able to put their sons

nothing forth. Well, well, this is one thing I will say unto you, from whence it cometh I know, even from the devil. I know his intent in it. For if ye bring it to pass that the yeomanry be not to school (as indeed universities do wondrously decay already), and that they be not able to marry their daughters to the avoiding of dishonour, I say ye pluck salvation from the people, and utterly destroy the realm. For by yeomen's sons the faith of Christ is and hath been maintained chiefly. Is this realm taught by rich men's sons? No, no; read the Chronicles, ye shall find sometime noble men's sons which have been unpreaching bishops and prelates, but ye shall find none of them learned men. But verily they that should look to the redress of these things be the greatest against them. this realm are a great many of folks, and amongst many I know but one of tender zeal, at the motion of his poor tenants, hath let down his lands to the old rents for their relief. For God's love, let not him be a Phoenix, let him not be alone. Let him not be an hermit closed in a wall, some good man follow him, and do as he giveth example. Surveyors there be that greedily gorge up their covetous guts, handmakers I mean (honest men I touch not), but all such as survey they make up their mouths, but the commons be utterly undone by them. Whose bitter cry ascending up to the ears of the God of Sabaoth, the greedy pit of hell-burning fire (without great repentance) do tarry and look for them. A redress God grant.

In

For surely, surely, but that two things do comfort me, I would despair of the redress in these matters. One is, that the king's majesty, when he cometh to age, will see a redress of these things so out of frame. Giving example by letting down his own lands first, and then enjoin his subjects to follow him. The second hope I have is, I believe that the general accounting day is at

hand, the dreadful day of judgment I mean, which shall make an end of these calamities and miseries.

NOTES.

force of 'have' has already been | Phoenix, a fabulous bird. One account

expressed.

Alms.

Old texts spell 'almesse,' 'almess,' and 'almes;' a yet older form is 'ælmesse.' It is a singular word; as in Acts iii. 3, 'asked an alms.' The s is not the plur. ending; yet 'alms' is often treated' as plur. Cf. 'riches' (Milton, Par. Reg., iv. 682, note).

Commodity wealth: tautology. Lat.
commoditatem (advantage, profit).
Cf. the application above: 'the
commodities of this realm.'
The Chronicles, the history-books.
'Chronicle' is descended from Gr.
chronos (time). The earliest and
simplest form of history is a jotting
down of events in order of time.
Folks. The plur. form is superfluous.
Hath let down. Subject?

Re-write the passage in modern style.

says that, when he was five hundred years old, he burned his body, and rose rejuvenated out of the ashes. There was only one Phoenix (Latimer at once gives the explanation: 'let him not be alone'). The story existed in several other forms. Surveyors, lit. overseers, supervisors, superintendents. To survey' is N. Fr. surveoir, Lat. super-videre. The God of Sabaoth. See James v. 4. 'Sabaoth,' aHebrew word=armies, hosts.

Do tarry. The plural would not have been expected here.

Would despair. Should we say 'would' now?

Cometh to age. He was now eleven. Out of frame. Cf. Shak., Hamlet, i. 5 (end): 'The time is out of joint.'

Try what can be done by mere. re-adjustment of the punctuation.

ROGER ASCHAM.-1515-1568.

ROGER ASCHAM was a Yorkshireman. He studied at Cambridge, where he became University orator. His enthusiasm (in his Toxophilus) for the bow, then the great national weapon, secured him a pension from Henry VIII. This was continued by Edward VI., and increased by Mary, who made him her Latin secretary. Thereafter he was tutor and secretary to Elizabeth, who held him in great esteem. His Toxophilus (1545) is a treatise on archery, in the form of a dialogue. In The Schoolmaster, a posthumous work (published in 1570), he discusses the best method of learning Latin, and criticises the style of several Latin authors. His chief service to English prose is the example he sets, as a scholar and a courtier, of writing in the vernacular' (Minto).

THE RIGHT MAN FOR THE RIGHT PLACE.

(From Toxophilus, Book II.)

Thus every archer must know, not only what bow and shaft is fittest for him to shoot withal, but also what time and season is best for him to shoot in. And surely, in

all other matters too, among all degrees of men, there is no man which doth any thing either more discreetly for his commendation, or yet more profitable for his advantage, than he which will know perfectly for what matter and for what time he is most apt and fit. If men would go about matters which they should do, and be

fit for, and not such things which wilfully they desire, and yet be unfit for, verily greater matters in the commonwealth than shooting should be in better case than they be. This ignorancy in men which know not for what time and to what thing they be fit, causeth some wish to be rich, for whom it were better a great deal to be poor; other to be meddling in every man's matter, for whom it were more honesty to be quiet and still. Some to desire to be in the Court, which be born and be fitter rather for the cart. Some to be masters and rule other, which never yet began to rule them self; some always to jangle and talk, which rather should hear and keep silence. Some to teach, which rather should learn. Some to be priests, which were fitter to be clerks. And this perverse judgment of the world, when men measure them self a miss, bringeth much misorder and great unseemliness to the whole body of the common wealth, as if a man should wear his hose upon his head, or a woman go with a sword and a buckler, every man would take it as a great uncomeliness, although it be but a trifle in respect of the other.

This perverse judgment of men hindereth no thing so much as learning, because commonly those which be unfittest for learning, be chiefly set to learning.

As if a man now a days have two sons, the one impotent, weak, sickly, lisping, stutting, and stammering, or having any misshape in his body: what doth the father of such one commonly say? This boy is fit for nothing else but to set to learning and make a priest of, as who would say,

that outcasts of the world, having neither countenance, tongue, nor wit (for of a perverse body cometh commonly a perverse mind), be good enough to make those men of, which shall be appointed to preach God's holy word, and minister his blessed sacraments, besides other most weighty matters in the common wealth put oft times, and worthily, to learned men's discretion and charge: when rather such an office, so high in dignity, so godly in administration, should be committed to no man which should not have a countenance full of comeliness to allure good men, a body full of manly authority to fear ill men, a wit apt for all learning, with tongue and voice able to persuade all men. And although few such men as these can be found in a common wealth, yet surely a godly disposed man will both in his mind think fit, and with all his study labour to get such men as I speak of, or rather better, if better can be gotten, for such an high administration, which is most properly appointed to God's own matters and businesses.

This perverse judgment of fathers as concerning the fitness and unfitness of their children causeth the common wealth have many unfit ministers; and seeing that ministers be, as a man would say, instruments wherewith the common wealth doth work all her matters withal, I marvel how it chanceth that a poor shoemaker hath so much wit, that he will prepare no instrument for his science, neither knife nor awl, nor nothing else which is not very fit for him; the common wealth can be content to take at a fond father's hand the riffraff of the world, to make those instruments of wherewithal she should work the highest matters under heaven. And surely an awl of lead is not so unprofitable in a shoemaker's shop, as an unfit minister made of gross metal is unseemly in the common wealth. Fathers in old time among the noble Persians might not do with their children as they