Use at all, unless it be to baulk young Lads in ^'•«^'^- the Way to learning Languages, which, in my Opinion, should be made as easy and pleasant as may be; and that which was painful in it, as much as possible quite removed. That which I mean, and here.complain of, is, their being co forced to learn by heart, great Parcels of the Authors which are taught them; wherein I can discover no Advantage at all, especially to the Business they are upon. Languages are to be learned only by Reading and Talking, and not by Scraps of Authors got by heart; which when a Man's Head 15 is stuffed with, he has got the just Furniture of a Pedant, and 'tis the ready Way to make him one; than which there is nothing less becoming a Gentleman. For what can be more ridiculous, than to mix the rich and handsome Thoughts and Sayings of others with a deal of poor Stuff of his own; 20 which is thereby the more exposed, and has no other Grace in it, nor will otherwise recommend the Speaker, than a thread-bare Russet Coat would, that was set off with large Patches of Scarlet and glittering Brocade. Indeed, where a Passage comes in the way, whose Matter is worth Remem- 25 brance, and the Expression of it very close and excellept, (as there are many such in the antient Authors) it may not be amiss to lodge it in the Mind of young Scholars, and with such admirable Strokes of those great Masters sometimes exercise the Memories of School-Boys. But their learning of 30 their Lessons by Heart, as they happen to fall out in their Books, without Choice or Distinction, I know not what it serves for, but to mispend their Time and Pains, and give them a Disgust and Aversion to their Books, wherein they find nothmg but useless Trouble. 35 § 176. I hear it is said. That Children should be em- ployed in getting things by heart, to exercise and improve their Memories. I could wish this were said with as much Authority of Reason, as it is with Forwardness of Assurance, and that this Practice were established upon good Observa- 40 tion more than old Custom: For it is evident, that Strength Se of Memory is owing to an happy Constitution, and not to anf habitual Improvement got by Exercise. 'Tis true, what the Mind is intent upon, and, for fear of letting it slip, often im- prints afresh on itself by frequent Reflection, that it is apt to 5 retain, but still according to its own natiu-al Strength of Reten- tion. An Impression made on Bees-wax or Lead, will not last so long as on Brass or Steel. Indeed, if it be renewed often, it may last the longer; but every new reflecting on it is a new Impression; and 'tis from thence one is to reckon, 1 if o ne would know how long the Mind retains it But the " learning Pages of Latin by Heart, no more fits the Memory for Retention of any thing else, than the graving of one Sentence in Lead makes it the more capable of retaining ^rmly any other Characters. If such a sort of Exercise of 15 the Memory were able to give it Strength, and improve our Parts, Players of all other People must needs have the best Memories and be the best Company. But whether the Scraps they have got into their Heads this way, make them remember other diings the better; and whether their Parts 20 be improved proportionably to the Pains they have taken in getting by heart others' Sayings, Experience will shew. Memory is so necessary to all Parts and Conditions of Life, and so little is to be done without it, that we are not to fear it should grow dull and useless for want of Exercise, if Ex- 35 ercise would make it grow stronger. But I fear this Faculty of the Mind is not capable of much Help and Amendment in general by any Exercise or Endeavour of ours, at least not by that used upon this Pretence in Grammar-Schools. And if Xerxes was able to call every common Soldier by 30 Name in his Army that consisted of no less than an hundred thousand Men, I think it may be guessed, he got not this wonderful Ability by learning his Lessons by heart when he was a Boy. This Method of exercising and improving the Memory by toilsome Repetitions without Book of what they 35 read, is, I think, little used in the Education of Princes, which if it had that Advantage is talked of, should be as little neglected in them as in the meanest School-Boys: Princes having as much need of good Memories as any Men living, and have generally an equal Share in this Faculty 40 with other Men; though it has never been taken care of this Way. What the Mind is intent upon and careful of, that it §§ 176, 177] How to exercise Memory. 155 remembers best, and for the Reason above-mentioned: To which, if Method and Order be joined, all is done, I think, that can be, for the Help of a weak Memory; and he that will take any other Way to do it, especially that of charging it with a Train of other Peoples* Words, which he that learns 5 cares not for, will, I guess, scarce find the Profit answer half the Time and Pains employed in it.
I do not mean hereby, that there should be no Exercise given to Children's Memories. I think their Memories should be employed, but not in learning by rote whole 10 Pages out of Books, which, the Lesson being once said, and that Task over, are delivered up again to Oblivion and neglected for ever. This mends neither the Memory nor the Mind. What they should learn by heart out of Authors, I have above mentioned: And such wise and useful Sen- 15 tences being once given in charge to their Memories, they should never be suffered to forget again, but be often called to account for them; whereby, besides the Use those Say- ings may be to them in their future Life, as so many good Rules and Observations, they will be taught to reflect 20 often, and bethink themselves what they have to remember, which is the only way to make the Memory quick and useful. The Custom of frequent Reflection will keep their Minds from running adrift, and call their Thoughts home from useless unattentive Roving: And therefore I think 25 it may do well, to give them something every Day to remember, but something still, that is in itself worth the remembring, and what you would never have out of Mind, whenever you call, or they themselves search for it. This will oblige them often to turn their. Thoughts inwards, than 30 which you cannot wish them a better intellectual habit.
§ 177. But under whose Care soever a Child is put to be taught during the tender and flexible Years.
of his Life, this is certain, it should be one *"** who thinks Latin and Language the least Part of Educa- 35 tion; one who knowing how much Virtue and a well- temper'd Soul is to be preferred to any sort of Learning or Language, makes it his chief Business to form the Mind of his Scholars, and give that a right Disposition; which if once got, though all the rest should be neglected, would in 40 due Time produce all the rest; and which, if it be not 156 Latin Bible. Tutor again. [§§ 177, 178 got and settled so as to keep out ill and vicious Habits, Languages and Sciences and all the other Accomplishments of Education, will be to no Purpose but to make the worse or more dangerous Man. And indeed whatever Stir there 5 is made about getting of Latin as the great and difficult Business, his Mother may teach it him herself, if she will but spend two or three Hours in a Day with him, and make him read the Evangelists in Latin to her: For she need but buy a LcUin Testament, and having got some 10 body to mark the last Syllable but one where it is long in Words above two Syllables, (which is enough to regulate her Pronunciation, and Accenting the Words) read daily in the Gospels^ and then let her avoid understanding them in Latin if she can. And when she understands the Evan- 15 gelists in LMtin^ let her, in the same Manner read ^sop's Fables, and so proceed on to Eutropius^ Justin^ and other such Books. I do not mention this, as an Imagination of what I fancy may do, but as of a thing I have known done, and the Latin Tongue with Ease got this way.
20 But, to return to what 1 was saying: He that takes on him the Charge of bringing up young Men, especially young Gentlemen, should have something more in him than LatiUy more than even a Knowledge in the Liberal Sciences: He should be a Person of eminent Virtue and 25 Prudence, and with good Sense, have good Humour, and the Skill to carry himself with Gravity, Ease and Kindness, in a constant Conversation with his Pupils. But of this I have spoken at large in another Place.
§ 178. At the same Time that he is learning French 30 and Latin^ a Child, as has been said, may also be entered in Arithneticky Geography^ Chronology ^ History^ and Geo- metry too. For if these be taught him in French or Latin, when he begins once to understand either of these Tongues, he will get a Knowledge in these Sciences, and the Lan- 35 guage to boot.
Geography I think should be begun with: For the ^ ^ learning of the Figure of the Globe, the Situa- '^^^ ^' tion and Boundaries of the four Parts of the World, and that of particular Kingdoms and Countries, 40 being only an Exercise of the Eyes and Memory, a Child with Pleasure will learn and retain them. And this is so §§ 178 — i8o] Use of the Globes. Arithmetic. 157 certain, that I now live in the House with a Child whom his Mother has so well instructed this Way in Geography^ that he knew the Limits of the four Parts of the World, could readily point, being ask'd, to any Country upon the Globe, or any County in the Map of England; knew all 5 the great Rivers, Promontories, Straits and Bays in the World, and could find the Longitude and Latitude of any Place, before he was six Years old. These things, that he will thus learn by Sight, and have by rote in his Memory, are not all, I confess, that he is to learn upon the Globes. 10 But yet it is a good Step and Preparation to it, and will make the Remainder much easier, when his Judgment is grown ripe enough for it: Besides that, it gets so much Time now; and by the Pleasure of knowing Things, leads him on insensibly to the gaining of Languages. 15 § 179. When he has the natural Parts of the Globe well fix*d in his Memory, it may then be time to begin Arithmetick, By the natural Parts of " **' ^ • the Globe, I mean the several Positions of the Parts of the Earth and Sea, under different Names and Distinctions of 20 Countries, not coming yet to those artificial and imaginary Lines which have been invented, and are only supposed for the better Improvement of that Science.
§ 1 80. Arithmetick is the easiest, and consequently the first Sort of abstract Reasoning, which the Mind commonly 25 bears or accustoms itself to: And is of so general Use in all Parts of Life and Business, that scarce any Thing is to be done without it. This is certain, a Man cannot have too much of it, nor too perfectly: He should theretore begin to be exercis'd in Countings as soon, and as far, as he 30 is capable of it; and do something in it every Day, till he is Master of the Art of Numbers. When he understands Addition and Subtraction^ he then may be advanced farther in Geography^ after he is acquainted with the Poles^ Zones, Parallel Circles, and Meridians^ be taught Longitude and 35 Latitude, and by them be made to understand Uie Use of Maps, and by the Numbers placed on their Sides, to know the respective Situation of Countries, and how to find them out on the Terrestrial Globe. Which when he can readily do, he may then be entered in the Celestial; Aitrwemy ^^ and there going over all the Circles again, with a more particular Observation of the Ecliptick, or Zodiack, to fix them all very clearly and distinctly in his Mind, he may be taught the Figure and Position of the several Con- stellations, which may be shewed him first upon the Globe, 5 and then in the Heavens.
When that is done, and he knows pretty well the Con- stellations of this our Hemisphere, it may be time to give him some Notions of this our planetary World; and to that Purpose, it may not be amiss to make him a Draught 10 of the Copemican System, and therein explain to him the Situation of the Planets, their respective Distances from the Sun, the Centre of their Revolutions. This will pre- pare him to understand the Motion and Theory of the Planets, the most easy and natural Way. For since Astro- 15 nomers no longer doubt of the Motion of the Planets about the Sun, it is fit he should proceed upon that Hypothesis, which is not only the simplest and least perplexed for a Learner, but also the likeliest to be true in itself. But in this, as in all other Parts of Instruction, great Care must 20 be taken with Children, to begin with that which is plain and simple, and to teach them as little as can be at once, and settle that well in their Heads before you proceed to the next, or any thing new in that Science. Give them first one simple Idea, and see that they take it right, and 25 perfectly comprehend it before you go any farther, and then add some other simple Idea which lies next in your Way to what you aim at; and so proceeding by gentle and insen- sible Steps, Children without Confusion and Amazement will have their Understandings opened and their Thoughts 30 extended farther than could have been expected. And when any one has leam*d any thing himself, there is no such Way to fix it in his Memory, and to encourage him to go on, as to set him to teach it others.
§ 181. When he has once got such an acquaintance 35 Geomtt ^^^^ ^^^ Globes, as is abovementioned, he may be fit to be tried in a little Geometry; wherein I think the six first Books of Euclid enough for him to be taught. For I am in some doubt, whether more to a Man of Business be necessary or useful At least, if he have a 40 Genius and Inclination to it, being entered so far by his Tutor, he will be able to go on of himself without a Teacher.
The Globes therefore must be studied, and that dili- gently; and I think may be begun betimes, if the Tutor will be but careful to distinguish what the Child is capable of knowing, and what not; for which this may be a Rule that perhaps will go a pretty way, viz, that Children may be 5 taught any Thing that falls under their Senses, especially their Sight, as far as their Memories only are exercised: And thus a Child very young may learn, which is the ^guataTy which the Meridian^ &c. which Europe^ and which England^ upon the Globes, as soon almost as he ro knows the Rooms of the House he lives in, if Care be taken not to teach him too much at once, nor to set him upon a new Part, till that which he is upon be perfectly learned and fixed in his Memory.
§ 182. With Geography, Chronology ought to go hand 15 in hand. I mean the general Part of it, so that Qkronoionf he may have in his Mind a View of the whole '^ Current of Time, and the several considerable Epochs that are made use of in History. Without these two. History, which is the great Mistress of Prudence and civil Know- 20 ledge, and ought to be the proper Study of a Gentleman, or Man of Business in the World; without Geography and Chronology^ I say, History will be very ill retained, and very little useful; but be only a Jumble of Matters of Fac^ confusedly heaped together without Order or Instruction, 25 'Tis by these two that the Actions of Mankind are raiiked into their proper Places of Time and Countries, under which Circumstances they are not only much easier kept in the Memory, but in that natural Order, are only capable to afford those Observations which make a Man the better 30 and the abler for reading them.
§ 183. When I speak of Chronology as a Science he should be perfect in, I do not mean the little Controversies that are in it. These are endless, and most ot them of so Uttle Importance to a Gentleman, as not to deserve to be 35 enquired into, were they capable of an easy Decision. And therefore all that learned Noise and Dust of the Chrono- logist is wholly to be avoided. The most useful Book I have seen in that Part of Learning, is a small Treatise of StrauchiuSy which is printed in Twelves, under the Title of 40 Breviarium Chronologicum, out of which may be selected all that is necessary to be taught a ^oung Gentleman concern- ing Chronology: for all that is in that Treatise a Learner need not be cumbred with. He has in him the most remarkable or useful Epochs reduced all to that of the 5 ytdian Period^ which is the easiest and plainest and surest Method that can be made use of in Chronology, To this Treatise of StrauchiuSy Helvicu^% Tables may be added, as a Book to be turned to on all Occasions.
§ 184. As nothing teaches, so nothing delights more 10 ^^^^ than History. The first of these recommends " '^^ it to the Study of grown Men, the latter makes me think it the fittest for a young Lad, who as soon as he is instructed in Chronology, and acquainted with the several Epochs in use in this Part of the World, and can reduce 15 them to the Julian Period^ should then have some Latin History put into his Hand. The Choice should be directed by the Easiness of the Stile; for whereever he begins, Chronology \<gll keep it from Confusion; and the Pleasant- ness of the Subject inviting him to read, the Language will 20 insensibly be got without that terrible Vexation and Un- easiness which Children suffer where they are put into Books beyond their Capacity; such as are the Roman Orators and Poets, only to learn the Roman Language When he has by reading mastered the easier, such perhaps 25 as Justin^ EutropiuSy Quintius CurtiuSy &*c. the next Degree to these will give him no great Trouble: And thus by a gradual Progress from the plainest and easiest HistorianSy he may at last come to read the most difficult and sublime of the Latin Authors, such as are Tullyy Virgily and 30 Horace, § 185. The Knowledge of ViriWy all along from the beginning, in all the Instances he is capable of, being taught him more by Practice than Rules; and the Love of Reputation, instead of satisfying his Appe- 35 tite, being made habitual in him, I know not whether he should read any other Discourses of Morality but what he finds in the Bible; or have any System of Ethicks put into his Hand till he can read Tuliys Offices not as a School- Boy to learn Latiny but as one that would be informed in 40 the Principles and Precepts of Virtue for the Conduct of his Life.
§ 186. When he has pretty well digested Tullfs Offices, and added to it, Puffendorf de Officio Hominis c/wy.^^^ &» CiviSy it may be seasonable to set him upon Grotius de yure Belli &* Pads, or, which perhaps is the better of the two, Puffendorf de yure naturali df Gentium; 5 wherein he will be instructed in the natural Rights of Men, and the Original and Foundations of Society, and the Duties resulting from thence. This general Part of Civil- Law and History, are Studies which a Gentleman should not barely touch at, but constantly dwell upon, and never 10 have done with. A virtuous and well-behaved young Man, that is well-versed in the general Part of the Civil-Law (which concerns not the Chicane of private Cases, but the Affairs and Intercourse of civilized Nations in general, grounded upon Principles of Reason) understands Latin 15 well, and can write a good Hand, one may turn loose into the World with great Assurance that he will find Employ- ment and Esteem every where.
§ 187. It would be strange to suppose an English Gentleman should be ignorant of the Imw of 20 his Country. This, whatever Station he is in, '^' is so requisite, that from a Justice of the Peace to a Minister of State I know no Place he can well fill with- out it. I do not mean the chicane or wrangling and captious Part of the Law: A Gentleman, whose Business 25 is to seek the true Measures of Right and Wrong, and not the Arts how to avoid doing the one, and secure him- self in doing the other, ought to be as far from such a Study of the Law, as he is concerned diligently to apply himself to that wherein he may be serviceable to his 30 Country. And to that Purpose, I think the right Way for a Gentieman to study our Law, which he does not design for his Calling, is to take a View of our English Constitu- tion and Government in the antient Books of the Common- Law, and some more modern Writers, who out of them 35 have given an Account of this Government. And having got a true Idea of that, then to read our History, and with it join in every King's Reign the Laws then made. This wiU give an Insight into the Reason of our Statutes, and shew the true Ground upon which they came to be made, 40 and what Weight they ought to have.
Q. II § 188. Rhetorick and Logick being the Arts that in the ordinarv Method usually follow immediately ^Hr^k' *^^** Grammar, it may perhaps be wondered that I have said so little of them. The Reason 5 is, because of the little Advantage young People receive by them; For I have seldom or never observed any one to get the Skill of Reasoning well, or speaking handsomely, by studying those Rules which pretend to teach it: And there- fore I would have a young Gentleman take a View of them 10 in the shortest Systems could be found, without dwelling long on the Contemplation and Study of those Formalities. Right Reasoning is founded on something else than the Predicaments and PredicahleSy and does not consist in talk- ing in Mode and Figure it self. But 'tis beside my present 1 5 Business to enlarge upon this Speculation. To come there- fore to what we have in hand; if you would have your Son reason well, let him read Chillingworth; and if you would have him speak well, let him be conversant in Tully^ to give him the true Idea of Eloquence; and let him read those 20 Things that are well writ in English^ to perfect his Style in the Purity of our Language.
§ 189. If the Use and End of right Reasoning, be to have right Notions and a right Judgment of Things, to distinguish betwixt Truth and Falshood, Right and Wrong, 25 and to act accordingly; be sure not to let your Son be bred up in the Art and Formality of disputing, either practising it himself, or admiring it in others; unless instead of an able Man, you desire to have him an insignificant Wrangler, Opiniator in Discourse, and priding himself in contradicting 30 others; or, which is worse, questioning every Thing, and thinking there is no such Thing as Truth to be sought, but only Victory, in disputing. There cannot be any thing so disingenuous, so misbecoming a Gentleman or any one who pretends to be a rational Creature, as not to yield to 35 plain Reason and the Conviction of clear Arguments. Is there any thing more inconsistent with Civil Conversation, and the End of all Debate, than not to take an Answer, though never so full and satisfactory, but still to go on with the Dispute as long as equivocal Sounds can furnish (a 40 medius terminus) a Term to wrangle with on the one Side, or a Distinction on the other; whether pertinent or imper- § iSp] Against School- Rhetoric. 163 tinent, Sense or Nonsence, agreeing with or contrary to what he had said before, it matters not. For this, in short, is the Way and Perfection of logical Disputes, that the Opponent never takes any Answer, nor the Respondent ever yields to any Argument. This neither of them must 5 do, whatever becomes of Truth or Knowledge, unless he will pass for a poor baffled Wretch, and lie under the Dis- grace of not being able to maintain whatever he has once affirm'd, which is the great Aim and Glory in disputing. Truth is to be found and supported by a mature and due 10 Consideration of Things themselves, and not by artificial Terms and Ways of arguing: These lead not Men so much into the Discovery of Truth, as into a captious and falla- cious Use of doubtful Words, which is the most useless and most oflfensive Way of talking, and such as least suits a 15 Gentleman or a Lover of Truth of any thing in the World.
There can scarce be a greater Defect in a Gentleman than not to express himself well either in Writing or Speak- ing. But yet I think I may ask my Reader, whether he doth not know a great many, who live upon their Estates, 20 and so with the Name should have the Qualities of Gentle- men, who cannot so much as tell a Story as they should, much less speak clearly and persuasively in any Business. This I think not to be so much their Fault, as the Fault of their Education; for I must, without Partiality, do my 25 Countrymen this Right, that where they apply themselves, I see none of their Neighbours outgo them. They have been taught Rhetoricky but yet never taught how to express themselves handsomely with their Tongues or Pens in the Language they are always to use; as if the Names of the 30 Figures that embellished the Discourses of those who understood the Art of Speaking, were the very Art and Skill of Speaking well This, as all other Things of Prac- tice, is to be leam*d, not by a few or a great many Rules given, but by Exercise and Application according to good 35 Rules, or rather Patterns, till Habits are got, and a Facility of doing it well.
Agreeable hereunto, perhaps it might not be amiss to make Children, as soon as they are capable of it, often to tell a Story of any Thing they know; 40 and to correct at first the most remarkable Fault they are 164 Exercises in Speaking and Writing. [§ 189 guilty of in their Way of putting it together. When that Fault is cured, then to shew them the next, and so on, till one after another, all, at least the gross ones, are mended. When they can tell Tales pretty well, then it may be the 5 Time to make them write them. The Fables of j^sop^ the only Book almost that I know fit for Children, may afford them Matter for this Exercise of writing English^ as well as for reading and translating, to enter them in the Latin Tongue. When they have got past the Faults of Grammar, 10 and can join in a continued coherent Discourse the several Parts of a Story, without bald and unhandsome Forms of Transition (as is usual) often repeated, he that desires to perfect them yet farther in this, which is the first Step to speaking well and needs no Invention, may have Recourse 15 to TtUly^ and by putting in Practice those Rules which that Master of Eloquence gives in his first Book de Inventione^ § 20, make them know wherein the Skill and Graces of an handsome Narrative, according to the several Subjects and Designs of it, lie. Of each of which Rules fit Examples 20 may be found out, and therein they may be shewn how others have practised them. The antient Classick Authors afford Plenty of such Examples, which they should be made not only to translate, but have set before them as Patterns for their daily Imitation.
25 When they understand how to write English with due Connexion, Propriety, and Order, and are pretty well Masters of a tolerable narrative Style, they may be advanced to writing of Letters; wherein they should not be put upon any Strains of Wit or Compliment, but taught to express 30 their own plain easy Sense, without any Incoherence, Con- fusion or Roughness. And when they are perfect in this, they may, to raise their Thoughts, have set before them the Example of Voitures^ for the Entertainment of their Friends at a Distance, with Letters of Compliment, Mirth, Raillery 35 or Diversion; and Tullfs Epistles, as the best Pattern whether for Business or Conversation. The writing of Letters has so much to do in all the Occurrences of human Life, that no Gentleman can avoid shewing himself in this kind of Writing. Occasions will 40 daily force him to make this Use of his Pen, which, besides the Consequences that, in his Affairs, his well or ill mana- § 189] Neglect of the Mother Tongue. 165 ging of it often draws after it, always lays him open to a severer Examination of his Breeding, Sense, and Abilities, than oral Discourses; whose transient Faults dying for the most Part with the Sound that gives them Life, and so not subject to a strict Review, more easily escape Obser- S vation and Censure.
Had the Methods of Education been directed to their right End, one would have thought this so necessary a Part could not have been neglected whilst Themes and Verses in LatiUy of no use at all, were so constantly every where 10 pressed, to the racking of Childrens Inventions beyond their Strength and hindering their chearful Progress in learning the Tongues by unnatural Difficulties. But Cus- tom has so ordain'd it, and who dares disobey? And would it not be very unreasonable to require of a learned Country 15 School-Master (who has all the Tropes and Figures in Famdbf% Rhetorkk at his Fingers' Ends) to teach his Scholar to express himself handsomely in English^ when it appears to be so little his Business or Thought, that the Boy's Mother (despised, 'tis like, as illiterate for not having 20 read a System of Logick and Rhetorick) outdoes him in it?
To write and speak correctly gives a Grace and gains a favourable Attention to what one has to say: And since 'tis English that an English Gentleman will have constant use of, that is the Language he should chiefly cultivate, and 25 wherein most Care should be taken to polish and perfect his Style. To speak or write better Latin than English^ may make a Man be talk'd of, but he would find it more to his Purpose to express himself well in his own Tongue, that he uses every Moment, than to have the vain Com- 30 mendation of others for a very insignificant Quality. This I find universally neglected, and no Care taken any where to improve young Men in their own Language, that they may throughly understand and be Masters of it If any one among us have a Facility or Purity more than ordinary 35 in his Mother Tongue, it is owing to Chance, or his Genius, or any thing rather than to his Education or any Care of his Teacher. To mind what English his Pupil speaks or writes, is below the Dignity of one bred up amongst Greek and Latin^ though he have but little of them himself. 40 These are the learned Languages fit only for learned Men i66 Foreign Examples. Natural Science. [§§ 189, 190 to meddle with and teach; English is the Language of the illiterate Vulgar: Tho' yet we see the Polity of some of our Neighbours hath not thought it beneath the publick Care to promote and reward the Improvement of their own 5 Language. Polishing and enriching their Tongue is no small Business amongst them; it hath Colleges and Stipends appointed it, and there is raised amongst them a great Ambition and Emulation of writing correctly: And we see what they are come to by it, and how far they have spread 10 one of the worst Languages possibly in this Part of the World, if we look upon it as it was in some few Reigns backwards, whatever it be now. The great Men among the Romans were daily exercising themselves in their own Language; and we find yet upon Record the Names of 15 Orators, who taught some of their Emperors Latins though it were their Mother Tongue.
'Tis plain the Greeks were yet more nice in theirs. All other Speech was barbarous to them but their own, and no foreign Language appears to have been studied or valued 20 amongst that learned and acute People; tho' it be past doubt that they borrowed their Learning and Philosophy from abroad.
I am not here speaking against Greek and Latin; I think they ought to be studied, and the Latin at least 25 understood well by every Gentleman. But whatever foreign Languages a young Man meddles with (and the more he knows the better) that which he should critically study, and labour to get a Facility, Clearness and Elegancy to express himself in, should be his own; and to this Purpose he 30 should daily be exercised in it imagine we have none, and perhaps I may Phi^^ky. think I have Reason to say we never shall be able to make a Science of it. The Works of 35 Nature are contrived by a Wisdom, and operate by Ways too far surpassing our Faculties to discover or Capacities to conceive, for us ever to be able to reduce them into a Science. Natural Philosophy being the Knowledge of the Principles, Properties and Operations of Things as they are 40 in themselves, I imagine there are two Parts of it, one comprehending Spirits^ with their Nature and Qualities, §§ 190, iQx] Spirits and Bodies. Study of Bible. 167