage him by descending to all the little Observances his Age and your Expectation requires But then I must have leave to tell you that your Allowance must be very considerable and his Estate will bear it For no Wise Man will Play the Fool to no purpose And if you or his Relations shall fansie that common Maxime The cheaper the better you will meet with Men who will Serve and Please you and the Child at present who perhaps hereafter will reckon himself no great Gainer when he finds the want of that Accomplishment which his Quality and Parts deserve and that his Brains were sold for twenty Pounds a Year It is not well enough considered what it costs to be Dearned and Wise both pains and money And where as Scholars are look'd on as Poor and Mean born to serve them who have the luck to be Rich yet I do not find truly that great Ones part easily with what they come hard by I could tell you of a Person in the World worth some Thousands Yearly a Man very considerable for Management Temper Justice and all the Qualities of a Gentleman if he had not placed too much Wisedom in thrift He had an Eldest Son incomparable for Parts and Good-Nature and more willing to be made a Wife Man than Boys generally are But the good Father to save the charges of a great School and Boarding abroad any where was resolv'd to diet him in Wisedom at his own Table with the cheap assistance of a poor Chaplain who was to bestow upon him all the week as much Wiseness as ten pounds a year and a good stout Dinner is generally worth When the young Heir came towards Age I happened to be acquainted with him and in some degrees of Familiarity and finding very fine Parts in the Rubbish of a great deal of Clownery I once dealt with him very Frowardly and ask'd him plainly How it came to pass that he was not a Wifer Man Ask my Father said he And when I replied That his Father was reputed a Discreet Man Yes said the young Gentleman and I thought him so when I was a young Child But now I am growu up and the World expects some agreeable Conversation with my Age Quality and Acquaintance I appear so little in Company and am sensible how little I appear that I wish I had either only been Born with Wit enough not to be Begg'd or that my Father had valued the Improvement of my Parts at a Thousand a Year of my Estate 7. The Tutor I propose will do well by all the Artifice of Kindness and easiness to gain Affection from the Child For otherwise by Force and bare Duty he will Learn as little from that Tutor as a Farmer doth from the Minister by the Sermon which is next Preach'd after he hath paid his Tithes 8. Keep the Child as much as possible out of all Company wherein there may be danger of seeing Actions of Rudeness Indecency Debauchery Infirmity especially if they are committed by near Relations Father Mother Brother c. Incredible is the observation of Children And I dare say they think long before we perceive it and the Reverence and Regard they have for Relations recommends all Actions to their Imitation with a strong Prejudice 9. By all Arts of Kindness prevent Frowardness in him which will turn to a very ill Quality when he grows up 10. When he is able to Speak plain and capable to be Taught let him learn Sense and Words together I mean Teach him such Words as signifie some material Sense either of Breeding Morality or Religion and not idle useless Words which signifie nothing but the Folly of such as Teach them 11. When you begin with him do not clog him with too much to make him loath or dread it but let him come to the Book as to his Recreation or to gain Credit 12. Accustom him to kind and friendly words even towards Servants and Inferiours This will not only be obliging but will habituate the Child to Respect and Decency to men of higher Degree to Parents and Tutor himself and be sure to instruct him of the regard to be had according to mens different Qualities 13. The method how to teach him Latin with most advantage and expedition I must wholly leave to the Tutor For whether it be sooner learn'd by the Rules of Grammar as is done in Schools or barely by Construing Authors and talking Latin with the Child always by which sometimes Gentlemen are taught I am not able to answer mine own Arguments for each Use him much to Translation which I think much better than Composition 14. Be sure to keep him constant to Devotion and let not his own private prayers be tedious and wearisome 15. Make him able to reade Greek and turn the Lexicon upon occasion as far as the Greek

THE GUARDIAN' 's INSTRUCTION OR The Gentleman's Romance Written for The Diversion and Service of THE GENTRY Particularly those Educated in Cambridge and Oxford The second Edition LONDON Printed for the Author 1697. TO THE ENGLISH GENTRY AFter the very copious Treatise of Education the Gentleman 's Calling and other Excellent Advices of Manners Civil prudence and Institution it looks somewhat Assuming to invade any the least part of that Subject But I am so far from pretending to vye Art and Contrivance that the main Design of that Part of this Tract which interferes is to exemplifie and illustrate the Practicableness of those General Rules and Instructions which the fore-mentioned Authours have deduced from Nature and Reason And therefore sometimes a Coincidence of the same Thoughts upon the same Subject is unavoidable as Mr. Osborn hath alledged to excuse himself on the like Occasion And truly to be just to them who have written before the whole serviceableness of this small thing doth depend upon and absolutely require a previous frequent Resort to those Books which ought never to be out of the Studies of any School-master Parent or Tutour in the Kingdom And though the Management of my Project can hardly stand the Tryal yet the Design of it will not be censured by any man who loves a Gentleman I have had Experience how far the Honour and Interest of Great Families is concerned in the Vertuous Accomplishment of the Eldest Sons and Heirs And if the Observations which mine own Experience hath forced me to make are any thing worth they are but a reasonable Acknowledgement of the Respects which I have received from the Gentry both Fathers and Sons I foresee some Objections which I must account for Object I. Why is the Book so short when the Pretensions seem so considerable 1. Because I told you that other Persons had written before upon one Great Part of my Subject to whom I refer you for a thousand wiser Instructions 2. I sometimes onely give bare Hints of serious things when they carry so much Evidence of Reason with them as will make the Active Soul of any Man who is Good and desireth to be Wiser consider and exercise his Thinking 3. I have heard a Wise man say that there may be as much Judgement required to make a short Book as a longe one 4. Suppose the Persons for whose use this is written should be somwhat Impatient of Reading long things then perhaps they may be the less displeased with an ordinary Subject provided they can read it over at one sitting Object II. The Romantick manner of Writing Truly when I was of the Age of those persons in kindness to whom I write I then thought that Fiction and Intercourse was somewhat more diverting than uniform Narrations or dogmatical Propositions And I was about to say that they better understand Hobbs his Sense and Principles by Timothy and Philautus than from the Grand Author himself For there they see Consequences displayed and the Slye Connexion between Dangerous Conclusions and Plausible Premisses exposed which was palliated before under Good Style and Language and the Magisterial Authority of the Proponent Object III. The Style sometimes will seem eager Verily this I my self am affraid of for fear of Indecency no man being a competent Judge of his own Indecencies But two things I have to offer for my self if the good natur'd Reader will accept of them 1. That I do assure him who am best able That no single Person alive is aimed at or intended to be described and pictured in the angry Characters of a Fond Father a Womanish Mother Debauched Son Wanton Daughter Ill Schoolmaster Careless Tutor c. that would be Rude and Barbarous I set up one of Plato's Ideas's and sometimes shoot Bitter Words but this hurts none there is no Bloud drawn from Universals 2. Whoever thinks the Language Angry surely if he would consider well Sharpness of Style would not be looked upon as more unnecessary for Instruction than pickled Sauces are for insipid Meat 'T is true they grate the Palate but they make the Meat go down and help Digestion Object IV. Expressions sometimes mean and Similes too vulgar This I confess my self ashamed of and is one Reason why I do not put my Name but really I knew not how to avoid it I knew not how to expose and lessen culpable things but by culpable Language Object V. Wandring and hunting out to fetch in heterogeneous Matter You may remember that I told you before how impatient Youth is wont to be and how to chain it I know not but by various and unpected Subjects and there is not any Digression but some Person or other will be concern'd to understand the Design And whosoever shall be so kind as to apply the Instructive part to his own Use He is the Man for whom I write and He only comprehends my Intention Object VI. Why doth it come out at such a time as this And why not No dangerous Design that I know is in it but this that Gentlemens Sons may hereafter be bred up better than some of their Fathers have been I have oftentimes griev'd when I have considered the Gallant Youth of the English Gentry who have as good Parts and are as well natur'd as any Men in Europe and yet as to Learning and Politicks I am sorry to see some of them turn to so little Account in the Service of the King and Countrey This was the occasion of these Papers and when they were first written a Reverend Divine of good Estimation hearing them read was earnest for their Publication But the frequent Readings over and continual Reflexionson them glutted my Fancy that then it became too familiar fulsome and of no Taste And thence it lay buried in the Dust for several years A while since I fastned upon it with a Fresh Stomach and tho it did not taste very salt yet I thought it relished somewhat better than it did before And having added some few things I communicated it to a Friend or two on whom I much depend they were so complemental as to warrant the good Effect for which it was very sincerely intended Tutoring being now as necessary for ought I see as ever And those young Gentlemen are able to read this who want Age and Solidity to be affected with Learned Discourses of Controversies and Politicks One thing I heartily beg of the Reader if any Hint in these Papers or any former Discourse of this kind suggest a Suspicion of the Author in the Name of Friendship do not discover him For at this time when Writing both as to Substance of Matter and Ornament of Language is at highest it is not fit to be subscribed by a man who hath thought away some Years Farewell and be Civil THE Guardian 's Instruction A Letter from a severe Enemy of 〈◊〉 University to his Guardian a p●… 〈◊〉 moderate and Member of the Parliament at Oxford SIR WE have here the