
 
 <J\/Lichel Ernest Sadler 
 llmversitu Collegt 
 Oxford 
 
 ie~- 
 
 esrc 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 PROPOSALS 
 
 FOR AN 
 
 AMENDMENT 
 
 O F 
 
 SCHOOL- INSTRUCTION. 
 
 Our Doubts are Traitors, 
 And make us lofe the Good we oft might win, 
 By fearing to attempt. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed for J. Wilkie, No. 71, in St. Paul's 
 Church- Yard. 
 
 MDCCLXX1I.
 
 fan 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 GENERAL SCOPE OF THE WRITER, 
 
 Page i 
 
 PART I. 
 
 How far it may feem right to defift from teach- 
 ing Latin and Greek ; and in the Meafure 
 they are laid afide, what the Articles are that 
 fhould take their place, and how thefe fhould 
 be taught, 4 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Ancient Languages^ 4 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Newly propofed, more compendious and eafy Forms 
 of teaching thefe Languages^ if really fo ? Re* 
 trenchments, what proper ? 6 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Diver/ion of a Part of School-Inflruflion to ether 
 indifpenfible Purpofes, when a confiderable Hin- 
 derance to thofe it the mofl imports to be 
 Linguifts, by no means an irreparable one, 7 
 
 A 2 SECTION 
 
 ^'7
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Subflitutes for Latin and Greek, Page 9 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Nature and Qualities of the Extracts and entire 
 Englifj Books ft for the Ufe of Schools 1 1 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 'it he fame Subjett continued, 15 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 Hiflory, 17 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 How to chufe, and be provided with proper fhort 
 Relations or Stories, 2 1 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 Certain Kinds of thefe Stories, fome of which ought 
 to be particularly chofen, and fome to be rejected, 
 
 22 
 
 SECTION XI. 
 
 Early Idea of Country, and Love of it, to be 
 
 planted in the Bofom, and cherifhed by thefe 
 
 Stories, 23 
 
 SECTION XII. 
 
 V articular Lives of good and exemplary Men, 24 
 
 SECTION XIII. 
 
 Stories to be taken from Ancient Hiflory, 2 5 
 
 SECTION
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 SECTION XIV. 
 Series of Hijiory adapted to the middle Gaffes, 
 
 Page 26 
 
 SECTION XV. 
 The fame adapted to the highefl Gaffes, ibid. 
 
 SECTION XVI. 
 Poems and Works of Imagination, 2 S 
 
 SECTION XVII. 
 
 Pleafing and inter eft ing Stories eafily made introduc- 
 tory to the Knowledge of Chronology and Geo* . 
 graphy, 29 
 
 SECTION XVIII. 
 
 That the Rule of fuiting Books to the Knowledge 
 and Capacity of Youths can only be had in View, 
 without pretending abfolutely to reach and fcru- 
 pulcufly to adhere to it, 3 2 
 
 SECTION XJX. 
 
 The Will to be won over to the Side of Learning, 
 by applying to the fever al Faculties in due Seafon ; 
 at firft chiefly to the Affections and Fancy, as 
 the firft that difclofe themfelves and are in Vi~ 
 gour, and in a lefs degree (till fomewhat later) 
 to the reafoning Powers, as being more backward, 
 
 SECTION XX. 
 
 Apparatus of Books, how to be had and adjufted, 
 
 35 
 SECTION
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 SECTION XXI. 
 
 Reading, P a g e 37 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Of adjufting the Clafics, agreeably to this Plan, 
 
 47 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Fir ft, or Low eft Clafs, ibid. 
 
 SECTION n. 
 
 Higher Gaffes , 53 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Intermediate School-hours between Leffons, 57 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Arithmetic, Geometry, and the reft of Mr. Locke's 
 Articles of Inftruclion confidered, 60 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Difdpline, 64 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 The Day to be divided between Latin and Englifh 
 Infraction, ibid. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 IVhat Regard ought to be had to Reading and Ap- 
 plication, out of School hours, en particular 
 Holidays, and in Uicakings-up, 65 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 The Ufe of Preceptors and Tutors, on this Plan, 
 
 6$ 
 PART
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Accommodation of the Plan to the Diverfity of 
 Ranks, Page 69 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 To which of thefe (he Ancient Languages Jhould b$ 
 taught, ibid. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 $oth the EngUJJj and ether Parts of this Bifcipline, 
 proper for Youths of Rani, and fuch as are de- 
 fignedfor Profejfwns, 70 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Of the Middle and Lower Ranks, 72 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 howeji Rank, 70 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Danger of fill farther increafing the Number of 
 Authors by infilling a more general Love of Let- 
 ters, confidered, 04. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 Conclusion of what has been obferved of the Suit- 
 ablenefs of this Plan, in whole or in part, to 
 Boys of the feveral Ranks and Conditions of 
 Life", 9 6 
 
 PART
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 Mailers, 98 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Difficulty of obtaining fuch as are proper, ibid. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Indifferent Majlers — If Grammar- Schools more pro- 
 fitable under fuch, than the Schools here pro- 
 pofed ? Proficiency in which of the two, more 
 determinate and manifefl ? 99 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 'The Scheme how fuitable to the larger Country- 
 Schools, requiring a Majler and an Ufher, 104 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 In what Meafures the Defign is praclicable in 
 Schools that are in the extreme, the largefi and 
 the leaf? 106 
 
 Farther Objections confidered, 108 
 
 Reafons for forming the whole into a con- 
 fiftent and entire Plan, and giving it in 
 Detail, 1 1 3 
 
 CONCLUSION, 114 
 
 P R O P O-
 
 PROPOSALS 
 
 for an AMENDMENT of 
 
 SCHOOL -INSTRUCTION. 
 
 GENERAL SCOPE OF THE WRITER. 
 
 WERE a man of plain common fenfe, 
 to forget for an hour the prefent 
 method and objects of early inftruction, and to 
 confider quite abfiractedly from the prevalence 
 ofcuftom, " what would be the fit left employment 
 •* of our tender minds, in order to plant and cul- 
 " tivate in them that which might turn to the beji 
 " after-account •," fuch a perlbn would find very 
 little difficulty, it may be prefumed, in refolv- 
 ing the queftion. The firft great object of his 
 approbation, would be religion and morals : 
 the books that were read or taught, he would 
 fee plainly, ought (Irongly and feelingly to in- 
 culcate the principles of theie, clearly to the 
 underftanding, and movingly to the heart : fo 
 much he would think mould follow of the hifto- 
 ry of Man, paft and prefent •, of the linking 
 objects of nature and of art •, as lay the moft 
 B level
 
 ( 2 ) 
 
 level to the capacity of the child and the boy, 
 and as could be made, both in themfelves and 
 the manner of defcribing them, fit to excite his 
 curiofity and fix his attention : he would nearly 
 confine his view to turning to account the fenfi- 
 bility of thefe years, which when once pad, the 
 feafon for imprinting moral ideas with a proper 
 and permanent energy, is no more : as to dead 
 cr foreign languages, though admitted to con- 
 tain very choice treafures of genius and know- 
 ledge, he would never harbour a thought of 
 giving the ftudy of them nearly an exclnfive pre- 
 ference to that of our own, much lefs to thefe 
 other mod ingenuous and efiential purpoles. 
 Scarce any one will deny, that thefe would be 
 fentiments of a plain unbiafled man, as 
 g the dictates of unprejudiced reafon. 
 
 On this principle tl I In this feafon of loud 
 
 . ellasjuftcompluincagainfttheprefent method 
 
 of fchool-inftruclion, every perfon of reflection, 
 
 in a manner, is a: liberty to (ketch out a plan 
 
 of improvement. Improvement, however ne- 
 
 f ftart up in an hour, but 
 
 For it, by many 
 
 men's deliberately and varioufly canvaiTing 
 
 before the public; fo complicated a fubj 
 
 When this . n repeatedly done in dct 
 
 in
 
 ( 3 ) 
 in the practical manner here attempted, may it 
 not be prefumed that the matter will be one 
 flep at leaft advanced, and that the public will 
 be brought nearly to agree, what is to be aimed 
 at, and what is attainable, and be fatisfied that 
 they have had marked out to them the means 
 of accomplifhing it ? till then, fo exceedingly- 
 momentous a concern, muft be at a ftand. 
 It fhould moreover be premifed, that the capital 
 object of early moral cultivation, mult be owned 
 to be no farther confidercd here, than as it 
 ftands connected wich, and may be capable of 
 being promoted by, intellectual improvement. 
 
 It may be mod commodious to divide what 
 is meant here to be offered into four parts, con- 
 fidering, — Firft, How far it may feem right to 
 delift from teaching Latin and Greek ; and in 
 the meafure they are laid afide, what the anicles 
 are which mould take their place, and how 
 thefe mould be taught. Secondly^ How boys 
 ought, agreeably to this plan, to be clafied. 
 Thirdly, How far the phn is applicable to 
 the feveral ranks and conditions of youth. 
 Fourthly, What difficulties its execution mult 
 meet with, on the fide of Mailers. 
 
 B 2 PART
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 PARTI. 
 
 How far it may feem right to defift from 
 teaching Latin and Greek; and in the 
 Meafure they are laid afide, what the 
 Articles are that ihould take their place, 
 and how thefe mould be taught. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Ancient Languages. 
 
 The reader needs here to be no more than 
 reminded cf the principal objections there lie 
 to the confuming, in a manner, the whole 
 powers of early inftrucYion on the Latin and 
 Greek tongues : to fet thefe down is enough ; 
 no formal proof can be wanting of their reality 
 and their weight. After the capital one ex- 
 pofed above, it may fuffice to mention the fol- 
 lowing : r. The difgufting of youth by fo dry 
 afettihg out, againft letters. — 2. The blunting of 
 the intellectual faculties, by prefenting to them, 
 as an exercife, that which is none but for their 
 patience. — 3. The forgetting thefe. tongues no 
 longer carry with them that almojl neceffary 
 utility they had formerly, when as yet the fole 
 repofuories of genius and fcience, the fole 
 
 7 means
 
 C 5 ) 
 
 means of correfpondence between the few men, 
 widely difperfed, of a literary turn of mind.— 
 4. The promifcuous teaching of them to fo 
 many claffes of youth, who, it may well be fore- 
 feen, will want either occafion and opportunity or 
 will to ufe them, in their riper years. — 5. The 
 giving, in many a toilfome year, to very great 
 numbers of youths, fuch a tincture of them as 
 only breeds fufficiency and conceit, inftilling 
 an idea of folid acquifition and knowlege, 
 where unprofitable ends and fcraps merely of 
 one and another dead language are gained ; 
 and when, but for the miftaking of this fhadow 
 for a fubftance, fomething elfe valuable per- 
 haps might, at years of difcretion, have been 
 fought after. If, hov/ever, fuch grols abufes 
 ought to put a itop to the practice of teaching 
 thefe tongues folely, almoft generally, imperfectly, 
 and unoperatively on after-life ; flill the tran- 
 fcendency of thofe models of genius they con- 
 tain, and the neceffity of them for profeflional 
 and fcientific purpofes, as manifeftly and indif- 
 penfibly require, that many youths be instruct- 
 ed in them. What then remains but to fettle 
 the medium, and to draw the line of difcrimi- 
 nation, which clafles of youths fhould be 
 taught them, and which Ihould not ? 
 
 B 2 SECTION
 
 ( 6 ) 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Newly-propofed, mere compendious and eafy Forms 
 of teaching tbefe Languages, if really Jo ? Re- 
 trenchments, what proper ? 
 
 It muft be infatuation to fancy the acquiring 
 by book two fuch hard dead languages can by 
 any means be made other than the laborious and 
 irkfome tafk of many and many a tedious year. 
 If it be le to foften or contract this toil 
 
 in any meafure, by changes in the form of teach- 
 . it muft plainly be in a very fmall one, and 
 only in the beginning. It may be an advan- 
 tage to cut off fome of the rules of grammar, 
 ro free them from fome of their hard terms ; to 
 teach them in Englifb, giving a clear and eafy 
 turn to the exp.reffion, and, perhaps, by a few 
 at a time, or fingly, as a dais's gradual pro- 
 grefs makes them intelligible and applicable : 
 as to all that follows this, after the courfe of 
 perhaps the firft year, the prefent forms of con- 
 ilruing, parfing, and making fome exercifes, 
 muft be owned to be the neceffary, and nearly 
 the only means of proceeding. The main, 
 therefore, of what is practicable, to fave toil 
 and time in tl I , confifts not in chang- 
 
 but retrenching. Great part, at leaft, of 
 
 the
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 the getting by heart, making of exercifes, efpe- 
 rially in • verfe, and afterwards declaiming, 
 might well be fpared ; and the time thus faved 
 be confidered, as what is agreed to be fo much 
 wanting, to dedicate to other very efiential ac- 
 quisitions. Again ; would not the whole la- 
 bour be much contracted, by making it the 
 great aim to capacitate youth for the noble 
 purpole.of mattering the claffics ; fetting afide 
 the immaterial views of fpeakingand compofing 
 in thefe languages ? Much time is now wafted 
 in doing what promotes thefe ends, without al- 
 rr.oft at all furthering the other infinitely fupe- 
 rior one. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Diver/ion of a Part of School- Inftruftion to ether 
 indifpenfible Purpcfes, when a confiderablc Ilia- 
 derance to thofe it the mofi imports to be 
 Linguifls, by no means an irreparable one. 
 
 Befides the number of the prefent learners 
 of Latin by halves,, who, by a juft difcrimina- 
 tion, would be withdrawn frcin it, and I 
 the command of their whole time to apply to 
 other objects \ it would be prppofed that the 
 remainder, who neceflarily or properly went on 
 with the languages, fhould fpare from them, 
 B 4 for
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 for other fuperior purpofes, cne half of their 
 time and of the day : fo many of thefe laft as 
 were youths of quick parts, and had fuch a 
 turn for letters, as to bid fair for deriving par- 
 ticular advantage from being linguifts, could 
 fcarce fail to find the remaining half of the day 
 j ... ly fufficient to perfect them in both Latin 
 and Greek ; as to the reft of them, of lefs 
 : ; nant parts, and who advanced more lei- 
 furely, but to whom fkill in the tongues would 
 be an object either of necefiity or great con- 
 venience and credit, thefe might at leaft lay a 
 fure foundation at fchool fcr perfecting them- 
 felves therein afterwards. And if fome incon- 
 venience mould follow from postponing the 
 complete attainment of the languages, this 
 would be overbalanced by the acquifuions made 
 through a more profitable employment of the 
 fchool hours taken from thefe : buckwardnefs 
 in language would at leaft be far more retriev- 
 able, than that in things from a confinement 
 to words, through fuch a length of years, up 
 to the age of fourteen or fifteen, or perhaps a 
 higher one ; and as to thofe who would not 
 take the pains to retrieve it, it is a pretty fure 
 fign that if their whole youth had been fuccefif- 
 fuliy fpent on the fole attainment of the lan- 
 guages, they would have "been little the better 
 for it, turning them fcarce to any either after- 
 account
 
 ( 9 ) 
 
 account or ufe. Nor, if they will find hours 
 for applying to this afterwards, can it pofnbiy 
 be at a time of life, when avocation from other 
 matters can be fo detrimental, as a total one in 
 their early years at fchool ? thefe, though often 
 prepofierouily reprefentcd as fuited to nothing 
 better than the conning of words, being the 
 feafon when, by exercifmg the mind and the 
 heart, the foundation mult be laid for an in- 
 tellectual and a moral improvement the mod 
 important and permanent. So many hours as 
 cannot then be gained for thefe purpofes, by 
 cutting off the prefent redundancies of fchool- 
 inihucuon, and by facilitating and expediting 
 a proficiency in the tongues, ought, without 
 fcruple, to be taken from fuch as the moil un- 
 deniably contribute to this end, even at the 
 hazard of fending youths late from fcfa >ol, de- 
 ficient, inftead of perfect, in Latin and Greek. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Subjtitutes for Latin and Greek. 
 But the time thus faved, by withdrawing 
 
 o 
 
 all inftruclion in theie languages from fome 
 youths, and by lefiening it and linking offtl 
 appendages and incumbrances in regard la 
 others - 3 how mall this be employed ? Out of 
 
 fuch
 
 ( io ) 
 
 fuch a number of various and important fub- 
 ftitutes as occur, it fhould with the extremeft 
 attention be confidered, which deferve bell to 
 be made choice of, and how the teaching of 
 them fhould be ordered and adjufted. This 
 little work pretends, at the utmoft, no higher, 
 than more minutely to fill up the outlines of 
 Mr. Locke's plan in his incomparable book on 
 Education, by a fuller explication of fome of 
 its parts, and an accommodation of thofe di- 
 rections to the ufe of fchools, which he adapt- 
 ed, more immediately at leafr, to that of the 
 domeftic tutor. I have meant, indeed, fo ab- 
 folutely to take Mr. Locke for my guide, and 
 to follow his footfleps, that it is on the cogency 
 and energy of the latter part of his book that I 
 rely •, and whoever has not repeatedly weighed, 
 and is not fwayed and penetrated by the force 
 of his arguments, comes unprepared for pro- 
 fiting by the perufal of this fupplement to them. 
 This excellent man, not, however, chufing on 
 all articles to encounter the full force of the 
 prejudices of his age, forbore formally toaflign 
 part of the days, as is here propoled, to Eng- 
 liih, (after the manner of the Greeks and Ro- 
 mans, in regard to their refpeitive languages,) 
 and coniequently had no need to give us 
 particular extracts and entire Englifh books he 
 for youths' inftruction and ftu 
 
 Tl-s
 
 ( II ) 
 
 This prefumed defecl: in Mr. Locke, it will be 
 neceffary (on the preient plan) here to fupply, 
 enlarging in the two or three following fections 
 on the various articles of Englifli reading, as 
 in the next to them on all the farther ones pro- 
 per for fchcol-inftruction. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Nature and Qualities of the Extracls and entire 
 Englijh Book* fit for the Ufe of Schools. 
 
 Previoufly to particularizing thefe, their ge- 
 neral ftyle and their contents fhould be fettled. 
 The firft, for boys of fix or feven years old, 
 who have juft left the reading-fchool, cannot 
 be too fimple, clear and eafy. If nearly as dif- 
 ficult, Englifh would be as forbidding to them 
 as Latin. An habitual clearnefs, as well of 
 thought and difcourfe as ftyle and writing, might 
 be hoped, in virtue of the ftrong imitative 
 faculty of thefe years, to be promoted by a 
 careful choice of the moft perfpicuous authors 
 to initiate boys in. The bad habits too of 
 fancying you underfcand what you don't, of 
 vnderilanding by halves, or of being inatten- 
 tive to, or abfent from, what is fet before you 
 as an object of the underftanding, might, in 
 thefe inftances, be avoided. Even the forcible 
 and fublime ftyle, and that of the paffions if 
 
 highly
 
 ( 12 ) 
 
 highly figurative, is to be withheld from the 
 loweft clafs, and not to be produced to youths 
 afterwards, but as their faculties advance and 
 ripen, to meet and fully comprehend it. They 
 fhould have feme previous idea of that lan- 
 guage, and chofe heights of the pafllons, that 
 are reprefented to them. They are not to be 
 accofted from a bcok, in ftrains much above or 
 very different from what they have heard in 
 fpeech : a height and modes of expreffion in 
 the pafllons, far beyond what their little experi- 
 ence has met with in others, or felt and fpoke 
 themfelves, will ferve but to confound them. 
 
 When the ftyle is fimple, clear and eafy, and 
 of confequence readily, and without any manner 
 of effort, perfectly underftood, the matter will 
 be carried inftantaneoufly, and without the leaft 
 ambiguity or cloud inefs, to work upon the 
 mind ; and when, by being familiarized in the 
 years of imitative childhood to clear concep- 
 tions only, expreffed with equal clearnefs, a 
 like habit of conceiving and fpeaking clearly 
 is gained •, purity, correclnefs, and force will 
 the more eafily be acquired : and where there 
 are no difficulties on the fide of the language, 
 but the thoughts rife habitually in the mind, 
 clothed with clear words, they will exift there 
 re diftinft, be the more eafy to feparate and 
 
 affort
 
 ( 13 ) 
 
 afibrt for contemplation, companion and de- 
 duction, and to methodize, elafs, and arrange. 
 I (hall not be thought to have been too full on 
 this head •, the practice being not uncommon 
 of tormenting ^ children, or, however, boys, 
 with what is wrote in a hard, difficult, and tur- 
 gid ftyle, without regard to the perplexed and 
 confufed manner of thinking and fpeaking, it 
 mufl tend to corrupt them with. It is a great 
 misfortune, that fome parts of the works of our 
 beft poets, and who are held forth in a manner 
 as models of perfection, are infected with thefe 
 faults. Neither will warmth of ftyle be incon- 
 fiftent with the fimplicity fo much infifted on : 
 it is the union of thefe that touches the heart, 
 whofe fenfibility is perhaps at its higheft pitch, 
 and open to be the mod ftrongly wrought upon 
 in thefe tender years, while the reafoning powers 
 remain fo weak. 
 
 It will be obferved here, that the fimple ftyle, 
 inftead of excluding, moft freely admits, or 
 rather requires, the ufe of idiomatical phrafes : 
 all the peculiarities of diction, that are obvious 
 in their (en(Q as well as natural and unaffected, 
 it embraces ; and not to have been familiarized 
 betimes with thefe, may caufe dearth and bar- 
 rennefs, inftead of life and variety of exprtf- 
 fion. 
 
 As
 
 ( 14 ) 
 
 As to the matter and the fubjcfts, for the 
 loweft clafles particularly, they mould be the 
 moil familiar, amufing and inviting. Thefe, 
 when clothed in an anfwerable ftyle, boys 
 would generally be induced to read, not as a 
 talk, but with pleafure, and remember them 
 when they had done •, would fhew how they 
 were affected by ftriking paffages, would dif- 
 clofe their particular turns of mind, or even 
 the feeds of their genius, pointing out the pro- 
 per cultivation for either, and the way of life 
 nature qualified them for. They would be 
 made acquainted, in their paffage through the 
 fchool, with many of our beft authors in molt 
 of the fpecies of general learning, be prepared 
 for proceeding afterwards to particular and 
 profeffional ftudies, and imbibe early fuch a 
 love of true literature, as would bid fair to ad- 
 here to them through life. Again, the moral 
 fenfe, which lb early difclofes itfelf, and foon 
 acquires confiderable ftrength, wants now to be 
 regulated and fully formed, cultivated, and 
 deeply imprinted on the mind. The impref- 
 fions made by well-chofcn Engiiih books, 
 through the activity and energy or" this fenfe, 
 would be indelible, end have the happieft 
 effects for ever afterwards. Let it here be 
 remembered, that the kind of books we have 
 been defcribing, approaches near, c cor-
 
 ( *5 ) 
 
 refponds in, both matter and ftyle, to the earlieft 
 writings of Greece, which were fpread abroad, 
 and in every body's hands and mouth, as well 
 as the particular objects of firft inftruction to 
 their youth •, as likewife the advantage Gre- 
 cian genius could not have failed to derive in 
 fo many refpe&s from this happy circumftance. 
 If then you afpire to rival this nation of artifts, 
 tread, (where you can trace them,) in their 
 footfteps. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 The fame Subjecl continued. 
 
 Agreeably to thefe principles, it muft be plain 
 there will be few entire books fit for the ufe of 
 the lowed claries •, very great proportions of al- 
 moft all that could be thought of, prefuming 
 in the reader a forwardnefs of parts, and a 
 knowledge far beyond the firft years pafled at 
 fchool, as well as an acquaintance with terms and 
 a ready entering into the fenfe and connection 
 of periods, of which the young fchool- boy muit 
 be ignorajit and incapable. Such particular 
 paffage s, parts and relations only as are fit for 
 the purpofe, with an accommodation to the fe- 
 veral claries, which we (hall not pretend in this 
 place carefully to diftinguifh, mult be made ufe 
 of. Religion, moral precepts, ftories, fables,
 
 ( 16 ) 
 
 and poems, are what they are to relate to, or 
 be taken from. 
 
 In regard to Religion, it can by no means be 
 fo effectively inculcated as from the Bible itfelf. 
 It will be pretty obvious which are the particu- 
 lar relations Mr. Locke withes to have taken 
 from the Old and New Teftament, to lay open 
 to youth the ftrongeft and cleared outlines of 
 the Jewifh and Chriftian fyflems, and to touch 
 their hearts with the moil moving reprefenta- 
 tiens. Nor does the Electing of the moft rap- 
 turous and pathetic, the preceptive and ftrik- 
 ingly-defcriptive paffages in the Pfalmifts and 
 Prophets, the Evangelifts and Apoftles, (fo 
 many of them as are the cleared and bell adapt- 
 ed to the young fchool-boy's capacity,) feem to 
 be a matter of any extraordinary difficulty. 
 
 As to moral precepts, befides thofe taken 
 from the Bible, a great number of them might 
 be had from our own poets, contained often in 
 a diftich or coupler, or capable of being eafily 
 completed and brou tin that, or, at leaft, 
 
 U very narrow compafs. 
 
 Some confiderabie number of Enprlifh fables 
 be colic 1 : entimental and pa^ 
 • and ballads, after a proper correc- 
 tion,
 
 ( *7 ) 
 
 tion, where the old ftyle was not too coarfe, bald 
 and mean to admit of it, mud have an admir- 
 able influence and effect. 
 
 As to boys in the middle of the fchool, or 
 fomewhat lower, before almoft any entire poems 
 were read, might not extracts be made for 
 them, complete in themfelves, and quire intel- 
 ligible, at a very early age ? We may be fup- 
 plied with thefe from our own Englifh (lores. 
 In what poet, ancient or modern, is there, for 
 inftance, a relation more fkilfully and feelingly 
 touched, and better fitted for exciting to an 
 amiable exercife of the private virtues, than Mr. 
 Pope's Man of Rofs f This poet, befides 
 abounding in moral paflages, fententious, 
 weighty and cogent, has feveral of a fimilar 
 tendency with the Man of Rofs, for penetrat- 
 ing every youth of fenfibiliry, and making the 
 belt, the rnoft lively and iaiting imprefllons on 
 every humane mind. 
 
 S E C T I O N VII. 
 
 I-iftory. 
 
 Sacred hiftory has been already fpol<en of j 
 proceeding to that which is not lb, the firft in 
 order fhould be what relates to -our own coun- 
 try. A generous and exulted idea of our an- 
 C editors,
 
 ( 18 ) 
 
 oeftors, fuch an one as may give rife to love, 
 efteem, admiration, and even reverence, can- 
 not be too early communicated •, but this mould 
 be fo taught as to inipire nothing boaftful or 
 arrogant •, and, if an opinion of fome degree of 
 inferiority in them to ourfelves, no ill-ground- 
 ed contempt of other nations. For our own, 
 the opinion conceived of heroifm in individuals, 
 will foon be transferred to the whole of it in 
 general. Care mould Farther be taken, that an 
 idea of country (according to the ingenious 
 advice of Dr. Prieftley) fhould betimes be ex- 
 cited and cherifhed. The wild manners of the 
 ancient Britons would take hold of curiofity ; 
 and it is befides fit, that one of our firft pieces 
 of knowledge fhould be our own origin : a 
 picture tco of theie firft inhabitants of the 
 ifland would be not 01 ly curioufly wild, but Spi- 
 rited and gallant. The important event of the 
 union of the heptarchy accomplifhed by Eg- 
 bert, and the elevation of his genius, make it 
 defirable to introduce this grandfather of Al- 
 fred : Several of the occurrences of which 
 prince's illuftrious life, highly pleafe the ima 
 tion ; as a defcription of his laws might be made 
 to do ; intelligible as they might be rendered, in 
 a manner to the lowed formes •, the prevailing 
 ideas would be thofe of the hero and the legis- 
 lator. '1 'he Roman, and the two following 
 
 conquefts,
 
 ( 19 ) 
 
 conqueft.% ought not to be too foon touched 
 upon, left, with the firft idea of our country, 
 we join this debating one and that of fervitude; 
 not the gallant refinance, but the event, defeat 
 and fubjefiion^ would dwell upon the tender 
 mind. The Norman cono^jeft, too capiral an 
 event to be omitted, might poffibly be foftened 
 (without falfifying hiftory) into the i flue of a 
 contefl between two rivals for the crown-, at 
 the worft, the battle of Haftings, the high fpi- 
 rit of Harold, (our old Englifli Hector,) his 
 death in the field, and its circumftances, toge- 
 ther with the fiercely- elevated conduct of his 
 adverfary, would form a diftinct relation the 
 mod (hiking. It is cbfervable, that the Nor- 
 man duke, in correfpor.der.ee to king Harold's 
 refemblance to the defender of Troy, anfwers, 
 if not entirely, to the Achilles of Homer, pre- 
 cifely to his pourtrait in Horace — Impiger^ ira- 
 cundtiSt inexorability acer. Thcrc\are fome oc- 
 currences in our hiftory either of an unpromif- 
 ing afpecl on the fide of imagination, and to 
 appearance above the reach of the young fchcol- 
 boy's capacity, which, for their noble and im- 
 portant nature, it would be highly deferable, 
 and found perhaps, on turning them on every 
 fide, not impracticable to convert to our pur- 
 pole. In the foremoft of thcie events ttands the 
 C 2 obtaining
 
 ( 20 ) 
 
 obtaining of the Great Charter, the full con- 
 courfe of the Barons, their habiliments and 
 warlike accoutrements, the folemnity of many 
 of the circumftances and the oaths, and above 
 all (what feefns hardeft to effect) a brief recital 
 of the leading articles of the charter, by giving 
 their general form and tenor in the plainefl ex- 
 preffion, made intelligible nearly to the lowed 
 clafies : the whole of this would produce a re- 
 prefentation that cannot be too early and too 
 deeply imprinted on the bofoms of our youth. 
 Many other interefling occurrences will be found 
 capable of being very, intelligibly detached from 
 the body cf our hiftory, and wrought into dif- 
 tinct ftories nearly complete in themfelves. 
 And thefe cannot be doubted to be more fuit- 
 able to the lower clafies of boy?, than a 1 metho- 
 dical fefies of hiftory; though l ight per- 
 haps, in fact, be feverally fo taken from its re- 
 fpeelive periods as to give occafion for taking 
 notice of each of thefe in fuccelficn ; at leafl en- 
 tire confufion and abfolute inattention in regard 
 to order of time, might be avoided. There will 
 be a neceiTity for a few lines of introduction to 
 torieSj tl at they may not begin 
 y, but a clear idea be firft given cf their 
 ra'l connections with what went before. 
 
 SECTION
 
 ( 21 ) 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 How to cbufe, and be provided with proper Jhort 
 Relations or Stories. 
 
 In order to be provided with a fit number of 
 thefe dories, fome ingenious perfon mould be 
 employed, either to mark in our hiftories what 
 already are, or to felect and accommodate what 
 may be made fo. The following may be 
 placed together, as the qualities requifite to be 
 found in thefe dories, or given to them. They 
 mould apply chiefly to thofe pafTions young 
 fchool-boys have already felt ; in the fpeeches 
 (where any are) let there be very little that is 
 argumentative, but merely what is fentimental, 
 or moves the affections ; the language and fenfe 
 fhould be moll clear, eafy and obvious, requir- 
 ing not the lead effort for the undemanding of 
 every part. — Attention to be awakened and 
 commanded by the flory, not required by the 
 mafler. — Obfervations and maxims, if any, to 
 be the mod natural and fimple ; nothing that is 
 far-fetched, refined or fubtle ; no political caft;, 
 nor even too great a length, or complication of 
 c ire urn dances. — Expectation to be raifed, and 
 curiofity put in motion from the beginning ; 
 and a catadrophe, or at lead interedingconciu- 
 C 3 fion,
 
 ( 22 ) 
 
 fion, kept in view throughout, and ever ad- 
 vancing. — That there be in the ftyle nothing 
 dazzling, no antithefis, falfe, mining or even 
 pointed wit. It is by no means to be defpaired 
 of, that a fufficient number of detached hifto- 
 rical relations cr ftories, in almoft every refpe.ct 
 thus qualified, mould be obtained. 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 Certain Kinds of tbefe Stories, feme of which ought 
 to be -particularly chofen, and fame to be rejecled. 
 
 Thefe relations will often bechofe, as having 
 heroes for their chief perfonages ; it cannot then 
 be amifs to imprefs on the young mind the 
 magnanimous, which will ofcourfe be the pre- 
 dominant fide of the character, omitting all that 
 depreciates it. On the contrary, where the chief 
 perfonage is in a great meafure faulty, but too 
 fpecious to be reprefented as odious, the ftory 
 mould be rejected •, left a few prevailing, fpiendid 
 or pathetic lines fix an idea of the bright fide of 
 the character, ciangerouily mifleauing youth. 
 They muft furely, for inftance, receive a falfe 
 3 in favour of the Stuart family, when 
 brought to their fir ft acquaintance with it, by 
 the gallant and heroical fufFerings and death of 
 Mary queen of Scots, and the pathetic fcents 
 
 of
 
 ( 23 ) 
 
 of James the Second, and his family's flight 
 from the kingdom : thefe {lories, on other ac- 
 counts fo eligible, mud on this be omitted. 
 There are often certain indecifive parts of a life, 
 which, if related early and alone, will fix an 
 indelible prejudice in behalf of a bad character; 
 the whole of which, if told at once to a riper 
 age, would be condemned : and this is very 
 particular ly the cafe in the inilance before us, 
 where the virtues touch the heart directly, and 
 the vices chiefly the underflanding, on a collec- 
 tive view of them, and a cool deduction of 
 confequences. And this is an artifice continu- 
 ally practifed by defigning men, to plant pre- 
 judice in the bofoms, as well of the ignorant 
 and the weak, as of the young. 
 
 SECTION XI. 
 
 Early Idea of Country > and Love of it, to be 
 planted in the Bofoni^ and cherifhcd by thefe 
 Stories. 
 
 I have already hinted, in fpeaking of Alfred, 
 of the propriety of giving the firft eminence to 
 the qualities of Hero and Patriot -, and if 
 there can be fit (lories enough felected nearly to 
 complete aferies, let it not be of the lives of the 
 C 4 monarchs,
 
 ( 24 ) 
 
 monarch?, but the hiftory of the nation. This 
 may be the means of making the latter idea, 
 juftly predominate : the former, of a king, as 
 a perfunal and much more fimple one, we find 
 very apt to get the better of this of country, (an 
 abftract, and rather loofe than very definite rerm,) 
 often robbing it of our principal attachment, 
 which ought inalienably to cleave to it. The 
 early mifchief that threatens to fteal upon the 
 unwary mind, from the unguarded ufe, or the 
 pervertible fenfe of a few terms, ought care- 
 fully to be attended to : kingdom is more apt 
 to be taken in that of the lot or portion, the 
 inheritance or even property of the prince, than 
 in that of a community : Dr. Pried ley therefore 
 rightly advifes us to imitate the Greeks, and 
 plant eariy in the mind the mod diftincl and 
 determinate idea poiTible of a country. In this 
 view, relations Pnould be introduced, in honour 
 of the true friends of the nation, and of the ge- 
 nuine, not turbulent and tribunitial champions 
 of liberty. 
 
 SECTION XII. 
 Particular Lives of good and exemplary Men, 
 
 The lives of excellent men, whether in the 
 public cr private walks of life, very fimply told, 
 
 and
 
 ( 25 ) 
 
 and omitting fuch pafiages as are beyond the 
 capacities of fchool-boys, or for other reafons 
 not fo fit to be related to them •, is plainly an- 
 other of the very fitteft articles of early hiftori- 
 cal indruction. The complete!! fpecimen we 
 already have, I prefume, of this kind, (with 
 feme few omiffions,) is Mr. Gilpin's life of Bi- 
 fhop Latimer ; but there are many others which 
 no doubt might be accommodated to fuch an 
 ufe. 
 
 SECTION XIII. 
 
 S lories to Ic taken from Ancient Hiftory. 
 
 Referring to the head of Religion all that 
 fhould have been taken in the firii place of all 
 from fcripture ; the early Afiatic, the Greek 
 and Roman hiftory mould occupy but the fe- 
 cond place, and be taught, nearly on the fame 
 principles and after the fame manner, but only 
 in fubordination to and after our own. Hero- 
 dotus and Livy only would furnifli incompar- 
 able (lories, and Plutarch (fomewhat retrench- 
 ed) Lives. For the reft of the eaftern, for 
 French and other modern hiftory, it could be 
 only the higheft clafifes that would be concerned 
 with thefe articles. 
 
 SECTION
 
 ( 26 } 
 
 SECTION XIV. 
 Series of Hijlory adapted to the middle Claffes. 
 
 The minds and memories of boys of the lowed 
 daiTes, being prefumed to have had effectually 
 imprinted on them nearly the whole of the en- 
 gaging matter we have been particularizing, their 
 curiofity being excited, and, at the age often or 
 eleven, their faculties advanced ; a complete body 
 of the feveral hiftories above-mentioned (hould be 
 fet before them, fhevving the proper places of 
 the ftories they had been converfant with, fup- 
 piying perfonal circumfcances that had been 
 omitted, filling up the gaps between the rela- 
 tions, and fully connecting the whole. 
 
 SECTION XV. 
 
 The fame adapted to the highejl Gaffes. 
 
 If the firft ftage of hiftory was confined to 
 detached relations of certain interefting and me- 
 morable events and to fingle lives, and the fe- 
 cond took, in the feries of events, containing all 
 that related toperfon, place, and order of time 3 
 as likewife remarkable occurrences, innovations 
 and appearances ; full there remains a third 
 
 ftage.
 
 ( 2 7 ) 
 
 ftage, with the (till farther addition of nice dis- 
 criminations in the constitutions of dates ; of the 
 origin, the connection, fpirit, feepe, and full 
 hiftory of the progrefs of laws; of investiga- 
 tions of the principles, grounds, and fpirit of 
 parties and cabals ; Scrutinies into the characters, 
 particular motives to action, and conduct of 
 men of the fir ft eminence •, political difcuffions 
 
 relative to the forms and administration of go- 
 to 
 
 vernment, to police and commerce ; befides the 
 vaft confideration of all ecclefiaStical concerns 
 and connections with the ftate. Every thing of 
 thefe kinds ought apparently to be feparated 
 from the histories laid before the middle, and all 
 but the very upper molt of the clafll-s; and very 
 much, at leaft, of it from this, except perhaps 
 in thofe great fchools only, where youth con- 
 tinue to the age of fixteen or Seventeen, and 
 even upwards. At thefe years, no doubt, the 
 understanding Should be exercifed on many, 
 though perhaps not till yet later on the very 
 profoundeft of thefe Subjects. The valuable 
 histories, in almoft every body's hands, with 
 Scarce any other trouble than marking within 
 hooks the refpective paSTages to be retrenched, 
 may be accommodated to thefe different ages 
 and purpofes. 
 
 SECTION
 
 ( 28 ) 
 
 SECTION XVI. 
 
 Poems and Works of Imagination. 
 
 Longer and entire poems, and other kinds 
 of works befides hiftory, addreffed chiefly (in 
 all inftances but that of the higheft clafs in the 
 greatest fchools) to the imagination, will be 
 refpectively adapted, as they are proper, to the 
 ufe of every forme above the loweft ; for which 
 only in a manner, as has been faid, the ntft 
 contents cf the collection or apparatus of books 
 were calculated. As the faculties become more 
 fteady and perfevering, and extend themfelves, 
 a greater compafs of connected matter, to be 
 collectively confidered, fhould be laid before 
 yoiuhs. For as the tender ftate cf the intellec- 
 tual and contemplative powers ought not to be 
 prematurely encumbered, drained and difgufted 
 by talking them too feverely on one hand •, fo 
 neither fliould there be on the other too great 
 a relaxation, and a neglect to let the new ex- 
 ercife offered to the mind, keep pace and cor- 
 refpond with the growth and advancement of 
 any, but cfpecially of its reafoning powers. 
 We have no fmall number of Englifh pieces, 
 which the bed judges would probably, with 
 little variation, agree to merit the title of our 
 
 clafTic: i
 
 ( 2 9 ) 
 
 daffies ; and which, on account both of their 
 matter and their exemplary ftyle, it would 
 plainly be important our liberal youth mould 
 be made early acquainted with, by one or more 
 attentive perufals, fugreeably to their relative 
 value) either in or out of fchool-hours. Jt is 
 not needful to defcend here into particulars, 
 and give the names of thofe that appear fitteft 
 for fchool-ufe •, fince, perhaps, even on the ap- 
 proving and carrying into a good degree of exe- 
 cution a lcheme of this kind, the practice of 
 preferring the fame fet of books for this purpofe 
 in different fchools, might be far from becom- 
 ing general. 
 
 o b* 
 
 SECTION XVII. 
 
 Pkajing and inter ejling Stories eafily made introduc- 
 tory to the Knowledge of Chronology and Geo- 
 graphy. 
 
 Curioftty gratified is ever found, efpecially in 
 yonng minds, to beget new curiofity. This 
 holds more ftrongly when in an interefting 
 ftory, though the cataftrophe be completed, 
 there is much left behind and untold. The 
 ftory of Crcefus and Solon, in Herodotus, (ex- 
 cellently verified too by Cowley,) is perhaps as 
 engagingly told as any on record ; and in the de- 
 . gree that it is fo, the curiofity of youth will be 
 7 raifed
 
 ( 3° ) 
 
 raifed to learn all that is poflible concerning 
 Crcefus and Solon, who and what in all refpefls 
 they and their refpeclivc kingdom and city- 
 were, with the reft of their hiftory and adven- 
 tures •, and even the otherwife dry and merely 
 explanatory circumftances will come to partake 
 of the interefting nature of the relation. Try, 
 on the contrary, what will be the effect, begin- 
 ning with the defcent, parentage, pofuion of 
 the kingdom, and length of the reign of Crce- 
 fu.% and the like dry kind of circumftances in 
 regard to Solon •, will not youths be difgufted 
 and prejudiced, and hearken to the ftory itfelf 
 with difrclim, when it follows in its place ? 
 Engaging extracts from hiftory, and pleafing 
 circumftances, are thofe you are always to be- 
 gin with •, they will give an acceptablenefs, and 
 even throw a grace on the dry ones round them: 
 they will not fail to raife a cunoiity after" the 
 complete feries of events, after the omitted paf- 
 iages relative to the figuring perfonages in the 
 ftorie?, and even to fill up the gaps between 
 thefe, and fully connect the whole. In what- 
 ever events boys, even of the loweft clafs, come 
 to be interefted, ic will be quite a matter of 
 eourfe with them to think of time and place : 
 when did thefe things happen, and where, are 
 the firft questions that will always occur to 
 
 them :
 
 ( 3i ) 
 
 them : hence, with the help of a little occa-. 
 fional encouragement and interrogation on the 
 part of the mailer, and his brief inftruction in 
 the ufe of the fimpleft chronological table, of a 
 few maps, and, to boys more advanced, of a 
 terreftrial globe, (all of which, together with 
 a geographical grammar, mould be ever lying 
 before them, or at hand,) they will of courfe, 
 and without entering upon a formal ftudy of 
 thefe two fciences, acquire fufiicient rudiments 
 of them for prefent ufe •, a farther progrefs, as 
 it beeomes wanting, they will probably make 
 of their own accord, with a continuance of a 
 little of the mailer's incidental aid, or that of 
 the uppermoft boys •, agreeably to Mr. Locke's 
 excellent rule, of putting higher claffes, in all 
 parts of learning, upon forwarding lower, for 
 the mutual benefit of both. Mr. Locke like- 
 wife directs an early application to chronology, 
 for the f ike of bringing boys in time to a habic 
 of giving order and method to their ideas : 
 now, furcly, an almoft equal meafure of this 
 advantage will be obtained, by teaching this 
 fcience in the eaiy, incidental and gradual man- 
 ner here propofed, as by compelling a formal 
 profeft and lyftcmatical acquifition of it. For 
 geography, taken in a larger fenfe, than merely 
 that knowledge of the fituation of countries 
 
 which
 
 ( 32 ) 
 
 which is to be had from maps •, a pleafing and 
 profitable progrefs may be made in it, by- 
 taking into the number of the books to be read 
 fome of the bell voyages and travels, properly 
 retrenched and accommodated to the claries. 
 
 SECTION XVIII. 
 
 That the Rule of fuiting Books to the Kn 
 
 and Capacity of Youths can only be had in View, 
 
 without fret ending abfolutely to reach andfcru- 
 fulovjiy to adhere to it. 
 
 Having thus given a pretty fufficient account 
 of the Englifli books thatfecm fitted to be read 
 by the feveral clafles of a fchool, it will be pro- 
 per to make this general remark, that however it 
 may be endeavoured to fuit pieces to the refpec- 
 tive proficiencies of the learners, and to fuffer 
 no part of what they read to lie beyond them ; 
 yet fomewhat muft ever remain in the very 
 beft-chofen and accommodated books (when 
 the contrary .extreme of falling fhort is equal- 
 ly guarded againft) that will be found to ex- 
 ceed the mark, and fail to be underftood. 
 That this fhould, a I as often as poflible, 
 
 be avoided, and always and abfolutely in all 
 confiderable degrees, was all that was meant 
 above, in fo rndu that the fub- 
 
 -
 
 ( 33 ) 
 
 ject and the expreffion might he ever fuited 
 and lie level to the capacities of the clafTes. 
 
 SECTION XIX. 
 
 The Will to be won over to the Side of Learnings 
 by applying to the fever al Faculties in due Secfon 5 
 at firfi chief y to the Ajfcftions and Fancy ^ as 
 the firfl that difclofe th em f elves and are in Vi- 
 gour, and in a lefs degree (till fomewhat later) to 
 the reafoning Power s^ as being more backward. 
 
 To the general tenor of our plan it will be 
 objected, " that if fchool-boys are firft taught, 
 " in eafy Englifh, the engaging and imagina- 
 " tive parts only of hiftory and geography, 
 " this will hinder their relifhing and applying 
 •' themfelves afterwards to the drier parts of 
 * c thefe or any other kinds of knowledge. To 
 " have been accufloined to moving (lories only, 
 " which are fpontaneoufly met by the affec- 
 '* tions, without the leaft effort of the reaibn- 
 " ing powers, will be accounted a wrong pre- 
 " paration for the future necefiary habit of 
 " laborioufly exercifing and exerting thefe lad. 
 " Bred to no applications of the mind, but 
 " what they are foothed to by pleafure, will not 
 " their afcer-repugnance to thofe of a contrary 
 *.* kind become invincible ?" To this it is to 
 D be
 
 ( 34 ) 
 
 be anfwered, that proficiency is made in no parts 
 of literature or knowledge which are pnrfued 
 with repugnance ; and that it is ufually found 
 impracticable to bend the mind to aft in this 
 refpefl by enforced command and impofed ha- 
 bit, or even by judgment of its own at large, 
 inftead of particular will and affection. And 
 furely nature admonifhes, that we mould apply 
 to and avail ourfelves of the refpefl ive faculties 
 in their prime and force, the Affections at the 
 tender age when they only are prevalent, and 
 Reafon chiefly afterwards, when more advanced 
 and when mature. Agreeably hereto, very 
 little that is dry or difficult mould be fet before 
 the lower claffes, or required of them, and con- 
 sequently as much as poffible of all parts of 
 learning but the fore- mentioned mould be re- 
 jected ; and even thefe be compofed of matter, 
 and put in a drefs, refembling thofe ftories and 
 relations, which are obferved incidentally in dif- 
 courfe, to draw their attention and touch their 
 hearts. The manner of the fchool too mould 
 be made, if poffible, fomewhat to refcmble the 
 free and incidental one, that, in difcourie, 
 helps to make thefe fo engaging to them. Why 
 not endeavour to foften the forbidding afpect of 
 magisterial authority and difcipline ? It is in- 
 deed only by adopting the gentle, familiar and
 
 
 ( 35 ) 
 
 inviting method of teaching, that this plan can 
 bid fair to be fuccefsfuJ. 
 
 SECTION XX. 
 
 apparatus of Books, how to be bad and adjUfled. 
 
 We have already mentioned the feveral kinds 
 of books and extracts which are to be made life 
 of, if not each one in particular. It will be right 
 to fhew, in the next place, how both may be had 
 or put in a proper form for the purpofe. As 
 to books to be ufed entire, or with only a 
 few omiflions, which might eafily be marked 
 in the prefent copies, nothing needs be faid 
 about thefe. Were the defign to approve itfelf 
 tofome perfons of weight, it would be extreme- 
 ly defirable, and certainly give life to it, to 
 form a complete feparate colledlion of the parts 
 and paflages of thofe books, a proportion only 
 of which, and often but a fmall one would be 
 wanting : this would rife but to a moderate bulk,- 
 and be far more commodious than to be oblig- 
 ed to turn to the numerous authors the articles 
 are to be found in. Or if a trial of this me- 
 thod was to be made by a few private fchools 
 only, and confequently it was not made worth 
 while for the prefs to lend its afiiftance, fewer 
 authors muft be made ufe of; the requifite 
 paflages in thefe, if many and long, mull be 
 D 2 marked
 
 ( 3^ ) 
 
 marked in the printed editions, if few and ftiorr, 
 copies of them for ufe be taken in writing •, 
 and, upon the whole, it will be necefiary to 
 reft content in the beginning with a much worfe 
 apparatus than might be wilhed : however, it 
 would give good encouragement, even in this 
 
 DO O » 
 
 cafe, that the feries of hiftory wanted for the 
 upper clafie", as has been mentioned above, 
 (lands pretty well difentangled in its refpecYive 
 authors, from the parts not compatible with 
 this purpofe, which might pretty eafily be dif- 
 cerned, and marked for omiffion. It would 
 fcarce be objected to thefe pieces, whether ufed 
 as they (land in the common copies, printed 
 apart, or tranfcribed, and whether they were 
 every where the fame, or in divers fchools 
 fomewhat different-, that they might perhaps 
 be fo ill-chofen as to be convertible to the pur- 
 pofes of mifleading and feducing youth, or in- 
 filling into them the bad principles, errors and 
 prejudices of their particular mafters : dangers 
 of this kind are not very peculiar to this plan, 
 but nearly the fame that muft necefTarily adhere 
 to every form of fchool-inftruction and of pupil- 
 lage. 
 
 SECTION 

 
 ( 37 ) 
 
 SECTION XXI. 
 Reading. 
 
 After (hewing what are the fitreft Englifh 
 books to read, and the means of being provid- 
 ed with them, it will be right (previoufly to 
 going into particulars of the order of reading, 
 and the means of turning this to the betl ac- 
 count) to flop for a moment, an i attend to the 
 article of reading itfelf. And here, very much 
 irretrieveible mifchief might be prevented, or 
 at lead pains to the fubiequent matter be faved, 
 by a good choice of the firft female teachers. 
 This might be effected, either by a better care 
 in the perfbns concerned, to appoint, or in pa- 
 rents (where there is choice) to prefer the beft. 
 Farther, it will be one very good general rule 
 for a fchoolmutrefs, to direct children, when 
 they can fpell and put words together, and are 
 come to the pronouncing of fentences, to do 
 this as nearly as poffibie, to the mere fpeaking 
 of them i for we are certainly apt (to the much 
 greater fubfecuent hurt of our reading, and 
 even fpeaking in public, than is eafy to con- 
 ceive) to look upon reading as too diftincr. a 
 thing, and to carry it too far from the form 
 of ordinary fpeech. Were we, when children, 
 D 3 and
 
 ( 38 ) 
 
 and when boys, diligently and indiipenfibly 
 taught to confider the fentences, feen before us 
 in a book, as what was to be /poke, and to pro- 
 nounce them in that key and tone ; it mud ex- 
 ceedingly contribute to give our public per- 
 formances in thefe ways ever after, a natural air 
 and accent : and this would be greatly facili- 
 tated, by fetting before us, fur our earliefl 
 reading at both the fchools, nothing but what 
 for the matter of it was of the eafieft compre- 
 henfion, and for the wording the neareft to dif- 
 courfe, and of like eafy pronunciation •, mak- 
 ing the tranfition to what was harder, in both 
 refpecls, even up to the higheft claffes, as gra-? 
 dual as poffible, 
 
 There is a material circumftance greatly ne- 
 glected, I apprehend, both in the teaching and 
 practice of reading; that, I mean, of being 
 careful to carry the eye forward^ and become 
 perfect: matter of the following claufes of a fen- 
 tence ere you pronounce that directly before 
 you •, for the true pronunciation of this lail 
 rarely depends on itfelf only, but mult be re- 
 gulated by knowing what comes after. This 
 indeed holds true in a good meafure of the 
 whole fentence ; which, whatever may be its 
 length, ought to be known to the very laft 
 elaufe of it, by an early acquired habit of run- 
 ning
 
 ( 39 ) 
 ning the eye forward to the end, before the 
 pronunciation is begun. 
 
 But to proceed. — All the pieces provided for 
 the ufe of the loweft clafs in the mafter's fchool 
 being fit for boys who are pretty well taught to 
 read, they may, when thus qualified, almolt at 
 all periods of the cowrie of reading indifferently, 
 be admitted inro this clafs. Here it feems necef- 
 fary for the mailer, on calling up the clafs, to be- 
 gin with reading over the part himfclf (chiefly 
 for the benefit of the laft- entered boys) cor- 
 rectly and with fpirit ; pitching upon one or 
 other of the boys, (by no means in turn,) to 
 read the fame after him. If this boy performs 
 amifs, it may perhaps be right fometimes to call 
 upon another who may be expected to do better, 
 to go over it again. This may be a fit check 
 for the firit, a fpur to the other, and tend to 
 raife general emulation. Such a correction is 
 not, however, to be applied, where a dull boy 
 does his beft : let nothing in the fhape of an 
 infult be received from the boy of quicker 
 parts, by him of flower : it may be a nice point 
 to give jufl: praile and felf-fatisfaction to one, 
 without bearing hard on the other. The man- 
 ner of the correction here fliould rarely favour 
 of reproof, but be mild, and fhew the meaning 
 D 4 was
 
 ( 4© ) 
 
 was purely to fet right, and afford inftrucYion 
 to the b.id reader himfelf, and the reft of the 
 clafs. Cbfervc too, that particular faults mould 
 not be too much flopped at and dwelt upon, 
 for fear of taking off the attention from the ge- 
 neral fenfe of the part, the entering into the 
 fpirit of which, and being brought to an in- 
 variable habit of doin^ fo, beinji the firfl: con- 
 fiderarion. Indeed, where this point can be 
 gained, and a liking to go through the JefTons 
 fixed, almoft all befides will follow of courfe. 
 Too minute a regard to the reading of the lower 
 boys in the clafs, befides its interruption and 
 waiting of the time of the upper ones, will dif- 
 guft and banifh all notion of pleafure from what 
 is pailing •, bur when firfl: the mafter, and after 
 him one of the boys reads the part roundly, 
 many of thefe will found like a pleafing tale, 
 and it may be hoped will be liftened to with 
 delight. The belt mafter is he that attains the 
 nearcft to this point ; to reach it, defer the cor- 
 rection as often as poffible (we repeat it) till 
 the part is gone through : when faults are great, 
 they will be eaiily borne in mind till the end of 
 it •, when fmall, and perhaps forgotten, the 
 mifchief will be the lefs. Indeed, when there 
 is danger that grofs ones, which might become 
 habitual to the boy that falls into them, or of 
 
 ill
 
 ( 41 ) 
 
 i!l example to other-, might otherwife flip the 
 mailer's memory and pais unnoticed, it may be 
 heeeffary to interrupt the reading for inftant cor- 
 rection. The upper boys of the clafs may be 
 hoped tdhave mnde fuch an improvement in their 
 reading, as to be able of themfelves to correct 
 their errors, and catch improvement from the 
 mailer's example, without wanting at every 
 turn to be corrected by him\ and perceiving, at 
 times, from his general hints, that fomething 
 in their performance is amifs, they may learn 
 the befb of all habits, that of watching over 
 and fitting themfelves right. A difpofition to 
 this, the matter fhould ufe his utmoft fkill to 
 encourage, leaving it full fcope, and giving 
 room to every boy to be his own corrector, till, 
 as I faid, his faults are in danger of growing 
 habitual to himfelf, or infecting others. A 
 boy's extraordinary ingenuity or attention in 
 correcting his own faults, or even another's, is 
 ever to be fed with praife. 
 
 When there is any thing remarkable either 
 way in a boy's reading, the whole clafs are to 
 be afked, after the part is finifhed, and now 
 and then while it is about, what they obferved 
 right or wrong in it, leaving it to every one to 
 point out the merit or defect. When a boy 
 
 does
 
 ( 42 ) 
 
 does this ingenioufly, if it be a merit that is 
 (hewn, the matter will fpeak his praife of both 
 defervers - t if a fault, his confirming glance will 
 be enough. The triumph afTumed on detect- 
 ing another boy's faults, cannot however be 
 too modeft ; and when this is pertly and not in- 
 genuoufly done, the mailer's manner mould 
 mark and condemn it. Criticifms of reading, 
 if they do not of courfe intereft at firft, nicy 
 pretty foon, with lively and obferving boys, 
 aided too by a fkilful excitement of emulation, 
 be brought to do lo : engage the will, and all 
 will go on well. Remember, the proficiency of 
 the whole ciufs is to be the grand object in view. 
 The teaching, therefore, is to have a middle 
 aim, and be adapted neither to (low nor quick 
 parts. There would be time, it mould feem, 
 at each calling- up of a clafs, for two or three 
 boys to be put upon fo many different articles 
 of reading \ fo that it muft come pretty well 
 often enough to every one's turn to read bim- 
 felf and be corrected, befides the profit received 
 from the reading and correction of others. 
 The matter will take implicit care to let it be 
 perceived that he keeps a watchful eye over all 
 that pailes, and that neither the diligence or 
 idlenefs of any one, nor particular inftances of 
 cither j their quick or (low progrefs, or parti- 
 cular
 
 ( 43 ) 
 
 eular indications either way, ever efcape his no- 
 tice, or fail to make aniwerable impreffions oa 
 him. If it be faid that reading and pronouncing 
 may Jbmetimes, in a fchool of this kind, be ill 
 taught, they will furely, upon the whole, be 
 exceedingly better taught, and be in a far more 
 profperous way than at prelent. That which 
 boys are now for the moft part left calually to 
 pick up from one or another, they could hardly 
 be worfe taught by the moft indifferent of mas- 
 ters. The care thefe are to take of their fclio- 
 Jars' reading, will by no means ceafe with the 
 firft clafs. If the call for it be afterwards lei» 
 frequent, it will require a more accurate and 
 critical exertion, in proportion as boys advance 
 from the lower towards the upper end of the 
 fchool. Which of the rules and remarks above 
 laid down, and what others, are applicable to 
 this purpofe, need not be particularized. 
 
 It is well known how pernicious, and often 
 incurable, a habit of bad reading is contracted 
 by boys; and if we have not above over-rated 
 the contrary habit, and its great future advan- 
 tages, a mailer need by no means be afhamed, 
 and think it beneath him, to beftow upon it 
 all the care here recommended ; and Hill greater 
 in regard to the higher clafles : and yet, it is 
 
 to
 
 ( 44 ) 
 
 to be feared, that thofe who ftoop to teach the 
 meaneft rudiments of Latin, might object to 
 making this a part of their office. There is 
 thought (Mr. Locke fays) to be a myfterious 
 importance in Latin, and every thing belong- 
 ing to it, altogether wanting in whatever Englilh 
 is concerned in. This has very probably been 
 the chief reafon why no fuch an obvious kind 
 of attempt as what is here propofed has ever 
 been made ; and when it comes to be lb, may 
 be expected to prove the caufe of its mifcaniage. 
 
 Earlier notice mould have been taken in this 
 article, that if the general rule at each lefibn be 
 for the mafter to read firft, the boys ought to 
 do it fometimes, left they become his mere imi- 
 tators. Some fit aftiftance they mould derive, 
 and intimations they mould take from his man- 
 ner ; but let their copying be general, not 
 making a practice of fervilely creeping after 
 him at each particular reading. He will ac- 
 cuftom every one, as far as he can, to a ge- 
 nuine free manner of their own •, ufing correc- 
 tion and fetting right, and repetition after 
 himfelf, no oftener than is neceffary. Above 
 all, he will not fuffer the meaning of what is 
 read to efcape the boys, nor their attention to 
 flag, if it can pofiibly, without abfolute rigour, 
 
 be kept up. 
 
 So
 
 ( 45 ) 
 
 So much ftrefs has been laid on the perfect- 
 ing of boys in reading, on feveral other ac- 
 counts befides the intrinfic value of the attain- 
 ment itfelf. Over and above the tell Reading 
 will afford the mafier of their natural endow- 
 ments and their proficiencies, they will not be 
 able to perform this well, without previoufly 
 accomplishing the moft material point, that of 
 apprehending the fenfe, and entering into the 
 fpirit of their parts. When they might be more 
 indifferent about this latter, while they had 
 hopes of hiding in Latin their floth and igno- 
 rance, they will no longer be fo on rinding their 
 bad reading in Engliih muff, be a plain proof 
 of thefe. And befides the better knowledge 
 they will get of the fenfe by extraordinarily con- 
 fidering it for the purpofe of reading their 
 parts well, they will likewife, independently of 
 this point, and by their attention to mere read- 
 ing itfelf, encer more fully and precifely into 
 the fpirit of thefe parts. By taking care to un- 
 derhand, they will come to read well; and by 
 their care to read well, to underltand. 
 
 As they will the better both fhew how they 
 understand, and come really to understand, by 
 being brought to read well in their own tongue-, 
 fo it mould be obferved, they will infinitely 
 
 the
 
 ( ^ ) 
 
 the better know what they are about, be puf 
 upon their mettle, and unfold their thoughts, 
 in Englifh than in Lati.i exercifes. The for- 
 mer muft fhew a youth to advantage, if he is 
 diftinct and clear in his ideas and expreflions 5 
 the latter is a covering for perplexity and con- 
 fusion : by the former, if publickly read to the 
 clafs, he will expect to be praifed or blamed 
 agreeably to his defert •, in the latter, he 
 knows there will be rarely any endeavour to 
 understand him, and that (in the lower formes 
 at kaft) there can hardly be any nonfenle fo 
 grofs as not often to pafs without the notice 
 (to go no farther) of his fchool-fellows. 
 
 Though feveral of thefe circumftances had 
 been mentioned before, their importance feemed 
 to require, that they mould be more explicitly 
 dated, and placed together under one view. 
 
 PART
 
 ( 47 ) 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Of adjufting the Gaffes, agreeably to this 
 Plan. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Fhji-i or Loweft Oafs. 
 
 Under the foregoing article of Reading, 
 much was necefTarily anticipated touching the 
 management of the claflTes, this Lowed or Firft 
 in particular •, as, in like manner, (it will be 
 remembered) much will be to be found here, of 
 what the other claffes may require in their regu- 
 lation in common with this. 
 
 Notice has already been taken of the pieces 
 that feem fitted for fchool-ufe, more particu- 
 larly of what are fuitable to this clafs. None 
 were mentioned that exceeded the capacities of 
 boys in general of fix, feven, or eight years 
 old i but if there are any of thefe fitter than the 
 reft to begin with, it feems to be fables and 
 diftichs. But the bed way feems plainly to be, 
 that one dory at lead, together with either a 
 fable or an extract or two from fome of the 
 poets, or elfe a number of diftichs or of moral 
 
 precepts,
 
 ( 43 ) 
 
 precepts, fhould be read at each calling-up. 
 The collection Pnould therefore be large enough 
 to laft, without going twice over almolt any 
 part of it, through rhe whole continuance of a 
 boy in the clafs. Thus ordered, every part of 
 the courfe will be nearly alike fit for a new- 
 entered boy to begin with. It imports the 
 Mafter to admit none but fuch as are already 
 proficients in reading, left the ceconomy of the 
 clafs be difturbed, and he be teazed and inter- 
 rupted with too much of the duty of the reading- 
 fchool •, nor fhould the time of the clafs by any 
 means be wafted by his flopping to give parti- 
 cular inftruction to boys who come deficient to 
 the fchool : thefe mould either be left to over- 
 mailer difficulties* and get forward by their 
 own induftry, aided only by the common in- 
 flru&ion ; or what they received in particular 
 from him y fhould be apart. If the number of 
 boys in the clafs was about twenty, and it 
 was cal'.ed-up twice in the part of the day allotted 
 to Englifh tuition, following the method above 
 laid down, it would come often enough to the 
 turn of each boy to read, to bring them all pro- 
 perly forward. When boys are taken pretty 
 early from fchool, the two firft parts only of 
 our collection, will be to be ufed by them, and 
 they will, on this accounc, unlefs when they 
 
 confiderably
 
 ( 49 ) 
 
 considerably exceed in a fchool the number of 
 forty, be divifible into no more than two clafies ; 
 if their number be greater, which in the com- 
 mon kind of country fchools feldom happens, 
 each of the two clafTes mould have a remove ; 
 and if it can well be contrived, the pieces read 
 by thefe fhould be calculated for an age fome- 
 what more advanced than that of the clafTes 
 they quit. But fitting the boys of each clafs, 
 at lead of the firit, at the number of twenty, (a 
 number they would in thefe fchools very much 
 oftener fall Short of than exceed,) and reckon- 
 ing likewife upon two claries and no more, allow- 
 ing farther four fchool-hours for each part of 
 the day, three of thefe may be appropriated to 
 four callings-up, (two for each clafs,) taking 
 up each of them three quarters of an hour; 
 and the remaining fourth hour to be fet apart, 
 befides looking over exercifes, for the mailer's 
 interval of eafe and recovery from his fatigue. 
 In this distribution of the fchool-hours, there 
 will be fufficient time at each of the callings* up 
 of the lowed clafs, for the bufinefs already men- 
 tioned, and what remains to be fo. Here the 
 intervals between the callings up, though con- 
 trived to be Shortened all that was poSTible, are, 
 it mud be owned, much longer than could be 
 wiShed, amounting together to two hours and 
 E a half
 
 ( 50 ) 
 
 a half for each clafs. The extreme!! care mould 
 therefore be taken, to turn thefe to the belt ac- 
 count, if they cannot be fpent in fuch necef- 
 fary preparations for the leflbn as when Latin is 
 learned. If this difficulty was to be helped by 
 increafing the number of the boys in the claries, 
 when there were confiderably more than twenty 
 of the fame age, and consequently having fewer 
 Clajfes or Removes, the turns of reading would 
 be too few, and the fliare of the mailer's atten- 
 tion to each boy too little. 
 
 If it mould be apprehended, that according 
 to this difpofition, the Colleclion might not fuf- 
 fice to fill up the whole time, when fo long a 
 fpace as five or fix years would be taken up in 
 going through the two fir 11 parts only ; Itill 
 there will be other pieces in the fame kinds 
 deierving to be read, that will nearly if not 
 completely anfwer the fame purpofe. Defcrip- 
 tions too of fuch curiofities of nature and art, as 
 can be made intelligible with the help of prints, 
 and will be interesting to boys, if the number 
 of other pieces fall thort, may be made ufe of. 
 Upon the whole, there can be no doubt but the 
 repeated reading of the fame works (when not 
 approved of for their extraordinary value) may 
 be avoided, and a lufficient Hock of new mate- 
 rials be found, efpecially for the higher clafTes. 
 6 The
 
 ( 5* ) 
 
 The whole clafs, as they would not enter, lb 
 neither would they ever remove together, but 
 each boy according to his refpective Handing, 
 fufficiency cr age. Thus every one, at what- 
 ever time he entered, and with whatever part 
 of the collection he happened to begin, would , 
 for the moft part, go through the whole of what 
 belonged to the clafs in the full term of three 
 years. Nothing farther need be added here, to 
 what has been already intimated, of the prefer- 
 ence to be given to fome of thefe pieces and 
 extracts before others, of the quantity of them 
 to be read at a time, of the place they mould 
 refpectively hold in the courfe, of the degree of 
 perfectnefs to be required in underfunding, and 
 in naturally accenting and pronouncing what is 
 read, of the attention to be kept up, and the 
 emulation to be kindled through the clafs : 
 other particulars there are, to be regulated by 
 practice and the difcretion of the mafr.er. Oc- 
 cafion may be taken here to obferve, that it 
 may perhaps be of great confequencc towards 
 giving their utmoft ftrength to the ripened fa- 
 culties, that they fhculd be vigoroufly and not 
 drowlily exercifed, by fubjects properly framed 
 and well ordered for that end, while the mind 
 is yet tender. Another remark may be added, 
 that perhaps the young Imagination ought to be 
 E 2 wrought
 
 ( 52 ) 
 
 wrought upon, and a lively impreflion damped 
 on it, of all thofe fubjects and characters, 
 which ought afterwards to work upon and in- 
 fluence us at a more advanced period, or which 
 take the firft place in thofe hiftories and works 
 of genius and fancy which we are ever to be 
 converfant with. May there not be an energy 
 attendant on pcrfcnal ideas received in thefrefh- 
 nefs of life, incommunicable to thofe we after- 
 wards take in ? If fo, the nature, quality, and 
 vigorous imprefiions of thefe, deferves the moft 
 peculiar attention. — As to the other articles to 
 be attended to, whether in the firft or the higher 
 claffes, they are as follow :— Getting by heart and 
 repeating particular extracts of poetry, diftichs, 
 moral precepts, deferving to be fixed in the 
 mind for prefent ufe or diftant remembrance. 
 This, though according to Mr. Locke, it may 
 by no means ferve the purpofe of ftrengthening 
 the memory, will give occafion for teaching the 
 boys to pronounce with a propriety, freedom and 
 fpirit not fo eafy to acquire, however carefully 
 endeavoured at, by reading only. Great indeed 
 would be the influence of this practice, early 
 begun with in the eafiell pieces, and fkilfully 
 profecuted afterwards in longer and harder parts, 
 through the higher formes, and at a riper age : 
 
 It
 
 ( 53 ) 
 
 It muft prove a fure means of bringing youths 
 gently and infenfibly on, as their parts and fa- 
 culties gradually ftrengthen, to a free and na- 
 tural public elocution. 
 
 Recitals are next to be required, if a mafter 
 finds any of the forwarded boys capable of do- 
 ing fome degree of juftice to the ftories that 
 have been read ; but if they cannot be roundly 
 told, let them not be hacked. This practice 
 might help to fix attention and memory, as 
 well as give opportunity to an able mafter of 
 cultivating in the boys an early habit of com- 
 municating to advantage what they met with 
 in books, and of properly relating whatever 
 came before them. The time taken up thefe 
 ways need not be a great deal, jior more than 
 may be well fpared from reading. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Higher Clajfes. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the juft and 
 natural ftages of hiftory (the leading article in 
 our plan) are three in number. Agreeably and 
 in accommodation to this, the clafles and re- 
 moves (when an extraordinary number of boys 
 makes the laft alfo neceflary) have been divid- 
 »E 3 ed.
 
 ( 54 ) 
 
 ed. When boys continue at fchool but to the 
 age of twelve or thirteen, they can go through 
 no more than the two firft claffes •, if they ftay 
 two or three years longer, their age will be ca- 
 pable of the third likewife. Up to that of fif- 
 teen or fixteen, the themes and declamations (for 
 thefe lad, if fparingly, will yet be ufed,) in 
 common with the apparatus of books, the man- 
 ner of reading, repeating and reciting, together 
 with the matter's admonitions, corrections and 
 observations, will, as we have faid, gradually 
 advance through the claffes. If, in any in- 
 ftance, boys were not fufficiently prepared by 
 their foregoing Parts for their following ones, 
 it would be at palling from the fecond collection 
 of parts, that is, from the fecond forme to the 
 third. The new kind of books would here re- 
 quire a much clofer attention, and no fmall ef- 
 forts of the underftanding, as well as fenfibility of 
 the heart. However, the reafoning powers at this 
 age would be much advanced, and pretty equal 
 to this change of application. The fame kind 
 of reading, propofedfor the third clafs, will be 
 fit to be continued, though youths mould re- 
 main in the fchool to the age of eighteen or 
 nineteen, inftead of fixteen. 
 
 It
 
 ( 55 ) 
 It may perhaps be thought beft, efpeci- 
 ally in the higher claffes, wherein narra- 
 tives of confiderable length are to be gone 
 through, left they be frittered into fcraps and 
 fragments, (through the too much contracting 
 of fuch a number of readings at two callings- up 
 of each dais,) to give opportunity to lengthen 
 the articles read, by having only one calling-up 
 of each in one part of the day. This, where the 
 boys are of different ages, from feven to fifteen or 
 fixteen, as is pretty often the cafe, when in 
 country fchools the whcle number is not large, 
 and where one mailer only can be had, becomes 
 matter of neceflity. If the bufmefs be conduct- 
 ed as above, if the quantity read at a time be 
 not too little, and the refult be, that the main 
 of our common literature mail have been atten- 
 tively read and heard, (the moil valuable works 
 more than once,) and the other talents improv- 
 ed, in the degree all this without extraordinary 
 efforts may be effected, a great deal will be 
 done, and very confiderable advantages furely 
 obtained. And youths converfant in our beft 
 authors to the degree they will be made fo, not 
 only by this difcipline itfelf, but by its conco- 
 mitant advantages, by the encouragement it will 
 give, in the openings, aids, and directions it 
 E 4 will
 
 ( 55 ) 
 
 will afford, for abundant other Englifh reading 
 out of fchool-hours and at home •> they will 
 be, on their removal to the univerfities or elfe- 
 where, better prepared and at better leifure to 
 give themfelvcs up for a time to the fciences and 
 profeiTional inftruction ; whereas now, things lie 
 in the extremeft confufion at places of later in- 
 ftruction, fuch numerous objects of attention 
 caufinsr a wonderful diffraction of ftudv, ren- 
 dering it importable to purfue any thing near 
 the whole number properly, and breeding fmat- 
 terers in fcience rather than fcholars. But were 
 a folid foundation of Englifh letters and know- 
 ledge laid at fchool, youths need not be very 
 much engaged by thefe at the college, but fui- 
 pendingthem in a good meafureforatime, might 
 devote themfelves with lefs interruption, during 
 good part of their flay at univerfities, to the 
 more direct objects of formal teaching and 
 fcience. 
 
 Though, in moil part of what has been faid 
 in this article, I may have gone befide my ge- 
 neral purpole of avoiding detail, where the 
 fimilarity of proceedings between the prefent 
 Latin method and This ieems to make it need- 
 Ids, and a conformity to the prefent fchool- 
 
 ceconomy
 
 ( 51 ) 
 
 ceconomy of the clafTes is nearly fufficient *, yet 
 it appeared of fo much confequence to put it 
 out of all doubt, that the plan was practicable 
 in thefe as well as all other parts of it, and to 
 filence cavil, that I have not fcrupled to break 
 in upon my own rule. 
 
 Many things have been mentioned in the 
 Sections of the Collection and the fit ft Clafs y which 
 being frefh in the reader's memory, though of 
 neceflity to be applied to thefe clafTes, will be 
 attended to without my repeating them. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Intermediate School-hours between Lejfons. 
 
 Thefe muft need be fo many, as to deferve 
 to be diligently improved. They are to be 
 ufed — for getting by heart the repetitions fet by 
 the matter, to which the boys may be invited 
 by praife to add voluntary ones — for writing 
 Englifh themes, at firft on the moll obvious fub- 
 jects in the plained ftyle, rifing in all refpects 
 afterwards •, — the fame, according to Mr. Locke's 
 direction, as to letters to be wrote to their 
 friends. If, by the mailer's intimation, not 
 order, the boys could be brought fometimes to 
 chuie for the fubjedts of thefe or part of them, 
 tkofe of their lefibns, it would make them more 
 
 earneft
 
 ( 58 ) 
 
 earned and intent upon the lefifons, befides fix- 
 ing them in the memory. 
 
 As to verfes, let none be made but by the 
 freeft choice. Their early reading of poetry 
 will ftimulatc and throw it in the way of that ex- 
 ceeding fmall number of boys who have a natu- 
 ral vein, to give figns of it. Nor is it only the 
 verfes they read, but the turn of the pieces in 
 profe, addreiTed, in a great meafure, to the 
 fancy, that will be fure to (hew if they excel in 
 that faculty, without which, a trick of chiming 
 metre, learnt only from the ear, mould be 
 checked betimes, and by no means fuffered to 
 grow up with them. Of the practice of requiring 
 Latin verfes of boys at almoft every grammar- 
 fchool, it may be obferved, that it has no ad- 
 vocates to juftify it on rational grounds. Nor 
 is it unufual for the matter to do fo by a pre- 
 tended neceflity for it by and by at the univer- 
 fity, while the college officers have little other 
 plea to alledge on their part, but the being loth 
 to baulk ftudents, by making light of, and ne- 
 glecting a faculty fo much countenanced at the 
 fchool. Another employment likewife for thefe 
 hours, would be attention to the maps and 
 tables of chronology, to the prints that ought 
 to be found in the books or to be kept 
 in the fchool, either thole of the drefles of the 
 
 ancients,
 
 ( 59 I 
 
 ancients, their arms and implements of what- 
 ever kind, or hiflorical ones relative to the llo- 
 ries that have been read in the claries. As to 
 the latter fort, fuch, for inftance, as that found, 
 I think, in Dr. Smollet's hiilory, of king Ha- 
 rold facing the enemy and receiving the arrow 
 in his heart, would enforce wonderfully the 
 views of hiilory, and make its impreMions in a 
 manner indelible : the notice taken by the boys 
 of the prints, if placed always before them, 
 would demonftrate at lead how each flory had 
 been felt •, as the corjftant fight of them would 
 give occaiion for fhewing if any of the boys had 
 a talent for the arts of defign, or however to in- 
 ilill an early liking to them. Without enume- 
 rating thofe {lories that deferve to be illultrated 
 by prints, it may be faid, in general, that every 
 amiable character or illuftrious action inferted 
 in the {lories that are read, if {landing in con- 
 nection with proper incidents for this kind of 
 reprefentation, lays claim to it ; but the mif- 
 fortune is, too many of this fort of events are 
 perhaps fingle, or unaccompanied with proper 
 c i re um fiances for this purpofe. 
 
 But to return. Boys are likewife to be en- 
 couraged to look over their pait leflons - 9 and the 
 newly-entered and backward boys particularly 
 to prepare for the next. They are to fpend 
 
 iome
 
 ( 6o ) 
 
 fome of their time in aiding and directing one 
 another. But every thing of thefe kinds the 
 mafter fhould promote rather, if poffible, by his 
 addrefs, by kindling emulation and by praife, 
 than command. 
 
 It may be thought right, perhaps, for the 
 mafter not always to go on with the parts lying 
 next in the book, or to let the boys always 
 know that which is to come next; but give it 
 now and then the advantage of novelty and fur- 
 prize. The whole of this difcipline will not 
 only bring them forward, but ferve to indicate 
 to an obferving mafter their particular turns of 
 mind and capacities, and the profeflions and 
 ways of life they may be fitteft for. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Arithmetic, Geometry, and the reft of Air. Locke's 
 Articles of Injlruclion confidered. 
 
 Arithmetic, and, according to fome good 
 judges, geometry may be taught early. It 
 would be advifeable, if poflible, that every 
 thing of this kind mould be done out of fchool- 
 hours •, but fome parents would rather chufe to 
 encroach upon thefe at the expence of Englifh 
 learning, (and very rightly, no doubt, where 
 their fons mew an extraordinary turn fuch ways,) 
 of which it muft be fo very wrong to neglect 
 
 an
 
 ( 6i ) 
 
 an early cultivation. Where an apparatus could 
 be had, boys might have it explained to them, 
 and be taught any of the parts of natural hif- 
 tory, if inclined to it. For Mr. Locke's other 
 articles, it would rarely happen, efpecially where 
 one part of the day was given to Latin, that 
 time could be fpared for them ; and where it 
 was not, both that the boys would have an ap- 
 petite to fuch fubjec~ts, and that mailers for 
 them would be at hand : however, when thefe 
 two circumftances concur, it will perhaps fome- 
 times be thought bell, to take fome parts in the 
 days of each week from the learning in the 
 clafles, for application to fome or other of Mr. 
 Locke's branches of knowledge •, and the rather, 
 feeing that determinate acquifitions, where every 
 ftepof theprogrefs is diftinctly marked, and which 
 bid fair to be long remembered, are entitled to 
 be preferred on thefe accounts before others that 
 are not fo ; and it cannot be denied to be more 
 certainly known, that neither the mailer nor 
 the fcholar have been idle, when advances are 
 made in mod of the articles in queflion, (pro- 
 vided a competent judge be to be found,) than a 
 proficiency inEnglilh learning can be by any very 
 immediate and exprefs marks that can be given 
 of it. And every prudent Father would prefer 
 7 for
 
 ( 62 ) 
 
 for his Son (where the importance of the icqjui- 
 fition was the fame) thofe parts of learning, 
 wherein he has the fureft teds of the Matter's 
 diligence and the Scholar's application. 
 
 But notwkhftanding; fo great feems to be 
 the pre-eminence of Letters, and the advantage 
 of an early bias to that fpecies of knowledge 
 over the others, that it is pretty plain, where 
 there is a competition, and time may be want- 
 ing for both, that thefe ought to give way to 
 the former, and one of the parts of the day at 
 leaft, very generally, to be allotted to Letters 
 in preference. And in confirmation hereof, 
 after repeating that the Mailer for Englifh would 
 feldom be capable of teaching any number of 
 the other articles ■, and that particular Mailers for 
 mod of them would be wanting or expenfive ; 
 it mould be obferved, that if too many of thefe 
 were taught together, befides confufion, it 
 would be very difficult to come at a know- 
 ledge of the progrefs made in any of them, and 
 that generally for want of able Examiners, lefs 
 would be known of this progrefs, be the tells 
 ever fo determinate, than in that of literature, 
 wherein the Parents thernfelves, or fome of their 
 friends will always be tolerable judges. 
 
 It
 
 ( 63 ) 
 It may be obferved to be a growing practice 
 with many of thole perfons who breed their 
 fbns for Trade, and are become fenfible of the 
 infignificance of Latin to them ; to bring them 
 up chiefly at Schools, or what in London are 
 advertifed as Academies, where they are kept S" 
 to Writing, Accounts, and perhaps fome French. 
 Now, if no more general and complete Im- 
 provement is in profpect, would it not be 
 highly advifeable for thefe Parents at leaft, if 
 they did not attempt to introduce the main, or 
 the principal Articles of this Plan, to take care 
 to extend more or lefs that of the Matters they 
 employ, and to induce them to admit into it 
 inftruction, either in fome of Mr. Locke's ar- 
 ticles, or fuch other fimilar ones as will readily 
 offer themfelves ? At thefe Schools and Aca- 
 demies time cannot be wanting between the 
 ages of feven or eight, and fourteen or fifteen, 
 for feveral other articles befides thofe now taught; 
 nor are Articles wanting for the Time; nor 
 furely in large Cities, well-qualified Jnftruclors 
 in any of the various fit branches of knowledge. 
 Mailers in London, or far lefs populous cities, 
 might furely meet with encouragement, and 
 find their account in attending to and applying 
 this intimation. 
 
 SECT ION
 
 C 6 4 ) 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Difcipline. 
 
 It has been here intended to put little violence 
 on the preient School-ceconomy, and to fall in 
 as nearly as poffible with cuftom. 
 
 We were averfe to innovating in any points 
 bfcit thole where new matters and modes of in- 
 ftruclion required it. For Correction, in par- 
 ticular, nothing new is propofed. It will in- 
 deed be plain, that the inviting, in preference 
 to the fe/ere Method, is here neceflary. But 
 Authority is, however, in this Writer's opinion, 
 at all events to be maintained j and rather, 
 where there can be no Medium, enforced with 
 rigour and chaftifement, than given up or even 
 relaxed. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 The Day to he divided between Latin and Eftglijb 
 
 ruelion. 
 
 A Queftion might arifc, in cafe both Latin 
 and Englilh were to be taught, if it Ihould be 
 together, and not fuccefiively ? 
 
 The 
 

 
 ( 65 ) 
 
 The reafons need not be given at large, why 
 we have preferred the former method, allotting 
 one half of each day to the two languages re- 
 fpeftivdy, under one Mafrer ; to do otherwife 
 would be needlefsly loading the Plan by multi- 
 plying Mailers and Schools. Neither does it 
 appear but that Latin, together with Greek, 
 may as well be learned in twice the number of 
 years and as many again half-days, as in -ajingie 
 number of years and of whole days. And as 
 to the Englijh and other Parts, they had mod 
 of them better be carried on from the tenderelt 
 to a riper age, without intermiffion. 
 
 But the way is open to any peribns who may 
 chule it, to ufe two fchools, and teach both 
 forts of articles in fucceflion. 
 
 Though many of the Scholars would be con- 
 ducted through both difciplines, yet the large 
 number of thofe who ought to throw afide La- 
 tin, and be kept to the Englifb one only, mould 
 have Schools on purpofe, where they may be 
 taught from the Golletiion, on both parts of 
 the day alike, or on one only, devoting the other 
 to the reft of the above-mentioned employ- 
 ments. 
 
 If
 
 ( 66 ) 
 
 If the whole of the day was ever to be dedi- 
 cated to Englifh, in this method it would be 
 nearly as two halves, counter-part to each other, 
 and little or no variation perhaps on that ac- 
 count proper ; but except in little Country 
 Schools, where no Matters for almoft any of 
 Mr. Locke's other articles could be afforded or 
 had, where the ordinary Matter was not ca- 
 pable of other teaching than this of Englifh, or 
 where this was thought by Parents fufficient or 
 preferable : in all other inftances one part of 
 the day would be the whole allotment to our 
 own Language ; in thefe, in cafe of any change 
 at all from the ufual Method, more attention 
 mould be given to making boys recite, in words 
 of their own, the fubftance of Stories or Fables*. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 What Regard ought to he had to Reading and Ap- 
 plication^ out of Schcol-hourSy on particular 
 Holidays, and in Breakings-up, 
 
 As to boys of the firft Clafs, it will be feldom 
 right to put them upon looking much into 
 books, out of School-hours. They will have fuffi- 
 cient exercife for their tender years in going 
 through the bufinefs of the Gaffes, and School. 
 
 Recreation
 
 ( 67 ) 
 
 Recreation is fitted for the reft of their hours> 
 except only when, in the cafe of a few very ex- 
 traordinary boys, ferious employment becomes 
 their abfolute choice. 
 
 There will be many other Pieces, befides 
 thofe in the Collection, fuitable to the age of 
 the fecond Clafs, which may be thrown in the 
 way of the boys, or hinted at, if not adviied to 
 be read for their entertainment, out of School- 
 hours and in Holidays. It is plain this ought 
 to be done with great gentlenefs, to be made 
 matter of good-liking, when not of direct free 
 choice, and never of compulfion. Let them 
 not be furfeited with reading, nor books at any 
 rate be made odious to them. 
 
 In regard to the uppermofl Clafs, and the 
 Youths that flay lareft at School, it will be ex- 
 tremely defirable, not to fay neceffary, that 
 thefe carry their application beyond what is 
 there required of them. There will be abun- 
 dance more of excellent Books in proportion, 
 level to their more advanced Capacities, than 
 can be read in the School. The Mafter and 
 Parents mould therefore look upon it as their 
 Indifpenfible duty to encourage fuch other read- 
 ing abroad in thefe boys as coincides with and 
 may promote the School-fcheme ; being careful, 
 F 2 indeed,
 
 ( z% ) 
 
 indeed, not to make forbidden-fruit of unfuit- 
 able and bad Books by anathemas, but to 
 keep thefe out of their way, and even know- 
 ledge, if poflible ; or, if it be not, to fhew 
 their difapprobation no otherwife than by the 
 flighted and mod incidental expreflions of con- 
 tempt ; and in this whole matter, it is of extreme 
 confequence that the Matter and Parents agree, 
 act in concert, and even in the fulleft harmony. 
 
 What need there is of this, to ftop the Courfe 
 of libidinous Works, and fuch as fap the Prin- 
 ciples of Youth, is well underftood. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 The Ufe of Preceptors and Tutors, on this Plan. 
 
 Where Youths of Rank have Preceptors or 
 Tutors, thefe take at School the place of the Pa- 
 rent, at home that of the Mailer ; and, if no 
 more, would be able to forward their Pupils in 
 Englifli as well as the ancient Authors, to per- 
 fect them in reading and improve them in re- 
 citing, to give them a juft notion of beauties 
 and defects, to correct their fpeech and writing, 
 far better than could be done by the divided 
 Care of the Matter alone. 
 
 PART
 
 ( % ) 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Accommodation of the Plan to the Diver- 
 fity of Ranks. 
 
 Having expatiated thus largely on the new 
 Articles to be taught, and the order and me- 
 thod of teaching them j we are now to apply 
 this to the feveral Ranks and Conditions of 
 Youth amongft us. For this purpofe, it will 
 be beft to divide them into thofe bred to inde- 
 pendent fortunes, or intended for Profefiions, 
 the Army, mercantile Employments, the higher 
 and the lower mechanic Trades, Labour or 
 Service. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 To which of tbefe the Ancient Languages Jhould be 
 taught. 
 
 The Ancient Languages, Latin at leaft, will 
 be thought proper for the rlrft in order of tbefe, 
 with a few exceptions, and neceflary for the 
 fecond ; but furely of little utility to any of 
 thofe of the three next divifions but fuch as 
 have the beft parts, and of ablblutely none to 
 thofe of the inferior ones. 
 
 F 3 SECTION
 
 ( 70 ) 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Both the Englijh and other Parts of this Difciplinc, 
 ■proper for Youths of Rank, andfuch as are de- 
 fined for Profeffons. 
 
 The giving part of their earlieft application 
 to their own Language and Authors, and agree- 
 ably to the refpective bent of their minds, to 
 others of the objects in Mr. Locke, muft be 
 of the moft peculiar fervice to the very higheft 
 Ranks amongft us, to the Sons of the Nobility 
 and of Gentlemen of the largeft fortunes. Their 
 late or defultory attention this way, muft be 
 felt in its confequences through life ; they muft 
 fpeak in private and in public, as well as write, 
 exceedingly the worfe for it ; not to infill upon 
 the advantages they muft lofe in point of morals, 
 and neglecting to lay a timely foundation for a 
 cultivated literary tafte and a turn to fludy. For 
 Youths meant for Profefiions, can there pofiibly 
 be need to prefs fuch an early culture upon 
 them ? What Calls on the part of the ancient 
 Languages can there be fo urgent upon them, 
 fo indifpenfible, as that to thefe other Studies, 
 which early in life, as well as late, deferve furely 
 the preference, in cafe of an unavoidable in- 
 terference ? As to Boys defined to the military 
 
 or
 
 ( 7' ) 
 
 or the mercantile Sphere, instruction in the 
 Languages, one part of the day, would be 
 ufeful for fo many of them only as fhewed an 
 extraordinary pregnancy of parts. Thofe few 
 in the inferior Ranks, who in this refpect were 
 exceedingly diitinguilhed, and no others ap- 
 parently, mould partake of the fame Culture. 
 Again, whatever was the Rank or Destination 
 of Youths, thofe only ought to be taught more 
 of the Tongues than was matter of decency, 
 who gave figns they would not lay them afide, 
 but make confiderable ufe of them at a ripe 
 age : pretty manifeft figns of thefe kinds would 
 offer themfelves to obfervi.ng Matters and Pa- 
 rents ; when they were wanting, it would fure- 
 ]y be enough to give boys, when necelTary, a 
 fmall tincture of Greek, beftowing on this, and 
 their greater proficiency in Latin, half the day, 
 to the age of twelve or thirteen, and taking 
 away and applying even that half afterwards to 
 the other purpofes found or promifing to be 
 more fuitable or beneficial. If, by miftake, 
 fome boys mould be taken from the Languages 
 at thirteen, who might fhew afterwards a defire 
 and capacity for gaining and benefiting by 
 them, the acquifition that was postponed might 
 ftill be made at a later period ; the interme- 
 diate years at School having been diverted to 
 
 F 4 the
 
 ( 72 ; 
 
 the moft profitable ends, fully compcnfating 
 every inconvenience of the delay. Neglects or 
 omifTions of other matters, through too much 
 application to the Tongues, would be lefs re- 
 trievable. But furely, very few of thofe who 
 would not exert afterwards an extraordinary 
 induflry, to perfect themfelves in Latin and 
 Greek, would have turned to any great account 
 a complete early acquifition of them. The 
 Authorities againft wafting fuch a length of 
 years on thefe Tongues, are without number, 
 and of the greateft weight. Were a Collection 
 of them to be publifhed, with the great name 
 of Mr. Locke at its head, might it not be 
 hoped to carry irrefiftible force with it, and to 
 overpower and bear down even that of Cuftom ? 
 
 SECTION III. 
 Of the Middle and Lower Ranks. 
 
 Having done with thofe ranks of Youth 
 who are neceffarily to partake of the Latin in- 
 flruction ; it will be proper, in the next place, 
 to fpeak of the remainder, who, we think, 
 ought, in a manner, wholly to be excluded 
 from it, and be confined to Englifh with the 
 reft of Mr. Locke's Articles. All thofe come 
 within this number who lie between the two 
 
 firft
 
 I 73 ) 
 
 fjrft ranks, with a few of the third on one hand, 
 and the very lowed on the other ; that is to 
 fay, thofe in general who are intended for the 
 military and mercantile ways of life, and for 
 the higher and the lower or mechanic Trades. 
 All thefe are found to be very little the better 
 for the Grammar-fchool, but might furely be 
 improved in divers refpects at the Englifh one. 
 It muft be impoiTible that thofe intended for 
 the army fhould profit lefs in this way than the 
 other j or, if not a right, that they could take 
 any wrong, bias from it. The fame is to be 
 faid of Youths bred for the Navy, in regard to 
 their few years fpent at School before they are 
 hurried abroad. If, as is extremely to be de- 
 fired, any other inftrucljon in form was to be 
 given on Shipboard, befides that in Articles of 
 Navigation •, it fnould feem our Englifh plan 
 would be the very fitteft for the purpofe. As 
 to Merchants, and the higher orders of Trade, 
 it will be agreed on all hands to be proper to 
 give them fome early bias in favour of Englifh 
 Literature, to initiate them in fome of the 
 branches of knowledge fet down, and afford 
 them an opportunity of proving their turns or 
 their talents for the arts of defign, or whatever 
 others. For Youths defigned for the inferior 
 Trades, it will hardly be maintained that the 
 5 Turn
 
 ( 74 ) 
 
 Turn to letters imbibed at thefe Schools, 
 will fet them above their bufinefs, give them a 
 diflike to it, any way difqualify them for it, or, 
 after they are engaged in it, call off too much 
 of their attention to Books; allowing, however, 
 that a few inftances in fome of thefe ways are 
 to be apprehended, the advantages obtained 
 mull greatly outweigh fuch an inconvenience. 
 Learning, it is true, in common with other 
 the rnoft excellent objects, may be unfeafon- 
 ably or too eagerly purfued •, but fuch a poflible 
 incidental abule, will be no greater an objec- 
 tion to the inftilling into Youth an attachment 
 to this, than to many ©f the others. A mode- 
 rate care in providing Editions and Collections, 
 and in proper recommendations, would put it 
 paftadoubt, that the general Reading of thefe 
 perfons in trade would be fuch as not only to 
 ftrengthen right principles, and promote good 
 conduct in general, but to prefs home upon 
 them the duties of their ftation, diligence and 
 a due attendance on their Callings •, that it would 
 at leart fupply innocent and cheap recreation at 
 home, inftead of the difiblute and extravagant 
 ones that might be given into abroad. As to 
 Pedantry, (the Vice of Learning and Tafte,) 
 it will not be a much greater reflection upon 
 men in trade, than other exceffes and extremi- 
 ties
 
 ( IS ) 
 
 ties are to men in general, in fcientiric or other 
 purfuits ; if one of thefe mould therefore now 
 and then grow vain and oftentatious of his 
 knowledge in books, this kind of excrefcence 
 from that which, while it kept its due bounds, 
 was laudable, would be nearly as excufeable in 
 this inftance in him, as other fpecies of the fame 
 kinds of folly are in other men. In all objects 
 worthy of purfuit, in order to carry the gene- 
 rality up to the true medium, fuch incentives 
 fnould be ufed, as may move a fmall number 
 to go beyond or befide it. Univerfities could 
 not give due encouragement to Learning with- 
 out producing Pedants among their Scholars ; 
 and is it not in Countries the mod diftinguimed 
 for true Tafte, that affectation in Virtu is car- 
 ried the fartheft ? What, again, could be more 
 abfurd than to fend children of thefe inferior 
 Ranks to Grammar-fchools, as is univerfally 
 pracYifed, on a fuppofition that a relifh for 
 Books would be hurtful to them , ? They can 
 learn Latin, for no other end bur, to read it; 
 that not one in a hundred of them leaves the 
 School capable of this, may be very true j but 
 yet this is the end pretended ; for it can never 
 be acknowledged, that fo many years of drud- 
 gery are fpent without meaning any thing at all. 
 If he Advocates for Latin then, owning Latin 
 
 is
 
 ( 7<5 ) 
 
 is rauohc boys of t'hefe ranks to bring them ac- 
 quainted with the Games, and confequently to 
 inftil into them a defire to read thele Authors 
 through their lives, muft, with the utmoft in- 
 confiftence, condemn giving them an early re- 
 lifh for Englilh literature. Again, the wifeft 
 way can never be to leave every thing to chance f 
 but there ought to be, in common prudence, 
 a general View, to bias thefe numerous ranks of 
 Men either for or againft Learning. Nothing 
 can be more illiberal, nor more inconfiftent 
 with the general profelTed principles of the 
 Times than the latter -, but it is not uncommon 
 for thofe to be covert and implicit Enemies to 
 the fpreading of Learning, at lead to its defcent 
 to Ranks below their own, who are amamed to 
 ftand forth avowed Advocates for Ignorance. It 
 feems to be owing to the fame kind of principle 
 that fo long locked up the Bible and the Prayers 
 in Latin, that there is an indifference and dif- 
 lik,e, not to fay a dread, (among many of thofe 
 who ought to be its efpecial promoters,) of 
 communicating a good meafure of early and 
 folid inftruclion, and confequently a future at- 
 tachment to Englilh literature to the more nu- 
 merous Gaffes of our Countrymen •, but, un- 
 der pretence of imparting Latin, when it is in 
 fact known that a few totally unprofitable fcraps- 
 
 of
 
 ( 77 ) 
 
 of it will be the fole acquifition of many years 9 
 drudgery, Englifh is withheld. Once more -, 
 were a general fpirit of difcernment on the 
 part of thefe Ranks to operate, it would be 
 ftruck with a comparative attention to the Ule 
 and fruits of School Education in their own 
 and the upper Ranks. Boys in theirs, as 
 foon as they have, by the Age of Thirteen^ 
 waded through fuch elements of Latin as in 
 themfelves mutt be totally infignificant, are 
 taken finally away from the benefit of all formal 
 inftruftion, in order to be confined in Shops ; 
 while Youths of affluence, and thofe deftined to 
 Profefiions, ferving themfelves at leafl of the 
 Acquifitions of thefe fame years, as a ground- 
 work for their future Skill in two incomparable 
 Languages, are continued-on fucceffively at 
 the School and the College through fuch an- 
 other number of years, where they meet with 
 every aid, form and diverfity for, and of lite- 
 rary and elegant inftrucYion. That part of this 
 hardfhip then, which only can be remedied, are 
 not the Men of Trade infatuated to leave as it 
 is ? They may, at the word, take away their 
 Children from Latin, and beftow on their early 
 years all the intellectual benefit an Englifh 
 Plan, fimilar to this before us, can afford them. 
 
 Nor
 
 ( 7* ) 
 
 Nor is this whole matter by any means only 
 a particular, but a momentous general concern. 
 We, of this nation, are warm Admirers of the 
 Eminence in Letters and the Arts, of feveral of 
 the ancient States, and equally proud of the 
 advances we prefume to have made ourfelves in 
 their imitation ; of the Men of Gtnius we have 
 produced •, and of the cultivated Tafte thought 
 to be already fpread or fpreading among!! us. 
 How little of a piece with this is it, abfolutely 
 to wafte in Grammar Schools fix or feven of 
 the choiceft Years of fuch numbers of our 
 Youth; and then, (magnifying the idleft fears,) 
 to feek colours for denying every meafure of 
 knowledge in Letters, Science, and the elegant 
 Arts, to fo vaft a proportion of Englishmen as 
 are included in the Degrees now confidered, 
 and the inferior ones ! Contrariwife, the Powers 
 and Capacities of the whole People have been 
 cultivated and raifed as high as poffible, have 
 been made familiarly converfant with, and deep- 
 ly interefled in, the Objects of the Arts, where- 
 ever thefe have extraordinarily excelled. And 
 why not as well (hut out Numbers from bene- 
 fiting the Public with their bodies or their 
 purfes, as from ornamenting and illuftrating it 
 with their Minds ? The firft of thefe might as 
 wifely be on fet purpofe kept feeble and empty, 
 
 as
 
 ( 79 ) 
 
 as the laft deprefTed, ignorant and weak, blunt- 
 ing the edge of youthful and afpiring Alacrity 
 with a feptennial jargon of foreign Syntaxes and 
 Grammars. 
 
 As it cannot be known, whether boys de- 
 figned for Handicraft Trades will be Matters 
 or Journeymen, the breeding of them all muft 
 be the fame. There cannot be too much care 
 taken, indeed, in fuiting Mr. Locke's Articles 
 to the Views as well as Capacities of this, ac 
 leaft equally with the reft of the Clafies. Ac- 
 counts, Geometry, Mechanics, Drawing, and 
 perhaps fome other Articles, fliould be let be- 
 fore them ; their approved talent for any of 
 thefe be attended to in the prefent, and recom- 
 mended by the Mailer for protection, proper 
 placing out, and all due encouragement in 
 future. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Loweji Rank, 
 
 It is plain, the very lowed Rank of Chil- 
 dren, (thofe of labourers,) can receive, at moft, 
 but the fmallefl: tinclure of learning, if even 
 this be not denied them. However, as they 
 need not, in general, be taken away from 
 
 School,
 
 ( So ) 
 
 School, and given up entirely to work, till 
 they are feven or eight years old, and often 
 fomewhat later •, they may, if well taught at a 
 good Reading-fchool, be the better for fome of 
 our Articles calculated for the firft Glafs, the 
 Religious ones in particular, which would only 
 confift of many of the Hiftorical parts of the 
 Bible, (wrought, if pofiible, into one entire 
 and complete Narrative,) together with the 
 preceptive ones, leaving out all the thorny 
 doctrinal Points. Or, not to infill on the ufe 
 of a Collection not yet made, there are already 
 extant fome ihort and cheap Publications of this 
 kind, not unfit, I prefume, for this purpofe. 
 
 It is plainly eiTential to this general Defign, by 
 means of better encouragement to more proper 
 perfons, to have reading better taught, and Chil- 
 dren well, nay completely, grounded in it by their 
 School Miftreffes. This might lurely be effect- 
 ed by a very moderate attention in thofe who 
 have the appointment, or contribute to the pay 
 of thefe Teachers. And as it could not be 
 wr i th while to remove thefe poor boys to the 
 Mafier\ School for the imall Hay they could 
 make there, the more care would be wanting 
 to fee that they effectually profited under the 
 Miflrefs. If any well-qualified, liberal-minded 
 
 perfons,
 
 ( 8i ) 
 
 perfons, of the feveral Towns or Neighbour- 
 hoods, would have an eye to it, (as the -im- 
 portance of the concern highly deferves,) they 
 might not only fee that reading was well taught* 
 but have an opportunity of difcerning, by means 
 of this grounding of the boys in it, whenever 
 any of them had fuch an extraordinary preg- 
 nancy of parts, or turn for learning, as merited 
 their being placed above labour, and in the 
 walks of life Nature pointed out for them. 
 It would be of the extremeft moment to take 
 care thefe Children were kept to work, from 
 as early an age as pofllble, moft of the hours 
 of the day •, the fame, or ftill more indifpenfibly 
 than if no fchooling was to be afforded them. 
 And by making work, for the main of the day, 
 a condition with their Parents for entering and 
 keeping them at fchool, this circumftance would 
 come to have more tendency to remove than 
 promote idlenefs at home. Obferve, that where 
 Parents are carelefs, they will not want the ex- 
 cufe of the School for leaving boys idle ; where 
 otherwife, they certainly will not be hindered 
 by their Children's being fent there a few hours, 
 from keeping them to work the reft of the day. 
 A difficulty arifes, in what was propofed above, 
 touching the different difcipline fuited to the 
 Children of labourers and thole of their Betters. 
 G The
 
 ( *2 ) 
 
 The laft will pafs the whole day with the Mifc 
 trefs, nothing but merely learning to read will be 
 propofed for them •, they will remove at fix or 
 ieven years old to a new kind of School : for 
 the others, they will have but two or three 
 hours of the day to fpare here, and making the 
 mod of this their only inftruclion, they ought 
 to attend more to the meaning of what they 
 read, and mere carefully remember the fub- 
 flance of it ; which they may be brought to do, 
 by bein^ often kept a year or two longer at the 
 School than the other Children. All this will 
 require different Claries, different hours, and 
 even ways of teaching ; the whole of which, if 
 it adds confiderably to the trouble, will by no 
 means be too much for the diligence of an in- 
 telligent Miftrefs, receiving an extraordinary 
 recornpence for her pains. It will not, one may 
 prefume, be denied, that there are very many 
 good reafons to give, why the very pooreft 
 Children mould be taught to read. This 
 might certainly be done without letting them 
 above work, or taking them too much off from 
 it : there is time for both-, and no nccefTary 
 competition between them. If reading was urii- 
 verfal, it would be bo eauie of pride, or infpire 
 any with the notion of being privileged by it 
 with an exemption from tlv? meaneft work. 

 
 ( 83 ) 
 
 If it has hitherto had that tendency, this has 
 been owing to the poor Children who have been 
 taught it perceiving that labour was always the 
 lot of fuch as weredeftitute of the fmalleft fhare 
 of learning $ and being thence led to infer, thac 
 all who porTeffed the laft, were therefore to be 
 free from the other : an incompatibility be- 
 tween the two, when favouring pride and lazinefs, 
 was eafily fancied, and perhaps they had always 
 heard learning and labour fpoke of, as excluding 
 each other, and the ufual marks of diftindtion 
 of Ranks. But now, if thefe were deftroyed 
 by teaching all to read, the caufe of this incon- 
 venience would be removed ; and little more 
 would be done that could be called encouraging 
 high thoughts, pride, and difcontent in the 
 Poor, than to open a poffibility for Children, 
 no longer deftitute of this necerTary qualifica- 
 tion, to rife a degree above their Parents, and 
 above labour. And furely, by denying read- 
 ing, it is not meant to tie any neceffarily down 
 to the condition of their birth, entailing menial 
 drudgery upon families, like the lowed of the 
 Eaft Indian Tribes. Rotation, or the chance 
 of it, is more equitable, and efTential to the 
 Spirit of Liberty. If learning is looked upon 
 as advantageous, let this fmall portion of it at 
 lead be imparted to every one. To difcredit 
 G 2 this
 
 C *4 ) 
 
 (fhfs practice, it is not enough tofhew, that it may 
 have now and then infpired a principle of hurtful 
 pride, or that fome perfons have been induced 
 to abufe the benefit, and afpiring at ftations 
 that belonged not to them, have, by their mif- 
 cond ucl:, finally brought fhame upon themfelves 
 and their Education-, it ought farther to be 
 proved from experience, (which it never can,) 
 that thefe evils have not been counterbalanced 
 by greater advantages, and that the ifiue has 
 not been, upon the whole, beneficial. Over 
 and above thofe fet apart for Religion, hours of 
 recreation can be denied to no rank ; and if our 
 Compofitions were more like thofe of the 
 Greeks, and more accommodated to all capa- 
 cities, fome of thefe hours would certainly be 
 employed in them -, and thus not only the lower 
 people would be in feveral refpecls bettered, 
 but Authors would, with that of their readers, 
 increafe the number of their admirers ; the 
 efteem and applaufe of genius and literature 
 would be univerfally fpread, and Authors, con- 
 fcious of this, be farther mitigated to excel. 
 Many of the paflages in Poetry, the molt ad- 
 mired by the bed judges, have been fuch as 
 have touched the bofoms of the very Vulgar. 
 It is not with coarfe humour only t.hat thefe are 
 pleafed, but often with true pleafantry and pe- 
 culiarities
 
 ( s 5 ) 
 
 ctiliarities of character. Their Souls are, too, 
 fufceptible of the tendered fenfations from 
 ftories movingly told, from fimple, natural, 
 and even from elevated, and fometimes deli- 
 cate incidents and paffages in whatever kinds of 
 Compofitions. If this was not well known, 
 and confirmed by perpetual experience, there 
 are the higheft authorities in fupport of it. A 
 Love too for the fruits of Genius will not only 
 defcend, but it will afcend ; when it has taken 
 hold of the loweit Ranks, its influence upon 
 their Betters will be quickened ; thefc will be 
 alhamed of not being more affected by it than 
 the others, and the more it is dirTufed, the 
 greater will be the Nation's credit from it, and 
 the more animated the Writer's exertion of his 
 talents. The firfr Itep towards fome fmall mea- 
 fure of this, muft be teaching all, without ex- 
 ception, to read •, if a liking of a proper fort of 
 books follows, this will be the belt amufement 
 that fome number of the lower Sort can fpend 
 their leifure hours in, for the benefit of the pub- 
 lic and their own : as has been already hinted, it 
 may be had at home, for little cod, and may pre- 
 vent extravagance, drunkennels, and other 
 vices-, befides that, to the greater number the 
 .firft Elements of fome of the Arts are commu- 
 nicated, (or at leaft the means of obtaining 
 G 3 them,)
 
 ( M ) 
 
 them,) the more may be expected to excel in 
 them : High or Low, it does not feem to toe 
 underltood that there is any great difference in 
 natural talents or parts. Elevation may be very 
 well accounted for in mod inftances, without 
 a fuperiority •, and depreffion, without a defi- 
 ciency in thefe. I remember to have heard it 
 obferved, by a perfon'of great eminence, That 
 it reflected fhame upon the Whigs, the great 
 advocates for natural equality, to have oppofed 
 the general teaching of reading. This indeed 
 they did in oppofition to Charity-fchools, in 
 times when thefe were made the inftruments of 
 Party ; but now this objection is at an end, if 
 the others alfo have been fatisfactorily anfwered, 
 and fome degree of attention were beftowed to 
 prevent flagrant abufes, one mould hope fome 
 method for extending to every one the benefit 
 of Reading, would every where take place. 
 The fulled advantage, indeed, of whatever 
 kind of inflruction is allowed to Parifli Chil- 
 dren, fliould be imparted, not without an ho- 
 nourable diftinction, to the Children of thofe 
 laborious Poor whofe painful induftry provides 
 for them : if the contrary fomeumes has been 
 and is the cafe, there cannot be a more cruel 
 injullice in the Public, than to deny equal ad- 
 ■santage to the latter with the former, much 
 
 more 
 I
 
 ( «r ) 
 
 fnore fuch an advantage as has a tendency. 
 while there are many who do not partake of it, 
 to raife Parifh Children to a rank above labour, 
 and tie down thofe of the induftrious Poor to 
 it. The leaft the Public is bound to do for 
 thcfe^ where the others are taught at Work- 
 houfes, is, everywhere to open Charity-fchools 
 for their tree in it ruction, 
 
 I fay nothing of Writing and Accounts, which 
 have been the caufe of all the Mifchief pre- 
 tended, and laid to the charge of Reading. 
 The latter does nott (directly at leaft) qualify 
 for any employment above labour-, Accounts 
 in particular do, and have often, no doubt, 
 been the caufe of high thoughts and bad con- 
 duct in Youths of the meaneft capacity as well 
 as birth- 
 
 It mull be owned to be a liberal and gene- 
 rous aim, to fpread univerfal Talle and Know- 
 ledge i to call forth, as far as is poffible and 
 prudent, the active talents, and the obfcured 
 and latent fenfibilities of every Citizen. As the 
 Children of Poverty cannot be very confidcrablv 
 lefs indebted to Nature for thefe kinds of powers 
 and faculties, than thcfe of Wealth ; fo neither 
 does depreffed Station neceflarily forbid fome 
 jaieafure of their Ufc and Application. Thofe 
 G 4 of
 
 ( 8* ) 
 
 of lew birth who have a talent for cxercifing 
 any of the Arts, may with care be early diftin- 
 guifhed, and put in a way of exerting it ; the 
 Reft, by being improved with a little early in- 
 ftruction, by having a plenty of the Works of 
 Art placed before them, by a choice of fuch 
 fubjects for thefe as may render them interfiling 
 to the lower Degrees (fuch as are fimple and 
 obvious, inftead of complicated and refined, 
 and drawn from or built upon domeftic or po- 
 pular Occurrences,) by receiving early notices 
 that thefe are not meant for objects altogether 
 above them, and for the exclufive contempla- 
 tion of their Betters •, with all thefe, and fome 
 fmaller precautions and attentions, there can 
 be no doubt but many of the productions of 
 Letters, and of the Arts, might come to craw 
 the regard of great numbers of the meaneft 
 amongft us. 
 
 There is not any other equally noble object 
 to contemplate as a Nation (practically, not 
 ideally fpeaking,) arrived, through all its Mem- 
 bers, at the highefl pitch of Knowledge and of 
 Art. The contrary Extreme of Barbarifm and 
 Savage Ignorance would not be the molt defpi- 
 cable and odious of all Objects, if this was not 
 the mod: exalted and attractive. Inftead, there- 
 fore, of affecting to contemn what is called the 
 
 fore,
 
 ( s 9 > 
 
 Vulgar, and of fcorning all fchemes for diftuf- 
 ing fome meafure of this Spirit among them, 
 by care and cultivation, the higher Ranks of a 
 magnanimous Nation mould look uoon it to 
 be the true and only means of obtaining, with 
 the prefent Age and Pofterity, a glory far fu- 
 perior to that of War and Empire. This is con- 
 tending for no more than to qualify and excite all 
 men of natural talents to their proper exercife 
 and exertion, and to open the eyes, as far as is 
 practicable, of all Degrees, to a juft admiration 
 and purfuit of the eftimable Productions of Ge- 
 niusand Art, and of theTreafures of Knowledge. 
 
 Satisfying the Cravings of Nature, and gra- 
 tifying the Appetites extraordinarily excited by 
 Labour, if it be the firit, wil! not be the only 
 object of defire with the loweft Ranks. The 
 Powers of the Mind cannot be fo blunted by 
 the Toil of the Body, as to become torpid and 
 inactive. All its Paffions and Affections, even 
 the molt purely intellectual ones, will iiill be 
 kept alive, and put-in their claim for indul- 
 gence. So far as the Objects in queftion are 
 concerned, we have been endeavouring to fhew 
 how fit it mult be for men of influence to bear 
 fuch a truth ever in mind, and to point out to 
 {hem the confequences cf thefe kinds itfuggeits. 
 
 r ' 
 
 i ne
 
 ( 9° ) 
 
 The loweft, in common with the higheft 
 Ranks, (though in a far lefs degree) mult 
 needs be affected, almoft equally by the Works 
 of Art preferred to their view, as by the fcene- 
 of Nature. I have farther been mewing it 
 CO be defirable, that they mould be fo to a very 
 confiderable degree-, and have therefore urged, 
 that endeavour be ufed univerfally to quicken 
 this necefTary Affection of the mind, to bring it 
 much in play, to regulate, and, in fome mea- 
 fure, refine it. To this end, let feveral of 
 the branches of interefting and curious Know- 
 ledge (as has been advifed) be plainly and 
 clearly fet before the moft reflecting and inqui- 
 fnive of the lower people, in cheap and fum- 
 mary Treatifes j let fome of the literary Works 
 of Fancy, inftead of wrapping them up in in- 
 tricacy, difficulty and obicurity, be accommo- 
 dated to vulgar Capacities and Conceptions :— 
 Chafe for the Subjects of your Paintings and 
 Sculptures fuch as are obvious and popularly- 
 interelling ; and„ inftead of induftrioufly fecret- 
 ing thefe Works, denying the iargeft participa- 
 tion in their enjoyment, and making them the 
 narrow Objects of private gratification, and of 
 Purfe and Property-pride, expofe them, ifpof- 
 iible, as publicly as Edifices and Monuments : 
 —Rather give a premium in regard to every 
 
 kind
 
 ( 9* ) 
 
 kind of thcfe lad, than fuffer the (mailed 
 fine to be fet on the Curiouty of the lowed De- 
 grees to take a view of them ; and, agreeably 
 to their End, let monumental Figures lpeak, 
 not a drained and a darkly-emblematical lan- 
 guage, but an obvioutly intelligible one to an 
 ordinary Beholder. On fuch an entire adjud- 
 ment, there W be few of the moaned Inha- 
 bitants of London v. ho would not join in the 
 fatisfaction applaufe and admiration, of the 
 great Works of Art it does, or might contain ; 
 would not acquire feme meafure of juft Tade, 
 and help to add a fpur to the re-animated Ala- 
 crity of every Species of Artifts. 
 
 Connected, in fome meafure, perhaps, with 
 the early implanting this land of difpofition in 
 the low Ranks, would dand that of inducing 
 them to a cleanli nefs, neatnefs, and tightnefs in 
 the perfons and drefs of themielves and their 
 children, and in their homes •, and when touched 
 with what was decent and elegant in artificial 
 figures abroad, they mud be druck with an 
 averficn to the contrary within doors: as, on 
 the other hand, it mud be a dill furer confe- 
 quence, that beginning with Neatnefs, and the 
 whole of thefe attentions in their Families, (as 
 being the fruit: either of an ingenuous Mind or 
 
 of
 
 C 9* ) 
 
 cf Culture,) they might the more naturally be 
 kd-on to look with delight at as many of the 
 Works of Art as were expofed to public View. 
 
 One may here obferve, as a prefumption in 
 favour of thefe opinions in general, that in our 
 own, and more remarkably in other ftill freer 
 States, that branch of the Arts which has flou- 
 rifhed fooneft has been Architecture, the fame 
 that lies open to the infpection of the People> 
 and in the admiration of which they necefTarily 
 partake, as they naturally conceive themfelves to 
 do in its glory. 
 
 Farther ; it ought not to be pretended that 
 the lower and laborious People only have Oc- 
 cupations ill- agreeing with any meafure of that 
 we have been praifing •, thofe which are often 
 the Choice of their Betters, are almoft as con- 
 trary to elegant enjoyment and Scientific pur- 
 fuit, as what with them is matter of conftraint. 
 Voluntary and artificial bale appetites and pur- 
 suits, may leave as little leifure, as little con-r 
 vertibility or vivacity of Mind for ingenious 
 Study or Contemplation, even as thofe of Indir 
 gence and Neceffity. 
 
 With regard to bellowing a fmall degree of 
 Culture, in particular, on the Reafoning Faculty 
 
 of
 
 ( 93 ) 
 
 of the meaner People, Proteftantifm is empha- 
 tically bound to it. We maintain the right, 
 nay the neceffity, of private Judgment, of every 
 man's being determined in his moft weighty, 
 his religious Concerns, by the exercife of his 
 own Understanding •, mud not our Conduct 
 then be moft ftrikingly inconfiftent, if we de- 
 liberately neglect to give any manner of Cul- 
 ture to the Underflandings of the moft nume- 
 rous ClafTes amongft us r* 
 
 If what is here laid down be allowed to be in 
 any degree juftly applicable to the very loweft 
 Rank, it will be obferved to be undeniably 
 more fo, in a very conjiderable one, to two or 
 three of thofe next above it. 
 
 A Writer cannot avoid forefeeing to what 
 cenfure, and even derifion, he mail, by no- 
 tions like thefe, be expoled, with all but per- 
 fons of extraordinary candour ; it is on fuch as 
 thefe I rely, for pardoning what at worft can 
 be but a well-meant chimasra ; for conftruing 
 any efcapes or equivocal expreflions by the ge- 
 neral purport of the Argument ; and for con- 
 fining the reproof of what they muft needs 
 condemn, to the pafiages themfelves, not repro- 
 bating the parts that may ftand the teft, on ac- 
 count of a few others which may be amifs. 
 
 SECTION
 
 ( 94 ) 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Danger of pill farther increafmg the Number of 
 Authors by infilling a more general Love of 
 Letters* confidercd. 
 
 It is alledged that the prefent fwarm of ne- : 
 cefiitous Authors, and their idle and mifchiev- 
 ous productions, gives caufe of apprehending 
 that the matter has been carried too far, and 
 that too many Retainers to Learning have al- 
 ready been enlifted j filling the minds of ordi- 
 nary boys with notions of thefe kinds, tending 
 only to convert thofe that are formed by nature 
 for ufeful Tradeimen, Artificers, or even La- 
 bourers, into learned beggars, obliged to feek 
 a maintenance by their pen. 
 
 But it is here to be obferved, that this fet of 
 Men is generally the offspring of Profeffions, 
 and not of the lower Gaffes ; and that a very 
 great proportion of them, whether the Refufeof 
 Trade or of Profeflion, have been men whofe 
 profligacy or floth would have rendered them 
 equally incapable of fuccefs, and a difgrace to 
 any other Way of Life they had adhered to. 
 It is only therefore of its part of that fmall 
 number of thefe who are Men of a good degree 
 
 of
 
 r 95 ) 
 
 of induftry and fobriety, that Trade can be 
 truly faid to be robbed ; as to Profeffions, all 
 who are bred to them muft needs, even as mat- 
 ters now are, be tinctured with enough of Ens- 
 lifh Literature, to throw them in the way of 
 temptation (often when very indifferently qua- 
 lified) to relieve their diftrefles by writing for 
 hire. 
 
 The numbers bred to Profeflions would 
 hardly be much, if at all increafed, by this 
 plan; neither could therefore thofe of fuch 
 Authors : on the contrary, if this kind of 
 Teaching had any good moral effects, they might 
 be hoped to be leffened. But if the general 
 number of hireling Writers fhould be upon 
 the whole fomewhat augmented, amidft what- 
 ever inconvenience the public receives from 
 them, there muft be allowed to be a large fhare 
 of advantage •, not to repeat that the Arts of 
 Learning, like other Arts, when arrived at 
 great eminence, cannot fail of a croud of dii- 
 appointed followers, who mutt be prone, like 
 the reft, to betake themfelves to fome or other 
 of the bad courfes of life. In ail great purfuits 
 many muft engage, for a few to fucceed. If 
 the number of good Authors fhould increafe, 
 that of the fruitlels afpirers :o be fuch, if an 
 evil, is unavoidably complicated with the good. 
 
 The
 
 ( 9« ) 
 
 The mote fuccced, the more will attempts 
 the Converfe holds equally true, the more there 
 are that make attempts, the more will fucceed. 
 Men too, who in this way would be mifchiev- 
 ous, would be fo in another : a feditious and 
 calumnious Author might have been an em- 
 bezzling Bankrupt in Trade, or a man of 
 Fraud in the Law. 
 
 SECTION VL 
 
 Conchijion of what has been cbferved of the Suit- 
 ablenefs of this Plan, in whole or in part, to 
 Beys of the federal Ranks and Conditions of 
 Life. 
 
 "We have faid that the general Plea for with* 
 holding Learning as being fubjecT: to abufe, is 
 of no modern date, but derived from the old 
 Papal Policy. A meafure of Englifh Literature 
 may now, it is true, be got-at, by great numbers $ 
 but if this be no advantage, why boaft of it ? 
 if it be one, why not make it of the eafieft 
 accefs, and extend it to as many as you can ? 
 If we had not innovated, could we have ex- 
 ceeded the Nations we now do ? and why 
 not innovate farther, to reach the few that are 
 ilill beyond us? In a Race, the more Compe- 
 titors you have overtaken and pafTed by, the 
 more ardently do you prefs upon the few flill 
 
 before
 
 ( 97 ) 
 
 before you. General Suggeftions of danger 
 from change, are trifling. 
 
 Farther ; there is not a more inconteftible 
 fact, than that there are amongft us boys of 
 parts in great number, fome of high, many of 
 middling, and ftill more of the loweft rank ; 
 the firfl very little, many of the fecond, and 
 abundantly more of the laft, fcarce at all tinc- 
 tured in their youth with Englilh learning, and 
 through this early default perhaps all alike ne- 
 gligent of, averfe to, or incapable of it, through 
 their lives. 
 
 Though many great Geniufes overcame thefe 
 difficulties, it does not follow that they were 
 none to them : fuch an early intimacy with their 
 own Tongue, by means of the pieces here re- 
 commended, of a ftyle the moil peripicuous 
 and fimple, might have been an efpecial fervice 
 to thofe who have been of the higheft name, 
 even Shakefpeare, nearly deftitute to his un- 
 doubted misfortune of this great advantage ; 
 the efforts of fo tranfcendent a Genius having 
 been actually loft for the molt vigorous periods 
 of life, and its ineftimable flores favtd at laft, 
 pretty apparently, from total fhipwreck, by ac- 
 cident ; and how mortifying is the apprehen- 
 fion to every man of a liberal turn of mind, 
 H left,
 
 ( 93 ) 
 
 left, through a denial of education, other al- 
 mod fimilar Geniufes, the bountiful Gifts of 
 Heaven, may have perilhed and been utterly 
 
 extinguifhed ! 
 
 Once more ; when any Englifli books are 
 taken in hand betimes, it is notorious how un- 
 common it is to begin with the fitted and beft : 
 now to rectify this, can be no dangerous inno- 
 vation ; on the contrary, if it is fpoke of as an 
 advantage, a matter to be encouraged and 
 boafted of, that fome of our Authors are cafu- 
 ally, and, of courfe, at odd hours, looked into 
 by fchool-boys ; it is inexcufable not to take 
 care that thefe fhall be the beft and the moft 
 regularly read. 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 Matters. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Difficulty of obtaining fitch as are proper. 
 
 It mult be owned, in derogation from this 
 Plan, that it might not be eafy, at firft, to 
 find Matters forward to the attempting, and 
 equal to the execution of it. It is not merely 
 through the prejudice of cuftom that they are 
 
 tenacious
 
 ( 99 ) 
 
 tenacious of the prefent method. It mufr, be 
 thought much eafier to perfift in hearing boys 
 repeat the Accidence and Grammar, and a 
 number of Latin Verfes, to conftrue and parfe 
 Latin, than to conform to a new and compli- 
 cated Plan. This latter, befides all the diver- 
 fity of articles directed to be taught by Mr. 
 Locke, requires a Mafter very perfect in read- 
 ing, and capable of perfecting his Scholars ; 
 it requires conftant dole attention, and the 
 taking care that every thing is well underftood, 
 as well as read, and attentively liftened to ; 
 and even to mark the different impreflions 
 made on different boys. The fame ordinary 
 qualifications and care that will make a fbifc to 
 hammer a fmattering of Latin into a boy, will by 
 no means ferve for it. The conning of leffons 
 in the old tone of the Reading School is far 
 from what is meant. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Indifferent Mafter s — If Grammar- Schools more pro- 
 fitable under fucb, than the Schools here pro- 
 pofed ? Proficiency in which of the two, more 
 determinate and manifeft. 
 
 On the grounds above ftated, it will be ob- 
 jected to this fcheme, that a middling Latin 
 Mafter cannot fail to give a tincture of that lan- 
 H 2 guage,
 
 ( ICO ) 
 
 guage (which at worft is fomewhat) ; but that,, 
 in the other cafe, a boy with carelefs or indif- 
 ferent teaching may wafle half a dozen years 
 hardly knowing what he has been about, and 
 have learned nothing but to read Englifh ill. 
 But none fhould apprehend, putting the matter 
 almoft at the loweft, that many boys, at leaft, 
 would nor, almoft of their own accord, or with 
 the lead aid imaginable, reap fome meafure of 
 benefit •, paying a good degree of regard to fome 
 or other of the Englifh Pieces their Parts con- 
 fifled of, and which lay always before them. 
 The boys themfelves, as well as their parents, 
 will always be judges here too cf their profici- 
 ency •, and the Mailers, confcious of this, will 
 be forced to exert themfelves. It will not, I 
 think, be infilled on, that the Grammar leflbns 
 and the conflruings being fomewhat determi- 
 nate, it cannot fail to be apparent here whether 
 boys have got their Parts or not \ that there can 
 be no medium, but the Mailer mufl abfolutely 
 know how this is, and mull make an abfolute 
 choice either to fee the bufinefs done or let alone •, 
 and thus for his own credit he will take care it 
 {hall be the former — that on the contrary, this will 
 be far lefs the cafe with the Englifh loofer and lefs 
 definite method and proficiency. This objection, 
 J think, will be owned to be pretty fully obviated 
 
 by
 
 ( ioi ) 
 
 by what has already been intimated, that extraor- 
 dinary negligence in a Matter, mull, in the 
 cafe of Englifh, foon maniteft itfclf, incur the 
 the difpleafure of his Scholar's Parents, and 
 bring on the difcredit and decay of his School. 
 Though the negligence may not be fo apparent 
 at each particular leflbn, after a fhort period it 
 cannot be hid, but the boys' flow progrefs and 
 many other circumftances mull needs betray it : 
 the Parents in any inftance, by only examining 
 how their Son improves in reading, and what 
 notice he has taken of the contents of his lef- 
 fons, by a few plain queftions, will aflliredly 
 find out* any extraordinary neglect there may 
 have been. And indeed they have no fuch fure 
 marks to judge by in Latin. Thus, I think, 
 it is plain, even admitting that with equal negli- 
 gence, the Latin Scholar might fuflfer rather 
 lefs than the Englifh, through the getting of the 
 Parts being fomewhat more determinate in one 
 cafe than the other, that the more certain and 
 fcandalous detection in the latter, muft out- 
 weigh the other confideration. 
 
 But farther, it is a great queftion whether 
 
 Latin lefibns may not be fo carelefsly taught, 
 
 and Parts fuffered to be fo entirely flighted, 
 
 that Englifh ones cannot be more fo, and the 
 
 H 3 profit
 
 ( 102 ) 
 
 profit from thefe prove lefs than from the other; 
 unlefs it be faid that a few Latin words or fcraps 
 are what would not be learned but at School, 
 whereas the little acquifition in Englifh, of 
 either language or matter, is what, at fome 
 other leifure time, would be learned of courfe : 
 but this will hardly be infifted upon. The truth 
 of the whole matter feems to be, that the moft 
 negligent and worft Mafters, whether in Latin 
 or Englifh, muft afford to their Scholars fcarce 
 any improvement at all ; with this circumftance, 
 however, to the advantage of the Englifh, that 
 the Scholars, if well inclined, having always 
 Englifh Books before them, will not fail, of 
 their own accord, to benefit more or lefs by 
 them. — That where the Mailers are indifferent, 
 as is expected of the generality of them, the 
 advantage to the boys mull be greater in 
 the Englifh Method : that where they are ex- 
 traordinary, this advantage will be extraordi- 
 narily increafed. — And farther, that as this is 
 the cafe with equal diligence in Mafters, their 
 diligence muft be ftill more excited for their 
 own credit and intereft on the Englifh Plan, 
 In Latin too there is much written Exercife, 
 which cofls the Mailer as little attention as he 
 pleafes ; the boy's Part alfo better difchargea 
 iifelf, without much of bis notice; he may be 
 4 half
 
 ( 103 ) 
 
 half abfent during repetition, and even conftru- 
 ing, which he cannot fo well be, even while 
 his boys read Engliih ; they will better know 
 and more mind, and be more apt to tell their 
 Parents of neglects here. Thefe difficulties, 
 perhaps, have been one of the reafons why no 
 Matter almoft has regarded Engliih ; but aJl 
 have ftuck to Latin. And if fo, a harder tafk 
 will fcarce be undertaken, but for a better re- 
 compence, or on new motives. One fbould 
 think, indeed, that as the heart and the under- 
 ftanding (which for feveral years are quite idle 
 in Latin) would have here fome concern, it 
 would be a fatisfaction to the Matter to fee how 
 they were affected, how they opened and un- 
 folded themfclves j as it muft be farther to a 
 good one, to be ever fenfible of the ardour of 
 fome of the boys, and the folid improvements 
 they were making. However, on the whole, 
 better pay would be expected by the generality 
 of Matters, for more various qualifications, more 
 time and trouble. 
 
 It will be obferved, that I have chiefly con- 
 fidered the effects of this Plan, on fuppofition 
 that Matters were juft the fame with relpect to 
 Capacity and diligence as at prcfent. Better 
 would, no doubr, be very defirable, much 
 H 4 more
 
 ( 104 ) 
 
 more fo in proportion for the advantage of this 
 than the Latin Method ; and there may be 
 hopes that its own nature and obvious confe- 
 quences would of courfe foon produce fuch : 
 but on this I have not built, looking upon it 
 as the common error of Innovators, groundlefs- 
 ly to expect an extraordinary execution of their 
 fchemes, without new instruments or motives. 
 Had I not therefore believed that this Method 
 would prove preferable to the other, even un- 
 'der the management of equal Matters, I mould 
 have thought of it only as a chimera. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 The Scheme how fui table to the larger Country- 
 Schools, requiring a Majler and an UJher. 
 
 As there are not a few Country-Shools where 
 boys exceed the number of forty, and where of 
 confequence an Ufher mull be wanting, (to 
 execute the Plan before us at leaft,) and as 
 thefe are, perhaps, the likelieft Schools to make 
 a trial of it ; let it be confidered how the Maf- 
 ter, thus aided, would proceed. Nothing need 
 be repeated of what has been faid relative to the 
 clafting of boys ; for the reft he would of courfe 
 bellow his own chief attention on the upper 
 Clafles and Removes, (if iuch there were,) 
 
 without,
 
 ( i°5 ) 
 
 without, however, trufting entirely to his Subfti- 
 tute, or forgetting to give the leflbns himfelf 
 once in three or four days to the lower Formes, 
 and to be then very watchful what the care and 
 effects of the other's Teaching had been in the 
 interim. Even to the upper boys, who mufl in 
 this method be fometimes taught by the Ufher, 
 the diverfity of manners, and the different cir- 
 cumstances each Inftructor might attend to, 
 would be ferviceable : Total Uniformity in 
 teaching might be in danger of giving one 
 borrowed famenefs in tone, manner, and way 
 of apprehending and thinking in the boys ; be- 
 fides, that different faults will catch the atten- 
 tion of different Teachers, and fome thatefcape 
 the notice of the Matter may fall under the ob- 
 fervation of the Ufher, however inferior to hitn 
 upon the whole. Both will have occafion to 
 fpend part of the Intervals between the Leflbns 
 in looking over Exercifes, (nearly the fame with 
 regard to Englim as Latin,) and in hinderino- 
 the boys from being idle. If the Ufher is lefs 
 wanted to aflilt the Latin than the Englifh 
 Scholars, and on the Latin (when there is one) 
 than the Englim Part of the day, hr may be 
 chofe for his Skill in thofe of Mr. Locke's Ar- 
 ticles the Mailer is deficient in-, and thus, by 
 means of having two Instructors, the Cv npafs 
 
 of
 
 ( lo6 ) 
 
 of the Articles taught may be enlarged, often 
 at lead without any very extraordinary addition 
 to the prefent expence of Latin Schools. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 In what Meafures the Dejign is practicable in 
 Schoch that are in the extreme, the largefi and 
 the haft. 
 
 With regard to the feveral various forms in 
 the Extremes of the other Schools, the greateft 
 and the leaft, I do not fee why this mould not 
 be the moll defirable method of Teaching in 
 them all. For the fmallefl and mod private 
 ones in the country, fo much of the contents of 
 this Scheme, as would fall within the fphere of 
 an ordinary Mailer, would be fufficient for the 
 boys, and better fuited for the mod part than 
 the Languages to their Capacities and purpofed 
 ways of Life. 
 
 As to the great Schools, they would have the 
 advantage of commanding all the diverfity of 
 Maftcs, the wealth of the Scholars, and the 
 variety of their capacities and declinations, might 
 require. There is a well known Proof in many 
 Catholic Countries of the extreme advantage of 
 having the earlieft attention to the talents of 
 boys, and an accommodation to them of Maf- 
 
 ters
 
 ( 107 ) 
 
 ters in the whole variety almoft of the Sciences, 
 ever at hand. 
 
 The upper Matters in our great Schools, 
 need not think it beneath them, to defcend 
 fometimes from Greek and Latin, to the read- 
 ing, explaining and criticizing the beft Englifh 
 Compofnions. The lower Matters would have 
 ftill lefs room, it mould feem, to objecl: to the 
 Parts afligned them in this Plan. 
 
 u 
 
 There is little to be faid touching the (Eco- 
 nomy of any of the kinds of Schools, as to 
 Numbers, Claffes, and Removes, beyond what 
 has been already mentioned in the Sections on 
 Claffes. 
 
 We have already taken notice of the Maps, 
 Charts, and Tables, as well as the variety of 
 Prints, with which, befides Books, a complete 
 School mould be furnifhed. It mould be added, 
 according to the remark of a late judicious 
 French Writer, that untoward and fullen im- 
 prefTions may be fixed in the breads of youth 
 by the forlorn and gloomy Rooms they are often 
 taught in, and how defirable it would be to give 
 thefe a better form, and a more decent and cheer- 
 ful, a more elegant and inviting afpect 
 
 Farther
 
 ( io8 ) 
 
 Farther Objections confidered. 
 
 I have thus fuccefiively confidered what were 
 the proper Englifh Books, and other new ob- 
 jects of inftruction, for fupplying the place of, 
 or being joined with, the ancient Languages ; 
 which would be the fitteft forms of teaching, 
 and means of deriving the bed advantages of 
 all kinds from an Englifh Diicipline ; as like- 
 wife what may be advifable in regard to Clafles •, 
 how to accommodate School-inflruction to the 
 ieveral Ranks and Conditions amongft us •, and 
 laftly, what difficulties mull be expected (in 
 cafe of the change propofed) on the part of 
 Mailers, and how they might be obviated. I 
 now propofe to give a more direct and explicit 
 attention to fome Objections to the Plan, which, 
 in the progrefs of the Work, have been rather 
 curforily than exprefsly and fully confidered. 
 
 There may be thofe, perhaps, who will 
 argue, that for a fmall change it is hardly worth 
 while to make a ftir ; and that too much would 
 be rifqued in attempting a great one, when the 
 befl parts of Learning are already fo acceffible ; 
 what difficulties there are in the way of them fo 
 removeable, where Englifh Literature is open 
 to all Volunteers of good parts and application, 
 
 and
 
 ( 109 ) 
 
 and ought not to be forced, as by this Method 
 it might, on too many, who are either unequal 
 to it, or might abufe it. And farther, fince 
 there have been very few Nations, if any, which 
 have exceeded us in the literary Arts ; that we 
 fhould rather confider the very great number 
 we furpafs, than thefe few ; than feek for a 
 change by which we have fo much to lole and 
 fo little to gain. 
 
 o 
 
 Now thefe Objections, befides being too ge- 
 neral, are merely fpecious ; there being no 
 manner of danger by the innovations propofed 
 to turn fo much of education, and the courfe 
 of learning, as is already right, out of its pro- 
 per channel. The dead languages would flill 
 be learned by many at School, and afterwards, 
 by all who now both learn and are benefited by 
 them. Lefs profit would not be derived from 
 the excellent Authors in them, by reducing the 
 number of Smatterers, who rarely, as the mat- 
 ter now ftands, turn them to good account 
 even when they make fometimes a pretence of 
 looking into them after leaving Places of Edu- 
 cation. 
 
 We have already obferved, that the arts of 
 learning, like all others, when they flourifh, will 
 not draw after them fuccefsfitl followers only, 
 
 but
 
 C no ) 
 
 but many others, who, through miftake of 
 their talents, through their ill conduct or mif- 
 fortune, will be fufferers by engaging in the 
 purfuit ; but this Objection being no greater 
 in meaiure, degree, or ill coniequences, in this 
 than the other inliances, muft by no means be 
 allowed conclufive in the one, while it is made 
 light of in the other. 
 
 'o 
 
 Again, it is plain thefe kinds of Objections 
 contradict each other, fome of them implying 
 that a Plan like this would not promote Eng- 
 lifh learning ; others that, in doing fo, it would 
 carry dill farther that which already exceeds its 
 bounds. 
 
 But to proceed to another fpecies of Objecti- 
 ons, which, though often glanced at, may not yet 
 have received an anfwer fully fatisfactory. It 
 may be argued, that without, and fcarce even 
 with, an extraordinary meafure of talents, dili- 
 gence, and zeal in the Ma Iter, little more would 
 be effected than with abundance of ftir and in- 
 novating buftle, to put boys upon heedlefsly 
 conning over a number of fcraps and frag- 
 ments, little better underftood in their own than 
 in another language ; or, if taken notice of al- 
 moft at all, fcarce ever (in the firfl Clafs at leaft) 
 in connection •, if retained in the memory, yet 
 
 altogether
 
 ( II* ) 
 
 altogether undigefted, and merely floating there 
 inftead of touching the heart or fupplying mat- 
 ter of reflection, excepting only with boys of 
 extraordinary parts, and whofe adequate pro* 
 grefs neither wanted or could receive any great 
 matter of quickening from fuch infignificant 
 aids •, nay, that thefe would even be kept back 
 and retarded, in accommodation to the flower 
 advances of the Body of the Clafs. Obferve 
 then of thefe Objections, that in good part they 
 rather conclude againft the unavoidable defici- 
 ency of Education in general than this Plan of 
 it : they do not imply that the evil apprehended 
 from negligent teaching would be very peculiar 
 here, and far more prejudicial than in the pre- 
 fent Method and mod others ; or that no 
 teaching at all of any thing ought to be attempt- 
 ed, becaufe it is and ever will be exceedingly 
 worfe conducted than it might. 
 
 The Objectors forget, that the kind of Let- 
 ters, and the manner of teaching them here re- 
 commended, agree, as far as can be judged 
 from the few traces left upon record, with the 
 practice of Nations fo highly celebrated for lite« 
 rary Skill and Productions, Greece and Rome. 
 
 Neither do thefe objections imply, that the 
 little experience hitherto had of a Tuition any- 
 
 wife
 
 ( H2 ) . 
 
 wife refembling this, confirms the notion of its 
 unprofitablenefs : on the contrary, it may be 
 prefumed to be warranted, as far as can be 
 from the fcanty experience yet had of boys edu- 
 cated with a moderate degree of care in Engliih, 
 that their progreis, both in language and mat- 
 ter, under a common Matter, muft be fully fuf- 
 ficient to juftify the innovation propofed. But 
 if the few inftances here and there occurring, 
 and falling under cafual notice, are not conclu- 
 five, there muft furely be fufficient encourage- 
 ment at leaft, on the general face of the mat- 
 ter, to bring it to an iflue by a number of de- 
 cifive Experiments. 
 
 As to the Clafs of ftupid Boys, that may be 
 thought incapable of profiting by any objects or 
 forms of inftruction whatever, they will at leaft 
 be equally kept out of their Parents way and 
 of mifchief at thefe as at other Schools ; if in- 
 deed it is to be fuppofed there can pofllbly be 
 any very confiderable number of lads capable 
 of reaping no meafure of advantage from be- 
 ing early initiated in the very belt and beft- 
 adapted Authors, religious and moral, politi- 
 cal and imaginative, in their Mother-tongue. 
 
 It may be hoped, that what has been in diffe- 
 rent places preclufively urged, in the courfe of 
 
 thefe
 
 ( H3 ) 
 
 thefe papers, in oppofnion to thefe objections* 
 together with what is here alleged in fupple- 
 ment to it, will afford the Reader fatisfa&ion. 
 
 Reafons for forming the whole into a conjifient and 
 entire Plan, and giving it in Detail. 
 
 If a Writer, unknown, ventured to offer his 
 thoughts on this Subject at all, it was plain that 
 it could not be too explicitly •, there are fo 
 many of the moft illuftrious Authorities, in be- 
 half of thefe kinds of Innovation in genera!, that 
 what remained was to examine and remove the 
 fmaller obftacles, defcending into every minute 
 particular, the adjuftment of which might pof- 
 fibly clear the way for profecuting the Defign. 
 Many a valuable Scheme, by being too ge- 
 nerally ftated, and for want of having its prafti- 
 cablenefs as well as utility demonftrated by be- 
 ing given in detail, has ended at beft in a tran- 
 fient and fruitlefs approbation. If this little 
 Work then has any merit to claim, or even ex- 
 cufe for its Publication, it may lie rather per- 
 haps in this circumftance, than in the fmall 
 number of new Reafons to be found here in 
 fupport of the Syftem in general, or the new 
 manner that may have been ufed in ftating feme 
 of the old ones. 
 
 I CON-
 
 ( H4 ) 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Though the Plan may feem to be here recom- 
 mended as an univerfal one, and the effects of it 
 as fuch to have been confidered, the Writer is 
 very far from being fuch a vifionary to expect 
 more than that it may poffibly be tried (par- 
 tially at leaft) by fome few perfons. If no great 
 revolution happens, and Letters hold-on their 
 prefent courfe, he is perfuaded indeed that com- 
 mon fenfe muft needs gain ground, and the 
 ufeful parts of learning come in time to be bet- 
 ter cultivated in Schools, while the fuperfluous 
 ones are pruned away ; and if his bed endea- 
 vours have the fmalleft influence towards pro- 
 moting fo good a work, and hastening fo happy 
 an hour, he will think they have met with the 
 amplefl reward. It will be obferved, that the 
 general pofition, that Latin ought to give way 
 to Englifh and to folid Acquilition, is the main 
 point ftrenuoufly infilled upon ; the mode of its 
 doing fo, whether that here laid down, (wholly 
 or in part,) or whatever other, is but an accef- 
 fary : that this is a practicable mode, by no 
 means the only one or the very beft, is all thefe 
 papers have maintained. More or lefs of it 
 may no doubt be adopted, more or lefs Latin 
 difpenfed with ; and of the Englifh and the 
 ^ other
 
 ( U5 ) 
 
 other Articles we propofe, wholly or partly in 
 the manner here advifed, be taught in ics room. 
 Whatever coherence there may be in the parts, 
 and how ufeful foever they may all be towards 
 completing a Syftem of School-Education, (for 
 the individual Acquifuions, though great, could 
 fcarce be prefumed to exceed in value the gene- 
 ral Habit and Diipofition that would be culti- 
 vated ;) yet feparately obtaining, they would 
 any of them contribute to the main defign, 
 wherever and by whomfoever fkilfully enforced. 
 This may be tried, in fome meafure, on Chil- 
 dren of either Sex, by Parents or a Preceptor at 
 home, if they are not kept there entirely, out 
 of fchool- hours and in holidays •, by Matters 
 from thofe of the molt public and greateft 
 Schools, to the obfeureft and leaft. The Ap- 
 paratus of Books may be varied as is feen good ; 
 its three feveral parts in whole, or fome Articles 
 of their Subdivisions only ; the reft being uied 
 as now printed, or with written Supplements 
 and accommodations, with marks of a paren- 
 thefis for omiflions. 
 
 It is in the power of any Body of Men, of 
 almoft any one Man of confequence, or of a 
 fmall number of inferior rank in concert, by 
 taking proper meafures, and paying or contri- 
 buting to the pay of two or three School- Maf- 
 I 2 ters,
 
 ( n6 ) 
 
 ters, to have it tolerably, perhaps almoft com- 
 pletely tried. Any Perfons already of this oc- 
 cupation, or entering upon it, whether approv- 
 ing the defign as rational, or feeking profit by 
 Novelty, may eafily provide themfelves with 
 fufficient Books, and fuit the other circum- 
 ftances of their Schools, if not to all the other 
 teaching, at lead to the Englifh Article here, 
 or rather in effect, by Mr. Locke recom- 
 mended. 
 
 Whether a Defign of this kind, pretty gene- 
 rally adopted, in the manner it would be likely 
 to be executed, would bid fair to fow fuch feeds 
 as might grow in time to a plentiful Harveft of 
 Knowledge, and even Virtue, may not be fo 
 eafy to determine ; but of this one may be con- 
 fident, that if there be in truth any fure means, 
 general or particular, public or private, of 
 giving us that bias thefe ways, our early years 
 are to appearance fufceptible of, they mud de- 
 pend on the main grounds and principles here laid 
 down. If thefe are allowed to be right, Errors in 
 the detail will be freely given up ; but kt not 
 what may be thought chimerical in the appen^ 
 dages (thofe of them in particular that may be 
 deemed partial to the lower Ranks) depreciate 
 the general Plan. 
 
 4 h
 
 < n7 ) 
 
 It may poflibly be of fome ufe to have offered 
 a Sketch (however deficient) of the fimple means 
 of proiecuting one of the greateft of Ends ; but 
 thefe will not execute themfelves : the Activity 
 of the Magiftrate, or of private leading Indivi- 
 duals, and the zeal and affection of Parents, 
 muft concur to put and to keep them in mo- 
 tion. It is too much to expect of School-Maf- 
 ters to facrifice their eafe, and mew an alacrity 
 for thofe weighty concerns of others, which feem 
 indifferent to the Principals themfelves. 
 
 THE E N" D.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 9. line 5. Change the interrogation at the 
 
 word fc ho cl, to a colon. 
 P. 12. line 24. inftead of be acquired, read 
 
 follow. 
 P. 1 5. 1. 1 . ftrike out the comma at correfponds- 
 
 in. 
 P. 16. 1. 1. after relate-to, mkvtconjijiof. 
 P. 19. 1. 18. ftrike out the comma at entirely. 
 P. 46. 1. 7. after the word confufion : inftead of 
 
 by, read for. 
 P. 61. 1. 22. after fcholar, inftead of have, read 
 
 has. 
 P. 63. 1. 15. after either in, inftead of fome, read 
 
 P. 111. 1. 24. after nations, inftead of fo highly, 
 read the moft highly.
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
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