schools, they feel liberty and freedom in stables, which causeth them utterly to abhor the one, and most gladly to haunt the other.*

ROGER ASCHAM.

We have sufficient experience of the great lack of discipline in the education of youth at the present day, in contemplating the manners of the generality of our young men, more especially those who are born to affluence and independance. No sooner are they freed from the trammels of the boarding-school or the public seminary, than they launch out into the excess of foppery, frivolity, and every unworthy pursuit; their mornings (if the preceding night's debauch does not consign them to the arms of Somnus until the meridian hour) are devoted to the company of blackguard ostlers and bruisers; their afternoons to those idle haunts, designated fashionable lounges, and promenades; their evenings to the theatre, or gaming-table; and the general run of their discourse is upon horses and harlots, boxing and blasphemy. Well does Cowper, after his finely drawn portrait of " Old "Discipline" (which, by the bye, exhibits a very lively picture of the honest schoolmaster, from whose works the above extracts are made) describe the evil consequences resulting from an abandonment of that system of wholesome and necessary restraint, formerly observed in our schools and universties.

"A dissolution of all bonds ensued ;

The curbs invented for the mulish mouth
Of headstrong youth, were broken; bars and bolts
Grew rusty by disuse; and massy gates
Forgot their office, opening with a touch;
Till gowns, at length, are found mere masquerade,
The tassell'd cap, and the spruce band a jest,
A mockery of the world! What need of these
For gamesters, jockeys, brothellers impure,
Spendthrifts, and booted sportsmen, oftener seen
With belted waist, and pointers at their heels,
Than in the bounds of duty? What was learn'd,
If aught was learn'd in childhood, is forgot;
And such expense, as pinches parents blue,
And mortifies the liberal hand of love,

IF your scholar do miss sometimes, chide not hastily; for that shall both dull his wit and discourage his diligence; but monish him gently, which shall make him both willing to amend and glad to go forward, in love and hope of learning.

ROGER ASCHAM.

IF the child miss, either in forgetting a word, or in changing a good with a worse, or misordering the sentence, I would not have the master, either frown or chide with him, if the child have 'done his diligence, and used no truantship therein. For I know, by good experience, that

Is squander'd in pursuit of idle sports
And vicious pleasures; buys the boy a name,
That sits a stigma on his father's house,
And cleaves through life inseparably close
To him that wears it. What can after games
Of riper joys, and commerce with the world,
The lewd vain world, that must receive him soon,
Add to such erudition, thus acquir'd,
Where science and where virtue are professed?
They may confirm his habits, rivet fast
His folly, but to spoil him is a tásk
That bids defiance to the united powers
Of fashion, dissipation, taverns, stews.

Now blame we most, the nurslings or the nurse?
The children crook'd, and twisted, and deform'd
Through want of care; or her, whose winking eye
And slumbering obscitancy mars the brood?
The nurse, no doubt. Regardless of her charge,
She needs herself correction; needs to learn,
That it is dangerous sporting with the world,
With things so sacred as a nation's trust,
The nurture of her youth, her dearest pledge.

K

a child shall take more profit of two faults gently warned of, than of four things rightly hit.

ROGER ASCHAM.

THERE are none in the world so wickedly inclined, but that a religious instruction and bringing up, may fashion anew and reform them; nor any so well disposed whom (the reins being let loose) the continual fellowship and familiarity, and the examples of dissolute men may not corrupt and deform. Vessels will ever retain a savour of their first liquor, it being equally difficult to cleanse the mind once corrupted, or to extinguish the sweet savour of virtue first received when the mind was yet tender, open, and easily seasoned.

SIR WALTER RALEGH

A MIND well-trained and long exercised in virtue, doth not easily change any course it once undertakes, but upon well-grounded and wellweighed causes; for, being witness to itself of its own inward good, it finds nothing without it of so high a price for which it should be altered. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.

ENGLISH VALOUR.

METHINKS it were not amiss for an Englishman to give such a sentence between the Macedonians and Romans, as the Romans once did (being chosen arbitrators) between the Ardeates and Aricini, that strove about a piece of land, saying, that it belonged unto neither of them, but unto the Romans themselves.

If therefore it be demanded, whether the Macedonian or the Roman were the best warrior? I will answer, The Englishman; for it will soon appear to any that shall examine the noble acts of our nation in war, that they were performed by no advantage of weapon; against no savage or unmanly people; the enemy being far superior unto us in numbers, and all needful provisions, yea, as well trained as we, or commonly better, in the exercise of war.

In what sort Philip won his dominions in Greece; what manner of men the Persians and Indians were, whom Alexander vanquished; as likewise of what force the Macedonian phalanx was, and how well appointed against such arms as it commonly encountered; any man that hath taken pains to read the story of them, doth sufficiently understand. Yet was this phalanx never, or very seldom, able to stand against the

Roman armies, which were embattled in so excellent a form, as I know not whether any nation besides them have used, either before or since. The Roman weapons likewise, both offensive and defensive, were of greater use than those with which any other nation hath served, before the fiery instruments of Gunpowder were known. As for the enemies with which Romes had to do, we find that they which did over-match her in numbers, were as far over-matched by her in weapons, and that they of whom she had little. advantage in arms, had as little advantage of her in multitude. This also (as Plutarch well observeth) was a part of her happiness, that she was never over-laid with two great wars at once..

It is not my purpose to disgrace the Roman valour, which was very noble, or to blemish the reputation of so many famous victories;: I am not so idle. This I say, that among all their wars I find not any wherein their valour hath appeared comparable to the English. If my judgment seem over-partial, our wars in France may help to make it good.

First, therefore, it is well known: that: Rome; or perhaps all the world besides, had never any so brave a commander in war, as Julius Cæsar, and that no Roman army was comparable unto that which served under the same Cæsar. Likewise, it is apparent, that this gallant army, which had given fair proof of the Roman courage, in good performance of the Helvetian war, when it first