ABSTRACT

Our course of education at Kibworth was the employment of four years, and every half-year we entered upon a new set of studies; or at least changed the time and order of our lectures.

The First half-year we read Geometry or Algebra thrice a week; Hebrew twice, Geography once, French once, Latin prose authors once, Classical exercises once. For Geometry we read Barrow's Euclid's Elements; when we had gone through the first book, we entered upon algebra, and read over a system drawn up by Mr. Jennings for our use . . . When we had ended this system, we went over most of the second and fifth books of Euclid's Elements, with Algebraic demonstrations, which Mr. Jennings had drawn up and which were not near so difficult as Barrow's geometrical demonstrations of the same prepositions. We likewise went through the third, fourth and sixth books of Euclid; but this was part of the business of the second half-year. We read Gordon's Geography in our closets; the lecture was only an examination of the account we could give of the most remarkable passages in it. For French, we learnt Boyer's Grammar, and read the phrases and dialogues from French into English, without regarding the pronunciation, with which Mr. Jennings was not acquainted. One hour in the week was employed in reading some select passages out of Suetonius, Tacitus, Seneca, Cresar, and especially Cicero. Our method was, first, to read the Latin, I think according to the grammatical order of the words, and then to render it into as elegant English as we could. We used the same way in reading the classics together the two next halfyears. Our academical exercises were translations from some of the Latin authors into English, and from English into Latin. Many passages in the Spectators and Tatlers, both serious and humorous, were assigned to us upon these occasions. For Hebrew, we read Bythner's Grammar.