practicks

Is Ulysses no better known? what then; we ought to exercise our brains as well as our chaps; and shew, that we are not only lovers of learning, but understand it: Peace rest my old tutor's bones who made me a man amongst men: No man can tell me any thing that is new to me; for, like him, I am master of the practicks.

The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter 20-66 Petronius Arbiter

For as an infinite progress is exploded in all matters of ratiocination, as absurd and impossible, so it is equally absurd in matters of practice; it being not more necessary to assign and fix some first principle of discourse, than to state some last end of acting: all a man's practicks hanging loose and uncertain, unless they are governed and knit together by the prospect of some certain end.

Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions. Vol. III. 1634-1716 1823