224 Britain's Heritage of Science 



contemporaries the conviction that there was " a new 

 unexplored Kingdom of Knowledge within the reach and 

 grasp of man, if he will be humble enough, and patient 

 enough, and truthful enough to occupy it." 



To turn to other evidence, the better diaries of any age 

 afford us, when faithfully written, as fair a clue as do the 

 dramatists of the average intelligent man's attitude towards 

 the general outlook of humanity on the problems of his age, 

 as they presented themselves to society at large. The 

 seventeenth century was unusually rich in volumes of auto- 

 biography and in diaries which the reading world will not 

 readily let die. The autobiography of the complaisant Lord 

 Herbert of Cherbury gives an interesting account of the 

 education of a highly-born youth at the end of the sixteenth 

 and the beginning of the seventeenth century. Lord Herbert 

 seems to have had a fair knowledge of Latin and Greek and 

 of logic when, in his thirteenth year, he went up to University 

 College, Oxford. Later, he " did attain the knowledge of 

 the French, Italian and Spanish languages," and, also, 

 learnt to sing his part at first sight in music and to play on 

 the lute. He approved of "so much logic as to enable men 

 to distinguish between truth and falsehood and help them to 

 discover fallacies, sophisms and that which the Schoolmen 

 call vicious arguments " ; and this, he considered, should 

 be followed by " some good sum of philosophy." He held 

 it also requisite to study geography, and this in no narrow 

 sense, laying stress upon the methods of government, 

 religions and manners of the several states as well as on their 

 relationships inter se and their policies. Though he advocated 

 an acquaintance with " the use of the celestial globes," he 

 did " not conceive yet the knowledge of judicial astronomy 

 so necessary, but only for general predictions; particular 

 events being neither intended by nor collected out of the 

 stars." Arithmetic and geometry he thought fit to learn, 

 as being most useful for keeping accounts and enabling a 

 gentleman to understand fortifications. 



Perhaps the most characteristic feature of Lord Herbert's 

 acquirements was his knowledge of medicine and subjects 

 allied thereto. He conceived it a " fine study, and worthy 

 a gentleman to be a good botanic, that so he may know 



