conueniente for chyldehod, howbeit all sourenesse and sadnes muste be cleane awaye from all studies. [Sidenote: The meaning of y^e poetes deuise touching the muses & Charites.] And I am deceyued except the olde men ment that also, whyche ascribed to the muses beynge virgins, excellent bewtye, harpe, songes, daunses, and playes in the pleasaunt fieldes, and ioyned to them as felowes the Ladies of loue: and that increase of studies dyd stande specially in mutual loue of myndes, and therefore the olde men called it the lernyng that perteined to man. And ther is no cause why profite maye not folowe pleasure, and honestie ioyned to delectacion. [Sidenote: Wherfore lernyng is called humanitie] For what letteth that they shulde not lerne eyther a proper fable, arte of poets, or a sentence, or a notable prety hystorie, or a learned tale, as well as they lerne and can wythout boke a piuyshe songe, and oftẽtimes a baudy one to, & folishe old wiues tatlynges, & very trifles of triflyng womẽ? What a sũme of dreames, vaine ryddels, and vnprofitable trifles of spirites, hobgoblines, fayries, witches, nightmares wood men and gyauntes, how manye naughty lies, how many euyll sayings remember wee, yea euen when we be men, whych beyng lytle chyldrẽ we lerned of our dadies, graũdmothers, nurses, & maydens whyle they were spynnynge, and heard thẽ when they kissed & plaied wyth vs? And what a profite shuld it haue bene to lernynge, if in stede of these moste vaine garringes, not only folyshe, but also hurtfull, wee had lerned those thynges that we rehearsed a litle before. Thou wylt saye, what lerned man wyll lowly hys wyt to these so small thynges? Yet Aristotle hym selfe beynge so greate a philosopher was not greued to take vpon hym the office of a teacher, to instruct Alexander. ¶ Chiron fashioned the infancy of Achilles, and Phenix succeded hym. Hely the priest brought vp y^e childe Samuell. And ther be now a daies whych eyther for a lytle money, or for theyr plesure take almost more payne in teachyng a pye or a popiniay. There be some that for deuocions sake take vpon them iourneys that both be farre of and ieoperdeous, and other laboures besyde almost intollerable. Why dothe not holynes cause vs to do thys office seynge nothyng can please god better? Howbeit in teachinge those thynges that we haue rehearsed, the master must neyther be to much callyng vpon, neither to sharpe: but vse a continuaunce rather then be wythout measure. Continuaunce hurteth not so it be mesurable, & spiced also wyth varietie and plesaũtnes. Finally if these thynges be so taught, that imaginaciõ of labour be awaye, and that the chylde do thynk al thinges be done in playe. Here the course of our talkyng putteth vs in remẽbraunce briefely to shewe by what meanes it maye be brought to passe that lernyng shuld waxe swete vnto the chylde, [Sidenote: How learnyng may be made swete vnto y^e chyld.] which before we somwhat touched. To be able to