صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

The Prose Style was not in Milton'santrought to as it was afternards in Quee [343 ]

What Degree of Excellence, Ann's Reign &c. He,

O F

EDUCATION.

то

Mr. SAMUEL HARTLIB.

Written about the Year 1650.

Mr. HART LIB,

Am long fince perfuaded, that to fay, or do
ought worth memory and imitation, no pur-

pofe or refpect fhould fooner move us, than
fimply the love of God and of mankind. Never-
theless 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 earneft 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 peace. Nor fhould the laws of any
private

Q4

[ocr errors]

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 perfon fent hither by fome good providence from a far country, to be the occafion and 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 valued, as you are, you would, to the forfeit of your own difcerning ability, impofe upon me an unfit and overponderous argument, but that the fatisfaction, which you profess 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 requeft me, that voluntary idea, which hath long in filence prefented itself 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 yet in practice. Brief I fhall endeavour to be; for that, which I have to fay, affuredly this nation hath extreme need fhould be done fooner than

fpoken.

fpoken. To tell you therefore what I have benefited herein among old renowned authors, I fhall fpare; and to fearch what many modern Januas and Didactics, more than ever I fhail 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 nearest 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 discreet 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 inftrument conveying to us things ufeful to be known. And, tho' a linguift fhould pride himself to have all the tongues, that Babel cleft the world into, yet, if he had not ftudied 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 tradefman competently wife in his mother dialect only. Q5 Hence

[ocr errors]

Hence appear the many mistakes, which have made learning generally fo unpleafing and fo unfuccessful; firit we do amifs to spend seven or eight years merely in fcraping together so much miferable Latin and Greek, as might be learnt otherwise easily and delightfully in one year. And that, which cafts our proficiency therein fo much behind, is our time loft partly in too oft idle vacancies given both to fchools and univerfities, partly in a prepofterous exaction, forcing the empty wits of children to compofe themes, verses, and orations, which are the acts of ripeft judgment, and the final work of a head fill'd, by long reading and observing, with elegant maxims, and copious invention. These 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 untutor❜d 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 chofen fhort book leffen'd throughly to them, they might then forthwith proceed to learn the fubftance of good things, and arts in due order, which would bring the whole language quickly into their power. This I take to be the moft rational and moft profitable way of learning languages, and whereby we may best hope to give account to God of our youth spent herein. And for the ufual method of teaching arts, I deem it to be an old error of universities not yet well recover'd from the fcholaftic groffnefs of barbarous ages, that inftead of beginning with arts most

cafy,

eafy, (and those be fuch, as are moft obvious to the fenfe,) they prefent their young unmatriculated novices at firft coming with the intellective abftractions of logick and metaphyficks: fo that they having but newly left thofe grammatick flats and fhallows,where they ftuck unreafonably, to learn a few words with lamentable conftruction, and now on the fudden tranfported under another climate to be toft and turmoil'd with their unballafted wits in fathomlefs and unquiet deeps of controverfy, do for the moft part grow into hatred and contempt of learning, mock'd and deluded all this while with ragged notions and babblements, while they expected worthy and delightful knowledge; till poverty or youthful years call them importunately their feveral ways, and haften them with the sway of friends, either to an ambitious or mercenary, or ignorantly zealous divinity: fome allur'd to the trade of law, grounding their purpofes not on the prudent and heavenly contemplation of juftice and equity, which was never taught them, but on the promifing and pleafing thoughts of litigious terms, fat contentions, and flowing fees; others betake them to ftate-affairs, with fouls fo unprincipled in virtue, and true generous breeding, that flattery and court-fhifts, and tyrannous aphorifms appear to them the highest points of wisdom; inftilling their barren hearts with a confcientious flavery, if, as I rather think, it be not feign'd: others, laftly, of a more delicious and airy fpirit, retire themfelves, knowing no better, to the enjoyments of eafe and luxury, living out their days in feaft and jollity; which indeed is the wifeft and the fafeft course of all thefe, unless they were with more integrity undertaken. And these are the fruits of mifpending our prime youth at the fchools and univerfities,as

we

« السابقةمتابعة »