Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

great pity and no lefs a fhame to the Commander To fet forward all thefe proceedings in Nature and Mathematicks, what hinders, but that they may procure as oft as shall be needful, the helpful expe riences of Hunters, Fowlers, Fishermen, Shepherds, Gardeners, Apothecaries; and in the other Sciences, Architects, Engineers, Mariners, Anatomifts; who doubtless would be ready, fome for Reward, and fome to favour fuch an hopeful Seminary? And this will give them fuch a real tincture of natural Knowledge, as they fhall never forget, but daily augment with delight. Then alfo thofe Poets which are now counted moft hard, will be both facil and pleasant, Orpheus, Hefiod, Theocritus, Aratus, Nicander, Oppian Dionyfius; and in Latin, Lucretius, Manilius, and the rural part of Virgil.

By this time, Years and good general Precepts will have furnifht them more diftinctly with that act of Reafon which in Ethics is call'd Proairefis; that they may with fome Judgment contemplate upon moral Good and Evil. Then will be requir'd a fpecial reinforcement of conftant and found Endoctrinating to fet them right and firm, inftructing them more amply in the knowledge of Virtue and the hatred of Vice: while their young and pliant Affections are led thro' all the moral Works of Plato, Xenophon, Cicero, Plutarch, Laertius, and thefe Locrian Remnants; but ftill to be reduc'd in their nightward ftudies, wherewith they clofe the day's Work, under the determinate Sentence of David or Solomon, or the Evangelists and Apostolic Scriptures.

Being perfect in the knowledge of perfonal Duty, they may then begin the Study of OEconomics. And either now, or before this, they may have eafily learnt at any odd hour the Italian Tongue. And foon after, but with warinefs and good Antidote, it would be wholesome enough to let them taste some choice Comedies, Greek, Latin, or Italian: Those Tragedies alfo that treat of houshold Matters, as Tracbinia, Alceftis, and the like. The next remove must be to the Study of Politics; to know the Beginning, End, and Reasons of political Societies; that they may not in a dangerous Fit of the Common-wealth be fuch poor, fhaken, uncertain Reeds, of fuch a tottering Confcience, as many of our great Counsellors have lately fhewn themselves, but stedfaft Pillars of the State. After this they are to dive into the grounds of Law, and legal Justice; deliver'd first, and with best warrant, by Moses; and as far as human Prudence can be trufted, in those extoll'd remains of Gracian Lawgivers, Lycurgus, Solon, Zaleucus, Charondas; and thence to all the Roman Edis and Tables, with their Juftinian; and so down to the Saxon and common Laws of England, and the Statutes. Sundays alfo and every Evening may be now understandingly spent in the highest Matters of Theology, and Church-Hiftory Antient and Modern: and ere this time the Hebrew Tongue at a fet hour might have been gain'd, that the Scriptures may be now read in their own Original; whereto it would be no impoffibility to add the Chaldee, and the Syrian Dialect. When all these Employments are well

conquer'd,

conquer'd, then will the choice Hiftories, Heroic Poems and Attic Tragedies of statelieft and most regal Argument with all the famous Political Orations, offer themselves; which if they were not only read, but fome of them got by Memory, and folemnly pronounc'd with right Accent and Grace, as might be taught, would endue them even with the Spirit and Vigor of Demofthenes, or Cicero, Euripides, or Sophocles. And now laftly will be the time to read with them those organic Arts which inable Men to discourse and write perfpicuously, elegantly, and according to the fitteft ftyle of Lofty, Mean, or Lowly. Logic therefore, fo much as is useful, is to be referr'd to this due Place, with all her wellcoucht Heads and Topics, until it be time to open her contracted Palm into a graceful and ornate Rhetorick, taught out of the Rules of Plato, Ariftotle, Phalereus, Cicero, Hermogenes, Longinus. To which Poetry would be made subsequent, or indeed rather precedent, as being less fubtile and fine, but more fimple, fenfuous and paffionate. I mean not here the Profody of a Verfe, which they could not but have hit on before among the Rudiments of Grammar; but that fublime Art which in Ariftotle's Poetics, in Horace, and the Italian Commentaries of Caftlevetro, Taffo, Mazzoni, and others, teaches what the Laws are of a true Epic Poem, what of a Dramatic, what of a Lyric, what Decorum is, which is the grand Master-piece to obferve. This would make them foon perceive what defpicable Creatures our common Rhymers and Play-writers be, and

new

fhew them, what religious, what glorious and mage nificent use might be made of Poetry both in Divine and Human Things. From hence and not till now will be the right Seafon of forming them to be able Writers and Compofers in every excellent Matter, when they fhall be thus, fraught with an univerfal infight into Things. Or whether they be to speak in Parliament or Council, Honour and Attention would be waiting on their Lips. There would then also appear in Pulpits other Visages, other Gestures, and Stuff otherwise wrought than what we now fit under, oft-times to as great a Trial of our Patience as any other that they preach to us. These are the Studies wherein our noble and our gentle Youth ought to bestow their time in a disciplinary way› from twelve to, one, and twenty; unless they rely more upon their Ancestors dead, than upon themfelves living. In which methodical course it is fo fuppos'd they must proceed by the steddy pace of learning onward, as at convenient times for memory's fake, to retire back into the middle ward, and fometimes into the rear of what they have been Taught, until they have confirm'd, and folidly united the whole body of their, perfected Knowledge, like the last embattelling of a Roman Legion. Now will be worth the feeing what Exercifes and Recreations may best agree, and become these Studies.

Their

Their EXERCISE.

"

The courfe of Study hitherto briefly describ'd, is, what I can guess by reading, likeft to those antient and famous Schools of Pythagoras, Plato, Ifocrates, Ariftotle, and fuch others, out, of which were bred up such a number of renowned Philofophers, Orators, Hiftorians, Poets and Princes all over Greece, Italy, and Afia, befides the flourishing Studies of Cyene and Alexandria. But herein it shall exceed them, and fupply a defect as great as that which Plato noted in the common-wealth of Sparta ; whereas that City train'd up their Youth moft for War, and thefe in their Academies and Lyceum, all for the Gown, this Inftitution, of breeding, which I here delineate, fhall be equally good both for Peace and War. Therefore about an hour and

[ocr errors]

half ere they eat at Noon fhould be allow'd them for Exercife, and due Reft afterward: But the time for this may be enlarg'd at pleasure, according as their rifing in the Morning fhall be early. The Exercife which I commend firft, is the exact ufe of their Weapon, to guard and to ftrike fafely with Edge, or Point; this will keep them healthy, nimble, ftrong, and well in breath, is alfo the likelieft means to make them grow large and tall, and to infpire them with a gallant and fearless Courage, which being temper'd with feasonable Lectures and Precepts to them of true Fortitude and Patience, will turn into a native and heroick Valour, and make them hate the cowardife of doing wrong. They must be alfo practis'd in all

[ocr errors]

the

« ПредишнаНапред »