Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	new_a	old_a	testament_n	3,965	5	8.0680	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48896	Some thoughts concerning education	Locke, John, 1632-1704.	1693 (1693)	Wing L2762; ESTC R213714	103,512	276

to them and methinks 't is only the fault and negligence of elder People that it is not so Children are much less apt to be idle than Men and Men are to be blamed if some part of that busie Humour be not turned to useful Things which might be made usually as delightful to them as those they are employ'd in if Men would be but half so forward to lead the way as these little Apes would be to follow I imagine some wise Portuguese heretofore began this Fashion amongst the Children of his Country where I have been told as I said it is impossible to hinder the Children from learning to Read and Write And in some parts of France they teach one another to Sing and Dance from the Cradle § 145. The Letters pasted upon the sides of the Dice or Polygon were best to be of the size of those of the Folio Bible to begin with and none of them Capital Letters when once he can read what is printed in such Letters he will not long be ignorant of the great ones And in the beginning he should not be perplexed with variety with this Die also you might have a Play just like the Royal-Oak which would be another variety and play for Cherries or Apples c. § 146. Besides these Twenty other Plays might be invented depending on Letters which those who like this way may easily contrive and get made to this use if they will But the Four Dice above-mentioned I think so easy and useful that it will be hard to find any better and there will be scarce need of any other § 147. Thus much for learning to read which let him never be driven to nor chid for cheat him into it if you can but make it not a Business for him 't is better it be a Year later before he can read than that he should this way get an aversion to Learning If you have any Contests with him let it be in Matters of Moment of Truth and good Nature but lay no Task on him about ABC Use your Skill to make his Will supple and pliant to Reason teach him to love Credit and Commendation to abhor being thought ill or meanly of especially by You and his Mother and then the rest will come all easily But I think if you will do that you must not shackle and tie him up with Rules about indifferent Matters nor rebuke him for every little Fault or perhaps some that to others would seem great ones But of this I have said enough already § 148. When by these gentle ways he begins to be able to read some easy pleasant Book suited to his Capacity should be put into his Hands wherein the entertainment that he finds might draw him on and reward his Pains in Reading and yet not such as should fill his Head with perfectly useless trumpery or lay the principles of Vice and Folly To this purpose I think Aesop's Fables the best which being Stories apt to delight and entertain a Child may yet afford useful Reflections to a grown Man And if his Memory retain them all his life after he will not repent to find them there amongst his manly Thoughts and serious Business If his Aesop has Pictures in it it will entertain him much the better and encourage him to read when it carries the increase of Knowledge with it For such visible Objects Children hear talked of in vain and without any satisfaction whilst they have no Idea's of them those Idea's being not to be had from Sounds but either the things themselves or their Pictures And therefore I think as soon as he begins to spell as many Pictures of Animals should be got him as can be found with the printed names to them which at the same time will invite him to read and afford him Matter of Enquiry and Knowledge Raynard the Fox is another Book I think may be made use of to the same purpose And if those about him will talk to him often about the Stories he has read and hear him tell them it will besides other Advantages add Incouragement and delight to his Reading when he finds there is some use and pleasure in it which in the ordinary Method I think Learners do not till late and so take Books only for fashionable amuzements or impertinent troubles good for nothing § 149. The Lord's Prayer the Creeds and Ten Commandments 't is necessary he should learn perfectly by heart but I think not by reading them himself in his Primer but by some-body's repeating them to him even before he can read But learning by heart and learning to read should not I think be mixed and so one made to clog the other But his learning to read should be made as little trouble or business to him as might be What other Books there are in English of the kind of those above-mentioned fit to engage the liking of Children and tempt them to read I do not know But am apt to think that Children being generally delivered over to the Method of Schools where the fear of the Rod is to inforce and not any pleasure of the Imployment to invite them to learn this sort of useful Books amongst the number of silly ones that are of all sorts have yet had the fate to be neglected and nothing that I know has been consider'd of this kind out of the ordinary Road of the Horn-Book Primer Psalter Testament and Bible § 150. As for the Bible which Children are usually imploy'd in to exercise and improve their Talent in Reading I think the promiscuous reading of it through by Chapters as they lie in order is so far from being of any Advantage to Children either for the perfecting their Reading or principling their Religion that perhaps a worse could not be found For what Pleasure or Incouragement can it be to a Child to exercise himself in reading those Parts of a Book where he understands nothing And how little are the Law of Moses the Song of Solomon the Prophecies in the Old and the Epistles and Apocalypse in the New Testament suited to a Child's Capacity And though the History of the Evangelists and the Acts have something easier yet taken altogether it is very disproportionate to the understanding of Childhood I grant that the Principles of Religion are to be drawn from thence and in the Words of the Scripture yet none should be propos'd to a Child but such as are suired to a Child's Capacity and Notions But 't is far from this to read through the whole Bible and that for reading's sake And what an odd jumble of Thoughts must a Child have in his Head if he have any at all such as he should have concerning Religion who in his tender Age reads all the Parts of the Bible indifferently as the Word of God without any other distinction I am apt to think that this in some Men has been the very Reason why they never had clear and distinct Thoughts of it all