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Wilson, according to Burnet, may be regarded as the earliest writer on the English language. He published, in 1553, a System of Rhetoric and Logic, in which the principles of eloquence and composition are laid down with considerable ability. He strenuously advocates, in this treatise, simplicity of language, and condemns those writers who disturb the natural arrangement of their words, and reject familiar and appropriate phrases for the sake of others more refined and curious. The effect which the publication of this work produced was very remarkable; for his doctrines were considered by the Church so great and dangerous an innovation, that, upon a visit to Rome, he was cast into prison as a heretic. Among other false styles censured by Wilson, is that of alliteration, in illustration of which he gives the following caricatured example:- Pitiful poverty prayeth for a penny, but puffed presumption passeth not a point, pampering his paunch with pestilent pleasure, procuring his passport to post it to hell-pit, there to be punished with pains perpetual.' The following passages from his Art of Rhetoric contain much good sense :—

SIMPLICITY OF STYLE RECOMMENDED.

Among other lessons, this should first be learned, that we never affect any strange inkhorn terms, but to speak as is commonly received; neither seeking to be over fine, nor yet living over careless; using our speech as most men do, and ordering our wits as the fewest have doen. Some seek so far for outlandish English, that they forget altogether their mother's language. And I dare swear this, if some of their mothers were alive, they were not able to tell what they say, and yet these fine English clerks will say they speak in their mother tongue, if a man should charge them with counterfeiting the king's English. Some far journied gentlemen, at their return home, like as they love to go in foreign apparel, so they will ponder their talk with over-sea language. He that cometh lately out of France will talk French English, and never blush at the matter. Another chops in with English Italianated, and applieth the Italian phrase to one English, speaking; the which is, as if an oration that professeth to utter his mind in plain Latin would needs speak poetry, and farfetched colours of strange antiquity. The lawyer will store his stomach with the prating of pedlars. The auditor in making his account and reckoning, cometh in with sise sould, et cater denere, for 6s. and 4d. The fine courtier will talk nothing but Chaucer. The mystical wise men, and poetical clerks, will speak nothing but quaint proverbs and blind allegories; delighting much in their own darkness, especially when none can tell what they do say. The unlearned or foolish fantastical, that smells but of learning (such fellows as have seen learned men in their days), will so Latin their tongues, that the simple cannot but wonder at their talk, and think surely they speak by some revelation. I know them, that think rhetoric to stand wholly upon dark words; and he that can catch an inkhorn term by the tail, him they count to be a fine Englishman and a good rhetorician.

MORAL AIM OF POETRY.

The saying of poets, and all their fables, are not to be forgotten. For by them we may talk at large, and win men by persuasion, if we declare beforehand, that these tales were not feigned of such wise men without cause, neither yet continued until this time and kept in memory, without good consideration; and thereupon declare the true meaning of all such writing. For undoubtedly, there is no one tale among all the poets, but under the same is comprehended something that pertaineth

either to the amendment of manners, to the knowledge of truth, to the setting forth nature's work, or else to the understanding of some notable thing doen. For what other is the painful travail of Ulysses, described so largely by Homer, but a lively picture of man's misery in this life? And as Plutarch saith, and likewise Basilius Magnus, in the Iliads are described strength and valiantness of body: in Odessea is set forth a lively pattern of the mind. The poets are wise men, and wished in heart the redress of things; the which when for fear they durst not openly rebuke, they did in colours paint them out, and told men by shadows what they should do in good sothe: or else, because the wicked were unworthy to hear the truth, they spake so that none might understand but those unto whom they please to utter their meaning, and knew them to be of honest conversation.

ROGER ASCHAM was a still more distinguished and instructive writer than Thomas Wilson. Ascham was born at Kirkby-Wiske, in Yorkshire, in 1515. As his parents were poor, and as he early discovered more than an ordinary share of genius, he was taken into the family of Sir Anthony Wingfield, and there educated in company with that noble knight's two sons. As young Ascham evinced great taste for the learned languages, Sir Anthony sent him, in 1530, to St. John's College, Cambridge, where his assiduity and application eventually secured for him the intimate friendship of all the celebrated scholars of that college. He took the degree of bachelor of arts at the early age of eighteen, and such was then his scholarship that within a month after, he was elected one of the fellows of his college. These honors incited him to a still greater and more vigorous prosecution of his studies; and in the Greek language his attainments soon became such that he read it publicly, in his college, with universal applause. In the twentyfirst year of his age he was made master of arts, and soon after appointed, by the university, teacher of Greek, with a liberal salary. In order to relax his mind after so severe a course of study, he now composed Toxophilus, or a Treatise on Archery, which he dedicated to the king. His majesty being pleased with the performance, settled a pension upon the author, and employed him to teach the young prince Edward, and the princess Elizabeth writing-an art in which he particularly excelled.

In 1548, Ascham became the instructor of Elizabeth in the learned languages, and filled that situation for two years, at the expiration of which he returned to Cambridge and resumed his position of public orator, with a pension from the young king Edward. In 1550 he was appointed to attend Sir Richard Morysine in his embassy to the Emperor Charles the Fifth; and while in Germany, where he remained three years, he wrote his Discourse on the affairs of that country, which introduced him to all the men of letters of the German court. From Germany he was recalled to become Latin secretary to king Edward—a post which he held under queen Mary also, and to which he passed on the accession of Elizabeth. A discussion between several of the eminent members of Elizabeth's court, on the differ ent modes of education then practiced, gave rise to his treatise on that subject-a work still held in high esteem among the best judges of the art of instruction. Ascham died on the fourth of January, 1568, in the fifty-fourth

year of his age, universally lamented; especially by queen Elizabeth, who did his memory the honor to remark that 'she would rather have given ten thousand pounds than to have lost him.'

Ascham was the earliest writer on education in the English language, and his writings themselves not only furnish an improved example of style, but abound also in sound sense and excellent instructions. The Schoolmaster, which was published by his widow after his death, contains, besides the correct views of education already alluded to, what Dr. Johnson acknowledged to be 'perhaps the best advice that was ever given for the study of languages.' From this deeply interesting work we extract the two following passages, to which we shall add The Qualifications of a Historian, from the Discourse on the Affairs of Germany.

THE CHOICE OF A TUTOR.

It is pity that commonly more care is had, and that among very wise men, to find out rather a cunning man for their horse, than a cunning man for their children. To the one they will gladly give a stipend of 200 crowns by the year, and loth to offer the other 200 shillings. God, that setteth in heaven, laugheth their choice to scorn, and rewardeth their liberality as it should; for he suffereth them to have tame and well-ordered horse, but wild and unfortunate children.

One example, whether love or fear doth work more in a child for virtue and learning, I will gladly report; which may be heard with some pleasure, and followed with more profit. Before I went into Germany, I came to Broadgate, in Leicestershire, to take my leave of that noble Lady Jane Grey, to whom I was exceedingly much beholden. Her parents, the duke and the duchess, with all the household, gentlemen and gentlewomen, were hunting in the park. I found her in her chamber reading Phoëdon Platonis in Greek, and that with as much delight, as some gentlemen would read a merry tale in Bocace. After salutation and duty done with some other talk, I asked her, why she would lose such pastime in the park? Smiling, she answered me, 'I wiss, all their sport in the park is but a shadow to that pleasure that I find in Plato. Alas! good folk, they never felt what true pleasure meant.' 'And how came you, madam,' quoth I, ' to this deep knowledge of pleasure? And what did chiefly allure you unto it, seeing not many women, but very few men, have attained thereunto?' 'I will tell you,' quoth she, 'and tell you a truth which, perchance, ye will marvel at. One of the greatest benefits that ever God gave me, is that he sent me so sharp and severe parents, and so gentle a schoolmaster. For when I am in presence either of father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go, eat, drink, be merry or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing any thing else, I must do it, as it were, in such weight, measure, and number, even so perfectly as God made the world, or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea presently, sometimes with pinches, nips, and bobs, and other ways, which I will not name for the honour I bear them, so without measure misordered, that I think myself in hell, till time come that I must go to Mr. Elmer; who teacheth me so gently, so pleasantly, with such fair allurements to learning that I think all the time nothing, while I am with him. And when I am called from him, I fall on weeping, because, whatever I do else, but learning, is full of grief, trouble, fear, and whole misliking unto me. And thus my book has been so much my pleasure, and bringeth daily to me more pleasure and more, that, in respect of it, all other pleasures, in very deed, be but trifles and troubles unto me.'

THE NECESSITY OF LEARNING MORE THAN ONE LANGUAGE.

I have been a looker on in the cockpit of learning these many years; and one cock only have I known, which, with one wing, even at this day, doth pass all other, in mine opinion, that ever I saw in England though they had two wings. Yet nevertheless, to fly well with one wing, to run fast with one leg, are masteries, much to be marvelled at than sure examples, safely to be followed. A bishop that now liveth, a good man, whose judgment in religion I better like, than his opinion in perfectness in other learning, said once unto me; 'We have no need now of the Greek tongue, when all things be translated into Latin.' But the good man understood not, that even the best translation, is for mere necessity but an evil imped wing to fly withal, or a heavy stump leg of wood to go withal. Such, the higher they fly, the sooner they falter and fail: the faster they run the ofter they stumble and sorer the fall. Such as will needs so fly, may fly at a pye, and catch a daw: and such runners, as commonly they, shove and shoulder, to stand foremost, yet in the end they come behind others, and deserve but the hopshakles, if the masters of the game be right judgers.

QUALIFICATIONS OF A HISTORIAN.

When you and I read Livy together (if you do remember), after some reasoning we concluded both what was in our opinion to be looked for at his hand, that would well and advisedly write an history. First point was, to write nothing false; next, to be bold to say any truth: whereby is avoided two great faults-flattery and hatred. For which two points, Cæsar is read to his great praise; and Jovius the Italian to his just reproach. Then to mark diligently the causes, counsels, acts, and issues, in all great attempts: and in causes, what is just or unjust; in counsels, what is purposed wisely or rashly; in acts, what is done courageously or faintly; and of every issue, to note some general lesson of wisdom and weariness for like matters in time to come, wherein Polybius in Greek, and Philip Comines in French, have done the duties of wise and worthy writers. Diligence also must be used in keeping truly the order of time, and describing lively both the site of places and nature of persons, not only for the outward shape of the body, but also for the inward disposition of the mind, as Thucydides doth in many places very trimly; and Homer everywhere, and that always most excellently; which observation is chiefly to be marked in him. And our Chaucer doth the same, very praiseworthy: mark him well, and confer him with any other that writeth in our time in their proudest tongue, whosoever list. The style must be always plain and open; yet sometime higher and lower, as matters do rise and fall. For if proper and natural words, in well-joined sentences, do lively express the matter, be it troublesome, quiet, angry, or pleasant, a man shall think not to be reading, but present in doing of the same. And herein Livy of all other in any tongue, by mine opinion, carrieth away the praise.

After the publication of Ascham's work, it became more usual for learned men to compose in English, especially when they aimed to influence public. opinion; English literature from that period therefore, assumes a new aspect.

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