THE

FIRST BOOK,

Teaching the

Bringing up of Youth.

A

Fter the Child hath learned perfectly the eight parts of Speech, let him then learn the right joyning together of Subftantives with Adjectives, the Noun with the Verb, the Relative with the Antecedent. And in learning farther his Syntaxis, by mine Advice, he fhall not ufe the common Order in common Schools, for making of Latines: Whereby the Child commonly learneth, first, an evil Choice of words, (and (*) right Choice of words, faith Cæfar, is the foundation of Eloquence); then, a wrong placing of words; and laftly, an ill framing of the Sentence, with a perverfe judgement, both of words and fentences. These Faults, taking once root in youth, be never, or hardly, pluckt away

وو

وو

3.

(*) Cicero de claris Orat. Se&. 72. Pag, 165. Gronov. Edit. in 4to. Quinetiam in maximis occupationibus cum ad te ipfum (inquit ad me intuens) de ratione Latine loquendi accuratiffimè fcripferit; primoq; in libro dixerit, Verborum delectum, originem effe eloquentia.

in

Making of in age. Moreover, there is no one thing, Latines that hath more, either dulled the wits, or Children, taken away the will of children from

marreth

"

Learning, than the care they have, to fatisfy their Mafters, in making of Latines. For the Scholar is commonly beat for the making, when the Mafter were more worthy to be beat for the mending, or rather marring of the fame; the Mafter many times being as ignorant as the Child, what to fay properly and fitly to the mat

ter.

Two Schoolmafters have fet forth in

print, either of them a book of fuch kind Horman. of Latines, (*) Horman and Whittington. Whit- A Child fhall learn of the better of them, tington. that which another day, if he be wife and

come to judgment, he must be fain to unlearn again.

There is a way touched in the (†) firft. book of Cicero de Oratore, which wifely brought into Schools, truly taught, and conftantly used, would not only take wholly away this butcherly fear in making of. Latines, but would alfo with ease and pleafure, and in fhort time, as I know by good Experience, work a true choice and plac

(*) I have formerly feen Mr. Horman's Book, who was Mafter of Eaton School. The Book it felf could be of no great ufe, for, as I remember, 'twas only a Collection of fingle Sentences, without Order 3 or Method, put into Latine.

(t) The Paffage here referr'd to, is in Tully's first Book de Orat. P. 92. Edit. Gron. Poftea mihi placuit, eoq; fum ufus adolefcens, ut fummorum' oratorum Græcas orationes explicarem. Quibus lectis hoc affequebar, ut, cum ea, quæ legerem Græce, Latine redderem, non folum optimis verbis uterer, & tamen ufitatis, fed etiam exprimerem quædam verba imitando, quæ nova noftris effent, dummodo effent idonea.

ing

ing of Words, a right ordering, of Sentences, an eafy understanding of the Tongue, a readiness to speak, a Facility to write, a true Judgment both of his own and other mens doings, what Tongue foever he doth use.

The way is this. After the three Concordances learned, as I touched before, let the Mafter read unto him the Epiftles of Cicero, gathered together, and chofen out by Sturmius, for the Capacity of Children. Firft, let him teach the Child chearfully The Order, and plainly the cause and matter of the Let-of teaching, ter; then, let him conftrue it înto English, fo oft, as the Child may easily carry away the understanding of it; laftly, parfe it o ver perfectly. This done thus, let the Child, by and by, both conftrue and parfe it over again; fo that it may appear, that the Child doubreth in nothing that his Mafter taught him before. After this, the Child muft take a paper Book, and fitting in fome place, where no Man fhall prompt by himself, let him tranflate into English his former Leffon. Then fhewing Two paper it to his Mafter, let the Mafter take from Books. him his Latin Book,and pausing an Hour at the leaft, then let the child tranflate his own English into Latin again in another paper Book. When the Child bringeth it turned into Latin, the Mafter muft compare it with Tully's book, and lay them both together; and where the Child doth well, either in chufing or true placing Tully's words, let the Mafter praise him, and fay, Here you learn by do well. For, I affure you, there is no is fuch praise.

him,

B

Children

" Such Whetstone to sharpen a good Wit, and encourage a Will to learning, as is Praife....

But if the Child mifs, either in forgetting a word, or in changing a good with a worfe, or mifordering the Sentence, I would not have the Mafter either frown or chide with him, if the Child have done his Diligence, and ufed no Truandship Gentleness therein. For I know by good Experience, in teach that a Child fhall take more profit of two ing.

faults gently warned of, than of four things rightly hit; for then the Mafter fhall have good Occafion to fay unto him,,, Tul,,ly would have used such a Word, not this

وو

Tully would have placed this Word here, not there; would have used this Cafe, this Number, this Perfon, this Degree, this Gender; He would have used this Mood, this Tenfe, this Simple rather than this Compound; this Adverb here, not there; He would have. ended the Sentence with this Verb, not with that Noun or Participle, &c.

In thefe few Lines, I have wrapped up the moft tedious part of Grammar, and alfo the Ground of almost all the Rules, that are fo bufily taught by the Master, and fo hardly learned by the Scholar in all common Schools; which after this fort, the Mafter fhall teach without all Error, and the Scholar fhall learn without great Pain; the Mafter being led by fo fure a guide and the Scholar being brought into fo plain and eafy a way. And therefore we do not contemn Rules, but we gladly teach Rules, and teach them more plainly, fenfibly, and orderly, than they be commonly taught in common Schools. For when the

Master