In his _Metalogicus_,[700] John gives an account of his further education. He crossed over to France to study when he was quite a young man.[701] There he studied under Abelard, from whom he received his first lessons in logic. Subsequently he was instructed by Alberic, the successor of Abelard, whom he describes as "a greatly esteemed dialectician and the bitterest assailant of the nominal sect." He also was taught by Robert of Melun, an Englishman, who later became Bishop of Hereford. John remained under these masters for about two years. Both of them, he says, possessed considerable ability as logicians and in disputations, though their methods differed. One of them was scrupulous to the least detail, and discussed fully the slightest difficulty in connection with the problem under consideration; the other was prompt in reply, and never avoided a question that was proposed, "but by multiplicity of words would show that a simple answer could not be given." By these teachers only logic was taught, and the cultivation of "a sharp and nimble wit with an acute intellect" seems to have been the only goal aimed at. At this subject John became so expert that "in the commonplace rules and other rudimentary principles which boys study, and in which the aforesaid masters were most weighty, I seemed to myself to know them as well as my nail and fingers. One thing certainly I had attained to, namely, to estimate my knowledge much higher than it deserved. I fancied myself a young scholar, because I was quick in what I had been taught." John, however, became conscious of an intellectual appetite which the formal routine of logic did not satisfy; consequently, he determined to enter upon the study of grammar, and for this purpose he left Paris for Chartres, to study under the Grammarian, William of Conches. The cathedral school at Chartres had long been famous as a centre of learning. One of the most famous masters of the school was Bernard Sylvester, described by John of Salisbury as "in modern times the most abounding spring of letters in France."[702] Poole gives an account of this school under Bernard:-- "The pupil went through all the routine of metaplasm, schematism, and figures of speech; but this was only the groundwork. As soon as possible he was introduced to the classical texts themselves and in order to create a living interest in the study, Bernard used not merely to treat these grammatically, but also to comment freely upon them.... Nor did he confine himself to the form of what was being read; he was still more anxious to impress upon his pupils its meaning. It was a principle with him that the wider and more copious the master's knowledge, the more fully will he perceive the elegancy of his authors and the more clearly will he teach them."[703]