it should be how fundamentall the Mother tongue is what our care thereabout VVEE have not yet begun with the Child but now setting upon it if it be thought a fitting time When is that So soone as the Child can exercise his inward faculties hath any strength there then we must begin and well husband the time Now the Child will take in fast enough like a faire Table-bookâ— wherein is nothing yet but presently there will be something written which we cannot so easily blot out It is the Masters wisdome and for that he shall be counted an understanding man not to leave the child to his choyse For now and so we shall know the nick of time the Child can distinctly observe that which is before his eyes and can call it by its name The Child hath Arithmetick too what a jolly fellow is this I must insert words of incouragement that promoteth greatly the little thing he can skill of Greek hee can tell you how many fingers hee hath upon the one hand then he can number I hope He can put the other five to them and tell what all amounts to then he can adde he can take away the one hand and tell you how many remaines The best Accountant in the towne cannot answer more punctually then wee will grant he can substract yes more yet is his skil for he can tel you what twice 5. is so he can multiply And ten to one if these ten were ten Apples he would divide them by 2. to each hand even parcels and so keepe all for himselfe otherwise and in such cases hee careth not for division though he understands it for his use very well Poore Child hee hath discovered himselfe too far for now his skill is so well knowne hee must to Schoole to learne his Mother-tongue the very next Munday And there we suppose hee is where the Mistresse helps to hold the book with one hand and if it be as I have seen a little twigge in the other which the childe markes very earnestly as wee would have it doe the lesson Here is a change now and that will be pleasing for some houres The next weeke the childe will tell you when is the next Holy-day for that is all hee heard at Church and all he lookes for he knowes where for he findes it to be a red letter And for the Schoole hee hath no minde to it by his going thither and returning thence we perceive well enough that no man loves a prison worfe never looks he to see a mery day so long as he is pent up there Why because the Schoole indeed is but a prison to his body and no way is taken to enlarge his minde What a coyle is there to make him pronounce false and because hee cannot readily doe so for very nature teacheth otherwise perhaps hee feeles the twigge too and his sense is so quick at that point that he cannot relish the Schoole He heares also of Vowels and Consonants What are they Latine poore little Englishman he cannot skill of that Then hee must put these together and spell What is that Greeke indeed so it is to the childe and to the Teacher too Certaine it is the child understands more of his own tongue in one moneth from his Nurse after he can speak articulately then he gains from a Schoole in three in any language which clearly sheweth of what force nature is specially when a little helpt by Art and made mighty by use The one and the other even all three gives us great accommodation here Nature gives us the precognition Art Skill to use it Vse makes it familiar It must not be expected here that I should give the precognition to every thing that I would have learnt thereby that were a dead work Time and place will instruct much and the very thing in hand This I say again we must make it a preparatory to the understanding of every thing so preventing the toyle of conceiving the same And we must finde a precognition or make it as the great Commander said when his way was blockt up before him And this nature shewes that a vowell makes a sound alone perfect of it selfe The Consonant not without a Vowell being indeed of it selfe but the very essay and offer of the tongue and no more And if c g and t might but know their power once and keep it ever u and v distinct in figure but more in sound if I say it were observed it would save us much trouble in afterproceeding so also if the syllable were distinctly framed according to the plaine rules for spelling so pronounced specially the last letter For the pauses or stops our breathing will help us there but the observation thereof is the chiefest part in good reading I confesse my thoughts are not ripened here if they were I would not blot paper with them though it is no disparagement to goe even so low for the Mother-tongue is the foundation of all nay indeed wee have a necessity so to doe every day else wee cannot goe forward orderly the ground-work of the childs entry being so rotten underneath But I may spare my paines oâ— writing upon this Elementary point foâ— I finde a short paper for direction this way from a man of long experience in higher matters gained by travell and and otherwayes l M. Carew And a large tractate there is also treating on the very same subject of more large use M. Hodges And surely great need of all this for the matter of the elementary the Horn-book though it be small in shew yet it is great for processe and for the manner of handling the child of great moment also to hearten him on for afterwards And therefore it would promote the common good not a little if an able man had the ordering the child at this first staire or step for a firme ground here at this low point raiseth the work mightily and makes all stand firme But it is supposed the Master must have answerable pay a good encouragement to come down so low when he shall perceive that reward shal rise up This will be thought upon when Praemia conatum extimulant De Aug li 2. times mend and the day cleares up then our judgement and fore-sight will cleare up too In the meane time I know what will not be done a good Scholar will not come down so low as the first elementary and to so low a recompence also it shall bee left to the meanest and therefore to the worst And there I leave it also even in the Mistresse her hands for there is no remedy And so I come to that work which more properly belongs unto the Master CHAP. VI. Necessary the childe should bee taught to write Objections against it answered It helps the understanding very much but as it is commonly abused hurts more thâ—n it helps WEE are making way now toward Grammar learning And what if I set down the accommodation
nay past all doubt so it is It is the complaint of a learned Commentator on Isocrates and certainly he was right If you shall labour to condescend to your Scholars Hier. Wolfius capacity facilitating the way making it very easie if you doe make all cleare before him then will the boy prove a very slug lazy as may be His master may doe all hee will doe nothing at all or so carelesly that nothing comes of it a In cllectio recta non ignavis sed dilâ—gentibus sese offert at que dat Scal. Exer. 307. Sect. Doubtlesse the best Masters are troubled hereat and it is the great arrest of their endeavours as sloth is the Canker of the parts I am upon the Irish disease I know how well enough it is naturalized amongst us Idlenesse is the common disease of City and Country as dangerous and destroying too It makes Master and Scholar all unprofitable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrys in Gen. 2. gifts parts graces It spoyles all Worse then a Moth it eates great holes in the web of our life Nay more unhappy then an Ape or Iackdaw I speake to the Childs capacity it steales from us our very jewels and besides it is very mischievous also Now that wee have met with this block in our way it shall beare all the blame which is unjustly cast upon the Master and besides it shall doe us some little service for it shall helpe us to cleare an objeetion Some there are that call former times to their succours and so make a party against the present course the most naturall Method that can bee thought of and thus they object Obj. The old Method in former times hath produced as good Scholars nay better then that ye call the newest wee doe not call it so wee say and make good what wee say it is the oldest and so exact a Method can doe now Sol. Wee will gratifie them so farre now as to grant this There were as good Scholars formerly as now perhaps better too for my part I verily beleeve it There is an invincible reason for it The old discipline is gone nay that which was but 36. years agoe we have it not now The boy is grown idle and lazy the Parent likes it well But if the old discipline which so crossed Nature and a new method which is they will call it so whether wee will or no though according to Nature if these did meet and close each with other then I know what would bee wee should have very good Scholars now though wee love not comparisons much good would bee done in a little time whereas little is done now in much time I am sure the Objection is answered Now the Parent may heare how he may be mistaken though he hath committed his Child to an honest able man hee must be both hee expects now his Child will thrive and prove a good Scholar and all very quickly for he knowes his Childs abilities are good and the Master faithfull hee hopes what should hinder why his Childe should not prove a good Man and a good Scholar both together A happy proceeding Amen God grant it prove so even so Amen I must tell the Parent now what blocks we finde in the way which hinder progresse mightily and if he will not put to both his shoulders for the removing of them he will fall infinitely short of what he hopes to see But if he will joyne his hand to the work heartily walking by the level of right reason and according to his rule he may finde his hopes and reap comfort all in their season 1. First then he must catechize his childe drop instructions into him whet them upon him morning noone and night that is the Scriptures Method Deut. 6. 7. and Rule These are the seasons for our precognitions spoke of and explained before let that be markt Now if thus the Parent doth not what he possibly can doe for I say again these are the seasons and one more when he walketh by the way let him beleeve me this once a man of some experience here The thing will not be done when the time comes it is more then a doubt he will not finde his hope in his hand If he abate so much as an inch of his proper duty and endeavour touching his childe he must abate also more then an ace of his expectation 2. The boy and girle too hath naturally a lazy sluggish humour Let him doe what he will he will doe just nothing or as good as nothing or worse then nothing he will be idle all the day long and idlenesse we have heard what that will doe rather what it will undoe The Parent must purge out this bad humour what is possible and the sooner the better Let the child rather pick sticks or gather wooll then stand idle If the Parent lookes not to this and doth as hath been said I can assure him the Master cannot for he knowes it is vaine labour to countercheck that which is countenanced and fostered at home The Master doth but his owne task and that hath been compared long sâ—nce to the Mid-wives worke We understand that well enough for our use Then we understand the Masters work The Master findes that in the childe which he works upon he doth not put it there he findes wit and abilities and nature forward to put all forth and now the Master as the Midwife promotes exceedingly But if nature be in a Lethargy lazinesse is such a disease then the Masters may sleep too and doe as much good as talk to a lazy boy I doe not say a dull boy he never troubles me he will doe well enough for he mindes what he doth I say a lazy boy the boy must doe his endeavour else we are at a stand Why it is the law of nature man must put forth his endeavours if he meanes to live God gives us corn we must make it bread the grape we must make it wine wooll we must make it cloth wood and stones we must build the house Still God sheweth us by His works in nature That mans labour must concurre and meet with His of Providence It is just so here betwixt the Master and the Scholar But I am of the same minde I was The more the Maser doth the lesse the Scholar will doe if after the common manner Nay I cannot see with reason how it should be otherwise For the easie gaining of a thing makes us all slack This extundere the pursuit after a thing wich difficulty in attaining the same whets our endeavour and sweetneth it when we have it That I cry after and lift up my voyce for That I seek as silver and search for as hid Treasures that that is a treasure indeed and so will be accounted of They say the flesh of those Fowles is sweetest which have no other meat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Cl Alex. str 2. p. 263. but what
be distinctly observed and no subtilty at all but with this direction That he Mus â— Librâ—i Lapiâ—â— is shall find these Radicall letters now the word is easie in the first or second case of the Noune the second never failes nor the first case in the first fourth fifth Declension and then the Laud â— Laudav i Laudaâ—â— Iung o lunx i lunâ—tu same all along but in the Verbe three Cardinals and the Radicals more or lesse and most times different in all The same to be observed in the Greeke but more Cardinals wee meane by a Cardinall such a Tense which is as it were the hinge on which the Verbe is turned or where-from all the Tenses are framed or derived And this is as proper to the Latine and Greek as to the Hebrew it is every whit onely with this distinction These servants these servile letters are still at the end of the Latine and Greek word except in the Tense wherein the first fyllable is doubled in the Hebrew they are in the beginning middle and end but more stayed not so fleeting 3. All this service the childs pen hath made easie and familiar to him and more service it must doe then this for the English must be written anent the Musa A Song A Song Musa So in the Verb. Latine after first then before and in the same manner he must be examined and hereof the child shall quickly see full use full indeed for hereby he hath attained that which in the study of language we ayme at even these two things To understand others and to expresse our selves And this the child must practice in simple words first before he can effect it in sentences that being the order of nature to proceed a simplicibus ad composita materialls first and then composition a putting them together And so expressing one language by the other in declining and examining of words faire way is made for Syntax the formet for the construing the later for the making of Latin For all words in any one language of the same Accidents alwayes have the same expressions in another language in respect of those accidents So that in construing having the signification the childe cannot faile in the adsignification and in making Latine having the word he will not faile in the accident Where we may note by the way That the hardest matter and whereat we stick is the supplying the child in words what is Latine for this and that for having the Accidents of five and foure he hath them in all My meaning is The child in his way never sticks at the adsignification of his word as if ranarum be the word he will say of but he may not know that rana is a frogge so if the word be ambichant he knows his Analogie as audiebant they did and there stops Here use must help us and that wherein we are so wanting labour I know no other help where-from to supply us But the child goes on in true method for by the same way he pronounceth his word right also seeing the Analogie and Agreement betwixt them their Dorivation Composition all three 4. But here we goe very leisurely as nature doth and will if we leap and skip now we shall fall back again presently The childe must goe very gradually here specially at the first steps as up a paire of staires every step gains a degree of light which he puts out presently if he hastens up and ascends but to ruine My plaine meaning is this The child must make a stand at his first word till he well understands the Accidents thereof for there comes in the light which cleares the way to all the rest But if the Master will hasten the childe to the next step before he sees his standing on the first the child doth but step up and fall downe learne and unlearn all along for certain it is there is a gradation in Grammar so in all Arts as up a paire of staires a naturall order and ascent which if we break we are sure to fall back we may seemingly move onward but promote the child never a whit our labour is rather in circle then in progression The child would on apace and that pleaseth the Parent for it is not in their Philosophy to consider that examples are rules which is our Position all along And that in learning them by tale we rather Multiply then Number for though we seeme in our stand but to make Cyphers here yet we gaine places now more then two or three so making one word stand for more then a thousand I will briefly set down the manner how So soone as we are exact in three Declensions we must be exact all along for one mistake in the beginning multiplies in our proceeding so soone I say as we have perfected the three Declensions with all their Accidences wetake two Adjectives indeed for some considerable differences to a Novice we take foure ater albus not bonus being irregular audax dulcis and in these two we have declined all Adjectives whether Noune Pronoune or Participle and compared them exactly well The example makes the impression and from the particular the child is able to conclude the Generall rule by the help of his Master questioning the childe so workin up the understanding a The same is to bee done in a Verb And this is to Catechize indeed be it in high matters or in low for hereby knowledge is distilled or dropped into the minde by the greatest ease that can be imagined to the Teacher and Learner both I know full well That Custome the Universall Monarch or King of the world faith Herodot would beare down this with the impetuousnesse of its streame but it shall be found for all that as firme as the earth if so be that time which makes all wise that observe it and experience may be suffered to give in their verdict b Vere dictum A true rcport A report of the Truth â—ort scue of the Law Chap. 26. The childe hath spent some time in learning the Grammar without book What hath he gained Not the knowledge of the Vocative Case in the second Declension when the Nominative endeth in us nor how many Cases are alike when the Gender is Neuter though he hath said the rule twenty times nor knowes he from what Tense or Person the Praeterperfect Tense is framed so experience tells us though As in presenti is as familiar with him as his bread and butter But now let him fixe upon the examples here and work out the rule which by the help of his Master he will very quickly doe then he understands it and it is under safe lock and key ready for his use alwaies I could cleare very well how naturall the progresse is from the sense to the understanding thence to the memory how unnaturall and retrograde the other way is But I have said enough to him that will understand I will adde but
how he liked it which his friend did then told him It was no bad wine At which words Est illnd haud malum pene cum indignaâ—ione c. Cama vita Mes p. 62. Melancton was very angry in him passion quickly to shewed it selfe but hee was more quick to shew his command over it S. said he Good wine must have better commendations then so you should have said It is very good And now it is very easie to apply And I hope from henceforward the child will say Dry bread is good and hard cheese and meate very good though there be no other sawce but what he carrieth with him in the tip of his tongue 6. One thing more while I think of it for I am in such a throng that I cannot get out He that hath all good from Gods hands wee will conclude him to be a mercifull man a man that doth much good to others What hath God bestowed richly upon any man hath hee filled his hand and his mouth and his coffers and his barns with good things And is this man a niggard is he close handed like a fountaine sealed up doth he no good with all this good The childe will cry shame upon him For he hath concluded that such a mans practise is against the voyce of the Creatures and the Law of heaven The childe shall heare again his example which is so fresh being mentioned but now Melancton had plenty as he called plenty a house full of good things and see how good he was to every one that needed It is observed of him that he never denied a poore mans request if he spake supplications then did Melanotons lips and fingers ends drop mercy like the first drops from a full hony-combe that is the sweetest a Me quod per se fluit maxine lauda lie Plin. lib. 11. c. 15. Vxor liberi c. Cam. vit Mel. p. 38. Nay this is reported of him too He gave almes his wife gave almes and by allowance from both so did the children and servants also Now it was as it should be He by Gods favour had many good things he did good to many nay to all or such was his desire and Vniversos inquit cupio i old p. 41. this is our duty Now we have given the Creatures their due man his due we will labour to give God His due also for by this time the child seeth better how he stands engaged God hath given all these as servants to man all minister to him nay the Angels also for so I should have said how should this engage his heart to serve his Lord what all for him poore little creature there is not such adiminutive in the world For the Nations are but as a drop of the bucket or small dust of the ballance b Esay 40. 15. What is man then who beares out himselfe So little comparatively that you cannot see him for he is nothing For this nothing hath God created all things even to serve this little little Master whom they call Lord and they say well But this doth wonderfully engage to duty Hath God so honoured him The Sun for him Moone for him Ayre for him c. for so I should goe over all All for him how reasonable a thing is it that he should be all for his God that he should serve Him feare Him so it should be nay so it must be if man looks that the creatures should serve him He must serve his Lord else very likely the Creatures will rebell and rise up against their Lord they will obey and awe him while hee keeps himselfe as an obedient servant to his great Master for so we know the Viper the Lyon the fire did those hurtfull those devouring Creatures But if this Man be a Rebell against his God the weakest and most contemptible creatures may doe as they have done rise up against man and he shall fall before them because hee is fallen from the service of his God For thus it hath been A gnat a flie an haire a crum have choked him frogges mice have annoyed him toads rats have eat him up so have lice also so weake a Childs Patrimony Preface p. 41. thing is man when he forsakes the God of his strength the rock of his salvation Man must serve his Creator no doubt of that so he doth I hope for who doth not serve God I am perswaded nay no matter what I am perswaded of we know That the Heathen did serve God they glorified Him too The sacred Writ gives cleare intimation hereof They knew God and they glorified Him but here they fell short as we doe by thousands in the manner and that is all in Gods service They glorisied Him but not as God That but Rom. 1. 21. and not as corrupted all their service so now we must have a reasonable service such a service as reason tells us is suitable to God our Master in heaven Who created all things to serve His Glory as the chiese end and man in subordination thereto we must serve Him as God That service which will passe as currant money betwixt me and my Governor yet I will addresse my selfe with care and reverence in my service before him will bee too light in the ballance when wee come before God Bringest thou such a service to Mee Goe offer it to thy Governor who hath his breath in his nostrils as thou hast see whether he will accept of thy person or thy service for blinde and lame it is and if he will not a man as thou art then venture not to come before Me with such a service for in My hand is thy breath and all thy wayes I am God as a God I must be served and then thou glorifiest mee Wee have this more then intimated in the first of Malachi Veâ—se 8. I have often thought of the Text and this I will say There is not any in all the sacred Writ which hath a better edge or sharper point to pierce the side of him or her so to awaken them when they are addressing themselves in their service before God we must serve Him as God not as we serve our Governour wee leave the waight of this service upon that Chapter and the first to the Ramanes verse 21. All the Creatures serve man he must serve God but as God as the great Monarch our Master in Heaven King of Kings and Lord of Lords In that manner man must serve God as God 2. He must be thankfull to Him also Hath he all things to use Is his Lord so bountifull to him doth he provide for his necessity for his delight also this moved a Heathen c Vsque ad deâ—â—â—ias amamur S. n. le Benef. lib. â— Lâ—p 5. Man must be thankfull and chearfull in thanksgiving for so it is expected else hee may reade what followes d Deut. 28. 47 48. I debated upon this large Theame in a fitting place I