majesty and join severity with sweetness without too much softness Amity requires a certain proportion which may oblige one to descend sometimes to youthful Sentiments which must be practised in such a manner that they by degrees be elbow'd out and manly ones implanted in their stead When the Poets make Iupiter transform'd into a Bull or the like to communicate himself to his lovers they yet always leave some marks foot-steps of his divinity under those shapes When Painters make the portraicture of any one in small they have a care to keep all the dimensions proportionable to the face and body they mean to represent though in a far less volume And when God himself through his immortal goodness was pleased to give himself to men and illuminate them with his own brightness which was before wrapt up in such thick Clouds knowing they were but children whom he would instruct and whom the Father had committed to his education he would not appear in lightning and thunders nor in the lustre of his greatness which would have dazled and blinded them in stead of enlightning them but he became like unto them and made himself sensible that he might enter into their spirits by their senses and yet his divinity kept its grandeur and ful majesty in this lowest humility abasement Governours of young men are Gods Lievtenants in this function and as he became man to teach men so they must in some sort imitate Children whilest they instruct them alwayes accommodating themselves to their age sometimes soothing their humours and stooping to them but having still an eye and ear to make them reap some benefit from all their actions and thoughts ever raising their minds insensibly to higher things and making their own sentiments the staires whereby they must climb up to true perfection But yet he must not lose his authority by this complyance When a man will take some great burthen on his back he stoops to take it and then he not onely raises himself again but bears up the weight that is laid on In the same manner ought he to appropriate and fit himself to his charge and presently when he is established and become absolute Master of his mind and will he must advance to his own posture again and raise the youth up with him to higher and nobler things 'T is an old Proverb that familiarity breeds contempt and 't is also a most certain experience that gravity takes off confidence and affection But he that can preserve a familiar Majesty that can please without flattery reprove without offence subject without alienating exercise without wearying and recreate without debauching such an one will illuminate the soul conquer the heart and find every power and faculty ready prepared to receive any good impression CHAP. VII Three things which hinder the respect and amity of young men towards their Governours THere are three things which hinder one from preserving amity and respect in a young spirit The one comes from without when the Tutor is not honour'd and esteemed by the Parents Domesticks Friends or compagnons of him he governs Examples are a living Book whose Characters easily imprint themselvs in him that reads them Exterior things are very powerful on any soul but principally on those who as yet do not act but by the counsel of their senses who having not yet their own sentiments fully perfected in them are constrained to rely on the judgments of others in whom they confide The second hinderance proceeds from the natural inclination of youth who being prompted to their own pleasures abhor and detest all that restrain or impede them which makes them look on their Governors as the disturbers of their repose and enemies of their delights and sensualities which immediately breeds aversion in them And this is the more difficult to overcome because it is more natural and youth is guided and conducted at first meerly by nature who bandies against all that is opposed to her That which causes distempers and maladies in the body is the contrariety of such qualities which are incompatible and this also works the same effects in our manners and produces love or hatred according as the objects are conformable or contrary to its propensions He must study therefore to overcome this obstacle and not have nature for his enemy at the first But make a dissembled agreement with her to deceive her with the more advantage The third proceeds from the Governor himself when either by indecent actions or vicious habits he loses the authority annexed to his charge by such defects in his own person There is no better Art whereby to gain esteem then to become worthy of such esteem Respect is a tribute which vertue commands and acquires even from those that hate it Those that possess it need use no Arts nor false Grimaces she always keeps her own Majesty and is revered by the greatest powers though she cannot make her self be always beloved Let him be careful therefore to deserve honor and obedience rather then to exact it If he will bring these fruits forth in his disciple he must have the root of it to grow within himself The honour of a Prince if founded only in the number and strength of his guards is but a vain appearance in his subjects and as such an one hath no true Majesty but only a few outward pomps and gawdy shows so neither is he truely respected or observed but onely with a retaliation of seeming devoirs and flattering outward gestures That Tutor who hath no gravity but in his words and threats gaines no more obedience then his disciple is capable of fear If he do any ignoble actions he pulls down all that his discourse or teaching had built and even tempts and invites the youth to imitate him if what he did were pleasing and voluptuous or exposes himself to laughter and derision if his actions were ridiculous CHAP. VIII Of Pedants and their several kinds IT happens very oft that those who have not any qualities whereby to render themselves commendable will seek to gain authority by an affectation of wisdom a haughty countenance or an imperious accent not speaking but with disjointed words or else extending to a prolixity of discourse as if they did preach pronouncing their follies like rare sentences The poor youth who hears but understands them not is more confounded then instructed by his precepts and as those things which displease do easily distast from this disgust they come to slight such things and from this slighting there arises hatred which does encrease if they strive to use force This they endeavour to remedy by harsh means or ruder stripes and so lose their power by too much using of it or if they meet a docile spirit they make it by such unhandsome treatments to become dull and degenerate They commit another fault which has ruined many persons of fair hopes and promises and that by ordering proportioning or disposing of things according to
HEROICK EDVCATION OR Choice Maximes and Instructions for the most sure and facile training up of youth in the ways of eminent learning and vertues A Treatise very necessary for all men but most especially for such as undertake the charge to govern the young Nobility and Gentry IN Two Books together with a short Appendix By I. B. Gent. LONDON Printed for William Hope at the blew Anchor behind the Old Exchange and Henry Herringman at the blew Anchor in the lower Walk in the Now Exchange 1657. WILLIAM OF NASSAV etc BORNE PRINCE of ORANGE To the READER WHen this small treatise came first to my hands it was only a confus'd heap of several pieces without method or imbellishment I obtained it by communication of a Noble Lady Illustrious for her birth and very considerable in the esteem of the more polite World for her rare and excellent qualities She had kept it in her Closet as a concealed treasure to make use of in particular occasions which in time might offer themselves And doing me once the honor to demand my opinion of it I presently judged after the perusal of some few leaves that it was the product of some great and knowing Spirit which after a thorough and deliberate reading proved equally solid in all its parts and worthy to appear openly I presently took a resolution to reduce it to some order and cloath it in this form to publish it to the World I am not ignorant how infinitely rich this subject is for the matter how copious and fruitful a field and how often it hath been already manured and imbellished by many rare Pens with the greatest art and care which might be capable to intimidate a more then ordinary courage Nevertheless far from being startled at the grand numbers of Writers I thought I might go on without reproach intending with modesty to tread in the same paths which those eminent Wits had traced out before me But that which prompted me the more eagerly was the approbation of one of the most Heroick Cavaliers in the world who by his excellent Vertues his Noble Valour and great Prudence hath filled all vertuous mens hearts with his affection and admiration His name shall live eternally with veneration in the world norshal the sweet remembrance of his exquisite parts ever perish but with the last mortal man His judgment is equally balanced betwixt delicacy and solidity 't were a sign of temerity or imbecility to oppose his sentiments 'T is he in fine that inspired me with this ardour and who by a censure very much to my advantage hath dissipated those thick clouds which the fear of envy and medisance might raise in a soul not truely generous I am confident you will look on it favourably both in respect towards him and in consideration of the end I have proposed which is no other but the publick benefit and especially theirs who do actually or intend to exercise the like charges who if they ever take the pains to read it over to weigh it and maturely consider it Will I am confident if they have that experience which I suppose infallibly find somewhat that shall profit them in those precepts and that doctrine which it contains in a few sheets very necessary for the education and conduct of the young Noblesse and Gentry This is the top of my ambition and the whole bent of my desires to which there is nothing wanting but to learn the name of this famous unknown Author who first made the happy project Not to enrich my self with his spoils but to publish his praises as wel as his Writings and to protest I am his admirer and shall be his humble servant in particular as I am to all the judicious and courteous Readers in general Farewel I. B. A TABLE Of the Chapters Part. I. CHap. I. Of nature and our humane condition and how we must accommodate things in the education of a young man Chap. II. Maximes to make good use of the natural inclinations and turn them to good Chap. III. The second Maxime that the Governor must endeavour to win him to embrace vertue out of a principle of affection and not of fear together with the means to practice it Chap. IV. Wherefore we do most ardently and violently desire forbidden things Chap. V. The third Maxime that he must gain the love of him he governs and also love him tenderly again Chap. VI. How one must make use of this Maxime Chap. VII Three things which hinder the respect and amity of young men towards their Governors Chap. VIII Of Pedants and their several sorts Chap. IX Second kind of Pedants Chap. X. The third kind of Pedants Chap. XI Of the qualities of good Governors Chap. XII Of the most ordinary defects which breed in young people Chap. XIII Three means to correct our evil inclinations Part II. CHap. I. Three sorts of corporal habitudes Chap. II. The Governors second end and care touching the soul divided into two parts the Inferiour and the Superiour Chap. III. Of the common sense and memory Chap. IV. Of reading and other means to help the memory Chap. V. Of true Piety a solid discourse Chap. VI. Of Modesty Chap. VII Of Love of Truth and of Honor Chap. VIII Of Sciences Chap. IX Whether one ought to send him to the publick Schools Chap. X Of History Chap. XI Of Philosophy Chap. XII Of Morality Chap. XIII Of Policy and the means to train him up to it in his youth Chap. XIV The second step or degree to arrive to the knowledge of Politicks which is to travel and how Chap. XV. Third step or degree the Military Art Chap. XVI Fourth step or degree of Intrigues and Negotiations Chap. XVII Of those other Sciences he ought to learn Heroicke Education CHAP. I. Of Nature and our humane condition and how we must accommodate things in the education of a young man THose who beleeve that the Soul is endued with all Science and knowledge at the instant of its Creation which the presence of Objects does afterwards only awaken and stirre up in our memories doe very much derogate from the merits of vertue which acquires them through much labour As likewise those who are perswaded that it is a smooth Tablet where one may easily engrave all sorts of Images make no reflexion on the power of the temperature or constitution nor of the need it hath of a commerce with the Sences by which the species of all things are presented to it 'T is a naked Tenant which comes to inhabit a furnish'd Palace where it finds the dispositions and the seeds of habits which time and exercise does afterwards bring to maturity We carry the seeds of our good or evill qualities in our veines and the masse of our body of it selfe insensible does neverthelesse containe the originall of those Sentiments which the spirit vivifies The intimate union wherewith the soule is knit unto it and the need it hath of its Ministery ought to
may be guessed by his colour maladies appetite his dreames disposition and agility and by all the operations of each part of his body Also by his resentment of injuries the shame he hath for his faults the care he takes to preserve his honour his desire to appeare his jealousie of others the heate and ardour which leads him to the ends he aimes at his constancy and resolution in difficulties the manner of his owne government the vivacity and promptnesse of his replies and the strength of his reasoning and arguments On all which he must often try him and raise his spirits by delightfull objects to keep him in exercise and see his activity In that tender age we beare a forme of what shall be when we come to virility Like those Pictures which being only rough-drawne though they want that perfection and lustre which the last colours adds to them yet they have the perfect shape and all the lineaments that are necessary So that what the pencill afterwards does serves only to embellish it being ever wrought exactly by the same stroakes Of all the precepts that can be given on this subject use and custome are the surest guides and meanes to penetrate and dive into the very bottomes and most secret recesses of those young soules who having as yet not learned the art to dissemble expose themselves to any curious search and discover what their natures are by acting freely and openly of themselves CHAP. III. The second Maxime That his Governour must endeavour to winne him to embrace vertue out of a principle of affection and not of feare together with the meanes to practise it THe insight and knowledge which he shall gaine by the precedent observations will shew him the place whereon he ought to build to take his measures according to the dimensions of the ground-plot and raise his edifice proportionably to his foundations We have nothing or but very little in us which may not be applyed to some good All the works of God are good in themselves we doe make use even of venomous beasts for antidotes and can extract a wholsome juice from the least herb that growes All our motions are of themselves indifferent they become good or bad only by our meanes and the use we make them serve for Every one desires good and perfection and that which causes so many to stray from it is the different manner wherby 't is represented The will never tends to evill but only when the spirit and sences doe disguise it under the appearance and flattering shape of some good and never erres but by the ignorance or malice of its guides Vertue is so amiable that there is no soule which can know it and not be enamour'd with it nor would vice be followed by any one if it had not found out the art to counterfeit the other The principall care consists in well illuminating the mind and spirit from whom the will takes all its counsell that Minister must be well instructed that he may faithfully informe his Master The will is a Prince which commands but is neverthelesse counselled by his servants the Orders and Edicts are made in his name but his servants lay the plots and projects 't is he tends towards the objects and applyes all the other powers to seeke out what he desires but even those which serve it in its pursuits doe master it in its deliberation To these therefore he should make his addresse and when these are perswaded the other is easily drawne after them There are many which cause young men to exercise themselves in vertuous actions with a kind of constraint which makes them hate the end even whilst they are tending towards it Although the Oxen draw the plow yet the yoke is hatefull to them and how ever we say that use makes perfectnesse and custome renders the most difficult things easie I beleeve that to be truer in actions of the body then those of the mind whose essentiall liberty not being restrained but by some exteriour obstacle either it endeavours to surmount it by force or at least detests it whilst it does undergoe it One is not vertuous for doing that which is good but for loving it and that which we doe by constraint is only imputable to the power which compels us The heavens are not animated though they incessantly move their motion comming from a cause that 's separate in their celerity we admire nothing but the Angels which first sets them going When vertue engenders not in our hearts but comes to us only from without by some violent meanes we possesse it only as a slave who seekes but an occasion to escape and not as our offspring borne of our owne bloud and substance 'T is a beauty which will be sought too and wooed handsomely that will command in us and not be the servant of feare bestowing her selfe only on those whose hearts she hath in full possession If once we can but inflame a soule with a true love for her all the little troubles of seeking and courting her will be swallowed up in the ardour of its longing desires One must endeavour therefore to render this vertue gratefull to him by discovering all her perfection and amability and heighten those by the deformity of her opposite making him admire in others the glorious effects which she produces and dread the shame and confusion which inevitably follow all base ignoble actions One must often highly praise the handsome qualities of those he frequents and as loudly blame the bad ones in his presence So furnishing him from others with good examples for himselfe which he will more clearly behold then he can in his owne person For every fault he shall commit you must be sure to make him ressent some trouble in his mind as shame contempt repentance blame the privation of some pleasure which being imprinted in his imagination will make his actions become odious to him of its selfe Whereas the punishments of the body passe more lightly and cause nothing but indignation or at most a servile feare which does not make him detest his fault but only dread the evill which followes There are a thousand various means which depend on the skill of him that shall undertake such a charge which cannot be reduced to precepts consisting only in finding out sweet and cunning wayes to bring him to the detestation of vice and a perfect love of vertue This we may best bring to passe by representing it with pleasing ornaments advantages and circumstances proportionate to his inclination And this first view will beget delectation from thence will arise love which creates desire and desire will cause a diligent search and pursuit after vertuous actions which will beget habits without difficulty or paine He must have the patience to lead him up by all these steps and degrees for otherwise too great hast may expose him to a fall or at least run him out of breath in the midst of his race He must
them CHAP. XII Of the most ordinary defects which breed in young people HE will at first find work enough which nature hath prepared for him for a young soul how noble or high soe're it be is ever full of many defects which he must weed out carefully in the beginning before he cast the good seed in it They are so many dispositions contrary to vertue which must be rid thence before you can bring him to a right posture As before grace can be received we must be throughly purged from fin The most common are stubbornness sloath self-love credulity aversion from all labour levity immodesty depraved appetites and several others of which some are born with us others are communicated by contagion which often succeed one another and are ready to spring up afresh in the rooms of those we had newly rooted out thence He must be very wary and gentle in his proceedings having an eye to the causes qualities and circumstances of the defects If they be absolutely vicious as certain base and unworthy inclinations they must be opposed with more rigour then others need to be and be rendred as odious and hateful as 't is possible he must shew how ill-favoured they appear in others and strive to divert him from such thoughts by other imployments causing him to undergo some shame reproach or disdain if he fall foul on them again drawing him by degrees to actions that are quite contrary in which he may find both delight and honour And if they be of those little imperfections which are incident to that tender age and not to their nature they must be managed more delicately and sometimes even winked at as being the signs and tokens of spirit and wit which may be turned into vertues if they be judiciously wrought upon and directed to good ends CHAP. XIII Three meanes to correct our evil inclinations PHilosophers assign three means to correct our selves the one is to fly from those objects to which we are allured the second is to oppose and combat our passions one with another and the third is to assault them openly by meet strength of reason The first of these is neither generous nor alwayes effectual because we happen oft to meet that which we think to fly from nor is that the way to strike to the root of the evil Chi é ferito nel cuore in van si fugge The second is not vertuous though it be utile The third is more Heroick and noble but likewise 't is more difficult The best meanes is to blend and apply all these three together with discretion according as the exigency requires Sometimes they must be diverted and dispel'd by the lustre and clear light of truth by the charming beauty of vertue and the loathsome deformity of vice other times by shunning its sight and rencontre and now and then excluding them by entertaining some other honest pleasures which may thrust them quite out of doors When we would weaken an enemy we create divisions amongst them So must we likewise do by our passions cast in the apple of discord and let them be destroyed one by another The desires of Glory and Honour hath stifled the motions of sensuality in many breasts The love of Women has often made a narrow covetous heart to become liberal yea prodigal But he must have a mighty care to hinder that passion that is Victor from triumphing over the liberty of the soul lest it should erect an absolute tyranny there Nor must we utterly extinguish the passions but only tame and moderate their excess for they are vicious only in as much as they exceed and being brought to a just and even temper they become instruments of vertue and make the soul act with the more life and vigour The end of the first Part. The Second Part OF Heroicke Education HAving brought him to a temper fit to receive good impressions his care must tend towards two things which con-center in one again that is to make an honest well bred Man The first is touching the Body and the other the Soul for these two parts being reciprocally dependents and concurrents together in actions they have both need of culture If Polititians give Princes maximes wherby to command well they likewise prescribe Laws to Subjects to obey well 'T is vain to give the soul light and illumination whereby to reason unlesse we also dispose the body to follow its counsels Moreover although habits depend upon the soul as their original yet there are some which reside in the body as in their proper subject It is therefore needful that he have dispositions fitted to receive them as well as a soul to produce and bring them forth CHAP. I. Three sorts of corporal habitudes THe corporal habits are of three sorts some consist of interiour actions and the conformity of the body with the superior part by means of which it obeys and submits without repugnance to whatever reason prescribes even against or contrary to its own appetites These are not acquir'd but through long use and practice and are the perfection and consummation of mans wisedom The second have another object and look not so much to the soul as upon its union with the body both which naturally desire their own preservation By these a man uses to restrain and deprive himselfe of all those things that might hasten his end or discompose his health And because young people through want of knowledge of care and of power to govern and curb themselves do easily yield to such things as do them hurt and because the same nature which gives them the instinct to preserve their health does likewise give them an appetiâ—â— to follow that which does destroy it Therefore those that have them in their charge must wisely supply those little defects of their age charity managing so precious a jewel not that I would take away the use of all things that are pleasing or offend nature whilest I intend to protect it nor make that life unhappy which I would prolong no I would only pare away what is superfluous That which is necessary is never hurtful and what is excessive can never be necessary Nature sayes Seneca is content with a little one may easily satisfie it opinion hath never enough because it hath no bounds or limits but still leaps from one desire to another Let us therefore allow nature what she ought to have and take from opinion what we ought not to give it This is a vertue essential to an honest man which I place amongst those of the body not that it proceeds not from the empire of the soul But because it terminates primitively in the body and tends to take away the means of annoying the spirit life I place this not only in the moderation of eating drinking but universally in the abstinence from all excess and disorder which decayes the body over-clouds the spirit and mind enervates the strength and force invades the health shortens
the life and makes the soul to become a slave to its own lust and pleasures I am willing one should taste of innocent enjoyments but not that they should enjoy and enchain us We should make use of them as Princes do of their Buffoons whose counsel they never take nor ever call them into their presence but when they mean to lose an hour or two in pastime Of all kinds of excess that of the mouth is the most shameful and prejudicial for being gross and material it makes a man all flesh and blood and as all that is superfluous in us turns into such humors which are most predominant If we are melancholy it breeds and amasses black humors encreases choler and inflames the blood and so of others the like and therefore we thereby do but lend weapons to our passions to make a civil war in our own bosomes or heap up fewel on those flames that shall consume us From thence arise those gross vapours which climb into our brain making us dull and heavy unquiet testy and sometimes depriving us even of the liberty of its functions And this begets also another unhappiness which is that we accustome and subject our selves so much to superfluous things that being changed into habits they become at last altogether necessary to us Which is a reason why great persons who are wont to live more delicately then others are much more to be pitied when reduced to necessity standing in need of much more then nature of her self does want for her conversation Cato feared the sobriety of Caesar more then his courage 'T is that which made him indefatigable in his labours as fortune made him invincible to his enemies He eat little laboured much went on foot in the front of his Armies bare-headed in the most scorching heats of Summer and the most biting Winter frosts He used his body to all hardships and inconveniencies and gave it no more repose then what was needful to continue his labour But above all 't is noted that he drank very little wine Those who cannot imitate him I shal counsel them at least to follow him as neer as they can if they mean to succeed him in his glory This vertue must be acquired by degrees and steps using the body by little and little to be deprived of its ease or at least not to be subject to it This indeed cannot be practised without using a kind of violence to nature But being for its good there should be no complaint since the remedy though it be harsh is salutary The third sort are touching the body and exteriour actions consisting in exercises which are ordinarily taught the young Nobility for which having particular Masters the Governor need to have no other care but to make him be assiduous and diligent and to make him to love those exercises in such sort that he do not thereby draw off his affection from higher and more noble things but esteem of them as his divertisement not his imployment For those are no fundamental qualities nor do they make a man commendable of themselves but only in as much as they direct him towards vertue and are joined to the divine graces of his mind and spirit especially in men of great quality who will not take any profession and should only scorn to be altogether ignorant of them In this rank I place riding the great horse fencing musick both of voice and instruments dancing vaulting plausibility of speech a graceful garb and accort carriage a handsome mind and presence and all other such like qualities which only concern his behaviour and comeliness of action which indeed one should endeavour to have but never propound them as the highest aime or perfection but as ornaments and embellishments fitting for men of rank and quality For as great persons never put all their estates in Jewels and ornaments so neither must we make our capital and foundation of such vertues which may be common to vitious persons Neither must we despise them because they are handsome additions and little heightnings which sets off the lustre of the soule with greater advantage and admiration The best Maxime I can give to gain these and to do all things compleatly is to do them without constraint or affectation with a natural assurance and an ingenuous confidence imploying all onâ—s art to hide that art from open view But above all not to brag of any thing whatsoever advantage one may have above others For in that instant that we make a shew of knowing much and doing things well or having a good opinion of our selves we gain the disesteem of all others It is extream good likewise to frequent such persons very often whose manners and actions are pleasing which without labour will insensibly inspire the gesture and behaviour into our imaginations and that without either affection or studied poâ—… CHAP. II. The Governors second end and care touching the soul divided into two parts the Inferiour and Superiour THe Second and principal end and aim of the Governor is to dress and cultivate the soul which we consider two wayes according to the divers functions it does exercise First as it imagines receives retains and digests the species comming from the senses Secondly as it reasons and deliberates The first is compos'd of three powers which require an exact care for from those all the defects or perfections of man do ordinarily proceed viz. from the imagination common sense and the memory The first of these must be regulated in its designes disordered agitations its false apprehension of objects and above all vulgar opinions which consist in admiring too facilely acting by custome and by example embracing the judgement of others passionately siding with parties loving hating praising blaming without good grounds entertaining opinions becoming refractory and easily relishing and favouring the passions and interests of others judging and censuring all things and a thousand other such like weaknesses which arise from the imbecillity or laziness of the imagination which had rather rely and trust the reports of others then take the pains to present every thing to the judgment to examine them throughly He must be careful therefore to fit and fraight the imagination with good and choice things maintain it in a liberty of considering and weighing every thing applying it to solid things and shewing him the vanity of those objects it apprehends and falsely admires This power and faculty hath one great defect which is that it represents things greater then they are and often abuses the mind and will making them beleeve and desire that which is false and evil He must endeavour earnestly to enlighten this and restrain that impetuosity which does oversway and biass it and makes it rove and wander and this he must fix on what it does and mingle some pleasure with all its occupations that it may stil be present for having some pleasing end it will wholly apply it selfe thereto and not be scattered and parcel'd towards so