[Sidenote: Alexander.] By such wytchcrafte Alexander the greate, whan he was a yonge man, besides eloquence, was perfit in al the parts of Philosophie, and except the loue of warres, & swetenes to raygne had quite raught away his inclinaciõ, he might haue bene counted the chiefe among the beste Philosophers. By the same meanes Caius Cesar beinge but a yonge man, was so eloquent & wel sene in the mathematical sciences. So well sene also were many Emperors: Marcus Tullius, also Virgil, and Horace in their lusty youth were so excellent in learninge and Eloquence, all bycause they were strayght waye in their tender age learned of their parentes & nourses the elegancy of the tonges, and of the beste maisters the liberal sciences: as Poetry, Rhetorique, Histories, the knowledge of antiquities, Arithmetique, Geographye, Philosophye, moral and political. And what do we I praye you? wee kepe our children at home till they be past fourtene or fiftene yere old, and whan they be corrupted wyth idlenes, ryot, & delicatenes, with muche worke at the laste we sende them to the cõmen scholes. There to further y^e matter wel, they taste a little grammer: after, whan they can declyne words, & ioyne the adiectiue and the substãtiue togither, they haue learned al the grammer, and thã be set to that troubled Logike, wher they must forget againe if they haue learned to speake anie thynge well. But more vnhappye was the tyme whan I was a child whiche al to vexed the youth with modes of signifiinge, and other folyshe questions, & teching nothinge els then to speake folishelye. Verely those masters bicause they wold not be thought to teach folish thinges, darckened grammer wyth difficulties of Logike and Metaphisike: euen for this verelye, that afterwardes they shold returne backwardelye to learne grammer, whã they were olde, which we see happeneth nowe to some diuines that be wyser, that after so manye hye degrees and all their titles, wherby they maye be ignoraunte in nothing, they be faine to come againe to those bookes, which are wonte to be reade vnto children. I blame thẽ not, for it is better to lerne late then neuer, that thing which is necessary to be knowen.