remedied that the most ignorant and dullest Learners have ordinarily the worst Masters Here since I have enter'd upon the Subject I will go on to Explain my self concerning Philosophy I think that a Master should endeavour to make all those under his Charge Philosophers Principally such whom he sees to have good Natural Parts but he must not wait till he has a considerable number of such who shall succeed therein It is a great Undertaking to form one True Philosopher that is to say one Man who Reasons aright who is always upon his Guard against all the Causes of Error who in the Conduct of his Life follows onely Reason and Vertue who seeks in all things to know the Truth and to ascend unto the first Causes The greatest part of Men 't is true would be capable of this if they did use their Reason well and if they were not precipitant in their Judgments But 't is rare to find any of them whose Will is so Regular and Strength so much as to be able to resist their Passions It must also be confest that the greatest part of the Professions of Life may be perform'd reasonably well without coming to this Perfection One may be a good Physician provided he knows the History of Nature and the most Assured Remedies approved by Experience For though a Man should know all that has been yet discovered in Natural Philosophy to this present time he would scarce know the first Causes of Distempers any better thereby Skill in the Law obliges a Man to go no higher and to seek for no other Principles of Reasoning than the Laws already Established among Men The rest belongs to the Legislatour The Roman Lawyers whose Decisions we do with Reason admire were no Philosophers at all and this Science was form'd at Rome before they knew either Philosophy or Grammar As for War 't is evident likewise by the Romans themselves and most Nations that there is no need of Philosophy to be a good Soldier The Romans were never greater Warriours than whilst they continued in their Ignorance Mummius and Marius were not less skilful therein than Pompey and Caesar and these last though they were more Learned were not more Philosophers than the other As for other Professions less considerable as Husbandry and Trades Philosophy is not at all required of them who apply themselves unto them though the most useful Arts were not at first invented without Philosophy I know that 't is believed that it is useful to Divinity and it is indeed to be desired that all Clergy-men were true Philosophers But yet I have shown that in the first Ages of the Church the Christians made little account of Human Philosophy Nevertheless it cannot be doubted but that the Bishops and Priests of that Time did perfectly well discharge all their Duties I leave it to those who Labour usefully in the Church to judge whether that which they have learn'd of Philosophy be of any great use to them for the Conduct of Souls But as to the rest since a Man should neither be deceived himself nor deceive others I would not give the name of Philosopher but to him who should really deserve it I would not make my Scholar so vain as to believe himself to be a Philosopher because he can say some distinctions and divisions by Heart though he be never the wiser or better for them I would not contribute any thing to the making this great name despicable to the unlearned For Women and Men of the World judge of the ancient Philosophers by the moderns and equally despise them all Hence it is that Plato of all prophane Authors the most Excellent and most Delightful is little Read even by the Learned and not yet Translated into our Language Hence it is that they who read the Translations of Xenophon Epictetus and others do admire that these Philosophers reasoned so well 'T is the same abuse that has brought into dis-esteem the name of Rhetorick Poetry and the greatest part of the Liberal Arts and which has given false Ideas of them which makes us practise them so ill For 't is natural to believe that a thing is really that which its name imports Therefore although it is to be wish'd that all Men at least they who Study were truly Philosophers yet there is so little reason to expect it that it seems to me that the greatest part of Men ought not to pretend to it At least all the Philosophy they ought to learn should be reduc'd to a good Logick The rest is not necessary for the attaining other Sciences On the contrary all the Sciences joyned to the practice of all Vertues make up the true Philosopher to which therefore we cannot arrive before the Age of Maturity if any one be so happy as ever to attain unto it But it is more certain that Grammar Rhetorick and whatsoever goes under the name of Humanity are not at all necessary to Philosophy and Logick To learn how to reason well there is no necessity of knowing Latin or any other Language it might be Taught to a Mute provided there were signs distinct enough to Explain to him the Reflections upon Thoughts Eloquence supposes Reasoning already formed seeing it adds thereunto Motion and Expression for it doth not as the Ignorant believe consist in speaking fine Words but in giving Weight to good Reason Since our Logick consists not in certain Words and Rules wherewith the Memory is charged that we may talk of them or understand those who do speak of them but in a real Exercise of good Reasoning It is not to be thought that it is to be learn'd only once as an History and never after to be minded It must be constantly practised during the whole course of Studies and I speak of it in this place only to observe its Order and to shew that it is of more worth and more necessary than all the Studies I have mentioned at least then those which consist only in the Knowledge of Matters of Fact or things Positive and Conjectural But though Reasoning be necessary Experience and the Knowledge of particular things is so likewise A Man cannot be truly learned nor eminently skilful without this depth of Reasoning which I have spoken of but he may be skilful enough to perform the Duties of Common Life without this Reasoning provided that he has a particular Knowledge of the things which are practised Whereas without this particular Knowledge the best general Reasonings as long as they continue General will never come to any thing 'T is these general Reasonings which have at all times discredited the Philosophers and Learned Men when to them they did not joyn the Knowledge of particular things especially the Institutions of Men And this is the Essential Fault of Raimund Lullius his Method which imploys its Scholars only in such general Notions as are of no use and do not render them at all more Learned in Speculation since they add nothing to what
commonly used in the ordinary way of Speaking Children may learn all these words betimes especially if care be taken to make them understand the sense by sensible Examples and the sooner they shall have learn'd them the less Barbarous they will appear afterwards It will be much more worth their while to charge their Memory with them than with Names Figures of Rhetorick and the Terms of Philosophy After this Knowledge of their way of Speaking which implies a great many Definitions I would have the Scholar learn the most general Maxims of the Law which relate to particular Subjects as of Tutelage Successions Marriages the most usual Contracts without entring into the Subtleties of the Law or much affecting the Method but only observing therein a little Order for clearing up the Understanding and assisting the Memory In the next place the manner of Prosecuting ones Right in the Courts of Judicature should be Treated of and without Descending to all the particulars of the Process the order of it in general should be observed and the necessity there is of exactly observing in Judicial Proceedings the Forms Established The difficulty will be for the Master to chuse out of Books that Knowledge which is necessary and is so dispersed and blended in them For it must be confess'd that as yet we have no Book where all that which I have spoken of is put together and separated from the rest Till some Person shall undertake this Justinian's Institutes the customary Institution of Loisel that of Coquil and the Index of Ragueau and other such-like Books may be made use of Moreover it would be well to Read to the Scholar the whole Custom of his Country and shew him some of the most common Contracts that he may understand the Principal clauses of them But some will say have we not wrangling Pettifoggers enough in France without desiring that all Men should be so Behold The ordinary Language of ignorant Persons to call those Wranglers who understand Business and speak of it in proper Terms On the contrary one of the greatest Causes of Litigious Pleadings is this ignorance of Law Hence it is that Men make disadvantageous Agreements which afterwards they will not perform that so many Revocations and Restitutions are required against Surprizes that they rashly undertake a Process the Consequences whereof they do not foresee that having Equity at the bottom they commit it to the management of a Sollicitor who spoils a good Cause by his ill Proceeding So that if any knowledge of Business produces Wrangling 't is that confused and uncertain knowledge of some little part of Practice without Order and without the Knowledge of Principles Whence it is that the greatest Pettifoggers are always the meanest sort of Practitioners Now Men must needs have these obscure and imperfect Notions when they are only instructed by use Besides that this is a very slow Master and scarce ever informs but by the Faults which are committed Further after a long time you will hereby know only some certain particular Matters and which indeed you may know even too particularly and at the same time be intirely ignorant of all the rest To me therefore it seems that it would be better not altogether to depend upon Experience but to be first prepared for it by some general Knowledge For though it be true that many are sufficiently vers'd in business by use alone it ought to be confess'd nevertheless that they would be still better and more easily instructed if they joyned some Study thereunto And seeing there is a certain Age wherein we desire that young Persons should Study though it were only to imploy them why should we not rather busie them in that which may be serviceable to them afterwards than in that which is only for the School that is for nothing For the School is not of use but so far as it fits us for the remaining part of Life Now in this Matter there is no need to fear least they should learn a little more Law than may be absolutely necessary for them It is difficult exactly to measure this Necessary and they will retain we may be sure no more than the sum of that which they learn This Study which of it self is a little dull may be made more delightsome by the Knowledge of many Matters of Fact which giving to the Scholar a little Experience before his time would render both the Maxims and the Reasonings of Law more sensible I would then that the young Man be often told what are the different Conditions of Men of the same Country what their Imployments and what it is by which they subsist That he knew how a Peasant an Artificer a Citizen lives what a Judge is or any other Man of the Robe I say that which they are and not that which they ought to be what was their Birth how they came to Offices how they live That he be acquainted how the Soldiers and the Officers of the Army subsist and also that he be inform'd concerning Clergy-men and the Religious In a word concerning all Men with whom he must live The different nature also of Men's possessions should be describ'd unto him from the least Farm to the greatest Lordship and how the Rents of them are made What is Trade and the Bank and how Men grow Rich thereby The different natures of Rents to conclude the different ways of Living and Subsisting according to the difference of Countries And seeing they cannot Learn all this but by Conversation young Persons ought to be taught to profit by discoursing with all sorts of Persons even with Peasants and Servants The way is to make each of them speak of his own Trade and of things which he knows Both of them would gain by this mutual Conversation He that speaks has the pleasure to Instruct and to make himself heard he who hears has the pleasure to understand something new and the profit will thereby abide with him The Reading also of the Ancients will help him to understand these same Matters of Fact as I have observed for Oeconomicks The Orations and Epistles of Cicero are full of wonderful variety of Affairs which the Scholar may be brought to observe as he shall have occasion If he is to live a private Life particular business should be chiefly explained unto him if he is design'd by his Birth to great Imploys he should be more kept to publick Matters Titus Livius and other Historians will also teach him a great deal concerning them Thus the same Lesson might serve for several uses for Grammar for Rhetorick for History for Morality for Oeconomicks for Law Sometimes one kind of Reflections should be made sometimes another as occasion shall serve and it would be hard if none of them should take effect But in all these Observations Curiosity which continually Tempts should be avoided unless it be used as a Ragoust to Excite the Appetite of Knowing For otherwise it will be no great harm not
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
affected with the Sensible Objects which surround them and are continually Attentive to them Hence it is that they do easily joyn together what affects them at the same time such a certain Sound with such a Figure or Smell which yet have no Natural Connexion with one another Hence it is that they Learn so easily to Speak Hence also it is that Chastisements have their effect upon them But this also is that which is the cause of their Errors for they take all that for good which is agreeable to their Senses or which is joyned to any agreeable Object and the contrary for evil These First Impressions are so strong that often they form the Manners of the Child for all the remaining part of his Life and seems to be one of the Causes of the different Customs of whole Nations So that he who could be so happy as to joyn agreeable Sensations to the first Instructions which are given of things useful for Manners or for the Conduct of Life In a word to joyn that which is truly good with pleasure This Man would have found the Secret of Education a Secret much more valuable than that of the Philosopher's Stone I know that upon this Principle Sweet-Meats Images and Money and Fine Cloaths are given to Children to Recompence their Diligence and Excite them to do well But by this we do them more harm than good Hereby we Cherish in them the Seeds of Gluttony Covetousness and Vanity They should be Invited by more Innocent Pleasures than those of Eating of Possessing any thing and making themselves Gazed upon and Admired and I know none so suitable to this end as those of Sight such are the Beauties of Nature Pieces of Painting and Architecture Symmetry Figures and Colours As the Sight makes us Attribute all its Impressions to External Objects so its Pleasures carry us onely to Admire and Love these Objects and not our Selves which is the great danger Agreeable Sounds and Good Smells have proportionably the same effect and this perhaps is the Reason why in the Solemn Office of the Church it has been thought Expedient to yield something to these Three Senses For this Reason I should Advise that the first Church to which the Child is carried should be the Fairest Clearest and most Magnificent That he be rather Instructed in a Fine Garden and in the sight of a Pleasant Prospect when the Weather is Serene and when he is in the best Humour I would have the first Books he is to use well Printed and Bound that the Master himself if possible be Well-made Proper Speaking well with a good Tone an Open Countenance and agreeable in all his Deportments And seeing it is difficult to meet with these Qualities joyn'd with others more Essential I would at least that he have nothing that is Unbecoming Rude and Distastful The little care that is taken to accommodate our selves to the weakness of Children in all these things is the Reason that for the most part they have an Aversion and Contempt as long as they live for that which they have been Taught by Old Ill-humour'd and Melancholy Persons and that the Disgust they take against Publick Schools built after an Old Fashion which have neither Light nor good Air often Influences even their Latin and other Studies But whatsoever is done to make Children Attentive it is not to be hoped they will continue so any long time nor that they can always be led on by Pleasure There is often need of Fear Joy Distracts them and joyning it self to their Natural Levity makes them in a Moment pass from one Object to another It is also to be feared that they will be too Familiar with their Master if he be always in a Pleasant Humour and that seeking always to divert them he be too Airy and discover some Weakness He must therefore often take upon Himself the Character which doth more properly belong to him which is the Serious He must sometimes shew Anger both in his Looks and by the Tone of his Voice to stop the Carreer of these young Minds and make them enter into themselves And sometimes if it be necessary to pass from Threats to Chastisements they may be managed several ways before they come to Corporal Punishments and they ought to be made sensible that they are only Punished for want of Attention or some Fault relating to their Manners and not meerly for their Ignorance and want of Wit to the end that they may not look upon Punishment as an Evil but a Piece of Justice Above all all possible care should be taken never to be really Angry at them what Mein soever may be put on I know very well that this is not easie The Office of Instructing is not always Pleasant If the Disciple begins to be tired though he often is diverted by seeing something New The Master has Reason much more to be so And in this Case Resentment is soon taken and it is ever and anon excited by the continual Fooleries of Children so opposite to the Humour of an Old Man or one arrived to the years of Maturity Besides Threatnings and Chastisements are much a shorter way to give Attention than that Insinuation and those Pleasant Artifices of which I have spoken But what is more Commodious for the Master ought not to be regarded and it is certain that it is always more profitable for the Scholar to be Conducted by Sweetness and Reason At least great care should be taken that they be not Corrected without cause tho' it be but by a Word or a Look For how just soever the Reprimand may be it is always Harsh especially in an Age wherein the Passions are so strong and the Reason so weak It is a sort of Wound which imploys all the Attention of the Soul and ingages her in thinking on the Grief which she feels or the Injustice which she imagines she has received Insomuch that if the Injustice be real and the Child perceives it either by something which goes before or something which follows as the Judgment of others or that of his Master himself when he shall but never so little come to himself If I say he perceives that his Master is Passionate or that he is not exactly Reasonable He will not fail either to hate or Despise him and from that time his Master becomes useless to him And it ought not to be imagined that Children are easie to be deceived herein They are very sensible whether they have Right or Wrong done to them and they have a very quick Sense whereby they can discern the Passions by the Visage and all External Motions though as yet they know not how to express them and do not so much as reflect that they do observe them They have this Good Quality that their Ill-humour and their Anger do not last long and that they soon return to that Joy which is more natural to them Let us be cautious not to
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