tragedies of ftatlieft, and moft regal argument, with all the famous Politicall orations offer themfelves; which if they. were not only read; but fome of them got by memory, and folemnly pronounc't with right accent, and grace, as might be taught, would endue them even with the fpirit and vigor of Demofthenes or Cicero, Euripides, or Sophocles.

And

now laftly will be the time to read with, them thofe organic arts which inablemen to discourse and write perfpicuoufly, elegantly, and according to the fitted ftile of lofty, mean, or lowly. Logic therefore fo much as is usefull, 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

gracefull and ornate Rhetorick taught out of the rule of Plato, Arifiotle, Pkalereus, Cicero, Hermogenes, Longinus. To which Poetry would be made fubfequent, or indeed rather precedent, as being leffe futtle and fine, but more fimple, fenfuous, and paffionate. I mean not here the profody of a verfe, which they could not but have hit on before among the rudiments of grammar; but that fublime art which in Ariftotles poetics, in Horace, and the Italian commentaries of Caftelvetro, Taffo, Maz

ni, 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 mafter peece to

obferve. This would make them foon

perceive

perceive what defpicable creatures our common rimers and play-writes be, and fhew them, what Religious, what glorious and magnificent ufe might be made of Poetry both in divine and humane things. From hence and not till now will be the right feafon of forming them to be able writers and compofers in every excellent matter, when they fhall be thus fraught with an univerfall infight into things. Or whether they be to fpeak in Parlament or counfell, honour and attention would be waiting on their lips. There would then alfo appear in pulpits other vifages, other geftures, and stuffe otherwise wrought then what we now fit under, oft times to as great a

triall

triall of our patience as any other that they preach to us. Thefe are the ftudies wherein our noble and our gentle youth ought to beftow their time in a difciplinary way from twelve to one and twenty; unleffe they rely more upon their ancestors dead, then upon themfelves living. In which methodicall courfe it is fo fuppos'd they must proceed by the fteddy pace of learning onward, as at convenient times for memories fake to retire back into the middle ward, and fometimes into the rear of what they have been taught, untill they have confirm'd, and folidly united the whole body of their perfeted knowledge, like the last embattelling of a Romane

legion.

legion. Now will be worth the feeing what exercises, and what recreations may beft agree, and become these ftudies.

The courfe of ftudy hitherto briefly defcrib'd, is, what I can gueffe by reading, likeft to thofe ancient and famous fchools of Pythagoras, Plato, Ifocrates, Ariftotle, and fuch others, out of which were bred up fuch a number of renowned Philofophers, orators, Hiftorians, Poets and Princes all over Greece, Italy, and Afia, befides the flourishing ftudies, of Cyrene and Alexandria. But herein: it fhall exceed them, and supply a defect as great as that which Plato, noted in the commonwealth of Sparta; whereas

that