AN ADDRESS TO THE Magistrates, Clergy, and Learned Gentlemen Of the CITY of DUBLIN. OR, A Rational and Expeditious Method Of TEACHING the ENGLISH, LATIN AND GREEK TONGUES, Discovered.  
DUBLIN: Printed by Joseph Ray, and are to be Sold at his Shop in Skinner Row, over-against the Tholsel. 1698.   

An ADDRESS to the Magistrates, Clergy, and Learned Gentlemen of the City of DUBLIN, etc.  
GENTLEMEN,  
I Published lately an Advertisement of an English, Latin and Greek School; and therein I undertake, upon very Reasonable Terms, to teach the English, Latin and Greek Tongues, after a more Easy, Expeditious and Rational Method, than has been hitherto practised; but finding that it does not succeed according to my Expectation, I thought fit to discover to the World, that I am Able to Perform, what I have therein Undertaken: And since I cannot be so happy as to reap some Benefit by what I have with many years' Toil and Travel found out, let me at least have the Satisfaction of Discovering it to my Native Country; some more Ingenious Person may perhaps Improve it to greater Advantage for the Public Good.  
My Method of Teaching the Tongues, is this. 1. I Teach my Scholars the English Tongue Grammatically, according to the English Grammar which I Printed at London in 1692. and do instil all Grammatical Rules, Terms and Notions into Boys in their Mother Tongue, which they comprehend the better, because they are delivered in a Known Tongue. When Boys understand the English Parts of Speech, their Numbers, Cases, Articles, Genders and Declensions; the Conjugations, their Moods, Tenses and Persons; the Concord's and Regimens' in Syntax; the Accents, Names of Verses, and Measures in Prosody; the most Tedious and Difficult part of Grammar is over, before ever they enter into Latin. Then I teach them to make English Themes and Vers●●, and put some English Authors of the Purest Style, into their hands. A Boy thus qualified, is fit for learning any Foreign Tongue, and not till then. The forming of Boys at the Grammar-School, either makes or mars them for ever. The first Impressions stick fastest, and therefore aught to be made with the greatest Skill.  
2. When I enter a Boy into Latin or Greek, I do not Teach him the General Rules of Grammar over again, but make those Rules that are Peculiar to each Tongue, as Exceptions to the English Grammatical Rules. The Constitution of all Tongues, as to the General Rules of Grammar, are the same, and do only differ in a few things, viz. the English and Latin Tongues have Two Numbers; the Greek, Three; the English and Latin have Six Cases, the Greek but Five; the English Tongue hath but One Declension, the Latin Five, and the Greek Ten; the English hath but Two Conjugations, the Latin Four, and the Greek Thirteen, etc. Now to make Three complete Grammars, when One may suffice, is labour in vain. To repeat the same thing over and over, is to burden the Memory and Understanding. What Assinity the Latin and Greek Tongues. have with the English, may appear by my English Grammar, a competent Number whereof are daily expected from London. When an English Scholar is sent to a Latin School, generally he is to be taught to Read and Spell better, which is a great and improper Task for a Latin Schoolmaster, as Schooling is now: But my Method does not only save him this Labour, but the most laborious part of the Scholar's Education, viz. The frequent inculcation of Grammatical Rules, Terms, and Notions. As the learning of Latin has been hitherto a help to Boys for attaining the English. Tongue, this Method will be a great help to them for attaining the Latin and Greek Tongues; so that by this means, Boys may attain these Tongues in half the time that is usually spent in them. Besides, No Boy can turn English into Latin, or Latin into true and proper English, unless he has learned the English Tongue Grammatically: There are many Idioms in every Tongue, that cannot be rightly translated without this Knowledge. In this I have the concurring Opinions of the greatest Orators and Poets of the Age. The most Translations extant are convincing Instances of this Defect: The Translators for the most part following the Idiom of the Tongue from whence they translated them. Thus I think I have sufficiently evinced the Advantages and Necessity of Teaching the English Tongue Grammatically: The defect of which, may be reckoned the first Great Error in the Vulgar Method of Educating Youth. The English Tongue may be improved to all the Advantages that have made the Latin and Greek Tongues so famous, were Terms proper for all Arts and Sciences invented; which a too fond Admiration of Foreign Tongues, does hinder. For my part, I cannot perceive wherein our English Oratory and Poetry are Inferior to the Greek and Latin: The English Tongue is Copious enough, and may be Improved.  
Gentlemen, I must likewise beg leave to offer my Opinion as touching the Vulgar Methods of Teaching the Latin and Greek Tongues; and the first Error I find, is the Teaching of several Grammars: This variety of Grammars breeds not only a great Confusion in Schooling, but is a great loss to those Boys who leave a School before they be perfect in the Grammar Taught there: This makes Teaching and Learning an Herculean Labour; whilst the New Master is forced to re-teach, and the New Scholar to re-learn another Grammar. There ought therefore to be One Grammar Established as the Standard of Education, or None at all. The Use of Grammar was first occasioned by the Ignorance of Schoolmasters, and is still continued by their Laziness: There are no Grammars extant absolutely perfect; nay, some have great Errors in them. I have known that different Grammars have been taught in the same School; one Parent is for Lily, another for Despauter, a third for Alvarez, etc. He that is not able to compose a Grammar, is not fit to Teach a School? Such Fellows are Pick-Pockets and Quacks, and the Ruin of Children. Every Schoolmaster ought to compose a Compend of all necessary Grammatical Rules.  
2. The Second Error I find in the common way of Teaching, is, The Teaching of Latin in Latin Rules: This is as great Nonsense as the Teaching of Hebrew in Hebrew Rules: How much Labour and Time are lost in this, is evident to you all: Both which are saved by my Method. All Grammatical Rules ought to be in English; at least till Boys are Masters of Oratory. The bare mentioning of this Error, is sufficient to expose it.  
3. To put Boys into Authors before they can make Congruous Latin or Greek, is the greatest Error of all. When a Boy gins Syntax, he should have Sentences given him to turn into Latin, according to the Syntactical Rules that he learns, and ought not to leave that Rule, till he can make Latin perfectly according to it. To make Boys go through the whole Rules of Syntax, before they begin to make Latin, is a great Consumption of Time, for one Rule drives the other out of their heads. Besides, Boys ought to make congruous and ornate Latin, before ever they begin any Author: Janua Linguarum and Commenii Orbis Pictus, will do better than any Author; and yet I don't think them fit to be put into a Boy's hands, till he can make congruous Latin. The omission of this Daily Exercise, is chief to be imputed to the Laziness of Schoolmasters: Were Boys daily kept to this Exercise, it would save them the Necessity of Reading such foolish stuff as is contained in most of the usual Authors.  
4. To teach Boys Poetical Authors, before they be Masters of Oratory, is a great Error: For the Genius of Oratory and Poetry, are vastly disterent; witness the Prince of Orators hobbling Verse: O Fortunatam natam me consul Romam! I have known Cato, Qui mihi, Ovid's Epistles, and his Tristia, taught before ever they had learned Syntax: So that the Vulgar way of Teaching the Tongues, seems rather to be calculated to retard, than to further the Boys attaining of the Tongues.  
5. To teach Boys so many Classic Authors of different Styles, is a great Disadvantage to them, because it hinders them from Imitating or Acquiring a Good Style. Terence and Erasmus, Seneca and Cicero, are opposite Styles: Now to teach so many Authors of different Styles, must either be to furnish them with a sufficient store of words, which may be more easily done by Nomenclatures, where the Noun may be found in his Nominative Case, and the Verb in his Present Tense, without putting Boys to the trouble of turning over to the Declensions and Conjugations every foot; or else, to supply them with the several Forms of expressing the same things: But this may be more easily done by Winchester Phrases, and other Books composed on purpose: Or lastly, The end of teaching so many Authors, must be to instil the Author's Wit and Learning into Boys; but Wit and Learning are not to be picked out of the Classic Authors by Schoolboys: We find in most of the School-Authors a great deal of Atheism, Profaneness, and downright Lies, False Principles of Philosophy and Morality. The Reading of such Poetical Fictions is the Ruin of many a Youth. Are Ovid's obscene Lines to be introduced into a Christian School, for which he was Banished a Heathen Empire? Wit, Philosophy, and Morality, are not to be learned at the Grammar-School. Besides, the Principles of Philosophy are different from what they were, when the Classic Authors flourished; nay, Morality itself is Refined since. If Boys must be taught Wit, Philosophy, and Morality, at the Grammar-School, let them be given to them in their Versions; for upon my word they are not to be found in most Classic Authors. It is not good to prepossess Boys with False Principles; Prejudice of Education is a great hindrance to the Discovery of Truth. It were better to leave them to the Instruction of a Learned Tutor, where every Truth may be taught under a Proper and Methodical Head, and in its due place. These very Practices are the Bane of Youth, and a means to make them Eternal Blockheads. Some few Men indeed retrieve those Disadvantages and Prejudices of Education. Besides, what signify those Bits and Scraps of Wit that are picked out of satire? Is it fit that Boys should be kept Eight or Nine years in perusing such? Si Populus vult decipi, decipiatur: If People will be led by the Nose, who can help it? The due perusal of one Orator's, and of one Poet's Works, will be of more Use, than a hotchpotch of all the Classic Authors. To judge of a Boy Proficiency in the Tongues, by his Skill in Classic Authors, is idle; if he can speak good Latin, and write elegant Latin and Greek, it is not a Farthing matter whether he has read them all, or not. It is the Misfortune of Mankind, that all Learning has been so long wrapped up in Foreign Languages. For my part, I admire some of the Classic Authors as much as any Man, but they must be read cum grano Salis. When a Youth is Master of Oratory and Poetry, than indeed he may be permitted to read all the Classic Authors. But to spend the prime of Youth in them, when it is evident we get nothing by them but the knowledge of the Tongues, is a great loss of Time, which might be better employed in the study of more profitable Learning.  
Now, Gentlemen, I have gone through the Vulgar Errors in Educating of Youth in the Knowledge of the Tongues: I shall only mention two or three Advantages more of my Method of Teaching. 1. It will save Masters a great deal of Pains in Teaching, and Boys a great deal of Pains and Time in Learning the Tongues. 2. It will be of great Advantage for those who are not designed for the University, or are designed for Trades; for hereby the mere English Scholar is qualified for the study of Philosophy, Divinity, and the Mathematics, and of all other Arts and Sciences, which are now extant in the English Tongue. 3. It will be of great Advantage to the Native Irish, and all Foreigners, who may hereby learn to pronounce and speak English like Native Englishmen; which they could not attain to before, by the defect of an English Grammar. Every Schoolmaster will complain of the defect of good Methods, but none venture to remedy the Evil: I have freely thrown my Mite into the Corban, and if I have not hit the Mark, yet I have led the way for a more Ingenious Pen to complete it.  
Gentlemen, I have not Published this Paper to undermine any other Schoolmaster: I only desire that a competent Number of gentlemen's Sons may be committed to my Tuition, that have not been fixed at a Latin School for any time; for if they have, they are not fit for my Method. I taught many Noblemen and Persons of Quality's Children at London, and at length taught None but Such; the Truth whereof is known to some Persons of Eminent Quality in Dublin: And now to sit idle in an Empty School, and in my Native Country too, seems very uncouth. However, I hope this small Essay cannot be taken amiss, being writ for the Public Good: And so I am in all humility,  
May 15. 1698. From my School at Mr. Fox's on New Key, near the Indian Queen, Adjoining to Essex- Bridge Dublin. Your most Devoted and Humble Servant, JOSEPH AICKIN.