The Hartlib Papers

Title:Copy Letter, Scribal Hand F & Hartlib, ? To ?
Dating:28 January 1640[/1641?]
Ref:7/52/1A-2B: 2B BLANK
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[Hartlib:]
Anno 1640. 28. Jan.
[scribe:]
          The Extract of Mr [Duryes blotted] lettrer here adjoyned is very considerable in respect of the choyce of his future studyes. If hee were once free from [the?] distractions wherewith hee hath wrestled these many yeares I know hee would stretch out his gracious & sublime parts vpon those other subjects wherein is true spirituall delight for the good of many. I meane those large & deepe meditations concerning the morall wayes of Education in which there is soe greate a defect. I have heretofore communicated to your honours (if I well remember) the treatyes which hee has begun soe many yeares agoe, called De Summa Curæ pedagogicæ seu Spirituali Agricultura Exercitatio Item de morum pueritium disciplina Exercitationes duæ some of these enclosed papers will show the true reasons why hee could not make an end of those directions at that tyme will shew why hee could not make an end of which are counted by vulgar & ordinary Spirits allmost as impossible as those other Pansophicall vndertaken by Mr Comenius I have dilligently enquired all this while after Sir Henry Wottons library which hee has bequeathed partly to Eaton Colledges partly to my Lord Mortons youngest son & Dr Bargrafe deane of Canterbury I vnderstand that amongst his M.S. there are found many choyce thoughts which hee had begun to bring to paper, & amongst other a Treatise of that better sort of trayning vp of Children publiquely <promised> [by deleted?] him vndertaken the name of Morall Architecture, But I must complaine in the poets words -- Pendent opera interrupta minæque
     Murorum ingentes æquataque margina cedo.
For it is certain that nothing at all was brought by him to any perfection or Coronis The more I lament the broken notions which are left in like manner by noble & judicious verulam
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I got lately a fragment of them, beginning to describe most clerely the elevation of the intellectuall powers in Children inscribed to Henry Savil being at that tyme Master of Eaton Colledge. It's a thousand pittyes that hee could advance noe further in them then a leafe in quarto. Thus your honours see what cause I have to bestirre [letter deleted] myselfe by all zealous endeavours to keepe life in these few instruments of the publique edifycation in this particular who seeme to bee/ <left margin, H: gifted with richer> endowments then any former, least miserye & death deprive vs of such great treasures & onely durable riches. Indeed God hath raysed some amongst vs of late who have taken [letter deleted] more considerable paynes then any before them in this waighty busines to whom I thought good alsoe to confide whatever I had for the furthering of these very designes [Hartlib' hand:] But worthy Mr Brookes the chiefest and ablest of them was taken away from his taskes a year agoe leaving behind him <Mr> Ezekias Woodward, who last weeke published a Booke in 4 with this following Title
          A Childes Patrimony laid out vpon the
          good nurture or Tilling over the whole
          Man. In 2 Parts. The former respecting
          a child in his first and second Age The
          Latter manuring a Childe grown vp and
          at Mans Estate.
The matter and directions are very excellent in diverse places and it is a well-grounded judgment mee thinkes, which Dr Gouge hase given vpon the whole. Only let it not seeme presumtion in mee to adde
          Dulcius ex ipso fonte bibentur aquæ
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For j dare confidently affirme that if ever Duræus Comenius and their Associates come abroad with their Pædagogical directions, they will bee like cloth of Arras opened and put abroad wherby the imagery doth appeare in figure, wheras in the other they lye yet but as in packs. In a word j compare the whole Booke -- Bruti illius baculo cuius intus solidum aurum corneo velabatur cortice. I haue beene somwhat large in this discovery to expresse my due respects to your Noble Posterity also.