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Title: The Reformed Librarie-Keeper (1650)
Author: John Dury
Release Date: February 28, 2005 [EBook #15199]
Language: English
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THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY
THE REFORMED LIBRARIE-KEEPER
(1650)
JOHN DURY
_Introduction by_
RICHARD H. POPKIN
_and_
THOMAS F. WRIGHT
Publication Number 220
WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY
University of California, Los Angeles
1983
GENERAL EDITOR
DAVID STUART RODES, _University of California, Los Angeles_
EDITORS
CHARLES L. BATTEN, _University of California, Los Angeles_
GEORGE ROBERT GUFFEY, _University of California, Los Angeles_
MAXIMILLIAN E. NOVAK, _University of California, Los Angeles_
NANCY M. SHEA, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_
THOMAS WRIGHT, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_
ADVISORY EDITORS
RALPH COHEN, _University of Virginia_
WILLIAM E. CONWAY, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_
VINTON A. DEARING, _University of California, Los Angeles_
PHILLIP HARTH, _University of Wisconsin, Madison_
LOUIS A. LANDA, _Princeton University_
EARL MINER, _Princeton University_
JAMES SUTHERLAND, _University College, London_
NORMAN J.W. THROWER, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_
ROBERT VOSPER, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_
JOHN M. WALLACE, _University of Chicago_
PUBLICATIONS MANAGER
NANCY M. SHEA, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY
BEVERLY J. ONLEY, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
FRANCES MIRIAM REED, _University of California, Los Angeles_
INTRODUCTION
This work, with its quaint sentiments and its grim picture of what
librarians were like in the mid-seventeenth century, is more than a
curiosity. John Dury was a very important figure in the Puritan
Revolution, offering proposal after proposal to prepare England for its
role in the millennium. _The Reformed Librarie-Keeper_ is an integral
part of that preparation. To appreciate it one must look at it in terms
of the plans of Dury and his associates, Samuel Hartlib and Johann Amos
Comenius, to reform the intellectual institutions of England so that the
prophecies in the books of Daniel and Revelation could be fulfilled
there.
John Dury (1596-1680), the son of a Scottish Puritan, was raised in
Holland.[1] He studied at the University of Leiden, then at the French
Reformed seminaries at Sedan and Leiden, and later at Oxford. He was
ordained a Protestant minister and served first at Cologne and then at
the English church in the West Prussian city of Elbing. There he came in
contact with Samuel Hartlib (?-1662), a merchant, who was to devote
himself to many religious and scientific projects in England, and with
Johann Amos Comenius (1592-1670), the leader of the Moravian Brethren,
as well as with other great educational reformers of the Continent. The
three of them shared a common vision--that the advancement of knowledge,
the purification of the Christian churches, and the impending conversion
of the Jews were all antecedent steps to the commencement in the
foreseeable future of the millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ
on earth. They saw the struggles of the Thirty Years' War and the
religious conflict in England as part of their development of
providential history.
In terms of their common vision, each of them strove during the decade
1630-40 to help the world prepare for the great events to come. Comenius
started redoing the educational system through his textbooks and set
forth plans for attaining universal knowledge. Hartlib moved from
Germany to England, where he became a central organizing figure in both
the nascent scientific world and the theological world. He was in
contact with a wide variety of intellectuals and brought their ideas
together. (For instance, he apprised Dury of the millenarian theory of
Joseph Mede, which was to be so influential in the Puritan Revolution,
and he spread Comenius's ideas in England.) Dury devoted himself
principally to trying to unite all of the Protestant churches in Europe
and to this end began his peregrinations from Sweden and Germany to
Holland, Switzerland, France, and England. These travels were to
continue throughout the rest of his life, as he tried to negotiate an
agreement on the essentials of Christianity in preparation for Jesus'
return.
In 1640, as the Puritan Revolution began, Hartlib, Comenius, and Dury
saw the developments in England as the opportunity to put their
scientific-religious plans into effect. They joined together in London
in 1641 and, with strong support, offered proposals to prepare England
for the millennium. They proposed setting up a new university in London
for developing universal knowledge. In spite of the strong backing they
had from leaders of the State and Church, Parliament was unable to fund
the project because of the turmoil of the time. Comenius left for the
Continent, while Hartlib and Dury advanced other projects and involved
themselves in the Westminster conference to reform the Church.[2]
Hugh Trevor-Roper has called Hartlib, Dury, and Comenius "the real
philosophers, the only philosophers, of the English Revolution."[3] They
combined a long list of practical plans with an overall vision of how
these fitted into the needed antecedent events to the millennium. They
made proposals for improving and reforming many aspects of human
activities and human institutions. The advancement of knowledge, the
improvement of human life, and the purification of religion, which
included bringing the Jews and Christians together, would prepare
England for its role when God chose to transform human history. In a
long series of pamphlets and tracts, Hartlib and Dury turned Comenius's
theory into practical applications to the situation then prevailing in
England.[4]
Dury outlined this program in a sermon he gave before Parliament on 26
November 1645 entitled _Israels Call to March Out of Babylon unto
Jerusalem_. He pointed out that England, the new Israel, had a special
role in history, "for the Nations of great _Britain_ have made a new
thing in the world; a thing which hath not been done by any Nation in
the world, since the preaching of the Gospel in it, a thing which since
the Jewish Nation, in the daies of _Nehemiah_, was never heard of in any
Nation, that not only the Rulers, but the whole multitude of the people
should enter into a Covenant with their God, ... to walk in the waies
of his Word, to maintain the Cause of Religion, and to reform themselves
according to his will" (pp. 23-24).
Since England was to be God's agent in history, Dury proclaimed at the
end of his sermon that "The Schooles of the Prophets, the
Universities[,] must be setled, purged and reformed with wholsom
constitutions, for the education of the sonnes of the Prophets, and the
government of their lives and with the soundnes and purity of spirituall
learning, that they may speak the true language of _Canaan_, and that
the gibberidge of Scholastical Divinity may be banished out of their
society" (p. 48).
In the same year that he delivered this sermon, Dury married an aunt of
Lady Catherine Ranelagh and was brought in closer contact with Lady
Catherine's brother, Robert Boyle, and the young scientists of the
so-called Invisible College. Dury and Hartlib pressed for reforms that
would promote a better, more useful education from the lowest grades
upward. Convinced by the passage in Daniel 12:4 that knowledge shall
increase before the end of history, Dury and Hartlib sought various
opportunities to bring about this increase in knowledge through better
schools, better religious training, and better organization of
knowledge. Such organization would necessarily affect libraries since
they were an all-important component of the premillennial preparation.
Between 1645 and 1650, Dury wrote a great many tracts on improving the
Church and society. These include an as yet unpublished one, dated 16
August 1646, giving his views on the post of library keeper at Oxford.
The poor state of Oxford's library led Dury to observe that the
librarian is to be "a factor and trader for helpes to learning, a
treasurer to keep them and a dispenser to apply them to use, or to see
them well used, or at least not abused."[5] During his travels on the
Continent, Dury had visited Duke Augustus of Brunswick and was obviously
very impressed by the great library the Duke was assembling at
Wolfenbuttel. In his important _Seasonable Discourse_ of 1649 on
reforming religion and learning, Dury had proposed establishing in
London the first college for Jewish studies in the modern world. In this
proposal, he saw as a basic need the procurement of a collection of
Oriental books. Such a library was not just to store materials, but to
make them available and thereby increase knowledge. Hartlib, in a
pamphlet entitled _Considerations tending to the Happy Accomplishment of
England's Reformation in Church and State_, written in 1647 and
published in 1649, had proposed a central "Office of Addresse," an
information service dispensing spiritual and "bodily" information to all
who wished it. The holder of this office should, he said, correspond
with "Chiefe Library-Keepers of all places, whose proper employments
should bee to trade for the Advantages of Learning and Learned Men in
Books and MS[S] to whom he may apply himselfe to become beneficiall,
that such as Mind The End of their employment may reciprocate with him
in the way of Communication" (p. 49).
Events surrounding the overthrow and execution of Charles I led Dury to
become more personally involved in library matters. After the king fled
from London, the royal goods were subject to various proposals,
including selling or burning. These schemes of disposal extended to his
books and manuscripts, which were stored in St. James's Palace. John
Selden is credited with preventing the sale of the royal library.
Bulstrode Whitelocke was appointed keeper of the king's medals and
library, and on 28 October 1650 Dury was appointed his deputy. According
to Anthony à Wood, Dury "did the drudgery of the place."[6] The books
and manuscripts were in terrible disorder and disarray, and Dury
carefully reorganized them. As soon as he took over, Dury stopped any
efforts to sell the books and ordered that the new chapel, built
originally for the wedding of King Charles I, be turned into a library.
He immediately ordered the printing of the Septuagint copy of the Bible
in the royal collection.
In the same year that he became deputy keeper, Dury wrote the following
tract, one of a dozen he composed in 1650 on topics ranging from the
educational to the ecclesiastical. Among the latter was his introduction
to Thomas Thorowgood's book contending that the American Indians are
descended from the Israelites, a work that also served as promotional
material for New England colonization.
That Dury's _The Reformed Librarie-Keeper_ is part of his reform program
preparatory to the onset of the millennium is apparent both from its
setting and its content. It was published in 1650 along with two other
tracts (not reprinted here)[7] and Dury's supplement to his _Reformed
School_, which itself had appeared a few months earlier. _The Reformed
School_ was a basic presentation of the ideas of Comenius, Hartlib, and
Dury for transforming the nature of education in such a way that from
infancy people would be directed in their striving toward universal
knowledge and spiritual betterment. The _Supplement to the Reformed
School_ deals with the role that universities should take in preparing
for the Kingdom of God, a role making them more actively part of the
world.
Having placed educational institutions in the scheme of things
preparatory to the millennium, Dury then proceeds to place library
keeping and libraries in this scheme as well. Unfortunately, according
to Dury, library keepers had traditionally regarded their positions as
opportunities for profit and gain, not for "the service, which is to bee
don by them unto the Common-wealth of Israel, for the advancement of
Pietie and Learning" (p. 15). Library keepers "ought to becom Agents for
the advancement of universal Learning" and not just mercenary people (p.
17). Their role ought not to be just to guard the books but to make them
available to those seeking universal knowledge and understanding of the
Kingdom of God.
The library and the library keeper can play important roles in making
knowledge available. As Dury points out, Oxford and Heidelberg have
failed to do so. Dury's work enumerates very practical problems that
need to be solved and integrates them into an overall picture of the
library keeper, the library, the school, and the church--all fundamental
components of a better world, if properly reformed. Reforming involves
practical changes directed by the spiritual goal of preparing for the
millennium. And it should be noticed that while Dury had time to worry
about how much librarians should be paid and how books should be
classified, and while he was occupied in getting the king's books in
their proper place on the shelf, he was also convinced that the
penultimate events before the onset of the millennium were about to take
place. A month after his official appointment as deputy library keeper,
Dury wrote the preface, dated 28 November 1650, to Abraham von
Franckenberg's _Clavis Apocalyptica_. This work in Dury's translation of
1651 states on the title page that it offers a key to the prophecies in
the books of Daniel and Revelation and "that the Prophetical Numbers com
to an end with the year of our Lord 1655." The work, which Dury strongly
endorses, lists as events "which are shortly to com to pass, collected
out of the XI and XVI Chapters of the REVELATION," the destruction of
the city of Rome, the end of the Turkish Empire, the conversion of the
Jews, and the ruin of the whole papacy. Thereupon, the Devil will be
cast out and shut up in the bottomless pit, and the Son of God will take
"possession of the Kingdom" and reign for the millennium (pp. [164-65]).
As is all too evident, Dury's reform projects did not lead to the
millennium. He was active in England until sent abroad in 1654 as
Cromwell's unofficial agent. Again he traveled all over Protestant
Europe negotiating to reunite the churches. After the Restoration he was
unable to return to England and lived out his life on the Continent
trying to bring about Christian reunion. One of his last works, which
has not been located, was a shady _Touchant l'intelligence de
l'Apocalypse par l'Apocalypse même_ of 1674. His daughter married Henry
Oldenburg, who became a secretary of the Royal Society of England and
who helped bring about some of the scientific reforms Dury had
advocated.
_Richard H. Popkin
Washington University_
* * * * *
John Dury's place in the intellectual and religious life of
seventeenth-century England and Europe is amply demonstrated in the
preceding part of the introduction. This section focuses on _The
Reformed Librarie-Keeper_ itself, which was printed in 1650 with the
subheading _Two copies of Letters concerning the Place and Office of a
Librarie-Keeper_ (p. 15). The first letter concentrates on practical
questions of the organization and administration of the library, the
second relates the librarian's function to educational goals and, above
all else, to the mission of the Christian religion. The work's two-part
structure is a clue to a proper understanding of the genesis of _The
Reformed Librarie-Keeper_ and to its meaning and puts in ironic
perspective its usefulness for later academic librarianship.
Because _The Reformed Librarie-Keeper_ appeared in the same year that
Dury became deputy librarian of the King's Library in St. James's
Palace, it has been assumed that he probably wrote the pamphlet as a
form of self-promotion to secure the job. An anonymous article in _The
Library_ in 1892, for instance, speculates that the pamphlet may have
been "composed for the special purpose of the Author's advancement" and
that Milton and Samuel Hartlib urged its production "to forward his
claims" while the Council of State was debating what to do with Charles
I's books.[8] Certainly the final sentence of the tract, with its
references to "the Hous" and "the Counsels of leading men in this
Common-wealth" (p. 31), suggests a connection with the debate, but the
tone of religious zeal that permeates the work, and especially the
second letter, seems to transcend any specific occasion. Moreover,
Hartlib, Dury's longtime friend and associate in millenarian causes and
the recipient and editor of these letters, claims that they and the
other, disparate works he selected for the volume are all "_fruits of
som of my Solicitations and Negotiations for the advancement of
Learning_" and as such "_are but preparatives towards that perfection
which wee may exspect by the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ,
wherein the Communion of Saints, by the graces of the Spirit, will
swallow up all these poor Rudiments of knowledg, which wee now grope
after by so manie helps_" (sig. A2r-v).
There is, in fact, no way of knowing with certainty if Dury's motives
were "impure," especially since the exact date of the tract cannot be
determined, no entry existing for it in the Stationers' Register.
According to one of Dury's biographers, but with no reference to source,
the pamphlet was printed by William Dugard "shortly after" the latter's
release from prison in the early spring of 1650.[9] The Calendar of
State Papers and the records of Bulstrode Whitelocke indicate that Dury
was not officially considered for the library post before late summer
and not appointed until 28 October.[10]
The contents of the letters themselves reveal Dury far ahead of his time
in his conception of the Complete Librarian, but later commentators have
generally not understood that the administrative reforms he advocated
were inseparable from his idea of the sacramental nature of the
librarian's office--and so have tended to dismiss the second letter
because it "merely repeats the ideas of the first with less practical
suggestion and in a more declamatory style."[11] Such a comment
illustrates how far we are from Dury's (and the age's) purposes and
hopes, and it shows a great misunderstanding of the religious and moral
context within which, for Dury, all human activity took place. As
Professor Popkin has shown, Dury considered libraries fundamental to the
preparation for the millennium: they housed the texts indispensable to
the spread of learning, which in turn was prerequisite to religious
unity and peace on earth and ultimately to the millennium itself; for
with enough of the right books, the Christian world could convert the
Jews, that final step which was to herald the reign of Christ on earth.
When, in the second letter, Dury refers to the "stewardship" of the
librarian he is speaking literally, not metaphorically.
But if libraries were to serve their purpose in the grand scheme--that
is, to make texts easily available--extensive reforms were necessary,
and that is the burden of the first letter. Dury's cardinal principle is
that libraries should be _useful_ to people: "It is true that a fair
Librarie, is ... an ornament and credit to the place where it is [the
'jewel box' concept]; ... yet in effect it is no more then a dead Bodie
as now it is constituted, in comparison of what it might bee, if it were
animated with a publick Spirit to keep and use it, and _ordered as it
might bee for publick service_" (p. 17, my emphasis). The public that
Dury refers to is an academic faculty and not the general public. To
insure fullest use he goes on to advocate the necessity of a _printed_
catalogue with yearly manuscript supplements to be issued as a
cumulative printed supplement every three years. He does not reach the
point of proposing a call-number system but stresses the importance of
shelf-location guides in the catalogue. He believes in aggressive
acquisition policies and the necessity of good faculty-librarian
relations, with the former advising the latter of the important books in
their fields of specialization. He urges what might now be called
"interlibrary loan" and other forms of sharing. To keep the librarian on
the straight and narrow, apparently a recurrent problem in Dury's day,
he recommends an annual meeting of a faculty board of governors where
the librarian will give his annual report and put on an exhibition of
the books he has acquired. To allay the temptation to make a little
money on the side by "trading" (Dury's obsessive term) in the library's
books for his personal profit, the librarian is to receive
administrative support for his various expenses during the year and, as
a scholar working with other scholars within his university instead of
as a mere factotum, the librarian is to receive an adequate salary
(perhaps the only one of Dury's reforms that must wait until the
millennium).
The question remains to what extent Dury's duties as the deputy
librarian of the King's Library allowed him to implement the reforms he
advocated on paper. The probable answer is, not very much. The
librarian's duties and responsibilities described by Dury are those of
an academic, university librarian, interacting with the faculty and
participating fully in the intellectual life of a scholarly community.
The role of the librarian of the King's Library would have been that of
keeper of a static and isolated collection, and Dury is particularly
critical of a merely custodial role: "... their emploiment," he writes
of the typical librarian of his day, is "of little or no use further,
then to look to the Books committed to their custodie, that they may not
bee lost; or embezeled by those that use them: and this is all" (p. 16).
The King's Library was unquestionably magnificent; Charles's father and
brother Henry had been particularly zealous in building it up, acquiring
such collections as that of Isaac Casaubon. And Charles had been the
recipient in 1628 of perhaps its greatest single treasure, the Codex
Alexandrinus, a fifth-century manuscript of the Bible in Greek,
certainly an item that would have interested Dury. The library had, in
fact, great scholarly potential, but its continued existence was
apparently an embarrassment to the Commonwealth, and the Puritan
government merely wanted an overseer. So, by the determination of
others, the post of deputy keeper of the King's Library was little but a
sinecure for Dury, leaving him free to pursue his many other interests
but powerless to implement the reforms he advocated in his pamphlet
within the only library over which he ever had direct control. Though he
retained the post until the Restoration, he left the library itself
early in 1654, never to return.
The _DNB_ notes that Dury's life was "an incessant round of journeyings,
colloquies, correspondence, and publications." The account might also
have added that, sadly, it was a life of many failures and frustrations,
since his visionary scheme for the wholeness of life was so out of touch
with the jealousies and rivalries of those he encountered. But if the
larger vision that underlay _The Reformed Librarie-Keeper_ is now merely
a historical curiosity, the specific reforms that Dury advocated, as
seemingly impractical in his own time as his other schemes, proved to be
of lasting importance. Shorn of the millenarian vision that gave them
their point in Dury's own day, his ideas have become the accepted
standards of modern librarianship. Dury himself would not have been
heartened by his secular acceptance: "... For except Sciences bee
reformed in order to this Scope [of the Christian and millenarian
vision], the increas of knowledg will increas nothing but strife, pride
and confusion, from whence our sorrows will bee multiplied and
propagated unto posteritie...." (p. 31).
_Thomas F. Wright
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_
NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION
[Footnote 1: For Dury's biography, see J. Minton Batten, _John Dury,
Advocate of Christian Reunion_ (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1944).]
[Footnote 2: On the relation of Dury, Hartlib, and Comenius, see G.H.
Turnbull, _Hartlib, Dury and Comenius_ (Liverpool: University Press of
Liverpool, 1947).]
[Footnote 3: Hugh Trevor-Roper, "Three Foreigners: The Philosophers of
the Puritan Revolution," in his _Religion, the Reformation, and Social
Change, and Other Essays_, 2d ed. (London: Macmillan, 1972), 240.]
[Footnote 4: On the philosophical and theological theories of Dury,
Hartlib, and Comenius, see Richard H. Popkin, "The Third Force in
Seventeenth-Century Philosophy, Scepticism, Science, and Biblical
Prophecy," _Nouvelles de la République des Lettres_ (Spring 1983), and
Charles Webster, _The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine, and Reform,
1626-1660_ (London: Duckworth, 1975).]
[Footnote 5: Quoted in Turnbull, 257.]
[Footnote 6: _Athenae Oxonienses_, vol. 2 (London, 1692), col. 400.]
[Footnote 7: The omitted works are _An Idea of Mathematicks_ by John
Pell (pp. 33-46) and _The description of one of the chiefest Libraries
which is in Germanie_, attributed either to Julius Scheurl or J.
Schwartzkopf (pp. [47]-65, in Latin). This seems to be the first
printing of _The description_, which was published separately at
Wolfenbuttel in 1653. John Pell's essay was written around 1630-34 and
was prepared for publication in 1634 by Hartlib, but was only actually
published as an addition to _The Reformed Librarie-Keeper_. It was of
some importance in making mathematics better known at the time.]
[Footnote 8: "John Durie's _Reformed Librarie-Keeper_ and Its Author's
Career as a Librarian," _The Library_, 1st ser. 4 (1892), 82.]
[Footnote 9: Ruth Shepard Granniss, "Biographical Sketch," _The Reformed
Librarie-Keeper_ (Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1906), 31-32.]
[Footnote 10: See "John Durie's _Reformed Librarie-Keeper_," 83.]
[Footnote 11: Richard Garnett, "Librarianship in the Seventeenth
Century," in his _Essays in Librarianship and Bibliography_ (New York:
F.P. Harper, 1899), 187.]
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
_The Reformed Librarie Keeper With a Supplement to the Reformed School_
(1650) is reproduced from the copy in the Folger Shakespeare Library
(Shelf Mark D2882/Bd w/D2883). A typical type page (p. 7) measures 107 x
56 mm. Not reproduced here are two additional parts in the original
volume: _An Idea of Mathematicks_ by John Pell and _The description of
one of the chiefest Libraries which is in Germanie_, attributed either
to Julius Scheurl or J. Schwartzkopf.
THE REFORMED LIBRARIE-KEEPER
With a Supplement to the
Reformed-School,
As subordinate to Colleges in Universities.
_BY_
JOHN DURIE.
Whereunto is added
I. An idea of _Mathematicks_.
II. The description of one of the chiefest Libraries which is in
_Germanie_, erected and ordered by one of the most Learned Princes in
_Europe_.
_LONDON_,
Printed by _William Du-Gard_, and are to bee sold by _Rob. Littleberrie_
at the sign of the _Unicorn_ in Little _Britain_. 1650.
To the Reader.
_Learned Reader!_
_These Tracts are the fruits of som of my Sollicitations and
Negotiations for the advancement of Learning. And I hope they may in
time becom somwhat effectual to rais thy Spirit to the exspectation of
greater things, which may bee raised upon such grounds as these. All
which are but preparatives towards that perfection which wee may exspect
by the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ, wherein the Communion of
Saints, by the graces of the Spirit, will swallow up all these poor
Rudiments of knowledg, which wee now grope after by so manie helps; and
till then in those endeavors I rest in the Truth._
Thy faithfull and
unwearied servant
SAMUEL HARTLIB.
A SUPPLEMENT TO THE _Reformed School_.
_Loving freind!_
You have offered to mee that which I confess I did not reflect upon,
when I wrote the discours you have Published under the name of a
_Reformed School_; which is, that som may think by the waie of
Education, which I propose all Universities and eminent places of
Learning might subtilly bee undermined and made useless, becaus therein
a waie is shew'd how to initiate youths not onely to the Principles of
all Religious and Rational knowledg, and in the Exercises of all Moral
virtues, but in the grounds of all Civil emploiments, so far, as will
make them fit for all profitable undertakings in humane societies,
whence this will follow (in their apprehensions) that they shall have no
advantage by beeing sent to anie Universities, to attein anie further
perfection: becaus the Universities will not bee able to add anie thing
unto them, which by their own Industrie, they may not afterward attein
anie where els, as well as there. Truly it never came into my thoughts,
either directly or indirectly to make Universities useless; nor can it
bee rationally infer'd from anie thing in the matter form or end of that
discours of mine: but I will grant that such as can see no farther then
what wee now ordinarily attein unto; and withal think that there is no
_Plus ultra_ in nature atteinable above that which they have conceived,
such as I saie may frame to themselv's this jealousie against that
discours: but if they would rais their thoughts with mee a little above
the ordinarie pitch, and consider what the Nature of man is capable off:
and how far it may, by diligent instruction, by Method and
Communication, bee improved: they might rather bee induced to make this
inference, if the natural abilities of youths in a School (when
reformed) may bee thus far improved: how far more may they bee improved,
when they are past the age of Youth, and com to Manhood in Colleges and
Universities, if namely Colleges and Universities, could in the sphere
of their activities bee proportionally Reformed, as the Schools may bee
in their sphere: for it is rational to conclude thus: if the first step
of our Reformation will lead us thus far, how far will the second and
third lead us? and if Scholastical Exercises in Youths of eighteen or
twentie years, will advance them to that perfection of Learning and
Virtues, which few of double their age or none almost ever attein unto,
what will Collegial and Academical Exercises (if reformed and set upon
their proper Objects) bring them unto? I shall therefore to eas you, or
such as may have this scruple and jealousie over mee, declare that my
purpose is so far from making Colleges and Universities useless, that if
I might have my desire in them, they should becom a thousand times more
useful then now they are, that is, as far above the ordinarie State
wherein they are set, as this School is above the ordinarie waie of
Schooling: for if wee look upon the true and proper ends of School,
College and Universitie-studies and Exercises, wee shall see that as in
nature they are in a gradual proportion, distant from, and subordinate
unto each other, so they ought to rise one out of another, and bee built
upon each other's Foundations.
The true and proper end of Schooling is to teach and Exercise Children
and Youths in the Grounds of all Learning and Virtues, so far as either
their capacitie in that age will suffer them to com, or is requisite to
apprehend the principles of useful matters, by which they may bee made
able to exercise themselvs in everie good Employment afterwards by
themselvs, and as the Proverb is, _sine Cortice natare_. The true and
proper end of Colleges should bee to bring together into one Societie
such as are able thus to Exercise themselvs in anie or all kind of
Studies, that by their mutual Association, Communication, and Assistance
in Reading, Meditating and conferring about profitable matters, they may
not onely perfit their own Abilities, but advance the superstructures of
all Learning to that perfection, which by such means is attainable. And
the true and proper End of Universities, should bee to publish unto the
World the Matters, which formerly have not been published; to discover
the Errors and hurtfulness of things mistaken for Truths; and to supplie
the defects and _desiderata_, which may bee servicable to all sorts of
Professions.
Now according to those aimes and ends, I suppose it may bee inferred,
that none should bee dismissed out of the Schools, till they are able
to make use of all sorts of Books, and direct themselvs profitably in
everie cours of Studie or Action, whereunto their _Genius_ shall lead
them; and that none should bee admitted into anie Colleges, but such as
will join with others, to elaborate som profitable Tasks, for the
Advancement and facilitating of superstructures in things already by som
discovered, but not made common unto all; And that none should bee made
Publick Professors in Universities, but such as have not onely a Publick
aim, but som approved Abilities, to supply som defects and to Elaborate
som _desiderata_ of usefull knowledg, or to direct such as are studious,
how to order their thoughts in all Matters of search and Meditation, for
the discoverie of things not hitherto found out by others; but which in
probabilitie may bee found out by rational searching.
Thus then I conceiv, that in a well-Reformed Common wealth, which is to
bee subordinate unto the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, wherein the Glorie of
God, the happiness of the nature of man: and the Glorious libertie of
the Sons of God is to bee revealed; all the subjects thereof should in
their Youth bee trained up in som Schools fit for their capacities, and
that over these Schools, som Overseers should bee appointed to look to
the cours of their Education, to see that none should bee left destitute
of som benefit of virtuous breeding, according to the several kinds of
emploiments, whereunto they may bee found most fit and inclinable,
whether it bee to bear som civil Office in the Common-wealth, or to bee
Mechanically emploied, or to bee bred to teach others humane Sciences,
or to bee imploied in Prophetical Exercises. As for this School, which
at this time I have delineated, it is proper to such of the Nobilitie,
Gentrie and better sort of Citizens, which are fit to bee made capable
to bear Offices in the Common-wealth: the other Schools may bee spoken
off in due time, so far as they are distinct from this, but that which
now I have to suggest is chiefly this, that as out of the Schools the
chois, which ought to bee made for Colleges, ought, _Cæteris paribus_,
onely to bee of such as are most fit to Advance the Ends of a Collegial
Association; so out of Colleges a chois ought to bee made of Professors
for the Universitie onely, of such as are fitted to advance the Ends of
Publick teaching in Universities, which are not to Repeat and
Compendiate that which others have published twentie times already,
over and over again, but to add unto the Common stock of humane
knowledg, that which others have not observed, to the end that all these
degrees of Studies and Exercises of the minde of man, beeing subordinate
unto the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the happiness of Man by all Rational
and Spiritual waies of improving humane Abilities, may bee advanced unto
it's perfection in this life so far as may bee.
But how far short wee com now of all these designs, I need not to relate
unto you: the Colleges as they are now Conformed, can scarce reach to
the half of that which the Schools might bring us unto: and the
Professors of the Universities com not up to that, which the Collegial
Associations might elaborate, if they were rightly directed to set their
Talents at work; and if the publick Spirit of Christian love and
ingenuitie did possess those, that are possessed of publick places in
the Colleges of the Universities. For if this Spirit did rule their Aims
and Endevors, there would bee no self-seeking, no partialitie, no envie,
nor anie cross actings for private ends, to the prejudice of the
Publick; but the generous love of virtue and of profitable Learning,
would swaie all their inclinations to a free conjunction; and make all
their endeavors subordinate unto the publick good of the Common-wealth
of Israël in the Communion of Saints. But how far this Principle of
acting is now wanting amongst us all, I shall not need to mention: you
have considered it long ago, and wee have together lamented that defect,
and the doleful effects thereof: our endevor must bee to seek out the
best means of a Reformation therein, and to make use of them as God
shall give us opportunities. And truly somthing of this kinde might bee
don, without anie great alteration or stir, even as matters now are
formed in the Colleges; if God would bee so gracious to us, as to beget
in the mindes of those that understand those things, a heartie Aim and
Resolution to benefit the Christian Common-wealth of Learning, by their
Collegial Relations and Associations one to another. For if men that are
ingenuous will call to minde the end first, for which God doth give them
all their Talents, and then also for which men of publick Spirits have
erected Colleges and Universities, and endowed the same with long and
competent maintenances; that such as are fit for Studies, and called to
bee Instrumental in the propagation of Truth and Virtue, might not bee
distracted with the care of the World, in reference to outward matters,
but might have all the conveniences which are imaginable to improve
those Talents to the utmost, either singly, or conveniently with others,
if (I saie) ingenuous Christians would minde these ends, for which the
benefit of their Talents from God and of their accommodations from men
to improve those Talents are bestowed upon them: it would not bee
possible for them; to be so unthankful towards God, and avers from the
rule of Christianitie, and from the love of doing good to the generation
wherein they live; that they should intend to lead a Collegial life
onely for their own private eas and conveniencie in outward things; that
beeing accommodated with all necessarie helps of the Bodie, they may
pleas themselvs onely in the cours of their Studies, with that
Reservation and Retiredness, which is proper to a Monkish life in Popish
Cloisters; wherein the Spirit of Mutual envie, of detraction and
division is more irreconcilably entertained, then in anie other
Societies of the World. For their Cloister-constitutions, obliging them
onely to the observation of som formal works as an _opus operatum_; for
which their maintenance is allowed them; they not knowing anie further
design of their life, or any greater happiness in this World, then to
pleas themselvs; bestow all the rest of their time and thoughts, as
their natural inclinations lead them, which is commonly to nothing els
but to self-love and Pride, which became a Provocation unto others, to
discover mutually their corruptions, which by reaction make them all
full of envie, of hatred, of evil surmises, and of malicious practices
one against another: so that no where Satan doth dwel and rule more
effectually, then in those Religious Houses, as they are falsly so
called. How much of this Monkish disposition doth remain as yet in the
formal Constitutions of Colleges, or in the Spirits of those that
partake of Collegial accommodations, is not a thing which I shall take
upon me to Judg; but I shall leav it to God, and to his daie to
discover; onely I would bee glad that all such as are true Israelites,
and know the end of their calling unto Christ, and are not willing to
burie their Talents, or to make them useless unto others, for whose
fakes they have received them would laie this matter to heart, that
their Aim in a Collegial life, should not bee to enjoie an easie
careless waie of subsistence by and for themselvs, to follow private
fancies in their Studies about matters of Learning; but that they
should minde the stewardship of their gifts and places, and the
advantages of their Association, whereby they might bee, (if they would
make use of it) able to elaborate som tasks, which otherwise cannot bee
brought to anie perfection, for the building up of the Citie of God in
our generations. There is no want of parts and abilities in the Spirits
of our men, but the waie to order them for publick life, and to bring
them together as stones fitly compacted to make up a perfect Palace, is
that which make's us all useless one to another; wee finde that now and
then, as it were by chance, som exquisite pieces of Learning, which som
have been hatching all their life time drop out; wherein appear's,
besides the usefulness of the Subject, or the uselesness thereof, som
inclination to bee found extraordinarie; but these endevors, disjointed
from publick Aims, advance little or nothing, the Happiness, which true
Learning rightly ordered in all the parts thereof; and Subordinate unto
Christianitie, is able to bring unto Mankind. Such pieces therefore serv
onely as a witness, to shew what wast there is of profitable time and
abilities, for want of loving combinations for publick Designs. It is
the observation of Forreigners concerning our Universities, that they
finde in them men of as great learning as any where els; but that they
lie as it were dead and unknown to the whole world of other men of
Learning; becaus they delight to live a retired and unsociable life:
this humor therefore amongst other parts of our Reformation, must by som
Gospel-principles and Rational inducements bee Reformed, not onely in
Colleges but in other Associations. The Lord teach us the waie of Truth
and Righteousness, that wee may profit in all things to advance the
glorie of his name in the Kingdom of his Son, in whom I rest
_Your friend and servant_.
J.D.
THE REFORMED LIBRARIE-KEEPER.
BY
JOHN DURIE.
_LONDON_,
Printed by _William Du-gard_,
_Anno Dom._ 1650.
THE _Reformed Librarie-Keeper_:
OR
Two copies of Letters concerning the Place and Office of a
Librarie-Keeper.
_The first Letter._
The Librarie-Keeper's place and Office, in most Countries (as most other
places and Offices both in Churches and Universities) are lookt upon, as
Places of profit and gain, and so accordingly sought after and valued in
that regard; and not in regard of the service, which is to bee don by
them unto the Common-wealth of Israël, for the advancement of Pietie and
Learning; for the most part, men look after the maintenance, and
livelihood setled upon their Places, more then upon the end and
usefulness of their emploiments; they seek themselvs and not the Publick
therein, and so they subordinate all the advantages of their places, to
purchase mainly two things thereby _viz._ an easie subsistence; and som
credit in comparison of others; nor is the last much regarded, if the
first may bee had; except it bee in cases of strife and debate, wherein
men are over-heated: for then indeed som will stand upon the point of
Honor, to the hazard of their temporal profits: but to speak in
particular of Librarie-Keepers, in most Universities that I know; nay
indeed in all, their places are but Mercenarie, and their emploiment of
little or no use further, then to look to the Books committed to their
custodie, that they may not bee lost; or embezeled by those that use
them: and this is all.
I have been informed, that in Oxford (where the most famous Librarie now
exstant amongst Protestant-Christians is kept,) the setled maintenance
of the Librarie-keeper is not above fiftie or sixtie pound _per annum_;
but that it is accidentally, _viis & modis_ somtimes worth an hundred
pound: what the accidents are, and the waies by which they com, I have
not been curious to search after; but I have thought, that if the proper
emploiments of Librarie-keepers were taken into consideration as they
are, or may bee made useful to the advancement of Learning; and were
ordered and mainteined proportionally to the ends, which ought to bee
intended thereby; they would bee of exceeding great use to all sorts of
Scholars, and have an universal influence upon all the parts of
Learning, to produce and propagate the same unto perfection. For if
Librarie-keepers did understand themselvs in the nature of their work,
and would make themselvs, as they ought to bee, useful in their places
in a publick waie; they ought to becom Agents for the advancement of
universal Learning: and to this effect I could wish, that their places
might not bee made, as everie where they are, Mercenarie, but rather
Honorarie; and that with the competent allowance of two hundred pounds a
year; som emploiments should bee put upon them further then a bare
keeping of the Books. It is true that a fair Librarie, is not onely an
ornament and credit to the place where it is; but an useful commoditie
by it self to the publick; yet in effect it is no more then a dead Bodie
as now it is constituted, in comparison of what it might bee, if it were
animated with a publick Spirit to keep and use it, and ordered as it
might bee for publick service. For if such an allowance were setled upon
the emploiment as might maintain a man of parts and generous thoughts,
then a condition might bee annexed to the bestowing of the Place; that
none should bee called thereunto but such as had approved themselvs
zealous and profitable in som publick waies of Learning to advance the
same, or that should bee bound to certain tasks to bee prosecuted
towards that end, whereof a List might bee made, and the waie to trie
their Abilities in prosecuting the same should bee described, least in
after times, unprofitable men creep into the place, to frustrate the
publick of the benefit intended by the Doners towards posteritie. The
proper charge then of the Honorarie Librarie-Keeper in a Universitie
should bee thought upon, and the end of that Imploiment, in my
conception, is to keep the publick stock of Learning, which is in Books
and Manuscripts to increas it, and to propose it to others in the waie
which may bee most useful unto all; his work then is to bee a Factor and
Trader for helps to Learning, and a Treasurer to keep them, and a
dispenser to applie them to use, or to see them well used, or at least
not abused; And to do all this, First a _Catalogue_, of the Treasurie
committed unto his charge is to bee made, that is all the Books and
Manuscripts, according to the Titles whereunto they belong, are to bee
ranked in an order most easie and obvious to bee found, which I think is
that of Sciences and Languages; when first all the Books are divided
into their _subjectam materiam_ whereof they Treat, and then everie
kinde of matter subdivided into their several Languages: And as the
Catalogue should bee so made, that it may alwaies bee augmented as the
stock doth increas; so the place in the Librarie must bee left open for
the increas of the number of Books in their proper Seats, and in the
Printed Catalogue, a Reference is to bee made to the place where the
Books are to bee found in their Shelvs or repositories. When the stock
is thus known and fitted to bee exposed to the view of the Learned
World, Then the waie of Trading with it, both at home and abroad, is to
bee laid to heart both for the increas of the stock, and for the
improvement of it to use. For the increas of the stock both at home and
abroad, correspondencie should bee held with those that are eminent in
everie Science, to Trade with them for their profit, that what they want
and wee have, they may receiv upon condition, that what they have and
wee want, they should impart in that facultie where their eminencie doth
lie; As for such as are at home eminent in anie kinde, becaus they may
com by Native right to have use of the Librarie-Treasure, they are to
bee Traded withal in another waie, _viz._ that the things which are
gained from abroad, which as yet are not made common, and put to publick
use should bee promised and imparted to them for the increas of their
private stock of knowledg, to the end that what they have peculiar, may
also bee given in for a requital, so that the particularities of gifts
at home and abroad, are to meet as in a Center in the hand of the
Librarie-keeper, and hee is to Trade with the one by the other, to caus
them to multiplie the publick stock, whereof hee is a Treasurer and
Factor.
Thus hee should Trade with those that are at home and abroad out of the
Universitie, and with those that are within the Universitie, hee should
have acquaintance to know all that are of anie parts, and how their vein
of Learning doth lie, to supplie helps unto them in their faculties from
without and from within the Nation, to put them upon the keeping of
correspondencie with men of their own strain, for the beating out of
matters not yet elaborated in Sciences; so that they may bee as his
Assistants and subordinate Factors in his Trade and in their own for
gaining of knowledg: Now becaus in all publick Agencies, it is fit that
som inspection should bee had over those that are intrusted therewith,
therefore in this Factorie and Trade for the increas of Learning, som
tie should bee upon those Librarie-keepers to oblige them to
carefulness.
I would then upon this account, have an Order made that once in the
year, the Librarie-keeper should bee bound to give an account of his
Trading, and of his Profit in his Trade (as in all humane Trades Factors
ought, and use to do to their principals at least once a year) and to
this effect I would have it ordered, that the chief Doctors of each
facultie of the Universitie, should meet at a Convenient time in a week
of the year, to receiv the Accounts of his Trading, that hee may shew
them wherein the stock of Learning hath been increased, for that year's
space; and then hee is to produce the particulars which he hath gained
from abroad, and laie them before them all, that everie one in his own
facultie may declare in the presence of others, that which he thinketh
fit to bee added to the publick stock, and made common by the Catalogue
of Additionals, which everie year within the Universities is to bee
published in writing within the Librarie it self, and everie three
years (or sooner as the number of Additionals may bee great, or later,
if it bee smal) to bee put in Print and made common to those that are
abroad. And at this giving up of the accounts, as the Doctors are to
declare what they think worthie to bee added to the common stock of
Learning, each in their Facultie; so I would have them see what the
Charges and Pains are whereat the Librarie-Keeper hath been, that for
his encouragement, the extraordinarie expences in correspondencies and
transcriptions for the publick good, may bee allowed him out of som
Revenues, which should bee set a part to that effect, and disposed of
according to their joint-content and judgment in that matter. Here then
hee should bee bound to shew them the Lists of his correspondents, the
Letters from them in Answer to his, and the reckoning of his
extraordinarie expence should bee allowed him in that which hee is
indebted, or hath freely laid out to procure Rarities into the stock of
Learning. And becaus I understand that all the Book-Printers or
Stationars of the Common-wealth are bound of everie Book which is
Printed, to send a Copie into the Universitie Librarie; and it is
impossible for one man to read all the Books in all Faculties, to judg
of them what worth there is in them; nor hath everie one Abilitie to
judg of all kinde of Sciences what everie Autor doth handle, and how
sufficiently; therefore I would have at this time of giving accounts,
the Librarie-keeper also bound to produce the Catalogue of all the Books
sent unto the Universitie's Librarie by the Stationars that Printed
them; to the end that everie one of the Doctors in their own Faculties
should declare, whether or no they should bee added, and where they
should bee placed in the Catalogue of Additionals; For I do not think
that all Books and Treaties which in this age are Printed in all kindes,
should bee inserted into the Catalogue, and added to the stock of the
Librarie, discretion must bee used and confusion avoided, and a cours
taken to distinguish that which is profitable, from that which is
useless; and according to the verdict of that Societie, the usefulness
of Books for the publick is to bee determined; yet becaus there is
seldom anie Books wherein there is not somthing useful, and Books freely
given are not to bee cast away, but may bee kept, therefore I would have
a peculiar place appointed for such Books as shall bee laid aside to
keep them in, and a Catalogue of their Titles made Alphabetically in
reference to the Autor's name, with a note of distinction to shew the
Science to which they are to bee referred. These thoughts com thus
suddenly into my head, which in due time may bee more fully described,
if need bee, chiefly if, upon the ground of this account, som
competencie should bee found out and allowed to maintein such charges as
will bee requisite, towards the advancement of the Publick good of
Learning after this manner.
The second Letter.
_Sir!_
In my last I gave you som incident thoughts, concerning the improvement
of an Honorarie Librarie-keeper's place, to shew the true end and use
thereof, and how the keepers thereof should bee regulated in the Trade,
which hee is to drive for the Advancement of Learning, and encouraged by
a competent maintenance, and supported in extraordinarie expences for
the same. Now I wish that som men of publick Spirits and lovers of
Learning, might bee made acquainted with the Action, upon such grounds
as were then briefly suggested; who know's but that in time somthing
might bee offered to the Trustees of the Nation, with better conceptions
then these I have suggested.
For, if it bee considered that amongst manie Eminencies of this Nation,
the Librarie of Oxford is one of the most considerable for the
advancement of Learning, if rightly improved and Traded withal for the
good of Scholars at home and abroad; If this (I saie) bee rightly
considered and represented to the publick Reformers of this age, that
by this means this Nation as in other things, so especially for Pietie
and Learning, and by the advancement of both, may now bee made more
glorious then anie other in the world; No doubt such as in the Parlament
know the worth of Learning will not bee avers from further overtures,
which may bee made towards this purpose. What a great stir hath been
heretofore, about the Eminencie of the Librarie of Heidelberg, but what
use was made of it? It was ingrossed into the hands of a few, till it
became a Prey unto the Enemies of the Truth. If the Librarie-keeper had
been a man, that would have traded with it for the increas of true
Learning, it might have been preserved unto this daie in all the
rarities thereof, not so much by the shuttings up of the multitude of
Books, and the rareness thereof for antiquitie, as by the understandings
of men and their proficiencie to improv and dilate knowledg upon the
grounds which hee might have suggested unto others of parts, and so the
Librarie-rarities would not onely have been preserved in the spirits of
men, but have fructified abundantly therein unto this daie, whereas they
are now lost, becaus they were but a Talent digged in the ground; And
as they that had the keeping of that Librarie made it an Idol, to bee
respected and worshipped for a raritie by an implicite faith, without
anie benefit to those who did esteem of it a far off: so it was just
with God that it should fall into the hands of those that in all things
follow an Idolatrous waie, to blinde men with shewes without all
realitie of substantial virtue, which is onely eminent in this, that it
becometh profitable unto all, by dilating the light of knowledg, and the
love of grace and goodness in the hearts of all men, that are fit to
receiv the one and the other; And where this Aim is not in those that
are intrusted with publick places; there they in the end will bee found
unprofitable servants; for the trust which God hath put into their hands
to profit withal, they discharge not for the account which everie one is
to give unto him of his Stewardship, is not how careful hee hath kept
things of use unto himself, to pride himself in the possession of that
which others have not, (as the custom of men is, that know not what true
glorie is) but how faithfully and diligently hee hath distributed the
same to such as were worthie thereof for their good, that they might bee
stirred up both to glorifie God for his goodness; and to imitate him in
the Communication of all good things unto others for his sake freely.
This was Christ's Work on Earth to receiv us, unto the Glorie of God;
this was that which hee taught by this practice, that it is _more
blessed to give, then to receiv_. This is that which this envious World
cannot rellish, and what stop's the current of true love in the hearts
of men? Nothing so much as the self-seeking of men in the waies of
Learning, by which they covetously obstruct the fountains of life and
comfort, which might overflow and water abundantly the barren and
thirstie Souls of those that perish for want of address unto wisdom;
which in all the waies of humane and divine Learning might bee mainly
advanced, by the industrie of one man in such a place, whose Trade
should bee such as I formerly described, to deal with the spirits of all
men of parts, to set them a working one by and towards another, upon the
subjects which hee should bee intrusted withal to keep in the stock of
Learning. It is the Glorie and Riches of Nations and of great Cities, to
make themselvs the Center of Trade for all their Neighbors; and if they
can finde waies of politie, to oblige their Neighbors to receiv from
their Magazines the Commodities whereof they stand in need, it is
everie waie a great benefit unto the State, so it may bee in matters of
Learning, and by the Trade of Sciences this Church may oblige all the
Neighbor Churches, and that Universitie all Forreiners that Trade in
knowledg to receiv pretious Commodities, whereof they stand in need,
from our Magazines and Storehouses; if a painful Steward and dispenser
thereof, bee imploied and mainteined to use industrie for so blessed a
work, from whence much Glorie to God in the Gospel, and honor will
redound to the Nation. For although the waies of humane Learning are
almost infinite and wonderfully various, and have their peculiar uses in
the outward life of man, for which most men affect them, yet in one that
is to minde the universal good of all, the whole varietie and diversitie
of matters useful unto this present life, as they com within the sphere
of Learning must bee reduced, and may bee subordinate unto the
advancement of the Gospel of Christ, wherein the Glorie of the Nation,
at this and all times should bee thought to stand: And truly that is the
thing which take's most with mee, for which I would have that Librarie
thus improved by a faithful keeper, that when his Trade is set on foot,
with all those that are of eminent parts in their several faculties,
wee knowing who they are and wherein their eminencies do lie, may have
opportunities to provoke them to the right use thereof, by giving them
Objects from our store; and furnishing them with tasks and matters to
bee elaborated, which cannot bee diverted from the scope of God's glorie
to bee made known unto all men in Jesus Christ, for there is nothing of
knowledg in the minde of man, which may not bee conveniently referred to
the virtues of God in Christ, whereby the humane nature is to bee
exalted to that dignitie whereunto hee hath received it, that it should
by him rule over the whole Creation. And the want of this Aim to look
upon things in order to him, and to set them a working without relation
to him, is that which blast's all our endevors, and make's them determin
in confusion and disorder; For whatsoever is not directed in it's own
place with som reference unto him must bee overthrown; nor is there anie
waie left for anie to prosper in that which hee undertaketh, but to
learn to know him and respect him in it, for the advancement of the
Kingdom over the Souls of men, which by the Sanctified use of all
knowledg is chiefly effected. If then the Trade of Learning is to bee
set a foot in a publick waie, and regulated to deserv the countenance
of a Religious State, this Aim, and the waie of prosecuting of it must
bee intended and beaten out; For except Sciences bee reformed in order
to this Scope, the increas of knowledg will increas nothing but strife,
pride and confusion, from whence our sorrows will bee multiplied and
propagated unto posteritie; but if hee, who is to bee intrusted with the
managing of this Trade, bee addressed in the waie which leadeth unto
this Aim without partialitie, his negotiation will bee a blessing unto
this age and to posteritie.
I have no time to inlarge upon this Subject, or to conceiv a formal and
regular discours, but the thoughts which thus fall into my minde I
impart unto you, that you may give them as hints unto others, who of
themselvs will bee able to inlarge them either to the Hous, or to such
as can in due time swaie the Counsels of leading men in this
Common-wealth.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Reformed Librarie-Keeper (1650), by John Dury
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