IT is the happy advantage of the excellent Go­vernment of this Nation, that when we lie un­der any oppression of general importance, we may have our [Page 4]recourse to this Great Council for Advice and Relief; Nei­ther is there any end more in­trinsical to such an Assembly, or any honour more desirea­ble.

We the Children of this Land, who look upon our selves as no small part of the Nation, while there is scarce any House or Family whereof we make not our share; nor our interest inconsiderable, while the good of us, as to you whose we are, is of the nearest con­cernment that can be; are em­boldned to this humble Sup­plication, not so much of your pity and tenderness, as Fathers, as of the scrutiny and holiness of Censors, and a just indigna­tion [Page 5]and redress of that evil, which shall appear to you, upon mature consultation.

There is not any thing hard­ly of more moment in a Com­monwealth, then the Educati­on of Children, and yet is there generally nothing left more at randon, and besides the pub­lick care. It is the custom or­dinarily of our Schools, which being received from our An­cestors, and used upon our in­nocent years (that are not sen­sible either of our Masters vice, or our own injury) does passe uncontrouled, to commit to a person who hath got a little Greek and Latin, and nothing else perhaps to live upon, and so is chosen to the Office (with­out [Page 6]any qualification otherwise many times, either of real worth or virtuous life, it is well if it be but so much as of sobriety in age, and modest inclinations) the liberty to use such a kind of discipline over us, as that the spring-time of humane life, which in all other Creatures is left at the greatest freedom to be sweet and jocund, is deflou­red and consumed with bitter­ness and terror, to the drying up the very sap which should nourish our Bodies, and those more lively spirits which should animate our minds in our fu­ture life, unto brave Actions.

And if it were only the evil of our suffering we had to com­plain of, seeing our unadvertent [Page 7]Parents do give us up to this Carnage, we should bear it: But when our sufferings are of that nature as makes our Schools to be not meerly hou­ses of Correction, but of Pro­stitution, in this vile way of ca­stigation in use, wherein our se­cret parts, which are by nature shameful, and not to be unco­vered, must be the Anvil ex­posed to the immodest eyes, and filthy blows of the smiter; We are confounded with the horror, and could wish we had some such way, as by turning up the soal of our Shoe, (which they use, they say, among the Turks) to present to you our Grievance. For we are per­swaded, if modesty will suffer [Page 8]the thing to be debated, it will be found certainly, to be [...], that is, a matter to be adjudged amongst the Apostles [...], and those [...] vvhich are not to be named. Ubi sunt pueri qui ingressi sunt? Fac ut prodeant, ut cognoscamus eos.

Indeed one would think that this kind of punishment should have been first invented on purpose, that an aversation to it, as an ugly sordid and abhorrent thing, should deter ingenuous persons from inflicting it, so that nothing less then some very grievous crime should ever wring a stripe from them; but when our contrary experience [Page 11]does tell us how every light oc­casion is taken, with what ap­petite they come to it, as soon as the flesh is bare, these Jar­falcons are perching over us, their letting so few faults e­scape, and attending our con­struing, for the most part, no longer then till they obtain this end, we are convinced vvith the sad and insufferable resent­ment, that the invention hath been fetched originally, not from the Closet of Mercury or Astraea, but from the more powerful Goddess of Cyprus, be­ing a certain trick of hers, to al­leviate the pains and killing Crambee's; the Master other­wise could never perhaps en­dure, if beyond the encou­ragement [Page 12]he hath in most pla­ces from the Founder, he had not this sly allowance under­hand from her withal, as Bene­factrix to that function.

It is disputed against the Stoicks, vvho condemn all an­ger, that some passion is neces­sary to the chastizement of Youth; and so is Ira defined by Lactantius, Motus animi ad coercenda peccata insurgentis. A definition indeed very fitting the profession of that Father, vvhose Latin doubtlesly is smoother then his spirit througout his Works. Plu­tarch in his Tract about Cohibi­tion of Anger, hath laid down a Rule of a contrary impor­tance, vvith excellent delibera­tion, [Page 13]which is to this sense, That punishment should never be inflicted out of self-pleasing; and consequently from the ex­amples, of that of Archytas, Vapulares nisi iratus essem, and others, when a man is at pre­sent enraged, he is first to cor­rect his own passion, before he is fit to punish the fault of ano­ther under his intuition. To this same effect, Qui esurit is cibo utitur secundum naturam, qui punit is nulla ad hoc impelli debet cupiditate, sayes Seneca. Those that administer punish­ment, (sayes Cicero) are to be Legum similes, quae ad punien­dum non iracundia, sed aequitate ducuntur. That is, He that is hungry, useth his meat accord­ing [Page 14]to Nature, but he that pu­nishes, ought to be like the Laws themselves, that are mo­ved to it with no sort of desire at all. Plutarch indeed speaks cleanly, imagining nothing but of the pleasure of revenge, and satiating ones anger; But what would he say of that pu­nishment which is made to serve a viler affection? Et de virtute locuti, Clunem agitant, as Juvenal has it.

If punishment come from self-pleasing, Then will it not be in measure; Then will it not be just; Then the punisher will be glad of a fault; Then will it be remediless to the suf­ferer, seeing the cause of the punishment lies in the punisher, [Page 15]and not in the punished to help it; Then every little occasion, or none at all, shall be enough for the inflicter to give himself pleasure. And then shall the innocent, who are little ones, and not able to conceive of this, be intollerably miserable, be­ing brought many times almost to their wits end, and ready to make away themselves, rather then endure the iteration of those torments, whereof they can see no reason, and wherein they can hope no end; having some cognation in this to those of Hell, that they arise from an unquenchable fire, in the appetite of the Master.

Sir Philip Sidney, that excel­lent Person, in his Arcadia, [Page 16]hath thought good to set forth this evil to publick view, and so to animadversion, we may suppose and emendation, under the person of Cecropia, dealing thus with her Neices. Cecro­pia (sayes he) imploying her time in using the same cruelty on Pa­mela, (as on Philoclea) her heart grew not onely to desire the fruit of punishing, but even to delight in punishing them. This very ingenuous Gentleman had ob­served, belike, this growing hu­mour in those that use it; but having a Soul in which so foul a thought never entred, as might direct him right into the cause of it, he expresses the practice, complaining tragical­ly of the cruelty, but searches [Page 17]not to that rottenness which lies farther at the core of it. Will you hear that shrewd Author of Hudibras make the disco­very?

By this little, we need not wonder if the Tyrant of old, who being expulsed his King­dom, got to be Master of a School, should chuse that, for the more voluptuous domini­on. Nor that any present Rab­bies of the function in our Na­tion, should not, when time [Page 18]served, be won, to change this province, for any other, ten­dred to them, by the highest bounty.

And indeed if there were not some such thing, and that this at the root, how should we meet still with such doings as we do almost in all Schools? How could men, who have the face of gravity and discretion, be so highly, and so readily of­fended [Page 19]at all turns with inno­cent Children, as they make themselves to be? What think you? when a Boy shall be hoy­sed perhaps at first for the mis­sing of a word, and then be held on in the asking more questions (which fear alone shall disable him presently to answer) until he receive so ma­ny stripes, or so grievous ones, if fewer, as the Rogue who is whipt for petty-larceny, comes off very gently many times in comparison of this Lad; Who can think, if the punishment were not suffer'd to be on those parts, that it were like to be so much? The blood which fol­lowed any where else, could [Page 20]not but make the bowels yearn, and the hands relent, when the Child is so little, and the fault less. The blows could neither be so frequent or so sore, if compassion were not choaked with something else. For this is the misery and plague above all, that when those appetites, which are natural, have their end, and receive a completion and redress in the attaining of that end, the appetite which is unnatural, is infinite, and it is a thing the thoughts whereof is intollerable to us, that our suf­ferings and smart must encrease according to the ebb and flow­ing of those desires, which have no current this way in nature [Page 21]to satisfaction & a surcease. In­deed if there be need for us to be stricken, for the ease and impatience of the Master, without any profit to us, let them not be the blows of a pre­meditated villany, but of his present wrath, such as a blow upon the shoulders, or a flirt on the ear sometimes may be; we shall acknowledge it but a part of due humility, and gra­titude to bear with him, in re­compence of his bearing so much with us: But if there be some other incentive to our beating, more insatiable then that of anger in the case, we cannot but think it high time that the matter be look'd into [Page 22]a little better then hath been hi­therto, whether indeed it be any longer to be endured in the Nation. We shall be sorry heartily, if no reward but this can be sufficient to hold the Able to this imployment, yet must not any be so gratified, nor Learning it self be rated at the price of what is wicked. Dis­soluti est hominis (sayes one of the Fathers) in rebus seriis, vo­luptatem quaerere.

It is not unknown how the Jesuites govern: their Schools beyond the Seas, nor what they have delivered some of them on this matter in their cases of Conscience; Neither would it be any dishonour to us to [Page 23]change our customs for the better, though we borrowed them of other Countries. It cannot therefore but be a won­der to us that ever we should have Parliaments in England, wherein are so many Gentle­men of excellent parts, and in­genuous reflections, and who some of them are not so old as to forget what was unhand­some, and yet we never hear of something tendred for the regulation of Schools, and what is practised there. Is it because you can indeed re­member no stories? Or, that the impressions do yet last, that you must not tell tales from thence? And why must we tell [Page 24]no tales of our Master or Dame? If there were no con­sciousness of what is ugly in the fact, what need of this pri­vacy? Why is the Boy or Girl retired from their fellows, and why so long a preachment then made over the Bare in a Corner? The end of vertuous punishment is for example, and such symptoms as these do in­form us, who indeed do most need to be amended, the Pu­nisher or the Punished, the Pu­nished or the punishment it self, which will be found the greatest delinquent. It may be said, There is a necessity of some castigation sometimes upon some occasion, and this is [Page 25]most safe, or least dangerous, that Children receive no hurt by it, and therefore is chosen and used. But this is but one thing well considered, and those that look but on one thing in their deliberation up­on what is to be done, are easi­ly misled into a wrong or shal­low determination. There is more then this one thing in so momentous a matter, as the in­stitution of Youth, to come un­der consideration. You may easily provide for our security, that no bones be broken, and yet without the neglect of ho­nesty and virtue.

In truth, it is a Question ra­ther worthy the most mature [Page 26]deliberation, whether Children should ever be beaten at all a­bout their Books. That cha­stizement is fit for this Age up­on desert, we denie not, and the holy Scripture asserts: But as that is a chastizement which is meet, so is it we suppose to be for sin, or some moral fault. The understanding will never be inlightned, the memory healed, or the invention quick­ned by stripes upon the flesh. There are many dull'd, we are sure; many discouraged, and some that have been undon by this means. Quintilian, that most famous Institutor of Youth, though he would have Lads brought up hard, to be [Page 27]able to endure any thing, as the lying on boards, eating the coursest fare, and the like, yet is herein express; Coedi vero discentes quamquam receptum sit, & Chrysippus non improbet mini­mè vellem. But by no means (sayes he) would I have those that learn, to be beaten, not­withstanding it is so commonly used. There are these Reasons he renders; In the first place, It is a servile thing that be­comes only slaves or bruits, and so unworthy of any that are free-born, and much less such who are the Sons of Gentle­men and Nobles. Besides that, if you change the considerati­on of the Age, for the most [Page 28]part it is most manifest injury and wrong. In the next place, If there be any whose disposi­tion is so illiberal, as that it will not be amended by reproof and ingenuous notices, it is to be expected it should become but the worse for blows, and grow the more obdurate. In the third place, There will be no need of castigation, if the Master be so diligent as he ought, to see the task which he sets to be done, by his own sedulity and inspection. Nunc ferè negligentia paedagogorum sic emendari videtur, ut pueri non facere quae recta sunt cogantur, sed cur non fecerint puniantur. That is, The matter now a-days [Page 29]is ordinarily so carried, the Boy is beaten to make amends for his Masters carelesness and sloth. Add unto this, that there is many times a hared brain, a stammering tongue, or the like very grievous ill habit or gesture introduced through terror; or there may be, at least, according to this same Author, some deformed passa­ges, or uncouth words, which do fall from, or happen to those that are beating, which leave such impressions of shame and surprize on the more ingenuous and bashful, that no advantage which can be ob­tained by any Master, is able to recompence the mischief al­ready [Page 30]suffered, if it be onely in the debasing the Spirit, and rendring themselves vile in their own imaginations. A­bove all, in the last place, he has these words; Jam si minor in deligendis custodum & Praecepto­rum moribus fuit cura, pudet di­cere in quae probra nefandi ho­mines isto coedendi jure abutan­tur. Non morabar in parte hac, nimium est quod intelligitur. We will not English this last of his Reasons, because it is the very fore upon which we touch, and the rise of this Address; onely thus far, It is too much already (sayes he) which is understood.

The habitation of the Muses are fancied by the Poets to be [Page 31] Amoena Loca, pleasant Groves, delightful Hills, chrystal Foun­tains, where Joy, and Glad­nesse, and the Graces dwell. And what is it these signifie? Hath their Pernassus, and such fictions, no meaning? Is it the steep toyl onely Learning re­quires in those that will climb to it, or the refreshing prospect they intend by it to intice us up? What is it the Antients here would represent? Are their high Hills nothing indeed but Difficulty, and their Groves Birch? Is Helicon the Boys Tears, and Pegasus the blind Horse? Alas, that when we should be invited to Learning, as to a Banquet, a pleasant [Page 32]Feast, and the desire of our Souls, it is presented to us ne­ver but in torment and dread! Alas, that the Muses should be put thus in the shape of Erinnis, and Thalia's Lute-strings be made to yeeld no Sounds but Screeches and Cries? That when we go to School, we should be driving to the Sham­bles; when we go to our Books, we should be carrying unto paines. Et ubi tor quentur, jam non membra, sed vulnera, in Cy­prians expression. Alas! how wide must the World needs be here, to think that Children, in their tender Nature, should be made to love that (and who would not have Children love [Page 33]their Books?) which is never offered them but with hate? You should imbitter to us our pleasure, and our sin that will do us hurt; but you should sugar to us our learning, which is for our good. The Nurse should never put Wormwood on that Brest from which she would not have the Child to be weaned. We read of Marcus Portius, in the Roman Story, who established a Law, That no Roman Citizen should be beaten by the Magistrate with Rods. He should be a Tri­bune of the People by our Vote, that could prefer a Lex Porcia in our Schools, and some Work-houses, where poor [Page 34]Children are imployed, in this Nation. If Solomon will have the Boys beaten, and the Maids beaten, let it be with a Wand, or such a way as becomes the Vertuous, as well as the Severe. If Solomon will name a Rod too, it is a Rod for the Back: Let it be a chast stripping; but what need is there for making the Child good, to have the Master made naught? Solomons Corrections are spoken to Pa­rents, which he advises too to­ward Children for their faults, and not Masters for their Books; Furthermore we have bad Parents (sayes the Apostle) that have chastned us after their own pleasure; signifying, that [Page 35]we are yet to be in subjection as to them; but if we have Masters that do so, it is a thing to be abhorred, seeing God does not, and the Good con­sequently should not, correct any but only, for their profit. Especially seeing moreover, Quod aetatem infirmam & inju­riae obnoxiam (as the aforesaid Quintilian farther has it) nemini debet nimium licere.

It is a thing here orderly worth the enquiry, what that power the Master hath over his Scholars is, and whence he hath it? All power we must know is either natural, or derived. The power of the Master is not of Nature; For what hath [Page 36]one man of himself to do with the Child of another? The power which is derived, is ei­ther Supream, or Subordinate. The Supream Authority, is that which lies in the chief Magi­strate, whether it be derived to him immediately from God, as in this state; or by consent of the people, as in some others. The Subordinate Power, is that which is derived from the Su­pream to the inferior Officers, who act in his Name, and from his Authority. The power of the Master now is no such power neither, deriving from the Magistrate, or the Laws of the Nation; for he acts not o­ver the Boyes in the Kings [Page 37]Name, as the Justice and the Constable, and the like Offi­cers do. What then is this ad­ventitious strange power? Why, this power the Master hath o­ver the Scholar, is that right of ruling him, which is given him by the Father. It is no power therefore Supream, but Subor­dinate; and not natural, but derived from that which is na­tural; and consequently is no other, nor no more, or to any other purpose, then what the Parents do allow him. If a Father therefore shall commit his Child to a School for Lear­ning, but shall not give the Ma­ster leave to strike him, or if he does, yet not use this sort of [Page 38]coercion upon him for the rea­sons mentioned, The Master cannot serve any such Child in this said fashion, but he is un­just; not to say also what is worse, because he usurps an authority, he hath not commit­ted to him, and so is accounta­ble both before God and Man for such an action. Let not him that is unjust be unjust still; let not him that is filthy, be still filthy.

Not that we intend by this, to diminish the least tittle of that reverence which is due to our Masters. For when we derive their Authority from this Fountain, we do think it a part of the piety we owe to [Page 39]God and our Parents, to render honour to their Persons, and obedience to their Instructi­ons.

It is our Parents, we know, from whom we derive our be­ing in the World; and it is our Masters many times to whom we owe our more happy being, in regard of that shape and fa­shion vvherein they cast us for [Page 40]the serving our Generation, or living more to purpose in it. There is not therefore any ve­neration or gratitude we can pay them, nor any gifts or gra­tuities according to their abili­ties from our Friends, no nor any Revenues that have been bestowed on some Schools by the pious Erectors of them, vvhich vve think too much for the care and labour of any such men vvho are but a little faith­ful in this charge. We humbly think it vvere good that the stipends and emoluments of Masters vvere augmented. But there is a certain payment vvhich they give, and not re­ceive; a salacious pay of theirs, [Page 41]which they take of us, and not from us, vvhereof vve crave an abatement; and about vvhich, as neither vvorthy nor: inno­cent, or at least vvhether it be so or no, according to the com­mon usage of it, vve are vvil­ling to come to some account or argument vvith them.

One Boy hath happily a good understanding and no memory; Another hath a rea­dy memory and no judgment; A third hath neither memory nor judgment. The Boy vvhose memory is quick, looks over his Lesson once or twice, and goes to play; the other tvvo ply their Book as hard as they can, and are not able to get it. The [Page 42]Master comes now and puts the Boy who follows his play, to say his Part, he sayes it, and so passes: The other two cannot say for their lives, and are bea­ten. Here is Nature in these Lads, and no fault punished. If the Boy who has the memory, had been put on some other task requiring pains and judg­ment, he should have suffered, and one of the other escaped. Thus Fortune, not desert, is en­couraged or reproved. And what if the Master, who knows the difference of their abilities, shall purposely set each of them to such tasks, unto which he knows their parts most defe­ctive; how easie is it for him, [Page 43]as often as he is willing, to serve himself of any of them? Let us yet press this a little farther, It is the custom of some Schools, or rather of some Masters, to set their Boys a Law, That if we miss such a number of words, as suppose just three words, we must be certain of what fol­lows: And herein must they appear very righteous men to us, that they impartially exe­cute their own rule, and none be spared. Now what unrea­sonable dealings are these with us? For one Boy to answer but three words in the whole, and miss all the rest, is more then for another to answer all the rest, and miss but three words. [Page 44]What is it whether a Boy miss three words, or thirteen? It is his care or negligence, his dili­gence or disobedience is to be regarded. It is the Will and En­deavour which alone renders him culpable or blameless. And what shall we judge then of such School Edicts as these, but that either the Master is one that follows others in his Me­thods without discretion, or that these Rules of such who do in­vent, or execute the same, are but fine Devices to give them­selves opportunity under the pretence of justice, (which will go among the Boys) to sa­tisfie those inclinations, which the tribe of these men, for [Page 45]ought we see generally, (if they be still suffered) are sure to catch (as fast as we Boys that come but together, do our itch) of one another.

There are no persons of in­nocent apprehensions, who see a Master taken with their Child, as more pretty, sprack, and in­genuous then others, can but be apt to think, that sure this Master who so likes that Child, will be Ioth to beat him. But when we that come to School together, shall see this Lad ta­ken out by his Master, and have [Page 46]about half a dozen, or half a score lashes given him, by authority of that sentence, Non castigo to quod odio habeam, sed quod amem, rung in his ear, with repetition of the Quod amem, at every lash; What shall we think of such liking? When these lashes farther shall be with a Weapon of that length and sharpness, as when the Boy is set down, he is made so raw, that he is not able to sit, what shall we think of these Quod a­mem's, in the Lashers Mouth? And what then if the reason be enquired for this, there be no­thing found, but only a Head perhaps uncomb'd, a Band not put on aright, a word or two [Page 47]missing in his Part, a pair of Stockings down at knees, or a Shooe that hath taken dirt. Certainly if this be the effect of the Masters greater affection, how well were it for any of the rest (so long as it would but make him thereby, not to en­dure to meddle with them) to be rather the Objects of his ut­ter detestation and hate? Here is a love towards Children, like that indeed of a Canibal to­ward humane flesh. Here are Butchers, unto whom our Parents should send their Calves to be flead, rather then Masters, unto whom they should send their Children to be instructed, and corrected [Page 48]with moderation. It may be perhaps a lighter matter in some others of this Robe, who ma­ny times have taken up a com­pany of us, as we do Poynts, by the dozen, onely to make themselves merry, to divert their thoughts, or catch them a heat; and so long as they do it but gently and indifferently, and with innocence otherwise, we may be apt to think little of it, when there is a difference to be made as to the affection and execution of what kind it comes. It may be only of laugh­ter, or of wrath, or of something else. For what is that concupi­scence in humane nature, which is depraved and foul? What [Page 49]that vile thing (if we may call Evil, Evil, as we do Fire, Fire, in its own name, when we would get it quenched) which men call Lechery in any, but an unclean Curiosity, that is, A desire of knowing what is hid­den, to wit, the pleasures, the secrets of another; and so in­termedling with those parts which nature and shame have retired, and should be fore ever kept accordingly, but that the desperately busie iniquity of mans heart, can leave nothing free from the contamination of it self with it? And what rea­son is there then to have this Discipline of our Schools su­pervised, that our Correctors, and their Rules, may be cor­rected; [Page 50]That our Teachers may be taught to be better. Away with such doings from among us, which are so vile and brutish! Let the Horses be slashed with a Whip to be learned to draw; Let the Dogs be beaten with your Cudgel, to teach them to crouch, or lie down: But let Children be instructed in lear­ning of their Books, by those means as are suteable to Crea­tures endued with understand­ing; and those Seeds of Rea­son as are sprouting out, and ought to be suckled with a ten­der cultivation. It is a prepo­sterous course doubtless, that Children should be, as it were, supposed all born mad, and so sent to School onely as to Bed­lam, [Page 51]to be made sober by cruel handling; Minimum sanè libê­re, istum decet, cui tantum licet.

As for the training up of Children to virtue and good literature; it is beyond doubt a noble thing in its own nature, and might be an imployment of grandeur, for the most no­bly born and qualified, the most generous minds, and bravest spirits; and none else should be admitted to so excellent a service for the Commonwealth, were it not for these barbarous customs, as being received of some degenerate Nations (in so filly methods of teaching, and this sordid way of punish­ing) have dishonoured that Profession, and rendred the [Page 52]School-master by so filthy a practise (unto which yet use doth ordinarily reconcile him) an office no more hallowed, then that of the Roman Lictor, or Beadle in other Nations. Not but there have been some Masters of that ingenuity and modesty, as they could never once find in their hearts to use this sort of punishment to any that ever they brought up; Nor but there are some others who have taken up the common u­sage without reflexion, and their hearts cannot reproach them, that they have ever exer­cised it from any instigation whereof they should be asha­med, but onely out of Righte­ousness for their Scholars sake [Page 53]altogether, in the amendment of their manners, or quickning them in their Books. These are such, cujus praecordia ex me­liore luto finxit Titan, and con­sequently such, as we have too much reason and experience to convince us, they are not the most. We dare not condemn a whole Generation of men that have used this practise, but we must condemn the practice, because if all be not, so many are, abused with it. And in re­gard that young men ordinari­ly, who are in the heat of their blood, as of their parts (which if it were not for this dark al­lowance, and the effects of it, were for the fleshing them in the Greek and Latin a few [Page 54]years, a thing most adviseable) are received to the office; We cannot but believe it a dange­rous permission, which brings mens corruption, and tempta­tion so unheedfully together; knowing too sensibly, how some persons corruption leads them into temptation, and some persons temptation into cor­ruption.

It is indeed but a folly and presumption for men to take on them an office, which they have not ability to manage. That imployment will be un­profitable, those men uneasie. [Page 55]There are several abilities must go to make a man a perfect fa­culty to breed up Scholars; a­mong the which, these two are the chiefest, a temperate Mind, and unwearied Diligence. That person, who by sweetness and gentleness, or by the gravity of his deportment and counte­nance; or else by prudence and contrivance, is not able to awe and keep a company of Youth in obedience, without violence and stripes, should judge him­self no more fit for that Functi­on, then if he had no skill in the Latin and Greek; and such should never be admitted to this charge, by those who have the nomination or election. For when we would have it [Page 56]look'd upon as a dignity (which was now said) or a matter of ho­nour, (as really it is) like the being sent into a Province, for a man to be esteemed so pru­dent, so vertuous, so worthy as to be chosen Praefect of the Children of a Town, in his ad­mittance into a publick School, and made Ruler over a hun­dred, over fifties, and over tens; We cannot but desire, that thing may be suffered no lon­ger, which does bring it in dis­honour; And that, as there may be an Inscription now set up to that Person (like to the [...] in Rome) who hath but discharged this Office vertuously; so may it be as rare a thing for the future, to find [Page 57]any that do otherwise, or whose Acts are ever any more unbe­coming ingenuity and lear­ning.

Our Schools, we know in the Latin, are called Ludi, Ludi Literarii, and our Masters, Ludi Magistri. From hence we may take the indication, that the erudition of Children, among the wiser Antients, was thought best to be carried on in the way of Sport and Exercise. As the young men went to their Games to get the Garland in the exercise of their strength, the Children were to go to their Books to exercise their wits. There would be no need of the Parents sollicitude, or the Ma­sters str pes, to bring the Child [Page 58]to his learning; if the Methods of it were cast into that mould, as should make all their Lessons appear only as so many Playes and Recreations, from which they should be kept oftentimes as by the reines, to raise their minds into more earnestness, rather then be spurred, as we are commonly, and galled only to the same. Let the Boys be set a running, as it were, with one another, in getting without Book; Let them be set a wrest­ling, in Construing and Parsing; Let them in the whole business of the School, be chearfully striving with themselves and fellows in understanding, who shall excel, and wear the Wreath of their Masters commendati­on. [Page 59]If any Boy shall be neg­ligent, or do unworthily, le him be turned out of the School to Trap in the Fields, or to Nine-pins in the Streets, a­mongst those rude and illiterate Boyes who are no Scholars; be­ing made to account so heavily of that, as to know his total exclusion, were indeed the ex­treamest punishment. But if any are diligent, and deserve encou­ragement, let them not only be admitted to higher degrees of exercise, but to some more in­timate converse of their Master in reading of History, or other delightful studies; which he should so illustrate and apply, as may both tend to their pro­gress in knowledge, and fashi­oning [Page 60]their spirits to honour & virtue. It is not the Boys warm Bed, or Breakfast, not the ne­cessaries of his Meat & Drink, no not his Balls and Bounding­stones, his Top and his Bandy, would be so delicious to him, as the time he was thus suffered to be with his Master, if our Schools were but so order'd, as e­very where they should be, that the matters there performed, were made to become in effect onely the Boys Olympicks, or so many Games of the Muses, unto which they had recourse for their delight and glory.

Not that when we write this, it may be ever expected any thing in this World should im­mediately be perfect. There [Page 61]will be some Masters, and some Boys bad enough; and there may be some faults, which not only deserve, but are fit to re­ceive exemplary Correction. Let that chastisement there­fore, which is tolerated in our Schools, have an ingenuous ad­ministration. Let no Child at any time be punished in the Masters heat or passion; If it be a fault now, it will be so an hour hence; if it appear not a crime to morrow, it was not so hainous as he thought it to be yesterday. Let the Boy then undergoe a solemn kind of Judicature; If it were by a form of the same Boys as As­sessors together with their Ma­ster, [Page 62]it were but like the Lace­demonian Institution of their Youth, whereof the chief point lay in this, To enable them to judge aright of the Good and Evil, or of what was praise­worthy, and what to be con­demned, in humane Conversa­tion. Whatsoever the Crimi­nal can alleadge for himself, by way of justification, or ex­tenuation of his Fact, it ought to be heard both with patience and candour. If his Fault may be forgiven, without pre­judice to the rest by the impu­nity, it were best: If not, Let the Doublet be plucked off, and that part which may chast­ly lie naked, be stripped; Let [Page 63]the number of stripes, accord­ing to the merits of his delin­quency, be allotted, and the Boy brought before the face of his Master for se­ing just execution. This is af­ter the manner of the Hebrew Judgement, The Malefactour was to lie down before the Judge, and so receive the stripes he appointed. Let one of the vilest Boys then, he that hath behaved himself worst of any that day in the School, be picked out for Executioner; which may serve for a shame and admonition to him, as for his fellows suffering. If the Master will do it himself, it shall be reckoned only to the seve­rity of his virtue; for so long [Page 64]as he may not lay his stripes a­ny more on those parts which stir his original corruption, and he stayes still the passing of Judgment, till he is calm in the point of Indignation, there will be no fear any farther of those extremities which have been used: But we should see how cool these men would be­come to the Work for hereaf­ter, unto which they are to be led only by Righteousness, and not by affection. For if there be not now twenty and twenty faults of ours observed or made by them, to bring us under their unclean stripes, unto one, that they would judge then worthy of their just severity in [Page 65]a slow and chaste punishment, we dare forfeit the benefit of this Petition.

We must confess, we are perhaps too much engaged in our own Cause. We find not these lines flow from us, nei­ther carelesly, nor very easily, but with sollicitude and much reflexion. We know the at­tempt is singular and momen­tous. The issue we know not. The Tempers, Judgments, Af­fections and Resentments of People, are various; and many will make a matter of jest, the most but a talk, of that which others will lay to heart. The Lord Almighty, who knows the thoughts of all, and their [Page 66]Actions, and what is Good or Evil in the Earth; doth know what need there is of such a Suite. We have many times had our apprehensions filled with terror, our mouths with crying, and our eyes with tears for the present smart which hath vanished; but the abiding evil upon such Acts, (or many such) when they are done, and the allowance of the same, does affect us with apprehensions of another rank. It does afflict us really, that there should be so much obliquity in humane nature, that is, that there should be so much corruption as there is, in the World (according to Saint Peter) through lust. It [Page 67]afflicts us much more, that the seeds of the same corruption which is practised in the Earth, should not be unsown in our own hearts. We are grieved at our very souls, that a thing so holy as the Discipline of Children, and the Correction of them ought to be, should by any means be lyable to abuse, and much more to be made a procurer to vice. We are grie­ved yet, that this evil more par­ticularly, having a root more deep perhaps in the flesh then is seen, and through the tolerati­on and use, appearing under the shew of Good, or palliated at least so, as to remain undis­cerned; it is so hard for any [Page 68]to come ever to a meet repen­tance about the same. And that which adds to this, is, That if some of our more sagacious Friends become sensible of somewhat by our complaints, and so send for, or go to our Masters to reprove what is a­miss; they are not able to call the thing by its name, but in modesty speaking a little a­gainst their over-rigour, or the like, they leave the beam un­touched; and so the person, for want of plainer rebuke, is but the rather hardned by it; Which, if the living in the least sin with full consent of will un­to death, be a matter so dan­gerous as all hold, must be of [Page 69]a consequence no less then damnable to them, who make it so deplorable to us.

These premises therefore considered, we cannot but make our appeal, in this six­teenth Century, and seventieth approaching Year of the Chri­stian World, (seeing it hath not been done before) to the Heads of our Nation now Assembled, and to Caesar, against this Ob­scaenum triste (if we may use Juvenals expression) which hath been mentioned. That is, We humbly implore the Higher Powers, that this im­pure practice, which hath con­tinued in our Schools hitherto, without controul or detection, [Page 70](unless what hath been private only) may come under pub­lick censure, and consequent­ly prohibition, and extermina­tion; as a thing, if examined in the source and effects of it, not only what all know it, Ma­lum triste, but Malum turpe, and an iniquity to be punished by the Judges. Et fecit Asa quod rectum videbatur in oculis Jeho­vae, nam abstulit moritorios è ter­ra, & amovit Deos stercoreos quos fecerant majores sui.