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OF

EDUCATION.

то

Mr. SAMUEL HARTLIB.

Written about the Year 1650.

Mr. HARTLIB,

AM long fince perfuaded, that to say, or do ought worth memory and imitation, no purpofe or refpect fhould fooner move us, than fimply the love of God, and of mankind. Nevertheless to write now the reforming of education, tho' it be one of the greatest and nobleft defigns that can be thought on, and for the want whereof this nation perishes, I had not yet at this time been induc'd, but by your earnest intreaties and ferious conjurements; as having my mind for the prefent half diverted in the pursuance of fome other affertions, the knowledge and the use of which cannot but be a great furtherance both to the enlargement of truth, and honeft living, with much

more

more peace. Nor fhould the laws of any private friendship have prevail'd with me to divide thus, or tranfpofe my former thoughts, but that I fee thofe aims, thofe actions which have won you with me the esteem of a person sent hither by some good providence from a far country, to be the occafion and the incitement of great good to this ifland. And, as I hear, you have obtain`d the fame repute with men of most approv'd wisdom, and fome of highest authority among us. Not to mention the learned correfpondence which you hold in foreign parts, and the extraordinary pains and diligence which you have us'd in this matter both here, and beyond the feas; either by the definite will of God fo ruling, or the peculiar fway of nature, which alfo is God's working. Neither can I think that, fo reputed, and fo valu'd as you are, you would, to the forfeit of your own difcerning ability, impofe upon me an unfit and over-ponderous argument, but that the fatisfaction which you profefs to have receiv'd from those incidental difcourfes which we have wander'd into, hath preft and almost constrain'd you into a perfuafion that what you require from me in this point, I neither ought, nor can in confcience defer beyond this time both of so much need at once, and fo much opportunity to try what God hath determin'd. I will not refift therefore, whatever it is, either of divine or human obligement, that you lay upon me; but will forthwith fet down in writing, as you request me, that voluntary idea which hath long in filence prefented it self to me, of a better education, in extent and comprehenfion far more large, and yet of time far fhorter, and of attainment far more certain, than hath

been

been yet in practice. Brief I fhall endeavour to be; for that which I have to say, affuredly this nation hath extreme need fhould be done fooner than spoken. To tell you therefore what I have benefited herein among old renowned authors, I fhall spare; and to fearch what many modern Januas and Didactics, more than ever I shall read, have projected, my inclination leads me not. But if you can accept of thefe few obfervations which have flower'd off, and are, as it were, the burnishing of many ftudious and contemplative years, altogether spent in the fearch of religious and civil knowledge, and fuch as pleas'd you fo well in the relating, I here give you them to difpofe of.

The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents, by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the neareft by poffeffing our fouls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection. But because our underftanding cannot in this body found itself but on fenfible things, nor arrive fo clearly to the knowledge of God and things invifible, as by orderly conning over the visible and inferior creature, the fame method is neceffarily to be follow'd in all difcreet teaching. And feeing every nation affords not experience and tradition enough for all kinds of learning, therefore we are chiefly taught the languages of thofe people who have at any time been moft induftrious after wifdom; fo that language is but the instrument conveying to us things uieful to be known. And tho' a linguist should

pride himself to have all the tongues that Babel cleft the world into, yet, if he had not studied the folid things in them as well as the words and lexicons, he were nothing fo much to be efteem'd a learned man, as any yeoman or tradesman competently wife in his mother dialect only. Hence appear the many mistakes which have made learning generally fo unpleafing and fo unfuccessful; firit we do amifs to fpend feven or eight years merely in fcraping together fo much miferable Latin and Greek, as might be learnt otherwife eafily and delightfully in one year. And that which cafts our proficiency therein fo much behind, is our time loft partly in too oft idle yacancies given both to fchools and univerfities, partly in a prepofterous exaction, forcing the empty wits of children to compofe themes, verfes and orations, which are the acts of ripeft judgment, and the final work of a head fill'd, by long reading and obferving, with elegant maxims, and copious invention. Thefe are not matters to be wrung from poor ftriplings, like blood out of the nofe, or the plucking of untimely fruit befides the ill habit which they get of wretched barbarizing against the Latin and Greek Idiom, with their untutord Anglicifms, odious to be read, yet not to be avoided without a well-continu'd and judicious converfing among pure authors digefted, which they scarce tafte; whereas, if after fome preparatory grounds of fpeech by their certain forms got into memory, they were led to the praxis thereof in fome chosen fhort book leffon'd throughly to them, they might then forthwith proceed to learn the fubitance of good things, and arts in due order, which would bring the whole language quickly into their power.

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