Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A39232
|
The grounds & occasions of the contempt of the clergy and religion enquired into in a letter written to R.L.
|
Eachard, John, 1636?-1697.
|
1672
(1672)
|
Wing E52; ESTC R31398
|
55,186
|
170
|
of body to sit still so much as in general is requisite to a competent degree of Learning For although reading and thinking breaks neither Legs nor Arms yet certainly there is nothing that so flags the Spirits disorders the Blood and enfeebles the whole Body of Man as intense Studies As for him that rives Blocks or carries Packs there is no great expence of parts no Anxiety of Mind no great Intellectual Pensiveness Let him but wipe his Forehead and he is perfectly recovered But he that has many Languages to remember the Nature almost of the whole World to consult many Histories Fathers and Councils to search into if the Fabrick of his body be not strong and healthful you will soon find him as thin as Metaphysicks and look as piercing as School subtlety This Sir could not be conveniently omitted not only because many are very careless in this point and at a venture determine their young Relations to Learning but because for the most part if amongst many there be but one of all the Family that is weak and sickly that is languishing and consumptive this of all the rest as counted not fit for any course Employment shall be pick'd out as a choice Vessel for the Church Whereas most evidently he is much more able to dig daily in the Mines than to sit cross-legg'd musing upon his Book I am very sensible how obvious it might be here to hint that this so curious and severe inquiry would much hinder the practice and abate the flourishing of the Universities As also there has been several and are still many living Creatures in the World who whilst young were of a very slow and meek apprehension have yet afterward cheared up into a great briskness and became Masters of much Reason And others there have been who although forced to a short continuance in the University and that oft-times interrupted by unavoidable services have yet by singular care and industry proved very famous in their Generation And lastly some also of very feeble and crasie Constitutions in their Childhood have out-studied their distempers and have become very healthful and serviceable in the Church As for the flourishing Sir of the Universities what has been before said aims not in the least at Gentlemen whose coming thither is chiefly for the hopes of single improvement and whose Estates do free them from the necessity of making a gain of Arts and Sciences but only at such as intend to make Learning their Profession as well as Accomplishment So that our Schools may be still as full of Flourishings of fine Cloaths rich Gowns and future Benefactors as ever And suppose we do imagine as it is not necessary we should that the number should be a little lessen'd this surely will not abate the true splendour of an University in any Man's opinion but his who reckons the flourishing thereof rather from the multitude of meer Gowns than from the Ingenuity and Learning of those that wear them no more than we have reason to count the flourishing of the Church from that vast number of People that crowd into Holy Orders rather than from those Learned and useful Persons that defend her Truths and manifest her Ways But I say I do not see any perfect necessity that our Schools should hereupon be thinn'd and less frequented having said nothing against the Multitude but the indiscreet Choice If therefore instead of such either of inferiour parts or a feeble Constitution or of unable Friends there were pick'd out those that were of a tolerable Ingenuity of a study-bearing Body and had good hopes of being continued as hence there is nothing to hinder our Universities from being full so likewise from being of great Credit and Learning Not to deny then but that now and then there has been a Lad of very submissive parts and perhaps no great share of time allow'd him for his Studies who have proved beyond all expectation brave and glorious Yet surely we are not to over-reckon this so rare a hit as to think that one such proving Lad should make recompense and satisfaction for those many weak ones as the common people love to phrase them that are in the Church And that no care ought to be taken no choice made no Maintenance provided or considered because now and then in an Age one miraculously beyond all hopes proves learned and useful is a practice whereby never greater Mischiefs and disesteem has been brought upon the Clergy I have in short Sir run over what seemed to me the first Occasions of that small learning that is to be found amongst some of the Clergy I shall now pass from Schooling to the Universities I am not so unmindful of that Devotion which I owe to those places nor of that great esteem I profess to have of the Guides and Governours thereof as to go about to prescribe new Forms and Schemes of Education where Wisdom has laid her Top-stone Neither shall I here examine which Philosophy the old or new makes the best Sermons it is hard to say that Exhortations can be to no purpose if the Preacher believes that the Earth turns round Or that his Reproofs can take no effect unless he will suppose a Vacuum There has been good Sermons no question made in the days of Materia Prima and Occult Qualities And there is doubtless still good Discourses now under the Reign of Atoms There is but two things wherein I count the Clergy chiefly concerned as to University Improvements that at present I shall venture to make Inquiry into And the first is this Whether or no it were not highly useful especially for the Clergy who are supposed to speak English to the People that English Exercises were imposed upon Lads if not in publick Schools yet at least privately Not but that I am abundantly satisfied that Latin O Latin 't is the all in all and the very cream of the Jest As also that Oratory is the same in all Languages The same Rules being observed the same Method the same Arguments and Arts of perswasion But yet it seems somewhat beyond the reach of ordinary Youth so to apprehend those general Laws as to make a just and allowable use of them in all Languages unless exercised particularly in them Now we know the Language that the very learned part of this Nation must trust to live by unless it be to make a Bond or prescribe a Purge which possibly may not oblige or work so well in any other Language as Latin is the English And after a Lad has taken his leave of Madam University God bless him he is not likely to deal afterward with much Latin unless it be to checker a Sermon or to say Salveto to some travelling Dominatio Vestra Neither is it enough to say that the English is the Language with which we are swaddled and rock'd asleep and therefore there needs none of this artificial and superadded care For there be those that speak very well plainly
with those unpleasant tasks and drudgeries something that in probability might not only take much better with them but might also be much easier obtained As suppose some part of time was allotted them for the reading of some innocent English Authours where they need not go every line so unwillingly to a tormenting Dictionary and whereby they might come in a short time to apprehend common sence and to begin to judge what is true For you shall have Lads that are arch knaves at the Nominative Case and that have a notable quick Eye at spying out the Verb who for want of reading such common and familiar Books shall understand no more of what is very plain and easie than a well educated Dog or Horse Or suppose they were taught as they might much easier be than what is commonly offered to them the principles of Arithmetick Geometry and such alluring parts of Learning As these things undoubtedly would be much more useful so much more delightful to them than to be tormented with a tedious story how Phaeton broke his Neck or how many Nuts and Apples Tityrus had for his Supper For most certainly Youths if handsomely dealt with are much inclinable to Emulation to a very useful esteem of Glory and more especially if it be the reward of Knowledge and therefore if such things were carefully and discretely propounded to them wherein they might not only earnestly contend amongst themselves but might also see how far they outskil the rest of the World a Lad hereby would think himself high and mighty and would certainly take great delight in contemning the next unlearned Mortal he meets withal But if instead hereof you diet him with nothing but with Rules and Exceptions with tiresome Repetitions of Amo's and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 setting a day also apart to recite verbatim all the burdensom task of the foregoing week which I am confident is usually as dreadful as an old Parliament Fast we must needs believe that such a one thus managed will scarce think to prove immortal by such performances and accomplishments as these You know very well Sir that Lads in the general have but a kind of ugly and odd conception of Learning and look upon it as such a starving thing and unnecessary perfection especially as it is usually dispens'd out unto them that Nine-pins or Span-counter are judged much more heavenly employments And therefore what pleasure do we think can such a one take in being bound to get against breakfast two or three hundred Rumblers out of Homer in commendation of Achilles's Toes or the Grecians Boots Or to have measured out unto him very early in the morning fifteen or twenty well laid on Lashes for letting a syllable slip too soon or hanging too long upon it Doubtless instant execution upon such grand miscarriages as these will eternally engage him to a most admirable opinion of the Muses Lads certainly ought to be won by all possible Arts and Devices and though many have invented fine Pictures and Games to cheat them into the undertaking of unreasonable burdens yet this by no means is such a lasting temptation as the propounding of that which in it self is pleasant and alluring For we shall find very many though of no excelling quickness will soon perceive the design of the Landskip and so looking through the veil will then begin to take as little delight in those pretty contrivances as in getting by heart three or four leaves of ungay'd nonsence Neither seems the stratagem of Money to be so prevailing and catching as a right down offering of such Books which are ingenious and convenient there being but very few so intolerably careful of their Bellies as to look upon the hopes of a Cake or a few Apples to be a sufficient recompense for cracking their Pates with a heap of independent words I am not sensible that I have said any thing in disparagement of those two famous Tongues the Greek and Latin there being much reason to value them beyond others because the best of humane Learning has been delivered unto us in those Languages But he that worships them purely out of honour to Rome and Athens having little or no respect to the usefulness and excellency of the Books themselves as many do it is a sign he has a great esteem and reverence of Antiquity but I think him by no means comparable for happiness to him who catches Frogs or hunts Butter-flies That some Languages therefore ought to be studied is in a manner absolutely necessary unless all were brought to one which would be the happiest thing that the World could wish for but whether the beginning of them might not be more insensibly instilled and more advantagiously obtained by reading philosophical as well as other ingenious Authours than Ianua Linguarum's crabbed Poems and cross-grain'd Prose as it hath been heretofore by others so it ought to be afresh considered by all well-wishers either to the Clergy or Learning I know where it is the fashion of some Schools to prescribe to a Lad for his Evening refreshment out of Commenius all the terms of Art belonging to Anatomy Mathematicks or some such piece of Learning Now is it not a very likely thing that a Lad should take most absolute delight in conquering such a pleasant Task where perhaps he has two or three hundred words to keep in mind with a very small proportion of sence thereunto belonging whereas the use and full meaning of all those difficult terms would have been most insensibly obteined by leisurely reading in particular this or the other Science Is it not also likely to be very savoury and of comfortable use to one that can scarce distinguish between Virtue and Vice to be tasked with high and moral Poems For example It is usually said by those that are intimately acquainted with him that Homer's Iliads and Odysses contain mystically all the Moral Law for certain if not a great part of the Gospel I suppose much after that rate that Rablais said his Garagantua contained all the Ten Commandements but perceivable only to those that have a Poetical discerning Spirit with which gift I suppose few at School are so early qualified Those admirable Verses Sir or yours both English and others which you have sometimes favoured me with a sight of will not suffer me to be so sottish as to slight or undervalue so great and noble an Accomplishment But the committing of such high and brave senc'd Poems to a School-boy whose main business is to search out cunningly the Antecedent and the Relative to lie at catch for a spruce phrase a Proverb or a quaint and pithy sentence is not only to very little purpose but that having gargled only those elegant Books at School this serves them instead of reading them afterward and does in a manner prevent their being further lookt into So that all the improvement whatsoever it be that may be reap'd out of the best and choicest Poets is for