I shall add Cæsar, whose _Commentaries_ were printed in 1530, not because this invaluable book was intended as a medium for instruction in the seminaries and colleges, but just by the way, as the only other classic rendered into our tongue so early, on account of its probable interest in relation to France and to military science, and, once more, on account of the person who translated it, John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, an accomplished nobleman, who filled at one time a professorial chair in the University of Padua. The Cæsar, in fact, occupies an analogous position to the English editions of Cicero and the prose paraphrase of the _Æneid_ published by Caxton, and was intended for the use of those few cultivated minds which had imbibed in Italy and France a taste for elegant and refined studies. III. I have before me a copy of Whittinton's versions of the _Offices_ and _Old Age_ of Cicero, and I may take the opportunity to present to the reader a specimen of his performance. It is taken from the first book of the _Offices_:-- De Officiis Servandis in eos qui Of offyces to be obserued agayne intulerunt nobis iniuriam. suche as haue done vs wronge Svnt autem quædam officia There be also certayne offyces etiam aduersus eos seruāda à to be kepte agayne suche / of quibus iniuriam acceperis. Est whom a mā hath taken wrong. enim ulciscendi & puniendi For there is a maner of reuengynge modus. Atq; haud scio an satis and punysshyng, and I can not sit eum, qui lacessierit, iniuriæ tell whether it be suffycient suæ pœnitere, ut & ipse ne quid for hym that hath done tale posthac committat, & cæteri wronge to be sory of his wronge / sint ad iniuriam tardiores. and that he offende no more so after that. Also other shall be the more lothe to do wronge. There are few English renderings of ancient literature which it is possible to regard as completely satisfactory; and it must be recollected, on the behalf of Whittinton, that he was among the pioneers in this laborious field. Let me conclude with a sample of his essay on the _De Senectute_--a _chef d'œuvre_, which it is a sin to read in any idiom but its own.