may be resolved into this one occasion, men addict not themselves to any honest, serious, employment or study, but live loose and idle lives, and thereby take fire from any temptation and degenerate into debauchery and intemperance as a standing puddle stinks, and putrifies, and breeds vermin. But if these men had been educated in an honest employment, or an industrious course of life, their thoughts and time would have been turned into a better channel, and temptations of this nature would have had none or very little impression upon them. They would have been furnished with this ready answer at hand, I know how to employ my time otherwise, I have somewhat else to do.

And this leads me to the second part of this head or section, namely employment, of which in the next chapter.

CHAPTER XV.

Touching Employments, and what ordinary Employments I would commend to you.

THIS chapter, touching employments, I shall divide into these two considerations:

1. Such as may be advisable to those of the male sex.

2. Such as may be advisable to those of the female sex.

And because directions touching employments are to be accommodated and fitted to the condition of those to whom it is given, and you being my grandchildren, possibly by the blessing of God, may have convenient supports, estates, and portions to live upon, I shall fit my directions accordingly.

Therefore, as to you my grandsons, you must know, that till you come to be about eighteen or twenty years old, you are but in preparation to a settled estate of life: as there is no certain conjecture to be made before that age what you will be fit for, so till that age you are under the hammer and the file, to fit, dispose, and prepare

you for your future condition of life, if God be pleased to lend it you; and about that time i will probably appear, both what you will be fit for, and whether you are like to make a prosperous voyage in the world or not.

And therefore what I shall say to you, first, shall be in relation to this preparatory part of your life, till about eighteen or twenty years old; and secondly, what concerns you after that age. 1. Therefore as to the employment about which I now write (for as to other matters I have written before) until you come to eight years old, I expect no more of you than to be good English scholars, to read perfectly and distinctly any part of the Bible, or any other English book, and to carry yourselves respectfully and dutifully to those that are set over you.

2. About eight years old you are to be put or sent to a grammar school, where I expect you should make a good progress in the Latin tongue, in oratory and poetry; but above all to be good proficients in the Latin tongue, that you may be able to read, understand and construe any Latin author, and to make true and handsome Latin ; and though I would have you learn somewhat of Greek, yet the Latin tongue is that which I most value, because almost all learning is now under that language. And the time for your

abode at the grammar school is till you are about sixteen years old.

3. After that age I shall either remove you to some university, or to some tutor that may instruct you in university learning, thus to be educated till you are about twenty years old; and herein I shall alter the ordinary method of tutors, upon great reason and observation.

I therefore will have you employed from sixteen to seventeen in reading some Latin authors to keep your Latin tongue; but principally and chiefly in arithmetic, and geometry, and geodesy or measuring of heights, distances, superficies and solids, for this will habituate and enlarge your understanding, and will furnish you with a knowledge which will be both delightful and useful all the days of your life; and will give you a pleasant and innocent diversion and entertainment when you are weary and tired with any other business.

From seventeen years old till nineteen or twenty, you may principally intend logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics, according to the ordinary discipline of the university; but after you have read some systems or late topical or philosophical tracts that may give you some taste of the nature of those sciences, I shall advise your tutor to exercise you in Aristotle,

for there is more sound learning of this kind to be found in him, touching these sciences, than in a cart load of modern authors; only tutors scarce take the pains to understand him themselves, much less to instruct their scholars and pupils in them, insomuch that there are few that have read his books.

And under the title of philosophy, I do not only intend his eight books of physics, but his books de Natura et Generatione Animalium, his books de Incestu Animalium, de Anima, de Meteoriis, de Somno et Vigilia, de Morte, de Plantis, de Mundo, and his Mechanics, if you join thereunto Archimedes's.

These are part of real philosophy, and excellently handled by him, and have more of use and improvement of the mind than other notional speculations in logic or philosophy delivered by others; and the rather, because bare speculations and notions have little experience and external observation to confirm them, and they rarely fix the minds, especially of young men. But that part of philosophy that is real, may be improved and confirmed by daily observation; and is more stable, and yet more certain and delightful, and goes along with a man all his life, whatever employment or profession he undertakes.