May it please your maest excellent M_ajestie_, I, your grace’s humble servant, seeing sik uncertentie in our men’s wryting, as if a man wald indyte one letter to tuentie of our best wryteres, nae tuae of the tuentie, without conference, wald agree; and that they quhae might perhapes agree, met rather be custom then knawlege, set my selfe, about a yeer syne, to seek a remedie for that maladie. Quhen I had done, refyning it, I fand in Barret’s Alvearie,[3] quhilk is a dictionarie Anglico-latinum, that Sr. Thomas Smith,[4] a man of nae less worth then learning, Secretarie to Queen Elizabeth, had left a learned and judiciouse monument on the same subject. Heer consydering my aun weaknes, and meannes of my person, began to fear quhat might betyed my sillie boat in the same seas quhaer sik a man’s ship was sunck in the gulf of oblivion. For the printeres and wryteres of this age, caring for noe more arte then may win the pennie, wil not paen them selfes to knau whither it be orthographie or skuiographie that doeth the turne: _and_ schoolmasteres, quhae’s sillie braine will reach no farther then the compas of their cap, content them selfes with αὐτὸς ἔφη my master said it. Quhil I thus hovered betueen hope _and_ despare, the same Barret, in the letter E, myndes me of a star _and_ constellation to calm al the tydes of these seaes, if it wald please the supreme Majestie to command the universitie to censure and ratifie, and the schooles to teach the future age right and wrang, if the present will not rectius sapere. Heere my harte laggared on the hope of your M_ajesties_ judgement, quhom God hath indeued with light in a sorte supernatural, if the way might be found to draue your eie, set on high materes of state, to take a glim of a thing of so mean contemplation, and yet necessarie. Quhiles I stack in this claye, it pleased God to bring your M_ajestie_ hame to visit your aun Ida. Quher I hard that your G_race_, in the disputes of al purposes quherwith, after the exemple of _th_e wyse in former ages, you use to season your moat, ne quid tibi temporis sine fructu fluat, fel sundrie tymes on this subject reproving your courteoures, quha on a new conceat of finnes sum tymes spilt (as they cal it) the king’s language. Quhilk thing it is reported that your M_ajestie_ not onlie refuted with impregnable reasones, but alsoe fel on Barret’s opinion that you wald cause the universities mak an Inglish gra_m_mar to repres the insolencies of sik green heades. This, quhen I hard it, soe secunded my hope, that in continent I maed moien hou to convoy this litle treates to your M_ajesties_ sight, to further (if perhapes it may please your G_race_) that gud motion. In school materes, the least are not the least, because to erre in them is maest absurd. If the fundation be not sure, the maer gorgiouse the edifice the grosser the falt. Neither is it the least parte of a prince’s praise, curasse rem literariam, and be his auctoritie to mend the misses that ignorant