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
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
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
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
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
made Discourses upon Morality and so few govern'd their practice according to its Rules that they render'd it Ridiculous For many made the profession of Philosophy only to lacquey after their little Interests as to make their Court to Princes or get Money And they who sought after Wisdom more seriously gave great offence by the multitude of their Sects for they treated one another as Fools and Mad-men The Romans seeing the Greeks in this condition for a long time despised Studies as Childish Vanities and Idle Amusements not worthy of their pains who altogether apply'd themselves unto Business Each particular Man endeavoured to increase his patrimony by Husbandry Traffick and Frugality and all of 'em together jointly concurr'd in making the State to flourish by applying themselves to War and Politicks But though they wou'd have it believed that this frugality this military Discipline this firmness in their Conduct which made them so powerful were owing to none but themselves and their own vertuous Resolutions yet their own History makes it appear that they had borrow'd much from the Greeks even at that time before there were in Greece either Oratours or Philosophers by profession The first Tarquin was a Corinthian by Birth and he had instructed Servius Tullius Pythagoras lived in the time of the latter and it is very probable that some of his Disciples had correspondence with the Romans their severe and frugal way of living so much resembling this Italick Philosophy However it is certain that they brought the Laws of the Twelve Tables out of Greece which Cicero valued more than all the Books of the Philosophers Applying themselves with great diligence to these Laws and their Domestick Affairs they form'd a Study which was particular to themselves and lasted as long as their Empire This Study is Civil Law which we do not find that any Nation had cultivated before Not but that the Greeks had diligently Studied the Laws but they did it rather as Oratours than Lawyers I am not Ignorant that they very well knew the order and disposition of them that they dived also into the Reasons of them and with good effect apply'd themselves unto business both publick and private But I do not find that they had any who made it their profession to explain them unto others and to give Counsel nor that they wrote Commentaries upon their Laws For as for the Formularies it is certain that the Greek Oratours left the care of them to an inferiour sort of Men whom they called Pragmaticks or Practitioners 'T is true there were in Greece Legislatours and Philosophers who had studied the Laws after a more noble and extensive manner since it must needs argue a greater Genius to Compile a whole body of Laws than to apply them in particular to the least Affairs And they confess'd that this Knowledge so useful to the World came to them from Aegypt and the East as did all the rest of their Learning To return to Rome To the end of the Sixteenth Age after its foundation Children were then Taught only to Read and Write and cast Account Men Studied the Laws and the Formularies either indifferently for their own particular use or more Curiously to give Counsel unto others and gain Credit and Reputation They did not begin to enter upon the Curiosities of the Greeks ordinarily to Learn their Tongue and to Read their Works till after the Second Punick War Hitherto there were to be seen some Ordinances of the Senate against Rhetoricians and Philosophers by profession as Men who introduced dangerous Novelties into the Commonwealth The Romans when they apply'd themselves to the Studies of the Greeks did it according to their own Genius that is they sought therein what was best most solid and most useful for the Conduct of Life The old Cato Scipio and Laelius were not Men who wou'd burden themselves with Trifles They Studied the Historians and Oratours to profit by their Excellent Examples and good Maxims of the ancient Greeks and to Learn how to Speak as perswasively upon the Affairs of Rome as Pericles and Demosthenes had done upon those of Athens at the same time studiously avoiding to imitate the Greeks of their times or to take up with the Trifles of the Grammarians and Rhetoricians Nay they were even afraid of this Cicero says of the greatest Oratours of his time they were fearful it shou'd be perceived that they had Studied the Books of the Greeks least it shou'd be thought that they overmuch valued them and so their Reputation of being Learned might make their Discourses to be suspected of too much artifice The Wise Romans came afterwards to Philosophy and there fix'd upon the principles and Reasons of Morality and Politicks of which they already had much Experience and many Domestick Examples Lastly they knew how to take what was best in the Poets Hence proceeded so many great Oratours in the last Age of the Republick from the Gracchi to Cicero and they also who may be called the Roman Philosophers as Atticus Cato of Vtica and Brutus But the Establishment of the Monarchy at Rome having rendred great Eloquence and the Motives to it useless since the People did no longer give their Votes in Publick Affairs nor bestow great Places Poetry got the upper hand and flourished under the Reign of Augustus 'T is true it fell soon afterwards having nothing that was solid to sustain it and being look'd upon only as a sport and diversion of the mind Thus within the space of about Two Hundred Years the Studies of the Romans came to be in the same condition wherein they had found those of the Greeks Every place was full of little Grammarians Rhetoricians and idle Declamers of prating Philosophers Historians and Poets who tired the World in reciting their Works Only the Civil Law was always preserv'd because it was always necessary and depended less upon the form of Government or the particular manners of Men. There were also some true Philosophers though we should reckon only the Emperour Marcus Aurelius and several others of whom mention is made in Pliny's Epistles But these Philosophers went rather for Greeks than Romans The greatest part of 'em also wore the Greek Habit in what Country soever they dwelt and of what Nation soever they were In the mean time a much more Sublime Philosophy began to be Established I mean the Christian Religion which soon made this purely Humane Philosophy to vanish and did yet more severely Condemn all those other Studies which were less serious The Principal Study of Christians was the meditation of the Law of God and all the Holy Scriptures according to the Tradition of the Pastours who had faithfully preserv'd the Doctrine of the Apostles They call'd all the rest Strange and Foreign Studies and rejected them as inticing the Reader to the manners of the Heathens In Truth the greatest part of their Books were either useless or
dangerous The Poets were the Devil's Prophets who breathed nothing but Idolatry and Debauchery and made agreeable Representations of all sorts of Passions and Villanies Many Philosophers despised all Religion in general and denied that there cou'd be any Miracles or Prophecies Others made great endeavours to Establish Idolatry by Allegorizing natural things and by the Secrets of Magick Moreover their Morality was stuft with errours and all turn'd upon this principle of Pride That it was in Man's power to make himself good and vertuous The Oratours were full of Artifice Lyes Reproaches or Flatteris and the most solid Subjects of their Discourses were matters of Business from which the Christians studiously desired to Sequester themselves They believed that they shou'd have lost the time given them to gain Eternity if they had imploy'd it in the Reading Foreign Histories in Mathematical speculations and other Curiosities And they always saw in them great danger of Vanity a thing inseparable from the most innocent Studies So that the greatest part of Christians apply'd themselves to the Labour of the Hands and to works of Charity towards their Brethren Their Schools were the Churches where the Bishops daily explain'd the holy Scriptures There were also Priests and Deacons whose particular Business it was to Instruct the Catechumens and manage the Disputes against the Heathens And every Bishop took particular Care to Instruct his Clergy chiefly the Younger sort who attended continually about his Person to serve him as Readers and Secretaries to follow him and carry about his Letters and Orders And thus they Learnt the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church rather by Domestick Instruction and long use than by formal and set Lectures Nevetheless it cannot be deny'd but that there were many Christians who were very Learned in the Heathen Books and the prophane Sciences But if we do well examine the matter we shall find that the greater number of those persons had Studied them before they became Christians And being well vers'd therein they knew how to employ them to the purposes of Religion All the good they found in them they vended again as their own because all Truth comes from God They made use of the solid Maxims of Morality which they found dispers'd in the Poets and the Philosophers and also of the remarkable Examples of History to prepare the way to Christian Morality On the contrary they took advantage from the Absurdity of the Fables and Impiety of Heathen Theology to Encounter Paganism with its own Weapons and thus employed their Knowledge of History in Disputes against the Heathens It was with this Intention that Africanus Composed that famous Chronology from which Eusebius has taken his It was with this design that the same Eusebius wrote his Evangelical Preparation and St. Clement of Alexandria his Advice to the Gentiles and his Stromata Afterwards the Arians and other Hereticks who made use of Philosophy to destroy the Faith did also oblige the Holy Fathers to imploy Humane Learning to overthrow their Sophisms Thus they made use of Prophane Books with great Discretion yet with an holy Liberty And therefore when Julian the Apostate forbad Christians to Teach and Study the Books of the Greeks that is the Heathens they lookt upon this as a new sort of Persecution Whence it is plain that at that time they profess'd to Teach Humane Learning which yet was not permitted in the first Ages if we may believe Tertullian But the Reasons which he alledges are ceas'd since the Conversion of the Emperours and the full liberty of Christianity This happy Change made the Philosophers to be Neglected St. Augustine Witnesseth that in his time they cou'd no more be heard to Discourse in the Gymnasia which were their proper Schools though in those of the Rhetoricians some of their Opinions were still recited but not taught neither their Books explain'd of which even the Copies were very rarely to be met with That no person dared to dispute against the Truth under the Name of Stoick or Epicurean but that to be heard he was forc'd to Mask himself under the Name of Christian and to be enter'd into some Sect of the Hereticks St. Augustine did not Write this because he was not well vers'd in the Writings of the Philosophers for in his Youth he had acquainted himself with them all Insomuch that it may be said of him that he was a perfect Philosopher since there never was any Man of a more penetrating Spirit profound Meditation and a more consistent Reason The greatest part also of the Greek Fathers were famous Philosophers But 't is very Remarkable that amongst all the Philosophers Renowned in Antiquity Aristotle was he of whom they made least use They found that he did not speak worthily of the Divine Providence nor of the Nature of the Soul that his Logick was too subtle and his Morality too Low and humane for this is the Judgment which St. Gregory Nazianzen gives of him And although Plato also has his faults yet the Fathers thought they cou'd make better use of him because in his Writings they found more footsteps of Truth and more effectual means of perswasion In short 't is evident that if they undervalued Aristotle it was not because they cou'd not understand him which certainly they did better than they who have since advanc'd him so high Prophane Philosophy was decry'd because true Philosophers that is good Christians and especially the Monks were every where to be seen That Contempt of Honours the Opinion of Men Riches and pleasures That Patience in Poverty and hardships which Socrates and Zeno had so much sought after and of which they had discours'd so much the Solitaries of these days practised after a much more excellent manner without disputing and without arguing They liv'd in perfect Tranquility vanquishers of their Passions and continually united unto God They were troublesome to no Man and without writing without speaking without shewing themselves except very rarely they instructed the whole World by their Example and delighted it with the fragrancy of their vertues There is therefore no reason to wonder why they were had in such great veneration or to judge of these Ancient Monks by those that appeared before the late Reformations whose looseness had caused this name so much honour'd by the Ancients to be despised It must be remembred that these were the true Disciples of St. Anthony St. Basil St. Martin and other Saints whose Rules they practised and whose vertues they imitated For the Monasteries were then the true Schools where was Taught not only Humane Learning and the Curious Sciences but the Christian Morality and perfection which was taught not so much by Reading as by Prayer and real practice by the living Examples of the Brethren and the Corrections of Superiours This perfection of Monasteries drew to them the most wise and intelligent Men and 't was often here only that such persons could be found as were fit
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
ignorant Lay-men by a singular way of speaking and by vain subtilties But these subtilties were dangerous as it appeared by Berengarius Abalard and Gilbert of Poirée This is the Reason why the wisest Persons as St. Anselm Peter of Blois and St. Bernard firmly resolved to follow the Example of the Fathers rejecting these new Curiosities And the Master of the Sentences giving himself more liberty made fome false steps In the mean time the Books of Aristotle came to be known as I have said and whether for the Disputes against the Jews and Arabians or for some other Reason I know not the Divines thought they had need of them and therefore did accommodate them to our Religion whose Doctrines and Morality they Explain'd according to the Principles of this Philosopher This was done by Albertus Magnus Alexander Hales St. Thomas and many others after them And their Method of Divinity may be reckoned the third for there are two more ancient The First was that of the Fathers of the Church who Studied the Holy Scripture immediately chiefly drawing from thence the Knowledge which was necessary for the instruction of the Faithful and the refutation of the Hereticks this Theology continued till towards the Eighth Age. The Second was that of Bede of Raban and others of the same time who not being able to add any thing to the Instructions of the Fathers contented themselves with Copying them making Collections and Extracts out of them and taking Glosses and Commentaries upon the Scripture out of them also The Third was that of the Schoolmen who handled the Doctrin of the Scripture and the Fathers by the Form and Instruments of Logick and Metaphysicks drawn from the Writings of Aristotle And thus Cardinal Perron defines it At the same time the Studies of Civil Law and Medicks were revived but it was impossible then to Study Civil Law well since they wanted Laws The Roman Laws and those Barbarous Laws which had been observed under the two first Races of our Kings were abolished by contrary Customs or by Forgetfulness and Ignorance They were not in a Condition to make new Laws because as yet they had not Re-establish'd the Foundations of Civil Society the liberty of Travel the security of Trade and Industry the Union of the Citizens the Common People were either Slaves or look'd upon as such The Nobles lived dispers'd and Cantonized every one in his Castle with his Arms always in his Hand There were no other Laws in France but unwritten Customs very uncertain and very different by reason of the prodigious number of Lords in whose power it was to give Law It is true that in Italy the Books of the Justinian Law were recovered and it began publickly to be Taught at Montpelier and Tholouse But these Laws were not Laws for us because the Gauls had been freed from the Roman-Yoke before Justinian was in the World Furthermore they were not able to understand them by reason of Ignorance of Languages and History there not being any Tradition of them preserved amongst us by the practice of our Courts for Six Hundred Years after they were Written They did not however omit to Study and apply them as they could to their present occasions and they gain'd a great deal of Authority by the great Name of Roman Law and by the extream necessity there was of some Rules in judicial proceedings The Ecclesiastical Law was not in such an ill condition The practice of the Canons was preserved though Discipline began to be remiss There were many Collections of ancient Canons amongst others that of Gratian who lived in the middle of the Twelfth Age. 'T is true they were not very Correct and they were intermixt with many passages of the Fathers which ought not to have the force of Laws together with the Decretals Fathered upon the first Popes which at last have been own'd to be Suppositious This Example makes it appear of how great importance it is for the preserving Tradition in its Purity that there be always in the Church Persons who are skill'd in Languages and History and who are well vers'd in critical Learning Medicks was still worse treated than Civil Law Hitherto it had been in the Hands of the Jews excepting some Secrets of Old Women and some Traditions of Receipts which were preserved in Families The first Books which they Studied were those of the Arabians and amongst others the Writings of Mesua and Avicenna They received their Fooleries and Superstitions and in the mean time neglected as these had done Anatomy and they consulted them also for the knowledge of Plants As there were none but the Clergy and the Monks who Studied so there were none but they who were Physicians Fulbert Bishop of Chartres and the Master of the Sentences Bishop of Paris were Physicians Obizo one of the Religious of St. Victor was Physician to Lewis the Gross Rigord Monk of St. Denys who has Writ the Life of Philip the August was one also One of the Councils of Lateran held under Innocent the II. in the Year 1139. takes notice of it as an abuse long practised that Monks and Regular Canons to get Money profess'd themselves Advocates and Physicians This Council speaks only of those Religious who were profess'd and Medicks ceased not to continue in the Hands of Clergymen Three Hundred Years after But it being never permitted to the Clergy to shed Blood nor to keep a Shop of Ware This might probably be the cause of the distinguishing Physicians from Chyrurgeons and Apothecaries This distinction has for a long time kept Physicians in the Speculation only without applying themselves to Experiments THus all Studies were reduc'd to four sorts or faculties The three principal Divinity Law and Physick The fourth comprehended all Preliminary Studies which were accounted necessary to arrive unto these higher Studies which were called by the general Name of the Arts. Doubtless Reason requires that Men should Study what is most useful first for the Soul and then for the Body and the advantages of Life Upon this project Vniversities were Founded especially that of Paris which could hardly have its beginning later than the Year 1200. For a long time there had been about the Bishops Houses two sorts of Schools The one for the Young Clergy to whom Grammar Singing and Arithmetick were taught and their Master was either the Chanter of the Cathedral or the Ecolatrés otherwise called the Capiscol that is the Head of the School The other School was for Priests and Clerks of an higher Form to whom the Bishop himself or some Priest Commissioned by him Explain'd the Holy Scriptures and the Canons afterwards the Theologal was expresly erected for this Office Peter Lombard Bishop of Paris better known by the name of Master of the Sentences had made his School very Famous for Divinity and there were some Religious of St. Victor in great repute for the Liberal Arts. Thus the Studies of Paris became Famous
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
of Men giving all the rest of Nature even the Organs of Human Bodies to their direction They believed that there was a sort of Natural Magick and every thing of which they knew not the Cause they ascribed to that which was Supernatural that is the Power of Wicked Spirits For being assured by Religion that there are such Spirits and that God permits them sometimes to Deceive Men nothing did more handsomly conceal their Ignorance than to attribute to them all that of which they could give no Account Thus the Fictions of the Poets of this time were not by much so absurd as they appear to us It was probable even in the Opinion of their Learned Men that there had been and that there were still in divers parts of the World Diviners and Enchanters and that Nature Produced Flying Dragons and divers kinds of Monsters This Belief of Fables in Natural History introduced a great many Superstitious Practices especially in Medicks where People always love to do something that is Useless rather than omit any thing that may be of Advantage To Study Natural Philosophy under which was comprehended Medicks was onely to Read Books and Dispute as if there had been no Animals to Dissect no Plants or Minerals whose Effects were to be Try'd as if Men had not had the Use of their Senses to have satisfy'd themselves of the Truth of that which others had said In a word as if no such thing as Nature had been in the World to have been Consulted in her Self Much after this manner were Arts and especially Medicks treated in the Universities THe same Method was pursued in Law Since the ignorance of Latin and History hinder'd them from Understanding the Texts they betook themselves to the Summaries and Glosses of those who were presumed best to Understand them and who themselves having not the help of other Books did onely Explain one place of the Digest or the Decretal by another comparing them as exactly as they could The Faults of these Masters easily deceived their Disciples and some so far abused their Credulity as to mix with their Glosses Ridiculous Etymologies and Absurd Fables Whether it was that they did not Apprehend that they could not Practise the Laws if they did not understand them or that they despaired to understand them better However it was their greatest Endeavour was to Reduce them to Practise to handle Questions upon the Consequences which they had drawn from the Texts to give Counsel and Decide Cases But when they undertook to apply this Roman Law to our Affairs which was so ill understood by us and so different from our Manners and yet at the same time preserve our Customs which it was impossible to Change The Rules of Justice became much more uncertain All Civil Law was reduc'd to School-Disputes and the Opinions of Doctors who having not sufficiently penetrated into the Principles of Morality and Natural Equity sought sometimes their particular Interests They also who sought after Justice knew no other Means of procuring it but particular Remedies against Injustice which made them invent so many New Clauses for Contracts and so many Formalities for Judgments They as the Physicians did labour'd onely to heal Present Evils without taking care to stop the Fountains of them and prevent 'em for the future or rather they could not do it For to take away the General Causes of Vexatious Process and Injustice it is requisite that the Soveraign Power be Concern'd that there be some certain and stable Laws known to all the World and Publick Officers fully Authorized A great many Means of Inriching as well as Ruining themselves must be taken away from particular Persons and as far as possible they must be reduc'd to the most Simple and Natural Way of Living as we see in that Law which God himself gave to his People and which whilst they observ'd it made them so happy But then Europe was so divided and Princes so weak both in Power and Intellectuals that it never came into their heads to make such Laws DIvinity was more purely Studied And indeed we find in all Times a Sensible Protection of God over his Church always to preserve therein the Sound Doctrin But though the Doctrin was the same as in the foregoing Ages the manner of Teaching was different The Fathers of the Church being for the most part Bishops very much imploy'd scarce Writ any thing but when they were necessitated for the Defence of Religion against Hereticks and Pagans and they Treated onely of such Questions as were really proposed A good part of their Works are Sermons which they made to the People in Explaining the Holy Scripture But the Doctors of the Vniversities being wholly taken up in Studying and Teaching did separate even all the parts of Ecclesiastical Studies one from another Some confin'd themselves to the Explication of Scripture which they called Positive Theology Others to the Mysteries and Speculative Truths which is called by the general Name of Scholastick Others to Morality and the Decision of Cases of Conscience Thus their end in the Schools being to Teach they made it their Business to Treat of as many Questions as they could and to place them Methodically They thought that to Exercise their Disciples and prepare them for Serious Disputes against the Enemies of the Faith they ought to examine all the Subtilties which Human Reason could furnish them with upon these Subjects and Obviate all the Objections of Curious and Restless Spirits They had Leisure for it and they were provided with Means of doing it out of Aristotle's Logick and Metaphysicks together with the Commentaries of the Arabians Thus they did much the same thing which is done in Fencing-Schools and the Academies where to give Activity and Spirit unto Young Men they Teach them many things which are very rarely made use of in Real Encounters In Explaining the Master of the Sentences whose Book was lookt upon as the Body of Scholastick Divinity they form'd every day New Questions upon those which he had Propounded and afterwards they did the same upon St. Thomas's Sums But now it must be confess'd that this Forming and Resolving of Questions and in general This meer Reasoning did for a long time Lessen Mens Application to Positive Studies which consist in Reading and Criticism as the knowing the Literal Sense of Scripture the Sentiments of the Fathers and Matters of Fact in Ecclesiastical History 'T is true these Studies were very difficult through the great scarcity of Books and the little Knowledge of Ancient Languages A Bible with the ordinary Gloss Compleat was not to be found but in Great Libraries A private person was rich when he had Gratian's Decretal and the greatest part knew not the Fathers but by this Collection THis was very much the State of Studies in France and in Europe when Men began to apply themselves to Humanity I mean chiefly to Grammar and History This Restoration may be
reason of them there will be a time to do that afterwards And because I suppose a Morality which is Christian whose Precepts are founded upon the Doctrins of Faith I would begin with these Doctrins first of all to instruct the Child I have already touch'd upon this when I said we ought to begin with them by teaching them Matters of Fact and mentioned those which should be first planted in their Memories For the first instructions of Religion should then be instill'd into them when it is not yet advisable to imploy them in any formal Lessons being careful to recount to them a great many Matters of Fact and Maxims to the end that they may be furnished with Principles of Reasoning when they shall afterwards come to have the strength of Attention and the habit of Thinking These Discourses will be as it were Seeds sown at all Adventures which spring up and bring forth more or less as the Soil is fruitful and Heaven is favourable I shall not here dilate upon the particular Method of Teaching Religion What I have said upon this subject may be seen in the Preface to the Historical Catechism When Children have learn'd this Catechism or any other that is better and are capable to read the Holy Scripture care should be taken to make them know the outward beauties thereof I mean the Excellency of the different Styles that they observe in the Histories how Choice and Orderly plac'd the Matters of Fact are how short lively and at the same time how clear the Narration is That they take notice in the Poetry of the Nobleness of the Elocution the variety of Figures the sublimity of the thoughts In the Moral Books of the Elegance and Brevity of the Sentences in the Prophets the vehemence of the Reproaches and Threatnings and the richness of the Expressions That all this be shewed to them by comparison with prophane Authors whom the Learned esteem so much and that it be by no means forgotten to signifie unto them that the Translations do not come up to the beauty of the Original Language The same prophane Authors will further help them to understand the Manners of this first Antiquity and cause them not to be surprized by a great many Modes of Acting and Speaking which offend the ignorant when they read the Scripture which is that which I have endeavoured to do in the Manners of the Israelites I believe it will be useful to give them some slight Knowledge of the Fathers and other Ecclesiastical Authors for I am concerned to see that the most part of Christians who Study know Virgil and Cicero better than St. Augustin or St. Chrysostom You 'll say perhaps that in them we do not meet with that Wit and Knowledge which we find in the Pagan Authors and that Christian Authors are proper for none but Priests and Devout Persons Their Title Holy is a prejudice to them and doubtless makes many Persons believe that their Works are full only of ungrateful Exhortations or Meditations Men seek Philosophy in Aristotle and put him to the Torture much against his Will to accommodate him to Christianity and yet they have in St. Augustin a Philosophy altogether Christian at least Morality Metaphysicks and the most solid part of Logick For as for natural Philosophy he did not apply himself thereto Why should we not seek for Eloquence in St. Chrysostom in St. Gregory Nazianzen and in St. Cyprian as well as in Demosthenes and Cicero And why in them should we not also look for Morality rather then in Plutarch and Seneca Prudentius indeed is not so good a Poet as Horace was but he is not to be despised for he has Writ with a great deal of Wit and Elegance without borrowing the Ornaments of the Ancients which did not agree with his subject In a word I would have the young Man early advertised that several Saints even those who were most zealous for Religion and most severe in their Manners as St. Basil St. Gregory Nazianzen St. Athanasius were great Wits and very polite Men and if they have undervalued Human Learning and the Sciences it was not because they wanted knowledge but because they knew better Moreover to balance the Human Vertues which are to be seen amongst the ancient Greeks and Romans I would make my Scholar observe not only the same kind of Vertues but much greater and others altogether unknown to the Pagans such as are to be found either in the Holy Scriptures or the most approved Ecclesiastical Histories I would let him see the Wisdom and the Constancy of the Martyrs by the most Authentick Acts yet remaining as those of St. Pionius Priest of Smyrna of St. Euplius Deacon of Catanea in Sicily of Pope Stephen and of so many others The reading of which is most delightful I should make him admire the Patience and Angelick Purity of the Solitary by the Relations of St. Athanasius St. Jerom Palladius Cassian and many other grave Authors Lastly I would let him know those who lived as good Christians in the midst of worldly Business and great Imploys as the Emperour Theodosius St. Pulcheria Charlemaign St. Lewis Though it be necessary to know that there never was any Age wherein the Church had not her great Saints and to observe their different Characters nevertheless to have a great and holy Idea of Christianity it is adviseable chiefly to dwell upon the first Ages wherein the Vertues were more frequent and the Discipline more vigorous Thus the Manners of the Christians whether in the times of Persecution or the beginning of the Churches Liberty should be plainly represented Their Domestick way of Living the Form of their Assemblies the Prayers Fastings and Administration of the Sacraments particularly of Penitence All this might be related very agreeably A young Man that had these Ideas of Religion would have the great Principles of Morality or rather he would have the thing it self For I would advise that during this time he should be Taught the Rules thereof by the reading of Holy Scripture particularly the Epistles and Gospels for Sundays the principal Holy-days and Lent and some little Works of the Fathers as the Confessions of St. Augustin the Offices of St. Ambrose the Considerations of St. Bernard And because this Study should be carryed on by little and little together with other Studies of Humanity and Philosophy care should be taken in his reading of prophane Authors to advertise him of all the Errours which are to be met with in them and the imperfection of their purest Morality in Comparison with the Christian to the end that he may value these Authors no more than they deserve It is very useful to accustom Children to judge of that which they read and often to ask them what they think of such a Maxim or such an Action and what they would have done upon such an occasion Hereby their Sentiments are Discovered which if bad may be rectified if right encouraged It is
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
Affairs and as it were the Titles of his House and that of Foreign Countries nearest to him teaches him the Concerns of his Neighbours which are always mixed with his own Nevertheless since there are a great many other things to be known and the capacity of a Man's Mind is limited He ought chiefly to Study the History of his own Country and House and to have a more particular Knowledge of that which is nearest to his own Time I would have every Lord proportionably to know well the History of his own Family and every private person that of his own Shire and Town better than those of others The Book of Genesis is a perfect Model of the Choice which every one should make in the Study of History Moses has therein Comprised all the things which it was useful for the Israelites to know chiefly dilating upon those which are of greatest Importance as the Creation the Sin of the First Man the Deluge the History of the Patriarchs unto whom God had made the Promises which he was about to fulfil He doth not omit to observe the Origin of all Nations and to speak more or less of their History as they had more or less Relation to the People for whom he Wrote But if you would have an Abridgment only for the refreshing of your Memory you have an Example thereof in the First Chapter of the Chronicles where the Names alone plac'd successively recalls all the History of Genesis It is nevertheless to be wisht though it is not absolutely necessary that all who have leisure do Read the Principal Histories of the Greeks and Romans They are profitable both for Morality and Eloquence For bringing to the Reading of them that Corrective which I have Prescrib'd the Examples of the great Actions and good Conduct of the Ancients may be very useful And the manner after which the Historians Writ may be of great advantage to us both as to the Method and to the Style if we know how to imitate them So that a Man should as well exercise himself in the Latin Tongue by Reading the Historians as other Authors since without Reading much he cannot Learn it AFter the History of the Manners and Actions of Men the most useful Study in my opinion is Natural History I comprehend under this Name all that Knowledge which is Positive and founded upon that Experience which respects the Construction of the Universe and of all its parts as far as is needful for one who is not to be an Astronomer Physician or Naturalist by Profession For no Man surely should be altogether ignorant of this World which we inhabit of these Plants and these Animals which nourish us of that which we are our selves I know very well that the Knowledge of our Selves is the most necessary of all But this is the Knowledge of the Soul which I referr to Logick and Morality As for the Body since we govern it much less by Knowledge than by a blind Instinct attended with Motions which depend upon us yet without our Knowledge of the Springs and Machines which are the immediate Causes of them the particular Knowledge of its Structure is scarce of any use to us but for the admiring its Author who is not less admirable in other Animals and other parts of Nature It 's true we should be affected more with that which we find in our selves Moreover the Knowledge of the Body is very useful for understanding the Passions their Causes and their Cures which is a great part of Morality and for discerning what is proper for the preservation of Health from that which is destructive thereof which is one of the Studies which I have plac'd amongst the most necessary This Natural History therefore should Comprise Cosmography and Anatomy By Cosmography I understand the System of the World the Disposition of the Stars their Distances their Magnitudes their Motions according to the late observations of the most exact Astronomers depending upon them as skilful Persons who deserve to be credited without examining their Proofs Herein also I comprehend the Meteors not labouring to search out the Causes of them but only to know the Matters of Fact The Description of the Earth not so much of its Surface which relates to Geography and is referr'd to the Moral History as its Depth and the different Bodies which it contains At first sight it seems as if this Knowledge was no more than pure Curiosity but in truth it is very useful for raising the Mind and inlarging it for furnishing us with true Ideas of the Infinite Wisdom and Almighty Power of God of our own weakness and the littleness of all Humane things Under the Name of Anatomy I comprise that of Plants as well as that of Animals without lanching into Curiosities which has no bounds I would have my Scholar to know well the Animals of his own Country the most famous of other Countries and the Plants which are most used That he should know how to distinguish the principal parts of a Plant and an Animal That he should see how these Living Bodies are nourished and preserved but particularly That he should be acquainted with the Admirable Structure of those Springs which make Animals to move I mean that of them which is felt with the Finger the Bones and the Muscles This Study if he have Leisure and a Genius may be extended to the Knowledge of those Arts wherein are employ'd the most Ingenuous Machines or which produce the most considerable changes in Natural Bodies as Chymistry the Melting of Metals making Glass Tanning and Dying INto the number of those Studies which are useful to all Students I also put Geometry In truth it doth not onely contain the Principles of several very useful Arts as Mechanicks Surveying Trigonometry Gnomonicks Architecture wholly especially Fortification of such great use at this day but also it forms the Mind in general and strengthens the Reason extreamly It accustoms Men not to content themselves with appearances to seek after Solid Proofs and not to stop as long as there is the least ground for doubting and by this means to discern Convincing and Demonstrative Reasons from meer Probabilities It would nevertheless be dangerous if not directed by such a Logick as I have reckoned amongst the number of necessary Studies For 't is this Logick which lays down the Great Rules of Evidence of Certainty and Demonstration and bids us not believe that none but sensible and imaginable things as the objects of Geometry are can be clearly known That there are no certain Reasonings but those concerning the Relations of Angles and Lines or the proportions of Numbers That we ought in all matters to expect the same kind of Certainty But when these Distinctions and General Rules are laid down by a good Logick Geometry opens a great Field of Exercise for Defining Dividing and Reasoning TOwards the end of the Young Man's Studies when he is about the Age of Fourteen
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
the words of a certain Language put together and placed according to Grammar ARithmetick comes afterwards and I think it should be begun later that is when Reason is already formed as at Ten or Twelve years At first the Scholar should be Taught the Practice of the Four Great Rules he must be exercised in Casting Account either with Counters or with the Pen to make use of all sorts of Cyphers to reduce the most usual Weights and Measures Afterwards he may go on to the Rules which are more difficult and be shown the Reasons of all and the Knowledge of Proportions may be Taught him as his Leisure and Genius shall serve IT will be thought strange doubtless that I reckon Oeconomicks amongst Studies and amongst the most necessary too but hear what I would say for my self The Design of young Persons Studies should be to acquire in the first Age that Knowledge which must be serviceable to them all the rest of their Lives or at least the Principles of this Knowledge as I think I have already shewn Therefore that which is necessary to the most common and ordinary Affairs that which respects the Maintenance of Life and the Foundation of Civil Society This Knowledge surely ought to have the first place next after that which refers to Man in himself and directly conduces to the perfecting the Soul or the Body So that it is principally the Scholars ignorance of these kinds of things which makes several despise both them and their Studies What are the thoughts of the Eldest Son of a Family who comes from the College to divert himself to boast of his Knowledge and if he be pleas'd with Study to follow his Curiosity He never concerns himself how he subsists whence comes that which nourishes and cloaths him and the like He only considers how other young Persons of the same quality live and would by no means be less accounted of nor want Money to Game or satisfie his Passions In the mean time he fills his head with Comedies Romances Musick or if he wants Wit he confines himself to more gross pleasures Some great Change in his Fortune must happen the Death of a Father some Great Estate fall which he must take possession of some great Law-suit a Marriage or an Office to make him open his eyes and see that there is any such thing as business in the World and that he has something to take care of as well as other Men. I know that in all this there is a great deal that is natural to Youth which is hurry'd on to Pleasure by violent Passions and has not experience enough to have any esteem for things that are useful But this is the Reason also why Youth ought to be assisted and restrain'd in stead of which it seems as if Men had a design to encourage their Faults Young Persons 't is true will never love Labour and Business Yet it ought at least to be endeavour'd by preparing them early for them that they may not appear so harsh and burthensome when they shall come to the Age when they must apply themselves unto them for good and all Upon this account amongst Studies necessary to all who have any thing to Manage and Preserve I reckon Oeconomicks and Skill in the Law and observe wherein I make Oeconomicks to consist Seeing the first Objects which make impressions upon Children are those within the House as its divers Parts the Servants and their different Offices the Moveables and Working Instruments There is nothing to be done but to follow the humour of their Natural Curiosity to Teach them with pleasure the use of all these things and make them understand as far as they are capable the Solid Reasons which put Men upon inventing them by letting them see the Inconveniencies which they remove Thus also they would be accustomed to admire the Goodness of God in all things which he Furnishes us with for our Wants the Industry which he has given unto Men to make use of them the Happiness of being Born in a Country that is Cultivated and in a Well-instructed and Polite Nation to take Noble Ideas of all things which an ill Education and the Vanity of our Manners make us despise and not so much to disdain a Kitchin the Back-yard the Market-place as the most part of Persons Gentilely bred do To Conclude Thus they would be accustomed to make Reflexions upon all that presents its self to them which is the Principle of all Studies For Men mightily deceive themselves when they imagin that they must seek a great way off for that wherewith Children are to be Instructed They are not to live either in the Air or amongst the Stars much less in the Imaginary Spaces in the Country of the entia Rationis or Second Intentions but they must live on the Earth in this Low World such as it now is and in this Corrupted Age of it They ought therefore to know the Earth which they Inhabit the Bread which they Eat the Animals which are Useful to them and above all the Men with whom they are to Live and to Act. And let them not in the least imagin that to consider all the things which are about them is to debase themselves In a great Family there will be more occasion for these Instructions than in a less and there will be yet more if Children be sometimes in the City and sometimes in the Countrey Thus the Children of Persons of Quality who may have all these Advantages ought to know more things than others As they grow in Age more may be told them concerning these things and in some sort they might be indifferently well instructed in those Arts which respect the Convenience of Life by letting them see Men work at them and by explaining to them every thing carefully They should then be shewn either in the House or elsewhere how Bread and Cloth and Stuffs are made They should see Taylors Tapistry-makers Joyners Carpenters Masons and all who are concern'd in the Building-trade Work in their particular Callings They should also be some-ways so far Instructed in these Arts as to understand the Language of the Workmen and that they may not be easily impos'd upon Now this Study will all this while be a great Divertisement for them And seeing Children desire to imitate every thing they will be sure to play over all these Arts. And herein they should not be roughly Opposed or Laughed at but gently assisted by shewing them what will be Chymerical in their designs and what Feasible This might be an occasion of Teaching them a great deal of Mechanicks and they would have the Pleasure of Succeeding in some things which in this Age is very great It would also be well to acquaint them with the common Price of the Works which they may have occasion for and the things which they may Buy themselves and even those which they may order others to Buy For though these Prices
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