¶ The saying of Alexander is muche spoken of: excepte I were Alexander, I wold wishe to be Diogenes. But very worthely doth Plutarch rebuke it, because that so much the more he shuld haue wyshed to haue had Diogenes philosophye, howe muche the greater hys dominion was. But muche more shameful is theyr sluggardy, whyche not onely bryng not vp their chyldrẽ aright, but also corrupte them to wyckednesse. When Crates the Thebane dyd perceiue thys abhominacion, not without a cause he wolde go in to y^e hyest place of the citye, & there crie out as loud as he could, & caste them in the teeth wyth theyr madnesse in this wyse. You wretches what madnesse driueth you? Take you suche thought to gette money and possessions, & take you no care for your children for whom you get these thynges? As they be scante halfe mothers whych onlye bringe forth, and not vp their chyldren, so be they scante halfe fathers, which when they prouide necessaries for theyr chyldrens bodies, euẽ somuch that they maye ryot wythall, prouide not that their myndes maye be garnyshed wyth honest disciplines. Trees paraduẽture wyl grow though eyther baren, or wyth wild fruite: horses are foled, though perchaunce they be good for nothyng: but menne (truste me) be not borne, but fashioned. Menne in olde tyme which by no lawes, nor good order ledde theyr lyues in woodes, in wãderynge lustes of bodye, were rather wylde beastes then men. Reason maketh a man: that hathe no place where all thynges are gouerned after affection. If shape and fashion shulde make a man, Images also shulde be counted among men. Elegantly sayde Aristippus when a certen ryche man axed him what profite learnyng shuld brynge to a yong man: & it be no more but this quod he, y^t in the playing place one stone sytte not vpon an other. Very properly another Philosopher Diogenes I trowe, bearynge in the mydday a candle in his hand, walked aboute the market place that was full of men: beinge axed what thynge he sought: I seeke quod he, a man. He knewe that there was a greate company, but of beastes, and not men. The same man on a daye, when stãding on an hye place he had called a great sort together, and sayde nothing else but come hither men, come hyther men. Some halfe angrye cryed agayne: we are here men, say what thou hast. Thẽ quod he: I wold haue men come hyther & not you whych are nothyng lesse then men, and therwyth draue them away wyth his staffe. Surely it is very trewe, that a man not instructed wyth Phylosophye nor other good sciences, is a creature somewhat worse then brute beastes. For beastes folowe onely the affectes of nature, a manne except he be fashioned wyth learning, and preceptes of philosophy, is rawght into affeccions more thẽ beastlike. For there is no beast more wylde, or more hurtefull then a manne, whom ambicion dryuethe, desyre, anger, enuye, ryot, and luste. Therfore he that prouideth not that his sonne may by and by be instructed in the beste learnyng;