whilst the weightier Matters of true Learning, whereof one has occasion every hour; such as good Principles, Morals, the improvement of Reason, the love of Justice, the value of Liberty, the duty owing to one’s Country and the Laws, are either quite omitted, or slightly passed over. Indeed they forget not to recommend frequently to them what they call the Queen of all Virtues, viz. Submission to Superiors, and an entire blind Obedience to Authority, without instructing them in the due measures of it, rather teaching them that ’tis without all bounds: Thus the Spirits of Men are from the beginning inured to Subjection, and deprived of the right Notion of a generous and legal Freedom, which few among them (so hardly are the prejudices of Education shaken off) grow sensible of, till they become of some Age and Maturity, or have unlearn’d by good Company and Travel those dangerous passive Doctrines they suck’d in at the Schools and Universities. But most have the Misfortune to carry these slavish Opinions with them to their Graves.
Had these Countries, whilst they were free, committed the Government of their Youth to Philosophers instead of Priests, they had in all probability preserv’d themselves from the Yoak of Bondage to this day, whereas now they not only endure it, but approve of it likewise: tantum relligio potuit.6
The Greeks and Romans instituted their Academies to quite another purpose, the whole Education of their Youth tended to make them as useful to the Society they lived in as possible. There they were train’d up to Exercise and Labour, to accustom them to an active Life: No Vice was more infamous than Sloth, nor any Man more contemptible than him that was too lazy to do all the Good he could; the Lectures of their Philosophers served to quicken them up to this. They recommended above all things the Duty to their Country, the preservation of the Laws and the publick Liberty; subservient to which they preach’d up Moral Virtues, such as Fortitude, Temperance, Justice, a contempt of Death, etc. Sometimes they made use of pious Cheats, as Elysian Fields, and an Assurance of Future Happiness, if they died in the Cause of their Country; and even deceived their Hearers into Greatness: Hence proceeded all those Noble Characters wherewith their Histories are so stock’d: Hence it was that their Philosophers were deservedly look’d upon as Supports of the State, they had their dependence wholly upon it; and as they could have no Interest distinct from it, they laid out themselves towards the advancing and promoting the good of it, insomuch that we find the very good Fortune of their Commonwealths often lasted no longer than they did. The managers of our modern Education have not been quite so publick Spirited, for it has been, as I have shewn, for the most part in the hands of Men who have a distinct Interest from the publick; therefore ’tis not to be wondered at, if like the rest of the World, they have been byassed by it, and directed their principal Designs towards the advancing their own Fortunes.
Good Learning as well as Travel is a great Antidote against the Plague of Tyranny. The Books that are left us of the Ancients (from whence, as from Fountains, we draw all that we are now Masters of) are full of Doctrines, Sentences, and Examples exhorting to the Conservation or Recovery of the publick Liberty, which was once valued above Life. The Heroes there celebrated are for the most part such as had destroyed or expelled Tyrants; and though Brutus be generally declaimed against by modern School-boys, he was then esteemed the true Pattern and Model of exact Virtue. Such was Cato of Utica, with others of like stamp. The more any person is conversant with good Books, the more shall he find the practices of these Great Men in this particular founded upon Reason, Justice, and Truth; and unanimously approv’d of by most of the succeeding Wise-men which the World has produc’d.
But instead of Books which inform the Judgment, those are commonly read in the Schools abroad, wherein an Elegancy of Latin and Greek Style is more sought after than the matter contained in them: So that such as treat a little boldly of publick Liberty occur to the reading of few, and those grown Men, rather through Chance or their Curiosity, than the recommendation of their Instructors.
’Twas not to learn Foreign Languages that the Graecian and Roman Youths went for so long together to the Academies and Lectures of their Philosophers. ’Twas not then, as now with us, when the Character of a Scholar is to be Skilled in Words; when one who is well versed in the dark Terms and Subtilties of the Schools passes for a profound Philosopher, by which we seem so far to have perverted the Notion of Learning, that a Man may be reputed a most extraordinary Scholar, and at the same time be the most useless Thing in the World; much less was it to learn their own Mother Tongues, the Greek and Latin, which we hunt after so eagerly for many Years together, (not as being the Vehicles of good Sense, but as if they had some intrinsick Virtue). ’Twas to learn how and when to speak pertinently, how to act like a Man to subdue the Passions, to be publick Spirited, to despise Death, Torments, and Reproach, Riches and the Smiles of Princes, as well as their Frowns, if they stood between them and their Duty. This manner of Education produced Men of another stamp than appears now upon the Theatre of the World; such as we are scarce worthy to mention, and must never hope to imitate, till the like manner of Institution grows again into Reputation; which in Enslaved Countries ’tis never likely to do, as long as the Ecclesiasticks, who have an opposite Interest, keep not only the Education of Youth, but the Consciences of old Men in their Hands.
To serve by-ends, and because Priests thought they should find their own account in it, they calculated those unintelligible Doctrines of Passive Obedience and Jus Divinum; that the People ought to pay an absolute Obedience to a limited Government; fall down and worship the work of their own Hands, as if it dropt from Heaven; together with other as profitable Doctrines, which no doubt many are by this time ashamed of, tho’ they think it below them to condescend so far as to confess themselves to have been in the wrong. For this Notion of Jus Divinum of Kings and Princes was never known in these Northern Parts of the World till these latter Ages of Slavery: Even in the Eastern Countries, though they adore their Kings as Gods, yet they never fancied they received their Right to Reign immediately from Heaven. The single Example in Scripture so much insisted on, viz. the Reign of Saul over the Jews, and Samuel’s Description of what a King would be, not what he lawfully might be; proves either nothing at all, or the contrary to what some would have it; for besides that there are many Relations of Fact in the Old Testament, not condemned there, which it would not be only inconvenient, but sinful for us to imitate: Whoever peruses the whole Story of Saul and his Successor, will therein find more substantial Arguments against the Jus Divinum and Non Resistance, than for it: But we shall leave this, both as being too large an Argument for the compass of a Preface, and as being already fully handled by more able Pens.
All Europe was in a manner a free Country till very lately insomuch that the Europeans were, and still are, distinguish’d in the Eastern Parts of the World by the name of Franks. In the beginning small Territories, or Congregations of People, chose valiant and wise Men to be their Captains or Judges, and as often Deposed them upon Mis-management. These Captains (doing their Duty well and faithfully) were the Originals of all our Kings and Princes, which at first, and for a long time were every where Elective. According to their own Warlike Temper, or that of the People which they govern’d, they (upon the Score of Revenge, Ambition, or being over-thronged with Multitudes at home) encroached upon their Neighbours; till from petty Principalities their Countries waxed to mighty Kingdoms. Spain alone consisting of twelve or thirteen till t’other day, and one part of our Island of no less than seven: Each of these was at first made through an Union of many petty Lordships. Italy from several small Commonwealths was at length swallowed up by the Emperors, Popes, Kings of Spain, Dukes of Florence, and other lesser Tyrants. Yet ’tis to be remark’d that the ancient State of Europe is best preserved in Italy even to this day, notwithstanding the Encroachments which have been there made on the People’s Liberties; of which one Reason may be, that the Republicks, which are more in number and quality in that Spot of Ground than in all Europe besides, keep their Ecclesiasticks within their due bounds, and make use of that natural Wit which Providence and a happy Climate has given them, to curb those, who if they had Power would curb all the World.
Every one ought to know how great the Rights of the People were very lately in the Elective Kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark; how Germany was freer
