occasion. He that hath a mind to look farther into chronology, may get Tallent's Tables, and Strauchius's Breviarium Temporum, and may to those add Scaliger De Emendatione Temporum, and Petavius, if he hath a mind to engage deeper in that study. Those, who are accounted to have writ best particular parts of our English history, are Bacon, of Henry VII. and Herbert, of Henry VIII. Daniel also is commended; and Burnet's History of the Reformation. Mariana's History of Spain, and Thuanus's History of his Own Time, and Philip de Comines, are of great and deserved reputation. There are also several French and English memoirs and collections, such as La Rochefoucault, Melvil, Rushworth, &c. which give a great light to those who have a mind to look into what hath passed in Europe this last age. To fit a gentleman for the conduct of himself, whether as a private man, or as interested in the government of his country, nothing can be more necessary than the knowledge of men; which, though it be to be had chiefly from experience, and next to that, from a judicious reading of history; yet there are books that of purpose treat of human nature, which help to give an insight into it. Such are those treating of the passions, and how they are moved; whereof Aristotle in his second book of Rhetoric hath admirably discoursed, and that in a little compass. I think this Rhetoric is translated into English; if not, it may be had in Greek and Latin together. La Bruyere's Characters are also an admirable piece of painting; I think it is also translated out of French into English. Satirical writings also, such as Juvenal, and Persius, and above all Horace; though they paint the deformities of men, yet they thereby teach us to know them. There is another use of reading, which is for diversion and delight. Such are poetical writings, especially dramatic, if they be free from profaneness, obscenity, and what corrupts good manners; for such pitch should not be handled. Of all the books of fiction, I know none that equals Cervantes's History of Don Quixote in usefulness, pleasantry, and a constant decorum. And indeed no writings can be pleasant, which have not nature at the bottom, and are not drawn after her copy. There is another sort of books, which I had almost forgot, with which a gentleman's study ought to be well furnished, viz. dictionaries of all kinds. For the Latin tongue, Littleton, Cooper, Calepin, and Robert Stephens's Thesaurus Lingua Latina, and Vossii Etymologicum Linguæ Latina; Skinner's Lexicon Etymologicum is an excellent one of that kind, for the English tongue. Cowel's Interpreter is useful for the law terms. Spelman's Glossary is a very useful and learned book. And Selden's Titles of Honour a gentleman should not be without. Baudrand hath a very good Geographical Dictionary. And there are several historical ones, which are of use; as Lloyd's, Hoffman's, Moreri's. And Bayle's incomparable dic tionary is something of the same kind. He that hath occasion to look into books written in Latin since the decay of the Roman empire, and the purity of the Latin tongue, cannot be well without Du Cange's Glossarium mediæ et infimæ Latinitatis. Among the books above set down, I mentioned Vossius's Etymologicum Linguæ Latinæ ; all his works are lately printed in Holland in six tomes. They are fit books for a gentleman's library, containing very learned discourses concerning all the sciences. END OF THOUGHTS CONCERNING READING AND STUDY. OF THE CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING. Quid tam temerarium tamque indignum sapientis gravitate atque constantia, quam aut falsum sentire, aut quod non satis explorate perceptum sit, et cognitum, sina ulla dubitatione defendere?-Cic. de Natura Deorum, lib. 1. § 1. Introduction.-THE last resort a man has recourse to in the conduct of himself is his understanding; for though we distinguish the faculties of the mind, and give the supreme command to the will, as to an agent; yet the truth is, the man which is the agent determines himself to this or that voluntary action, upon some precedent knowledge, or appearance of knowledge, in the understanding. No man ever sets himself about any thing but upon some view or other, which serves him for a reason for what he does: and whatsoever faculties he employs, the understanding, with such light as it has, well or ill informed, constantly leads; and by that light, true or false, all his operative powers are directed. The will itself, how absolute and uncontrollable soever it may be thought, never fails in its obedience to the dictates of the understanding. Temples have their sacred images, and we see what influence they have always had over a great part of mankind. But, in truth, the ideas and images in men's minds are the visible powers that constantly govern them, and to these they all universally pay a ready submission. It is therefore of the highest concernment that great care should be taken of the understanding, to conduct it right in the search of knowledge, and in the judgments it makes. The logic now in use has so long possessed the chair, as the only art taught in the schools for the direction of the mind in the study of the arts and sciences, that it would perhaps be thought an affectation of novelty to suspect, that rules that have served the learned world these two or three thousand years, and which without any complaint of defect the learned have rested in, are not sufficient to guide the understanding. And I should not doubt but this attempt would be censured as vanity or presumption, did not the great lord Verulam's authority justify it who, not servilely thinking learning could not be advanced beyond what it was, because for many ages it had not been, did not rest in the lazy approbation and applause of what was, because it was; but enlarged his mind to what might be. In his preface to his Novum Organum, concerning logic he pronounces thus: "Qui summas dialecticæ partes tribuerunt, atque inde fidissima scientiis præsidia comparari putarunt, verissime et optime viderunt intellectum humanum sibi permissum merito suspectum esse debere. Verum infirmior omnino est malo medicina; nec ipsa mali expers. Siquidem dialectica, quæ |