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that every one makes much greater progress in those things 

 whereto he is naturally inclined, but also, that there are 

 certain remedies in a proper choice of studies for particu 

 lar indispositions of mind. For example, inattention and 

 a volatility of genius may be remedied by mathematics, 

 wherein, if the mind wander ever so little, the whole dem 

 onstration must be begun anew. Exercises, also, are of 

 great efficacy in teaching, but few have observed that these 

 should not only be prudently appointed, but prudently 

 changed. For, as Cicero well remarks, &quot;faults as well as 

 faculties are generally exercised in exercises ; whence a 

 bad habit is sometimes acquired and insinuated together 

 with a good one. It is therefore safer that exercises should 

 be intermitted, and now and then repeated, than always 

 continued and followed. These things, indeed, may at first 

 sight appear light and trivial, yet they are highly effectual 

 and advantageous. For as the great increase of the Roman 

 empire has been justly attributed to the virtue and prudence 

 of those six rulers who had, as it were, the tuition of it in 

 its youth, so proper discipline, in tender years, has such 

 a power, though latent and unobserved, as neither time 

 nor future labor can any way subdue in our riper age. It 

 also deserves to be remarked, that even ordinary talents 

 in great men, used on great occasions, may sometimes pro 

 duce remarkable effects. And of this we will give an 

 eminent instance, the rather because the Jesuits judiciously 

 retain the discipline among them. And though the thing 

 itself be disreputable in the profession of it, yet it is excel 

 lent as a discipline; we mean the action of the theatre, which 

 strengthens the memory, regulates the tone of the voice and 

 the efficacy of pronunciation; gracefully composes the coun 

 tenance and the gesture; procures a becoming degree of 

 assurance; and lastly, accustoms youth to the eye of men. 

 The example we borrow from Tacitus, of one Vibulenus, 

 once a player, but afterward a soldier in the Pannonian 

 army. This fellow, upon the death of Augustus, raised a 

 mutiny; so that Blesus, the lieutenant, committed some 



