A Light to Grammar and All Other Arts and Sciences, Chapter 5
CHAP. V.
When to begin with the Child in the learning of languages: The Child will helpe us there: The Engliſh ſchoole how ill ordered; how it ſhould be: how fundamentall the Mother tongue is: what our care thereabout.
VVEE have not yet begun with the Child, but now ſetting upon it, if it be thought a fitting time. When is that? So ſoone as the Child can exerciſe his inward faculties, hath any ſtrength there, then we muſt begin and well husband the time. Now the Child will take in faſt enough, like a faire Table-book…, wherein is nothing yet, but preſently there will be ſomething written, which we cannot ſo eaſily blot out: It is the Maſters wiſdome, and for that he ſhall be counted an underſtanding man, not to leave the child to his choyſe: For now (and ſo we ſhall know the nick of time) the Child can diſtinctly obſerve that which is before his eyes, and can call it by its name.
The Child hath Arithmetick too, what a jolly fellow is this? (I muſt inſert words of incouragement, that promoteth greatly the little thing) he can skill of Greek, hee can tell you how many fingers hee hath upon the one hand, then he can number I hope.
He can put the other five to them, and tell what all amounts to; then he can adde; he can take away the one hand, and tell you how many remaines: The beſt Accountant in the towne cannot anſwer more punctually; then wee will grant he can ſubſtract: yes & more yet is his skil, for he can tel you what twice 5. is, ſo he can multiply; And ten to one, if theſe ten were ten Apples, he would divide them by 2. to each hand even parcels, and ſo keepe all for himſelfe: otherwiſe, and in ſuch caſes, hee careth not for diviſion, though he underſtands it for his uſe very well.
Poore Child! hee hath diſcovered himſelfe too far: for now his skill is ſo well knowne, hee muſt to Schoole to learne his Mother-tongue the very next Munday; And there we ſuppoſe hee is, where the Miſtreſſe helps to hold the book with one hand, and (if it be as I have ſeen) a little twigge in the other, which the childe markes very earneſtly, as wee would have it doe the leſſon.
Here is a change now, and that will be pleaſing for ſome houres. The next weeke the childe will tell you when is the next Holy-day, for that is all hee heard at Church, and all he lookes for, he knowes where, for he findes it to be a red letter: And for the Schoole hee hath no minde to it; by his going thither, and returning thence, we perceive well enough, that no man loves a priſon worfe: never looks he to ſee a mery day, ſo long as he is pent up there. Why? becauſe the Schoole indeed is but a priſon to his body; and no way is taken to enlarge his minde. What a coyle is there to make him pronounce falſe? and becauſe hee cannot readily doe ſo, for very nature teacheth otherwiſe, perhaps hee feeles the twigge too, and his ſenſe is ſo quick at that point, that he cannot reliſh the Schoole.
He heares alſo of Vowels and Conſonants, What are they? Latine; poore little Engliſhman, he cannot skill of that. Then hee muſt put theſe together, and ſpell, What is that? Greeke; indeed ſo it is to the childe, and to the Teacher too.
Certaine it is, the child underſtands more of his own tongue in one monethmonth from his Nurſe (after he can ſpeak articulately) then he gains from a Schoole in three in any language; which clearly ſheweth of what force nature is, ſpecially when a little helpt by Art, and made mighty by uſe: The one and the other, even all three gives us great accommodation here: Nature gives us the precognition; Art, Skill to uſe it: Vſe makes it familiar.
It muſt not be expected here, that I ſhould give the precognition to every thing that I would have learnt thereby; that were a dead work; Time and place will inſtruct much, and the very thing in hand. This I ſay again, we muſt make it a preparatory to the underſtanding of every thing, ſo preventing the toyle of conceiving the ſame: And we muſt finde a precognition, or make it, as the great Commander ſaid, when his way was blockt up before him. And this nature ſhewes, that a vowell makes a ſound alone, perfect of it ſelfe; The Conſonant not without a Vowell, being indeed of it ſelfe, but the very eſſay, and offer of the tongue, and no more.
And if c, g, and t, might but know their power once, and keep it ever, u, and v, diſtinct in figure, but more in ſound; if I ſay it were obſerved, it would ſave us much trouble in afterproceeding; ſo alſo if the ſyllable were diſtinctly framed according to the plaine rules for ſpelling, ſo pronounced, ſpecially the laſt letter. For the pauſes or ſtops, our breathing will help us there, but the obſervation thereof, is the chiefeſt part in good reading.
I confeſſe my thoughts are not ripened here; if they were, I would not blot paper with them, though it is no diſparagement to goe even ſo low; for the Mother-tongue is the foundation of all; nay indeed wee have a neceſſity ſo to doe every day, elſe wee cannot goe forward orderly; the ground-work of the childs entry being ſo rotten underneath. But I may ſpare my paines o… writing upon this Elementary point, fo… I finde a ſhort paper for direction this way, from a man of long experience in higher matters, gained by travell, and and otherwayes lM. Carew.: And a large tractate there is alſo, treating on the very ſame ſubject, of more large uſe.M. Hodges.
And ſurely great need of all this: for the matter of the elementary (the Hornbook) though it be ſmall in ſhew, yet it is great for proceſſe: and for the manner of handling the child, of great moment alſo, to hearten him on for afterwards. And therefore it would promote the common good not a little, if an able man had the ordering the child at this firſt ſtaire or ſtep; for a firme ground here, at this low point, raiſeth the work mightily, and makes all ſtand firme. But it is ſuppoſed the Maſter muſt have anſwerable pay: a good encouragement to come down ſo low, when he ſhall perceive that reward ſhal riſe up. This will be thought upon when Praemia conatum extimulant. De Aug, li 2.times mend, and the day cleares up, then our judgement, and fore-ſight will cleare up too: In the meane time, I know what will not be done; a good Scholar will not come down ſo low, as the firſt elementary, and to ſo low a recompence alſo; it ſhall bee left to the meaneſt, and therefore to the worſt. And there I leave it alſo even in the Miſtreſſe her hands, for there is no remedy; And ſo I come to that work which more properly belongs unto the Maſter.