1.4.1. Proposals to the Colledge Founders.

FIrst, Tho' the Example be put of Renting Land and House at 600 l. per annum, the better to shew how the Profit will arise by such an Undertaking, all Charges deducted; yet I propose the raising

By which means the trouble of raising Money to pay Rent, will be saved, and the Founders may have the more Goods from the Colledge, if desired, and the Undertaking will not be so apt to miscarry in its infancy.

Secondly, The Stock to be valued every year, and the Profit to be divided; that such as desire to draw their Profit out, may have it yearly; but such as desire to continue it in the Colledge, may have it added as Principal, and that Stockjobbing (which will ruine any good thing) may be prevented. If any have a mind to sell their Interest, the rest of the Proprietors shall have the Liberty to bring in a Purchaser by Majority of Votes, at the Value as last cast up.

Thirdly, The first Founders the more the better; and if some of every Useful Trade, the better; and then every Trade will be the better managed, and every Mans Days Work better understood.

Fourthly, None to Subscribe less then 25 l.

Fifthly, Every 50 l. to have a Vote in making ByLaws and choosing Officers, but no one to have above Five Votes.

Sixthly, Once a Year, Twelve or more of the Proprietors to be chosen a Committee, as Visitors to Inspect, and Counsellors for Advice for the Governours and Workmen to apply to, as there may be occasion.

Seventhly, The Governours nor under Officers not to have any Sallary, but only all the Reasonable Conveniences the Colledge can afford them.

Eighthly, Because the whole Success (under the Providence of God) will lye in a Right Beginning (for though an Acorn doth Naturally produce an Oak, yet how many little Accidents may prevents its ever being one? So any Great Undertaking, however Rational and Natural in its beginning, may easily be spoiled) therefore let the Nation be looked through for the First Workmen, if can find but Three or Four in a County (the rest may be Prentices) of good Lives and Tempers, it will be a leven to Influence their Successors, and it will be such a Pattern of Plentiful Living, that many of the Poor will readily submit to the [Page 10] Rules to partake of it; and to the Children bred Prentices in the Colledge, it will be their Element.

1.4.2. Some Advantages to the Founders, and Rich, by such a Colledge.

FIrst, If the Living in this Affair, will make their own Eyes and Hands their Executors and Overseers, and deposit that now they are Alive, which they intend to give when Dead, it may be that and much more Money saved to themselves and their Heirs.

Secondly, The Founders of the Colledge from thence may have for themselves and Families, (in part of their first Cost) Yearly a certain quantity of Woolen and Linnen Cloth, Shooes, Stockings, &c.

Thirdly, Though the Computation be but 300 in a Colledge; there may be 3000, or more, and such a one may be at
Colchester, where are made Bayes and Perpetuanoes. Taunton, for Serges, Stroud for Cloth, Devonshire for Kersies, and other places for other Goods.

Fourthly, which Manufacture having One Third more than will be used by the Colledge, it may be Employed,

1. In being Divided among the Founders.
2. In Providing for more People in the Colledge, which is best Profit.
3. In Buying and Improving of Land.
4. In Building.
5. In fetching Forreign Commodities.
6. In Selling for Money, which will be of least use in the Colledge.

Fifthly, Any that have Estates in Land or Money, doing [Page 11] the Colledge Business, and Living under the Colledge Rules; may have the Colledge-Allowance, and lay up the Profit of their own Estates.

Sixthly, Any giving 15l. a Year Land, or 300l. in Money, to the Colledge, or what other sum may be thought reasonable according to the County its in; may have the right of keeping one Person in the Colledge (without Work) with Colledge Allowance, and under Colledge Rules, or but half the Money, and do half the Work, or any other proportion; which is a good Expedient for an Indigent Child, for the Father to buy it a Colledge Commons; Reserving liberty to the Colledge, in case of Exorbitancy, to Expel him the house, Returning his Money, or handing him ColledgeAllowance abroad.

Seventhly, An Estate Setled thus in a Colledge, is not so lyable to be Lost or Spent, as most other Estates; for if the Heir be simple there is enough of the rest to look after it, and being joyned with good Company, he will not be so lyable to be a Spend-Thrift; and if he should, the Colledge for his Labour will Entertain him and his Posterity; so that he and his, may reap Benefit from his Fathers Estate, after he hath Spent it; and here a Parent may Entail it upon the Colledge, and then the Heir cannot well Sell it.

Eighthly, Here Peoples Children of Estates may be Boarded and Educated in all Useful Learning, who seeing others Work, at spare times, instead of Playing, would be Learning some Trade, Work not being more Labour than Play; and seeing others Work, to imitate them, would be as much Diversion to the Children as Play, which would the more Inure them to Business when grown up, the want of which hath Ruined many a hopeful Plant, who will be doing, if not of Good, of Evil; an Idle Learning being little better then the Learning of Idleness.

Ninthly, A Hundred Pound a Year in such a Colledge, I [Page 12]suppose will maintain Ten times as many People as a 100 l. a Year in Almshouses, because the Provision and Manufacture raised from a 100 l. a Year Land, is worth Ten times the Rent, as the Farmer raiseth yearly Three times his Rent, and the Mechanicks makes their Work worth Three or Four times what it was in the Farmers Hands.

1.4.3. Some of the Advantages the Poor Collegians will have.

1. FRom being Poor they will be made Rich, by enjoying all things needful in Health or Sickness, Single or Married, Wife and Children; and if Parents die, their Children well Educated, and preserved from Misery, and their Marrying incourag'd, which is now generally discourag'd.

2. As the World now lives, every Man is under a double Care, besides his Bodily Labour, First, To provide for himself and Family. Secondly, To guard against the Intrigues of his Neighbours overreaching him, both in Buying of, and Selling to him; which in such a Colledge will be reduced to this single Point, of doing only an easie Days Work, and then instead of every bodies endeavouring to get from him, every body is working for him, and they will have more Conveniences in the Colledge than out.

3. In the common way of Living and Trade, Men, their Wives or Children often lose half what they get, either by Dear Bargains, Bad Debts, or Law-suits, of which there will be neither in the Colledge; and if the Earth gives but forth its Fruit, and the Workmen do but their parts, they will have plenty; whereas often now the Husbandman and Mechanicks both are ruined, tho' the first have a great Crop, [Page 13]and the second industriously maketh much Manufacture; Money, and not Labour, being made the Standard, the Husbandman paying the same Rent and Wages, as when his Crop yielded double the Price; it being no better with the Mechanicks, where it's not who wants his Commodity, but who can give him Money for it, (will keep him) and so often he must take half the Value in Money another could give him in Labour, that hath no Money.

4. That as they grow in Years in the Colledge, they shall abate an Hour in a Day of their Work, and when come to Sixty Years old (if Merit prefer them not sooner) they shall be made Overseers, which for ease and pleasant Life, will equal what the Hoards of a private Purse can give; and excel, in so much as it hath less care and danger of Losing.

5. And if we may compute by the Parable of the Sower, that one third of the People lose Heaven by the Cares of this Life, may not a Collegiate way of Living be the occasion of saving Many by preventing them Cares; and for Bodily Labour, it's a Primitive Constitution of God, it should Earn its Bread in the sweat of its Brows, Labour being as proper for the Bodies Health, as eating is for its living; for what pains a Man saves by Ease, he will find in Disease; and less Labour will provide for a Man in the Colledge than out.

6. The Regular Life in the Colledge, with abatement of Worldly Cares, with an easie honest Labour, and Religious Instructions, may make it a Nursery, and School of Vertue.

7. The Poor thus in a Colledge will be a Community something like the Example of Primitive Christianity, that lived in common, and the Power that did attend it, bespeaks its excellency; but considering the Constitution of Mankind that have Estates (but it's not so with the Poor) it was [Page 14] none of the least Miracles of that Age, and so abated as other Miracles did.

8. A Colledge thus Constituted cannot so easily be undone whatever Changes comes (except the People are destroyed) for if plundred, Twelve Months time will recruit again; like the Grass new Mowed, the next Year supplies again; Labour bringing a supply as the Ground doth, and when together they assist one another, but when scattered are useless, if not preying upon one another.

1.4.4. A few Rules for Governing the Colledge Workmen.

1. ALL the Colledges and Hospitals of England and Holland should be visited to see what Rules and Orders they have for Governing their Societies, that may be useful in this Colledge.
2. It should be called a Colledge rather than a Workhouse, because a Name more grateful; and besides all sorts of useful Learning may be taught there.
3. The Members of the Colledge may be distinguished in Caps and Cloaths, as the Masterworkmen from the Prentices, and Women from Girls.
4. A certain number of the Boys and Girls should be appointed weekly to wait at Table upon the Men and Women at Meals, that as much as may be, the Men and Women may live better in the Colledge than any where else.
5. There should be several Wards.
   1. For Young Men and Boys.
   2. For Young Women and Girls.
   3. For Married Persons.
   4. For Sick and Lame.
6. [Page 15]As the Men and Women have distinct Lodging, so they should have distinct Workrooms; and as much as the Imploys would admit of it, the Men should be in one Room, and the Women in another, that their Governours may the better look over them.
7. The Men shall be Prentices till Twenty Four Years old, and Women till Twenty One Years, or Marry, (as the Law allows) and then shall have liberty to go out of the Colledge or stay in, and Marry if they will.

1.4.5. Of the Education of Children, and Teaching them Languages.

1. THo' Rules, as well as Words, must be understood to make a compleat Scholar, yet considering Words lies in the Memory, and Rules in the Understanding, and that Children have first Memory before Understanding; by that Nature shews Memory is to be first used, and that in the Learning of Language, Words should be first Learned, and afterwards Rules to put them together; Children learning the Words of their Mother Tongue, and then Sentences; but to understand what Rules their Language hath, requires a ripeness of Judgment; and the putting of Rules upon Children before, cripples their Understandings; when Boys of Twelve Years old are as long again at School learning a Language by Rules, as a Child of Three Years old without Rules.

   And therefore I think Vocabulary and Dictionary is to be learnt before Accidence and Grammar; and Childrens reading and discoursing one to another, gives a deeper Impression than reading to themselves, we remembring a Man's Voice longer than his Face; a sound upon the Ear penetrating the [Page 16] Spirits, more than a silent Seeing, where the Spirits are not affected with the Subject, as few Children are with their Books.

2. Four Hours in a Morning, and Four in an Afternoon, is too long to tye a Child to his Book; it's hard for a Man to be tyed upon one Subject so long, much more is it toilsome to Children, whose Natures are weak, and love change; it hurts their Spirits, makes them out of love with their Books, and loseth much time; the Children might be imployed to more profit; a Labouring-man will hold longer at Work, than a Thinkingman in his Study: Men will grow strong with working, but not with thinking; who have stronger Bodies than Labourers, and weaker Bodies than great Students? Labour adds Oyl to the Lamp of Life, when Thinking Inflames it.

3. Where People of Estates are willing to qualifie their Children, with what Learning they will take; or where others appear of ready and pregnant Understandings, it may be worth incouraging to the furthest degree; yet beyond Reading and Writing, further Learning will not be so useful to most among us as among other People, whilst many of them expect to get their Living by it, as Priests, Lawyers, &c.

4. Tho' Learning may be useful, yet a Vertuous Education tends more to Happiness here and hereafter; and what is a great Impediment in the common Education, is the letting Children imploy themselves without Directions, which is a loss several ways, First, To their Bodies and present Condition. Secondly, To their Spirits and future Being; for at Four or Five Years old, besides Reading, Boys and Girls might be taught to Knit and Spin, and bigger Boys Turning, &c. and beginning Young they would make the best Artists; and being upon Business, tho' slight, it improves their Reasons by sensible Demonstration, (which is [Page 17]sooner learn'd than any Rational Demonstration without it; as a Child at three years old by Feeling knows Fire will burn, much better than one of Thirteen from the most Rational Discourse without Feeling) whereas a childish silly Employ, leaves their Minds silly. And the Will being the greatest Enemy a Man hath, when it is not subject to the Will of God; How valuable is it then, for a Child's Will to be kept under anothers Direction than its own? It will be the less difficult to submit it to the Will of God, when grown a Man, especially if seasoned with Religious Lessons of Scriptures, &c.

Thus the hand employ'd brings Profit, the Reason used in it makes wise, and the Will subdued makes them good.

For tho' Men should be guided more by Reason than Sense, yet Children are guided more by Sense than Reason; and therefore must be hedged from Evil more by wise Management than Discourse; as we see Colts are tamed more by it than words.

All which considered, there is less wonder any prove Ill; but that any prove good, from such an Idle Education as the common Breeding of Children, where the Mind is at leisure to receive all the evil Impressions their several Ages are capable of.

A good Education, tho' with but a little Estate, makes a happier Man, than a great Estate without it; for the first not only supports the Name of his Family, but raiseth a Name and Family to himself; whereas the latter, many times the more Rich, the more Wicked; and only pleased when at once he is making an End of Body, Estate, and Name together.

Such Parents as have also a sence of a Future State, and the Happiness or Unhappiness their Children are capable of, will think there is no comparison between a Good and an Evil Education.

1. There will be all sorts of Employs and Tools for every Age and Capacity to be employed with.
2. All Languages and Learning may be learn'd there, by having some of all Nations (Tradesmen) who may teach their Mother Tongue to the Youth, as they teach it their own Children.
3. Men and Children submit easier to Rules and Laws they see others submit to as well as themselves, than if they were alone; as Children in a School, and Soldiers in an Army, are more regular, and in subjection, than when scattered asunder.
4. They will be more under the Eyesight of one Master or another, than in a private Family; and consequently prevented of more Folly.
5. Company being the delight of all Creatures, whether Men or Beast, and the World being so corrupted, makes its Company a great Snare to Youth; but the Colledge having company sufficient, will prevent the Temptation of going abroad; and being well govern'd, will much prevent the Evils that are learn'd abroad.
6. There may be a Library of Books, a Physick-Garden for understanding of Herbs, and a Laboratory for preparing of Medicines.

And tho' Ships and Boats cann't swim in the Colledge, the Men that manage them may be of the Colledge-Fellowship, and have their Conveniencies thence, as well as return their Profit or Cargoes thither.

In short, As it may be an Epitomy of the World, by a Collection of all the useful Trades in it; so it may afford all the Conveniencies and Comforts a Man can want, and a Christian use.

1.4.6. Answers to several Objections.