beft to be found in the Book that I have already recommended to you; but because you may perhaps think, that, the better to obferve thofe Rules, a little Warning may not be inconveni ent, and fome Method of ranging them be useful for the Memory, I recommend to you the Whole Duty of Man, as a methodical Syftem; and if you defire a larger View of the Parts of Morality, I know not where you will find them fo well and diftinctly explained, and fo ftrongly enforced, as in the practical Divines of the Church of England. The Sermons of Dr. Barrow, Archbifhop Tillotson, and Dr. Whichcot are Mafterpieces in this kind; not to name abundance of others who excel on that Subject, if you have a mind to fee how far human Reason advanced in the Discovery of Morality, you'll have a good Specimen in Tully's Offices; unless you have a mind to look farther back, into the Source from whence he drew his Rules, and then you must confult Ariftotle, and the other Greek Philofophers.

Though Prudence be reckoned among the Cardinal Virtues, yet I do not remember any profeffed Treatife of Morality, where it is treated in its full Extent, and with that Accurancy it ought; for which, poffibly, this may be a Reafon, that every imprudent Action does not make a Man culpable in Foro Confcientiæ. The Bufinefs of Morality I look upon to be, the avoiding of Crimes of Prudence, Inconveniencies; the Foundation whereof lies in knowing Men and Manners. Hiftory teaches this beft, next to Experience; which is the only effectual Way to get a Knowledge of the World. As to the Rules of Prudence, in the Conduct of common

Life;

Life; tho' there be several that have employ'd their Pens therein, yet these Writers have their Eyes fo fixt on Conveniency, that they fometimes lofe the Sight of Virtue, and do not take care to keep themselves always clear from the Borders of Dishonesty; while they are tracing out, what they take to be fometimes, the fecureft Way to Succefs: moft of those that I have seen on this Subject, having, as it feem'd to me, fomething of this Defect. So that I know none that I can confidently recommend to your young Gentlemen, but the Son of Syrac.

To complete a Man in the Practice of human Offices (for to that tend your Inquiries) there is one thing more required; which, tho' it be ordinarily confider'd as diftinct from both Virtue and Prudence, yet I think it is fo nearly ally'd to them, that he will scarce keep himself from Slips in both who is without: that which I mean is Good-breeding. The School for a young Gentleman to learn it in, is the Converfation of those who are well-bred.

As to the laft Part of your Inquiry, which is, after Books that will give an Infight into the Conflitution of the Government, and real Intereft of his Country; to proceed orderly in this, I think the Foundation fhould be laid in inquiring into the Ground and Nature of Civil Society; and how it is form'd on different Models of Government; and what are the several Species of it. Ariftotle is allow'd a Mafter-piece in this Science; and few enter upon the Confideration of Government, without reading his Politics. Hereunto should be added, true Notions of Laws in general; and Property, the Subject-matter about which Laws are made. He that would acquaint himself with

the

the former of thefe, fhould thoroughly ftudy the judicious Hooker's firft Book of Ecclefiaftical Polity. And Property I have no where found more clearly explain'd, than in a Book, intituled, Two Treatifes on Government. But, not to load your young Gentlemen with too many Books on this Subject, which requires more Meditation than Reading, give me leave to recommend to him Puffendorf's little Treatife De Officio Hominis &

Civis.

To get an Infight into the particular Conftitution of the Government of his own Country, will require a little more Reading, unless he will content himself with fuch a fuperficial Knowledge of it, as is contain❜d in Chamberlayne's State of England, or Smith_de_Republica Anglicana. Your Inquiry manifeftly looks farther than that; and to attain fuch a Knowledge of it, as becomes a Gentleman of England to have, to the Purpose you mention, I think he fhould read our ancient Lawyers, fuch as Bracton, Fleta, the Mirror of Justice, &c. which your Coufin King can better direct you to than 1; joining with them the Hiftory of England under the Romans, and fo continuing it down quite to our Times, reading it always in those Authors who lived neareft thofe Times; their Names you will find, and Characters often, in Mr. Tyrrell's Hiftory of England: to which if there be added a ferious Confideration of the Laws made in each Reign, and how far any of them influenced the Conftitution; all these together will give him a full Insight into what you defire.

*

* Sir Peter King.

As

:

As to the Intereft of any Country: that, 'tis manifeft, lies in its Profperity and Security; Plenty of well-employed People, and Riches within, and good Alliances abroad, make its Strength but the Ways of attaining these comprehend all the Arts of Peace and War, the Management of Trade, the Employment of the Poor, and all thofe other things that belong to the Adminiftration of the Public; which are fo many, fo various, and fo changeable, according to the mutable State of Men and Things in the World, that 'tis not ftrange if a very finall Part of this confifts in Book-learning: he that would know it, must have his Eyes open upon the prefent State of Affairs, and from thence take his Measures of what is good, or prejudicial, to the Intereft of his Country.

You fee how ready I am to obey your Commands, tho' in Matters wherein I am fenfible of my own Ignorance. I am fo little acquainted with Books, efpecially on thefe Subjects relating to Politics, that you muft forgive me, if perhaps I have not named to you the beft in every kind; and you must take it as a Mark of Readiness to ferve you, if I have ventur'd fo far out of what lay in my Way of Reading, in the Days when I had Leifure to converfe with Books. The Knowledge of the Bible, and the Bufinefs of his Calling, is enough for an ordinary Man: A Gentleman ought to go farther.

Thofe of this Place return their Service and Thanks, for the Honour of your Remembrance.

I am, &c.

LET

I

LETTER CIV.

Dear Sir,

To the SA ME.

AM forry to find that the Queftion which was the moft material, and my Mind was moft upon, was anfwer'd fo little to your Satisfaction, that you are fain to afk it again: fince therefore you ask me a fecond time, What is the best Me thod to ftudy Religion? I muft afk you, What Religion you mean? For if it be, as I understood you before, the Chriftian Religion, in its full Extent and Purity, I can make no other Anfwer than what I did, viz. That the only Way to attain a certain Knowledge of that, is to study the holy Scripture; and my Reafon is, because the Chriftian Religion is a Revelation from God Almighty, which is contain'd in the Bible; and fo all the Knowledge we can have of it must be deriv'd from thence. But if you afk, which is the best Way to get the Knowledge of the Romish, Lutheran, or Reformed Religion; of this or that particular Church, &c. each whereof intitles itfelf to be the true Christian Religion, with fome kind of Exclufion or Diminution to the reft, that will not be hard to tell you: but then it is plain, that the Books that beft teach you any of these, do moft remove you from all the reft: and, in this way of ftudying, you pitch upon one as the right, before you know it to be fo: whereas that Choice fhould be the Refult of your Study of the Chriftian Religion in the facred Scriptures. And the Method I have propofed would, I pre

fume,