Page:Sir William Petty - A Study in English Economic Literature - 1894.djvu/39

40  notes made by Ward now in the British Museum. Petty, according to this tradition, was serving on a small merchant vessel, plying between ports on the Channel. The master of the vessel broke the lad's arm, while administering a flogging. He was put ashore on the coast of Normandy, was kindly given shelter in a monastery, and was there educated by the monks. Aubrey's story is partly corroborative of the family tradition.

 

In the "Tractate on Education" it is interesting to trace the main lines of thought which are found more clearly defined in all of Petty's subsequent contributions to literature. It is a youthful performance, and a good deal of space is devoted to details of a model institution of learning, which was never to see the light. The cast of mind which prompted the plan was permanent, and in it are to be found both the strength and the weakness of Petty's character.

The tract opens with a complaint of the anarchy prevalent in the world of learning. Each one is laboring for himself. No one knows either what others are doing, or what is in itself worth being done. How are we to find out such arts as are yet undiscovered? How are we to learn what is already