teristics demanded in the child by Socrates, that he be Þéraivos, that is, one "that loveth to be praised for well doing at his father or master's hand."

"And thus," he concludes, " by Socrates' judgment, a good father and a wise schoolmaster should choose a child to make a scholar of, that hath by nature the foresaid perfect qualities and comely furniture both of mind and body; hath memory quick to receive, sure to keep, and ready to deliver; hath love to learning; hath lust to labour; hath desire to learn of others; hath boldness to ask any question; hath mind wholly bent to win praise by well doing. The two first of these qualities he considers to be special benefits of nature, yet to be preserved and much increased by discipline. The five last are to be wholly won and maintained by the wisdom and discretion of the schoolmaster. "Which five points," he proceeds, "whether a schoolmaster shall work sooner in a child by fearful beating, or courteous handling, you that be wise, judge.

Yet some men, wise indeed, but, in this matter, more by severity of nature than any wisdom at all, do laugh at us when we thus wish and reason, that young children should rather be allured to learning by gentleness and love, than compelled to learning by beating and fear. They say, our reasons serve only to breed forth talk, and pass away the time; but we never saw good schoolmasters do so, nor never read of wise men that thought so."

In opposition to this doctrine, Ascham quotes from Plato the precept of Socrates, that no learning ought to be learnt with bondage. "And why?" he adds of himself, "For whatsoever the mind doth learn unwillingly with fear, the same it doth gladly forget without care."

He goes on to show that it is expressly of the teaching of children that Socrates in the passage quoted speaks. He then proceeds as follows:-"Fond schoolmasters neither can understand, nor will follow this good counsel of Socrates; but wise riders in their office can, and will, do both; which is the only cause that commonly the young gentlemen of England go so unwillingly to school, and run so fast to the stable. For in very deed, fond schoolmasters by fear do beat into them the hatred for learning; and wise riders, by gentle allurements, do breed up in them the love of riding. They find fear and bondage in schools, they feel liberty and freedom in stables; which causes them utterly to abhor the one, and most gladly to haunt the other. And I do not write this, that in exhorting to the one, I would dissuade young gentlemen from the other: yea I am sorry with all my heart that they be given no more to riding than they be. For of all outward qualities, to ride fair is most comely for himself, most necessary for his country; and the greater he is in blood, the greater is his praise, the more he doth exceed all other therein. It was one of the three excellent praises amongst the noble gentlemen, the old Persians: Always to say truth, to ride fair, and shoot well;' and so it was engraven upon Darius' tomb, as Strabo witnesseth :

Darius the king lieth buried here,

Who in riding and shooting had never peer."

He next takes up an objection which may be brought against his argument: "Yet some will say that children of nature love pastime, and mislike learning, because in their kind the one is easy and pleasant, the other hard and wearisome. Which is an opinion not so true For the matter lieth not so much

as some men ween.

in the disposition of them that be young, as in the order and manner of bringing up by them that be old; nor yet in the difference of learning and pastime. For beat a child if he dance not well, and cherish him though he learn not well, ye shall have him unwilling to go to dance, and glad to go to his book; knock him always when he draweth his shaft ill, and favour him again though he fault at his book, ye shall have him very loth to be in the field, and very willing to go to school. Yea, I say more, and not of myself, but by the judgment of those, from whom few wise men will gladly dissent, that if ever the nature of man be given at any time, more than other, to receive goodness, it is in innocency of young years, before that experience of evil have taken root in him. For the pure clean wit of a sweet young babe is like the newest wax, most able to receive the best and fairest printing; and like a new bright silver dish never occupied, to receive and keep clean any good thing that is put into it."

Some further illustration follows of the facility with which impressions, whether good or evil, may be made upon the youthful mind; and then comes a passage too interesting not to be given in full:

"And one example, whether love or fear doth work more in a child for virtue and learning, I will gladly report, which may be heard with some pleasure, and followed with more profit.

"Before I went into Germany, I came to Brodegate in Leicestershire, to take my leave of that noble Lady Jane Grey, to whom I was exceeding much beholden, Her parents, the Duke and Duchess, with all the household, gentlemen and gentlewomen, were hunting in the park, I found her in her chamber reading 'Phædo

Platonis,' in Greek, and that with as much delight as some gentlemen would read a merry tale in Boccace. After salutation and duty done, with some other talk, I asked her why she would lose such pastime in the park? Smiling, she answered me: I wist, all their sport in the park is but a shadow to that pleasure that I find in Plato. Alas! good folk, they never felt what true pleasure meant.' 'And how came you, Madam,' quoth I, 'to this deep knowledge of pleasure? Aud what did chiefly allure you unto it, seeing not many women, but very few men, have attained thereunto?" 'I will tell you,' quoth she, and tell you a truth which perchance ye will marvel at. One of the greatest benefits that ever God gave me, is that he sent me so sharp and severe parents, and so gentle a schoolmaster. For when I am in presence either of father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go, eat, drink, be merry, or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing any thing else, I must do it, as it were, in such weight, measure, and number, even so perfectly, as God made the world; or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea presently sometimes with pinches, nips, and bobs, and other ways (which I will not name for the honour I bear them) so without measure misordered, that I think myself in hell, till time come that I must go to Mr. Elmer, who teacheth me so gently, so pleasautly, with such fair allurements to learning, that I think all the time nothing while I am with him. And when I am called from him, I fall on weeping, because whatsoever I do else, but learning, is full of grief, trouble, fear, and whole misliking unto me. And thus my book hath been so much my pleasure, and bringeth daily to me more pleasure and more, that in respect of it all

other pleasures in very deed be but trifles and troubles unto me.'

"I remember this talk gladly, both because it is so worthy of memory, and because also it was the last talk that ever I had, and the last time that ever I saw that noble and worthy lady."

For a perfect discussion of this part of his subject, Ascham refers the reader to the treatise De Institutione Principis,' (On the Education of a Prince,) addressed by his friend John Sturmius to the Duke of Cleves. Although, however, he is for the use of gentleness rather than severity in the instruction of youth at school, he does not dispute the necessity of sharp chastisement by parents for correcting vicious habits in their children. "This discipline," he says, "was well known and diligently used among the Grecians and old Romans; as doth appear in Aristophanes, Isocrates, and Plato, and also in the comedies of Plautus; where we see that children were under the rule of three persons, a schoolmaster, governor, and father. The schoolmaster taught him learning with all gentleness; the governor corrected his manners with much sharpness; the father held the stern of his whole obedience. And so he that used to teach did not commonly use to beat, but remitted that over to another man's charge. But what shall we say, when now in our days the schoolmaster is used both for preceptor in learning, and pædagogus in manners? Surely, I would he should not confound their offices, but discreetly use the duty of both, so that neither ill touches should be left unpunished, nor gen tleness in teaching anywise omitted. And he shall well. do both, if wisely he do appoint diversity of time, and separate place, for either purpose; using always such