, and all that which Varro calls Villaticas Pastiones, together
with the sports of the field, which ought not to be looked upon only
as pleasures, but as parts of housekeeping, and the domestical
conservation and uses of all that is brought in by industry abroad.
The business of these professors should not be, as is commonly
practised in other arts, only to read pompous and superficial
lectures out of Virgil's Georgics, Pliny, Varro, or Columella, but
to instruct their pupils in the whole method and course of this
study, which might be run through perhaps with diligence in a year
or two; and the continual succession of scholars upon a moderate
taxation for their diet, lodging, and learning, would be a
sufficient constant revenue for maintenance of the house and the
professors, who should be men not chosen for the ostentation of
critical literature, but for solid and experimental knowledge of the
things they teach such men; so industrious and public spirited as I
conceive Mr. Hartlib to be, if the gentleman be yet alive. But it
is needless to speak further of my thoughts of this design, unless
the present disposition of the age allowed more probability of
bringing it into execution.
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