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THerefore good Education is most effectu∣al, which directs the Councils and De∣terminations of Men's Lives to the exactest rule of prudence and true vertue; by which Natures are corrected and made pliable. Na∣ture produceth youth easy to be led either way, so that when it finds a Guide, it is induc'd to follow either his vitious or vertuous inclinati∣ons. A good nature conduceth very much, but then especially when cultivated by an ho∣nest
Education. He must therefore have a care who has noble and high designs, to be instructed in all good Arts and Manners, not to accustom himself to delicate but simple food, not to idleness but labour, not to riot but decent parsimony, not to temerity and impudence, but modesty and sweetness; not to licentiousness but fear and reverence, not to pleasures but to the Liberal Sciences. I wish, says Quintilian, that we did not so abuse the nature of our Children; that tender educati∣on, which we call indulgence, breaks the nerves of both body and mind.
We see therefore Plato, that most grave teacher of vertue, in almost all his Dialogues, exhorting Parents to educate their Children aright.
Though this principle unfoldeth many ob∣jects necessary to the forming our present sub∣ject. Yet since most of them are rather pre∣paratives than pollishments, we will here pass by those institutions, that are usually pro∣per to the two first Ages, infancy and puerili∣ty. And taking our Courtier in his adole∣scence, propose only in reference to our pre∣sent subject, those distinctions requisite to his employment, languages, letters, and travel.
But because we have spoken already of all those in the first part, we think it superfluous to insist thereon. Only let not a Courtier be ignorant of the knowledge of Histories, with∣out
which a man can hardly obtain the name of a grave and prudent person. As an old man is esteemed more prudent than a young man, says Quintilian, because he has seen what has fallen out through the course of many years: so we must confess that he is the most prudent, who knows the actions and events, not only of his own but of past Ages. What is pru∣dence else, but the observation of events, and of things present and future, drawn from what is by-past. History is the mirrour of civil life, where Hero's, Princes, and Nobles, who are appointed to Govern, ought to behold them∣selves. To be short, History furnisheth us not only with Examples of civil prudence, but also with those of Military Vertue. If one would know how to take the occasions of time and place to fight, let him read the Lives of Lysander and Xantippus. If he would make use of warlike stratagems, let him imitate Timo∣theus, Iphicrates, and Hannibal. If being vi∣ctorious he would let the Enemy escape, lest despair should produce boldness, let him read the Example of † Themi∣stocles to Xerxes. But if any affirm that such things cannot be learned by reading only, let him propose to himself Lucius Lu∣cullus, whom Cicero writes at his departure from Rome to have been altogether ignorant of malitary Affairs, but partly by enquiry,
partly by reading, he was become so great a Captain when he came into Asia, that Mi∣thridates did confess he never knew a greater. I only add, seeing there are abundance of Hi∣storians, that we must chuse the best. A∣mongst the Grecians, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Plutarch, and Nicetas were famous. Amongst the Romans, Livy, Tacitus, Salust, Caesar, Quintus Curtius, and Suetonius. Of modern Historians, Guicciardine, Conestagius, Cominus, Sleidan, and Davila are the best.
These are so to be read, that we may ob∣serve not only what was done, but upon what occasion, what way, when, and in what state of Affairs.
Plutarch.
Id.