"And whether there be any such or no, I cannot well tell; yet I hear say, some young gentlemen of ours count it their shame to be counted learned, and perchance they count it their shame to be counted honest also, for I hear say they meddle as little with the one as with the other. A marvellous case, that gentlemen should be so ashamed of good learning, and never a whit ashamed of ill manners! Such do say for them, that the gentlemen of France do so; which is a lie, as God will have it. Langæus and Bellæus, that be dead, and the noble Vidam of Chartres, that is alive, and infinite more in France which I hear tell of, prove this to be most false. And though some in France, which will needs be gentlemen, whether men will or no, and have more gentleship in their hat than in their head, be at deadly feud with both learning and honesty; yet I believe, if that noble prince, King Francis the First, were alive, they should have neither place in his court nor pension in his wars, if he had knowledge of them. This opinion is not French, but plain Turkish, from whence some French fetch more faults than this, which I pray God keep out of England, and send also those of ours better minds, which bend themselves against virtue and learning, to the contempt of God, dishonour of their country, to the hurt of many others, and at length to the greatest harm and utter destruction of themselves.

"Some others, having better nature, but less wit (for ill commonly have overmuch wit), do not utterly dispraise learning, but they say, that, without learning, cominon experience, knowledge of all fashions, and haunting all companies, shall work in youth both wisdom and ability to execute any weighty affair. Surely long experience doth profit much, but most, and almost only to

him (if we mean honest affairs) that is diligently before instructed with precepts of well-doing. For good precepts of learning be the eyes of the mind, to look wisely before a man which way to go right, and which not.

"Learning teacheth more in one year than experience in twenty; and learning teacheth safely, when experience maketh more miserable than wise. He hazardeth sore that waxeth wise by experience. An unhappy master is he that is made cunning by many shipwrecks; a miserable merchant, that is neither rich nor wise but after some bankrouts. It is costly wisdom that is bought by experience. We know by experience itself, that it is a marvellous pain to find out a short way but by long wandering; and surely he that would prove wise by experience, he may be witty indeed, but even like a swift runner, that runneth fast out of the way, and upon the night, he knoweth not whither. And verily they be fewest in number that be wise by unlearned experience. And look well upon the former life of those few, whether your example be old or young, who, without learning, have gathered by long experience a little wisdom and some happiness; and when you do consider what mischief they have committed, what dangers they have escaped (and yet twenty for one do perish in the adventure), then think well with yourself whether ye would that your own son should come to wisdom and happiness by the way of such experience or no.

"It is a notable tale, that old Sir Roger Chamloe, some time Chief-Justice, would tell of himself. When he was Ancient in inn of court, certain young gentlemen were brought before him, to be corrected for certain misorders; and one of the lustiest said, 'Sir, we be young gentlemen; and wise men before us have proved all

fashions, and yet those have done full well.' This they said, because it was well known that Sir Roger had been a goodfellow in his youth. But he answered them very wisely. Indeed,' saith he, ' in youth I was as you are now; and I had twelve fellows like unto myself, but not one of them came to a good end. And therefore, follow not my example in youth, but follow my counsel in age, if ever ye think to come to this place or to these years that I am come unto, lest ye meet either with poverty or Tyburn in the way.'

Although thus jealous, however, of the effects of teaching by experience, and earnestly in favour of the method of at least laying the foundations of knowledge in the young mind chiefly by learning and good bring ing up, Ascham would by no means have the whole time of youth to be spent in study.

"I do not mean," he says, "by all this my talk, that young gentlemen should always be poring on a book, and by using good studies should lose honest pleasure, and haunt no good pastime; I mean nothing less. For it is well known that I both like and love, and have always, and do yet still use all exercises and pastimes that be fit for my nature and ability. And beside natural disposition, in judgment also I was never either Stoic in doctrine or Anabaptist in religion, to mislike a merry, pleasant, and playful nature, if no outrage be committed against law, measure, and good order."

He would wish that "young gentlemen should use and delight in all courtly exercises and gentlemanlike pastimes." "Therefore," he continues," to ride comely, to run fair at the tilt or ring, to play at all weapons, to shoot fair in bow, or surely in gun, to vault lustily, to run, to leap, to wrestle, to swim, to dance comely,

to sing and play on instruments cunningly, to hawk, to hunt, to play at tennis, and all pastimes generally which be joined with labour used in open place, and on the daylight, containing either some fit exercise for war, or some pleasant pastime for peace, be not only comely and decent, but also very necessary for a courtly gentleman

to use.

"But of all kinds of pastimes fit for a gentleman, I will, God willing, in fitter place, more at large declare fully, in my Book of the Cockpit,' which I do write to satisfy some, I trust with some reason, that be more curious in marking other men's doings than careful in mending their own faults. And some also will needs busy themselves in marvelling, and adding thereto unfriendly talk, why I, a man of good years, and of no ill place, I thank God and my prince, do make choice to spend such time in writing of trifles, as The School of Shooting,' The Cockpit,' and this Book of the first principles of Grammar, rather than to take some weighty matter in hand, either of religion or civil discipline."

Wise men, he says, will well allow of his choice in this matter; and as for such who have not wit of themselves, but must learn of others to judge right of men's doings, he refers them to Horace's precept in his Art of Poetry, to beware of high and lofty titles. Ascham may be supposed to insinuate, that though his books might seem from their titles to treat only on frivolous subjects, their substance would be found to be beyond the promise thus held out." And thus much," he concludes, "out of my way, concerning my purpose in spending pen, and paper, and time upon trifles; and namely to answer some that have neither wit nor learning to do anything themselves, neither will nor honesty to say well of others."

Returning to the subject of joining learning with comely exercises, he highly recommends the work of Conto Baldesar Castiglione, entitled "Il Cortigiano," (the Courtier,) as excellently translated into English by Sir Thomas Hobby," which book," says he, " advisedly read and diligently followed but one year at home in England, would do a young gentleman more good, I wiss, than three years' travel abroad spent in Italy." "But the English court," he adds, "has never lacked many fine examples for young gentlemen to follow." Among these he mentions the late King Edward," and in the second degree, two noble prim-roses of nobility, the young Duke of Suffolk and Lord Henry Malavers," who, he says, were two such examples to the court for learning, as our time may rather wish than look for again." At St. John's College, Cambridge, also, he commemorates Sir John Cheke and Dr. Redmayn as having, in his time, done more by their example than the good statutes of the college themselves did "to breed up learned men, of whom there were so many," says he, "in that one College of St. John's, at one time, as I believe the whole University of Louvain, in many years, was never able to afford."

He then proceeds: "Present examples of this present time I list not to touch; yet there is one example for all the gentlemen of this court to follow, that may well satisfy them, or nothing will serve them, nor no example move them to goodness and learning.

"It is your shame (I speak to you all, you young gentlemen of England), that one maid should go beyond you all in excellency of learning and knowledge of divers tongues. Point forth six of the best given gentlemen of this court, and all they together show not so much good