sary occasion to read over every lecture a dozen times at the least."

All this because the pupil shall do always in order, he will, the author contends, do it always with pleasure; and pleasure, he adds, according to Aristotle and other ancients, allureth love; love hath lust to labour; labour always obtaineth his purpose." He then proceeds :

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"When by this diligent and speedy reading over those forenamed good books of Tully, Terence, Cæsar, and Livy, and by this second kind of translating out of your English, time shall breed skill, and use shall bring perfection then ye may try, if ye will, your scholar with the third kind of translation, although the two first ways, by mine opinion, be not only sufficient of themselves, but also surer, both for the master's teaching and scholar's learning, than this third way is, which is thus:

"Write you in English some letter, as it were from him to his father, or to some other friend, naturally, according to the disposition of the child; or some tale, or fable, or plain narration, according as Aphthonius*. beginneth his exercises of learning: and let him translate into Latin again, abiding in such place where no other scholar may prompt him. But yet, use you your-› self such discretion for choice therein, as the matter may be within the compass, both for words and sentences, of his former learning and reading. And now take

*This book of Aphthonius, now forgotten, was once in great vogue in our schools and on the continent. Among the list of books in Sandwich School box or library (Temp. Eliz. Reg.) was a copy of Aphthonius. There is a short notice of Aphthonius in the Penny Cyclopædia.

heed, lest your scholar do not better in some point than you yourself, except ye have been diligently exercised in these kinds of translating before.

"I had once a proof hereof, tried by good experience, by a dear friend of mine, when I came first from Cambridge to serve the Queen's Majesty, then Lady Elizabeth, lying at worthy Sir Antony Denny's, in Cheston. John Whitney, a young gentleman, was my bed-fellow, who willing by good nature, and provoked by mine advice, began to learn the Latin tongue, after the order declared in this book. We began after Christmas; I read unto him Tully de Amicitiâ, which he did every day twice translate out of Latin into English, and out of English into Latin again. About St. Lawrence tide, after, to prove how he profited, I did choose out Torquatus' talk de Amicitiâ, in the latter end of the first book de Finibus, because that place was the same in the matter, like in words and phrases, nigh to the form and fashion of sentences, as he had learned before in de Amicitiâ. I did translate it myself into plain English, and gave it him to turn into Latin, which he did so choicely, so orderly, so without any great miss in the hardest points of grammar, that some in seven year in grammar schools, yea, and some in the University too, cannot do half so well. This worthy young gentleman, to my greatest grief, to the great lamentation of that whole house, and especially to that most noble lady, now Queen Elizabeth herself, departed within few days out of this world.

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And if in any cause a man may without offence of God speak somewhat ungodly, surely it was some grief unto me to see him hie so hastily to God as he did. A court full of such young gentlemen were rather a para

dise, than a court upon earth. And though I had never poetical head to make any verse in any tongue; yet either love, or sorrow, or both, did wring out of me then certain careful thoughts of my good will towards him, which in my mourning for him fell more by chance, than either by skill or use, into this kind of misorderly metre."

For the verses, however, we must refer our readers to the original work; while we proceed to the discussion upon which the author next enters, respecting the "six ways appointed by the best learned men, for the learning of tongues and increase of eloquence." These he enumerates as being,—1. Translation; 2. Paraphrase; 3. Metaphrasis; 4. Epitome; 5. Imitation; and 6. Declamation. "All these," he says, " be used, and commended; but in order, and for respects, as person, ability, place, and time, shall require. The five last be fitter for the master than the scholar; for men than for children; for the Universities rather than for grammar schools. Yet nevertheless, which is fittest in mine opinion for our school, and which is either wholly to be refused, or partly to be used for our purpose, I will by good authority, and some reason I trust, particularly of every one, and largely enough of them all, declare orderly unto you."

I. "Translation," says Ascham, "is easy in the beginning for the scholar, and bringeth also much learning and great judgment to the master. It is most common and most commendable of all other exercises for youth: most common; for all your constructions in grammar schools be nothing else but translations. But because they be not double translations, as I do require, they bring forth but simple and single commodity; and be

cause also they lack the daily use of writing which is the only thing that breedeth deep root, both in the wit for good understanding, and in the memory for sure keeping of all that is learned."

Having then examined at considerable length the opinions of Cicero, Quintilian, and others of the ancients upon the subject, he thus concludes:

"And by these authorities and reasons am I moved to think this way of double translating, either only, or chiefly, to be fittest for the speedy and perfect attaining of any tongue. And for speedy attaining, I durst venture a good wager, if a scholar in whom is aptness, love, diligence, and constancy, would but translate after this sort one little book in Tully (as de Senectute, with two Epistles, the first ad Q. Fratrem, the other ad Lentulum, the last save one in the First Book,) that scholar, I say, should come to a better knowledge in the Latin tongue than the most part do that spend four or five years in tossing all the rules of grammar in common schools. Indeed, this one Book with these two Epistles, is not sufficient to afford all Latin words (which is not necessary for a young scholar to know,) but it is able to furnish him fully, for all points of grammar, with the right placing, ordering, and use of words, in all kind of matter. And why not? For it is read, that Dion Prusæus,* that wise philosopher and excellent orator of all his time, did come to the great learning and utterance that was in him, by reading and following only two books, Phædon Platonis, and Demosthenes' most notable Oration Περὶ Παραπρεσβείας.

"And a better and nearer example herein may be

*That is, Chrysostom, whose name was Dion, and who was a native of Prusa in Bithynia.

our most noble Queen Elizabeth, who never took yet Greek nor Latin grammar in her hand, after the first declining of a noun and a verb; but only by this double translating of Demosthenes and Isocrates daily, without missing, every forenoon, and likewise some part of Tully every afternoon, for the space of a year or two, hath attained to such a perfect understanding in both the tongues, and to such a ready utterance of the Latin, and that with a judgment, as they be few in number in both the Universities, or elsewhere in England, that be in both tongues comparable with her Majesty."

II. Paraphrasis is defined as being "not only to express at large with more words, but to shine and contend to translate the best Latin authors into other Latin words, as many, or thereabout." This method Ascham decidedly condemns as a school exercise, on the same grounds on which it is disapproved of by Cicero and the younger Pliny, the latter of whom in one of his Epistles calls it audax contentio, an audacious contention. "It is a bold comparison, indeed," says our author, think to say better than that is best. Such turning of the best into worse, is much like the turning of good wine, out of a fair sweet flagon of silver, into a foul musty bottle of leather; or to turn pure gold and silver into foul brass and copper."

"to

A kind of paraphrase, he goes on to remark, which he would better allow, is to turn a rude and barbarous into a proper and eloquent style; but this, he adds, is an exercise not fit for a scholar, but for a perfect master. He quotes as an example, Sebastian Castalio's translation of Thomas à Kempis's book de Imitando Christo.

In reference again to the solicitude of many modern