_Instruction is the means to expel Rudeness_, with which young wits
ought to be well furnished in Schools: But so, as that the teaching be
1. _True_, 2. _Full_, 3. _Clear_, and 4. _Solid_.
1. It will be _true_, if nothing be taught but such as is beneficial to
ones life; lest there be a cause of complaining afterwards. We know not
necessary things, because we have not learned things necessary.
2. It will be _full_, if the mind be polished for wisdom, the tongue for
eloquence, and the hands for a neat way of living. This will be that
_grace_ of one’s life, _to be wise, to act, to speak_.
3, 4. It will be _clear_, and by that, firm and _solid_, if whatever is
taught and learned, be not obscure, or confused, but apparent, distinct,
and articulate, as the fingers on the hands.
The ground of this business, is, that sensual objects may be rightly
presented to the senses, for fear they may not be received. I say, and
say it again aloud, that this last is the foundation of all the rest:
because we can neither act nor speak wisely, unless we first rightly
understand all the things which are to be done, and whereof we are to
speak. Now there is nothing in the understanding, which was not before
in the sense. And therefore to exercise the senses well about the right
perceiving the differences of things, will be to lay the grounds for all
wisdom, and all wise discourse, and all discreet actions in ones course
of life. Which, because it is commonly neglected in schools, and the
things which are to be learned are offered to scholars, without being
understood or being rightly presented to the senses, it cometh to pass,
that the work of teaching and learning goeth heavily onward, and
affordeth little benefit.
See here then a new help for schools, A Picture and Nomenclature of all
the chief things in the world, and of men’s actions in their way of
living: Which, that you, good Masters, may not be loath to run over with
your scholars, I will tell you, in short, what good you may expect from
it.
It is _a little Book_, as you see, of no great bulk, yet a brief of the
whole world, and a whole language: full of Pictures, Nomenclatures, and
Descriptions of things.
I. _The Pictures_ are the representation of all visible things, (to
which also things invisible are reduced after their fashion) of the
whole world. And that in that very order of things, in which they are
described in the _Janua Latinæ Linguæ_; and with that fulness, that
nothing very necessary or of great concernment is omitted.
II. _The Nomenclatures_ are the Inscriptions, or Titles set every one
over their own Pictures, expressing the whole thing by its own general
term.
III. _The Descriptions_ are the explications of the parts of the
Picture, so expressed by their own proper terms, as that same figure
which is added to every piece of the picture, and the term of it, always
sheweth what things belongeth one to another.
Which such Book, and in such a dress may (I hope) serve,
I. To entice witty children to it, that they may not conceit a torment
to be in the school, but dainty fare. For it is apparent, that children
(even from their infancy almost) are delighted with Pictures, and
willingly please their eyes with these lights: And it will be very well
worth the pains to have once brought it to pass, that scare-crows may be
taken away out of Wisdom’s Gardens.
II. This same little Book will serve to stir up the Attention, which is
to be fastened upon things, and even to be sharpened more and more:
which is also a great matter. For the Senses (being the main guides of
childhood, because therein the mind doth not as yet raise up itself to
an abstracted contemplation of things) evermore seek their own objects,
and if they be away, they grow dull, and wry themselves hither and
thither out of a weariness of themselves: but when their objects are
present, they grow merry, wax lively, and willingly suffer themselves to
be fastened upon them, till the thing be sufficiently discerned. This
Book then will do a good piece of service in taking (especially
flickering) wits, and preparing them for deeper studies.
III. Whence a third good will follow; that children being won hereunto,
and drawn over with this way of heeding, may be furnished with the
knowledge of the prime things that are in the world, by sport and merry
pastime. In a word, this Book will serve for the more pleasing using of
the _Vestibulum_ and _Janua Linguarum_, for which end it was even at the
first chiefly intended. Yet if it like any, that it be bound up in their
native tongues also, it promiseth three good thing of itself.
I. First it will afford a device for learning to read more easily than
hitherto, especially having a symbolical alphabet set before it, to wit,
the characters of the several letters, with the image of that creature,
whose voice that letter goeth about to imitate, pictur’d by it. For the
young _Abc_ scholar will easily remember the force of every character by
the very looking upon the creature, till the imagination being
strengthened by use, can readily afford all things; and then having
looked over a _table of the chief syllables_ also (which yet was not
thought necessary to be added to this book) he may proceed to the
viewing of the Pictures, and the inscriptions set over ’em. Where again
the very looking upon the thing pictured suggesting the name of the
thing, will tell him how the title of the picture is to be read. And
thus the whole book being gone over by the bare titles of the pictures,
reading cannot but be learned; and indeed too, which thing is to be
noted, without using any ordinary tedious spelling, that most
troublesome torture of wits, which may wholly be avoided by this method.
For the often reading over the Book, by those larger descriptions of
things, and which are set after the Pictures, will be able perfectly to
beget a habit of reading.
II. The same book being used in English, in English Schools, will serve
for the perfect learning of the whole English tongue, and that from the
bottom; because by the aforesaid descriptions of things, the words and
phrases of the whole language are found set orderly in their own places.
And a short English Grammar might be added at the end, clearly resolving
the speech already understood into its parts; shewing the declining of
the several words, and reducing those that are joined together under
certain rules.
III. Thence a new benefit cometh, that that very English Translation may
serve for the more ready and pleasant learning of the Latin tongue: as
one may see in this Edition, the whole book being so translated, that
every where one word answereth to the word over against it, and the book
is in all things the same, only in two idioms, as a man clad in a double
garment. And there might be also some observations and advertisements
added in the end, touching those things only, wherein the use of the
Latin tongue differeth from the English. For where there is no
difference, there needeth no advertisement to be given. But, because the
first _tasks of learners ought to be little and single_, we have filled
this first book of training one up to see a thing of himself, with
nothing but rudiments, that is, with the chief of things and words, or
with the grounds of the whole world, and the whole language, and of all
our understanding about things. If a more perfect description of things,
and a fuller knowledge of a language, and a clearer light of the
understanding be sought after (as they ought to be) they are to be found
somewhere whither there will now be an easy passage by this our _little
Encyclopædia_ of things subject to the senses. Something remaineth to be
said touching the more chearful use of this book.
I. Let it be given to children into their hands to delight themselves
withal as they please, with the sight of the pictures, and making them
as familiar to themselves as may be, and that even at home before they
be put to school.
II. Then let them be examined ever and anon (especially now in the
school) what this thing or that thing is, and is called, so that they
may see nothing which they know not how to name, and that they can name
nothing which they cannot shew.
III. And let the things named them be shewed, not only in the Picture,
but also in themselves; for example, the parts of the body, clothes,
books, the house, utensils, &c.
IV. Let them be suffered also to imitate the Pictures by hand, if they
will, nay rather, let them be encouraged, that they may be willing:
first, thus to quicken the attention also towards the things; and to
observe the proportion of the parts one towards another; and lastly to
practise the nimbleness of the hand, which is good for many things.
V. If anything here mentioned, cannot be presented to the eye, it will
be to no purpose at all to offer them by themselves to the scholars; as
colours, relishes, &c., which cannot here be pictured out with ink. For
which reason it were to be wished, that things rare and not easy to be
met withal at home, might be kept ready in every great school, that they
may be shewed also, as often as any words are to be made of them, to the
scholars.
Thus at last this school would indeed become a school of things obvious
to the senses, and an entrance to the school intellectual. But enough:
Let us come to the thing it self.