§§ 178–195. Learning: Geography, History and the Sciences

§ 178. At the same Time that he is learning French and Latin, a Child, as has been said, may also be enter’d in Arithmetick, Geography, Chronology, History, and Geometry 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 Language to boot.

Geography I think should be begun with: For the learning of the Figure of the Globe, the Situation and Boundaries of the four Parts of the World, and that of particular Kingdoms and Countries, being only an Exercise of the Eyes and Memory, a Child with Pleasure will learn and retain them. And this is so 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 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. 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.

§ 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 Countries, not coming yet to those artificial and imaginary Lines which have been invented, and are only suppos’d for the better Improvement of that Science.

§ 180. Arithmetick is the easiest, and consequently the first Sort of abstract Reasoning, which the Mind commonly 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 therefore begin to be exercis’d in Counting, as soon, and as far, as he 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 Latitude, and by them be made to understand the 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; 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 Constellations, which may be shewed him first upon the Globe, and then in the Heavens.

When that is done, and he knows pretty well the Constellations 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 of the Copernican System, and therein explain to him the Situation of the Planets, their respective Distances from the Sun, the Centre of their Revolutions. This will prepare him to understand the Motion and Theory of the Planets, the most easy and natural Way. For since Astronomers 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 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 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 insensible Steps, Children without Confusion and Amazement will have their Understandings opened and their Thoughts extended farther than could have been expected. And when any one has learn’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 with the 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 Genius and Inclination to it, being enter’d 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 diligently; 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 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 Æquator, which the Meridian, &c. which Europe, and which England, upon the Globes, as soon almost as he 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 in hand. I mean the general Part of it, so that 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 Knowledge, 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 retain’d, and very little useful; but be only a Jumble of Matters of Fact, confusedly heaped together without Order or Instruction. ’Tis by these two that the Actions of Mankind are ranked 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 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 of them of so little Importance to a Gentleman, as not to deserve to be enquir’d into, were they capable of an easy Decision. And therefore all that learned Noise and Dust of the Chronologist is wholly to be avoided. The most useful Book I have seen in that Part of Learning, is a small Treatise of Strauchius, which is printed in Twelves, under the Title of Breviarium Chronologicum, out of which may be selected all that is necessary to be taught a young Gentleman concerning 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 Julian Period, which is the easiest and plainest and surest Method that can be made use of in Chronology. To this Treatise of Strauchius, Helvicus’s Tables may be added, as a Book to be turned to on all Occasions.

§ 184. As nothing teaches, so nothing delights more 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 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 will keep it from Confusion; and the Pleasantness of the Subject inviting him to read, the Language will insensibly be got without that terrible Vexation and Uneasiness 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 master’d the easier, such perhaps as Justin, Eutropius, Quintius Curtius, &c. the next Degree to these will give him no great Trouble: And thus by a gradual Progress from the plainest and easiest Historians, he may at last come to read the most difficult and sublime of the Latin Authors, such as are Tully, Virgil, and Horace.

§ 185. The Knowledge of Virtue, 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 Appetite, 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 Tully’s Offices not as a School-Boy to learn Latin, but as one that would be informed in the Principles and Precepts of Virtue for the Conduct of his Life.

§ 186. When he has pretty well digested Tully’s Offices, and added to it, Puffendorf de Officio Hominis & Civis, it may be seasonable to set him upon Grotius de Jure Belli & Pacis, or, which perhaps is the better of the two, Puffendorf de Jure naturali & Gentium; 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 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 well, and can write a good Hand, one may turn loose into the World with great Assurance that he will find Employment and Esteem every where.

§ 187. It would be strange to suppose an English Gentleman should be ignorant of the Law of 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 without it. I do not mean the chicane or wrangling and captious Part of the Law: A Gentleman, whose Business is to seek the true Measures of Right and Wrong, and not the Arts how to avoid doing the one, and secure himself 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 Country. And to that Purpose, I think the right Way for a Gentleman to study our Law, which he does not design for his Calling, is to take a View of our English Constitution and Government in the antient Books of the Common-Law, and some more modern Writers, who out of them 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 will give an Insight into the Reason of our Statutes, and shew the true Ground upon which they came to be made, and what Weight they ought to have.

§ 188. Rhetorick and Logick being the Arts that in the ordinary Method usually follow immediately after Grammar, it may perhaps be wondered that I have said so little of them. The Reason 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 therefore I would have a young Gentleman take a View of them 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 Predicables, and does not consist in talking in Mode and Figure it self. But ’tis beside my present Business to enlarge upon this Speculation. To come therefore 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 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, 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 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 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 medius terminus) a Term to wrangle with on the one Side, or a Distinction on the other; whether pertinent or impertinent, 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 do, whatever becomes of Truth or Knowledge, unless he will pass for a poor baffled Wretch, and lie under the Disgrace 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 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 fallacious Use of doubtful Words, which is the most useless and most offensive Way of talking, and such as least suits a 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 Speaking. But yet I think I may ask my Reader, whether he doth not know a great many, who live upon their Estates, and so with the Name should have the Qualities of Gentlemen, 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 Countrymen this Right, that where they apply themselves, I see none of their Neighbours outgo them. They have been taught Rhetorick, 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 Figures that embellish’d 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 Practice, is to be learn’d, not by a few or a great many Rules given, but by Exercise and Application according to good 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; and to correct at first the most remarkable Fault they are 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 Time to make them write them. The Fables of Æsop, 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, 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 to Tully, 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 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.

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 their own plain easy Sense, without any Incoherence, Confusion 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 or Diversion; and Tully’s 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 daily force him to make this Use of his Pen, which, besides the Consequences that, in his Affairs, his well or ill managing 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 Observation 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 Latin, of no use at all, were so constantly every where pressed, to the racking of Childrens Inventions beyond their Strength and hindering their chearful Progress in learning the Tongues by unnatural Difficulties. But Custom has so ordain’d it, and who dares disobey? And would it not be very unreasonable to require of a learned Country School-Master (who has all the Tropes and Figures in Farnaby’s Rhetorick 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 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 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 Commendation 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 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. These are the learned Languages fit only for learned Men 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 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 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 Orators, who taught some of their Emperors Latin, 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 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 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 should daily be exercised in it.

§ 190. Natural Philosophy, as a speculative Science, I imagine we have none, and perhaps I may think I have Reason to say we never shall be able to make a Science of it. The Works of 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 in themselves, I imagine there are two Parts of it, one comprehending Spirits, with their Nature and Qualities, and the other Bodies. The first of these is usually referred to Metaphysicks: But under what Title soever the Consideration of Spirits comes, I think it ought to go before the Study of Matter and Body, not as a Science that can be methodized into a System, and treated of upon Principles of Knowledge; but as an Enlargement of our Minds towards a truer and fuller Comprehension of the intellectual World to which we are led both by Reason and Revelation. And since the clearest and largest Discoveries we have of other Spirits, besides God and our own Souls, is imparted to us from Heaven by Revelation, I think the Information that at least young People should have of them, should be taken from that Revelation. To this Purpose, I conclude, it would be well, if there were made a good History of the Bible, for young People to read; wherein if every Thing that is fit to be put into it, were laid down in its due Order of Time, and several Things omitted which are suited only to riper Age, that Confusion which is usually produced by promiscuous reading of the Scripture, as it lies now bound up in our Bibles, would be avoided. And also this other Good obtained, that by reading of it constantly, there would be instilled into the Minds of Children a Notion and Belief of Spirits, they having so much to do in all the Transactions of that History, which will be a good Preparation to the Study of Bodies. For without the Notion and Allowance of Spirit, our Philosophy will be lame and defective in one main Part of it, when it leaves out the Contemplation of the most excellent and powerful Part of the Creation.

§ 191. Of this History of the Bible, I think too it would be well if there were a short and plain Epitome made, containing the chief and most material Heads, for Children to be conversant in as soon as they can read. This, though it will lead them early into some Notion of Spirits, yet it is not contrary to what I said above, That I would not have Children troubled, whilst young, with Notions of Spirits whereby my Meaning was, That I think it inconvenient that their yet tender Minds should receive early Impressions of Goblins, Spectres, and Apparitions, wherewith their Maids and those about them are apt to fright them into a Compliance with their Orders, which often proves a great Inconvenience to them all their Lives after, by subjecting their Minds to Frights, fearful Apprehensions, Weakness and Superstition; which when coming abroad into the World and Conversation they grow weary and ashamed of, it not seldom happens, that to make, as they think, a thorough Cure, and ease themselves of a Load which has sat so heavy on them, they throw away the Thoughts of all Spirits together, and so run into the other, but worse, extream.

§ 192. The Reason why I would have this premised to the Study of Bodies, and the Doctrine of the Scriptures well imbibed before young Men be entered in Natural Philosophy, is, because Matter, being a thing that all our Senses are constantly conversant with, it is so apt to possess the Mind, and exclude all other Beings but Matter, that Prejudice, grounded on such Principles, often leaves no room for the Admittance of Spirits, or the allowing any such Things as immaterial Beings in rerum natura; when yet it is evident that by mere Matter and Motion none of the great Phænomena of Nature can be resolved, to instance but in that common one of Gravity, which I think impossible to be explained by any natural Operation of Matter, or any other Law of Motion, but the positive Will of a superior Being so ordering it. And therefore since the Deluge cannot be well explained without admitting something out of the ordinary Course of Nature, I propose it to be considered whether God’s altering the Centre of Gravity in the Earth for a Time (a Thing as intelligible as Gravity it self, which perhaps a little Variation of Causes unknown to us would produce) will not more easily account for Noah’s Flood than any Hypothesis yet made use of to solve it. I hear the great Objection to this, is, that it would produce but a partial Deluge. But the Alteration of the Centre of Gravity once allowed, ’tis no hard Matter to conceive that the Divine Power might make the Centre of Gravity, plac’d at a due Distance from the Centre of the Earth, move round it in a convenient Space of Time, whereby the Flood would become universal, and, as I think, answer all the Phenomena of the Deluge as delivered by Moses, at an easier Rate than those many hard Suppositions that are made use of to explain it. But this is not a Place for that Argument, which is here only mentioned by the bye, to shew the Necessity of having Recourse to something beyond bare Matter and its Motion in the Explication of Nature; to which the Notions of Spirits and their Power, as delivered in the Bible, where so much is attributed to their Operation, may be a fit Preparative, reserving to a fitter Opportunity a fuller Explication of this Hypothesis, and the Application of it to all the Parts of the Deluge, and any Difficulties can be supposed in the History of the Flood, as recorded in the Scripture.

§ 193. But to return to the Study of Natural Philosophy. Tho’ the World be full of Systems of it, yet I cannot say, I know any one which can be taught a young Man as a Science wherein he may be sure to find Truth and Certainty, which is what all Sciences give an Expectation of. I do not hence conclude, that none of them are to be read. It is necessary for a Gentleman in this learned Age to look into some of them to fit himself for Conversation: But whether that of Des Cartes be put into his Hands, as that which is most in Fashion, or it be thought fit to give him a short View of that and several others also, I think the Systems of Natural Philosophy that have obtained in this Part of the World, are to be read more to know the Hypotheses, and to understand the Terms and Ways of talking of the several Sects, than with Hopes to gain thereby a comprehensive, scientifical and satisfactory Knowledge of the Works of Nature. Only this may be said, that the modern Corpuscularians talk in most Things more intelligibly than the Peripateticks, who possessed the Schools immediately before them. He that would look further back, and acquaint himself with the several Opinions of the Antients, may consult Dr. Cudworth’s Intellectual System, wherein that very learned Author hath with such Accurateness and Judgment collected and explained the Opinions of the Greek Philosophers, that what Principles they built on, and what were the chief Hypotheses that divided them, is better to be seen in him than any where else that I know. But I would not deter any one from the Study of Nature because all the Knowledge we have or possibly can have of it cannot be brought into a Science. There are very many Things in it that are convenient and necessary to be known to a Gentleman; and a great many other that will abundantly reward the Pains of the Curious with Delight and Advantage. But these, I think, are rather to be found amongst such Writers as have employed themselves in making rational Experiments and Observations than in starting barely speculative Systems. Such Writings therefore, as many of Mr. Boyle’s, are, with others that have writ of Husbandry, Planting, Gardening, and the like, may be fit for a Gentleman, when he has a little acquainted himself with some of the Systems of the Natural Philosophy in Fashion.

§ 194. Though the Systems of Physicks that I have met with, afford little Encouragement to look for Certainty or Science in any Treatise which shall pretend to give us a Body of Natural Philosophy from the first Principles of Bodies in general, yet the incomparable Mr. Newton has shewn, how far Mathematicks applied to some Parts of Nature may, upon Principles that Matter of Fact justify, carry us in the Knowledge of some, as I may so call them, particular Provinces of the incomprehensible Universe. And if others could give us so good and clear an Account of other Parts of Nature, as he has of this our Planetary World, and the most considerable Phenomena observable in it, in his admirable Book, Philosophiæ naturalis Principia Mathematica, we might in Time hope to be furnished with more true and certain Knowledge in several Parts of this stupendous Machine, than hitherto we could have expected. And though there are very few that have Mathematicks enough to understand his Demonstrations, yet the most accurate Mathematicians who have examin’d them allowing them to be such, his Book will deserve to be read, and give no small Light and Pleasure to those, who, willing to understand the Motions, Properties, and Operations of the great Masses of Matter, in this our solar System, will but carefully mind his Conclusions, which may be depended on as Propositions well proved.

§ 195. This is, in short, what I have thought concerning a young Gentleman’s Studies; wherein it will possibly be wonder’d that I should omit Greek, since amongst the Grecians is to be found the Original as it were, and Foundation of all that Learning which we have in this Part of the World. I grant it so; and will add, That no Man can pass for a Scholar that is ignorant of the Greek Tongue. But I am not here considering the Education of a profess’d Scholar, but of a Gentleman, to whom Latin and French, as the World now goes, is by every one acknowledg’d to be necessary. When he comes to be a Man, if he has a mind to carry his Studies farther, and look into the Greek Learning, he will then easily get that Tongue himself: And if he has not that Inclination, his learning of it under a Tutor will be but lost Labour, and much of his Time and Pains spent in that which will be neglected and thrown away as soon as he is at Liberty. For how many are there of an hundred, even amongst Scholars themselves, who retain the Greek they carried from School; or ever improve it to a familiar reading and perfect understanding of Greek Authors?

To conclude this Part, which concerns a young Gentleman’s Studies, his Tutor should remember, that his Business is not so much to teach him all that is knowable, as to raise in him a Love and Esteem of Knowledge; and to put him in the right Way of knowing and improving himself when he has a Mind to it.

The Thoughts of a judicious Author on the Subject of Languages, I shall here give the Reader, as near as I can, in his own Way of expressing them: He says, “One can scarce burden Children too much with the Knowledge of Languages. They are useful to Men of all Conditions, and they equally open them the Entrance, either to the most profound, or the more easy and entertaining Parts of Learning. If this irksome Study be put off to a little more advanced Age, young Men either have not Resolution enough to apply it out of Choice or Steadiness to carry it on. And if any one has the Gift of Perseverance, it is not without the Inconvenience of spending that Time upon Languages, which is destined to other Uses: And he confines to the Study of Words that Age of his Life that is above it, and requires Things; at least it is the losing the best and beautifullest Season of one’s Life. This large Foundation of Languages cannot be well laid but when every thing makes an easy and deep Impression on the Mind; when the Memory is fresh, ready, and tenacious; when the Head and Heart are as yet free from Cares, Passions, and Designs; and those on whom the Child depends have Authority enough to keep him close to a long continued Application. I am persuaded that the small number of truly Learned, and the Multitude of superficial Pretenders, is owing to the neglect of this.”

I think every Body will agree with this observing Gentleman, that Languages are the proper Study of our first Years. But ’tis to be consider’d by the Parents and Tutors, what Tongues ’tis fit the Child should learn. For it must be confessed, that it is fruitless Pains and loss of Time, to learn a Language which in the Course of Life that he is designed to, he is never like to make use of, or which one may guess by his Temper he will wholly neglect and lose again, as soon as an Approach to Manhood, setting him free from a Governor, shall put him into the Hands of his own Inclination, which is not likely to allot any of his Time to the cultivating the learned Tongues, or dispose him to mind any other Language but what daily Use or some particular Necessity shall force upon him.

But yet, for the sake of those who are designed to be Scholars, I will add what the same Author subjoins to make good his foregoing Remark. It will deserve to be considered by all who desire to be truly learned, and therefore may be a fit Rule for Tutors to inculcate and leave with their Pupils to guide their future Studies.

“The Study, says he, of the original Text can never be sufficiently recommended. ’Tis the shortest, surest, and most agreeable way to all sorts of Learning. Draw from the Spring-head, and take not things at second Hand. Let the Writings of the great Masters be never laid aside, dwell upon them, settle them in your Mind, and cite them upon occasion; make it your Business throughly to understand them in their full Extent and all their Circumstances: Acquaint your self fully with the Principles of original Authors; bring them to a Consistency, and then do you your self make your Deductions. In this State were the first Commentators, and do not you rest till you bring yourself to the same. Content not yourself with those borrowed Lights, nor guide yourself by their Views but where your own fails you and leaves you in the dark. Their Explications are not your’s, and will give you the slip. On the contrary, your own Observations are the Product of your own Mind, where they will abide and be ready at hand upon all Occasions in Converse, Consultation, and Dispute. Lose not the Pleasure it is to see that you are not stopp’d in your reading but by Difficulties that are invincible; where the Commentators and Scholiasts themselves are at a stand and have nothing to say. Those copious Expositors of other Places, who with a vain and pompous Overflow of Learning poured out on Passages plain and easy in themselves, are very free of their Words and Pains, where there is no need. Convince your self fully by this ordering your Studies, that ’tis nothing but Men’s Laziness which hath encouraged Pedantry to cram rather than enrich Libraries, and to bury good Authors under Heaps of Notes and Commentaries, and you will perceive that Sloth herein hath acted against itself and its own Interest by multiplying Reading and Enquiries, and encreasing the Pains it endeavoured to avoid.”

This, tho’ it may seem to concern none but direct Scholars, is of so great moment for the right ordering of their Education and Studies, that I hope I shall not be blamed for inserting of it here; especially if it be considered, that it may be of use to Gentlemen too, when at any time they have a mind to go deeper than the Surface, and get to themselves a solid, satisfactory, and masterly Insight in any Part of Learning.

Order and Constancy are said to make the great Difference between one Man and another: This I am sure, nothing so much clears a Learner’s Way, helps him so much on in it, and makes him go so easy and so far in any Enquiry, as a good Method. His Governor should take Pains to make him sensible of this, accustom him to Order, and teach him Method in all the Applications of his Thoughts; shew him wherein it lies, and the Advantages of it; acquaint him with the several sorts of it, either from General to Particulars, or from Particulars to what is more general; exercise him in both of them, and make him see in what Cases each different Method is most proper, and to what Ends it best serves.

In History the Order of Time should govern, in Philosophical Enquiries that of Nature, which in all Progression is to go from the Place one is then in, to that which joins and lies next to it; and so it is in the Mind, from the Knowledge it stands possessed of already, to that which lies next, and is coherent to it, and so on to what it aims at, by the simplest and most uncompounded Parts it can divide the Matter into. To this Purpose, it will be of great Use to his Pupil to accustom him to distinguish well, that is, to have distinct Notions, whereever the Mind can find any real Difference; but as carefully to avoid Distinctions in Terms, where he has not distinct and different clear Ideas.