A Light to Grammar and All Other Arts and Sciences, Chapter 2
CHAP. II.
How to order the Child: order muſt bee kept: what danger in inverting that order: The candle in the hand, how to walke by it. What wee meane by Precognition.
ANd now wee are turning towards the child, before we take him by the hand wee muſt ſeriouſly conſider, how to order him, and where to begin, for this requires our ſerious conſideration, the very extract of our judgment and skill.
I doe not meane now, what I muſt teach him in the firſt place. That is out of queſtion, the Mother-tongue: nor do I meane what Science firſt; Muſick ſay ſome, and they give good reaſon: Arithmetick, ſaith the noble Scholar, as the Child may be, for that will fixe his minde in caſe he bee birdwitted aInge…ium vol…ile et deſul o…ū.; and to ſay the truth, I know nothing taught in good order but that: for the weakeſt teacher may find a neceſſity. I ſhould add the Mathematicks alſo, a generall containing the other; for as that proceeds gradually, and there is order; ſo theſe by Senſe; and there is certainty.
I ſay againe, we had need now of all our wits about us, and to have our underſtanding part ready even at our fingers ends. I meane not that thereby we may be taught where to begin our information; for every man well underſtands this, that the informing the underſtanding is the maine point. And for this great end and purpoſe wee muſt looke through, and through the child; wee muſt well underſtand him, before he can underſtand us. And this is not quickly done; probabilities are our guides, and our conjectures great, yet not without exception, where there is ſuch uncertaine motion as there is in Children. The Quick-wit puts out apace, gives great appearance, ſo as we may propheſie, and yet be deceived; for as there be faire bloſſomes, ſo there are nipping froſts: The Dull-wit would offer faire, praiſe muſt help him; when he hath it, he holds faſt, and may prove ſomebody. The Quick muſt not be held in all the hope, the Dull in deſpaire; we muſt not neglect the meaneſt wits, but do the worke of the day upon the Day, and leave the event to God, who hath reſerved His calling and diſcovering houres to His owne peculiar knowledge. Wee goe on then, and take the Childe as hee is, and ſo apply our ſelves to him as wee can. Hee may bee like your Quickſilver, quick, and fleeting; wee muſt labour to fixe him, and (if ſo wee can) then to make him flee; yet ſo, that he make no more haſte, then good ſpeed. Moſt likely hee may bee not ſo quicke, but naturally more compoſed and fixed; wee like him the better. Wee muſt make him rid much way in a little time.
Hee may be much of the nature of a log, not ſtir a whit, unleſſe you lift him, and move hard; This is the Childe whom we ſhould ſet upon his legs, lead onward, ſo jogging on. The meanes that we ſhould uſe will effect it, (if hee be not monſtrouſly deficient) provided ſtill wee uſe no compulſion, but all diligence, we muſt not put him out of his pace, for then he ſtands ſtill, but let him march on like a man that hath all his armour about him; though it bee a Snayles pace, yet it gets ground, and by ſtill improving and adding to the heape, by conſtancy in moving, the Childe may attaine to the top of the Muſes Hill, as we read aGuil: diſplay of Herauld: p. 217.the Snayle did to the top of the Tower.
There are ſome, they ſay, who will be Scholars whether wee will or no: I cannot tell that, but very quick they are; as hee was of old (commonly knowne) his owne Maſter, and Teacher all at once. Nay there was one, if we may beleeve it, that was Tom of all Trades, for he could make every thing belonging to the adorning of his body, yea though hee went in compleat armour; I do not meane him, who was ſo good at every thing, that hee was for all turnes, at all houres b: but it was Omnium horarum. Aſinius Pol…io Quint. l. 6. cap 4.to make himſelf and others merry, the very froth of wit, or a good wit ill uſed. Let theſe wonder-workers go, and alſo thoſe monſters in nature, ſo deficient as are not one of a thouſand; And let the midling Child ſtand ſtill, yea and the Harding too (as before) hee whom the Parents have deſigned to the Cart, and holding of the Plough; with the Parents leave, let him have ſome inſtruction, (for he is too young yet for that imployment) which may make him drive the better, and when he comes to it, to hold the Plough ſteadily, not looking back.
We told you before, that our ſcope is, (I include here all Teachers) to unfold the underſtanding, to ſet up a light there; for the underſtanding is as is the eye to the body, the candle thereof. The maine work (it cannot be ſaid too often) is the informing of the ſame, the making that cleare. A main and chiefe thing indeed, for till that be done, the child is in a wood, he doth not goe but ſtumble; and hath no more comfort in his way, then we have in ours, when the night is darkeſt. Can he be diligent now? No, hee cannot tell what to doe, then he hateth the worke: Diligence implies delight, and love; That great Centurion, who commands eyes, and Diligo.eares, and all, makes all diligent; Bids them come, and they come, doe this, and they doe it. If you have won your child to the love of his booke, you ſhall have all at command, hee will uſe all diligence. But if this love, this delight be not, diligence cannot bee; It is true feare may worke out ſomething, ever in the booke, but then marke we muſt the fearefull, and unnaturall workings thereof, of feare I meane, it maketh the child wiſh (as is feigned touching the Ferry-man, who was ever merrieſt Lucian. Me…c: Charon.when others were ſaddeſt) for ſome plague to come upon the earth. I remember a truer ſtory, for Chryſoſtome tels it, what fell out in the City where he lived; The Lord had made the earth iron, and the Heavens braſſe, ſuch a drought there was and want of bread, Chryſoſt. in 1. Cor. cap. 15.and then of all things. It pleaſed the Lord in his owne time, to cauſe the Heaven to heare the earth, and the earth to heare man, and in the remembrance of that mercy they rejoyced, and kept holy day. One man amongſt the reſt walked heavily and diſcovered as much ſadneſſe as others did joy; and being demanded why? concealed it not, but told them the very reaſon; I have, ſaid hee, ten thouſand meaſures of bread-corne, and what to doe with it now I cannot tell. Alas poore man! I mention it here that we may conſider; if men will doe ſo for gaine, what will children doe for feare? I will tell you what: for I am ſure this generation is not better nor wiſer then their Fathers, I will tell you what wee did, when wee were led on in the dark; when our Maſter began at the wrong end, as was ſaid, when he ſhould at the top, the underſtanding, the crowne of a man; I will tell, I ſay, what we did; Beſides all our excuſes, and they were, for the moſt part, lyes; we wiſhed our Maſter no good, none at all, neither going forth, nor returning home, nor lying down, nor riſing up: we wiſhed it might raine pouring downe, eſpecially all the morning, though the fruits of the earth lay in the ſuds, ſo wee might ſtay at home what cared we for that: we were content with ſore eyes, and kybed heeles, they were good commodities with us, but that they hindred our play; wee would wiſh our ſelves dead too, when wee had not learnt to live; and though we could not be ſick when we would, yet wee would faigne it pretty well, and finde a time to ſteale to the Cupboard (not diſcerned) for proviſion of a cruſt againſt the next day, (when we did forecaſt trouble.) To a boy play & a dry cruſt is good cheare. It is not fit to tel all, and this could not be ſpared. But why all this? what unhappy boyes thoſe! the blame was not ours, we were in the darke, and yet ſpurred on as the Drunkard doth his horſe, when he minds not the danger, nor ſees one ſtep of his way; wee have cleared it then, that the underſtanding muſt be unfolded.
How is that? as wee doe let in light into our houſe, by the doores and windowes. An ignorant man lives, we ſay, like one in a darke houſe: he is a dark man: and darke let him be, if he will not take the paines to pluck downe the wooden window, thereby to let in ſo glorious a creature as light is, and ſo delightfull. God be thanked, the mans houſe hath windowes, let him ſet them open; ſo much light will come in whether hee will or no, as will leave him without excuſe, though he may be in the darke for all that.
But touching the Child, our purpoſe is that he ſhal not ſtir one inch farther, then he carries his Torch or Lanthorne in his hand, that thereby the underſtanding may doe its office, and put to memory to doe hers; and now we goe ſure, becauſe in order making no inverſion thereof, for that is to turne the picture.
Our endeavour ſhall bee to put the Child in a good forwardneſſe, before he knows where he began; he ſhall bee well entred, before he knowes how hee came into the way; hee ſhall doe his worke playing, and play working; hee ſhall ſeeme idle and think he is in ſport, when he is indeed ſerious, and beſt imployed. This is done, when the underſtanding is cleared by its owne light; when the Childs owne doore, which he thinks ſhut, is opened by a naturall key, of the childs owne framing, and uſing. It is, I ſay (for I would be cleare herein) thus done, when things are ſo ordered and explained, as that the conſequence is made eaſie by receiving his light, and dependance from the antecodent.
And this is a familiar way of teaching, when the Schoole is otium, indeed a profitable kind of play, for under that notion the work will be both more pleaſant, and then more profitable: but very different it is from thoſe ſports and recreations (as wee miſ-call them) uſuall now amongſt boyes. Such a way there is, that is certaine; and wee will grope after it anon, for ſo ſenſuall it is, that it may be felt. But I ſay againe, an infallible way it is, and in point of teaching, all in all, it being lex generalitatis as the Logicians terme it, an excellent helpe both to the judgement and memory, when a child can ſee himſelfe ſpeake, and know what he doth remember.
I cannot expreſſe the way in one word, and in our Tongue more plainly then in the Latine it is, there we call it precognition, which in more words, thus may be deſcribed. It is an anticipation of the underſtanding, that is, a ſtealing upon it, and catching of it, unfolding unto it, that the childe knowes not, by that medium or meanes he knew before; or, It is that whereby I ſlip into a childs underſtanding before he be aware; ſo as a child ſhall have done his task, before he ſhall ſuſpect that any was impoſed: this is done by Precognition; for it conveyes a light into the underſtanding, which the child hath lighted at his owne candle.