'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 Latin, 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, Æschylus, 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.

"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, common 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 mise chief they have committed, what dangers they have escaped (and yet twenty for one do perish in the adven ture), 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 bringing 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,