'To pitch upon ten good families, whereupon to practise civility and conversation.
'To heare 4 or 5 of the most eminent preachers.
'To go to plays, and learn the company, as alsoe to the Drawing room, St James Park, Hyde Park, and balls.
'To know the seats upon the river of Thames, between Windsor and Greenwich, and within 6 miles of London Bridge.
'To know the alliances of all the noble families, with their friends and friendship.
'To know the names of the most famous persons for every faculty and talent at home and abroad.
'To know the names of 3 or 4 of the best authors upon every faculty.
'To be well acquainted with 3 or 4 that make news their businesse.
'To have a Friend in every great office.
'To heare Tryals, criminal and others.
'To read Josephus, Molière, Virgil, Caesar, Sallust and Tacitus without bounds.
'To study the Mathematicks, Globe, Mapps, measuring Instruments.
'To learn logick, by reading the most rational Discourses, the History of England and chronological tables.
'To read Aristotles Rhetorick, Hobbes de Cive,[1] Justinians Institutions, and the Common Law.
'To go to Gresham College.'
'8 July 1686. Directions for my son Henry, borne the 22nd of October, 1675.
'1. To perfect his Latin by reading the Latin Testament, Corderius, Erasmus, Cicero's Epistles and Offices, and Justin.
'2. To write a fast and short hand.
'3. To make a Leg salute to come into a room.
'4. To sing.
'5. To write and read the Court hands and manner of writing.
- ↑ The connection of these two books by Sir William is worth noting, for Hobbes was the translator of the Rhetoric of Aristotle.
