so to be against the officers for taking of rewards; you consider not the matter to the bottom. Their offices would be bought for great sums; now, how should they receive their money again, but by bribing; you would not have them undone. Some of them give two hundred pounds, some five hundred, some two thousand; and how can they gather up this money again, but by keeping themselves in their office."

And is it so, trow ye? Are civil offices bought for money. Lord God! who would have thought it? Oh! that your grace would seek through your realm for men meet for offices, yea, and give them liberally for their pains, rather than that they should give money for them. This buying of offices is a making of bribery; so he that buyeth, must needs sell.

say,

"If

You should seek out for offices wise men, and men of activity that have stomachs to do their business; not milk-sops, nor white-livered knights, but fearers of God; for he that feareth God, will be no briber. But perhaps you will say, we touch no bribes:" no, marry, but my mistress, your wife, hath a fine finger; she toucheth it for you; or else you have a servant, who will you will offer my master a yoke of oxen, you will fare never the worse; but I think my master will not take them." When he has offered them to the master, then comes another servant and says, "If you will carry them to the clerk of the kitchen, you will be remembered the better." This is a friarly fashion; they will receive no money in their hands, but will have it put up their sleeves.

ROGER ASCHAM.

ROGER ASCHAM, preceptor of Queen Elizabeth, and afterwards her Latin secretary, was born A.D. 1515, died 1568. His published works are the Schoolmaster, Toxophilus, or a Treatise on Archery, and a Discourse on the Affairs of Germany.

DISCIPLINE SUITED TO DIFFERENT WITS.

I DO gladly agree with all schoolmasters in these points: to have children brought to good perfectness in learning, to all honesty in manners, to have all faults rightly amended, to have every vice severely corrected; but for the order and way that leadeth rightly to these points, we may somewhat differ. For many schoolmasters, some as I have seen, more as I have heard tell of, be of so crooked a nature, as that when they meet with a hardwitted scholar, they rather break him than bow him, rather mar him than mend him. For, when the schoolmaster is angry with some other matter, then will he soonest fall to beat his scholar; and though he himself should be punished for his folly, yet must he beat some scholar for his pleasure, though there be no cause for him to do so, nor yet fault in the scholar to deserve so.

ན་ས་

But

"These," ye will say, "be fond schoolmasters, and few there be that be found to be such." They be fond indeed; but surely over many such be found every where. this, I will say, that even the wisest of your great beaters do as oft punish nature, as they do correct faults. Yea, many times the better nature is sore punished; for, if one by quickness of wit take his lesson readily, and another by hardness of wit taketh it not so speedily, the first is always commended, the other is commonly punished; when a wise schoolmaster should rather discreetly_consider the right disposition of both their natures, and not so much weigh what either of them is able to do now, as what either of them is likely to do hereafter.

For this I know, not only by reading of books in my

1

study, but also by experience of life abroad in the world, that those which be commonly the wisest, best learned, and best men also, when they be old, were never commonly the quickest of wit when they were young. The causes why, amongst other which be many, that move me thus to think, be these few which I will reckon.

Quick wits commonly be apt to take, inapt to keep; soon hot and desirous of this and that, as soon cold and weary of the same again; more quick to enter speedily, than able to pierce far; even like over sharp tools, whose edges be very soon turned. Such wits delight themselves in easy and pleasant studies, and never pass forward in high and hard sciences. And, therefore, the quickest wits commonly prove the best verse-makers, not the wisest statesmen; ready of tongue to speak boldly, not deep of judgment either for good counsel or wise writing; also for manners of life, quick wits commonly be in desire new fangled, in purpose inconstant, light to promise anything, ready to forget every thing, both benefit and injury; and thereby neither fast to friend, nor fearful to foe; inquisitive of every trifle, not secret in great affairs; bold with any person, busy in every matter; soothing such as be present, nipping any that is absent; flattering their betters, envying their equals, despising their inferiors, and by quickness of wit, very quick and ready to like none so well as themselves.

Moreover, men very quick of wit be also very light of conditions; and thereby very ready to be carried over quickly by any light company to any riot and unchasteness when they be young, and therefore seldom either honest in life, or rich in living when they be old. For quick in wit, and light in manners, be seldom troubled or very soon weary in carrying a heavy purse.

Quick wits also be in most part of all their doings over hasty, rash, heady, and brain-sick. These two last words, heady and brain-sick, be fit and proper words, rising naturally of the matter, and termed aptly by the condition of over much quickness of wit. In youth also they be ready scoffers, privy mockers, and ever over-light

and merry; in age, some testy, very waspish, and often very miserable. And yet few of them come to great age by reason of their misordered life when they are young; but a great deal fewer of them come to show any great countenance, or bear any great authority in the world, but either live obscurely, men know not how; or die obscurely, men mark not where. They be like trees that show forth fair blossoms and broad leaves in spring time, but bring out small and not long lasting fruit in harvest time; and that only such as fall and rot before they be ripe, and so never or seldom come to any good at all.

Contrariwise, a wit in youth that is not over dull, heavy, knotty, and lumpish, but hard, tough, and though somewhat stiffish (as Tully wisheth, otium quietum, non languidum, and negotium cum labore non cum periculo), such a wit, I say, if it be well handled by the mother, and rightly smoothed and wrought as it should by the schoolmaster, not overthwartly and against the wood, both for learning and whole course of life proves the best. In wood and stone, not the softest but the hardest be ever aptest for portraiture, both fairest for pleasure, and most durable for profit. Hard wits be hard to receive, but sure to keep; painful without weariness, heedful without wandering, constant without newfangledness; bearing heavy things, though not lightly, yet willingly; entering hard things, though not easily, yet deeply; and so come to that perfectness of learning in the end, that quick wits seem in hope, but do not in deed, or very seldom attain unto.

Also, for manners and life, hard wits commonly are hardly carried, either to desire every new thing, or to marvel at every strange thing; and therefore they be careful and diligent in their own matters, not curious and busy in other men's affairs; and so they become wise themselves, and are counted honest by others. They be grave, stedfast, silent of tongue, secret in heart; not hasty in making, but constant in keeping a promise; not rash in uttering, but wary in considering a matter, and thereby not quick in speaking, but deep in judgment,

whether they write or give counsel in all weighty affairs. And these be the men that become in the end both most happy for themselves, and most esteemed abroad in the world.

JOHN KNOX.

JOHN KNOX, the Scottish Reformer (A.D. 1505-1572), as may be gathered from his epitaph, "Here lies one who never feared the face of man," lives in history as a man of action rather than of thought. He was a voluminous writer, however, of epistles, state papers, etc., the best known being his First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regimen of Women, and his History of the Reformation.

APOLOGY TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.

As your Majesty's displeasure against me, most unjustly conceived, hath been and is to my wretched heart a burden grievous, and almost intolerable; so is the testimony of a clear conscience to me a stay and uphold that I sink not in despair, how vehement soever the temptations appear; for in God's presence my conscience beareth me record that maliciously or of purpose I never offended your Majesty nor your realm; and howsoever I be judged of man, I am sure to be absolved of Him, who only knoweth the secrets of hearts.

I cannot deny the writing of a book against the usurped authority and unjust regimen of women; neither yet am I minded to recant or call back any principal point or proposition of the same, till truth and verity do further appear.

But why that your Majesty, or any such who unfeignedly favour the liberty of England, be offended at the author of such a work, I can perceive no just occasion; for first, my book touched not your Majesty's person in special, neither is it prejudicial to any liberty of the realm, if the time of my writing be indifferently considered. How could I be an enemy to your Majesty's