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In past times, and in modern, happily there have not been lacking men who have written on education in a spirit of magnanimity.  In the early sixteenth century, Sir Thomas Elyot; to-day, the doyen of British educationalists, Emeritus Professor S. S. Laurie of Edinburgh, to whom is inscribed this first popular presentation of Sir Thomas Elyot's Gouernour, with the recognition of the kindredship of spirit in largemindedness of treatment of education, which links together - though separated so far in time - these two great educationalists.
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     The facts of the life of Elyot have been investigated with thoroughgoing care by Mr. H. H. S. Croft in his very valuable reprint of The Boke named the Governour, from the first edition of 1531.  Elyot was, probably, a native of Wiltshire, and was born about 1490.  He had a home education in V and Latin, but it is not certain if he was at either of the Universities.  In 1511 Elyot, as clerk of assize, accompanied his father, who was the judge on the Western Circuit.  In 1522-3 Elyot came, by his father's death, into the possession of the Combe estate near Woodstock. Elyot attracted the notice of Wolsey, then of Thomas Cromwell, and was appointed to various offices.  Elyot was a friend of Sir Thomas More.  In 1531, he was discharged from the clerkship of council.  In 1531 he published The Boke named the Gouernour.  From this time forward he became converted to literature, though employed from time to time on diplomatic missions. He was induced to become ambassador to Germany, but bitterly complained that for his diplomatic and other official duties he had received no payment. He was married, about 1522, to Margaret Abarrow, of North Charford, Hampshire. They had no children.  He died in 1546, and was buried at Carleton. <Gov-x>

     SIR THOMAS ELYOT's Gouernour is the first book on the subject of Education written and printed in the English language. The date of its publication, 1531, is, therefore, interesting.  In 1523 the great Spaniard J.  L.  Vives had published his book on The Teaching of the various kinds of Knowledge (De tradendis discipilinis), in which he had advocated the use of the vernacular in teaching boys.  At the end of this Introduction I give in Latin and in English a quotation which should be regarded as a classical passage, for it is a noteworthy pronouncement that instruction should be given in the mother-tongue and not in Latin. Vives, too, had close relations with England, for he came in the train of Queen Catherine of Arragon, when that Spanish lady was married to Henry VIII.  Though Vives was the pioneer of teaching in the vernacular, he himself wrote in Latin.  No fact could more strongly emphasize the place of Latin in that age.  To gain a hearing for the simple proposition that teaching should be given, and text-books be written, in the speech of the mother, nurse, family, and neighbours of the child - that the very plea for such a common-sense position should be written in Latin, as the only chance of a hearing for such a reasonable demand - shows almost dramatically the novelty of the idea, and the writer's timidity in urging his proposition. It was, moreover, the age of the Renascence, the re-birth of the close, thorough-going - one might say, the scientific - study of ancient Greece and Rome.  It is surely suggestive that the very age which glorified antiquity should produce a writer who sees the advantage and dignity of the mother-tongue for purposes of instruction.  All through the Medieval Ages, Latin was the language par excellence of <Gov-xi>

every well-instructed man, for teaching and for writing, and it was therefore argued, however wrongly, that it could not be begun too early. Though the Spanish Vives has won for himself the great distinction of leadership in this matter of reform, it must be added that two years later (1525) an Italian, that remarkable man Pietro Bembo, published his Della Volgar Lingua.  Though Bembo thus lost the priority of urging the mother-tongue as the medium of the instruction of boys, he eclipsed Vives by his enterprise of praising his Italian mother-tongue in Italian.  But it must be remembered that Dante had paved the way by writing the Divina Commedia in Italian, and the glory of the Italian vernacular had thus been secured for all the world and for all time by this achievement, two hundred and fifty years before the English Elizabethan Age, with our Shakespeare and Spenser.  It is almost a commonplace remark to say that the world-transforming Discoveries of America, by Columbus, Cabot, and Magellan, perhaps accomplished as much in the revelation they brought about to the inhabitants of Europe of themselves, in the lights and shades of comparisons and contrasts with the wondrous new accounts of the fairy and grotesque conditions of the newly discovered countries of the Far West, as they added to the stores of knowledge which the travellers gave to the common stock.
     We can only account in the same way for the curious fact that in the Age of the Renascence, when men's thoughts were turned to the Great Ages of Antiquity, it was in the light of those far-away thoughts that, as it were, suddenly there emerged, by a sub-conscious process, the unspeakable significance of the treasures of the mother-tongue which had been accumulating, unconsidered or even despised by scholars, through long ages of development, slow and sure, and with the unity of variety of well-formed strata.  In England, of course, Chaucer had burst forth into English song - fresh, joyous, charming as the early flowers of spring. But it was reserved for the Age of the Renascence to rise to the self-consciousness of the value of the English tongue.

     It is the distinctive feature of Elyot to have been the first to bring the Renascence spirit to the application of the English language, not of course to the spontaneous utterances with regard to the outlook on our life as a whole, the impressing of romance on the common life - such as is the poet's domain - that cannot in the long-run be dissevered from the mother-tongue.  Homer wrote in Greek, Virgil in Latin, Dante in Italian, and Chaucer in English - in each case because that language was the mother-tongue.  Elyot was not a great writer in the sense of having the divine afflatus that raises the level of mankind by his achievement in the realms of imagination and thought.  He simply found that English could be used for learned purposes, for explaining difficult questions, for the uses of logic, rhetoric, and oratory on abstruse matters.  In other words, instead of dealing with the philosophical and literary aspects of education, ethics, and jurisprudence in Latin, he found that English would do, not merely as a makeshift, but as an adequate, effective, and telling alternative.  He discovered - it may be regarded as a great or as a small discovery, but it is his - that philosophy can speak in English as well as in Latin.
     One of the direct services to English education rendered by Sir Thomas Elyot is associated with another book - viz. his Dictionary, published in 1538.  This was a work of great labour for so busy a man as Elyot.  His preface shows, that he had consulted the compilations of his predecessors, and he proudly announces that in his Dictionary may be found "a thousand mo Latin words than were in any one Dictionary published in this realm." Elyot's work was improved and issued in 1552, by Thomas Cooper, Bishop, of Lincoln.  It became the basis of further Latin-English Dictionaries, and is now of great interest in a way which Vives would understand (see p. xxvi) in fixing the meaning of old English words.  It must have been a boon in the sixteenth century to the teachers and their pupils in the strenuous study of Latin, when the English vocabularies, not to say dictionaries, were so inadequate.
     It is. peculiarly fitting to include the representative work

by Sir Thomas Elyot in Everyman's Library, for it would not be saying too much for Elyot, to suggest that he is the first Englishman to feel the impulse to democratise the knowledge of the Renascence, to make accessible the New World of Literature (into which scholars had entered by the Revival of Learning) to all who could read the mother-tongue.  Elyot wrote many books beside the Gouernour.  He translated into English, portions of Isocrates, St.  Cyprian, and Plutarch.  He translated wise sayings from the great anciew writers, after the manner of his illustrous contemporary Erasmus, from whom he evidently has learned, in his Gouernour, and to whom he refers his readers.  He very earnestly allies himself with the religious party of the Renascence, and often making himself acquainted "with every ancient work," Greek and Latin, that he could come by, "containing any part of philosophy necessary to the institution of man's life, in virtue," he endeavoured to set forth such part of his study for general profit.  Nor did he limit his researches for direction to the development of man's soul.  He studied Hippocrates, Galen, Celsus, Averroes, and Avicenna, and others too numerous to mention, so as to make himself thoroughly familiar with the best ascertainable knowledge of the treatment of man's body.  Then he wrote of his best in English for his countrymen's good.  This roused the anger of the physicians, who told him bluntly that he was "prettily seen" in histories, and ought to confine his attention to them.  With spirit aroused, Elyot answers: "If physicians be angry that I have written physicke in English, let them remember that the Greeks wrote in Greek, and Romans in Latin, Avicenna and the other in Arabic, which were their own proper and materlial tongues.  And if they had been as much attacked with envy and covetise, as some now seem to be, they would have devised some particular language, with a strange cipher or form of letters, wherein they would have written their science, which language or letters no man should have known, that had not professed and practiced Physick.  But those, although they were Paynims and Jews, yet in this part of charity, they far sur-

mounted us Christians, that they would not have so necessary a knowledge as Physic is, to be hid from them, which would be studious about it."
     This keen desire to make "current coin" the knowledge which he had acquired with such close and devoted application, is alien to the Renascence writers.  The scholarly spirit, it must be confessed, was that of a clique.  Scholars formed something of what we might term "a trade-union." "Humanism" was anti- democratic.  Elyot valued Humanism just because he believed that it was applicable to the upraising of the Commonwealth. As the late Canon Ainger remarked, the efforts of Sir Thomas More in his Utopia and Sir Thomas Elyot in the Gouernour were one in aim, "to raise the standard of righteousness in public men and affairs." Sir Thomas Elyot went further.  He was in himself, and within his limits, a "Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge" nearly four hundred years ago, only for "useful" we must substitute "the best."
     It is necessary to explain at more length the suggestion that Sir Thomas Elyot is a Humanist-Democrat, for on first thoughts, after reading the Gouernour, this may seem to be opposed to the facts.  Take, for example, the concluding paragraph of the Gouernour (p. 297): "Nowe all ye reders that desire to haue your children to be gouernours, or in any other authoritie in the publike weale of your countrey, if ye bringe them up and instructe them in suche fourme as in this boke is declared, they shall than [then] seme to all men worthye to be in authoritie, honour, and noblesse, and all that is under their gouernance shall prospere and come to perfection.  And as a precious stone in a ryche ouche [jewel] they shall be beholden and wondred at, and after the dethe of their body their soules for their endeauour shall be incomprehensibly rewarded of the gyuer of wisedome, to whome onely be gyuen eternall glorie!  Amen."
     The Gouernour is professedly a treatise on the right education and training of the statesman, and thus apparently an aristocratic document.  But the fact is that Elyot thus

makes for himself the opportunity of declaring at length his views as to educational principles, methods, and aims al their best, and under perfect conditions.  Mr.  Ainger, with sure touch, describes this as the "starting-point" of Elyot, and adds: "As he proceeded he evidently felt that the first training for the statesman was also the best for any other Christian gentleman, and the treatise resolves itself ultimately into one on the ethics of education generally." But Canon Ainger, though he has broadened the import of the Gouernour as a treatise on education for the statesman to include the "Christiangentleman+," has hardly recognised the democratic significance, and I wish to show that Elyot's Gouernour is not inconsistent with the claim that Elyot is a Humanist-Democrat.
     In tracing the history of Education, the student cannot but be struck by the frequency with which the older writers deal with the up-bringing and functions of princes, noblemen, and gentlemen. Plato's Republic may be regarded as a treatise on the education of the philosopher-prince.  Aristotle's Politics virtually concerns itself with the same subject:  Thomas Aquinas wrote the De regimine Principium, Occleve, the contemporary of Chaucer, wrote the Regiment of Princes.  Machiavel wrote the famous (or, as some would say, the infamous) Prince, and before him in Italy Pontano% had written the De Principe and Beroaldo% the De optimo statu et principe.  In the time of Queen Elizabeth, Laurence Humfrey wrote a book in Latin and in English on The Nobles (1563), dealing with the education of nobles, and later (in 1660) was published the Gentleman's Calling, which showed how a gentleman should be educated.  All these types of educational books on the "institution" of the prince, the noble, and the gentleman illustrate a principle which suggests the closest association between politics and education.  The simplest statement of this relation would seem to be this:  Wherever political power is placed in the prince, in the noble, or in the gentleman, or in all combined in, various degrees, there must be the provision for the education of the ruling person or the groups of persons. The education of the rulers must

be the matter of the keenest philosophical insight, research, and criticism, for on it depends the welfare of the nation - otherwise it would be a case of the blind leading the blind.  But is not this an aristocratic principle? Not necessarily.  Directly the political power tends to pass from the one to the few - and again, from the few to the many, and still, further, to the mass of the community - then, pari passu, there is the necessary correlation of extension of the area over which the influence of direct education must be consciously exercised to prepare the rulers for intelligent ruling. The political writer on education, who looks at his problem from a large national point of view, almost inevitably will throw his work into the form of the political ideals which underlie his thoughts.  Thus the form may be monarchical, oligarchical, aristocratic, or democratic.  A writer to-day, dealing with national education, thinks of the education of the great mass of the people, for political power has passed into the hands of the people at large.  The responsibility of the exercise of intelligence, and hence of systematic preparation by education, is absolutely urgent wherever the political power is concentrated.  It is therefore as necessary, politically to-day, to take steps to have an educated democracy, as in the Tudor time it was necessary to have an educated monarch.  The education of the Gouernour, in Elyot's treatise, may therefore to-day be interpreted as an ideal for the education of the Democracy-Power.  If read in the light of this new direction of governing power, a book like the Gouernour is full of significance.  No one can fail to see the importance of the education in all the domain of the best knowledge and sympathy of the absolute Monarch. It is easy to grasp Elyot's point ot view that nothing can be too good or too great in the preparation of the powerful Gouernour for his task. It should not be difficult to interpret this in terms of to-day.  I suggest that the implication of Elyot's treatise for us to-day is:  No education is too good or too great for the Governors of to-day - viz. for the community at large.  When we consider the transference of political power since Tudor times from the one to the

many, we are left with the weighty reflection on our hands.  Have we as high a conception of the place and function of education in the exercise of political power of the Many in our day, as Elyot had of the One in his? Let me state the proposition once more.  Where the political power is, there must be the preparation of the adequate knowledge and sympathy to cope with its best exercise.  Knowledge, of course, has grown enormously since Elyot's day.  But we can ask the question:  Is the spirit of our educational endeavour and effort to-day for our Governors as high and noble as was Elyot's for his Gouernour?
     So much for the form of Elyot's Gouernour. To turn to the matter contained in it.  On the whole, I think many of us will be struck by what we may call its "modernness." It may seem paradoxical to say that mere distance of times - say the nearly four hundred years which separate us from Elyot - does not necessarily remove the writer to a corresponding distance from our ideals and our problems.  It seems to me, in a very real sense, that Elyot is, in many ways, quite near to us in our best educational aims and even methods.
     Take the following passage for example: "I will use the policy of a wise and cunning gardener: who purposing to have in his garden a fine and precious herb that should be to him and all other repairing thereto, excellently commodious or pleasant, he will first search throughout his garden where lie can find the most mellow and fertile earth and therein will he put the seed of the herb to grow and be nourished: and in most diligent wise attend that no weed be suffered to grow or approach nigh unto it: and to the intent it may thrive the faster, as soon as the form of a herb once appeareth, he will set a vessel of water by it, in such wise that it may continually distil on the root sweet drops and as it springeth in stalk, underset it with something that it break not, and alway keep it clean from weeds.  Semblable order will I ensue in the forming the gentle wits of noble men's children."
     Here we have the very metaphor afterwards employed by

Pestalozzi and Froebel, though of course it was not original in Elyot. The schoolroom is the child's garden (the Kindergarten); the teacher or tutor, the gardener.  Perhaps we attach more importance to the "self-activity" of the child than Elyot appears to do.  But can we yet say that the careful devotion of Elyot's gardener to his herb would hold, if we substitute for the "noble men's" of his passage, the more modern "people's"?  Schools of a thousand children, and classes of fifty or sixty children to a teacher, do not seem calculated "to continually distil on the (individual) root sweet drops; and as it springeth in stalk, underset it with something that it break not, and alway keep it clean from weeds." Elyot is insistent on the child as an individual.  Are we?
     Elyot pleads for extreme care in the choice of a nurse.  Later writers demand that the mother shall suckle and nurse her own child.  But Elyot sees the unspeakable importance of the earliest years./1 I and if he will allow the mother to forego the nursing, he recognises that the really worthy course is for the nobleman to instruct his own child. Even a king, Dionysius the tyrant, taught grammar in a common school, in the days of his exile.
     Latin must be known.  But let it be pure and elegant.  Let the nurses and other women about him, if possible, all speak it in his presence, or at least let their English be clean, polite, perfectly and articulately pronounced, "omitting no letter or syllable, as foolish women often times do." Elyot thus approves of the "direct" method of learning Latin, just as modern educationists recommend it as the right method of learning, say, French or German.  But to-day, though we hear of the "direct method" of conversation as good for French, scarcely any one pleads for Latin taught in the same way.  Probably this is because Latin is not known in the same ready, practical way that Elyot and his contemporaries knew it.  Hence, in a profit-and- loss account between his age -------- 1 A latter-day psychologist asserts that a child's character, in its main tendencies, is formed by three years of age, and the remainder of life is the filling out in content.

and ours, we should have to consider seriously whether the modern Englishman's speaking knowledge of French is ordinarily greater than the Tudor Englishman's speaking knowledge of Latin.  At seven years of age, a tutor should be provided. It is his business to get to know the character and powers of the child. Music is to be learned.  Music is a good servant, but a bad master.  Yet music {harmony+} cannot be dispensed with, because in moderation it is necessary "for better attaining the knowledge of a commonweal." This reason, no doubt, is mysterious to the modern mind, but not to Elyot, who knew his Plato.
     Next, in Elyot's treatment, comes drawing and carving (i.e. statuary work in wood or other material).  Elyot anticipates that his reader will ask:  Would you make your noble a mason or a painter? No.  Elyot sees that these are arts of expression and understanding, like speech.
     In geometry, astronomy, and cosmography (called in English the description of the world) - in these studies "I dare affirm a man shall more profit, in one week, by figures and charts, well and perfectly made, than he shall by the only reading or hearing the rules of that science by the space of half a year at the least; wherefore the late writers deserve no small commendation, which added to the authors of [in] those sciences apt and proper figures."
     This passage is interesting when we remember the nearness of Elyot to Columbus's discovery of America in 1492.  It is also interesting because it shows that Elyot understood the importance of the realistic side of education, an aspect which some people seem to think has been discovered in our time, and others seem to attribute to the originality of Comenius, a hundred years after Elyot.
     The master to be chosen must be a clean and pure example of gentle thought and life.  He must, of course, be "excellently learned both in Greek and Latin." From seven years of age onwards the child is to learn Greek authors, and "to use the Latin tongue as a familiar language." As to the use of grammars, Elyot says: "Detain not the child too long in the tedious grammars.

Let not the child's fervent desire of learning become extinct/1 by the time he cometh to the most sweet and pleasant reading of old authors." Incidentally Elyot tells us that French Grammar, in his time, had come to have nearly as many rules and figures as Latin or Greek.  Of Greek Grammars, he says, (even by 1537) that they "now almost be innumerable." This requirement of the reading of authors, as the centre of language instruction, is an approved pedagogical principle of the latest language teaching of to-day.
     Elyot holds that Greek and Latin authors should be begun at the same time, or else, he says, "begin with Greek." This is in accord with the view of the German latter-day writer on education, Herbart.
     The books recommended, a long list, at least suggest that the ordinary indictment against a classical course, viz. that it is narrow, can scarcely be sustained.  They include:  Aesop's Fables, Select Dialogues of Lucian, Comedies of Aristophanes, Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Silius, Lucanus, Hesiodus, Strabo. "These will suffice up to twelve years of age"!  It is explained, however, that from each should only be chosen so much instruction as is fitted to the child, and at least it is to be expected that the spirit of poetry shall enter his soul, to inflame hiscourage+ and to condemn folly.  To these poetic and humane studies succeeds the more "serious" learning of logic, rhetoric, and cosmography (in which Elyot has "incredible delight). "I cannot tell," he says of pictures and maps, what more pleasure should happen to a gentle wit than to behold in his own house everything that within all the world is contained." After cosmography, history should be taught.  Livy, Xenophon, Quintus Curtius, Julius Caesar, Sallust, and Tacitus are to be read.  At seventeen, moral philosophy is to be begun, with the reading of Aristotle's Ethics and of Tully's Offices.  Above all, Plato.  Elyot breaks forth: "Lord God, what incomparable sweetness of words and -------- 1 Elyot says, "like as a lyttel fyre is sone quenched with a great heape of small stickes; so that it can never come to the principall logges when it shuld longe bourne in a great pleasaunt fire."

matter shall [the pupil] find in the said works of Plato and Cicero; wherein is joined gravity with delectation, excellent wisdom with divine eloquence, absolute virtue with pleasure incredible, and every place is so infarced [stuffed full] with profitable counsel, joined with honesty, that those three books be almost sufficient to make a perfect and excellent governor.  The proverbs of Solomon, with the books of Ecclesiastes and Ecclesiasticus, be very good lessons.  All the historical parts of the Bible be right necessary for to be read of a noble man, after that he is mature in years.  And the residue (with the new testament) is to be reuerently touched, as a celestial jewel or relick, having the chief interpreter of those books, true and constant faith, and dreadfully to set hands thereon."
     Since Elyot's time, Science and Mathematics have developed with astounding fulness of content, and the modern reader misses them sorely from the list.  Sull, let us ask, Whether the modern curriculum has produced a surer, securer provision of means "to inflame courage and condemn folly"?  Of course, we must always remember that whatever was known of Science, Mathematics, and other kinds of knowledge was in Latin or Greek, and for the most part in ancient writers in those languages. The educational problem is not solved by the mere recognition of the enormously extended field of knowledge since Elyot's day.  The question should be: How far is that extended field of knowledge applicable to the needs of the child, and what part does it play in the perspective of the total educational aim?
     The naming of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero, before the books of the Bible in Moral Philosophy, reminds us that the perspective in which the Bible occupies the unique and isolated position to which we are accustomed, is the outcome of the Puritanic influence of the Stuart rather than the Tudor period.  Elyot does not hesitate to include the contemporary work, Erasmus's Institution of a Christian Prince, by the side of Biblical books,
     Elyot is distressed, as all thoughtful men have been in every age, at the ignorance of his own age.  And his analysis

of the causes of the decay of learning in his time may be read to-day without the suggestion of being altogether obsolete.  For instance he says: "The avarice of parents causes them chiefly to inquire with how small a salary a teacher will be contented." We substitute "narrowness of means" for "avarice" - and indeed it sounds better.
     Elyot followed Plato largely in his treatment of music.  He is equally faithful in the subject of gymnastic.  On the value of physical training in education, Elyot is at least as emphatic as the most modern of educational writers.  He treats the subject very learnedly on the historical side.  The topics spoken of are: wrestling, running, swimming (interestingly illustrated, of course, by the examples of Horatius Cocles and Julius Caesar), defence with battle-axe, riding and vaulting, hunting of all kinds, dancing, shooting with the long-bow.  The most honourable of all exercises is riding a "great horse and a rough," the "principal" of all exercises is shooting.
     This side of physical development owed its emphasis in the practice of the education of nobles to the influence of the Courts in Italy and elsewhere, and these again received their impulse in the direction of physical education from the Probitates of the knights, the preparatory training to the profession of warfare.
     Two other Tudor educational writers dwelt eloquently on archery and other physical exercise:  Roger Ascham, in his Toxophilus (1545) and Richard Mulcaster, in his Positions (1581).  Curiously, these three advocates of archery - Elyot, Ascham, and Mulcaster - were all eloquent apologists for the use of the English language.  The Public School traditions of athletic training can trace their line of justification to these eminently english sources.  Scholarship isolated from physical exercise is alien to the Tudor educationists, and modern education has yet much to learn from them in this matter.  Archery as the chief of English sports has gone.  A return to the study of Elyot, Ascham, and Mulcaster may lead to a desire for its development into a recognised position again,, for those writers show it has great merits.  Elyot refers his

Latin readers to Galen on the Gouernance of Health, called in Latin, De sanitate tuenda.  Who is now our authority on Physical Exercise?  Looking back along our list of educational writers on this subject, it is doubtful if we need long pause at the name of any, until we reach these three names of Elyot, Ascham, and Mulcaster.
     One last instance of the nearness of Elyot to our problems.  One of the chapters of the Gouernour attacks the question: "For what cause at this day there be in this realme few perfecte schole-maisters? We are asking the same question in this form: "How can schoolmasters be trained and brought into line with the other learned professions?" Elyot's reflections, unfortunately, are only too easily understood by any one interested in education to-day.
     The sources/1 of Sir Thomas Elyot's, Gouernour and its influence on succeeding literature have been investigated.  The scholarly reprint of 1880 (London:  Kegan Paul), edited by Mr.  H.  H.  S. Croft, contains a complete apparatus of Preface, Life, Notes, Index, and Glossary, with Appendices of Obsolete Words formed from the Latin and Obsolete Words formed from the French, and the student desirous of full illustrative notes and references can be cordially recommended to refer to it.
     There is an able general criticism on Elyot from the literary point of view by Canon Ainger in Selections from English Prose (edited by Sir Henry Craik).
     On the educational aspect of Elyot, in the shorter histories of Education, e.g.  Compayre and Joseph Payne, there is no account.
     Professor Laurie has written a sketch of Elyot's education, mainly in Elyot's own words, in his History of Educational Opinions since the Renascence (Cambridge, 1903).  So, too, there is an account of Elyot in Professor W.  H.  Woodward's Education in the time of the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1906).
     James Parmentier, in his Histoire de l'education en Angleterre, devotes chapter ii. to Elyot. -------- 1 The chief of these, as Mr.  Croft tells us, was Francisco Patrizi, in his De Regno et Regis Institutione.  But, of course, to go still further back, we must trace to Aristotle, and, in a minor degree, to Plato.

     There is a dissertation entitled, Ist Thomas Elyot ein Vorganger John Locke's in der Erziehungslehre? (Leipzig:  Oswald Schmidt, 1896).
     There is an account in Raumer's Geschichte der Padagogik (1886), which is translated in H.  Barnard's American Journal of Education, vol. xvi. pp. 483-496.
     In his Introduction lo the Literature of Europe, vol. i. pp. 400-1 (1854 cd.), Hallam gives a description of Elyot's Gouernor, and adds this criticism: "He seems worthy, upon the whole, on account of the solidity of his reflections, to hold a higher place than Ascham, to whom, in some respects, he bears a good deal of resemblance." And again (vol. i. p. 448, same edition): "We have seen that Sir Thomas Elyot had some vigour of style.  Ascham, whose Toxofilus, or Dialogue on Archery came out in 1544, does not excel him.  But his works have been reprinted in modern times, and are consequently better known than those of Elyot."
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     Passage from the De Tradendis Disciplinis of J.  L.  Viv6e (1523) as to the place of the Mother Tongue in the School: "Vernaculam puerorum linguam exacte cognoscet, ut commodius per hanc et facilius eruditas illas tradat.  Quod nisi in lingua patria aptis et propriis ad eam rem de qua loquitur, utatur verbis, fallet subinde pueros: isque error adultos iam et grandes pertinaciter comitabitur.  Quid quod pueri nec suam ipsorum linguam satis intelligunt, nisi explicatissime singula dicantur.  Teneat memoriam omnem vetustatis linguae patriae; et cognitionem non verborum modo recentium, sed priscorum quoque, et quas iam exoleverunt; sitque velut praefectus quidam aerarii linguas suae: nam ni ita fiat, quum unaquaeque lingua mutationes crebras recipiat, libri ante centum annos scripti non intelligerentur a posteris.  Qua de causa multa in duodecim tabulis Marcum Ciceronem, et magnos iurisconsultos fugiebant: multa etiam quotidie in linguis vulgaribus fiunt ignota." "Let the teacher know the mother-tongue of his boys, so that by that means he may with the more ease and readiness

teach the learned languages.  For unless he makes use of the right and proper expressions in the mother-tongue, he will certainly mislead the boys, and the error thus imbibed will accompany them persistently as they grow up, and as men.  Nor can boys understand anything sufficiently well in their own language unless the words are said with the utmost clearness. Let the teacher preserve in his memory all the old forms of vernacular words, and let him develop the knowledge not only of modern forms but also of the old words and those which have gone out of use, and let him be as it were the guardian of the treasury of his language.  Unless this be so, when any language undergoes numerous changes, books written a hundred years ago will not be understood by succeeding generations.  It was for this reason that many things in the Twelve Tables escaped the knowledge of Cicero and many jurisconsults; so, too, many things become unknown in the current speech of living languages." 1907.

"The Boke named the Governour," 1531.  Lowndes gives nine other editions publisbed before the close of the sixteenth century; "Pasquil the Playne,"{PlainDealer+} 1533;
"Of the Knowledge which maketh a wise man," 1533;
"A Swete and Devoute Sermon of Holy Saynt Ciprian of the Mortalitie of Man";
"The Rules of a Christian Lyfe, made by Picus, Erle of Mirandula," 1534 ;
"The Doctrinal of Princes (from Isocrates)," 1534; "The Castel of Helth," 1534; numerous reprints up to 1595; "The bankette of Sapience," 1539, 42, 45, 57;
"Latin-English Dictionary", 1538, 1545; revised edition by Thomas Cooper,
"Bibliothecae Eliotae" 1550, etc.; "
The Education or Bringing up of Children," 1535 (?) i.e. ranslation of Plutarch;
"The Defence of Good Women," 1545;
"The Image of Governance, 1540, 44, 49, 56 ;
"Howe one may take Profyte of his Enmyes, translated out of Plutarch," 1540 (D.  N.  B.); "The Maner to Chose and Cheryshe a Friende," sayings from classical authors added as appendix to above;
"A preservative agaynst Deth," 1545.  Letters of Sir Thomas Elyot to Cromwell are given in H.  H.  S.  Croft's edition of "The Governour," 1880. Short notice in Fuller's "Worthies."
<Gov-xxvi>

     I LATE consideringe (moste excellent prince and myne onely redoughted soueraigne lorde) my duetie that I owe to ny naturall contray with my faythe also of aliegeaunce and othe, wherewith I am double bounden unto your maiestie, more ouer thaccompt that I haue to rendre for that one litle talent deliuered to me to employe (as I suppose) to the increase of vertue, I am (as god iuge me) violently stered to deuulgate or sette fourth some part of my studie, trustynge therby tacquite me of m dueties to god, your hyghnesse, and this my contray. {debt+} Wherfore takinge comfort and boldenesse, partly of your graces moste beneuolent inclination towarde the uniuersall weale of your subiectes, partly inflamed with zele, I haue nowe enterprised to describe in our vulgare tunge the fourme of a iuste publike weale: whiche mater I haue gathered as well moste noble autours (grekes and latynes) as by myne owne experience, I beinge continually trayned in some dayly affaires of the publike weale of this your moste noble realme all mooste from my chyldhode.  Whiche attemptate is nat of presumption to teache any persone, I my selfe hauinge moste nede of teachinge: but only to the intent that men which which wil be studious about the weale publike may fynde the thinge therto expedient compendiously writen.  And for as moch as this present boke treateth of the education of them that hereafter may be demed worthy to be gouernours of the publike weale under your hyghnesse (whiche Plato+ affirmeth to be the firste and chiefe parte of a publyke weale; Salomon sayenge also where gouernours be nat the people shall falle in to ruyne), I therfore haue named it The Gouernour, and do nowe dedicate it unto your hyghnesse
<Gov-xxxi>

as the fyrste frutes of my studye, verely trustynge that your moste excellent wysedome wyll therein esteme my loyall harte and diligent endeuour by the example of Artaxerxes, the noble kynge of Persia, who rejected nat the pore husbondman whiche offred to hym his homely handes full of clene water, but mooste graciously receyued it with thankes, estemynge the present nat after the value but rather to the wyll of the gyuer. {gratitude+} Semblably kynge Alexander retayned with hym the poete Cherilus honorably for writing his historie, all though that the poete was but of a small estimation. Whiche that prynce dyd not for lacke of jugement, he beynge of excellent lernynge as disciple to Aristotell, but to thentent that his liberalite emploied on Cherilus shulde animate or gyue courage to others moche better terned to contende with hym in a semblable enterpryse.
     And if, moste vertuous prince, I may perceyue your hyghnes to be herewith pleased, I shall sone after (god giuing me quietenes) present your grace with the residue of my studie and labours, wherein your hyghnes shal well perceiue that I nothing esteme so moche in this worlde as youre royall astate, (my most dere soueraigne lorde), and the publike weale of my contray.  Protestinge unto your excellent maiestie that where I commende herin any one vertue or dispraise any one vice I meane the generall description of thone and thother without any other particuler meanynge to the reproche of any one persone.  To the whiche protestation I am nowe dryuen throughe the malignite of this present tyme all disposed to malicious detraction.  Wherfore I mooste humbly beseche your hyghnes to dayne to be patrone and defendour of this little warke agayne the assaultes of maligne interpretours whiche fayle nat to rente and deface the renoume of wryters, they them selfes beinge in nothinge to the publike weale profitable. Whiche is by no man sooner perceyued than by your highnes, beinge bothe in wysedome and very nobilitie equall to the most excellent princes, whome, I beseche god, ye may surmount in longe life and perfect felicitie Amen.
<Gov-xxxii>

     A PUBLIKE weale is in sondry wyse defined by philosophers, but knowyng by experience that the often repetition of anything of graue or sad importance wyll be tedious to the reders of this warke, who perchance for the more part haue nat ben trayned in lerning contaynynge semblable matter:  I haue compiled one definition out of many, in as compendious fourme, as my poure witte can deuise: trustyng that in those fewe wordes the trewe signification of a publike weale shall euidently at) ere, to them whom reason can satisfie.
     A publik weale is a body lyuyng, compacte or made of sondry astates and degrees of men, whiche is disposed by the ordre of equite and gouerned by the rule and moderation of reason.  In the latin tonge it is called Respublica, of the whiche the worde Res hath diuers significations, and dothe nat only betoken that, that is called a thynge, whiche is distincte from a persone, but also signifieth astate, condition, substance, and profite.  In our olde vulgare, profite is called weale.  And it is called a welthy contraye wherin is all thyng that is profitable. And he is a welthy man that is riche in money and substance.  Publike (as Varro saith) is

diriuied of people, whiche in latin is called Populus, wherfore hit semeth that men haue ben longe abused in calling Rempublieam a commune weale.  And they which do suppose it so to be called for that, that euery thinge shulde be to all men in commune {common+} without discrepance of any astate or condition, be thereto moued nore by sensualite than by any good reason or inclination to humanite.  And that shall sone appere unto them that wyll be satisfied either with autorite or with naturall ordre and example.
     Fyrst, the propre and trewe signification of the wordes publike and commune, whiche be borowed of the latin tonge for the insufficiencie of our owne langage, shal sufficiently declare the blyndenes of them whiche haue hitherto holden and maynteyned the sayde opinions.  As I haue sayde, publike toke his begynnyng of people: whiche in latin is Populus, in whiche worde is conteyned all the inhabitantes of a realme or citie, of what astate condition so euer they be.
     Plebs in englisshe is called the communaltie, which signifieth only the multitude, wherin be contayned the base and vulgare inhabitantes not auanced to any honour or dignite, whiche is also used in our dayly communication - for in the citie of London and other cities they that be none aldermen or sheriffes be called communers:  And in the countrey, at a cessions or other assembly, if no gentyl men be there at, the sayenge is that there was none but the communalte, whiche proueth in myn oppinion that Plebs in latin is in englisshe communaltie: and Plebeii be communers.  And consequently there may appere lyke diuersitie to be in englisshe betwene a publike weale and a commune weale, as shulde be in latin betwene Res publica and Res plebeia.  And after that signification, if there shuld be a commune weale, either the communers only must be welthy, and the gentil and noble men nedy and miserable, orels excluding gentilite, al men must be of one degre and sort, and a new name prouided.  For as moche as Plebs in latin, and comminers in englisshe, be wordes only

made for the discrepance of degrees, wherof procedeth ordre: whiche in thinges as wel naturall as supernaturall hath euer had suche a preeminence, that therby the incomprehensible maiestie of god, as it were by a bright leme of a torche or candel, is declared to the blynde inhabitantes of this worlde.  More ouer take away ordre from all thynges what shulde than remayne? Certes nothynge finally, except some man wolde imagine eftsones Chaos: whiche of some is expounde a confuse mixture.  Also where there is any lacke of ordre nedes must be perpetuall conflicte: and in thynges subiecte to Nature nothynge of hym selfe onely may be norisshed; but whan he hath distroyed that where with he dothe participate by the ordre of his creation, he hym selfe of necessite muste than perisshe, wherof ensuethe uniuersall dissolution.
     But nowe to proue, by example of those thynges that be within the compasse of mannes knowlege, of what estimation ordre is, nat onely amonge men but also with god, all be it his wisedome, bounte, and magnificence can be with no tonge or penne sufficiently expressed. Hath nat he set degrees and astates in all his glorious warkes?
     Fyrst in his heuenly ministres, whom, as the churchs affirme, he hath constituted to be in diuecrs degrees called hierarches.
     Also Christe saithe by his euangelist that in the house of his father (which is god) be many mansions.  But to treate of that whiche by naturall understandyng may be comprehended.  Beholde the foure elementes wherof the body of man is compacte, howe they be set in their places called spheris, higher or lower, accordynge to the soueraintie of theyr natures, that is to saye, the fyer the most pure element, having in it nothing that is corruptible, in his place is higheste and aboue other elementes.  The ayer, whiche next to the fyre is most pure in substance, is in the seconde sphere or place.  The water, whiche is somewhat consolidate, and approcheth to corruption, is next unto the erthe.  The

erthe, whiche is of substance grosse and ponderous, is set of all elementes most lowest.
     Beholde also the ordre that god hath put generally in al his creatures, begynnyng at the moste inferiour or base, and assendynge upwarde: he made not only herbes to garnisshe the erthe, but also trees of a more eminent stature than herbes, and yet in the one and the other be degrees of qualitees; some pleasant to beholde, some delicate or good in taste, other holsome and medicinable, some commodious and necessary. Semblably in byrdes, bestis and fisshes, some be good for the sustinance of man, some beare thynges profitable to sondry uses, other be apte to occupation and labour; in diuerse is strength and fiersenes only; in many is both strength and commoditie; some other serue for pleasure; none of them hath all these qualities; fewe aue the more part or many, specially beautie, strength, and profite.  But where any is founde that hath many of the said propreties, he is more set by than all the other, and by that estimation the ordre of his place and degree euidentlye apperethe; so that euery kinde of trees, herbes, birdes, beastis, and fisshes, besyde theyr diuersitie of fourmes, haue (as who sayth) a peculiar disposition appropered unto them by god theyr creatour: so that in euery thyng is ordre, and without ordre may be nothing stable or permanent; and it may nat be called ordre, excepte it do contayne in it degrees, high and base, accordynge to the merite or estimation of the thyng that is ordred.  Nowe to retourne to the astate of man kynde, for whose use all the sayd creatures were ordained of god, and also excelleth them all by prerogatife of knowlege and wisedome, hit semeth that in hym shulde be no lasse prouidence of god declared than in the inferiour creatures; but rather with a more perfecte ordre and dissposition. And therfore hit appereth that god giveth nat to euery man like gyftes of grace or of nature but to some more, some lesse as it liketh his divine maiestie.
     Ne they be nat in commune, (as fantasticall foles wolde

haue all thyngs), nor one man hath nat al vertues and good qualities. Nat withstandyng for as moche as understandyng is the most excellent gyft that man can receiue in his creation, whereby he doth approche most nyghe unto the similitude of god; whiche understandynge is the principall parte of the soule: it is therfore congruent, and accordynge that as one excelleth an other in that influence, as therby beinge next to the similitude of his maker, so shulde the astate of his person be auanced in degree or place where understanding may profite: whiche is also distributed in to sondry uses, faculties, and offices necessary for the lyuing and gouernance of mankynde.  And like as the angels whiche be most feruent in contemplation be highest exalted in glorie, (after the opinion of holy doctours), and also the fire whiche is the most pure of elementes, and also doth clarifie the other inferiour elementes, is deputed to the highest sphere or place; so in this worlde, they whiche excelle other in this influence of understandynge, and do imploye it to the detaynyng of other within the boundes of reason, and shewe them howe to prouyde for theyr necessarye lyuynge; suche oughte to be set in a more highe place than the residue where they may se and also be sene; that by the beames of theyr excellent witte, shewed throughe the glasse of auctorite, other of inferiour understandynge maybe directed to the way of vertue and commodious liuynge.  And unto men of such vertue by very equitie appertaineth honour, as theyr iuste rewarde and duetie, whiche by other mennes labours must also be mainteined according to their merites.  For as moche as the saide persones, excelling in knowlege wherby other be gouerned, be ministers for the only profite and commoditie of them whiche haue nat equall understandyng: where they whiche do exercise artificiall science or corporal] labour, do nat trauayle for theyr superiours onely, but also for theyr owne necessitie.  So the husbande man fedethe hym selfe and the clothe maker: the clothe maker apparayleth hym selfe and the husbande they both socour other artificers: other artificers them:

they and other artificers them that be gouernours.  But they that be gouernours (as I before sayde) nothinge do acquire by the sayde influence of knowlege for theyr owne necessities, but do imploye all the powers of theyr wittes, and theyr diligence, to the only preseruation of other theyr inferiours: amonge whiche inferiours also behoueth to be a disposition and ordre accordynge to reason, that is to saye, that the slouthfull or idell persone do nat participate with hym that is industrious and taketh payne: whereby the frutes of his labours shulde be diminisshed: wherin shulde be none equalite, but therof shulde procede discourage, and finally disolution for lacke of prouision.  Wherfore it can none other wyse stande with reason, but that the astate of the persone in preeminence of lyuynge shulde be estemed with his understandyng, labour, and policie: where unto muste be added an augmentation of honour and substaunce; whiche nat onely impressethe a reuerence, wherof procedethe a due obedience amonge subiectes, but also inflameth men naturally inclined to idelnes or sensuall appetite to coueyte lyke fortune, and for that cause to dispose them to studie or occupation.  Nowe to conclude my fyrst assertion or argument, where all thynge is commune, there lacketh ordre; and where ordre lacketh, there all thynge is odiouse and uncomly.  And that have we in daily experience; for the pannes and pottes garnissheth wel the ketchyn, and yet shulde they be to the chambre none ornament.  Also the beddes, testars, and pillowes besemeth nat the halle, no more than the carpettes and kusshyns becometh the stable.  Semblably the potter and tynker, only perfects in theyr crafte, shall littell do in the ministration of iustice.  A ploughinan or carter shall make but a feble answere to an ambassadour.  Also a wayuer or fuller shulde be an unmete capitaine of an armie, or in any other office of a gouernour.  Wherfore to conclude, it is only a publike weale, where, like as god hath disposed the saide influence of understandyng, is also appoynted degrees and places according to the excellencie therof; and therto also wold be substance 

conuenient and necessarye for the ornament of the same, whiche also impresseth a reuerence and due obedience to the vulgare people or communaltie; and with out that, it can be no more said that there is a publike weale, than it may be affirmed that a house, without his propre and necessarye ornamentes, is well and sufficiently furnisshed.
 
 

     LYKE as to a castell or fortresse suffisethe one owner or souerayne, and where any mo be of like power and authoritie seldome cometh the warke to perfection; or beinge all redy made, where the one diligently ouerseeth and the other neglecteth, in that contention all is subuerted and commeth to ruyne.  In semblable wyse dothe a publike weale that hath mo chiefe gouernours than one.  Example we may take of the grekes, amonge whom in diuers cities weare diuers fourmes of publyke weales gouerned by multitudes: wherin one was most tollerable where the gouernance and rule was alway permitted to them whiche excelled in vertue, and was in the greke tonge called aristocratia, in latin Optimorum Potentia, in englisshe the rule of men of beste disposition, which the Thebanes of longe tyme obserued.
     An other publique weale was amonge the Atheniensis, where equalitie was of astate amonge the people, and only by theyr holle consent theyr citie and dominions were gouerned: whiche moughte well be called a monstre with many heedes: nor neuer it was certeyne nor stable: and often tymes they banyssed or slewe the beste citezins whiche by their vertue and wisedome had moste profited to the publike weale.  This maner of gouernaunce was called in greke Democratia, in latin Popularis potentia, in englisshe the rule of the comminaltie.  Of these two

gouernances none of them may be sufficient.  For in the fyrste, whiche consisteth of good men, vertue is nat so constant in a multitude, but that some, beinge ones in authoritie, be incensed with glorie+: some with ambition+: other with coueitise and desire of treasure or possessions: wherby they falle in to contention: and finallye, where any achiuethe the superioritie, the holle gouernance is reduced unto a fewe in nombre, whiche fearinge the multitude and their mutabilitie, to the intent to kepe them in drede to rebelle, ruleth by terrour and crueltie, thinking therby to kepe them selfe in suertie: nat withstanding, rancour coarcted and longe detained in a narowe roume, at the last brasteth out with intollerable violence, and bryngeth al to confusion.  For the power that is practized to the hurte of many can nat continue.  The populare astate, if it any thing do varie from equalitie of substance or estimation, or that the multitude of people haue ouer moche liberte, of necessite one of these inconueniences muste happen: either tiranny, where he that is to moche in fauour wolde be elevate and suffre none equalite, orels in to the rage of a communaltie, whiche of all rules is moste to be feared.  For lyke as the communes, if they fele some seueritie, they do humbly serue and obaye, so where they imbracinge a licence refuse to be brydled, they flynge and plunge: and if they ones throwe downe theyr gouernour, they ordre euery thynge without iustice, only with vengeance and crueltie: and with incomparable difficultie and unneth by any wysedome be pacified and brought agayne in to ordre.  Wherfore undoubtedly the best and most sure gouernaunce is by one kynge or prince, whiche ruleth onely for the weale of his people to hym subiecte: and that maner of gouernaunce is beste approued, and hath longest continued, and is moste auncient.  For who can denie but that all thynge in heuen and erthe is gouerned by one god, by one perpetuall ordre, by one prouidence?  One Sonne ruleth ouer the day, and one Moone ouer the nyghte; and to descende downe to the erthe, in a litell beest, whiche

of all other is moste to be maruayled at, I meane the Bee+, is lefte to man by nature, as it semeth, a perpetuall figure of a iuste gouernaunce or rule: who hath amonge them one princpall Bee for gouernour, who excelleth all other in greatness yet hath no pricke or sting but in hym is more knowledge than in the residue:  For if the day folowyng shall be fayre and drye and that the bees may issue out of theyr stalles without peryll of rayne or vehement wynde, in the mornyng erely he calleth them, makyng a noyse as it were the sowne of a horne or a trumpet; and with that all the residue prepare them to labour, and fleeth abrode, gatheryng nothing but that shall be swete and profitable, all though they sitte often tymes on herbes and other thinges that be venomous and stynkinge.
     The capitayne hym selfe laboureth nat for his sustinance, but all the other for hym; he onely seeth that if any drane or other unprofitable bee entreth in to the hyue, and consumethe the hony, gathered by other, that he be immediately expelled from that company.  And when there is an other nombre of bees encreased, they semblably haue also a capitayne, whiche be nat suffered to continue with the other.  Wherfore this newe company gathered in to a swarme, hauyng their capitayne amonge them, and enuironynge hym to perserue hym from harme, they issue forthe sekyng a newe habitation, whiche they fynde in some tree, except with some pleasant noyse they be alured and conuayed unto an other hyue.  I suppose who seriously beholdeth this example, and hath any commendable witte, shall therof gather moche matter to the fourmynge of a publike weale.  But because I may nat be longe therin, considerynge my purpose, I wolde that if the reder herof be lerned that he shulde repayre to the Georgikes+ of Virgile, or to Plini, or Collumella, where he shall fynde the example more ample and better declared.  And if any desireth to haue the gouernance of one persone proued by histories, let hym fyrste resorte to the holy scripture: where he shall fynde that almyghty god commanded

Moses only, to brynge his elected people out of captiuite, gyuynge onely to hym that authoritie, without appoyntynge to hym any other assistance of equall power or dignitie, excepte in the message to kynge Pharo, wherin Aaron, rather as a ministre than a companyon, wente with Moses.  But onely Moses conducted the people through the redde see; he onely gouerned them fourtie yeres in deserte.  And bicause Dathan and Abiron disdayned his rule, and coueyted to be equall with hym, the erthe. opened, and fyre issued out, and swalowed them in, with all their holle familie and confederates, to the nombre of 14,700.
     And all thoughe Hietro, Moses' father in lawe, counsailed hym to departe his importable labours, in continual iugementes, unto the wise men that were in his company, he nat withstandynge styll retayned the soueraintie by goddis commandement, untyll, a litle before he dyed, he resigned it to Josue, assigned by god to be ruler after hym. Semblably after the deth of Josue, by the space Of 246 yeres, succeded, from tyme to tyme, one ruler amonge the Jewes, whiche was chosen for his excellencie in vertue and speciallye Justice, wherfore he was called the iuge, untill the Israelites desired of almightye god to let them haue a kynge as other people had: who appointed to them Saul to be their kynge who exceded all other in stature.  And so successiuely one kynge gouerned all the people of Israell unto the time of Roboaz, sonne of the noble kynge Salomon, who, beinge unlike to his father in wisedome, practised tyranny amonge his people, wherfore ix partes of them which they called Tribus forsoke hym, and elected Hieroboaz, late seruant to Salomon, to be theyr kynge, onely the x parte remaynynge with Roboaz.
     And so in that realme were continually two kynges, untill the kynge of Mede had depopulated the countrey, and brought the people in captiuite to the citie of Babylon; so that durynge the tyme that two kinges rayned ouer the iewes was euer continuall bataile amonge them selfes: where if one kynge had alway rayned lyke

to Dauid or Solomon of lykelyhode the countrey shuld nat so sone haue ben brought in captiuite.
     Also in the tyme of the Machabeis, as longe as they had but one busshop whiche was their ruler, and was in the stede of a prince at that dayes, they valiantly resisted the gentils: and as well the Romanes, then great lordes of the worlde, as Persians and diuers other realmes desired to haue with them amitie and aliaunce: and all the inhabitantes of that countrey liued in great weale and quietnes.  But after that by symony and ambition there happened to be two bisshops whiche deuided their authorities, and also the Romanes had deuided the realme of Judea to foure princes called tetrarchas, and also constituted a Romane capitayne or president ouer them: among the heddes there neuer cessed to be sedition and perpetuall discorde: wherby at the last the people was distroyed, and the contray brought to desolation and horrible barrennes. {Lear+}
     The Grekes, which were assembled to reuenge the reproche of Menelaus, that he toke of the Trojans by the rauisshing of Helene, his wyfe, dyd nat they by one assent electe Agamemnon to be their emperour or capitain: obeinge him as theyr soueraine duryng the siege of Troy?  All though that they had diuers excellent princes, nat onely equall to hym, but also excelling hym: as in prowes, Achilles, and Aiax Thelemonius: in wisedome, Nestor and Ulisses, and his oune brother Menelaus, to whom they mought haue giuen equall authoritie with Agamemnon: but those wise princes considered that, without a generall capitayne, so many persones as were there of diuers realmes gathered together, shulde be by no meanes well gouerned: wherfore Homere calleth Agamemnon the shepeherde of people. They rather were contented to be under one mannes obedience, than seuerally to use theyr authorities or to ioyne in one power and dignite; wherby at the last shuld have sourded discention amonge the people, they beinge seperately enclined towarde theyr naturall souerayne lorde, as it appered in the particuler

contention that was betwene Achilles and Agamemnon for theyr concubines, where Achilles, renouncynge the obedience that he with all other princes had before promised, at the bataile fyrst enterprised agaynst the Trojans. For at that tyme no litell murmur and sedition was meued in the hoste of the grekes, whiche nat withstandyng was wonderfully pacified and the armie unscatered by the maiestie of Agamemnon, ioynynge to hym counsailours Nestor and the witty Ulisses.
     But to retourne agayne.  Athenes and other cities of Grece, whan they had abandoned kynges, and concluded to lyue as it were in a communaltie, whiche abusifly they called equalitie, howe longe tyme dyd any of them continue in peace? yea what vacation had they from the warres? or what noble man had they whiche auanced the honour and weale of theyr citie, whom they dyd not banisshe or slee in prison?  Surely it shall appiere to them that wyll rede Plutarche, or Emilius probus, in the lyues of Milciades, Cimon, Themistocles, Aristides, and diuers other noble and valiant capitaynes which is to longe here to reherce.
     In lyke wyse the Romanes, durynge the tyme that they were under kynges, which was by the space of 144 yeres, were well gouerned, nor neuer was amonge them discorde or sedition.  But after that by the persuation of Brutus and Colatinus, whose wyfe (Lucretia) was rauysshed by Aruncius, sonne of Tarquine, kynge of Romanes, nat only the saide Tarquine and al his posterite were exiled out of Rome for euer, but also it was finally determined amonge the people, that neuer after they wolde haue a kinge reigne ouer them.
     Consequently the communaltie more and more encroched a licence, and at the last compelled the Senate to suffre them to chose yerely amonge them gouernours of theyr owne astate and condition, whom they called Tribunes {Coriolanus+}: under whom they resceyued suche audacitie and power that they finally optained the higheste authoritie in the publike weale, in so moche that often tymes they dyd repele the actes of the Senate, and to

those Tribunes mought a man appele from the Senate or any other office or dignite.
     But what came therof in conclusion?  Surely whan there was any difficulte warre immynent, than were they constrained to electe one soueraine and chiefe of all other, whom they named Dictator, as it were commander, from whom it was not laufull for any man to appele. But bicause there appered to be in hym the pristinate authorite and maiestie of a kyng, they wolde no longer suffre hym to continue in that dignite than by the space of vi. monothes, excepte he then resigned it, and by the consente of the people eftsones dyd resume it.  Finally, untill Octauius Augustus had distroyed Anthony, and also Brutus, and finisshed all the Ciuile Warres, (that were so called by cause they were betwene the same selfe Romane citezins) the cite of Rome was neuer longe quiete from factions or seditions amonge the people.  And if the nobles of Rome had nat ben men of excellent lernynge, wisedome, and prowesse, and that the Senate, the moste noble counsaile in all the worlde, whiche was fyrste ordayned by Romulus, and encreased by Tullus hostilius, the thyrde kynge of Romanes, had nat continued and with great difficultie retayned theyr authorite, I suppose verily that the citie of Rome had ben utterly desolate sone after the expellyng of Tarquine: and if it had bene eftsones renewed it shulde haue bene twentye tymes distroyed before the tyme that Augustus raigned: so moche discorde was euer in the citie for lacke of one gouernour,
     But what nede we to serche so ferre from us, sens we haue sufficient examples nere unto us?  Beholde the astate of Florence and Gene, noble cites of Italy, what calamite haue they both sustained by their owne factions, for lacke of a continuall gouernour.  Ferrare and the moste excellent citie of Venise, the one hauyng a duke, the other an erle, seldome suffreth damage excepte it happen by outwarde hostilitie. We have also an example domisticall, whiche is moste necessary to be noted.

After that the Saxons by treason had expelled out of Englande the Britons, whiche were the auncient inhabitantes, this realme was deuyded in to sondry regions or kyngdomes.  O what mysery was the people than in.  O howe this most noble Isle of the worlde was decerpt and rent in pieces: the people pursued and hunted lyke wolfes or other beastes sauage; none industrie auayled, no strength defended, no riches profited.  Who wolde than haue desired to haue ben rather a man than a dogge: whan men either with sworde or with hungre perisshed, hauynge no profit or sustinance of their owne corne or catell, whiche by mutuall warre was continually distroyed? yet the dogges, either takynge that that men coulde nat quietly come by, or fedynge on the deed bodies, whiche on euery parte laye scatered plenteously, dyd satisfie theyr hunger.
     Where finde ye any good lawes that at that tyme were made and used, or any commendable monument of science or crafte in this realme occupied? suche iniquitie semeth to be than, that by the multitude of soueraigne gouernours all thinges had ben brought to confusion, if the noble kynge Edgar+ had nat reduced the monarch to his pristinate astate and figure: whiche brought to passe, reason was reuiued, and people came to conformitie, and the realme began to take comforte and to shewe some visage of a publike weale: and so (lauded be god) haue continued: but nat beinge alway in like astate or condition.  All be it it is nat to be dispaired, but that the kynge our soueraigne lorde nowe reignyng, and this realme alway hauynge one prince like unto his highnes, equall to the auncient princis in vertue and courage+, it shall be reduced (god so disposynge) unto a publike weale excellynge all other in preeminence of vertue and abundance of thynges necessary.  But for as moche as I do wel perceiue that to write of the office or duetie of a soueraigne gouernour or prince, farre excedeth the compasse of my lernyng, holy scripture affirmyng that the hartes of princes be in goddes owne handes and disposition, I wyll therfore

kepe my penne within the sp ce that is discribed to me by the thre noble maisters, reason, lernynge, and experience; and by theyr enseignement or teachyng I wyll ordinately treate of the two partes of a publike weale, wherof the one shall be named Due Administration, the other Necessary Occupation, whiche shall be deuided in to two volumes.  In the fyrste shall be comprehended the beste fourme of education or bringing up of noble children from their natiuitie, in suche maner as they may be founde worthy, and also able to be gouernours of a publike weale.  The seconde volume, whiche, god grantyng me quietnes and libertie of mynde, I wyll shortly after sende forthe, it shall conteine all the reminant, whiche I can either by lernyng or experience fynde apt to the perfection of a iuste publike weale: in the whiche I shall so endeuour my selfe, that al men, of what astate or condition so euer they be, shall finde therin occasion to be alway vertuously occupied; and not without pleasure, if they be nat of the scholes of Aristippus or Apicius, of whom the one supposed felicite to be onely in lechery, the other in delicate fedynge and glotony: from whose sharpe talones and cruell tethe, I beseche all gentill reders, to defende these warkes, whiche for theyr commodite is onely compiled.
 
 

     THERE be bothe reasones and examples, undoutedly infinite, wherby may be proued, that there can be no perfect publike weale without one capital and soueraigne gouernour whiche may longe endure or continue.  But sens one mortall man can nat haue knowlege of all thynges done in a realme or large dominion, and at one tyme, discusse all controuersies, refourme all transgressions, and exploite al consultations, concluded

as well for outwarde as inwarde affaires: it is expedient and also nedefull that under the capitall gouernour be sondry meane authorities, as it were aydyng him in the distribution of iustice in sondry partes of a huge multitude: wherby his labours beinge leuigate and made more tollerable, he shall gouerne with the better aduise, and consequently with a more perfect gouernance. And, as Jesus Sirach sayth, The multitude of wise men is the welth of the worlde.  They whiche haue suche authorities to them committed may be called inferiour gouernours, hauynge respecte to theyr office or duetie, wherin is also a representation of gouernance.  All be it they be named in latine Magistratus.  And herafter I intende to call them Magistratis, lackynge a more conuenient worde in englisshe; but I do in the seconde parte of this warke, where I propose to write of theyr sondry offices or ffectes authoritie.  But for as moche as in this parte e to write of theyr education and vertue in whiche they haue in commune with princes, in as moche as therby they shall, as well by example as by authoritie, ordre well them, whiche by theyr capitall gouernour shall be to theyr rule committed, I may, without anoyance of any man, name them gouernours at this tyme, apropriatynge, to the soueraignes, names of kynges and princes, sens of a longe custome these names in commune fourme of speakyng be in a higher preeminence and estimation than gouernours.  That in euery commune weale ought to be a great nombre of suche maner of persons it is partly proued in the chaptre nexte before writen, where I haue spoken of the commodite of ordre.  Also reason and commune experience playnly declareth, that, where the dominion is large and populouse, there is hit convenient that a prince haue many inferiour gouernours, whiche be named of Aristotel his eien, eares, handes, and legges, whiche, if they be of the beste sorte, (as he further more saythe), it semeth impossible a countrey nat to be well gouerned by good lawes.  And evcepte [sic] excellent vertue and

lernynge do inhabite a man of the base astate of the communaltie, to be thought of all men worthy to be so moche auaunced: els suche gouernours wolde be chosen out of that astate of men whiche be called worshipfull, if amonge them may be founden a sufficient nombre, ornate with vertue and wisedome, mete for suche purpose, and that for sondry causes.
     Fyrste it is of good congruence that they, whiche be superiour in condition or hauiour, shulde haue also preeminence in administration, if they be nat inferiour to other in vertue.  Also they hauinge of their owne reuenues certeine wherby they haue competent substance to lyue without takyng rewardes: it is lykely that they wyll nat be so desirous of Iucre, (wherof may be engendred corruption), as they whiche haue very litle or nothynge so certeyne.
     More ouer where vertue is in a gentyll_man+, it is commonly mixte with more sufferance, more affabilitie, and myldenes, than for the more parte it is in a persone rural, or of a very base linage; and whan it hapneth other wise, it is to be accompted lothesome and monstruous. Furthermore, where the persone is worshypfull, his gouernaunce, though it be sharpe, is to the people more tollerable, and they therwith the lasse grutch, or be dissobedient.  Also suche men, hauyng substance in goodes by certeyne and stable possessions, whiche they may aporcionate to their owne liuynge, and bryngynge up of theyr children in lernyng and vertues, may, (if nature repugne nat), cause them to be so instructed and furnisshed towarde the administration of a publike weale, that a poure mannes sonne, onely by his naturall witte, without other adminiculation or aide, neuer or sledome may atteyne to the semblable.  Towarde the whiche instruction I haue, with no litle study and labours, prepared this warke, as almighty god be my iuge, without arrogance or any sparke of vayne glorie: but only to declare the feruent zele hat I haue to my countrey, and that I desyre only o employ that poure lerning, that I haue gotten, to

the benefite thereof {patriotism+}, and to the recreation of all the reders that be of any noble or gentill courage, gyuynge them occasion to eschewe idelnes, beynge occupied in redynge this warke, infarced througly with suche histories and sentences wherby they shal take, they them selfes confessing, no lytell commodite if they will more than ones or twyse rede it.  The first reding being to them newe, the seconde delicious, and, euery tyme after, more and more frutefull and excellent profitable.
 
 

     FOR as moche as all noble authors do conclude, and also commune experience proueth, that where the gouernours of realmes and cities be founden adourned with vertues, and do employ theyr study and mynde to the publike weale, as well to the augmentation therof as to the establysshynge and longe continuaunce of the same: there a publike weale must nedes be both honorable and welthy.  To the entent that I wyll declare howe suche personages may be prepared, I will use the policie of a wyse and counnynge gardener: who purposynge to haue in his gardeine a fyne and preciouse herbe, that shulde be to hym and all other repairynge therto, excellently comodiouse or pleasant, he will first serche throughout his gardeyne where he can finde the most melowe and fertile erth: and therin wil he put the sede of the herbe to growe and be norisshed: and in most diligent wise attende that no weede be suffred to growe or aproche nyghe unto it: and to the entent it may thrive the faster, as soone as the fourme of an herbe ones appereth, he will set a vessell of water by hit, in suche wyse that it may continually distille on the rote swete droppes; and as it spryngeth in stalke, under sette it with some thyng that it breake nat, and alway kepe

it cleane from weedes.  Semblable ordre will I ensue in the fourmynge the gentill wittes of noble mennes children, who, from the wombes of their mother, shal be made propise or apte to the gouernaunce of a publike weale.
     Fyrste, they, unto whom the bringing up of suche children apperteineth, oughte, againe the time that their mother shall be of them deliuered, to be sure of a nourise whiche shulde be of no seruile condition or vice notable.  For, as some auncient writers do suppose, often times the childe soukethe the vice of his nouryse with the milke of her pappe.  And also obserue that she be of mature or ripe age, nat under xx yeres, or aboue xxx, her body also beinge clene from all sikenes or deformite, and hauing her complection most of the right and pure sanguine. For as moche as the milke therof comminge excelleth all other bothe in swetenes and substance.  More ouer to the nourise shulde be appointed an other woman of approued vertue, discretion, and grauitie, who shall nat suffre, in the childes presence, to be shewed any acte or tache dishonest, or any wanton or unclene worde to be spoken: and for that cause al men, except physitions only, shulde be excluded and kepte out of the norisery. Perchance some wyll scorne me for that I am so serious, sainge that ther is no suche damage to be fered in an infant, who for tendernes of yeres hath nat the understanding to decerne good from iuell.  And yet no man wyll denie, but in that innocency he wyll decerne milke from butter, and breadde from pappe, and er he can speake he wyll with his hande or countenaunce signifie whiche he. desireth.  And I verily do suppose that in the braynes and hertes of children, whiche be membres spirituall, whiles they be tender, and the litle slippes of reason begynne in them to burgine, ther may happe by iuel custome some pestiferous dewe of vice to perse the sayde membres, and infecte and corrupt the softe and tender buddes, wherby the frute may growe wylde, and some tyme conteine in it feruent and mortal poyson, the utter destruction of a realme.

     And we haue in daily experience that litle infantes assayeth to folowe, nat onely the wordes, but also the faictes and gesture, of them that be prouecte in yeres.  For we daylye here, to our great heuines, children swere great othes and speake lasciuious and unclene wordes, by the example of other whom they heare, wherat the leude parentes do rcioyce, sone after, or in this worlde, or els where, to theyr great payne and tourment.  Contrary wise we beholde some chyldren, knelynge in theyr game before images, and holdyng up theyr lytell whyte handes, do moue theyr praty mouthes, as they were prayeng: other goynge and syngynge as hit were in procession: wherby they do expresse theyr disposition to the imitation of those thynges, be they good or iuell, whiche they usually do se or here.  Wherfore nat only princis, but also all other children, from their norises pappes, are to be kepte diligently from the herynge or seynge of any vice or euyl tache.  And encontinent as sone as they can speake, it behoueth, with most pleasaunt allurynges, to instill in them swete maners and vertuouse custome.  Also to prouide for them suche companions and playfelowes, whiche shal nat do in his presence any reprocheable acte, or speake any uncleane worde or othe, ne to aduaunt hym with flatery, remembrynge his nobilitie, or any other like thyng wherin he mought glory: onlas it be to persuade hym to vertue, or to withdrawe him from vice, in the remembryng to hym the daunger of his euill example.  For noble men more greuously offende by theyr example+ than by their dede.  Yet often remembrance to them of their astate may happen to radycate in theyr hartes intollerable pride, the moost daungerous poyson to noblenes: wherfore there is required to be therein moche cautele and sobrenesse.

     Some olde autours holde oppinion that, before the age of seuen yeres, a chylde shulde nat be instructed in letters; but those writers were either grekes or latines, amonge whom all doctrine and sciences were in their maternall tonges; by reason wherof they saued all that longe tyme whiche at this dayes is spente in understandyng perfectly the greke or latyne. {usthem+} Wherfore it requireth nowe a longer tyme to the understandynge of bothe.  Therfore that infelicitie of our tyme and countray compelleth us to encroche some what upon the yeres of children, and specially of noble men, that they may sooner attayne to wisedome and grauitie than priuate persones, consideryng, as I haue saide, their charge and example, whiche, above all thinges, is most to be estemed.  Nat withstanding, I wolde nat haue them inforced by violence to lerne, but accordynge to the counsaile of Quintilian, to be swetely allured therto with praises and suche praty gyftes as children delite in.  And their fyrst letters to be paynted or lymned in a pleasaunt maner: where in children of gentyl courage haue moche delectation.  And also there is no better allectyue to noble wyttes than to induce them in to a contention with their inferiour companions: they somtyme purposely suffring the more noble children to vainquysshe, and, as it were, gyuying to them place and soueraintie, thoughe in dede the inferiour chyldren haue more lernyng.  But there can be nothyng more conuenient than by litle and litle to trayne and exercise hem in spekyng of latyne: infourmyng them to knowe first the names in latine of all thynges that cometh in syghte, and to name all the partes of theyr bodies: and gyuynge them some what that they couete or desyre, in most gentyl maner to teache them to aske it agayne in latine.  And if by this meanes they may be induced understande and speke latine: it shall afterwards be

lasse grefe to them, in a maner, to lerne any thing, where they understande the langage wherein it is writen.  And, as touchynge grammere, there is at this day better introductions, and more facile, than euer before were made, concernyng as wel greke as latine, if they be wisely chosen.  And hit shal be no reproche to a noble man to instruct his owne children, or at the leest wayes to examine them, by the way of daliaunce or solace, considerynge that the emperour Octauius Augustus disdayned nat to rede the warkes of Cicero and Virgile to his children and neuewes.  And why shulde nat noble men rather so do, than teache their children howe at dyse and cardes, they may counnyngly lese and consume theyr owne treasure and substaunce? Moreouer teachynge representeth the auctoritie of a prince wherfore Dionyse, kynge of Sicile, whan he was for tyranny expelled by his people, he came in to Italy, and there in a commune schole taught grammer, where with, whan he was of his enemies enbraided, and called a schole maister, he answered them, that al though Sicilians had exiled hym, yet in despite of them all he reigned, notynge therby the authorite that he had ouer his scholers. Also whan hit was of hym demanded what auailed hym Plato or philosophy, wherin he had ben studious, he aunswered that they caused hym to sustaine aduersitie paciently, and made his exile to be more facile and easy: whiche courage and wisdome consydered of his people, they eftsones him unto his realme and astate roiall, where, if he had procured agayne them hostilite or warres, or had returned in to Sicile with any violence, I suppose the people wolde haue alway resysted hym, and haue kepte hym in perpetuall exile: as the romaynes dyd the proude kynge Tarquine, whose sonne rauysshed Lucrece.  But to retourne to my purpose, hit shall be expedient that a noble mannes sonne, in his infancie, haue with hym continually onely suche as may accustome hym by litle and litle to speake pure and elegant latin. Semblably the nourises and other women aboute hym, if it

be possible, to do the same: or, at the leste way, that they speke none englisshe but that which is cleane, polite, perfectly and articulately pronounced, omittinge no lettre or sillable, as folisshe women often times do of a wantonnesse, wherby diuers noble men and gentilmennes chyldren, (as I do at this daye knowe), haue attained corrupte and foule pronuntiation.
     This industry used in fourminge litel infantes, who shalt dought, but that they, (not lackyng naturall witte) shall be apt to receyue lerninge, whan they come to mo yeres?  And in this wise maye they be instructed, without any violence or inforsinge: using the more parte of the time, until they come to the age of vii yeres, in suche disportis, as do appertaine to children, wherin is no resemblance or similitude of vice.
 
 

     AFTER that a childe is come to seuen yeres of age, I holde it expedient that he be taken from the company of women: sauynge that he may haue, one yere, or two at the most, an auncient and sad matrone, attendynge on hym in his chambre, whiche shall nat haue any yonge woman in her company: for though there be no perille of offence in that tender and innocent age, yet, in some children, nature is more prone to vice than to vertue, and in the tender wittes be sparkes of voluptuositie: whiche, norished by any occasion or obiecte, encrease often tymes in to so terrible a fire, that therwith all vertue and reason+ is consumed.  Wherfore, to eschewe that daunger, the most sure counsaile is, to withdrawe him from all company of women, and to assigne unto hym a tutor, whiche shulde be an auncient and worshipfull man, in whom is aproued to be moche gentilnes, mixte with grauitie, and, as nighe as can be, suche one as the childe by imitation folowynge may

growe to be excellent.  And if he be also lerned, he is the more commendable. Peleus, the father of Achilles, committed the gouernaunce of his sonne to Phenix, which was a straunger borne: who, as well in speakyng elegantly as in doinge valiauntly, was maister to Achilles (as Homere saith).  Howe moche profited hit to kynge Philip, father to the great Alexander, that he was deliuered in hostage to the Thebanes? where he was kepte and brought up under the gouernance of Epaminondas, a noble and valiant capitaine: of whom he receiued suche lernynge, as well in actes martiall as in other liberal sciences, that he excelled all other kynges that were before his tyme in Grece, and finally, as well by wisedome as prowes, subdued all that countray.  Semblably he ordayned for his sonne Alexander a noble tutor called Leonidas, unto whom, for his wisedome, humanitie, and lernyng, he committed the rule and preeminence ouer all the maisters and seruantes of Alexander.  In whom, nat withstandyng, was suche a familier vice whiche Alexander apprehending in childhode coulde neuer abandon: some suppose it to be fury+ and hastines, other superfluous drinking of wine: whiche of them it were, it is a good warnyng for gentilmen to be the more serious, inserching, nat only for the vertues, but also for the vices of them, unto whose tuition and gouernance they will committe their children.
     The office of a tutor is firste to knowe the nature of his pupil, that is to say, wherto he is mooste inclined or disposed, and in what thyng he setteth his most delectation or appetite.  If he be of nature curtaise, piteouse, and of a free and liberall harte, it is a principall token of grace, (as hit is by all scripture determined.) Than shall a wyse tutor purposely commende those vertues, extolling also his pupill for hauyng of them; and therewith he shall declare them to be of all men mooste fortunate, whiche shall happen to haue suche a maister. And moreouer shall declare to hym what honour, what loue, what commodite shall happen to him by these vertues.  And, if any haue ben of disposition contrary,

than to expresse the enormities of theyr vice, with as moche detestation as may be.  And if any daunger haue therby ensued, misfortune, or punisshement, to agreue it in suche wyse, with so vehement wordes, as the childe may abhorre it, and feare the semblable aduenture.
 
 

     THE discretion of a tutor consisteth in temperance that is to saye, that he suffre nat the childe to be fatigate with continuall studie or lernyng, wherwith the delicate and tender witte may be dulled or oppressed but that there may be there with entrelased and mixte some pleasaunt lernynge and exercise, as playenge on instruments of musike, whiche moderately used and without diminution of honour, that is to say, without wanton countenance and dissolute gesture, is nat to be contemned. For the noble kynge and prophete Dauid, kyng of Israell (whom almighty god said that he had chosen as a man accordinge to his harte or desire) duringe his lyfe, delited in musike: and with the swete harmony that he made on his harpe, he constrayned the iuell spirite that vexed kynge Saul to forsake hym, continuynge the tyme that he harped.
     The mooste noble and valiant princis of Grece often tymes, to recreate their spirites, and in augmenting their courage, enbraced instrumentes musicall.  So dyd the valiaunt Achilles, (as Homere saith), who after the sharpe and vehement contention, betwene him and Agamemnon, for the taking away of his concubine: wherby he, being set in a fury+, hadde slayne Agamemnon, emperour of the grekes armye, had nat Pallas, the goddesse, withdrawen his hande; in which rage he, all inflamed, departed with his people to his owne shippes that lay at rode, intendinge to haue retourned in to his countray; but after that he had taken to hym his harpe, (whereon he

had lerned to playe of Chiron the Centaure, which also had taught hym feates of armes, with phisicke, and surgery), and playeng theron, had songen the gestes and actis martial of the auncient princis of Grece, as Hercules, Perseus, Perithous, Theseus, and his cosin Jason, and of diuers other of semblable value and prowesse, he was there with asswaged of his furie+, and reduced in to his firste astate of reason: in suche wyse, that in redoubyng his rage, and that thereby shulde nat remayne to him any note of reproche, he retaynyng his fiers and stourdie countenance, so tempered hym selfe in the entertaynement and answerynge the messagers that came to him from the residue of the Grekes, that they, reputing all that his fiers demeanure to be, (as it were), a diuine maiestie, neuer embrayded hym with any inordinate wrathe or furie.  And therfore the great kynge Alexander, whan he had vainquisshed Ilion, where some tyme was set the moste noble citie of Troy, beinge demaunded of one if he wold se the harpe of Paris Alexander, who rauisshed Helene, he therat gentilly smilyng, answered that it was nat the thyng that he moche desired, but that he had rather se the harpe of Achilles, wherto he sange, nat the illecebrous dilectations of Venus, but the valiaunt actes and noble affaires of excellent princis.
     But in this commendation of musike I wold nat be thought to allure noble men to haue so moche delectation therin, that, in playinge and singynge only, they shulde put their holle studie and felicitie: as dyd the emperour Nero, whiche all a longe somers day wolde sit in the Theatre, (an open place where al the people of Rome behelde solemne actis and playes), and, in the presence of all the noble men and senatours, wolde playe on his harpe and synge without cessynge:  And if any man, hapned, by longe sittynge, to slepe, or, by any other countenance, to shewe him selfe to be weary, he was sodaynly bobbed on the face by the seruantes of Nero, for that purpose attendyng: or if any persone were perceiued to be absent, or were sene to laughe at the

folye of the emperour, he was forthe with accused, as it were, of missprision: wherby the emperour founde occasion to committe him to prison or to put hym to tortures.  O what misery was it to be subiecte to suche a minstrell, in whose musike was no melodye, but anguisshe and dolour?
     It were therfore better that no musike were taughte to a noble man, than, by the exacte knowlege therof, he shuld haue therin inordinate delite, and by that be illected to wantonnesse, abandonyng grauitie, and the necessary cure and office, in the publike weale, to him committed.  Kynge Philip, whan he harde that his sonne Alexander dyd singe swetely and properly, he rebuked him gentilly, saynge, But, Alexander, be ye nat ashamed that ye can singe so well and connyngly? whereby he mente that the open profession of that crafte was but of a base estimation.  And that it suffised a noble man, hauynge therin knowlege, either to use it secretely, for the refreshynge of his witte, whan he hath tyme of solace: orels, only hearynge the contention of noble musiciens, to gyue iugement in the excellencie of their counnynges.  These be the causes where unto hauinge regarde, musike is nat onely tollerable but also commendable.  For, as Aristotle saith.  Musike in the olde time was nombred amonge sciences, or as moche as nature seketh nat onely howe to be in busines well occupied, but also howe in quietnes to be commendably disposed.
     And if the childe be of a perfecte inclination and towardnes to vertue, and very aptly disposed to this science, and ripely dothe understande the reason and concordance of tunes, the tutor's office shall be to persuade hym to haue principally in remembrance his astate, whiche maketh hym exempt from the libertie of usinge this science in euery tyme and place: that is to say, that it onely serueth for recreation after tedious or laborious affaires, and to shewe him that a gentilman, plainge or singing in a commune audience, appaireth his estimation: the people forgettinge reuerence, when

they beholde him in the similitude of a common seruant or minstrell. Yet, natwithstanding, he shall commende the perfecte understandinge of musike, declaringe howe necessary it is for the better attaynynge the knowlege of a publike weale: whiche, as I before haue saide, is made of an ordre of astates and degrees, and, by reason therof, conteineth in it a perfect harmony: whiche he shall afterwarde more perfectly onderstande, whan he shall happen to rede the bokes of Plato, and Aristotle, of publike weales: wherin be written diuers examples of musike and geometrye.  In this fourme may a wise and circumspecte tutor adapte the pleasant science of musike to a necessary and laudable purpose.
 
 

     IF the childe be of nature inclined, (as many haue ben), to paint with a penne, or to fourme images in stone or tree: he shulde nat be therfrom withdrawen, or nature be rebuked, whiche is to hym beniuolent: but puttyng one to him, whiche is in that crafte, wherin he deliteth, moste excellent, in vacant tymes from other more serious lernynge, he shulde be, in the moste pure wise, enstructed in painting or keruinge.
     And nowe, perchance, some enuious reder wyll hereof apprehende occasion to scorne me, sayenge that I haue well hyed me, to make of a noble man a mason or peynter.  And yet, if either ambition or voluptuouse idelnes wolde haue suffered that reder to haue sene histories, he shuld haue founden excellent princis, as well impayntyng as in keruynge, equall to noble artificers: suche were Claudius, Titus, the sonne of Vaspasian, Hadriane, both Antonines, and diuers other emperours and noble princes: whose warkes of longe tyme remayned in Rome and other cities, in suche places where all men mought beholde them: as monuments of their

excellent wittes and vertuous occupation in eschewynge of idelnes.
     And nat without a necessary cause princis were in their childhode so instructed: for it serued them afterwarde for deuysynge of engynes for the warre: or for making them better that be all redy deuysed.  For, as Vitruuius (which writeth of buyldynge to the emperour Augustus) sayth, All turmentes of warre, whiche we cal ordinance, were first inuented by kinges or gouernours of hostes, or if they were deuised by other, they were by them made moche better.  Also, by the feate of portraiture or payntyng, a capitaine may discriue the countray of his aduersary, wherby he shall eschue the daungerous passages with his hoste or nauie: also perceyue the placis of aduauntage, the forme of embataylynge of his ennemies: the situation of his campe, for his moste suertie: the strength or weakenes of the towne or fortresse whiche he intendeth to assaulte.  And that whiche is moost specially to be considered, in visiting his owne dominions, he shal sette them out in figure, in suche wise that at his eie shal appere to hym where he shall employ his study and treasure, as well for the saulfgarde of his countray, as for the commodite and honour therof, hauyng at al tymes in his sight the suertie and feblenes, aduauncement and hyndrance, of the same.  And what pleasure and also utilite is it to a man whiche intendeth to edifie, hymselfe to expresse the figure of the warke that he purposeth, accordyng as he hath conceyued it in his owne fantasie? wherin, by often amendyng and correctyng, he finally shall so perfecte the warke unto his purpose, that there shall neither ensue any repentance, nor in the employment of his money he shall be by other deceiued.  More ouer the feate of portraiture shall be an allectiue to euery other studie or exercise.  For the witte therto disposed shall alway couaite congruent mater, wherin it may be occupied. And whan he happeneth to rede or here any fable or historie, forthwith he apprehendeth it more desirously, and retaineth it better, than any

other that lacketh the sayd feate: by reason that he hath founde mater apte to his fantasie.  Finally, euery thinge that portraiture may comprehende will be to him delectable to rede or here.  And where the liuely spirite, and that whiche is called the grace of the thyng, is perfectly expressed, that thinge more persuadeth and stereth the beholder, and soner istructeth hym, than the declaration in writynge or speakynge doth the reder or hearer. Experience we haue therof in lernynge of geometry, astronomie, and cosmogrophie, called in englisshe the discription of the worlde.  In which studies I dare affirme a man shal more profite, in one wike, by figures and chartis, well and perfectly made, than he shall by the only reding or heryng the rules of that science by the space of halfe a yere at the lest, wherfore the late writers deserue no small commendation whiche added to the autors of those sciences apt and propre figures.
     And he that is perfectly instructed in portrayture, and hapneth to rede any noble and excellent historie, wherby his courage is inflamed to the imitation of vertue, he forth with taketh his penne or pensill, and with a graue and substanciall stud