AN Epistle to FRIENDS, Concerning the Education of Children. NEXT the Care of our own Souls, a right Education of our Children is greatest, for he can scarce be said to be a Happy Father, whose Child is Unhappy: And also the great Master of Heaven and Earth, who hath given us the Charge over them, to Nurse and Educate, will require them at our hands: For if such Inanimate Things, as Corn, Wine and Flax, shall be accounted for, much more our Offspring. Yet it's to be feared, if there is not more Care, and a better Method than hath been hitherto taken, in many of our children's Education, too many of them will leave the Service, and lose the Blessing of Upholding the Profession of Truth in succeeding Ages to the Families of Strangers, whilst the Posterity of the present Professors of it, may have little Share in it. Heavy and Sore was the Judgement, upon that honourable old Man Eli, for his Neglect of his Children, (tho' he reproved them,) their Sins being his and their Ruin, and the Loss of the Priesthood. Reproof stands for little, without other good Management (and with it Children trained young, will need little Correction or Reproof either) and that lies much in a constant useful Employment, joined with good Instruction; a good Instructor being like to a good Seedsman; but how Poor will the Crop be, if the Husbandman doth not manage his Ground, first by Ploughing and stirring it, to prevent Weeds growing. The Mind is always at work, bringing forth something, and a right managing of that in our Children, is the chief of our Charge concerning them; and their Thoughts are of four sorts, 1st, either Innocent, as when Infants; or 2dly, Useful, when their Hands are usefully employed; or 3dly, Foolish or Wicked, When Idle; or 4thly, Religious. Idleness is the Devil's great Opportunity, especially added to ill Company. Infants are capable of little but feeding, bigger Children of some Knowledge of Good and Evil, yet of being kept as Innocent from the Evil as in their Sucking-days, by their Thoughts being entertained upon the Subject their hands are employed in, when not upon the Instruction their Tutors shall give them (suitable to their Age) and so forward till l they come to a stronger Judgement; How readily then will they receive the Council of God, when their Regular and Innocent Education hath given their Spirits the Nature of the good Ground, (neither Highway nor Stony?) And a Child thus bred, will not readily departed from it when he is Old. But few private Persons have the Conveniencies, Leisure and Capacity, of giving their Children an Exact Education at Home; such as have Instructions usually wanting suitable Employment, and such as have Employment often wanting Instructions; so that the Subject is indispensably the Church's Care, and worth their Modelling. Now as a further Preface to what may be said for an Industrious Education of Children, I recommend to your Consideration my Printed Proposals for Raising a College of Industry. John Bellers. Dear Friends, WE having Perused and Considered a Discourse, lately Published by our Friend John Bellers, for the better Education of Youth, and Ampler Provision for the Poor; the Care of whom Friends were Particularly Exhorted to by the last Yearly Meeting; we Recommend the said Book to your Consideration; as, believing it may be of Use for those good Ends, if one House or College, for a beginning, were set on foot, with a joint Stock, by the Friends of Estates through the Nation. William Penn Charles Martial Leonard Fell John Vaughton Francis Stamper Elias Osborne Joshua Middleton Oliver Sansom Thomas Gillpin Richard Asheby John Boulton Richard Watson Robert Barclay Nathaniel Owen Clement Plumsted William Robinson Josiah Garton Peregrine Musgrave John Harwood Thomas Ellwood William Crouch John Edge Richard Vickris. James Wass Cornelius Mason Nathaniel Marks Henry Gouldney Richard Dymond Francis Plumsteed Robert Ruddle Thomas Dell. Abel Wilkinson Thomas Mincks Edward Wright John Tomkins John Knight Reuben Linskile John Freame Benjamin Ewer Robert Fairman John Hodgskins John Light John Bawne Richard Cook John Haddon. London, Printed and Sold by T. Sowle, next Door to the Meetinghouse in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-street, 1697.