The Works of the English Poets: Cowley

animals they should be fhewed anatomy as a divertise. ment, and made to know the figures and natures of thofe creatures which are not common among us, difabufing them at the fame time of thofe errors which are univerfally admitted concerning many. The fame method should be used to make them acquainted with all plants; and to this must be added a little of the ancient and modern geography, the understanding of the globes, and the principles of geometry and aftronomy. They should likewise use to declaim in Latin and English, as the Romans did in Greek and Latin; and in all this travail be rather led on by familiarity, encouragement, and emulation, than driven by severity, punishment, and terror. Upon feftivals and play-times, they should exercise themselves in the fields, by riding, leaping, fencing, mústering, and training, after the manner of foldiers, &c. And, to prevent all dangers and all diforder, there should always be two of the fcholars with them, to be as witneffes and directors of their actions; in foul weather, it would not be amifs for them to learn to dance, that is, to learn just so much (for all beyond is fuperfluous, if not worse) as may give them a graceful comportment of their bodies.

Upon Sundays, and all days of devotion, they are to. be a part of the chaplain's province.

That, for all these ends, the college fo order it, as that there may be fome convenient and pleasant houfes thereabouts, kept by religious, difcreet, and careful perfons, for the lodging and boarding of young fcholars; that they have a constant eye over them, to see that they be bred up there piously, cleanly, and plenti

fully,

fully, according to the proportion of the parents' expences.

And that the college, when it fhall please God, either by their own industry and fuccefs, or by the benevolence of patrons, to enrich them fo far, as that it may come to their turn and duty to be charitable to others, fhall, at their own charges, erect and maintain fome house or houses for the entertainment of such poor men's fons, whofe good natural parts may promise either ufe or ornament to the commonwealth, during the time of their abode at school; and shall take care that it fhall be done with the fame conveniences as are enjoyed even by rich men's children (though they maintain the fewer for that caufe), there being nothing of eminent and illuftrious to be expected from a low, fordid, and hospital-like education.

CONCLUSION.

IF I be not much abused by a natural fondness to my own conceptions (that cogy of the Greeks, which no other language has a proper word for), there was never any project thought upon, which deferves to meet with fo few adversaries as this; for who can without impupudent folly oppose the establishment of twenty wellfelected perfons in fuch a condition of life, that their whole business and fole profeffion may be to study the 'improvement and advantage of all other profeffions, from that of the highest general even to the lowest artifan? who fhall be obliged to employ their whole time, wit, learning, and industry, to these four, the most useful that can be imagined, and to no other ends; firft,

Dd a

first, to weigh, examine, and prove, all things of nature delivered to us by former ages; to detect, explode, and ftrike a cenfure through, all false monies with which the world has been paid and cheated fo long; and (as I may fay) to fet the mark of the college upon all true coins, that they may pass hereafter without any farther trial fecondly, to recover the loft inventions, and, as it were, drowned lands of the ancients: thirdly, to improve all arts which we now have and lastly, to discover others which we yet have not: and who shall, befides all this (as a benefit by the bye), give the best education in the world (purely gratis) to as many men's children as fhall think fit to make use of the obligation? Neither does it at all check or interfere with any parties in a state or religion; but is indifferently to be embraced by all differences in opinion, and can hardly be conceived capable (as many good inftitutions have done) even of degeneration into any thing harmful. So that, all things confidered, I will fuppofe this propofition fhall encounter with no enemies: the only question is, whether it will find friends enough to carry it on from difcourfe and design to reality and effect; the neceffary expences of the beginning (for it will maintain itself well enough afterwards) being fo great (though I have fet them as low as is poffible, in order to so vast a work), that it may seem hopeless to raise fuch a fum out of those few dead relics of human charity and public generosity which are yet remaining in the world.

CON.

CONTENTS

O F

THE

SECOND

VOLUM E.

PINDARIC ODES, WRITTEN IN IMITATION
OF THE STILE AND MANNER OF THE
ODES OF PINDAR.

REFACE

PREF

The fecond Olympic Ode of Pindar

The firft Nemean Ode of Pindar