fulness, the histories of England be able to afford over many examples unto us. Therefore, ye great and noblemen's children, if ye will have rightly that praise, and enjoy surely that place, which your fathers have, and elders had, and left unto you, ye must keep it, as they gat it; and that is, by the only way of virtue, wisdom, and worthiness."

In some passages that follow, the manners of the court, and the habits of thinking and judging that prevailed there, are very severely reprobated. There were then, indeed, the author allows, many fair examples in the English court for young gentlemen to follow; "but they be," he says, "like fair marks in the field, out of a man's reach, too far off to shoot at well." Young gentlemen who come to court are commonly obliged to associate with the worst description of characters there. These are they who laugh at quietness of nature as simpleness and lack of wit, and at bashful and blushing modesty as babyishness and ill-breeding. What is learned from their company is, first, to blush at nothing; "then followeth to dare do any mischief; to contemn stoutly any goodness; to be busy in every matter; to be skilful in every thing; to acknowledge no ignorance at all." "Moreover," he continues, "where the swing goeth, there to follow, fawn, flatter, laugh, and lie lustily at other men's liking; to face, stand foremost, shove back; and to the meaner man, or unknown in the court, to seem somewhat solemn, coy, big, and dangerous of look, talk, and answer; to think well of himself, to be lusty in contemning of others, to have some trim grace in a privy mock and, in greater presence, to bear a brave look; to be warlike, though he never looked enemy in the face in war; yet some warlike sign must be used,

either a slovenly buskin, or an over-staring frounced head, as though out of every hair's top should suddenly start out a good big oath when need requireth. Yet, praised be God! England hath at this time many worthy captains and good soldiers, which be indeed so honest of behaviour, so comely of conditions, so mild of manners, as they may be examples of good order to a good sort of others, which never came in war."

We must add still another of our author's lively and graphic sketches of the court blackguardism of his time: "And if some Smithfield ruffian rake up some strange going, some new mowing with the mouth, some wrenching with the shoulder, some brave proverb, some fresh new oath, that is not stale but will run round in the mouth; some new-disguised garment, or desperate hat, fond in fashion or garish in colour, whatsoever it cost, how small soever his living be, by what shift soever it be gotten, gotten must it be, and used with the first, or else the grace of it is stale and gone. Some part of this graceless grace was described by me in a little rude verse long ago:

"To laugh, to lie, to flatter, to face,

Four ways in court to win men's grace.
If thou be thrall to none of these,
Away, good Peekgoose, hence, John Cheese.
Mark well my word, and mark their deed,
And think this verse part of my creed."

But Ascham complains that these disorders were not confined to the court; "for commonly," he says, “in the country also every where, innocency is gone, bashfulness is vanished; much presumption in youth, small authority in age; reverence is neglected, duties be confounded; and, to be short, disobedience doth overflow the banks

of good order almost in every place, almost in every degree of man."

Something, he considers, may be done to remedy these evils by good laws; but the object is perhaps chiefly to be effected by "observing private discipline, every man carefully in his own house; and namely, if special regard be had to youth, and that not so much in teaching them what is good, as in keeping them from that that is ill." In youth," he says, "some ignorance is as necessary as much knowledge ;"" but this ignorance in youth," he adds," which I speak on, or rather this simplicity, or most truly this innocency, is that which the noble Persians, as wise Xenophon doth testify, were so careful to breed up their youth in. But Christian fathers commonly do not so. And I will tell you a tale as much to be misliked as the Persian's example is to be followed.

"This last summer I was in a gentleman's house, where a young child, somewhat past four years old, could in nowise frame his tongue to say a little short grace, and yet he could roundly rap out so many ugly oaths, and those of the newest fashion, as some good man of fourscore year old hath never heard named before; and that which was most detestable of all, his father and mother would laugh at it. I much doubt what comfort another day this child shall bring unto them. This child, using much the company of servingmen, and giving good ear to their talk, did easily learn which he shall hardly forget all the days of his life hereafter. So likewise in the court, if a young gentleman will venture himself into the company of ruffians, it is over great a jeopardy lest their fashions, manners, thoughts, talk, and deeds, will very soon be over like.

The confounding of companies breedeth confusion of good manners both in the court and every where else.""

Having then fortified these opinions by quoting the account given by Isocrates of the care that was taken in the noble city of Athens, to bring up their youth in honest company and virtuous discipline, he proceeds in the following animated strain:

"And to know what worthy fruit did spring of such worthy seed, I will tell you the most marvel of all, and yet such a truth as no man shall deny it, except such as be ignorant in knowledge of the best stories.

"Athens, by this discipline and good ordering of youth, did breed up, within the circuit of that one city, within the compass of one hundred years, within the memory of one man's life, so many notable captains in war, for worthiness, wisdom, and learning, as be scarce matchable, no not in the state of Rome, in the compass of those seven hundred years when it flourished most.

"And because I will not only say it, but also prove it, the names of them be these-Miltiades, Themistocles, Xantippus, Pericles, Cimon, Alcibiades, Thrasybulus, Conon, Iphicrates, Xenophon, Timotheus, Theopompus, Demetrius, and divers others more; of which every one may justly be spoken that worthy praise which was given to Scipio Africanus, who Cicero doubteth whether he were more noble captain in war, or more eloquent and wise counsellor in peace.' And if ye believe not me, read diligently Æmilius Probus* in Latiu, and Plutarch in Greek, which two had no cause either to flatter or lie upon any of those which I have recited.

“And beside nobility in war, for excellent and match

* He means the lives now commonly held to be written by Cornelius Nepos.

less masters in all manner of learning, in that one city, in memory of one age, were more learned men, and that in a manner altogether, than all time doth remember, than all place doth afford, than all other tongues do contain. And I do not mean of those authors which by injury of time, by negligence of men, by cruelty of fire and sword, be lost, but even of those which by God's grace are left yet unto us, of which, I thank God, even my poor study lacketh not one. As in philosophy, Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Euclid, and Theophrast; in eloquence and civil law, Demosthenes, Æschines, Lycurgus, Dinarchus, Demades, Isocrates, Isæus, Lysias, Antisthenes, Andocides; in history, Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and which we lack, to our great loss, Theopompus and Ephorus; in poetry, Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and somewhat of Menander, Demosthenes' sister's son.

"Now let Italian, and Latin itself, Spanish, French, Dutch [German is meant], and English, bring forth their learning and recite their authors, Cicero only excepted, and one or two more in Latin, they be all patched clouts and rags in comparison of fair woven broadcloths; and truly, if there be any good in them, it is either learned, borrowed, or stolen from some of those worthy wits of Athens.

"The remembrance of such a commonwealth, using such discipline and order for youth, and thereby bringing forth to their praise, and leaving to us for our example, such captains for war, such counsellors for peace, and matchless masters for all kind of learning, is pleasant for me to recite, and not irksome, I trust, for others to hear, except it be such as make neither account of virtue nor learning.