alfo in courfe might be read to them out of some not tedious writer the inftitution of phyfick; that they may know the tempers, the humours, the feafons, and how to manage a crudity which he who can wifely and timely do, is not only a great phyfician to himself, and to his friends, but alfo may at fome time or other fave an army by this frugal and expenfelefs means only; and not let the healthy and ftout bodies of young men rot away under him for want of this difcipline; which is a great pity and no lefs a fhame to the commander. To fet forward all these proceedings in nature and mathematicks, what hinders, but that they may procure as oft as fhall be needful, the helpful experiences of hunters, fowlers, fishermen, fhepherds, gardeners, apothecaries; and in the other fciences, architects, engineers, mariners', anatomists; who doubtless would be ready, fome for reward, and fome to favour fuch a hopeful feminary? And this will give them fuch a real tin&ture of natural knowledge, as they shall never forget, but daily augment with delight. Then alfo thofe poets which are now counted most hard, will be both facile and pleafant, 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 furnifh'd 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, instructing 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 thofe 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 apoftolic fcriptures. Being perfect in the knowledge of perfonal duty, they may then begin the ftudy 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 tafte fome choice comedies, Greek, Latin, or Italian: thofe tragedies alfo that treat of houshold matters, as Trachiniæ, Alceftis, and the like. The next remove must be to the study of Politics; to know the beginning, end, and reafons of political focieties; 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 stedfast 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 Mofes; and as far as human prudence can be trufted, in thofe extoll'd remains of Græcian law-givers, Lycurgus, Solon, Zaleucus, Charondas; and thence to all the Roman edicts and tables, with their Juftinian; and fo down to the Saxon and common laws of England, and the ftatutes. Sundays alfo and every evening may be now understandingly spent in the highest matters of Theology, and church-history an : antient and modern and ere this time the Hebrew tongue at a fet hour might have been gain'd, that the fcriptures 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, then will the choice hiftories, heroic poems, and Attic tragedies of statelieft and most regal argument with all the famous political orations, offer themfelves; 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 fpirit and vigor of Demofthenes, or Cicero, Euripides, or Sophocles. And now laftly will be the time to read with them those organic arts which enable men to difcourfe and write perfpicuously, elegantly, and according to the fitteft ftyle of lofty, mean, or lowly. Logic therefore, fo much as is ufeful, is to be referr'd to this due place, with all her wellcouch'd 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, Aristotle, Phalereus, Cicero, Hermogenes, Longinus. To which Poetry would be made fubfequent, or indeed rather precedent, as being lefs fubtile and fine, but more fimple, sensuous and paffionate. I mean not here the profody of a verse, which they could not but have hit on before among the rudiments of grammar; but that fublime art which in Aristotle's Poetics, in Horace, and the Italian commentaries of Castlevetro, 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 mafter-piece to ob ferve. This would make them foon perceive what despicable creatures our common rhymers and playwriters be, and fhew them, what religious, what glorious and magnificent use might be made of poetry both in divine and human things. From hence and not till now will be the right season 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 alfo appear in pulpits other visages, other geftures, and stuff otherwife 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 ftudies wherein our noble and our gentle youth ought to bestow their time in a difciplinary way from twelve to one and twenty; unless they rely more upon their anceftors dead, than upon themfelves living. In which methodical courfe 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 laft embattelling of a Roman legion. Now will be worth the feeing what exercifes and recreations may beft agree, and become thefe ftudies. Their EXERCISE. The course of study hitherto briefly defcrib'd, is, what I can guess by reading, likeft to those an tient and famous fchools of Pythagoras, Plato, Ifocrates, Ariftotle, and such others, out of which were bred up fuch a number of renowned philofophers, orators, hiftorians, poets and princes all over Greece, Italy, and Afia, besides the flourishing ftudies of Cyene and Alexandria. But herein it fhall exceed them, and fupply a defect as great as that which Plato noted in the commonwealth of Sparta; whereas that city train'd up their youth most for war, and these in their academies and Lycæum, 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 a half ere they eat at noon should 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 exercise 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, strong, and well in breath, is alfo the likelieft means to make them grow large and tall, and to inspire them with a gallant and fearlefs courage, which being temper'd with seasonable lectures and precepts to them of true fortitude and patience, will turn into a native and heroic valour, and make them hate the cowardife of doing wrong. They must be also practis'd in all the locks and gripes of wrestling, wherein Englishmen were wont to excel, as need may often be in fight to tugg or grapple, and to clofe. And this perhaps will be enough, wherein to prove and heat their fingle ftrength. The interim of unfweating themselves regularly, and convenient rest before meat, may both with profit and de |