Therfore, if to the goodnes of nature, be ioyned the wisedom of the teacher, in leading yong wittes into a right and plaine waie of learnyng, surelie, children, kept vp in Gods feare, and gouerned by his grace, maie most easelie be brought well to serue God, and contrey both by vertue and wisedome. But if will and witte, by farder age, be once allured from innocencie, delited in vaine sightes, fil[1]ed with foull taulke, crooked with wilfulnesse, hardened with stubburnesse, and let louse to disobedience, surelie it is hard with ientlenesse, but vapossible with seuere crueltie, to call them backe to good frame againe. For, where the one, perchance maie bend it, the other shall surelie breake it: and so in stead of some hope, leaue an assured desperation, and shamelesse contempt of all goodnesse, the fardest pointe in all mischief, as Xenophon doth most trewlie and most wittelie marke. Xen. 1. Cyri Therfore, to loue or to hate, to like or contemne, to plie this waie or that waie to good or to bad, ye shall haue as ye vse a child in his youth. Lady Iane And one example, whether loue or feare doth worke more in a child, for vertue and learning, I will gladlie report: which maie be h[e]ard with some pleasure, and folowed with more profit. Before I went into Germanie, I came to Brodegate in Le[i]cestershire, to take my leaue of that noble Ladie Iane Grey, to whom I was exceding moch beholdinge. Hir parentes, the Duke and Duches, with all the houshold, Gentlemen and Gentlewomen, were huntinge in the Parke: I founde her, in her Chamber, readinge Phædon Platonis in Greek, and that with as moch delite, as som ientlemen wold read a merie tale in Bocase. After salutation, and dewtie done, with som other taulke, I asked hir, whie she wold leese soch pastime in the Parke? smiling she answered me: I wisse, all > their sporte in the Parke is but a shadoe to that pleasure, that I find in Plato: Alas good folke, they neuer felt, what trewe pleasure ment. And howe came you Madame, quoth I, to this deepe knowledge of pleasure, and what did chieflie allure you vnto it: seinge, not many women, but verie fewe men haue atteined thereunto. I will tell you, quoth she, and tell you a troth, which perchance ye will meruell at. One of the greatest benefites, that euer God gaue me, is, that he sent me so sharpe and seuere Parentes, and so ientle a schole- < master. For when I am in presence either of father or mother, whether I speake, kepe silence, sit, stand, or go, eate, drinke, be merie, or sad, be sowyng, plaiyng, dauncing, or doing anie thing els, I must do it, as it were, in soch weight, mesure, and number, euen so perfitelie, as God made the world, or else I am so sharplie taunted, so cruellie threatened, yea presentlie some tymes, with pinches, nippes, and bobbes, and other waies, which I will not name, for the honor I beare them, so without measure misordered, that I thinke my selfe in hell, till tyme cum, that I must go to M. Elmer, who teacheth me so ientlie, so pleasantlie, with soch faire allurements to learning, that I thinke all the tyme nothing, whiles I am with him. And when I am called from him, I fall on weeping, because, what soeuer I do els, but learning, is ful of grief, trouble, feare, and whole misliking vnto me: And thus my booke, hath bene so moch my pleasure, and bringeth dayly to me more pleasure and more, that in respect of it, all other pleasures, in very deede, be but trifles and troubles vnto me. I remember this talke gladly, both bicause it is so worthy of memorie, and bicause also, it was the last talke that euer I had, and the last tyme, that euer I saw that noble and worthie Ladie. Sturmius. I could be ouer long, both in shewinge iust causes, and in recitinge trewe examples, why learning shold be taught, rather by loue than feare. He that wold see a perfite discourse of it, let him read that learned treatese, which my de Inst. Princ. frende Ivan. Sturmius wrote de institutione Principis, to the Duke of Cleues. The godlie counsels of Salovirga, odit mon and Iesus the sonne of Sirach, for sharpe kepinge in, and bridleinge of youth, are ment rather, for fatherlie correction, than masterlie beating, rather for maners, than for learninge: for Qui parcit filium. other places, than for scholes. For God forbid, but all euill touches, wantonnes, lyinge, pickinge, slouthe, will, stubburnnesse, and disobedience, shold be with. sharpe chastisement, daily cut away. This discipline was well knowen, and diligentlie vsed, among the Græcians, and old Romanes, as doth appeare in Aristophanes, Isocrates, and Plato, and also in the Comedies of Plautus: where we see that children were vnder the rule of three master. 3. Father. persones: Præceptore, Pada- 1. Scholegogo, Parente: the scholemaster taught him learnyng withall 2. Gouernour. ientlenes: the Gouernour corrected his maners, with moch sharpenesse : The father, held the sterne of his whole obedience: And so, he that vsed to teache, did not commonlie vse to beate, but remitted that ouer to an other mans charge. But what shall we saie, when now in our dayes, the scholemaster is vsed, both for Præceptor in learnyng, and Pædagogus in maners. Surelie, I wold he shold not confound their offices, but discretelie vse the dewtie of both so, that neither ill touches < |