good successe in lernynge the tonges when they were olde? And if some haue wel spedde them in knowledge, yet the right sound and pronunciacion hath chaunsed either to none, or to very few. For rare examples be no common rules. Neyther for thys muste we call chyldren to lerne the tonges after sixtene yere olde, because that the elder Cato lerned latine, and Greeke, when he was thre score and ten yeres olde. But Cato of Vtica muche better lerned then the other and more eloquent, when he was a chylde was continuallye wyth hys master Sarpedo. And hẽce we ought so much the more to take heede, because that yonge age led rather by sense then iudgemẽt, wyll assone or peraduenture soner lerne leudnes & things y^t be naught. Yea we forget soner good thinges thẽ naught. Gentile philosophers espyed that, & merueyled at it, and could not search out the cause, whiche christẽ philosophers haue shewed vnto vs: which telleth y^t this redines to mischiefe is setteled in vs of Adam the first father of mãkind. Thys thynge as it can not be false, so is it very true, that the greateste parte of this euyll cõmeth of leude and naughty bryngyng vp, inespeciallye of tender youthe, whyche is plyeable to euerye thynge. ¶ We fynd in writyng that great Alexander lerned certeine fautes of hys master Leonides, whyche he could not leaue when he was well growẽ vp, and a great Emperour. Therfore as long as amonge the latines floryshed that old vertuousnes of good maners, chyldren were not committed to an hyrelynge to be taught, but were taughte of the parentes them selues & their kinsfolke, as of their vncles both by father and mother, of the graundfathers, as Plutarch sayth: For they thought it especially perteyned to the honour of their kynred, if they had very manye excellentlye well seene in liberall knowledge, where as now adayes all nobilitie almost stãdeth in painted & grauen armes, dauncing, huntynge and dicynge. Spurius Carbilius of a bond man made free, whose patron Carbilius brought in the fyrste example of diuorce, is reported to be the fyrste that taught an opẽ grãmer schole. Before thys tyme it was counted a verye vertuous office if euery mã taughte hys kynsefolke in vertue and lernyng. Nowe is thys theyr onlye care, to seeke for their chyld a wyfe wyth a good dowrye. That done, they thynke they haue done all that belongeth to a father. But as the world is alwayes redy to be worse and worse, dayntines hathe perswaded vs to comune this office to a tuter that is one of our householde, and a gentleman is put to be taught of a seruaunte. In whyche thynge in deede, if we wolde take heede whom we chose, the ieopardy were so muche the lesse, because the teacher liued not only in y^e fathers syght, but also wer vnder hys power if he dyd amysse. They that wer very wyse, either bought lerned seruauntes, or prouided they myghte be lerned, that they myghte be teachers to their children. But howe muche wyser were it, if the parents wolde get lernyng for thys entent, that they