ness. A.D. 1510. In truth, Colet was fond of children, even to tender- CHAP. VI. Erasmus relates that he would often remind his guests and his friends how that Christ had made children the examples for men, and that he was wont to compare them to the angels above.1 And if any further proof were wanted that Colet showed even a touching tenderness for children, it must surely be found in the following lytell proheme' to the Latin Grammar which he wrote for his school, and of which we shall hear more by-and-by: : preface to 'Albeit many have written, and have made certain Colet's 'introductions into Latin speech, called Donates and his gramAccidens, in Latin tongue and in English; in such mar. 'plenty that it should seem to suffice, yet nevertheless, 'for the love and zeal that I have to the new school ' of Paul's, and to the children of the same, I have also me, . . . of the eight parts of grammar made this little 'book . . In which, if any new things be of it 'is alonely that I have put these "parts" in a more 'clear order, and I have made them a little more easy 'to young wits, than (methinketh) they were before: 'judging that nothing may be too soft, nor too familiar for little children, specially learning a tongue 'unto them all strange. In which little book I have 'left many things out of purpose, considering the ten'derness and small capacity of little minds. . . ♫1 I 'pray God all may be to his honour, and to the 'erudition and profit of children, my countrymen 'Londoners specially, whom, digesting this little work, 'I had always before mine eyes, considering more what 1 'Teach what thou hast learned lov- Life of Colet. Miscellanies, No. xi. 6 ingly.'-Colet's Precepts of Living Eras. Op. iii. p. 458, D. for the Use of his School. Knight's tenderness 6 CHAP. VI. was for them than to show any great cunning; willing A.D. 1510. to speak the things often before spoken, in such manner as gladly young beginners and tender wits 'might take and conceive. Wherefore I pray you, all Colet's 'little babes, all little children, learn gladly this little treatise, and commend it diligently unto your memories, little chil-trusting of this beginning that ye shall proceed and 'grow to perfect literature, and come at the last to be 'great clerks. And lift up your little white hands for me, which prayeth for you to God, to whom be all 'honour and imperial majesty and glory. Amen.' towards dren. not trouble them with The man who, having spent his patrimony in the foundation of a school, could write such a preface as this to one of his schoolbooks, was not likely to insist upon having none but flogging masters.' 6 Moreover, this preface was followed by a short note, addressed to his well-beloved masters and teachers of ' grammar,' in which, by way of apology for its brevity, and the absence of the endless rules and exceptions Colet will found in most grammars, he tells them: In the beginning men spake not Latin because such rules were made, many rules. but, contrariwise, because men spake such Latin the 'rules were made. That is to say, Latin speech was 'before the rules, and not the rules before the Latin speech.' And therefore the best way to learn to speak and write clean Latin is busily to learn and read good 'Latin authors, and note how they wrote and spoke.' 'Wherefore,' he concludes, after "the parts of speech 'sufficiently known in your schools, read and expound plainly unto your scholars good authors, and show to 'them every word, and in every sentence what they 'shall note and observe; warning them busily to follow ' and to do like, both in writing and in speaking, and 6 'be to them your own self also, speaking with them CHAP. VI. 'the pure Latin, very present, and leave the rules. For A.D. 1510. 'reading of good books, diligent information of taught 'masters, studious advertence and taking heed of 'learners, hearing eloquent men speak, and finally 'busy imitation with tongue and pen, more availeth shortly to get the true eloquent speech, than all the 'traditions, rules, and precepts of masters.' 6 Nor would it seem that Colet's first headmaster, at all events, failed to appreciate the practical commonsense and gentle regard for the tenderness of little Lilly's ' minds,' which breathes through these prefaces; for at the end of them he himself added this epigram: Pocula si linguæ cupias gustare Latinæ, Non per Caucaseos montes, aut summa Pyrene ; Epigram. II. HIS CHOICE OF SCHOOLBOOKS AND SCHOOLMASTERS (1511). rejected The mention of Colet's 'Latin Grammar suggests one Linacre's of the difficulties in the way of the carrying out of his Grammar. projected school, his mode of surmounting which was characteristic of the spirit in which he worked. It was not to be expected that he should find the schoolbooks of the old grammarians in any way adapted to his purpose. So at once he set his learned friends to work to provide him with new ones. The first thing wanted 1 This epigram and the above- tices Rudimenta, London, M.DXXXIIII. mentioned prefaces are inserted by in Bibl. publ. Cantabr. inter MS. Knight in his Life of Colet (Miscel-Reg.' But see note 1 on the next lanies, No. xiii.), and were taken by page. They were in the preface to him from what he calls Gramma- Colet's Accidence. CHAP. VI. was a Latin Grammar for beginners. Linacre underA.D. 1511. took to provide this want, and wrote with great pains and labour, a work in six books, which afterwards came into general use. But when Colet saw it, at the risk of displeasing his friend, he put it altogether aside. It was too long and too learned for his little beginners.' So he condensed within the compass of a few pages two little treatises, an Accidence' and a 'Syntax,' in the preface to the first of which occur the gentle words quoted above.1 These little books, after receiving additions from the hands of Erasmus, Lilly, and others, finally became generally adopted and known as Lilly's Grammar.2 'Lilly's Grammar.' This rejection of his Grammar seems to have been a sore point with Linacre, but Erasmus told Colet not to be too much concerned about it: he would, he said, get over it in time, which probably he did much sooner than Colet's school would have got over the loss which would have been inflicted by the adoption of a schoolbook beyond the capacity of the boys. Erasmus, in the same letter in which he spoke of Linacre's rejected Grammar, told Colet that he was De Copia working at his 'De Copiâ Verborum,' which he was writing expressly for Colet's school. He told him, too, that he had sometimes to take up the cudgels for him against the 'Thomists and Scotists of Cambridge;' that Verborum.' 1 See also the characteristic letter from Colet to Lilly, prefixed to the 2 Knight's Life of Colet, p. 126. 3 Eras. Epist. cxlix. Erasmus to Colet, Sept. 13, 1513 (Brewer, i. 4447), but should be 1511. See 4528 (Eras. Epist. cl.), which mentions the De Copia being in hand, which was printed May 1512. Erasmus on the True Method of Education. 217 he was looking out for an under-schoolmaster, but had CHAP. VI. not yet succeeded in finding one. Meanwhile he en closed a letter, in which he had put on paper his notions of what a schoolmaster ought to be, and the best method of teaching boys, which he fancied Colet might not altogether approve, as he was wont somewhat more to despise rhetoric than Erasmus did. He stated his opinion that— 6 6 A.D. 1511. on the true In order that the teacher might be thoroughly up Erasmus to his work, he should not merely be a master of one method of particular branch of study. He should himself have education. ' travelled through the whole circle of knowledge. In philosophy he should have studied Plato and Aristotle, Theophrastus and Plotinus; in Theology the Sacred Scriptures, and after them Origen, Chrysostom, and Basil among the Greek fathers, and Ambrose and 'Jerome among the Latin fathers; among the poets, Homer and Ovid; in geography, which is very important in the study of history, Pomponius Mela, Ptolemy, Pliny, Strabo. He should know what 'ancient names of rivers, mountains, countries, cities, answer to the modern ones; and the same of trees, 'animals, instruments, clothes, and gems, with regard ' to which it is incredible how ignorant even educated 6 men are. He should take note of little facts about 6 6 6 6 6 agriculture, architecture, military and culinary arts, ' mentioned by different authors. He should be able 'to trace the origin of words, their gradual corruption in the languages of Constantinople, Italy, Spain, and France. Nothing should be beneath his observation which can illustrate history or the meaning of the poets. But you will say what a load you are putting on the back of the poor teacher! It is so; but I 6 |