( MILTON'S TRACTATE ON EDUCATION, SonDon: C. J. CLAY AND SONS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AVE MARIA LANE. : DEIGHTON, BELL, AND CO. !tpjig: F. A. BROCKHAUS. litt mts. MILTON'S TRACTATE ON EDUCATION. A FACSIMILE REPRINT FROM THE EDITION OF 1673. EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY OSCAR BROWNING, M.A. FELLOW AND LECTURER OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND FORMERLY ASSISTANT MASTER AT ETON COLLEGE. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 1890 \AH Rights resei~ved.\ PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AND SONS, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. TO JAMES WARD, FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED. PREFACE. MILTON'S Tractate on Education has been a favourite study of mine for five and twenty years. When I first went as an assistant master to a large public school, about the time when the Public Schools Commission was beginning to sit, it occurred to me as an ardent educational reformer, that a cheap reprint of Milton's Tractate would have a good effect in clearing the thoughts and opinions of my colleagues and others on the pressing question of the day. I had opened negotiations with the school bookseller for executing a reprint which I intended to scatter broadcast in pamphlet form through the public schools of England. My theories received a rude viii PREFACE. shock. One of the senior masters at my school set Milton as a subject for a Latin theme to his division, and told his boys that they were to prove that Milton, like Burke, went mad in his old age. I had never heard of this idea before, and I asked the master on what grounds it rested. He replied, "Did he not write a crack-brained book about education in his old age?" Milton was by no means in his old age when he wrote the Tractate, but that did not matter. I concluded that my scheme would be useless, and gave it up. I am now able to carry out the design formed so long ago, under more favourable auspices. Milton's Tractate is a subject set in the Teachers' Certificate Examination of the University of Cambridge for the present year. As far as I am aware, no separate reprint of the work exists, and it therefore became necessary to prepare one. The present edition is an exact facsimile of the edition of 1673, published in Milton's PREFACE. ix lifetime. 1 have carried the accuracy of the facsimile so far as even to reproduce Milton's misprints. I have done this because it would have in some cases spoilt the appearance and the arrangement of the pages to have cor- rected them, while in no case are they likely to cause any difficulty to the reader. They are all, I believe, mentioned in the notes. The notes have been confined to what ap- peared to be necessary for the explanation of the text. I have edited the work as a schoolmaster, and not as a philological student of the English language. By the kindness of Messrs C. K. Paul, Trench and Co. I am able to reprint as an Introduction the account which I had given of Milton's Trac- tate in the sixth chapter of my Introduction to the History of Educational Theories 1 . 1 An Introduction to the History of Educational Theories, by Oscar Browning, M.A. London : Kegan Paul, Trench and Co. 32? . INTRODUCTION, THE tractate of John Milton is written in the form of a letter to Mr Samuel Hartlib, the son of a Polish merchant who resided mainly in London. He was a friend of every new discovery which seemed likely to advance the happiness of the hu- man race. He took great interest in science, in the union of the Protestant Churches, and above all in education. He published in 1651, 'Proposi- tions for the Erecting of a College of Husbandry Learning,' or, in modern phraseology, an agricultu- ral college, in which he proposed that apprentices, received at the age of fifteen, should after seven years' instruction receive money to set themselves up in a farm, and a yearly payment for four years. Also in 1647, Sir William Petty, the founder of the Lansdowne family, wrote to Mr Hartlib a letter containing a scheme for a trade or industrial school, a grand plan which we may possibly see realised in our own day by the establishment of a techno- logical university in London. Sir William Petty says, ' All apprentices might learn the theory ot xii INTRODUCTION. their trades before they are bound to a master, and consequently be exempted from the tedium of a seven years' bondage, and having spent but about three years with a master, may spend the other four in travelling to learn breeding and the perfec- tion of their trades.' To the same category belongs Cowley's scheme of a philosophical college, pub- lished in 1 66 1, the school part of which bears so much resemblance to Milton's scheme as to make it certain that Cowley in writing it must have had the former in his mind. Although these plans were never carried out, being indeed impossible in the troubled times of the Commonwealth and ill suited to the frivolous temper of the Restoration, they shew us plainly enough the desire which was fer- menting in men's minds for a better and more liberal education. Had they met with more success the English might have been by this time the best educated nation in Europe. It was natural that Hartlib should have been specially attracted by the writings of Comenius, the great Moravian teacher, who announced to his age a discovery as important as that of Bacon, heralded with the same confidence, and promising as great results. We have seen that one of the most important points on which Comenius insists is the simultaneous teaching of words and things. Endless time had been spent on the mere routine of language why not at least attempt to utilise this labour, and while the drudgery of words and sentences is proceeding, take care that what is INTRODUCTION. xiii learnt is worth remembering for itself. We shall find these same lines of thought running through Milton's tractate. Writing to Mr Hartlib, he proceeds to set down * that voluntary idea, which hath long in silence presented itself to me, of a better education in extent and comprehension far more large, and yet of time far shorter and of attainment far more certain than have yet been in practice.' He asks his friend 'to accept these few observations which have flowered off, and are as it were the burnishings of many studious and contemplative years altogether spent in the search of civil and religious knowledge, and since it pleased you so well in the relating, I here give you them to dispose of.' Milton begins by the principle that the end of learning is to repair the sins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright ; and, because God can only be known in His works, we must by the knowledge of sensible things arrive gradually at the contemplation of the insensible and invisible. Now we must begin with language ; but language is only the instrument conveying to us things useful to be known. No man can be called learned who does not know the solid things in languages as well as the languages themselves. Here we see asserted the important principle that words and things must go together, and that ^ > Vk nr , - O g> <2 ' things are more important than words. The next principle with which we are familiar in the writings of Comenius and others, is that we must proceed xiv INTRODUCTION. from the easier to the more difficult. We are warned against 'a preposterous exaction, forcing the empty wits of children to compose themes, verses, and orations, which are the acts of the ripest judgment.' Matters were indeed far worse in Milton's time than they are now in this re- spect. We have to a great extent thrown off the tyranny of the grammarians and the schoolmen. But we are still guilty of the ' error of misspending our prime youth at the schools and universities either in learning mere words or such things chiefly as were better unlearnt.' We have still as much need as ever that someone should ' point us out the right path of a virtuous and noble education, so laborious indeed at first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, and so full of goodly prospects and melodious sounds on every side that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming.' Milton defines what he means by education in the following words : * I call a complete and gene- rous education that which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously all the offices, both public and private, of peace and war.' To attain this object, first a spacious house and grounds about it is to be found, fit for an academy to lodge about 130 students under the government of one head. This is to be both school and uni- versity, to give a complete education from twelve to twenty-one, not needing a removal to any other place of learning. There is something strange in the idea of welding together the school and uni- INTR OD UCTION. xv versity, but it was more consonant to the opinions and practice of Milton's own age. He himself spent at the university the years between fourteen and twenty-one ; the ordinary length of the aca- demical course being seven years from entrance to the degree of M.A. So that his proposal is not so much to suppress the university as the school. Doubtless he saw little hope of reforming a large body like the university, or weaning it from the useless babblements of the Aristotelian philosophy, whereas by a private establishment such as he de- scribes the reform might be begun at once. We must remember also that the age of entrance at public schools is now what the age of entrance at the university was in Milton's time; while many of our public school boys do not go to the univer- sity at all. The plan advocated by Milton is in this respect carried out in France, and pupils graduate directly from the lycee, only attending afterwards a special school of law or physic. Such institutions as Owens College at Manchester are doing pre- cisely the work which Milton recommends. Milton divides his scheme of education into three parts: (i) Studies; (2) Exercises; (3) Diet. In order to do justice to his method we must remember that he does not conceive of any educa- tion possible except through the Latin or Greek tongues. To make his precepts useful to us we must tear aside this veil, and go as deeply as we can into the principles which underlie his teaching, and infer what he would have recommended to us xvi INTRODUCTION. under a different state of things. In those days Latin was the language of the whole learned world. A man ignorant of Latin would have no access to the best books of the age, and no opportunity of communicating his thoughts to the world at large. It is natural, therefore, that he should recommend Latin grammar to be taught first, but with the Italian pronunciation of the vowels such as is rapidly making its way amongst us at the present day. But here at the outset the means are sub- ordinate to the end. Language is to be the vehicle ) of moral teaching for the formation of a lofty character. The Pinax of Cebes, which as a school- book is coming now again into favour, and which advocates moral principles in simple language; the moral works of Plutarch, one of the purest and most high-minded of the ancients, and the best dialogues of Plato are to be read to the youthful scholars. For here Milton says, 'the main rule and ground-work will be to tempt them with such lectures and explanations upon every opportunity as may lead and draw them in willing obedience, enflamed with the study of learning and the admi- ration of virtue, cheered up with high hope of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God and famous to all ages/ Milton empha- sises the cardinal truth of education, that it resides not in the mechanical perfection of study and rou- tine, but in the spirit of the teacher working in the heart of the pupil. The first step in education is to make the pupils ' despise and scorn all their INTR OD UCTION. xvii childish and ill-taught qualities, to delight in manly and liberal exercises, to infuse into their young hearts such an ingenuous and noble ardour as would not fail to make many of them renowned and matchless men.' Together with their Latin exercises, arithmetic, and geometry, are to be taught playing, f as the old manner was,' and re- ligion is to occupy them before going to bed. Thus ends the first stage .of their education. It should be remarked that the Greek authors, Cebes, Plu- tarch, and Plato, are to be read, of course in Latin translations, and that they are to be ' read to ' the boys probably in the manner recommended by Ratich and Ascham. As soon as they are masters of the rudiments of Latin Grammar they are to read those treatises, such as Cato, Varro, and Colu- mella, which are concerned with agriculture. The object of this is not only to teach them Latin but to incite and enable them to improve the til- lage of their country, to remove the bad soil and to remedy the waste that is made of good. Then after learning the use of globes and maps, and the outlines of geography, ancient and modern, they are to read some compendious method of natural philosophy. After this they are to begin Greek, but the authors read have reference to natural science, which is at this period the staple of their education. When in their mathematical studies they have reached trigonometry, that will intro- duce them to fortification, architecture, engineering, and navigation. They are to proceed in the study B. 2 xviii INTRODUCTION. of nature as far as anatomy, and they are to ac- quire the principles of medicine that they may know the tempers, the humours 3 the seasons, and how to manage a crudity. No advocate of scien- tific education could have sketched out a more comprehensive plan of study in these departments. Then follows a suggestion which has often been made by educational theorists, but not often tried. There are some minds which are inaccessible to purely abstract knowledge ; learning takes no hold on them unless it is connected with doing, and it has occurred to many that, if to the whole cur- riculum of science there could be added a cur- riculum of practice, few pupils would be found incapable of receiving intellectual education. We find this feature in the Psedagogic Province of Goethe's ' Wilhelm Meister/ and the few occasions on which it has been tried give encouragement for its further use. Milton accepts it without reserve. 'To set forward all these proceedings in nature and mathematics, what hinders but they may pro- cure, as oft as shall be needful, the helpful ex- periences of hunters, fowlers, fishermen, shepherds, gardeners, apothecaries, and, in the other sciences, architects, engineers, anatomists, who, doubtless, would be ready, some for reward and some to favour such a hopeful seminary. And this will give them such a real tincture of natural know- ledge as they will never forget, but daily augment with delight.' These rudimentary studies, classical, mathe- INTRODUCTION. xix matical, and practical, may be supposed to have occupied them to the age of sixteen, when they are for the first time to be introduced to graver and harder topics. 'As they begin to acquire charac- ter, and to reason on the difference between good and evil, there will be required a constant and sound indoctrinating to set them right and firm, instructing them more amply in the knowledge of virtue and the hatred of vice. For this purpose their young and pliant affections are to be led through the moral works of Plato, Xenophon, Cice- ro, and Plutarch, but in their nightvvard studies'" they are to submit to the more determinate sen- tence of Holy Writ.' Thus they will have tra- yersed the circle of ethical teaching. During this and the .preceding stage, poetry is to be read as an amusement, and as a golden fringe to the practice of serious labour. 'And either now,' Milton re- marks, ' or before this, they may have easily learnt, at any odd hour, the Italian tongue.' This sen- tence has often been quoted to shew how visionary and baseless Milton's idea of education was. But experience is here in his favour, and those who have tried the experiment are well aware that Italian may easily be learnt by intelligent and studious boys with little expenditure of time or interruption of other studies. Ethics is to be suc- ceeded by politics. After the foundation of their character and principles, then is to follow their education as citizens.,- They are to learn 'the be- ginning, end, and reason of political societies that 2 2 xx INTR OD UCTION. they may not in a dangerous fit of the Common- wealth be such poor, shaken, uncertain reeds, of such a tottering conscience as many of our good councillors have of late shewed themselves, but steadfast pillars of the State.' The study of law is to come next, including all the Roman edicts, and tables with Justinian, and also the Saxon law, and common law of England, and the statutes f the realm. 'Sundays also and every evening may be now understandingly spent in the highest matters of theology, and Church history, ancient and mo- dern.' By the age of eighteen Hebrew will have been learnt, and possibly Syrian and Chaldaic. Tragedy will be read and learned in close con- nection with political oratory. ' These, if got by memory and solemnly pronounced with right ac- cent and grace, as might be taught, would endue them even with the spirit and vigour of Demos- thenes or Cicero, Euripides or Sophocles.' When their minds are truly stored with this wealth of learning, they are at length to acquire the art of expression, both in writing and in speech. ' From henceforth, and not till now, will be the right season for forming them to be able writers and composers in every excellent matter, when they shall be thus fraught with an universal insight into things.' Thus ends this magnificent and compre- hensive scheme. ' These are the studies wherein our noble and our gentle youth ' (observe that Milton is thinking of the education of a gentleman) ' ought to bestow their time in a disciplinary way INTR OD UCTION. xxi from twelve to one-and-twenty, unless they rely more upon their ancestors dead than upon them- selves living. In the which methodical course it is so supposed they must proceed by the steady pace of learning onward, as in convenient times to retire back into the middle ward, and sometimes into the rear of what they have been taught, until they Tiave confirmed and solidly united the whole body of their perfected knowledge like the last embattelling of a Roman legion.' One of the main hopes of the improvement of education lies in adopting the truth that manly and serious studies are capable of being handled and mastered by intelligent schoolboys. We might have hoped that the publication of John Stuart Mill's ' Autobiography ' would have led to the imi- tation of the method by which he gained a start ol twenty years over his contemporaries in the race of life. It seems to have produced the contrary effect. But no one can read Mill's letters to Sir S. Bentham without acknowledging that he had done at the age of thirteen nearly as much as Mil- ton expected from his matured students. Mill was reading Thucydides, Euclid, and algebra at eight, Pindar and conic sections at nine, trigonometry at ten, Aristotle at eleven, optics and fluxions at twelve, logic and political economy at thirteen. He had also by this time written two histories and a tragedy. There is no reason to suppose that the studies thus early acquired did not form an inte- gral part of his mind, or that when writing his xxii INTR OD UCTION. standard works on logic and political economy, or sketching a complete scheme of education at St Andrew's, he was not using the knowledge which he had acquired in these very tender years. The physical exercise proposed by Milton for his students is of an equally practical character, and differs widely from the laborious toiling at unproductive games, which is the practice of our own day. With him amusement, emulation, bodily skill, the cheerfulness of bright companionship, are all pressed into the service of practical life. Dinner is taken at noon, and about an hour or an hour and a half before that meal is to be allowed them for exercise, and rest afterwards. The first exer- cise recommended is ' the use of the sword, to guard and to strike safely with edge or point. This will keep them healthy, nimble, strong, and well in breath, is also the likeliest means to make them grow large and tall, and to inspire them with a gallant and fearless courage.' They are also to be practised in ' all the locks and gripes of wrest- ling.' After about an hour of such exercise, during the needful repose which precedes their mid-day meal, they may ' with profit and delight be taken up in recruiting and composing their travailed spirits with the solemn and divine harmonies of music, heard or learnt, either while the skilful or- ganist plies his grave and fancied descant in lofty fugues, or the whole symphony with artful and unimaginable touches adorn and grace the well- studied chords of some choice composer. Some- 1NTR OD UCTION. xxiii times the lute or soft organ- stop, waiting on elegant voices either to religious, martial, or civil ditties, which, if wise men and prophets be not extremely \l out, have a great power over dispositions and man- ners, to smooth and make them gentle from rustic harshness and distempered passions.' The same rest, with the same accompaniment, is to follow after food. About two hours before supper, which I suppose would be at about seven or eight o'clock, ' they are by a sudden alarum or watchword to be called out to their military motions under sky or covert, according to the season, as was the Ro- man wont, first on foot, then, as their age permits, on horseback, to all the arts of cavalry ; that hav- ing in sport, but with much exertion and daily muster, served out the rudiments of their soldier- ship in all the skill of encamping, marching, em- battelling, fortifying, besieging and battering, with all the help of ancient and modern stratagems, tactics, and warlike maxims, they may, as it were, out of a long war come forth renowned and perfect commanders in the service of their country.' Mil- ton had good reason to desire the formation of the nucleus of a citizen army, and much service might be rendered by a school rifle corps if they were organised on a more serious and laborious model. In Milton's institution the vacations were in- tended to be short, but the time was not all to be spent in work without a break. ' In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and xxiv INTR OD UCTION. pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against nature not to go out and see her riches, and par- take in her rejoicing with heaven and earth. I should not therefore be a persuader to them of studying much then, after two or three years, that they have well laid their grounds, but: to ride out in companies with prudent and staid guides into all quarters of the land, learning and observing al places of strength, all commodities of building and of soil for towns and villages, harbours and ports of trade ; sometimes taking sea as far as our navy, to learn also what they can in the practical know- ledge of sailing and sea fights. These journeys would try all their peculiarities of nature, and if there were any such excellence among them would fetch it out, and give it fair opportunities to ad- vance itself by/ 'This/ he says, 'will be much better than asking Monsieur of Paris to take our hopeful youths into their slight and prodigal cus- tody, and send them back transformed into mimics, apes and kickshoes.' Travelling abroad is to be deferred to the age of three-and-twenty, when they will be better able to profit by it. In Milton's time communication was far more difficult than it is now. Not only was a short trip on the Conti- nent out of the question, but even travelling in England was laborious and slow. Yet even in these days our young statesmen are profoundly ignorant of the country to which they belong, and a knowledge of its character and resources should be the first foundation of sound political wisdom. INTR OD UCTION. xxv In our own day we might go so far as to regard a knowledge of the whole world as the fitting con- clusion to a liberal education, and Milton, if he were writing now, might recommend an educa- tional cruise such as has been attempted in Ameri- ca and France. Of diet, his last division, Milton tells us nothing except that it should be in the same house, and that it should be plain, healthful, and moderate. In conclusion Milton anticipates some of the objections which might be raised against his plan, on the score of its impracticability, or its aiming at too high a standard. He admits that a scheme of this kind cannot be carried out except under the most favourable conditions, with teachers, and scholars above the average. ' I believe,' he says, ' that this is not a bow for every man to shoot in, that counts himself a teacher; but will require sinews almost equal to those which Homer gave Ulysses ; yet I am withal persuaded that it may prove much more easy in the essay than it now seems at a distance, and much more illustrious, howbeit, not more difficult than I imagine, and that imagination presents me with nothing else, but very happy and very possible, according to best wishes, if God have so decreed, and this age have spirit and capacity enough to apprehend.' ^ >* [UHITERSITY / r.SAT/: e*~, f.ZJgr. r^ftM r 1 E4 To Master Samuel Hartlib. Written above twenty Years since. Mr. Hartlib, Am long since perswaded, that to say, or do ought worth memory and imitation, no purpose or re- spect should sooner move us, then simply the love of God, and of mankind. Nevertheless to write now the re- forming of Education, though it be one of the greatest and noblest designs that can be thought on, and for the want whereof this Nation perishes, I had not yet at this time been in- due' t, but by your earnest entreaties, and serious conjurements ; as having my mind for the present half diverted in the pursuance of some other assertions, the knowledge and the use of which, cannot but be a great furthe- rance both to the enlargement of truth, and honest (O honest living, with much more peace. Nor should the laws of any private friendship have prevail'd with me to divide thus, or transpose my former thoughts, but that I see those aims, those actions which have won vou with me the J esteem of a person sent hither by some good providence from a far country to be the occa- sion and the incitement of great good to this Island. And, as I hear, you have obtain'd the same repute with men of most approved wis- dom, and some of highest authority among us. Not to mention the learned correspondence which you hold in forreign parts, and the ex- traordinary pains and diligence which you have us'd in this matter both here, and beyond the Seas ; either by the definite will of God so ruling, or the peculiar sway of nature, which also is Gods working. Neither can I think that so reputed, and so valu'd as you are, you would to the forfeit of your own discerning ability, impose upon me an unfit and over-ponderous argument, but that the satisfaction which you profess to have receiv'd from those incidental Discourses which we have wander'd into, hath prest and almost constrain'd you into a per- swasion, that what you require from me in this point, I neither ought, nor can in conscience deferre beyond this time both of so much need at (3) at once, and so much opportunity to try what God hath determin'd. I will not resist there- fore, whatever it is either of divine, or hu- mane obligement that you lay upon me ; but^ will forthwith set down in writing, as you request me, that voluntary Idea, which hath long in silence presented it self to me, of a bet- ter Education, in extent and comprehension far more large, and yet of time far shorter, and of attainment far more certain, then hath been yet in practice. Brief I shall endeavour v to be ; for that which I have to say, assuredly this Nation hath extream need should be done sooner then spoken. To tell you therefore what I have benefited herein among old re- nowned Authors, I shall spare ; and to search ^ what many modern Januas^^ Didactics more"* then ever I shall read, have projected, my in- clination leads me not. But if you can accept of these few observations which have flowr'dv Q$+ and are, as it were, the burnishing_of many v studious and contemplative years altogether spent in the search of religious and civil know- ledge, and such as pleas'd you so well in the relating, I here give you them to dispose of. \ The end then of Learning is to repair the v\ ruines of our first Parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, (4) him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the neerest by possessing our souls of true ver- tue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection.) But because our understanding cannot in this body found it self but on sensible things, nor arrive so clearly to the knowledge of God and things invisible, as by orderly conning over the vi- sible and inferior creature, the same method is necessarily to be follow'd in all discreet and the rural / part of Virgil. By this time, years and good general pre- cepts will have furnisht them more distinctly with that act of reason which in Ethicks is call'd Proairesis: that they may with some judgement contemplate upon moral good and evil. vT nen \ will be requir'd a special reinforcement of constant and sound endoctrinating to set them right and firm, instructing them more amply in the knowledge of Vertue and the hatred of Vice : (14) Vice :; while their young and pliant affecti- ons are led through all the moral works of Plato, Xenophon,Cicero, Plutarch, Laertius, and those Locnan remnants; but still to be reduc't in their nightward studies wherewith they close the dayes work, under the determinate sentence of David or Salomon, or the Evanges and Apostolic Scriptures./Being perfect in the knowledge of personal ctuty, they may then begin the study of Economics. And either now, or before this, they may have easily learnt at any odd hour the Italian Tongue.} And soon after, but with wariness and good anti- dote, it would be wholesome enough to let them taste some choice Comedies, Greek, Latin, or Italian : Those Tragedies also that treat of Household matters, as Trachinicz, Alcestis,a.r\d the like. (The next remove must be to the study of Politicks ; to know the beginning, end, and reasons of Political Societies that they may not in a dangerous fit of the Com- mon-wealth be such poor, shaken, uncertain Reeds, of such a tottering Conscience, as many of our great Counsellers have lately shewn themselves, but stedfast pillars of the State. After this they are to dive into the grounds of Law, and legal Justice ; deliver'd first, and with best warrant by Moses ; and as far as hu- mane mane prudence can be trusted, in those ex- toll'd remains of Grecian Law-givers, Licurgus, Solon, Zaleucus^Charondas^di thence to all the Roman Edicts&nd. Tables with their Justinian ; and so down to the Saxon and common Laws Q{ England, &&& the Statutes. Sundayes also and every evening may be now understandingly spent in the highest matters of Theology, and Church History ancient and modern : and ere this time the Hebrew Tongue at a set hour o might have been gain'd, that the Scriptures may be now read in their own orginal ; where- to it would be no impossibility to add the Chaldey, and the Syrian Dialect. When all these employments are well conquer'd, then will the choice Histories, Heroic Poems; and Attic Tragedies of stateliest and most regal ar- gument, with all the famous Political Ora- tions offer themselves ; which if they were not only read ; but some of them got by memory, and solemnly pronounc't with right accent, and grace, as might be taught, would endue them even with the spirit and vigor of De- mosthenes or Cicero, Eiiripidcs, or Sophocles. And now lastly will be the time to read with them those organic arts which inable men to discourse and write perspicuously, elegantly, and according to the fitted stile of lofty, mean, or ( 16 or lowly. Logic therefore so much as is use- ful, is to be referr'd to this due place withall her well coucht Heads and Topics, untill it be time to open her contracted palm into a grace- full and ornate Rhetorick taught out of the rule of 'Plato, A r is to tie, Phalereits, Cicero, Her mo gen es, Longinus. To which Poetry would be made subsequent, or indeed rather precedent, as being less suttle and fine, but more simple, sen- suous and passionate. I mean not here the prosody of a verse, which they could not but have hit on before amon^ the rudiments of o Grammar ; but that sublime Art which in A ristotles. Poetics, in Horace, and the Italian Commentaries of Castelvetro, Tasso, Mazzoni, and others, teaches what the laws are of a true Epic Poem, what of a Dramatic, what of a Lyric, what Decorum is, which is the grand master-piece to observe. This would make them soon perceive what despicable creatures our comm Rimers and Play-writers be, and shew them, what religious, what glorious and magnificent use might be made of Poetry both in divine and humane things. From hence and not till now will be the right season of forming them to be able Writers and Compo- sers in every excellent matter, when they shall be thus fraught with an universal insight into things. things. Or whether they be to speak in Par- liament or Counsel, honour and attention would be waiting on their lips. There would then also appear in Pulpits other Visages, other gestures, and stuff otherwise wrought then what o o we now sit under, oft times to as great a trial of our patience as any other that they preachj to us. These are the Studies w r herein our" noble and our gentle Youth ou^ht to bestow o o their time in a disciplinary way from twelve to one and twenty ; unless they rely more upon their ancestors dead, then upon themselves living. In which methodical course it is so suppos'd they must proceed by the steddy pace of learning onward, as at convenient times for memories sake to retire back into the middle ward, and sometimes into the rear of what they have been taught, untill they have confirmed, and solidly united the whole body of their perfeted knowledge, like the last em- battelling of a Roman Legion. Now will be worth the seeing what Exercises and Recreati- ons may best agree, and become these Studies. Their Exercise. The course of Study hitherto briefly de- scrib'd, is, what I can guess by reading, likest to to those ancient and famous Schools of Pytha- goras, Plato, I socrates,Aristotle'&ru\. such others, out of which were bred up such a number of renowned Philosophers, Orators, Historians, Poets and Princes all over Greece, Italy, and Asia, besides the flourishing Studies of Cyrene and Alexandria. But herein it shall exceed them, and supply a defect as great as that which Plato noted in the Common- wealth of Sparta; whereas that City train'd up their Youth most for War, and these in their Academies and Lyc&umJ aJM^theGownJthis institution of breeding which I here delineate, shall be equal- ly good both for Peace and War. (Therefore /about an hour and a half ere. they eat at Noon i should be allow'd them for exercise and due rest afterwards: But the time for this may be enlarg'd at pleasure, according as their rising V^in the morning shall be early. The Exercise which I commend first, is the exact use of their Weapon, to guard and to strike safely with edge, or point ; this will keep them healthy, nimble, strong, and well in breath, is also the likeliest means to make them grow large and tall, and to inspire them with a gallant and fearless courage, which being temper'd with . seasonable Lectures and Precepts to them of true Fortitude and Patience, will turn into a native '' ( '9 ) \ native and heroick valour, and make them hate the cowardise of doing wrong. They must be also practiz'd in all the Locks and Gripes of Wrastling, Vherein English men were wont to excell, as need may often be in fight to tugg or grapple, and to close. And this perhaps will be enough, wherein to prove and heat their single strength. The interim of o o y_ unsweating themselves regularly, and conve- venient rest before meat may both with profit and delight be taken up in recreating and com- posing their travail'd spirits with the solemn and divine harmonies of Musick heard or learnt; either while the skilful Organist plies his grave and fancied descant, in lofty fugues, or the whole Symphony with artful and un- imaginable touches adorn and grace the well studied chords of some choice Composer, some- times the Lute, or soft Organ stop waiting on elegant Voices either to Religious, martial, / or civil Ditties ; w r hich if wise men and Pro" phets be not extreamly out, have a great power over dispositions and manners, to smooth and make them gentle from, .rustick harshness and distemper'd passions. The like also would not be unexpedient after Meat to assist and cherish Natureinher first concoction, and send their minds back to study in good tune (20) tune and satisfaction. Where bavins' follow'd o it close under vigilant eyes till about two hours before supper, they are by a sudden alarum or watch word, to be call'd out to their mili- tary motions, under skie or covert, according to the season, as was the Roman wont) first on foot, then as their age permits, on Horse- _back, to all the Art of Cavalry ; That having * in sport, but with much exactness, and daily muster, serv'd out the rudiments of their Soul- diership in all the skill of Embattelling, March- ing, Encamping, Fortifying, Besieging and Bat- tering, with all the helps of ancient and mo- dern stratagems, Tacticks and warlike maxims, they may as it were out of a long War come forth renowned and perfect Commanders in the service of their Country. They would not then, if they were trusted with fair and hopeful armies, suffer them for want of just and wise discipline to shed away from about them like sick feathers, though they be never so oft suppli'd : they w T ould not suffer their empty and unrecrutible Colonels of twenty men in a Company to quaff out, or convey into secret hoards, the wages of a delusive list, and a miserable remnant : yet in the mean while to be over-master'd with a score or two of drun- kards, the only souldery left about them, or else (21 ) / else to comply with all rapines and violences. No certainly, if they knew ought of that know- ledge that belongs to good men or good Go- vernours, they would not suffer these things. But to return to our own institute, besides these"! constant exercises at home, there is another opportunity of gaining experience to be won from pleasure it self abroad ',(lr\ those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury andsullenness against nature not to go out, and see her riches, and partake in her rejoycing with Heaven and Earth. I should not therefore be a perswader to them of studying much then, after two or three year that they have well laid their grounds, but to ride out in Companies with prudent and staic^ Guides, to all the quar- ters of the Land '.$ learning and observing all places of strength, all commodities of building and of soil, for Towns and Tillage, Harbours and Ports for Trade. } Sometimes taking Sea as far as to our Navy, to learn there also what they can in the practical know- ledge of sailing and of Sea-fight. These ways would try all their peculiar gifts of Nature, / and if there were any secret excellence among them, would fetch it out, and give it fair op- portunities to advance it self by, which could not o- (22) not but mightily redound to the good of this Nation,) and bring into fashion again those old admired Vertues and Excellencies, with far more advantage now in this purity of Chri- jLstian knowledge. Nor shall we then need f the Monsieurs of Paris to take our hopefull Youth into their slight and prodigal custodies and send them over back again transform'd into Mimicks, Apes and Kicshoes. But if they desire to see other Countries at three or four and twenty years of age, not to learn Principles but to enlarge Experience, and make wise observation, they will by that time be such as shall deserve the regard and honour of all men where they pass, and the society and friendship of those in all places who are best and most eminent. And perhaps then other Nations will be glad to visit us for their Breeding, or else to imitate us in their own \jCountry. Now lastly for their Diet there cannot be much to say, save only that it would be best in the same House ; for much time else would be lost abroad, and many ill habits got ; and that it should be plain, healthful, and mode- rate I suppose is out of controversie. Thus Mr. Hartlib, you have a general view in wri- ting, as your desire was, of that which at se- veral ( 23 ) veral times I had discourst with you concern- ing the best and Noblest way of Education; not beginning as some have done from the Cradle, which yet might be worth many con- siderations, if brevity had not been my scope, many other circumstances also I could have mention'd, but this to such as have the worth in them to make trial, for li^ht and direction __ may be enough. Only I believe that this is\ not a Bow for every man to shoot in that counts himself a Teacher ; but will require sinews almost equal to those which Homer gave Ulysses, yet I am withall perswaded that it may prove much more easie in the assay, then it now seems at distance, and much more illu- trious ff~ howbeit not more difficult then I imagine, and that imagination presents me with nothing but very happy and very possible ac- cording to best wishes ; if God have so de- creed, and this age have spirit and capacity enough to apprehend. B. NOTES. To Master Samuel Hartlib. For an account of Samuel Hartlib see Masson's Life of Milton, in. 193. He was the son of a Polish merchant of German extrac- tion, who had settled at Elbing in Prussia. His mother was the daughter of an English merchant at Danzic, so Hartlib though Prussian born with Polish connexions could call himself half English. He was probably about eight or ten years older than Milton. He first came to England about the year 1628 and from that time made London his headquarters. u He was one of those persons now styled ' philanthropists ' or ' friends of progress,' who take an interest in every question or project of their time promising social improvement, have always some iron in the fire, are constantly forming committees or writing letters to persons of influence and altogether live for the public. By the common consent of all who have explored the intellectual and social history of England in the seventeenth century, he is one of the most interesting and memorable figures of that whole period." written above twenty years since. According to Masson, Life of Milton, in. 233. The treatise "of Education" 42 26 NOTES. was first published on June 5, 1644. The treatise was reprinted in 1673 at the end of the second edition of the minor poems with the words "written above twenty years since " (really nearly thirty) added to the original title. The text of the present edition is a fac- simile of the reprint of 1673. 1. 8. respect, consideration. 1. 9. then. The old spelling of than, as our then was then spelt than, and in Shakespere's Lucrece rhymes to van and began. 1. 17. conjuremenfS) " solemn appeals." 1. 1 8. diverted, "turned off." Lip. assertions, positions, statements. Milton's mind was now principally occupied with the questions of Divorce and of the liberty of unlicensed printing. The second edition of the Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce was published about three months before the Tractate, and his Judgement of Master Bucer concerning Divorce five weeks after. The Areopagitica was published Nov. 24, 1644. P. 2, 1. 3. divide, to break up. transpose, to change. 1. 6. person sent hither, John Amos Comenius. P'or an account of him see John Amos Comenius by S. S. Laurie in Kegan Paul's Education Library, also Masson's Life of Milton, vol. in. There are also accounts of him in Browning's History of Educational Theories, and Quick's Educational Reformers. Comenius came to London at Hartlib's invitation, Sept. 22, 1641. He left it for Sweden in August, 1642. When he was in London the Parliament thought of assigning to Comenius for his plans of a College-University some College with its revenues. Comenius tells us " there was even named for the purpose the Savoy in London; Winchester College NOTES. 27 out of London was named ; and again nearer the city Chelsea College, inventories of which and of its revenues were communicated to us ; so that nothing seemed more certain than that the design of the great Verulam con- cerning the opening somewhere of a Universal College devoted to the advancement of the Sciences, would be carried out. But the rumour of the insurrection in Ireland and of the massacre in one night of more than 200,000 English, and the sudden departure of the King from London, and the plentiful signs of the bloody war about to break out disturbed these plans, and obliged me to hasten my return to my own people." 1. 15. beyond the seas. Comenius spent the years 1643 1646 at Elbing, Hartlib's own birthplace, writing his didactic treatises, and his going there was largely owing to Hartlib's recommendation. P. 3, 1. 4. obligement, duty, obligation. 1. 17. Januds and Didactics. This is a reference apparently a little contemptuous to Comenius's two great works ; the Janua linguarum reserata was pub- lished in 1631, and was translated into most European and some Eastern languages. His Didactica Magna was first written in his own language, Czech, and after- wards translated into Latin. It is doubtful if it was published in 1644, but Milton had of course heard of it. 1. 20. flowrd off. Latham explains this as "come off as flowers by sublimation." I should rather connect it with the "burnishing" below. 1. 21. burnishing, the particles rubbed off in polishing. 1. 27. mines, the fall. P. 4, 1. 6. sensible things. This is the keynote of Milton's teaching. Things are to be taught before words, or rather things and words are to be taught together, the 28 NOTES. only value of words being that they lead us to the things of which they are symbols, as he says below " language is but the instrument conveying to us things usefull to be known." P. 5, 1. 5. idle vacancies. This probably does not refer so much to vacations and holidays as to perpetual interruption caused by Saints' days and holidays. This is a principal cause of the inefficiency of the education given by Jesuits and other Roman Catholic bodies. At Eton College, when I was a boy there, every Saint's day was a holiday and every eve a half-holiday, the work of these days was supposed to be done on other days, so also at the University there were no lectures on Saints' days. The long vacation at the University of course existed in Milton's time. 1. 6. preposterous, inverting the natural order. 1. 15. barbarizing, so a lexicon of pure idiomatic latinity is called antibarbarus. 1. 1 6. untutored, rude, raw. So Shakespere Lucrece, Ded. " my untutored lines," and //. Henry VI. in. 2, "some stern untutored churl." 1. 19. conversing among, "becoming familiar with." 1. 21. certain forms, "paradigms," the regular forms in which they habitually occur. 1. 23. lessorfd, "taught." 1. 26. Arts, the subject-matter of a liberal educa- tion, originally the seven liberal arts contained in the Trivium and Quadrivium, Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric, Music, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy. So Shakes- pere uses Arts as a synonym for education generally, Taming of the Shrew, I. i. 2, "Padua, Nursery of Arts," and Twelfth Night, i. 3. 99, " Had I but followed the Arts." Compare Bachelor and Master of Arts. NOTES. 29 P. 6, 1. 9. obvious to the sence. This is an anticipa- tion of the doctrines of Pestalozzi and Froebel, who insist on the importance of beginning education with the train- ing of the senses. 1. 10. unmatriculated, " even before their matricula- tion," or perhaps generally "immature." 1. ii. intellective, "intellectual." Logick. This is the same as Dialectic, and stands, as we have seen, second in the Trivium, immediately after Grammar. This is explained more in detail imme- diately below. 1. 1 8. fadomless, fathom is fadom in middle English. 1. 21. ragged, "rugged." 1. 22. babblements, "prattling." 1. 24. youthful years, the impatience of youth. 1. 25. sway, "pressure" or "influence." 1. 26. mercenary ...Divinity. Such divines are treated with scathing scorn in Lycidas, where S. Peter says : How well could I have spar'd for thee, young swain, Anow of such as for their bellies' sake, Creep and intrude, and climb into the fold? Of other care they little reck'ning make, Then how to scramble at the shearers' feast, And shove away the worthy bidden guest ; Blind mouthes ! that scarce themselves know how to hold A sheep-hook, or have learn'd ought els the least That to the faithfull Herdman's art belongs ! What recks it them? What need they? They are sped. P. 7,1. i. prudent and heavenly contemplation. Pru- dent, provident, foreseeing. Milton here sketches the idea of what a University law school ought to be, con- cerned with the theory and not with the practice of law. 1. 6. Slate affairs. Milton suggests the conception 30 ~ of a University training for public and political life such as has never been found in England, u ut such as was contemplated by the creation of King's Scholars to be recommended for the service of the State, when the Re- gius Professorships of Modern History and Modern Languages were first founded by George I. at Oxford and Cambridge. 1. 1 1. conscientious slavery. They veil slavery under the form of conscientious subjection, but in this only deceive themselves. 1. 12. delicious, ''delicate." 1. 13. airie spirit, a mind subject to spiritual in- fluences. 1. 1 6. wisest and the safest course, compare Lycidas : "Were it not better done as others use To sport with Amaryllis in the shade Or with the tangles of Neasra's hair." 1. 19. prime youth, either our early youth or the best part of our youth. 1. 21. meer words. Milton returns here to the key- note of his argument, that the main fault of the present humanistic education is that it teaches words only. P. 8, 1. 2. Harp of Orpheus. Compare Shakespere, Henry VIII, Act in. sc. i, " Orpheus with his lute made trees, And the mountain tops which freeze, Bow them- selves when he did sing." Also Merchant of Venice, Act v. sc. i, "therefore the poet Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods, Since naught so stockish, hard and full of rage, But music for the time doth change his nature." 1. 5. stocks and stubbs. Stock is a log or post, the emblem of a senseless person, So Taming of the Shrew, 31 Act i. sc. i, 1. 31, "Let's be no stoics nor no stocks I pray." A stubb is the stock of a tree left when the rest is cut off. Spenser joins the two words together, "all about old stocks and stubbs of trees." 1. 7. hale = haul. 1. ii. docible = docile. 1. 1 8. sophistry. This would especially refer to Logic, the second of the seven Arts, following after Grammar. P. 9, 1. 2. practitioners. The school and university are to give the theoretical, not the practical and profes- sional training ; these in law and medicine are to be kept distinct. 1. 4. Lilly, as we should now say the Latin Primer. William Lilly (not to be confounded with John Lilly, the author of Euphues, who was born 30 years after this Wil- liam Lilly's death) lived from about 1468 to 1523, and was an eminent scholar and first master of St Paul's School. He published in 1513, Brevissima Institutio seu Ratio Grammatices cognoscenti, generally known as Lilly s Latin Grammar. In this he was assisted by Colet, Car- dinal Wolsey, and Erasmus. commencing. The Great Commencement at Cam- bridge, the Comitia Magna, was the time at which the higher degrees were conferred. 1. 8. every City. It is important to notice that these Colleges were to be in towns, not in the country. 1. 10. Civility, what we should now call "culture." 1. 19. their speech is to be fashioned. The first care in Greek education was to train the tender mouth and ear to express and distinguish between the delicate Greek vowels and the variety of accent. The teacher for this purpose was called the