Directions for the Education of a Young Prince, Title page – Table of contents
DIRECTIONS FOR THE EDUCATION Of a Young PRINCE.
Till Seven Years of AGE.
Which will serve for the GOVERNING OF CHILDREN Of all Conditions.
Translated out of French.
London: Printed for H. Brome at the Gun in St. Paul's Church-yard, at the West End. 1673.
To the Right Honourable ELIZABETH Countess of Burlington & Cork: Sole Daughter and Heir of the Right Honourable Henry Earl of Cumberland.
MADAM,
ALL Wisdom (but the revealed) is the Child of Experience: And all Precepts of the same owe their Birth to particular Occasions. The Wisdom of the Counsels of this Discourse, is justified by the Experience of many Ages: And the particular occasion of it was on the birth of the Prince of Orange, by a Judicious Person of Quality living then in the Court of the Hague. The longing wishes and earnest prayers of the English, that they may have the like occasion, will warrant these Counsels from appearing unseasonably. Yea, they are more seasonable new, and less subject to obl…quy, than if they came out when there is a Royal occasion for them. For they might then meet with the opposition of private Interesses, and resolved Courses. Whereas they may now be weighed impartially, and without any concernment but that of Wisdom, Reason, and Publick and Private Good.
Besides, these Counsels are not every way so adequate to the condition of a Prince, but that others may reap benefit by them; Those especially, Madam, of the Condition of Your Noble Family, who being called by their Birth to be Pillars of the State, and Upholders of the Crown, have more Interest to see their Offspring entred into those Generous Ways of Piety and Virtue, in which consisteth their Honour and Nobility, and by which they are fitted for the Service of their King and Countrey. Of that high interest none is more sensible than Your Ladyship, of whose Noble Breeding my Lord Your Father, who was Nobility it self, made His Chief Study and Grand Employment, with a Success admired by all that are honoured with Your Ladyship's Acquaintance. And might His Heavenly Happiness be sensible of any thing that is done under the Sun, he would be much delighted to see your Ladiships Successful Care in the Education of His Illustrious Posterity, now in the Th rd Generation. It was that Hereditary Nobleness of Your Soul, Madam, and Your Vigilant Care to propagate it to your Descent, which made a Copy of this Discourse so precious in Your Ladiships Esteem, and the Loss of It so grievous. Wherefore the recovering and preserving of It by the help of the Press, will (I hope) be acceptable to Your Ladiship. And Your singular Approbation cannot but make it highly valued by all that know the height of Your Worth, and the depth of Your Judgment. All wise Mothers will learn by Your Ladiships Example, deeply to consider how GOD and Nature having assigned unto the Mother the Government of the first Seven Years of their Childrens Age, in which they are either made or marred, have thereby obliged all Mothers humbly to crave the assistance of Gods Wisdom; and with such serious Application to study the Nature, and learn the Husbandry of their Infant-Reason, as to become able to sow in their fresh Soyl lasting Seeds of Goodness and Virtue, lesing none of the Natural Advantages which they present for that great Work; spying all their Natural Disadvantages against it, to mend them with Speed and Dexterity; and keeping off carefully the outward ordinary hinderances of Virtuous Breeding from their Tender Souls, which easily admit, and tenaciously retain the first impressions. Such Observations will sit all Pious and Rational Souls. And the Noble Breeding prescribed here (if we lay by Points of Grandeur) regards all Conditions, since Nobleness lieth in Virtue. General Good was the aim of the Author, and is that of the Publisher; besides his Zeal, by presenting It to Your Honourable Hands, to approve himself,
Madam, Your Ladiship's most dutiful and humblest Servant, Peter Du Moulin.
THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS.
CHap. 1. Of the Education of a Prince. Page 1.
Chap. 2. Of preparing a Prince to good Habits in his first Infancy, pag. 8.
Chap. 3. Of Shamefac'dness. pag. 14.
Chap. 4. Of Fear. pag. 24.
Chap. 5. Of Curiosity. p. 44.
Chap. 6. Of Credulity. p. 56.
Chap. 7. Of natural vicious Inclinations in Children, and first of Pride. pag. 59.
Chap. 8. Of Wilfulness. p. 66.
Chap. 9. Of Lying. p 76.
Chap. 10. Of Intemperance. p. 81.
Chap. 11. How the Persons about an Infant-Prince ought to be qualified. p. 85.
Chap. 12. Of the Governess. p. 91.
Chap. 13. Of the Rudiments of the Young Prince's Instruction. p. 104.