XX

PREFACE to

them, will heartily give his Assent and Approbation towhat his Lordship fays on the Subject of Polite Scholarship,and the Common Methods of Modern Education, in a Pas-sage I cant choose but transcribe here 3 so greatly does it de-serve our Attention.

It seems indeed somewhat improbable that accordingto modern Erudition, and as Science is now distributed,,our ingenious and noble Youths should obtain the full Ad-vantage of a just and liberal Education by uniting theScholar Part with that of the real Gentleman, and Manof Breeding. Academies for Exercises lo useful to thePublick, and essential in the Formation of a genteel andliberal Character, are unfortunately neglected. Lettersare indeed banished, I know not where, in distant Cloy-sters and unpractis’d Cells, as our Poet has it, confinedto the Commerce and mean Fellowship of bearded Boys.The sprightly Arts and Sciences are fever’d from Philo-sophy, which consequently must grow dronisb, insipid,pedantick, ufelefi and directly contrary to the real Know-ledge and Practice os the World and Mankind. OurYouths accordingly seem to have their only Chance be-tween two widely different Roads; either that of Pedan-try and School-learning, which lies amidst the Dregs andmost corrupt Part of ancient Literature; or that of thefashionable illiterate World which aims merely at theCharacter of the fine Gentleman, and takes up with theFoppery of modern Languages and foreign Wit. Thefrightful Aspect os the former of these Roads makes theJourney appear desperate and impracticable. Hence thatAversion so generally conceiv’d against a learn’d Cha-racter