improper. By this method the fcholar will become cautious and attentive, and the mafter will know with certainty the degree of his proficiency. Yet, though this rule is generally right, I cannot but recommend a precept of Pardie's, that when the student cannot be made to comprehend fome particular part, it should be, for that time, laid afide, till new light fhall arife from fubfequent obfervation.

When this compendium is completely understood, the fcholar may proceed to the perufal of Tacquet, afterwards of Euclid himself, and then of the mo dern improvers of geometry, fuch as Barrow, Kai, and Sir Ifaac Newton.

III. The neceflity of fome acquaintance with geography and aftronomy will not be difputed. If the pupil is born to the eafe of a large fortune, no part of learning is more neceffary to him than the knowledge of the fituation of nations, on which their interests generally depend; if he is dedicated to any of the learned profeffions, it is fcarcely pof fible that he will not be obliged to apply himself in fome part of his life to thefe ftudies, as no other branch of literature can be fully comprehended without them; if he is defigned for the arts of commerce or agriculture, fome general acquaintance with thefe fciences will be found extremely ufe ful to him; in a word, no ftudies afford more extenfive, more wonderful, or more pleafing fcenes; and therefore there can be no ideas impreffed upon the foul, which can more conduce to its future entertainment.

V. Rhetorick and poetry fupply life with its highest intellectual pleasures; and in the hands of virtue are of great ufe for the impreffion of just fentiments, and recommendation of illuftrious examples. In the practice of these great arts, so much more is the effect of nature than the effect of education, that nothing is attempted here but to teach the mind fome general heads of obfervation, to which the beautiful paffages of the best writers may commonly be reduced. In the use of this it is not proper that the teacher fhould confine himself to the examples before him, for by that method he will never enable his pupils to make just application of the rules; but, having inculcated the true meaning of each figure, he should require them to exemplify it by their own obfervations, pointing to them the poem, or, in longer works, the book or canto in which an example may be found, and leaving them to difcover the particular paffage by the light of the rules which they have lately learned.

For a farther progrefs in thefe ftudies, they may confult Quintilian and Voffius's Rhetorick; the art of poetry will be beft learned from Boffu and Bobours in French, together with Dryden's Effays and Prefaces, the critical Papers of Addifon, Spence on Pope's Odyssey, and Trapp's Prælectiones Poetica; but a more accurate and philofophical account is expected from a commentary upon Ariftotle's Art of Poetry, with which the literature of this nation will be in a fhort time augmented.

VI. With regard to the practice of drawing, it is not neceffary to give any directions, the ufe of

the

the treatise being only to teach the proper method of imitating the figures which are annexed. It will be proper to incite the fcholars to industry, by fhewing in other books the use of the art, and informing them how much it affifts the apprehenfion, and relieves the memory; and if they are obliged fometimes to write defcriptions of engines, utenfils, or any complex pieces of workmanship, they will more fully apprehend the neceffity of an expedient which fo happily fupplies the defects of language, and enables the eye to receive what cannot be conveyed to the mind any other way. When they have read this treatife, and practifed upon these figures, their theory may be improved by the Jefuit's Perspective, and their manual operations by other figures which may be easily procured.

VII. Logick, or the art of arranging and connecting ideas, of forming and examining arguments, is univerfally allowed to be an attainment in the utmoft degree worthy the ambition of that being whofe highest honour is to be endued with reafon; but it is doubted whether that ambition has yet been gratified, and whether the powers of ratiocination have been much improved by any fyftems of art, or methodical inftitutions. The logick which for fo many ages kept poffeffion of the schools, has at laft been condemned as a mere art of wrangling, of very little ufe in the purfuit of truth; and later writers have contented themfelves with giving an account of the operations of the mind, marking the various stages of her progrefs, and giving some general rules for the regulation of her conduct. The method of thefe writers is here followed;

V. Rhetorick and poetry fupply life with its highest intellectual pleasures; and in the hands of virtue are of great ufe for the impreffion of juft fentiments, and recommendation of illuftrious examples. In the practice of these great arts, so much more is the effect of nature than the effect of education, that nothing is attempted here but to teach the mind fome general heads of observation, to which the beautiful paffages of the best writers may commonly be reduced. In the ufe of this it is not proper that the teacher fhould confine himself to the examples before him, for by that method he will never enable his pupils to make just application of the rules; but, having inculcated the true meaning of each figure, he should require them to exemplify it by their own obfervations, pointing to them the poem, or, in longer works, the book or canto in which an example may be found, and leaving them to discover the particular passage by the light of the rules which they have lately learned.

For a farther progrefs in thefe ftudies, they may confult Quintilian and Voffius's Rhetorick; the art of poetry will be beft learned from Boffu and Bobours in French, together with Dryden's Effays and Prefaces, the critical Papers of Addifon, Spence on Pope's Odyffey, and Trapp's Prælectiones Poetica; but a more accurate and philofophical account is expected from a commentary upon Ariftotle's Art of Poetry, with which the literature of this nation will be in a fhort time augmented.

VI. With regard to the practice of drawing, it is not neceffary to give any directions, the ufe of

the

When this fyftem has been digefted, if it be thought neceffary to proceed farther in the study of method, it will be proper to recommend Croufaz, Watts, Le Clerc, Wolfius, and Locke's Effay on Human Understanding; and if there be imagined any neceffityof adding the peripatetick logick, which has been perhaps condemned without a candid trial, it will be convenient to proceed to Sanderfon, Wallis, Crackranthorp, and Ariftotle.

VIII. To excite a curiofity after the works of God, is the chief defign of the small specimen of natural history inferted in this collection; which, however, may be fufficient to put the mind in motion, and in fome measure to direct its steps; but its effects may easily be improved by a philofophick mafter, who will every day find a thoufand opportunities of turning the attention of his fcholars to the contemplation of the objects that furround them, of laying open the wonderful art with which every part of the universe is formed, and the providence which governs the vegetable and animal creation. He may lay before them the Religious Philofopher, Ray, Derham's Phyfico-Theology, together with the Spectacle de la Nature; and in time recommend to their perufal Rondoletius and Aldrovandus.

IX. But how much foever the reafon may be ftrengthened by logick, or the conceptions of the mind enlarged by the ftudy of nature, it is neceffary the man be not fuffered to dwell upon them fo long as to neglect the ftudy of himself, the knowledge of his own ftation in the ranks of being,

and