alfo to improve the ufe of it farther in Drawing, a Thing very ufeful to a Gentle man in feveral Occafions; but especially if he travel, as that which helps a Man of ten to exprefs, in a few Lines well put together, what a whole Sheet of Paper in Writing would not be able to represent and make intelligible. How many Buildings may a Man fee, how many Machines and Habits meet with, the Idea's whereof would be afily retain'd and communicated by a little Škill in Drawing; which being committed to Words are in Danger to be loft, or at best but ill retained in the most exact Defcriptions? I do not mean that I would have your Son a perfect Painter; to be that to any tolerable Degree will require more Time than a young Gentleman can fpare from his other Improvements of greater Moment. But fo much Infight into PerSpective and Skill in Drawing, as will enable him to reprefent tolerably on Paper any thing he fees, except Faces, may, I think, be got in a little time, efpecially if he have a Genius to it; but where that is wanting, unless it be in things abfolutely neceffary, it is better to let him pafs them by quietly, than to vex him about them to no Purpofe: And therefore in this, as in all other things not abfolutely neceffary, the Rule holds, Nihil invita Minerva. T1. Short 1. Short-band, an Art, as I band have been told, known only in Eng land, may perhaps be thought worth the Learning, both for Difpatch in what Men write for their own Memory, and Concealment of what they would not have lie open to every Eye. For he that has once learn'd any Sort of Character, may eafily vary it to his own private Ufe or Fancy, and with more Contraction fuited to the Bufinefs he would employ it in. Mr. Rich's, the best contriv'd of any I have feen, may, as I think, by one who knows and confiders Grammar well, be made much eafier and fhorter. But for the learning; this compendious Way of Writing, there will be no Need haftily to look out a Mafter; it will be early enough when any convenient Opportunity offers it felf at any Time after his Hand is well fettl'd in fair and quick Writing. For Boys have but -little ufe of Short-band, and should by no means practife it till they write perfectly well, and have throughly fixed the Habit of doing fo. §. 162. As foon as he can fpeak French English, 'tis time for him to learn fome other Language: This no Body doubts of, when French is propos'd. And the Reafon is, becaufe People are accuftomed to the right Way of teaching that Language, which is by talking it into Children in conftant Converfation, and not by Grammatical Grammatical Rules. The Latin Tongue would easily be taught the fame Way, if his Tutor, being conftantly with him, would talk nothing elfe to him, and make him anfwer ftill in the fame Language. But because French is a living Language, and to be used more in fpeaking, that fhould be firft learned that the yet pliant Organs of Speech might be accuftomed to a due Formation of thofe Sounds, and he get the Habit of pronouncing French well, which is the harder to be done the longer it is delay'd." §. 163. When he can speak and read French well, which in this Latin. Method is ufually in a Year or Two he thould proceed to Latin, which 'tis a Wonder Parents, when they have had the Experiment in French, fhould not think ought to be learn'd the fame Way by talk ing and reading. Only Care is to be taken whilft he is learning thefe foreign Langua ges, by fpeaking and reading nothing elfe with his Tutor, that he do not forget to read English, which may be preferved by his Mother, or fome Body elfe, hearing him read fome chofen Parts of the Scripture, or other English Book, every Day. §. 164. Latin I look upon as abfolutely neceflary to a Gentleman; and indeed Cuftom, which prevails over every thing, has made it fo much a Part of Education, that even thofe Children are whipp'd to it, and made spend many Hours of their precious time uneafily in Latin, who, after they are once gone from School are never to have more to do with it as long as they live. Can there be any thing more ridiculous, than that a Father fhould wafte his own Money, and his Son's time, in fetting him to learn the Roman Language, when at the fame time he defigns him for a Trade, wherein he having no Ufe of Latin, fails not to forget that little which he brought from School, and which 'tis Ten to One he abhors for the ill Ufage it procur'd him? Could it be believ'd, unlefs we had everywhere amongst us Examples of it, that a Child fhould be forced to learn the Rudiments of a Language which he is never to ufe in the Courfe of Life that he is defigned to, and neglect all the while the writing a good Hand, and cafting Account, which are of great Advantage in all Conditions of Life, and to moft Trades indifpenfibly neceffary? But though thefe Qualifications, requifite to Trade and Commerce and the Bufinefs of the World, are feldom or ne ver to be had at Grammar Schools, yet thither, not only Gentlemen fend their younger Sons, intended for Trades, but even Tradefmen and Farmers fail not to fend their Children though they have neither Intention nor Ability to make them Scholars. If you ask them why they do this they think it as ftrange a Question as if you fhould ask them, why they go to Church. Cuftom Custom ferves for Reason, and has, to thofe who take it for Reafon, fo confecrated this Method, that it is almoft Religioufly obferved by them, and they stick to it, as if their Children had fcarce an Orthodox Education, unless they learn'd Lilly's Graminar. S. 165. But how neceffary foever Latin be to fome, and is thought to be to others, to whom it is of no manner of Ufe or Service; yet the ordinary way of Learning it in a Grammar-School is that, which having had thoughts about, I cannot be forward to encourage. The Reafons against it are fo evident, and cogent, that they have prevailed with fome intelligent Perfons, to quit the ordinary Road, not without Succefs, though the Method made ufe of was not exactly which I imagine the eafieft, and in fhort is this. To trouble the Child with no Grammar at all, but to have Latin, as English has been, without the Perplexity of Rules, talked into him, for if you will confider it, Latin is no more unknown to a Child, when he comes into the World, than English: And yet he learns English without Mafter, Rule, or Grammar; and fo might be Latin too, as Tully did, if he had fome Body always to talk to him in this Language. And when we fo often fee a French Woman teach an English Girl to fpeak and read French perfectly in a Year or Two, without any Rule of Grammar, or any thing elfe but pratling to her, I cannot but L 2 wonder |