fame principle as Poffelius de Ratione dif- 
eende et docende Lingue Latine et Grece, 
Imprefs. A. 1642. Poffelius, however, 
was a friend to the Virgula obliqua: cf? 
exim metus paenarum, {ays Poffelius, ve- 
lut Eeyodiwutns. Not fo Afcham. Many, 
I fufpect, have filently, drunk at Af- 
cham’s fprings, without due acknow- 
Iedgments to his genius ; and it is pity, 
that many who tafted his learning, did not 
mend their draught, and grow wife by his 
doctrine. 
He was an enemy to reading grammars 
by themfelves, and labouring atrules with- 
out any knowledge of the language. His 
advice was, that children fhould firft learn 
the eight parts of fpeech, and the con- 
cords, and then proceed immediately to 
practice; that the mafter fhould teach, 
as Afcham expreffes it, the caufe and mat- 
ter of letter, and keep conftruing it, till 
the child fully underftood it. After this, 
the pupil was to fit by himfelf, and 
write down in a paper book his tranfla- 
tion, without any prompter. This En- 
elith was then to be tranflated back again 
into Latin. Milton alfo was quite diffa- 
tisfied with the ufual way of initiating 
children into the Latin language, and, to 
fimplify inftruction, wrote what he calls, 
Accidence turned Grammar. 
Xill.—-PRUDENT MEMORIALS. 
Dr. Fuller, fpeaking of Peter-Houfe, 
obferves, *‘ I cannot but commend cne 
peculiar practice of this college, in pre- 
ferving the pictures of all the principal 
benefactors in their parlour, For, though 
the bounty of the judicious is grounded 
on more folid motives than to be flattered 
by the fancy, that their effigy fhall be 
kept, yet fuch an ingenuous memorial may 
be an encouragement to a patron’s libera- 
litv.”” Befides, under fuch pictures, a dif- 
tich commonly is written, and I will in- 
ftance in one of the lateft date: 
Heredem voluit Sladus confcribere Petrum, 
Clauderet extremum ne fine prole diem.” 
Take with it honeft Fuller’s verfion : 
Slade Peter chofe, and for his heir aflign’d 
. “Wrens 
Leaft he (hould die, and leave no child be- 
hind him. 
XIV.—BLANK VERSE 72 USE befcre 
MILTON. 
Long before the great Milton wrote 
Parap:isse Lost, Afcham well under- 
ficod blank-verfe, and laid down, in part, 
its.theory: not thdt even then it was 
Cantabrigiana. 
[Jan 1, 
«¢ a new-faneled fingularity.”” It had been 
practifed in England, Italy, and Spain. 
Upton fuppofes, that Milton alludes to 
Afcham, in the fhort Account of Blank 
Verfe, printed before his poem. 
In regard to Milton, the fact feems to 
be this :—-From the manufcript of his Pa- 
radife Loft, written by himfelf, and now 
in Trinity-College Library, it is general- 
ly fuppoted by his commentators, that the 
Poet intended his Paradife Loft for a tra- 
gedy;in imitation of the Italian, I/ Para- 
difo Amiffo. Hemight, therefore, (till fur- 
ther approve the judgment of fome who. 
wrote on blank verfe, in Italy, and be con- 
firmed in his approbation by the autho- 
rity of Roger Afcham, 
XVe— BAKER’S MANUSCRIPT-HISTORY 
OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE. ' 
Thisis entitled, «A Succiné&t and Impar- 
tial Account of St. John’s Houfe and St. 
John’s College, with fome occafional and 
incidental Account of the Affairs of the 
Univerfity, and of fuch private Colleges 
as held Communication or Intercourfe 
with the cld Houfe or College, collected 
principally by a Member of the College, 
A.1707.” It gives a complete view of St. 
John’s Houfe cr Hofpital when a priory 
of canons regular, proceeding to the 
foundation of the college, A. r5t1, Ro- 
bert Shipton being firk Mafter, and end- 
ing with Peter Gunning, twenty-fecond 
Mafter, June 25, 1661. It alfo contains — 
a Catalogue of the Mafters or Priors of 
the old Houle or Hofpital ; a Catalogue 
of the Bifhops who went from the College; 
a Catalogue of the Fellows, from theFound- 
ationof the College tothe Year1 546, taken 
from the College Archives, the Names 
of the Mafters, and the Admiffions, from 
3545 to Mar. 1712. It contains further 
an Account of the old and new Libraries. 
In fhort, it is as complete a book, as far 
as it goes, as can be well conceived; evi- 
dently written after much refearch, and 
with great judgment, with zeal and attach- 
ment to the college, with loyalty to the 
civil and ecciefiaftical conftitutions, with 
candour and liberality towards all parties. 
A man who lays down a maxim in his 
Refle&iions on Learning, as we have no- 
ticed, ‘* that we fhould have more learning 
if we had fewer book$,’’ and who obferves 
of that work,.** that he has ventured to 
throw in one into the account, but il Isa 
very {mall one, and writ with an honelt - 
defign of leflening the number,”’ might ea- 
fily find reafons tor fuppreffing this manu- 
{cript, as well as all the reit, ‘he realons 
r i that 
