Before I enter upon the training of gentlemen and show what is specially suitable for them, I will examine those points which are best got by good education, and being once got do adorn them most, which two considerations are not foreign to my purpose. I must first ask what it is to be a gentleman or a nobleman, and what qualities these terms assume to be present in the persons of those to whom they are applied, and afterwards, what are the causes and uses of gentility, and the reasons why it is so highly thought of. But ere I begin to deal with any of these points, once for all I must recommend to those of gentle birth exercise of the body, and chiefly such kinds as besides benefiting their health shall best serve their calling and place in their country. Just as those qualities which I have set forth for the general training, being most easily compassed in their perfection by them, may very well beseem a gentlemanly mind, so may the physical exercises without exception be found useful, either to make a healthy body, seeing that our constitution is all the same, or to prepare them for such occupations as belong to their position. Is it not for a gentleman to follow the chase and to hunt? Doth their place reprove them if they have skill to dance? Is skill in sitting a horse no honour at home, no help abroad? Is the use of a weapon suitable to their calling any blemish to them? Indeed those great exercises are most proper to such persons and are not for those of meaner rank.