The Government of all estates, wherein is contained the perfect way to an honest life, gathered out of many learned Authors, a book right profitable for all estates, but especially for the training & bringing up of the younger sort: written in Latin by that excellent learned man Andreus Hesse, Translated into English.  
IMPRINTED at London by Henry Denham, for Thomas Hacket, and are to be sold at his Shop in Lumbart street.   

N. B. In praise of this book  
WHose steps do train to taste the sweet  
& pleasant water spring:  
Incumbent at the Muse's feet,  
to win Minerues ring.  
Approach the fountain top and Well,  
the pleasant floods to gain:  
Of Hellycon where Nymphs do dwell,  
and wisdom hath the reign.  
Embrace with joy her darlings all  
that yields to thee a crown:  
With hand in hand through Pallas hall  
to foot it up and down.  
Here virtue shines, here silver streams,  
here sacred life hath place.  
Here Phoebus' with his glistering beams  
appears with golden face.  
Here health with wealth, here quiet ease  
here joy and friendship grows.  
Here medicines turned life to pease,  
here truth and honour flows.  
Therefore as once before, come nigh  
Sicilides doth call:  
And willing of thy company,  
bids welcome to them all.   

To the Reader.  
NOthing is more profitable in this world (gentle Reader) than honest precepts, good counsels, worthy and godly persuasions, how to flee vice, and follow virtue, which is the best and chiefest part of all Philosophy, for by this means common wealths are maintained, the true limit or direction of life frequented, and all good & godly families governed. This mean the ancient Senators, or conscribed fathers of Rome with others in times past have followed, yea the Heathen Poets & Philosophers, also having tasted of the same. The scope of their whole works doth tend to no other end, but to the government of man, how he should use himself in modesty, counseling himself in temperance, by practice, fortitude, and imitate justice. Also the holy Scripture, which is the touchstone of all truth, that excellent jewel of our salvation, and the bright Lantern of sincerity, hath also taught us the way to all perfection of life, righteousness, holiness, and sanctification. The principal mean above all others, whereby thou mayst learn what man is at such time as he liveth in the fear of God, & walketh uprightly in his calling. So all erudition being agreeable unto the Scriptures, may and aught to be enthraced as a guide or Rector of man's life unto virtue, as this book which is named the Government of all estates, because it treateth of the training & bringing up of man from his childhood, or as Terence writeth ex Ephoebis tamquam till his old age, wherein ye may learn to attain to the perfection of a probe or honest life. First written in the Latin tongue by the excellent man Hermannus Hessus, whereunto is added the institution of a Christian man by Adrianus Barlandus, and now translated into English, by those who do wish thy furtherance. Gentle Reader take this in good part, and in so doing thou shalt cause them to think their labours well bestowed, and encourage them to do greater things to thy godly furtherance and profit: If that as mindful of Demosthenes thou accept their labour and momentary practice: Having this consideration, that as the Philosopher requesting of an old woman the steps of his passage, and she by the assigning of her finger declared the same, surrendered with a bended knee thanks for her demerits, than they (not yet requesting so much courtesy) shall be the willinger, moved by this their industry, to race or ingress into a sequence enterprise. Thus committing thee to the tuition of God, I bid thee far well.  
Vale in Christo.   

❧ To Babes and Sucklings.  
COme forth ye babes, learn now to trade  
your lives in living pure:  
Behold the path of blissful state,  
good chance doth you assure.  
This little book full tender years  
doth manifest and show:  
How for to break those branches ill  
that on such grafts do grow.  
It doth declare the thing the which  
The Philosophers old,  
In writings grave to judge for best,  
by reason's law were bold.  
What thing doth pass a mean, the same  
is counted worst of all:  
What thing is best within a mean,  
the same doth never fall.  
Thus have the wisest counted it,  
and we the same suppose:  
This doth our filthy brutish life,  
to all men's eyes disclose.  
For none within a mean can keep,  
it is a state to base:  
We love it well, but that it doth  
our evil life deface.  
It chanced once Diogenes,  
in Market place to be:  
Where as of men a great frequent  
he chanced for to see.  
To whom aloud he cried out,  
ye men come unto me:  
The people then, what that he would,  
do run strait way to see.  
Supposing that he had some thing  
unto them for to say:  
The which they him desire forthwith,  
to them for to display.  
He answered strait I called not you,  
but I for men did call:  
And sure I am that not one man,  
there is among you all.  
And after that, beholding well  
a stripling young to give:  
Himself unto Philosofie,  
thereby to learn to live.  
Well done (ꝙ he) thou callest those,  
to purity of mind:  
Whom carnal beauty with her sleights  
endeavoured hath to blind.  
Thus mayst thou see what ancient me  
accounted have for best:  
And what in goodness of this life,  
surmounteth all the rest.  
And as he hath deserved, so  
reward him for his pain:  
judge right, first read, follow likewise  
hereby then shalt thou gain.  
FINIS. J. P.   

What an honest life is, whereof it consisteth, and what profit ariseth thereof.  

¶ The first Chapter.  
seeing therefore man was created into this world, after all things were made, as lord & ruler of them all, 
Gene. 1.  & appointed as God's husbandman here in earth, he ought so to direct the course of his life, that he may please his Caesar God, that by death being called into the Heavenly Palace & Court of his Caesar (as kings and princes were wont to be called, of the humane & mortal Caesars) may give his account of his good husbandry and government. And lest he should not be able to do this, he ought at all times to live a noble, probable, and a Princely or honest life. And to lead an honest life is nothing else, than in conditions to differ from a bruit beast, and as much as by nature a man may to live most like unto God, which consisteth in nothing else but in virtue, is to fly vice and follow honesty: for that is the office and end of virtue. And that the honesty and the life wherewith God is most pleased, doth consist by Virtue, Saint Augustine testifieth, saying: Virtutem esse artem bene vivendi, that is, Virtue to be the art of well living, 
Mantuanus.  and also Baptista Mantuanus doth express with these words what virtue is, and how great commodities it bringeth to man.  

Virtutis querimonium.  
I am dame fortunes Mistress,  
of vice the scourging rod:  
My only care and study is,  
to bring man safe to God.  
He that my doctrines learn will,  
they shall persuade him so:  
To God and his Imperial seat,  
the right way for to go.  
I am a sign directing strait,  
the middle way to go:  
Wherein our ancient father's steps,  
are yet now for to show.  
By which they have ascended right,  
the heavenly gates of God:  
Where in most pleasant smelling fields,  
the milky floods have flowed.   
¶ Plutarch, 
Plutarch.  also expresseth more plainly, what virtue doth teach us, describing her in his book of the education of children, under the name and title of Philosophy, saying, that by her it is to be discerned what is honest, what is unhonest, what is just, and what is unjust, what ought to be embraced, & what ought utterly to be eschewed, how & after what sort we ought and should behave ourselves towards our Parents, our elders, strangers and pilgrims, our governors & Magistrates, our friends, our wives, children and families, and that we should worship GOD, honour our parents, reverence our elders, obey our Prince's laws, give place and submit our selves to our Superiors, and with all our hearts to love our friends as ourselves. Women to bridle the snaffle of ill concupiscence, ever to have care and respect to their children's education, not to be in bondage, or consent with their servant, & that which is chief of all, neither to rejoice to much in prosperity, neither to be to contrist and sad in adversity, neither to have any voluptuous appetite or desire at all. And so to repress collar and ire, that we become not like brutish beasts, whose nature and disposition is alway to be fierce and ungentle, but as men discrete, whose nature is to be meek, lowly and gentle.  
secondarily, 
Tully.  Tully in his first book of Offices saith, that there be four well springs and original fountains of virtue, from which all other descend, and out of which all honesty proceedeth, which be these, Prudence, justice, Temperance, and fortitude, which four have four several and divers dispositions and nature as Macrobius. testifieth in his book de somnio Scipionis, 
Macrob. de somnio Scipionis.  who expresseth their qualities in this wise, saying: it belongeth to a prudent man, to know and forecast how to compass each matter and case, neither to do nor desire ought else, but justice and equity, to contrive his humane and worldly affairs, with a godly and divine mind, to provide and purvey against damages and dangerous haps, which by casualties might chance or happen.  
The point and end of Fortitude is, not to fear loss and detriments, to fear only wicked and ungodly things, constantly and with patient sufferance, to forsake prosperity and adversity. Fortitude is of more price than magnanimity, faith, constancy, fecuritie, magnifisence, patience, and stableness.  
The quality of Temperance is not to say after the deed done, had I witted, in all affairs to use wit and discretion, and under the rule of reason to bridle ill concupiscence of the flesh, whose handmaids are modesty, reverence, abstinence, chastity, honesty, moderation, frugality, sobriety, and shamefastness.  
The point and property of justice, is to restore to every man his right & duty, of whom condescend innocency, friendship, concord, piety, religion, neighbourly affection, and humanity, Cicero in officiis saith, 
Cicero in officiis.  that no man should hurt his neighbour, unless he had sustained wrong before. Secondly, to use common as common, and his own as his own. The true foundation and root whereof is faith, that is, constancy and truth in words and deeds. 
Lactan. lib. 6.  Lactantius in his sixth book saith, that there are two offices and duties of virtue, whereof the first participate with God by Religion, the second with man by compassion and gentle behaviour.  

Macrobius  By these virtues saith Macrobius, a good man ruleth himself and his household, and consequently, the public weal, uprightly maintaining his worldly affairs.  

¶ The reward of virtuous and honest life.  
IF any man be inquisitive of the office and reward of Virtue and honest conversation, he must known that there belongeth two properties to it. First, to inryche man with the transitory riches of this world, and after death to reward him with everlasting salvation which never shall have end. 
Virgilius.  Whereupon Virgil writeth well, saying: there are but few whom upright jupiter with a fervent zeal favoured, or whom Virtue extolleth to the high heavens, or else according to Lactantius in his sixth book: 
Lactan. lib. 6.  It is the property of Virtue to refrain anger, to assuage greedy appetites, and to bridle carnal desires. Secondly, Virtue maketh her scholar and Client, the true richest man above all other, in so much that he shall want nothing, but shall have abundance of every thing. As Plato in Amph. writeth thus, 
Plato in Amph.  that Virtue leadeth the way, and showeth the path to all things perfectly. And liberty, health, life, substance, parents, & kinsfolks defend and guard her.  
Virtue possesseth all things within herself, the virtuous man lacketh nothing, but he hath all things at will, who ruleth by Virtue.  
For virtue is not desirous of common praise, neither of that which every man alloweth, neither requireth she honour, or glory, 
silius.  as the Poet Silius saith. Ipsa quidem virtus sibimet pulcherrima merces. Virtue is a beautiful reward to itself. 
Claudius.  Unto whom the Poet Claudius agreeth in these verses.  
Ipsa quidem virtus precium sibi, solaque, latè  
Fortunae secura nitet: nec fascibus ullis  
Erigitur plansuue petit clarescere vulgi  
Nil opis externae cupiens, nil indiga laudis,  
Divitijs animosa suis, immotaque, cunctis  
Casibus, ex alta mortalia despicit arce.  
Virtutis repulsae nescia sordidae 
Horatius.   
Intaminatis fulget honoribus.  
Virtue is great in every wight,  
where she doth bear the sway:  
Not obfuscat, by dimmend light,  
but fairer than the day.  
An honour bright, a Castle strong,  
and tower of defence:  
To tend and press thy foes among,  
to win a recompense.  
Therefore endeavour virtuously  
this virtue for to hold:  
A spark of such royalty,  
as passeth yellow gold.  
Neither doth the Lady Virtue desire riches or worldly goods for any reward: for she far excelleth them all, and is much more noble and precious than they, as Horace testifieth by this verse. 
Horatius.  Vilius argentum est auro, virtutibus aurum. Silver is courser metal than gold, and gold courser than Virtue.  

Macrob. de somnio Scipionis.  Whereupon Macrobius in his book de Somnio Scipionis saith, that a wise man attributeth the fruit and reward of his virtue to his wisdom: for he is no right perfect wise man, which only gapeth for ambition and glory. And in the same place he willeth, that who so desireth to be a perfect virtuous man, he content his greedy appetite with reward of his knowledge, that is, that he be content that he knoweth Virtue, & not to seek the vain glory thereof.    

¶ How to lead an honest and virtuous life.  
¶ The second Chapter.  
Whosoever desireth to live an honest & virtuous life, he must observe two necessary points. First, that he prepare his mind, whereby he may become worthy of virtue and honesty. secondly, that (his mind thus prepared) he seek and search out, how and by what means he may attain unto Virtue. The preparation of the mind, must be compassed by three things that is, by a willing & prompt desire, that his desire be to will that he profit in virtue, for it is a great help to honesty, to have a desire to become honest: for there is nothing so difficult, which may not be comprised by a willing mind, so is there nothing harder, than to make an unwilling person willing, whereupon riseth this Proverb, Stultum est, canes invitos ducere venatum, It is a fond thing, to make unwilling hounds hunt, that is, to compel a nilling man to any kind of labour is in vain, wherefore Cornicus saith nothing is so easy but may be made uneasy, if thou do it with an unlusty mind. Lactantius in his first book de instit. christianorum, 
Lactan. lib. 1. de instit. Christi.  sayeth, that Virtue itself ought to be adored, and not the Image of Virtue. And it ought not be worshipped with any sacrifice, oblations, frankincense, or solemn supplication, but wholly with a voluntary and determined mind. And the mind thus desirous and stirred to seek virtue, must moreover be suffulced and protected with two other precepts which are patience and abstinence, that it sustain, suffer, & abide much pain and travail, and withdraw affection from all things, and especially from things voluptuous.  
Who so doth fervently desire virtue, must be very patiented and much suffering, that he abide and bear the burden of adversity, and the pain of his labour quietly, that he suffer adversity. 
Virgilius. Aened. 6.  And as Virgil saith in his sixth book of Eneidos. Non cedat malis, Give not place, nor be moved with any mishap or chance: but boldly, manly, & stoutly, withstand and resist the same. For as Valerius in his sixth book saith: 
Valerius. lib. 6.  Euernos animos virtus odisse solet. Virtue doth contemn & annihilate the weak and feeble minds: that is to say, Virtue doth hate & envy those greatly, which be of fearful minds, which dare not enterprise any thing, and which also use no constancy in their doings. Moreover, to prove patience and abstinence guides & teachers to seek virtue, Horace declareth plainly in these verses following.  

Horatius.  Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam,  
Multa tulit, fecitque, puer, sudavit & alsit,  
Abstinuit venere & Baccho.  
Who so hath inclined himself,  
to hit the wished mark:  
His childish years have suffered much  
and eke compiled much work.  
In burning heat, in pinching cold,  
his time he hath consumed:  
From Venus' sports & Bacchus' cheer  
himself he hath amoude.  
Prudentius also that Christian Poet, 
Prudentuis.  doth declare in these verses following, how that patience must needs be the way and guide to him that seeketh to Virtue.  
Omnibus una comes virtutibus associatur:  
Auxiliumque suum fortis patientia miscet.  
Nulla anceps luctamen init, virtute sine ista:  
virtus nam vidua est, quam non patientia firmat.  
Desine grand loqui, frangit deus onne superbum,  
Magna cadunt, inflata crepant, tumefacta promuntur.  
Disce supcilium deponere, disce cavere  
Ante pedes fovean, quisquis sublime minaris.  
Peruulgati viget nostri sententia Cbristi  
Scandere celsa humilis et ad ima reddere voraces.  
If travail thine do race and tend  
the virtuous steps to gain.  
To patience lore thy study bend,  
associate thou her train.  
Permit a time, forbear for ease,  
proud minds to ruin fall:  
Let humbleness thy fury pease,  
the voice of Christ doth call.  

¶ Of Abstinence.  
ANd many skilful Clarks have approved also Abstinence from petulancious desires & voluptuous affections to be very needful to the seker of Virtue, 
Cicero novae rhetor. lib. 4.  as Cicero lib. 4 novae Rethoricae, saith. Qui nihil in vita habet iucundius vita voluptuaria, cum virtute vitam colere non potest. He that in his life esteemeth nor regardeth nothing more than his volupivous and wanton life, can not inhabit with Virtue. And also Valerius Maximus in his fourth book saith: 
Valerius. Maximus lib. 4.  That City whose Inhabitants are most given to pleasant delights, loseth her Empire and dominion, neither can that City keep or defend her own liberty and freedom, but contrariwise, that City whose Inhabitors do wholly incline themselves to labour, doth rule and is able to give liberty and freedom to others. 
Lactan. lib. 6.  Lactantius also in his sixth book writeth, that there be three kinds of Virtues. Whereof the first is to refrain evil facts & nefarious works: the second is to tie thy tongue from slandering, backbiting and obserious talking, the third is, to expel all evil, wicked, and malicious cogitations, thoughts and premeditations from out thy mind. He that followeth the first, is a virtuous man. He that followeth the second, is a perfect virtuous man, if so be that he offend neither by word nor by deed. And he that followeth the third, followeth the likeness: for it is above humane nature to pass the cogitation thereof, which should neither be nequitious to be done, or vicious to be spoken. Therefore he that seeketh virtue, must needs use the help of patience and abstinence. By whose help & aid he may bear and abide adverse, fortune and great labour quietly, abhor idleness, and embrace sweat and labour. 
Hesiodus.  For Hesiodus the Poet saith, that the Gods have placed Virtue in the high, and alte places, that he which would win her, should seek her with much sweat, and grievous travel. For which consideration many Philosophers have spent much more Oil than Wine, have suffered much sweat, and have but little or nothing at all given themselves to idleness, for idleness debilitateth and weakeneth virtue, and contrariwise, labour upholdeth & sufficeth her. And abstinence is also very necessary, to abstain from vicious living. For Virtue, as Horace saith, 
Horatius.  is nothing else but a secluder of vice.  
And when as thou hast thus instructed and prepared thy mind, that is with a voluntary will, with patience and abstinence, then must thou seek & inquire of the learned books and monuments of the famous clerk, which is the way to afcende unto Virtue and honesty, for they teach and provulgat, and especially Laertius in his book de vitis Philosophorun, 
Laertius de vitis Philoso.  that each doctrine requireth three things, which are, nature, instruction, and use, that is to say, wit, learning, and exercise.   

¶ These three are needful to Virtue.  
FIrst a sharp wit whetted and not blunt as the Beotians, 
Plato.  for Plato saith, that none can be perfect wise, that is to say perfect virtuous, unless he excel in wit and knowledge, and be embued, and adorned with the comely parts of prudence. As many Philosophers as we read there were in old time, they did all excel in the capacity of wit. Hereupon Lactantius in his first book saith, 
Lactan. lib. 1.  that there are two kinds of wisdom: whereof the first is to discern which be false, the second to know which be true. For all understanding and knowledge consisteth of a polished, that is to say a quick and sharp wit: 
Lactantius lib. 2.  Also Lactantius in his second book saith, that they do expel and carry away wisdom from them selves, which without any judgements before had, allow the inventions of their elders, and are led and conduced of others, as brute beasts, wherefore wit is needful and very necessary, both to search virtue, and also to judge other men's works. Cicero in his Tusculans questions saith: 
Cicero Questi. Tuscul.  Ingenio nostro innata sunt semina quaedem virtutum. etc. By our wit, there be certain sedes of virtue sprung up, which if they might be suffered to increase, nature herself would bring & conduct us to a blessed life. If therefore certain sedes of virtue are sprung up by our wit, certain it is, that the virtues themselves have their original of wit, as from a treasury or storehouse thereof. And even by wit every man doth either seek virtues, or else doth conceive and learn them the better of his teacher. In consideration whereof, the ancient & grave Philosophers would never at any time receive any as their scholars, before they had scrupulously sought out his wit and ingene, and if he were dull and not fine witted, they would deny to instruct him. For Quintilian saith. 
Quintilianus.  Precepts profit the dull wits no more, than tillage the sterile & barren field, which be it never so well tilled, will never increase or edure any fruit at al. Yet ought he not to despair whom God hath not sent so pregnant a wit, but endeavour by continual labour and pains, to slip away at length all that hardness and infertilitie of his wit, 
Quintil. lib. 1. ca 1.  as Quintilian saith in his first book and first Chapter. One man excelleth an other in wit, but so that he can do either more or less. Nevertheless there is none, but that by his labour & industry, may at length become ingenious. And though that each man can not excel, yet must he not therefore leave to prove, for as Horace saith: 
Horatius.  Est quoddam prodire tenus, si non datur ultra. It is somewhat to go as far as thou can, if thou may go no further, that is to say: he is worthy praise which maketh but a small journey, if that the rudeness of his wit let him from going forwards. Yet betwixt the witty and unwitty there is a double difference. first, the witty of his own accord and with a swift course, consecuteth and followeth virtue, even as a provoked horse to run his course, which must be retired with bridle again. And the dull witted is like a horse which can not be driven to run, without oft spurring: so that the obtuse wit is to be whetted sharp with painful labours. 
Quintil.  And Quintilian showeth here, how Isocrates had two scholars, Ephorus, and Theopopus, the one witty, who saith he lacked a bridle to retire him, the other dull, who he saith lacked spurs to kick him forwards. The second difference is, how that the noble and pregnant wit continueth not noble for a long space, or else by oblivion forgetteth that it hath learned before. As the soon ripe Apples are always soon rotten, but the hard Winter Apples do mollify and ripe more leysurelye, and therefore they endure and continue the longer: so the hard and obtuse wit, with continuance of time and exercise, is made worthy and fit for virtue. For Erasmus saith, 
Erasmus.  that by daily practise wits do mollify.   

¶ Of discipline, science, or instruction.  
AND when as thus thou hast made sharp & whetted thy wit, them hast thou need of science or instruction, for neither doth nature nor wit suffice only, unless they be associate with instruction. because that it maketh that perfect, which else by nature is unperfect. 
Cicero novae rhetor. lib. 3.  Therefore Cicero in his third book entitled nou● Rethorica, saith: that science doth confirm, stablish and augment the commodities of nature, and in the fourth book of the same Rhetoric Cicero saith. 
Ibid. lib. 4   equus indomitus, quamuis bene natura compositus sit, idoneus non potest esse ad eas utilitates et arts, quae desiderantur ab equo, ita neque homo indoctus, quamuis ingeniosus, ad virtutem potest pervenire, quoniam non potest virtus sine doctrina comparari. Even as an untamed horse, although his proportion be never so well shapen and compact by the art nature, can not be made fit and apt for the commodities and feats which are desired in a horse: no more can an unlearned man, be he never so witty, ascend unto Virtue, because that virtue can not be adopted or obtained without learning. Upon this, the learned Gentiles erected common schools, first at Athens a City of the Grecians most excellent & famous, and at that time in many other places, that in them, youth might be educated and instructed in knowledge, and in comely, decent and honest manners, which two are but sickerly gotten without instruction. Therefore Aristippus the Philosopher did compare the unlearned, rude, & untaught, to a hard stone, of whom a certain old father inquired at a certain time, what profit or commodity he should do to his son, if he should bring him up in learning, he answered. Si nihil aliud, saltem in theatro non sedebit lapis super lapidem, non erit apud doctos tanquam lapis. If it profiteth him nothing, yet at least when he sitteth beholding any theatre and worthy thing one stone sitteth not on an other, neither shall he be as a stone dumb without speech, when as he cometh in the company of the learned. The Ethnics did know that Virtue was to be gotten by instruction. In consideration whereof, they kept schoolmasters or instructors at home, under whose rule and government their children learned Arts and Virtues. And that was so religious amongst the Athenians, that they ordained a law, that their children should not be constrained nor coerced to nourish their aged fathers, unless their fathers in their youth had committed them to masters to be instructed and brought up in the knowledge of Virtue. And instruction to attain Virtue by, is two fold: the one is mute and dumb, the other quick & lively. The mute and dumb is, to be learned by the books and monuments of the learned writers, by the reading of which, we are taught without any word speaking. The other quick and lively instruction, is to be learned at the schoolmasters, who from their lively mouth, do send and infunde into the ears of young men, the precepts of Virtue. Notwithstanding, the lively instruction excelleth the mute. For we read that therefore many Philosophers travailed many countries, neither left they any unseen, as Pyhatgoras, Empedocles, Democritus, and Plato occupied & used navigation very oft, to obtain thereby that most amiable Lady Virtue, and with their perigrinations and long journeys, they sought her out curiously: for they could not be contented nor satisfied with the shadowed, & candle dropped study, which they might have had betwixt two walls, but conferred themselves thither where any worthy thing was to be learned, not books, but perfit and skilful Philosophers or instructors. There are four kind of books of Authors princicipally to be read, which be the works of Poets writing honestly, the painful labours of Historiographers, the wise, discrete and sage sayings of Philosophers, and the divine sense of sacred scripture. Honest poets do so much conduct and lead to an honest life, that the most famous and learned Cities of the Greeks in time paste, did bring up and educate their children, first in poets, affirming poets only to be wise, sage and severe. In Poets, children are taught Virtue, as Horace saith in his Epistles most truly. 
Horatius.   
Os purum tenerum, balbumque, Poeta figurat:  
Mox etiam pectus preceptis format amicis,  
Instruit exemplis, inopem solatur, & egrum.  
The tender stutting childish mouth,  
the Poet shapes aright:  
And then with friendly precepts doth,  
the heart and breast adight.  
With good examples doth he then  
instruct the childish boy:  
He comforts eke the needy men.  
whom sickness doth annoy.  
Secondly, the worthy Historiographers which declare unto us the famous gests, civil manners, and happy fortunes of noble and worthy men, by whose laudable life we may see the way of well living, and by whose temerity or unlucky destiny, we may foresee to live more circumspectly, which is a goodly thing, to use others rashness to our temperance, as Diodorus saith: 
Diodorus  It is a fair thing by other men's faults to amend our own maculous life, and by the example of others to know what is to be desired, and what is to be eschewed. An History, saith Beroaldus, doth greatly profit, 
Beroaldus  after that that is honest, detesting and annihilating the vicious, extolling the sincere and godly, suppressing the perverse and wretched. thirdly, the books of the mild Philosophers, which declare and inform us of the documents and precepts of Virtue, as the ten books of Aristotle entitled his Ethicke, Cicero's three books of Offices, Lactantius works de devina institut. Erasmus of the institution of a Christian Prince, & many more, which have lively, virtuously & friendly depainted and set forth the trade of an honest life. Fourthly and last of all, the books of holy scripture, which declare and teach, how we should know God, whom to know a creator of all things, and he to be but one only, is the dear, true and perfect wisdom of man, 
Lactantius lib. 2.  as Lactantius writeth in his second book.   

¶ poverty ought not to be repugnant to Virtue.  
IT is not to be esteemed that many accuse and condemn poverty, whereby they can less apply the study of Virtue. For as Apuleius saith, poverty was in old time house servant to the Philosophers, neither was any known to ascend to any dignity, whom poverty had not enutried and brought up, even from their infancy. Poverty in ancient time was conditrix and edificatrix of all Cities, the governor and guide of all arts, clear of all faults, the liberal rewarder of all praise, whom all nations have extolled and magnificenced with all praise and glory. Therefore Apuleius saith thus, if any man be oppressed with poverty, let him imitate Cleantes, a Philosopher, who constrained through poverty laboured by night, drawing water, to the intent that he might provide for to buy his victual food in the day, by which means, he might the more commodiously apply his study: let him therefore labour while time is, that he may conciliat whereby to live and obtain Virtue, which cometh unto the painful labourer's hand. 
Seneca.  Whereupon Seneca saith thus. Virtuten in Templo invenies, in Foro, in Curia, per muros stantem, puluerulentam, coloratan, callosas habentem, manus, qui nihil aliud videtur ostendere, quam quod etiam laboriosos homines virtus adiwat & amplectitur. Thou shalt find virtue in the Temple, in the Market place, in the Court, standing before the walls all dusty, all to be painted with dirt, having hard hands, whereby it is to be perceived, that Virtue doth also love and embrace laborious men.   

¶ Whether Virtue can be adopted without learning.  
IN case adventure some would say, there be many unlearned men which never at any time adhibited their minds to study, and yet are reputed and esteemed men of an honest life and conversation. It is to be answered: even as some ascend unto Virtue by their singular wit without learning, 
Cicero de oration.  as Cicero in his book of Orations testifieth, saying: I have known many notable witty men, virtuous, without learning, who have been by nature modest and grave. And this also do I often ascribe unto Virtue: nature to be of much more excellency without learning, than learning without nature. And again, even the same I contend, when as, eloquence & the ground of learning is joined with an excellent and noble nature, then do I not know what shall continue egregious & notorious. This spoke Cicero very prudently.   

¶ Of excercise and practice.  
YEt beside wit and science, thirdly he must use the help of exercise, otherwise he studieth frivolously to seek Virtue. 
Cicero novae rhetor. lib. 3.  As Cicero testifieth in his third book of new Rhetoric. In omni disciplina infirma est artis praeceptio sine summa assiduitate excitationis, tum vero in memoriis minimum valet doctrina nisi industria & labore, & diligentia comprebetur. In every discipline the precept of Art is feeble and of no force, unless it be sedulously exercised. And also doctrine prevaileth nothing in memory, except with great industry, labour and diligence it be proved. 
Lactan. lib. 3.  And Lactantius in his third book saith, that Arts are therefore learned, not that they should be only known, but also exercised, & that they should be used either for the help of man's life, or for pleasure, or else for glory and worthy fame. 
Cicero in officiis.  Cicero in his book of Offices saith, that all the praise of virtue consists not in the knowledge of Virtue, but in the function thereof, that is, it availeth but little to know what Virtue is, what is honest, and what is vicious, but to use and exercisce virtue itself.   

¶ How that this exercise of the science which thou knowest or hast, had, is the way to get virtue.  
WHo so desireth the fruit and commodity of true Virtue and sincere honesty, out of those four books, that is to say, of Poetry, historiography, Philosophy, and holy Scripture, it is necessary he learn the accustomed manner of Bees in the collection of their honey. The Bees are accustomed when as they gather honey, to fly about divers flowers, to taste many flowers, and of the juice thereof to excerpe & suck somewhat, and then to carry some of the moisture thereof in to their Hives, which they lay down and farthel up together, to compound honey thereof: thus frequenting and doing this often, they conserve and conglomerate much honey on heaps in length of time, which is a sweet fruit of their labours: even so must the desirous to be virtuous, which also wisheth to come to the state of a man, use a quadruple exercise.  
The first exercise is, that he excerpate & annote in a void book, as the keeper of memory, whatsoever he shall read or be taught, which may be a furtherance to eloquence and Virtue. For an egregious man must have the use of them both as Cicero testifieth in his first book of his old Rhetoric, affirming that wisdom without eloquence helpeth little to the government of Cities, and eloquence without wisdom doth hinder more than profit. Let every Student therefore, make him two void books, in which he shall write both what he hath heard, and also what he hath read: in the one to annote fine sugared sentences, in other virtuous precepts, like a covetous man, who heapeth up treasures, for which he hath divers chests, specially where he putteth his silver, & where he putteth his gold, alone. This exercise did Pliny the compositor of the natural History, use and imitate, of whom Pliny his second uncle writeth, that he never read any thing worthy to be noted, but he committed it to writing. The second exercise is, to conceal such annotations in the retentive memory, and that he think to use them often as Macrobius writeth in his sixth book, saying: 
Macrobius lib. 6.  the best & most profitable way of reading and hearing, is to imitate those which seem most probable, & to convert the sayings of other to some use of thine, which thou thinkest most grave, and most to be admired, which accustomed manner the pleasant Latins as also the noble Grecians were wont to use, which is not only to hear any Author, to learn his words, or to understand his oration or phrase of speaking, but of his learning and doctrine, to collect the mellifluous eloquence and right way of living, even as meat received only in the mouth nothing nourisheth the body except it descend into the stomach, and there concoqued and sodden, in the end convert to flesh and blood, so neither the lesson that is heard or read, profiteth any whit the student, unless it be conferred to some use of talking and more wisdom. The third exercise is this, to draw every day a line by example of the Painter Appelles, who would daily, were he never so sore occupied about other affairs, depaint or draw one line at the least. And so doth the covetous man put daily one piece of silver into his treasury, for many littles make a great, as Hesiodus the Poet saith: 
Hesiodus.  Paruula si tentas super adiecisse pusillis, idque frequenter peragas, magnus cumulatur aceruus. Which is: If thou add or put little to little, & use it eftsoons, thereof riseth a great heap. And in this exercise it is not to be laboured how much we learn daily, but how well. Therefore Appelles answered an unskilful Painter who gloried that he had drawn an Image suddenly: I do not marvel at this, saith he, for thou mayest draw many more such foolish pictures quickly. Wherefore we ought to follow that witty sentence of Cato, Sat cito si stat bene. 
Cato:  Enough well done is done quickly enough. Whereupon Augustus Caesar used this adage, 
Augustus Caesar.  Matura lente. Haste not to much in thy work, but do it wisely without much temerity or rashness. For the soft circumspect space profiteth more, than the swift headlong course without all wit and reason. The fourth and last exercise, is to report and revolve at night whatsoever was learned the day before, which use Cato used as Philel. writeth in his book de educa. puero. And Apuleius writeth of a certain people in India, which are called Gymnosophistae, which know neither to inhabit their land, nor the use of tillage, neither to bridle horses neither to tame bulls, neither to shear sheep, yet they adored wisdom greatly. Both ancient masters, as also young ryping scholars, have nothing in more contempt than the sluggish slothfulness of the mind. For when as their table was spread ready for dinner, and before meat was set thereon, all the young men from divers places and offices came to Dine. Then would the master inquire of each of them what good he had done that day from the rising of the sun. Than one would remember how he had set two at unity and concord. An other would say he had obeyed his parents commandments: another would say he had found something by practice: and an other would say he had learned somewhat. And he which could show nothing, was thrust dinnerlesse out of the doors to work. And so ought every student at night to practise with himself the property of sheep, whose nature is, that when towards night they be driven from out the meadows unto the fields, they do eat and chaw again their meat that they have gathered of all the day before, and therefore they surrender milk into their pastors. In likewise ought the enamoured with virtue to repeat at night both what he hath read, & also what he hath heard, both which be grounded on eloquence, and also which be godly and virtuous in doctrines. And secondly, that he turn into milk, that is that he use to seem profitable and honest of living, that others may see wherein he hath profited, even as the sheep show their pasture by their milk, to have eaten grass, & not to have spent the day idly. And also it shall be very profitable to examine with another, whether he hath profited more in eloquence or in virtue. For whereas he conferreth with others either of them proveth what he knoweth, & what he doth not know. Whereupon Sueto in his book of the institutions of Grammarians, saith: 
Sueto.  that in the old time in schools of learning, it was the accustomed manner, that the scholars should in the fore noon contend the one with the other in disputations, and in the after noon recite those disputations and arguments by root.   

¶ What comeliness, virtue and honesty each man ought to keep in all ages.  
THe life of Virtue or honesty, consisteth in two things. first, in the comely or nature of itself. And secondly, in the decent and honest behaviour toward others, as Macrobius testifieth, saying: that by Virtue a good man is made governor and ruler over himself, and consequently over the common weal. First, it is needful that every man rule himself before he instruct others, whereupon Thales Milesius a Philosopher, being demanded who were an upright Prince, he made answer: he that ruleth himself so, that it can not be objected in his teeth.  
And how it becometh each man to rule and govern himself by Virtue, must be consecuted by diligent labour, which shall be declared hereafter.   

¶ Who so wit guide and rule himself honestly, must keep six precepts.  
OF which the first is, that he learn to hold his peace, that he love silence better than jangling talk, for taciturnity and little talk betokeneth a wise and prudent man. And contrariwise, over much prattling betokeneth a fool, who knoweth not to hold his peace, Macrobius saith: by silence a Plilosopher doth no less divine than by speaking, that is to say, it is no less sign of wisdom to keep silence, than to speak. Whereof Pythagoras (as writeth Apuleius) called first by te name of a Philosopher, taught his scholars at the first, only to keep silence. And the first instruction to make a wise scholar, was to coerce and bridle his tongue, and to repress and keep back the words within the wall of his teeth. Socrates also being demanded of a certain man by what means every man might attain unto wisdom: he prescribed him two ways, the first was, that he keep close more than he speak, and the other was, that he learn to speak, which was singularly spoken of him, for it is manifestly known by three signs, that silence aught more to be used than loquacity. First, by nature man hath but one mouth, and two ears, that he should not speak all that he heard. The second sign is, by the custom of the ancient Romans, for the Romans were wont to depict the Lady Angerona, Goddess of silence, having her mouth closed up with wax. And the Egyptians depainted Harpocrates, God of silence, shutting his mouth with two fingers. thirdly, by the old ancient Philosopher's doctrine & learning, who did damnify nothing in a man more than much jangling, saying that nature gave man teeth and lips before his tongue, for that consideration, that he might suppress and bridle it, lest he should become a great chatterer. 
Xenocrat.  And Xenocrates a Philosopher being inquired of, as touching his silence, he made answer again, that he never repented for not speaking, but that it often times grieved him that he spoke. The second precept is, that he learn to declare and speak that that is decent and comely to speak, not to tell lying tales, but in all things to tell the truth: For he that dare tell that which is feigned, & hath not been seen, then is he a liar and a deceitful person, 
Horatius.  as Horace testifieth, neither ought any man (as Pliny saith) speak that which may be hurtful to the speaker, 
Plinius.  neither to utter backbiting words which might diminish an other man's honour, neither to go whispering, or as one would say, to speak within his sleeve, but only to pronounce that which is honest, chaste, profitable and true. And the right virtuous man doth keep in secret all other, whereupon Ovid writeth two trim verses saying: Eximia est virtus praestare silentia rebus. Et contra, gravis est culpa tacenda loqui. Which is in our mother tongue: Silence is an excellent virtue, far passing and exceeding all things. And contrariwise it is an intolerable offence to utter those things which ought to be kept in secret. Therefore in speaking we ought to keep this order & law, that when we would speak, we first forese, whether it becometh the place, the time, and also the persons which be there present. Secondly, that we speak then when as otherwise with our silence we might hinder ourselves or our friends. Thirdly, that he take heed lest he do to much, that is, that in all things he observe a mean and measure, and that he commit not to often that which is nought, neither that to little which is good. 
Terentius in Andria  As Terence saith in his Comedy nominated Andria, the first scene. Nam id arbitror adprime in vita utile esse, ut ne quid nimis. For I think it very necessary to the life of man, in all things to keep a mean. For which cause the learned men describe Virtue to sit in the midst. Est modus in rebus. Sunt certi denique fines, quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectè. There is a mean in all things, and each thing hath certain limits beyond which, or on this side which, Virtue consisteth not. For Virtue consisteth in a mean, and in all excess and superfluity, vice taketh up her dwelling place. Wherefore, in all things a mean is commendable, and excess always vituperable. 
Hesiodus.  Hereupon the Poet Hesiodus hath a pretty saying. Demidium plus toto. That is to say: A mean is more laudable than superfluity. And it is a common proverb. Omne nimium utitur in vitium. Every to much is stark nought. 
Cleobolus Lindus.  And Cleobolus Lyndus one of the seven wise men of Greece, saith: The best in every thing, is a mean or measure.  
The fourth precept is, that every man eschew and sly in himself, that which he seeth filthy & uncomely in an other, remembering the Philosopher Diogenes his sentence, who saith. 
Diogenes.  Si vis bonus & virtute praeditus effici, expelle a te quod in alio despicis. If thou desire to be an honest and virtuous man, seclude that vice from thyself, which thou espiest filthy in an other. And Cicero saith, he must be a perfect virtuous man, 
Cicero.  that will tell his neighbour of his vice, for we can easily and quickly espy other men's faults, but our own we will not know. If any descend into his own bowels, and search his own conscience, and do way and consider with himself what he is, then will he cease biting his neighbour with his vicious mind, and first, he will go and purge himself from all his vices and sinful life, and adorn & trim himself with virtue. Therefore our Saviour jesus Christ in his Gospel, persuading us to Virtue, doth command us, first to cast the great beam of sin from out our own eyes, and after the little mote in our neighbours, that we should first cure and heal ourselves, and consequently other.  
The fift precept is, to abide his estate what so ever it be, whether it be prosperous or adverse, not to joy over much over his fortunate life, lest she suddenly turning her wheel, double his sorrow and pensyfnesse: and that he be not too heavy & sorrowful for his unfortunate life, but to learn of Socrates, 
Socrates.  in both his estates to keep one countenance, and one mind. 
Plato.  Whereupon Plato being asked at a certain time whereby a wise man might be known, he answered: A wise man though he be contemned, will not be moved, neither shall his praise or great name make him arrogant or proud. For Virtue hath none acquaintance with pride, because it is a vice, neither doth it admit the familiarity of desperateness and wrath, because they be also vices. Wherefore it is a common proverb, Qui homo in adversis rebus pusilli est animi, ille nauti est. Which is thus much to say: That man which in adversity is faint hearted, is not to be esteemed. Therefore a man ought to do both in prosperity and in adversity, as a certain Philosopher did, who in prosperity, would be sad, & saying that after mirth cometh sorrow, and likewise in adversity he would be merry, saying: that after sorrow came mirth, for fortune is ever mutable & inconstant, therefore ought we in prosperity to look for adversity ensuing. As Plaut. in Amph. saith, 
Plaut. in Amphit.  Ita diis visum est, voluptati ut meror comes subsequatur. For so it is the God's pleasure, that sorrow should be mirth's waiting maid. And therefore also ought we to think thus in adversity how that God shall end this misery at his will and leisure, or as Virgil saith. 
Virgilius.  It shall be sufficient to have thought on those evils, and not always and continually to muse and think thereon.  
The sixth and last precept shall be, that he endeavour himself to please every honest and wise man, for thereof descendeth great praise and virtue: for consequently it followeth, that who so pleaseth them, is also either honest, or else by frequenting their company learneth honesty: for good men love none but good, and the naughty person none but evil. Therefore expedient it is, that he who will obtain virtue, do apply his industry to please virtuous men, as Seneca saith: we must choose some virtuous man whom we must alway follow, that we live so, as though he always saw us, & what so ever we do, to do it so, as though he were present at the doing thereof: for he may easily live an honest and virtuous life, who liveth after the will and rule of virtuous men, and doth all his things as though they were done before them, even as women decking and trimming them before a glass, & when they have adorned themselves finely and neatly, they wander into the market, there to be viewed and seen.   

¶ Concerning the manners and virtues of all ages.  
Although that Virtue and honesty do deck and adorn a man, yet notwithstanding, every age hath his condition of honesty, for it is a proverb. Alia vita, alia dieta, alios mores postulant.  
For all conditons are not comely for every age, for some become children, some youth, some young men, some men, and other some aged men, for with the age the nature changeth, therefore must they also change their manners. For there are v. ages of men, which be these: infancy, childhood, youth, man's age, and old age, which have their conditions particularly themselves.   

¶ As concerning infancy.  
Infancy is the first age of man after his nativity, and it is so called, because it can not speak, and therefore he can learn no good manners or virtue, because he is not yet reasonable, nor hath not the use and practise of the tongue, neither hath he any perseverance at all. Therefore must he only live after the will and pleasure of the Nurse or Mother.   

De Pueritia.  
PVeritia is the second age, when as the infants do begin to speak, having not as yet the full use of reason. It may so be, that they be called children of the Latin word Bua, that is a Child's drink, which they call Bua, uttering their words first unperfectly, without wisdom, reason, or understanding. And these the Parents ought to teach, to bring them up in honest manners and conversation. first with these manners: that they worship and pray unto God with a willing heart, that they be obedient to their Parents, that they reverence their elders, that they fly and avoid all play and evil company, lest they be defiled with vices before they attain unto reason, which is the most odious thing on earth. 
Apuleius.  As Apuleius saith who would not hate and disdain that boy whom he seeth as though he were a certain monster, stout, bold and very vicious, being as yet under age, sooner to be unhappy and nequitions, than strong of body, being but of tender years, and yet of stubborn malice and hatred? Yet notwithstanding you can not require perfect wisdom in a child, whilst as yet his childishness and imbecility of wit hath dominion and power over him, therefore he playeth with trifles and gegawes. And for all this, yet must you not favour him over much, lest he incline him to vices, and so remain always filthy & uncleanly. For whatsoever he learneth once in his youth, that will he use for ever. Wherefore they ought diligently to be instructed and nuzzled up in these precepts. 
Phill. li. 8. de educat. liberorum.  As Phille. writeth in his eight book of the bringing up of children, that is, that they worship God, that they be gentle, obedient and serviceable in words, conditions and body: And to use a comely cleanly & decent form of apparel, not to be tale caryars, nor liars, nor beasts of filthy and wicked conditions, not lean of body as Asses, neither yet filthy as Hogs in the mire, neither slovenlyke in their apparel, as beggars or fleshly and lecherous goats, neither dull witted like a stone or Ass. And as soon as they be once seven years old, to commit them in custody to schoolmasters, for so were the gentiles wont to do, 
Phil. lib. 2. de educat. liberorum.  as Phille. writeth in his second book of the bringing up of children.   

De Iuuentute.  
IVuentus is the next age to Pueritia, 
Perottus.  although that Perottus saith that the wise counsellors do numbers it after Adolescentia, yet it is before Adolescentia by daily use, which age cometh in, when as the children can new utter their words perfectly and plainly, & are committed to Schoolmasters to be instructed, or else be ready to be given to their charge. And as Perottus saith, 
Perottus.  it is called juventus, youth, of this word Iwamdo, to help, because it waxeth able and potent to help his parents, for it can dispatch quickly his father's will and commandment, and can put his help to many labours, or at least do his will thereto. And as Quintilian writeth in his first book and third Chapter. 
Quintilianus. lib. 1. capit. 3.  In this age, parents must beware that they do not to much pamper up their children, to keep them so tender, that no cold wind may blow over them, for that soft kind of bringing up doth corrupt and debilitate the strength and force, both of the body, and also of the wit. And what shall this youth do, which is thus lasciviously brought up? Verily they that be wanton, petelantiously and delicately kept in this age, will look for the same delicacy all their life after: And when as they can keep this no longer, either for their sumptuous expenses, or else for lack of Patrimony, then do they labour by all means, by right or by wrong to taste their sweet lickorouse and delicate mouth, then do they fall into such idleness, play, pastimes, and thefts, and consequently into all kind of wickedness. In this age the children of Rome were wont to hang their golden ornaments up with a rope upon the Temple which they ware about their necks from their infancy, as though they did renounce all childishenesse: And then did they put on a fine white gown guarded with Purple, in token to leave all childish conditions, and in example of a better, more pure and honest life, that when they should see the whiteness of their gowns, they should fly vice, which maketh a man look black, and hated of other, and beholding the brightness of the purple colour, they should endeavour themselves that their godly & virtuous living should so shine, whereby it might conciliat praise of all men.   

¶ These were the duties of children.  
first to worship almighty God, with humble prayers, and a lowly sincere & an obedient heart, to honour and obey their Parents, to love and fear their Masters, to give diligent ear to these three: to fly what they forbidden, to execute and do what they command, that they learn the commandments of God, hear them taught, seek them out where as they be, & faithfully to follow them. And it may easily be perceived how that a young man must obey these three, for of these three consists our whole life. Of God we receive our souls, of our parents our humane subtance, and of our masters the instruction of our soul, by which our life differs from brute beasts. Therefore expedient it is, that we obey them, lest we seem ungrateful and thankless.   

De Adolescentia.  
ADolescentia is the fourth age, which beginneth from the fourteenth year of our life, and it is called Adolescentia of this word Adolesco, which signifieth to increase, to grow upward, for then man doth increase in body, in strength, in reason, in vice, and in Virtue: yet are they more prone and flexible to vice than to Virtue. And then is every man's nature and disposition first known, unto what he is most inclined: for before that age it can not be known through the childishenesse and foolishness of age. But be they once sprung up this age, they give their mind to some kind of exercise, 
Terentius in Andria  as Terence in his Comedy called Andria saith, either to ride horses, or to keep dogs for hunting, or else to worship, and learn of some notable learned man. As Horace writeth also in his book entitled de art Poetica.  
Imberbis juvenis tandem custode remoto  
Gaudet equis, Canibus, & aprici gramine campi.  
Caercus in vitium flecti, monitoribus asper  
Vtilium tardus provisor, prodigus aeris,  
Sublimis, cupidusque & amata relinquere pnix.  
When as the beardless man,  
is past his Master's charge:  
To bridle horse is his delight,  
to see Dogs run at large.  
To hunt the Fox or Hare,  
to make a merry sport:  
In lusty youth is care,  
to live in such a sort.  
This age is double, the first beginning from xiiij to xviij and it is called youth beardless, because at those years young men be without beards. As Phoebus, 
Phoebus  otherwise called Apollo stood in ancient time in the Temples of the Gentiles without a beard. As Vale. Max. writeth in his first book de Neglecta religione, 
Valerius Maximus lib. 1. de neg. relig.  concerning the story of Dionysius Tyrannus Syracusanus. Then from xviij years their Beard doth begin to grow, and then they be called young men with beards, growing to man's estate. And this age doth precipitate & thrust down headlong a young man into all kind of vice, in idleness, pastimes, disobedience, gluttony, luxuriousness, whore hunting, pride, prodigality, and unto all kind of sensuality, consuming & wasting their patrimony frivolouslye, nothing weighing their door hairs to come, as all Comedies do plainly declare, which entreat nothing of young men, but how they slash out their goods on voluptuous pleasures and delicate banquets.   

¶ How Parents and Masters ought to train up young men to virtue and honesty.  
seeing therefore this age is more ready to vice, than all other ages be, and doth daily more & more give itself headlong to youthful lusts and concupiscences, even as a young Colt whom youth tickeleth, therefore ought young men of this age to be reigned either of their parents, or else of their Masters, even as the wild starting horse is tamed and bridled of the horse courser, with pricking spurs. In which thing parents or masters must use four things, if so be that they will bring them to any good pass, that is to say with instruction, with monition, with large promise, & last of all, with praise & threatenings.   

¶ Instruction consisteth of six Precepts.  
WHereof the first is, as I said before, that they be taught chiefly and before all things to worship and pray unto God, who hath given essence and being to all, hath fed and preserved all, leaving no heinous crime unpunished, no virtuous deed unrewarded, giving an everlasting reward to the good, and a perpetual punishment to the evil, and that without his lawful favour and grace our mortality is able to comprehend nothing, & without his especial grace, we are not able to live a moment: And therefore to be careful, least with our wicked life we offend.  
Secondly, not to trust in worldly goods, and specially in the beauty of the body, for the pulcritude thereof is a very frail and mutale good, 
Virgilius. Eglog. 2.  as Virgil saith in his second eclogue.  
O formose puer nimiùm ne crede colori,  
Alba ligustra cadunt, vaccinia nigra leguntur.  
O fair sweéete boy  
Do thou not joy,  
of thy sweet pleasant face:  
Trust not to much  
That thou art such,  
beware in any case.  
For Pepper is black  
And hath a good smack,  
and every man will it buy:  
snow is white  
And lieth in the dyke,  
and most men let it lie.  
Neither let it grieve them, if nature have not compounded their limbs as well as she hath done others, but let them labour the they be far beautiful and splendent in mind. 
Francisc. Petrar. li. de adverse. fortuna.  For as Franciscus Petrar. saith in his book de adversa fortuna. Pulchrius est pulchrum fieri. The fairest beauty is, a man to make himself beautiful, that is: knowledge and Virtue, which is a far fairer thing, than to be borne fair and comely of parsonage. And this commandment was Socrates wont to teach his scholars, that they should often contemplate and behold them selves in a glass: and seeing themselves fair of body and face, they should also endeavour too make themselves fair of mind. For the body containing within it a defiled mind, is a gay and a goodly Sepulchre, concluding within it a rotten and a putrefied body. Wherefore our Saviour jesus Christ in his holy Gospel, called the pharisees, painted Sepulchres, for that they outwardly appeared religious and honest, and were inwardly ravening Wolves. And Socrates commanded them also, that seeing themselves not well shaped, they should also seek the beauty of the mind, with knowledge and virtue, which is more noble and of longer continuance than the shape of the body.  
Thirdly, that they put no confidence nor trust in their riches and goods, neither in their great abundance of money, but that they trust only to their science and virtue, hoping in time to become rich and happy men, for the wise and learned is the true rich man: and worldly riches are but transitory and quickly lost. For we read of many exceeding rich men, who have in a moment been most infortunate, as was Croesus the most rich Prince of the earth, king of the Lydians. Neither are riches to be esteemed as precious jewels, 
Cecero. li. 4. novae reth.  for Cicero saith in his fourth book novae rhetor. Si voles divitias comparare cum virtute, vix satis idoneae erunt, ut sint virtutis predissequae sive famulae. If thou wilt compare riches with virtue, they are scarce fit for to be her waiting maids or servants: therefore ought young men in their flourishing wit and ripe age, to prepare a wayfaring man or guide to lead them the way to old age, which wayfaring man, is virtue and knowledge. For by them, and through them, the aged man hath honour, praise, health, & nourishment: 
Thales Milesius.  Whereupon Thales Milesius a Philosopher, being demanded in time past what young men should learn, he made answer: let them learn those things by which they may live in their old age, that is to say, virtue & knowledge.  
The fourth document and precept is, that they teach them to avoid that which they see hurtful to another, or that which they see contaminate or defile another, & that by other men's damages & misfortunes they learn wisdom, and that by them they amend and correct their own wicked life to a better. The vices which corrupt and rust men, are disobedience, lying, tangling talk, unfaithfulness, dishonesty, carding & dicing, and all such filthy games, whorehunting, drunkenness, prodigality, idleness, and the company of vicious persons.  
The fift precept is, that they put before their eyes the example both of good men, and also of vicious and wicked men, that they may see the life and death of them: how the wicked have been rewarded with punishment, and the good men with praise. In consideration whereof, the old ancient Romans did vestite and array their young men, in the prime of their youth, with gowns decent for men, that by little and little, they might at the last creep to an honest life. After that they were led to the open Market place, that they might know and see the life of men to be double, the one vicious, the other virtuous, the vicious & perverse life to have an evil end and confusion, but the way to the virtuous life, to be strait and full of brambles and briars, but yet at the last to be rewarded with a perpetual beneficial good reward Therefore Hercules being at the state of a young man, choose rather to serve virtue through labour and pains, knowing that after labour their cometh a reward, than to be in bondage to vice by idleness. 
Cicero. li. 1. Officiorun.  As Cicero writeth of him in his first book of Offices.  
Sixtly, that they be still occupied with labour and weariness, and never suffered to give themselves to idleness, lest they fall into all disordered lusts: For as Ovid saith, labour taketh away all the desires of the flesh: 
ovidius.  Otia si tollas, periere Cupidinisarcus. If thou drive away idleness, love shall have no force on thee.  
Therefore the old Romans did daily exercise their children in wrestling, fight & swimming: therefore ought young men to be exercised with daily labour, even as horse coursers use to break young horses, riding them daily from street to street, or in the fields, to use them to riding to the spur and the bridle, who being let still run at large, would be past man's might to rule.   

¶ Of Monition.  
SEcondly, Parents and Masters must not only instruct young men, but warn them also of their faults. If they commit any crime, they ought to be taught to do better and more virtuously. And oft times to comen in the presence of them of honesty, and honest men, that at the length by daily admonition & warning, they may become the more honest, for words do move the mind, & that which a man heareth often, it imprinted and enclosed in his heart. And that they exhorted & admonished to imitate the footsteps of their Godly and reverend Parents, of their honest Kinsfolks & nephews, as Aeneas in the twelve book of Aeneidos doth persuade and admonish his son Ascanius, that of him his father he should learn virtue: saying.  
Disce puer virtutem ex me, verumque laborem,  
Fortunam ex alijs, nùnc te mea dextera bello.  
Defensun dabit, & magna inter praemia ducet,  
Tu facito, mox cum matura adoleucrit aetas,  
Sis memor.  
O Child learn virtue here of me,  
the root of labour true:  
Which shall thee lead to dignity,  
that never thou shalt rue.  
But scape to shore, and swim to land  
when other riches fleet:  
A perfect guide by thee to stand,  
a Lantern to thy feet.   

¶ Of large and liberal promise.  
thirdly, that they promise them to get great rewards of every man in every place, and always if in case they seek after Virtue, as Horace saith in his Epistles. 
Horatius. in epistolis.  I bone, quo virtus tua te ducit, I pede fausto, Grandia laturus meritorum praemia. Go happily virtuous man whether so ever thy Virtue shall conduct and lead thee, in hope to bring home great rewards for thy deserts. Go forwards O ye young men, whether virtue shall lead you, for great is your reward, for he hath all things plenteously, and to him that seeketh virtue there wanteth nothing. 
Plautus.  As Plaut. testifieth in Amph. Comaedi.   

¶ Of praise and threatenings.  
FOurthly and last of all, ascribe praise to young men, if they continue & prosper in virtue. For praise is a great help, and aid to finish and end their course that they have determined. 
ovid. lib. 5 de tristibus  As Ovid showeth in the fifth book, de tristibus.  
Denique nòn paruas animo dat gloria vires,  
Et foecunda facit pectora laudis amor.  
Finally, glory doth encourage and strengthen the mind, and the love & desire of fame doth make men fruitful. For all men as Cicero saith, are trained and inflamed with the fervent desire and hot love of honour and praise. 
Quintilan  Quint. also alloweth the praise of young men, if they profit in virtue: And also he commendeth threatenings for them, if that they be sluggish and unwilling to attain unto virtue and honesty, and not threatenings only, but grievous and smarting stripes: 
Cicero lib. 4. novae rethoricae.  As Cicero testifieth in his four book novae Rhetor. saying: Qui Adolescentum peccatis ignoscendum putant oportere, falluntur: propteria quod aetas illa non est impedimento bonis studiis. Apti sunt ad bona discenda, non minus quam mala. At hii sapienter faciunt, qui Adolescentes maxime castigant, ut quibus virtutibus omnem vitam possint tueri, eas in aetate maturissima sibi comparent. They that think it good to remit young men their faults, are deceived: for so much that age is a furtherance to good & virtuous studies: for they are apt & prompt no less to learn goodness than vice. But they are most wise, who do chasten young men, that in their ripest age they may get such virtues, by which they may defend all their life after.   

¶ Of the offices and duty of young men.  
Young men have divers offices. First they must choose, prepose and determine the trade of their living which they will use during their life: as we read that Hercules did. And as the Romans were accustomed to bring their young men into the common Market place, appareled with gowns as men, and there should they fling abroad nuts, with which they had played a great while. They should reject their former age's youthfulness, and should endeavour to live an honest man's life. For he that will live amongst men, must not exceed the honest mean of living.  
Secondly, 
Cicero, lib. 1. officiorum.  as Cicero testifieth in his first book of Offices. A young man ought to reverence his elders, and by the good fatherly admonitions and sincere honesty of the best & most godly of them, to institute and prepose his kind of living, to bridle himself from lusts, & from all foolish appetites, and that he exercise with labour, & with patience and sufferance, both of the body & of the mind, that he may be apt and fit both for the wars & for Civil affairs. And when as he is disposed to recreate and quicken his spirits and give himself to some pastime, that he beware of intemperance, but always use reverence & shamefastness, not to be too prodigal and lascivious, but reverent, and specially in those things at which he would have his elders and seniors present. Furthermore, that both in place & in time they think them selves men, and not beasts, and for that cause their manners to exceed the manners and conditions of beasts, and that they think themselves young men, and not children or babes, to play as children: neither that they think themselves men or fathers, that of themselves they should be wise enough, but that they lack as yet instructions and godly lessons.   

¶ Of man's age.  
THe fifth age is called man's age, when as a man is grown to his full ripe age, and that his body is past growth, & his beard buddeth from out his chin. And this age is most apt and fit to receive virtue and honesty. For it is of force both by reason and of the body to embrace virtue. For of the Latin word (which is attributed to this age) that is to say Vir, the name of Virtue is derived: for adding the syllable, tus, to this word Virro, it is made Virtus. For Virtue was first nominated of this Latin word Virro for a man, because that man only is able to receive and learn virtue.   

¶ Of the honest life of man.  
Man's life ought to be altogether honest and virtuous. For he liveth not a perfect honest life, who useth not all Virtues, though he offend but in some. Therefore a man ought to be prudent, just, chaste, and strong. He must be prudent, that he may do each thing prudently, wisely, and warily, he must remember both what he hath spoken, and what he hath done, to order those things that he hath presently to do rightly, to forcast and provide for time to come, whatsoever he doth, to do it wisely, and always to foresee the end: for it is a filthy thing, as Cicero saith, 
Cicero  in the end to say had I witted. And Terence also in Adelphos saith: 
Terentius in Adelp.  Istud est sapere, non quod ante oculos est solum videre, sed que futura sunt prospicere. It is a wise thing not only to use the time present, but to force the things to come. He must be also just, hurting or damnifying none, but friendly to all men, to set unity and concord between all men. Moreover he must be godly & gentle in all his words and deeds, faithful, trusty and constant. For faith, as Cicero saith, is the foundation of justice: he must be also temperate in all things, using a mean between two extremities: modest, chaste, moderate, sparing, sober and shamefast.  
He must be strong withal, not in the force of the body, but in the operation of the mind: not fearful and weak minded in the time of trouble, not to be dashed out of countenance with every mishap or evil fortune, but boldly to go against it. Let him not be suddenly moved & feared, but be of a strong courage how soever the matter chance or happen. Yet let him bridle his greedy desire and wrathful anger above all things, neither desire foolish gauds as children, neither let him moved with anger do any thing. Therefore Plato, being asked what manner of men was strongest: he answered, he which can refrain his own anger.  
Finally, a virtuous man ought to observe these two precepts. First, that he be such a one as he would have himself counted to be. As Cicero saith in his second book of Offices, that Socrates said, 
Cicero. li. 2. offi.  the way unto glory is short & easy to be adopted, if every man study to be as he would he should be esteemed. The second precept is, that he take heed lest he lose the name of an honest man, by this precept of ovid. 
Omnia si perdas, famam servare memento, 
ovidius.   
Qua semel amissa, postea nullus eris.  Which is in English. If thou lose all things, remember to keep thy name & honest fame, which, when thou hast lost, thou shalt be regarded as no body. And that every man may keep it, let him learn and follow this precept of Horace, 
Horatius.  written in his Epistles.  
Inter cuncta leges & percontabere doctos,  
Qua ratione queas traducere lenitèr aeuum.  
Amongst all things, read & demand the learned clerks, how and by what means thou mayst lead thy life peaceably.   

¶ Of old age.  
THe sixth last age, is old age, to the which age, wisdom and prudency are propriate, which old men have gotten and adopted, either by the long course of their life, either by knowledge or experience. Wherefore their office and duty is, as Cicero saith, in his first book of Offices, 
Cicero li. 1. offi.  to adjuvate and help young men, their friends, and the public weal, with good council and wisdom. In consideration whereof, Romulus the first builder of the City of Rome, elected and chose an hundredth aged persons, as livius writeth, who for their counsel & wisdom, should have the government of the City. And therefore of this word, Senibus, for aged men the Senate was called, Senatus, which is as much to say, as a collection or company of old aged men, that the old men should he Rectors and Guides of Cities, & an example of honesty to young men. In which respect honour & dignity is attributed and given unto them as to the Image & portiture of wisdom, the doctors and teachers of honesty and virtue. Furthermore, it is the office & duty of old men, to fly avarice and covetousness, which reigneth in them plentifully: and also that they eschew all sloth and lasciviousness, weighing with themselves, what the grey hairs in their head and the crooked body postulateth & requireth. Truly that they use grave and virtuous manners and conditions, and remember that they do daily draw nearer & nearer death, and that their grave is at hand. Their body is bowed down towards the ground, whereby they may know, that by death they shall immediately enter into earth. Wherefore they ought to set a side all the pleasures and delights of the world, and give themselves wholly to look for death, and abide his coming. Wherefore it were good that they knew this verficle of Horace.  
Lusisti satìs, edisti satìs, atque bibisti, 
Horatius,   
Tempus abire tibi est, ne potum largius aequo  
Rideat, & pulset lasciva decentius aetas.  
Quae erga alios, deum et homines deceat honestas.  
Now youthful age hath run his race,  
an hoary head we see:  
From trifling toys & Bacchus far  
averted look thou be.  
For earth doth challenge all her right,  
and death doth watch her pray:  
With stealing steps, even as by night  
the thief doth us assay.  
Whilst time permits for mercy crave  
in virtue tend thy race:  
Do good for ill, so shalt thou have,  
in heaven a dwelling place.  
Hodiè mihi, cras tibi.  
Cito pede labitur aetas.  
Dum vires annique, sinunt, tolerate laborem,  
jam venict tacito curua senecta pede.    

¶ The third Chapter.  
IT availeth but a little to have the knowledge of virtue and honesty, unless it be practised and had in ure. 
Cicero.  For Cicero in Offic. saith: Quod omnis laus virtutis, non in cognition, said in actione, consistet. The praise of virtue consisteth not in knowledge thereof, but in the using & function thereof. And in his book de Amicitia, 
Lib. de Amicitia.  he sayeth: Tum virtutis praemium & fructus maxime capitur, quum in proximum quenque confertur. The greatest fruit & profit of virtue, is when it is employed to the commodity of all thy neighbours. The use of Virtue must be referred, both towards God, & also towards man, for we were borne in the obedience, both of God & man: Notwithstanding, we own one duty towards God, and another to man.  

¶ What our duty is to God wards.  
Honesty to God wards, consisteth in the adoring and worshipping of god. 
Lactantius lib. 3.  As Lactant. writeth in his third book: Seruiendum est religioni. We must do reverence to religion, the which, who so doth not imitate, prostrateth himself towards the ground, he followeth the life of beasts, and utterly secludeth all humanity, & courtesy: for in the knoweledging and worshipping of God, all wisdom and sapience consists only.  
Wherefore, if any man will question with him who studieth perfect wisdom, for what cause he was borne into this world: he will answer him by and by, that he was borne to worship, honour, and obey the omnipotent and eternal God, who created us for that cause, that we should serve him as our Lord and creator.   

¶ Of our duty towards men.  
IMmediately and next after God, we own a duty and a reverence towards men: 
Lactantius  For as Lactantius writeth in his book: It is the first office and duty of justice to be joined with God, secondly with man. And Christ in his sacred gospel saith: Love thy Lord God, and thy neighbour as thyself. Man aught to be as a God to men, in mercy, in lenity, & piety, aiding the fatigated & laborious, helping the poor and needy with food and living, defending the fatherless and poor widows cause. Secondly, what we own to every man, I shall declare hereafter.   

¶ Of our duty towards our Country.  
THe first and highest place among men, our native Country possesseth: to whom the old ancient Philosophers (as Phille. writeth in his fourth book de educat liberorum) gave the pre-eminence above parents, 
Phil. li. 4. de educat. liberorum.  in consideration that we were more bound to our country than to our parents: for which cause, 
Plato.  Plato said: that our Country claimeth part of our birth, for we were born to profit our Country: for we may profit our country five ways, or with five kind of people: first, with labour, for the honour and praise of our Country, to study and endeavour us to be such, and so to remain, as in time to come, we may be an honour to our country, and that it, by the means of us, may aggregate & heap up glory to itself for ever.  
Secondly, if she be foolish and unlearned, to instruct her with prudency and counsel. For it is our duty to teach the ignorant. Thirdly that we provide and prepare our commodity and profit, that even in the same we may be thankful to the land which hath borne, nourished & brought us up. Fourthly, that we defend her either with prudence, or with strength and force, howsoever the time & necessity shall require. Fifthly, if need require, and that she can not otherwise be redeemed ans delivered, that we prepare ourselves, even to die in her defence and quarrel, which death is esteemed and reputed most honest. Hereupon Horace said: 
Horat.  Dulce, & decorum est, pro patria mori. which thing many men have ventured, as you may read more plainly in Livius works.   

¶ Our duty towards our parents.  
NExt after God and our Country, we ought to reverence and obey our parents, as we are commanded, both by the sacred & profane scriptures, and them we must also worship, both with virtue and honesty. We ought to show five points of honesty towards our parents. First, in fulfilling their will and pleasure in honest things. Secondly in serving them to the uttermost of our power. Thirdly, in honouring them, both in words and deeds, not to mutter or murmur against them. In deed and gesture, to reverence them, bare headed & bended knees. Fourthly, in adorning us, that is to say, by our profit in virtue & knowledge, that they may at some times get praise and honour of us in the presence of other, not to degenerate from them in honest condition & virtuous living. Fifthly, in nourishing them, if that they be overladen with poverty or age, which things beasts do use, and especially the Curlewes who feed their parents in their old age. 
Cicero, de Orat.  And Cicero in his book de, Orat. hath this saying: Pietas, nihil aliud est, quàm humanitas erga parents, Piety, is nothing else than gentleness to our parents. 
Franciscus Phile. de educat. liberorum.  Franciscus Philel. de educat. liberorum, writeth in his third Chapter of the same book concerning the duty of children to their parents, that albeit they be not able during their life, to render sufficient grateful thanks, yet they ought to do to the uttermost of their power, what they may, using them most gently, most courteously, attending on them diligently, favouring their benign persuasions, obeying their easy commandments, to prove & allow their wills, pleasures & deliberations, either to go or to tarry, either to spouse at their determinations, as though they were divine and celestial words and commandments, not to rebel or mutter when as they shall be stirred with the instigation of collar, patiently to abide their mines & threatenings. But when as they shall bid or command that which is unhonest or unlawful to refuse, but gently & reverently without cursing or evil speaking.   

¶ What chance hath befallen them, which have not given ear to their parents teachings.  
THey which have been wicked and froward to their parents, have never prospered, as old writers do record. Orestes a Grecian, because he slew his mother Clytaemnestra, was transformed into one of the furies of hell. And Naero a Roman Prince, because he was a parricide over his mother, was ever after counted for the most tyrant on earth. In the ancient time within the City of Rome, the parents slayers were yerked and punished with a most vile death, for they were included within a sack of leather, with the company of dogs, serpents, and cocks, and so dimitted headlong into the depth of the Sea.   

¶ Of the duty towards our Schoolmasters.  
COnsequently after our parents, we own reverence to schoolmasters and instructors, for they are other parents: for which consideration, the Gentiles would have scholmasters in the place & room of parents. 
Juvenal.  As Juvenal writeth in his Satyrs. For Schoolmasters are parents of minds, for they give the life of the mind, that is to say, knowledge and virtue, where as parents give but only the life of the body. In respect whereof, schoolmasters are to be regarded next after parents, and are worthy of no less reverence. 
Phille. li. 4 Cap. 7.  For as Phill. writeth in his fourth book & seventh Chapter, it is daily seen how they flourish in learning, which have obeyed their Schoolmasters documents. Amongst whom Traianus the Emperor triumphed, & Caesar commended and praised of all men in his time for his excellent & singular virtue. And this man reverenced & adored his master Plutarch, most willingly and worthily. M. Antonius a Roman, the holiest & most sincere Prince, did erect golden Images in his house in the honour of his Schoolmasters. Cicero also the Prince of eloquence, for that he was esteemed the finest Latinist in earth, he celebrated his masters severally, and by name in his egregious works. And as many as have at any time exceeded in learning and honesty, have worshipped fervently, loved & worthily magnified and extolled their instructor by whom they received those former virtues.   

¶ Of those who have dishonoured and defamed their instructors and Masters.  
Such as have contemned & vituperated their teachers, have in the end proved most dull-headed dolts, and most vile and filthy in conditions. As amongst which, Naero that cruel tyrant was chief, whom all writers condemn and accuse guilty of over much wickedness: for he slew his Scholmaster Seneca most cruelly and most villainously. For in remunerating his stripes that he had suffered of his master in his youth, instigated incontinently with the furious rage of collar, & for the currish malice he bore unto virtue, & virtuous men, sent unto him by a Centurion to elect & choose his death, with diobolical fury when as he perceived, desired to be set in a vessel of hot water, and to have his veins opened, and so to die, which malecious crime and contempt of his master, declared the blunt filed wit of Nuro. furthermore, Beroal. in orat, proverb, 
Beroaldus in orat. proverb.  saith, that who so seeketh fame by the malidiction & backbiting of his Master, shall become slanderous himself, & shall be expulsed the company of honest men as a reprobate, he shall be feared as a Viper, and he shall be a common hate, as though he had slandered his parents, for the Master is the parent and the shape of the mind, whom unless we honour in every place and among all men, we have condignly deserved to be called flagitious and malapert.   

¶ Offices towards our Masters.  
WHerefore, we ought to show four kind of duties towards our Masters. First, to love them as entirely as our parents. Secondly, in all honesty to obey their commandments. Thirdly, to be grateful and thankful unto them, during this life.  
Fourthly, that we labour with vigilant study to become as expert in knowledge as themselves, or rather more. This is a lawful and and a decent contention for scholars to contend, either to be equal with his master in knowledge and science, either else to exceed him. And so, many have grown more perite and skilful than their Masters: As Beroaldus gloried that he had had many Masters, & in the end read lector to them all.   

¶ Towards our Kinsfolks and Affinity.  
WHat our duty is towards our Kinsfolks & Affinity, which are joined unto us in blood, either by father or mother side, our own reason shall persuade us sufficiently, that we be unto them as unto ourselves, to love them as ourselves, for they are nothing else but even as other we. They are parts & members of our blood, of our stock, and of our progeny, wherefore we take them for none other, than the proper members of our own body, that whatsoever we would not have done unto us, that same we should depel from them, no less to profit them, than ourselves, otherwise we should be worthily called ingrate. Even as he is justly termed a fool which favoureth one part of his body more than an other, so he shall merit the name of a thankless person, which will not be ready to help his cousin of his own blood, both with aid, and also with counsel, for the law of nature biddeth us so to do.  
And in the Gospel of our Saviour jesus Christ, we are commanded to love our neighbours as ourself. And they are but right neighbours, who be of our affinity and kindred.   

¶ Towards Friends.  
FIfthly, we ought to reverence our Friends, which reverence we are taught sufficiently of the most famous Clerks, and especially of Cicero, in his book, de amici. For there are six duties to be done to our Friends. First, demand of our friends nothing which is indecore or dishonest, neither to do aught for thy friends pleasure, but that which shall be decent & lawful. The second, is to rejoice no less at thy friends prosperity than at thine own. In adversity to lament his case and fortune, and to revive, consolate, and comfort him agine, either with counsel or otherwise, to the uttermost of thy power, not to forsake them, playing the part as Swallows, 
Cicero. li. 4 Reth.  who (as Cicero writeth in his fourth book of Rhetoric) will be with you during the Summer, but as soon as they perceive Winter coming, they fly altogether away into the hotter countries. The third law, is to will and nill the self same thing with our friends, our studies and delectations to be all one with theirs. For contrary studies & divers conditions, interrupt and burst the bounds and limits of friendship: As Cicero writeth in the same book. 
Cicero.  The fourth, is to do nothing more to our friends than we would be done unto. For Cicero saith: 
Cicero.  Amicus est quasi alter idem. Thy friend is as an other thou, & be one heart in two bodies, therefore we ought to love them, as ourselves, that we labour with love to overcome them, and not to be overcommend of them, which is the most filthy thing on earth. Fifthly, friendship is to be weighed, (as Cicero saith) not for the hope of gain or lucre, as the common sort use now a days, that ceasing the profit, they will also forget familiarity: but friendship is to be looked in the only love of the heart, and then it shall continue longest: and then we shall be more readier to give our friend a gift, than to receive one of him. The sixth and last is, often times to obey our friends. For as Terence saith: 
Terentius  Obsequum amicos parat. Diligence getteth friends. Furthermore, not to cast in his teeth to whom thou hast given thy gift. For as Cicero saith, it is an odious kind of people upbraiding their duties, which ought to have remembered to whom he did them, and not who did them. 
Cicero. li. 2. vet. r.  And in his second book veteris rhetor. he saith: Imprudens est ille qui pro beneficio non gratiam sed mercedem postulat. He is a fool, who for his benefit looks not for thanks, but for a reward. But in case we shall at any time receive a profit at our friends hand, we are commanded by the same Cicero to imitate the fertile fields, who surrender more unto the sour than they received. In like manner ought we in friendship, if we be able, to render more than we received, either else to say we are not of ability to recompense them with like measure, yet if fortune laugh at any time more amiably, I hope to be grate and thankful.   

¶ Towards fellows.  
THat familiarity of men which we do nuncupate society, is in all points like amity. For society is nothing else than a friendly familiarity, conjunct and joined within themselves. And in choosing thy companions and fellows, thou must first labour to choose them that be honest and of a good name, by whom thou mayest learn to amend thy faults. And when as we have gotten such honest and allowable Mates, we must so behave ourselves toward them, as we may keep these six precepts. First, that we be to them as to our friends. Secondly, that we observe these .v. things of which Terence speaketh in his Comedy of Andria, 
Terentius in Andr.  that is, that we learn and frame ourselves to abide and suffer the manners, rites, ieastures of our fellows, not to be moved to anger at every word spoken, but to bear all things patiently & with a merry countenance, and also that we apply our selves wholly to the honest beckonings & signs of our fellows. Thirdly, to practise their meditations, to do as they do, if at the least it be honest, wherefore, it is a common proverb: Vivendum est moribus praesentium, vel sive (quod aiunt) capitis non esse morosum. We must live after the fashions of others, and not after the fancy of our own head. Fourthly, that we be adversary to none, but to fly & avoid strife, discord, and brawlings. In no case to sow discord. Fifthly, that we prefer ourselves before none, and that we esteem not ourselves better than the rest, but equal. Whereupon it is a common saying, among fellows there ought to be no order but one equal with the other, and no extolling of one above the other. And to these little Precepts we may well add two more, of which the first is, not to bite nor slander thy fellows behind their back. The second is, to reprove thy fellow, if he offend (but that gently & in a secret place) not before the rest, for that is to contemn and despise thy fellow, and not friendly to tell his fault: for friends reprove the faulty secretly, and flatterers opennly before the multitude.   

¶ Towards aged men.  
THe old grey headed man whom old age hath arrested, ought also to be reverenced, for he deserveth honour for his long life, in which (what with experience, use and knowledge) he hath learned much prudency. In consideration whereof, he ought to be honoured as the mansion house of knowledge, as in whom all wisdom is lodged. And there be three things wherewith aged men are to be reverenced. First, 
Cicero.  as Cicero saith in his Offices, that their labours may be diminished for lack of strength of the body, which by age is abrepted. Secondly, they are to be reverenced with gentle, chaste and modest words, to be nominate by the friendly name of Father or Mother, not to oppress them with opprobries, as nequitie us knaves, but to say or do nothing before them, but that which shall be both civil and allowable. Whereupon Ovid in his fifth the Fast. hath these pretty verses.  
Magna fuit quondam capitis veverentia tam  
Inque suo praecio ruga senilis erat.  
Verba quis auderet coram sene digna rubore  
Dicere? censur am longa senecta dabit.  
Have some regard & bear in mind,  
thine elders to salute.  
Acknowledge them as thou dost stud,  
thy betters constitute.  
As sage and grave, in honesty  
the perfect Lantern light:  
Which thou oughtest of a certainty  
to follow with thy might.  
Thirdly, we must follow them, both in deeds and ieastures, that descend from honesty, to reverence them humbly with making courtesy modestly, which thing the old ancient Romans did diligently keep and observe, ordaining this law, if any passed by an aged man, not uncovering his head, he should suffer the punishment of the head.   

¶ Towards Women.  
WE own also a reverence to honest & virtuous women, for two causes. First, because they are our mothers, and our Nurses', & take more pain in bringing up children, than the father doth. Secondly, because that with shamefastness they worship virtue, which virtue is much esteemed, as we read of many Matrons amongst the Historiographers. Therefore they ought to be reverenced with a triple kind of honesty. First, to temper thy tongue, when as thou comest among them from lascivious & wanton talk. For when as they be shamefast, there ought nothing to be spoken before them, but what shall be honest and decent. Secondly, to refrain from uncomely ieasture or behaviour, which make the man vicious. All things must be done modestly, for it becometh us to use such ieasture and manners as the company is. Therefore when as women are taken for worshippers of shamefastness, it becometh us also to be shamefast and chaste when as we happen among them. Thirdly, to avoid all brawling, & fight amongst them, for they be weak & unable to resist them which do them wrong, and it shall be but small praise to overcome a woman, either else to strike her as the saying is.   

¶ Toward strangers and peregrines.  
THere be also four offices or duties of virtue to be done towards strangers and peregrines. First, we ought to receive and use them, with a Godly and a gentle language, that they may know they come to men, and not to cruel & rigorous beasts. They are not to be scoffed and mocked at, 
Plautus:  whereupon Plautus writeth in his Comedy named Penulus: servum hercle te esse oportet & nequam & malum hominem, peregrinum atque advenam qui irrideas. Thou must needs be a slave, & an evil and naughty man, which deridest a stranger. Secondly, showing them that which they know not in our country, not to deceive them, for that they are ignorant of many things used with us, for that bringeth rather dispraise than praise of our country, for it is an easy thing to beguile the ignorant. 
Erasmus de instr. Prin. Chr.  Erasmus writeth in his book de instruc. Prin. Christianorum, that Plato should sometime have said, that they ought diligenly to respect that strangers take no more wrong than Citizens, for that they wanting friends should suffer more wrong. And therefore the Gentiles thought that jupiter was the revenger of strangers wrongs, and named jupiter for that cause Xontnon.  
Thirdly, to show them the way, when as they shall demand it, or be ignorant, not to show them to take the left hand, when as they should take the right, for that is a most wicked fact to bring a stranger out of his way, without our profit, for it is the property of a thief & a prayseeker to show a stranger willingly a wrong way, whereby he may trap him in his snare, and so murder him. Fourthly, to harbour them and suffer them to dwell with us. For which cause the Gentiles worshipped hospitality as a holy & sacred thing, and named jupiter the God of Hospitality, because it was a godly and a religious thing to host strangers: And therefore Dido Queen of Carthage as Virgilius writeth in his first book of Eneidos, 
Virgilil. li. 1. Aenei.  when she received Aeneas with the other Trojans into hospitality, she invocated jupiter in a banquet, as the giver of meat to guests. And the ancient Romans received and took many strangers into their City, which in length of time were made moderators and rulers of the City. 
Li. de urb. Livius.  As Livius writeth in his book de urbe condita. And Beroal. saith, that in old time peregrine's and strangers were more diligent & obedient than Citizens. And that at Rome strangers were made great Magistrates, counsellors, and Praetors. As in the days of Numa and Tarqvinius many peregrines were Counsellors, & they had also a stranger Pretore which expounded the laws to the strangers.   

¶ Towards our adversaries and enemies.  
WE ought also to be virtuous towards our enemies, & to keep four precepts. 
Cicero, li. officio.  First, as Cicero biddeth us in his book of Offices. Etiam et fides praestita, servanda est hostibus, ut nūo Euquitum lex & cousuetudo est. Promised faith ought also to be observed with thy enemy, as the law and custom of Knights requireth. Who so ever be taken of any and let go, he being called back again of the same, ought to come again, otherwise he shall be expulsed the book of the noble victorious and stout knights. Secondly, if thy adversary or enemy provoke thee, or wrong thee unjustly, or threaten to fight with thee, thou ought not by and by revenge and bite again, for that is the property and nature of brute beasts. But first, endeavour to pacify the matter gently, with friendly friends, as Terence writeth in Eunuchus. Omnia prius verbis, 
Terentius  quam armis experiri sapientem decet, nihilque excisa faciendum improvidè. A wise man ought to try all things first with gentle words, before he fight, neither ought he to do any thing rashly and unadvisedly in the heat of his fury. Thirdly, if thou be wronged, it is better to forgive and remit that wrong, than to infer wrong again, for the most worthy kind of revenging, is to forgive, & not render like for like. 
Erasmus de insti. Prin. Chr.  Erasmus in his book, de institut. Princ. christ. saith: that it denoteth a weak and faint hearted man to revenge his wrong. Iwen. in his twelve Satire, saith: that none desireth more to revenge than a woman. and therefore she shall be unworthy of a husband. Fourthly, if that by no means we may depel & shake off the wrongs of our enemy, unless we do the like to him again, then ought we to imitate that saying of Virgil in his twelve book of Eneid. 
Virg. li. 12. Aeneidos.  Quo deus & quo dura fortuna sequamur. Let us try it as it pleaseth God, and as hard fortune shall lead us. Fortune and virtue are knit both in one, let us hardly and boldly resist with weapons as Livius writeth of the Roman nations: we ought for no other cause to fight, than to live afterwards in peace, & not to seek revenge of our enemies.   

¶ Towards our Lords and Masters whom we serve.  
WE own a quadruple reverence toward our Masters whose bread we eat, and whom we serve. First, we ought to be prompt & ready in all things, to obey their precepts and commandments, not to go about our business creeping like a Snail, to use no sluggishness, take no grief nor slack our Master's commandment. Secondly, we ought to be faithful and trusty to them, without deceit, fraud, or guile, not to flatter them before their face, and to speak evil of them behind their back. Thirdly, we ought to advantage and profit them, in foreseeing and avoiding their discommodity, more to regard and seek their commodity and benefit than our own, sooner to dispatch our Master's business than our own. And if we shall see our master sustain any loss or hindrance we ought to avoid the same. Fourthly, we must be mute at two times. First, we must not chat again when our master speaketh, yea & though we sometimes are better, neither must we also be altogether dumb: whereupon Plaut. in his comedy of the glorious soldier, saith: 
Plautus.  Oportet servum plus scire quam loqui: It behoveth a servant to know more than he speaketh. Secondly, he ought to keep close his Master's secrets from other men, and not gaggle them abroad. For taciturnity greatly commendeth a servant.   

¶ Towards a Magistrate.  
WE own moreover a triple duty to magistrates & high Rulers. First, we ought obediently to obey their laws and ordinances: not to be interrupters of the law, but fulfillers of the sme, for laws be nothing more than precepts & documents of well and righteous living: neither to repugn nor make insurrection against them is a happy thing, for the fly getteth nothing by biting the Elephant, neither doth it advantage the Scarbet to seek the Eagle. Secondly, we ought not to slander them, neither by word, nor by deed: for he speaketh not safely nor yet writeth not surely, which speaketh or writeth against those which have power and authority to bind and condemn him. Neither is it a decent thing, to sting or hurt them whose study and labour is night and day to preserve, defend, and virtuously to moderate the common weal. Thirdly, if they shall require any tribute, ye ought gently to give them, for by that means Regions & Cities are defended, maintained, and upholded, otherwise the flourishing flower would soon fade away and whither. 
Livius. lib. 2.  For as Livius writeth in his second book: De Vrbe condita. Si coetera corporis membra stomacho cibum non suppeditarent, simul cum ipso fame perirent. If the other members and parts of the body should not help the stomach with meat, they should together perish with the stomach for hunger. So likewise unless Citizens & Inhabitants of the City help the Princes and Magistrates of the same with faculties and money, they shall together be overcome and slain with their Prince.    

¶ What is decent at all times and places.  
The fourth Chapter.  
IN the usage of honesty, and none otherwise of virtue place and time are much to be regarded: of the which two respects except reason in the pre-eminence of Principality, bear sway, nothing, (or at the least) very little, shall the knowledge of virtue, or practising of the same profit at all. For the sacred Theologians, interpreters of the divine Scriptures, make mention that sins and heinous offences are by place and time, aggravate; and also eased by the same. To the limits of these two, or as it were borders adjoining honesty or virtue, specially be adiected. For in divers places, divers and strange things are to be frequented, as decent, fit, and lawful. Which if they be not to any known, or very few imitate, although they have been students in the school of Virtue, yet as vicious people shall they be imputed, if by ignorance how, in time, and place, to behave themselves do blear their drowsy eyes. Therefore Macrobius. lib. 7. Saturn. saith: Nothing is more nigh unto wisdom, than to fit our communication in convenient place or tyme. Also Pytacus Mytil. commanded time to be acknowledged, that whatsoever we did practise to finish, first, we should see the opportunity of time, for he esteemed or supposed that to be the best in any matter. And hereupon Terence said. 
Terentius  I came in season which is the chiefest point of all. But how a man may according to the proverb, be Omnium horarum homo, these words following will openly manifest and declare.  

¶ What manner of the honesty at banqueting is required.  
PLaces and times are divers wherein men convent, assemble or talk, but especially the place or time of banqueting, if so be that at the least any jest appointed be there present. For it is no less hurt than damage to all men, to pamper the belly, or to live immoderately, as a man might say at the feast of drunken Bacchus, as one of his tippled Prelates.   

¶ Six honest or virtuous precepts, worthy at Meals to be imitated and observed.  
THe first observation as Macrobius saith lib. 7. 
Macrobius.  Saturnalium) is to esteem, ponder, or think by the guests as they be, meaning of what substance, what dignity or authority. The second (as the same Macrobius relateth,) is for every man, to see when place is fit, or convenient, not to talk or comen of Philosophy, at times prepared, with sustenance to refresh the body. Therefore Socrates at a certain time, 
Socrates.  being demanded at a banquet, that he would manifest something by communication, answered: I know not those things which present time and place requireth, and the same which I am not ignorant in, are not decent as now to be uttered, supposing that those grave questions whereof the Philosopher's reason in the school, be not fit at banquets, as banqueting dishes to be served.  
thirdly, they are called for strife or contention rather, yea, it sooner ariseth, by quaffing or canvasing, of the pots, than any otherwise at all. Fourthly, let there be a mean observed in eating or drinking, according to these two precepts, that is to say: let thy meat be taken without gluttony, and thy drink without ebrietle. Fifthly, 
Plautus  these seven precepts of Plautus comoed. Militis gloriosi. Every man must imitate. Let him be, no caviller, a profitable jest, no tatler, obstinent from all discomodity, a speaker at due time, a keeper of quiet, till another declare his fantasy, a small interrupter of men's talk, no busy demander of questions. Sixtly, let him not be an opener or blazer abroad of things, spoken, heard, seen, or done. Therefore Horace in his sixth Epistle, calling a greast Foronatum, promiseth that he would take charge, that there should be none at the banquet, that would declare any thing without the Threshald of the door. And Beroaldus, declareth, that it was the custom of certain Gentiles, their appointed jest entering their house, to show to them their Threshald, saying: without this is there nothing, meaning, take heed how you utter those things abroad, which you hear at the table: wherefore also in our time this is the fashion, to have Roses painted above or over the table, that under them our communications at repast, might be kept, and not scattered any other where.   

¶ How to behave ourselves in honest sober company.  
IT is no small cunning, nay rather a great and egregious wisdom, to know how profitably to behave ourselves among men, that by our familiarity we may please others, & so to retain our mutual friends. Which things to bring to pass we had need of vij especial documents First, let us acustom ourselves to bear & suffer the manners, words, & deeds of men, & not by & by to sound the dog's letter. R. as though we would bite (if to us any damage they infer) but as witting nothing of the same, let us seem to wink. For to be snapping & snarring, or at the least, angry at a small offence, is the point or manifest token of a weak man, not able to bridle his own nature. Secondly, let us subscribe to their arbitrement & sentence, that our willing and nilling might be unto us with them, that is to say, to consent to that which they do require, & eschew those things which are not good, but rather lurk as mischievous baits, to entangle the unwary. Thirdly, to be obedient to their advice, works and endeavouring, as diligent Students of that discipline or learning, which they imitate. For where the pestiferous dissension of works hath a resting place, there in a short moment, the shrill convict is song. Fourthly, let us not hate unworthily any man, in proferring of strife or injury, either by mocking words, or wicked communication. Fifthly, let us presume before no man, though we be their betters, of more ability in substance or treasure. Let us not hinder them, for as much considering we would not take it in good part, to be hindered ourselves. Sixtly, we must be easily entreated, and readily girded, that where soever time or place require, we may show gentleness to other. For, 
Terentius  Obsequium parit amicos, intermissun inimicos peperit semper. The other manners and rites, daily use and experience which is the mistress of things doth teach.   

¶ In mutual or friendly communication, praeceptiunculae.  
IN the friendly talk or communication of men, there are eight precepts or rules of virtue, as necessary to be imitated. Not to trouble other men's communication, but to refrain thy tongue from speech, and have a regard to the conclusion of their words. And hereupon arose the common proverb. Two may sing but not be understand: for the talk of the one hindereth the speech of the other, that it can not be fully percieved. To take away no man's honour, either absent or present: for there is no theft greater, no robbery worser, than the taking away of a man's fame. Nothing hath he to use after life & death but fame, which once being fleted, 
ovid.  as Ovid saith, afterward he is nothing (that is) of no estimation or effect. We ought to have a regard what we speak of any man, lest some being present at our talk, receive damage thereby, especially our friends or familiar acquaintance. We may utter nothing, whether it be a fond tale or wise talk, having before our eyes, that it may as well hinder as profit. Let every man therefore take heed how to reason of any new matters, or trifles, lest he be counted (as you may term him) the loder of long tongue Mill. For he that as a new upstart meddleth in every man's case, is judged a trifling merchant, fight under the ensign of the lying army. Make not inquisition upon other men's secrets, for two causes. The first is, because it standeth ill with those oftentimes whose secrets are known. The second, insomuch that the demaunders or question askers, be judged betrayers or (secrets once known) bewraiers of the same, whereby the foresaid might sustain a marvelous detriment. Whether a man be sober or drunken, as witnesseth Horatius, 
Horatius.  let him keep his own counsel, for uttering his inward thoughts, he is judged worse than a thief. For secrets oft times perform a confession of those things which be proloyned by latrones or evil disposed persons, none will speak things but either understood or known, except he be a backbiter, or some false tattling Sycophant.   

¶ Whilst we be in talking with an honest name, how to behave ourselves.  
ERasmus in his book entitled Colloquia saith. As often as any man speaketh unto thee, to whom thou owest honour or reverence, frame thyself to the right state of thy body, with cap in hand, thy countenace indifferent, neither sadly nor fleringly, but keeping the mean of modesty, thine eyes chaste, always fixed upon him to whom thou speakest, thy feet close together, thy hands not busy, but always quiet, not wavering with tattering feet, nor trifling with thy fingers, neither biting thy lips, scratching thy head, or picking thine ears. Also let thy garments comely adorn thy body, that thy reverence, thy countenance, thy behaviour & appareling of thy body might declare a notable modesty and chaste disposition of thy mind.   

¶ In walking abroad with others: a certain note or onseruation.  
IF it happen, or chance that we walk abroad or sojourn with any man, it is necessary and convenient that we be decked as it were with nine manners. First, clement in communication, gentle or easy to be spoken with: for Plautus saith, that a pleasant companion, by the way is as it were a Chariot, easing the weariness of our journey. If we be in dignity inferior, we must go on the left side, or else behind, & not cheek by cheek, except that good leave or licence be permitted. Likewise we must not use an over swift pace, but a decent and temperate festination, 
Cicero in Officiis.  as Cicero in Officiis willeth us. In going of a journey, or from place to place, let us not commaculate our wayfaring companion, but let us so moderate our feet and foot steps, that we sprinkle not the other with mud or dirty baggage. Let us speak with a low voice, & not with a boasting tongue. Let us honour whom we meet by the way, in giving them the upper hand, and by other means whereby reverence is exhibited, saluting obuied people, for it is a gentle, a laudable and Godly point. 
Cato.  Therefore Cato once said: Saluta libenter. Salute every man willingly. For salutation is none other thing, than to wish health, or good success to any man. Also let us put off our Caps, and uncover our heads, which is a manifest sign of humbling ourselves, and acknowledging that we be inferiors to the foresaid, which Christ commanded us, to appear, I mean humble and not lusty in mind & heart.   

¶ How to behave ourselves in a prosperous strate or tyme.  
TIme also requireth his comeliness or good usage, for either by time we offend more or less. Time is double, either that is to say, merry or prosperous, else heavy, sorrowful, or infortunate. Time, if it be lucky, or blessed, a quadruple comeliness is to be observed. First of all not to boast to high, & rejoice whilst fortune laugheth at our success, which was wont to be done among the common people as Juvenal allegeth. Nescia mens hominum rebus modum servare secundis. exhorting that the ignorant mind of men not knowing what would happen hereafter, should observe a merry mean in their prosperity.  
Secondly, not to mock & despise him before us, as though we were happier than he who fortune frowneth against. For this boasting and glorying in mind, is that which is most odious in the sight of God. Thirdly, to fear & always be careful, lest fortune lowringly should be mutable or changed with us. For she is more unconstant than the wind, and is said to stand on a turning wheel, so that she can not persist in one state. Therefore in times past a certain Philosopher waxed very sorrowful in his richest state, knowing that after prosperity, adversity should arise. In this miserable estate he rejoiced, surely persuading himself, that after showers, fair weather should ensue, & after his pensiveness great joy and mirth should follow. Fourthly, giving thanks unto God for his great benevolence bestowed on us, that we may not be unthankful, but by our humility stir him up to increase us the more: Let us not forget God, for the felicity of fortune, as rich men were wont. and daily I fear me do, but let us remember him, pray unto him with thankful minds, that he might multiply and more prosper the friendly countenance of fortune, which he hath bestowed upon us, or else end the same by any indifferent mean.   

¶ In the time of adversity.  
But if that time be overcast with clouds and sorrowful, let us be armed or munited with six precepts. First of all, let us never discomfort our mind, as though hereafter we might not be more fortunate or happy, but let us hope with a valiant mind for better chance, and comfort ourselves with this saying of Virgil, 
Virgil.  Dabit Deus his quoque finem. God will finish these our troubles and calamities. Secondly, let us seek counsel to remedy this infelicity, either by our own wit, or else by the prudent advise of others. Thirdly, let us be mindful, of God, humbly making our Orison unto him, and not cursing his deity for the misery which we suffer, but that he would vouchsafe that trouble not long to continue, and bestow his grace upon us, to our salvation, that we may take in good part any cross which he shall lay upon us. Fourthly, we ought to rejoice, rather than to be sorry, that the same adversity hath light upon us, by the which at the hands of god, we may deserve, to have reward & be delivered from our sins. Fifthly, we must uphold, or as it were underprop our mind with a good hope, as if we suffered justly punishment for our offences, saying with the Poet ovid.  
Quae venit ex merito, poena ferenda venit.  

ovidius.  Quae venit indign spoena dolonda venit.  
That punishment that justly cometh,  
is not to repent:  
But that unworthily doth hap,  
is much to be lamented.  
Sixtly we must consider ourselves to be men, fight under the ensign of fortitude, & therefore a great shame to be feared with every shadow of adversity.   

¶ In serving and obeying others.  
IN performing obeisance, it behoveth us to be wise and sage, that our service might be acceptable unto those, on whom it is bestowed, lest our diligence and travail be laughed to scorn: for there are six notes to be observed. We must provide, that our service be profitable, unto whom it is offered. For he that giveth hurtful obeisance exhibiteth no friendship but rather destruction, let it be done in due season or time: 
Erasmus.  for as Erasmus testifieth, benefits out of season are the less to be regarded. And likewise hereunto is the common proverb replied. Charè constat praecibus quod emitur. That benefit is dear, which is bought with the penny. Defer not to finish therefore good turns requested, and especially already promised. For tardiness or delation of time, maketh friendship unthankful. Therefore, willingly, if thou have business in hand speedily to pleasure, whom thou countest a friend, finish the same with all celerity, lest thou be constrained, as in times past the Ass was, to drink unwillingly: or according to the proverb, trifle, gazing at the man in the Moon to no effect at all. The business of our friend ought to be done, as faithfully as our own, for herein the bright beams of friendship is declared. For Offices are esteemed like as the will of the performer, and the thanks of a former benefit perisheth, except it be renewed with an other.   

¶ The office or duty of a Magistrate.  
IF we bear the pre-eminence of a Magistrate, & dominate over others, as rulers and governors of them; it is necessary that especially we abound in four several points of wisdom. Let us behave ourselves, as we would every man should behold us: let us be wiser than the rest over whom we bear sway. For it is a filthy thing to be a superior in honour, & not in wisdom. By the excellency of the Magistrates authority, let us not with presumptuous minds despise other, playing Millitem illum Terentianun. But let us follow this saying of Cicero, 
Cicero.  the higher we be, the lower to submit ourselves, looking to the commodity of others more than to our own: for a Magistrate is a common person, not a private. Let us not hurt the innocent nor favour the offender, but in punishment let there be a mean, according to the fault, 
Cicero.  as Cicero saith. Let the rulers be like unto the laws which proceed with equity & justice, to punish the malefactor's. Let us have a regard to punish these ten vices from our common weals, perfidia, peculatus, avaritia, invidia, ambitio, obtrectatio, periurium, indiligentia, iniuria, & scelus, 
Plautus.  as Plautus commandeth in Per. Comoe. Let us think that many other things do become us, than those over whom we bear sway, & that our faults be sooner spied than the faults of our subjects, as learned Poets in times past have song.  

ovidius in Conso. ad Liviam.  
Non eadem vulgusque decent & lumina rerum,  
Est quod praecipuum debeas ista domus. ☜  
Ad cocilos auresque trabis, tua facta notamus  
Ned vamissa potest, Principis ere tegi.   

Claudianus.  
Hoc te praeterea crebro sermone monebo,  
 te totius medio telluris is in orb,  
Vivere cognoscas, cunctis tua, gentibus esse  
Facta palam, nec posse dari, regalibus usquam  
Secretum vitijs, nam lux altissima fati,  
Occultum nil esse sinit, latebrasque per omneis  
Intrat, & abstrusos explorat fama recessus.   

The chary charge of Consulship  
each wight doth well behold:  
Like as the carvers workmanship,  
adorned with fulgent gold.  
And therefore had the Magistrate  
need for to rule his land:  
The fective branch to dissecate,  
with equal sword in hand.  
The subjects eyes on him do blaze  
they listen in his talk:  
In this respect he need always  
uprightly for to walk.  
For openly his fasts are known  
no lurking place they find:  
His geffes through vapored airs are blown  
the Commons be not blind.     

¶ How virtue or honesty being adopted aught to be used, that it never might fleet again.  
The fifth Chapter.  
THat virtue and honesty once being known and obtained, might not departed, & we thereby led astray, three precepts following are to be graven in our breast, or insculped in our minds, that as a key or anchor, they might retain to us virtue, establish honesty, and ratify good manners. First of all, we must take heed of all things, which oppress or keep down probity, we must flee all the enticements of vices, all pleasures & wicked diliciousnesse, as riot & idleness. Hereupon Hermo Bar. said: He that will imitate virtue, must fly the belly God & the Harlot Venus. Secondly, we must think upon nothing, neither do any thing but that which is honest or nigh unto virtue, only let honest things be exercised and put in practice. In a good matter or thing let all our work be, all our labour, & all our thought. So at the last shall it come to pass, that we may be accustomed with virtue, no less than if it were graffed in us, hating vice as a Dog or a pestilent Serpent. 
Virgil.  Hereupon Virgil spoke saying: it is a great thing to be from our infancy accustomed with virtue. Nothing is of more effect, than daily use. Thirdly, peradventure a man would say, who can endeavour to meditate honest causes continually, but sometime he must play Dormiter Homerus, considering that no man is wise at every season. Therefore this third precept is to be embraced with hand and foot, with tooth and nail, that is to say, to banquet, or communicate with honest men, not separating by seduction ourselves from their company, as Cicero writeth that he never departed from Mutius Scoevola an old man. For it is a marvelous thing to be spoken how much the domestical or quotidian familiarity of men avail in manets, that almost it changeth and inverteth, nay, altogether varieth the nature of man: Therefore the Psalmist David writeth: 
David  Cum bono bonus eris, & cum malo perverteris. With the good thou shalt wax good, and with the wicked thou shalt learn wickedness. Therefore we shall be honest and so continue, as long as we be conversant with good persons, and live in such a Godly order.  
FINIS.    

¶ How a man may attain to the chief points of Christianity, or deduction of a Christian life.  

¶ Of what manner the institution of the first age ought to be.  
THe part of a Father, is to bring his child into the school, (the time of infancy being passed, & grown to the full perfection of seven years) to proceed and go forward in learning, if he covet to have him good, being flesh of his own body, and not a wanton, as the common parents do now a days nossell their children up. Therefore in time teach him modesty, pamper him not up with trifling toys, but keep him under with the rod of correction, that he may frame his life according to the prescribed rule of the sincere verity or word of God. Let him be punished if he offend: let him be praised, if he behave himself well and honestly: with threatening & stripes, let him be feared from vices: by exhortations, let him be progged to virtue: yea, and let the patron have a greater regard, to the manners of education of his child than the respect of his own bodily health: Let him commit him to teachers, grave, sage & witty, learned, quiet and virtuous, where he might taste of the pleasant fruit of learning, & sweet lyquours of the Latin speech: Let him bestow his time on those studeiss, which instruct the mind with precepts and documents. Among the which is Philosophy. This Nurse alone maketh a better nature of a good, a chaste nature of a wicked, and easier to be entreated. Let a Christian accustom himself, and learn that God must first be honoured as the well spring from whom all good things have their issue: let him learn to obey reason, and follow her in all the conversation of his life, as his chief captain and governor in word and deed. Let him covet or do nothing, but that which is honest and right. Let him also bridle his cogitations, the secrets whereof god the judge of all hearts will peruse.   

¶ God to be gratified of good men, and to punish the wicked.  
Dost thou think that righteousness is acceptable in the sight of God, and dost thou worship him as the Lord and maker of heaven and earth, dost thou praise his name day and night: that thereby thou mightest demerit the sight of him, by good & just works? Doubt nothing, but as he is able, so he can, and will gratify thee. For what is so agreeable unto him, as beneficence? and again, what is more alienate or strange, than unthankfulness? Therefore lest any should accuse him as unthankful, which live godly, he bestoweth his grace on them, as he letteth his anger drop upon wicked persons, adulterers, whoremongers, robbers & manslaughterers'. And when he seeth that there is no end of sinning, he ariseth at the last, to take punishment of the rebellious people, and blotteth out the wicked or hurtful.   

¶ Certain anger righteous, profitable and necessary.  
IF the servants, children, or disciples, learners I mean, whom we have under government, offend, we are angry reform them, we cry upon them to amend, we bridle them with correction, to make them good. This anger is no sin: for that which is wicked, doth much displease a good man, and whom lewdness doth grieve, he is much moved, if he see any offend. Therefore the father riseth up to avenge. The master commandeth rods to be in a readiness, not that he mindeth to hurt, but that he might practise discipline, correct eviil manners, and suppress to much lycentiousnes. God useth this just displeasure to subdue men and sinners, rewarding their wicked estate.   

¶ The refraining of anger on sins, to be vicious.  
THey are greatly to be reprehended which delay their displeasure from the wickedness of their underlings, and oftener than needs pardon their faults. By such like whether they be fathers, whether they be rulers or masters, the life of the offender is lost, by whose lenity out of season, or time, unbridled youthful age is nourished, and they themselves which have so small a regard, minister a great bived heap of grief. Here therefore we must not refrain from anger, but also if it be thrown down, we have occasion to stir it up again.   

¶ That we must give an account of our time spent.  
LEt every man make an account of those things which he hath received, which he hath expenced, because many an idle word hath escaped him. Whatsoever we hear of others, we ought to let it fly as it were by the gates of our ears. For there be certain precepts or rules of the tongue to be marked, so that the words which we utter, first come into the entry of the mind, before the mouth devulgate the same. Our stomach must after such a rate be pacified, that no opprobrious or wicked thing shoot out thereof. And if any thing be inwardly sprung up, by and by it is our part, by earnest study, and serious toil to pluck up the same by the roots.   

¶ Certain necessaries to be prepared in the travailing toward the life to come.  
AS they which travail into a far country, a little before they go thither, prepare or scracth together convenient things for their journey, lest they should perish through hunger by the way, so ought we to provide in the peregrination of this life, we must lay up the treasure of good works, of righteousness, of humility, of continency, and of all other virtues, the at what time, day or hour, God shall call us, to travail to the heavenly Paradise our Country, we might be found ready.   

¶ In this life we must wash away the filthiness of our sins.  
MY Christian brother, wash away thy sin by confession. For he that refuseth in this time to purge himself from his iniquity, afterward he shall not find consolation at the hand of God. For after death who shall confess the Lord? Here we must make a bickerment, here we must strive, lest in the paying day of the labourer's hire, we be counted as unprofitable servants, and so secluded the face of the Lord.   

¶ We must flee.  
IF thou exercise or practise virtue, other men seeing the same, they will not only praise thee, but glorify God which is in heaven. When they shall do so, them thy store shall increase, and God shall grant unto thee thy heart's desire, because that by thy good works, he is praised of them. Therefore study always, that thou be not an occasion of offending to any person. Paul said. Si cibus offenderit fratrem meum, nunquam in aeternum carnem comedam. If meat should offend my brother, I would never eat any.   

¶ The works of learning, or teaching must be joined with deeds.  
NO man ought to be contented in himself. For God will also, that we edify others, not by teaching only, but in life, in manners and conversation. Men covet rather examples than words, they do not so greatly mark the things that we speak, as the things we do. Good sayings or instructions in the schools do not so profit, as those things hurt, which wickedly we do. He that affirmeth words nay blessed are we, swimming only in that port, free from tribulation, void of care & possessing an everlasting rest, which Christ himself foreshowed to come, saying: A me discite, quia mitis sum & humilis cord, & invenietis requiem animabus vestris. Learn of me because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls.   

¶ How they should do, that are not able to fast.  
CAnst thou not fast? Deal more liberally to the poor, be ferventer in prayers to god, show thyself more ready to hear the divine mysteries & holy sermons or exhortations. Hast thou an enemy? do thy diligence to be reconciled. See that thou remove from thy mind all hatred or greedy desire of avengement, embracing gentleness or lenity. To this end fasting is appointed, that the lasciviousness of the flesh being refrained, we might speedily run as it were to fulfil the commandment of Christ.   

¶ What mischief Gluttony causeth.  
COuetest thou to have thy health? it behoveth thee then to flee sumptuous tables, & to much gluttony. For hereof ariseth the Gout, the headache, and the superfluity of pestilent humours. Intemperance, and to much swilling of wine, breadeth innumerable kinds of diseases   

¶ The goodness that ariseth of confession.  
HAst thou desfloured a virgin? hast thou committed adultery or any such like? Hasten to the confession of thy sin. Go to the Physician, that he may look upon thy soul, and heal thy grievous diseases. Here receive remedies: speak to thyself alone. Say, why hast thou offended? For the confession of those things wherewith we have grievously offended God, abolisheth our offences. Attend unto the Prophet, saying. Dic tu prior iniquitates tuas, ut iustificeris. Show thou first thine iniquities, that thou mayst be justified.   

¶ The regard of the soul, not to have so much tending to, as the body.  
THe charge of the soul is light and easy, for we spend nothing that it might have her health. On the contrary part, if the body be sick, what cost do we bestow? now upon Physicians, now upon other things, which we consume or waste more than need requireth. The soul hath none of these, unto the which, the reading of the Scriptures, is as meat, clothing, succour, or alms. For the ornaments wherewith we deck our bodies, be not daily prayers, confession of sins with tears, but pompous excess in clothing, & such like vanity of the world. Early in the morning we apparel us, we wash our face, lest any speck should cleave on the same. If all this be done for the preservation of the body, with how great a regard, ought the soul to be washed, that we might offer it loving, and beautiful unto the Lord.   

¶ Who is worthy to be called a man.  
NOt he which showeth a fair countenance, his nostrils, his eye lids, and the other members of his body, that is given unto virtue, flying vices, and obeying the commandments of the Lord, him mayst thou call a man. The word of God depriveth a sinner, by the name of man, than the which offender nothing is more miserable.   

¶ Giving of thanks to be much profitable to our life.  
NOthing can be more acceptable unto god, than daily giving of thanks, for so many benefits, which his gentleness hath bestowed on mankind. The voice of the Apostle is: be thankful, be not those benefits common to thee which he hath bestowed upon all men? Therefore gratify his name. For the remembrance of the benefits of Christ, is a good scholemistres to show us how we ought to frame our life. For she doth not suffer us to fall into sluggishness, and imitate the wicked-mans' practice. By this reason man differeth from the brute beast, that is, to praise, celebrate, and glorify the Lord, the only maker, creator and fashioner of all things. Great are the gifts which he hath bestowed upon us. He hath given us body and soul, sheep & oxen, with all the cattle of the field. Prophet's hath he sent which might instruct us, and correct man's wickedness. Finally, every kind of mortal creature waxing worse & worse, wickedness being spread abroad, & that which is most odious, the worshipping of Idols, he took compassion upon mankind, & sent his only begotten son into the earth, to take upon him man's nature, and appear to the justification of sinners. Let us therefore think day and night upon the great benefits of God, bestowed on us, yielding perpetual thanks unto him for the same.   

¶ Ebriety is wicked.  
Drunkenness blindeth man's senses and understanding, drowneth his mind, and forceth the foresaid creature to lie dead, as a trunk or block, unto whom God hath made all things subject. In the mean season he is mocked of all men, as well his wife, his children, as the rest of his household. His friends supposing this a dissehonour, draw themselves aside. They that be wicked persons, or his enemies rejoice, laugh him to scorn, and curse him, term him hog or swine, or such like beastly name, disdaining him, and working him all the injury they may.   

¶ A sempeternall name is not gotten in great buildings.  
With how great a desire now a days, do our Senators, Magistrates, Governors of the City. Lords, Bishops, and such like, build gorgeous houses, like unto the Palaces of Kings. If thou ask them, why they bestow so great cost, why they lay out such abundance of treasure? this is their answer. That they might leave behind them to their successors, some memorial sign or token, that the passers by might say, This house he builded. This cunning, or workmanship was made of his cost. O foolishness, O cares of men, how great vanity is there in substance? By this counsel, by this judgement, they building after such sort, purchase themselves no praise, as they suppose, but rather a great dishonour. For these words are bruited of them, being yet alive, as after their disease. To build this house, these Gates, that covetous man, that ravener, that devourer or spoiler of the comfortless widows, hath taken charge. Do they get a name by this means? or do they wrap themselves in eternal reproach? judge ye. If this be their only care, I will show them an other way how to possess the same. They must study to bestow upon the poor that treasure or substance which was prepared to the building of vast places. By this benignity, by this compassion, they shall get unto them a sempiternal praise, & being delivered from the grievous burden of their sins, possess with God, in the glory of his kingdom, a crown of pure gold, never fading or transitory, but for ever perpetual.   

¶ Ambition is a dangerous thing.  
THou which followest Christ, and takest him for thy master, covet not the highest place, but be mindful of the saying of S. Paul, Honore alius alium praecedentes, date operam, ut in omnibus humiliemini. One of you excelling an other in honour, take heed that you be humble in all points. For the word of God saith. Qui seipsum humiliat, exaltabitur. He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. I will never call him humble, that exhibiteth honour to his elders by birth, or equal at the least with himself. That is a true humility or perfect modesty, in giving place to them which be our inferiors. He is true wise, that thinketh himself least and last of all. For good works which we have done by this way only shall bring unto us profit, or commodity.   

¶ How much harm ensueth of Ryottousnesse.  
Wilt thou do things worthy of heaven? have no respect unto mundaine affairs, have no regard unto the transitorious glory of this life. Seest thou other occupied in excess of apparel? have thou a regard unto thy soul, how to deck and set it forth with virtues. Laugh ryottousnesse to scorn: Flee gluttony and superfluousness in banqueting. As the singer chaunteth his notes, so must not thou cry for delicious dinners, but imitate frugality. For of superfluity, what profit or commodity ariseth? Peradventure, thou judgest it commodious, to devour much, to swill in wine till thy belly do stretch, but to a good person to much drink is hurtful. It can not be spoken how much mischief hereby happeneth, both to the body and soul, as diseases, adultery, whoredom, theft, robbery, & murder. Hath the Lord endued thee with abundance of treasure? distribute it to the poor. Goest thou abroad appareled with silk? 
Iwencus. Nemo potest dominis aeque servire duobus.  Hast thou thy fingers circundited with gold? In the heavens it can not be, that a man should take charge of the soul, regarding the pleasure and appareling of the body so much.   

¶ The agreement of the man and the wife, to be very commodious.  
THere riches, there great gain, redoundeth or doth multiply, where the agreement is of the man and his wife, yea, such be the blessedst of all other, though their substance be but small, for they receive the true pleasure and live in the greatest tranquillity of the mind. Therefore by this figure Zelotypia, the fruits of concord being taken away by other wickedness, although they possessed the riches of Croesus, they were the most miserable of all other creatures. There should arise daily new tumults, brawlings, suspicions, domestical & internal wars, much bitterness, no pleasure. For this consideration I would that they which be joined in the bond of Matrimony, and as it were chained in the same, should think that nothing ought to be preferred before concord, being the root of all goodness, and so to do all things, that peace and tranquillity might be in one house, remaining under one roof, and taking rest in one bed. This goodness shall follow that peace, that in Matrimony good children, & followers of Virtue shall be borne. Also the servants and universal family, shall study to imitate religion, godliness, and modesty. It shall come so to pass, that by concord of two, the prosperity of many things followeth on every side.   

¶ Imitation to hospitality.  
IF a certain abject simple. or poor creature, come unto thee and ask lodging, receive him, & if thou have wherewith to refresh him, set meat before him. This hospitality or entertainment of thy poor brother, shall vantage thee a double gain. If thou be not so wealthy that thou art able, or at the least wilt not, drive him not away as a hard hearted Saracen, desiring aught at thy hands, considering he doth not constrain thee by violence, but prayeth, beseecheth, & obtesteth the same. Hast thou whereby thou mayst succour the innocent, and assistest not him, neither givest aught? How wilt thou answer, before the face of the heavenvly judge? by what means wilt thou defend thyself? Thou feedest daintily, thou consumest more daily than need doth require, what damage proferest thou her? how much gain sufferest thou to slide away, & fall from thy hands? Gold being hurded up in Towers, wasteth away with the rust, and is carried away with thieves, when in the mean seasons thy next neighbour perisheth for hunger. Dost thou abound in riches, and usest them alone, neither communicatest to the needy, and yet thinkest to escape the danger of damnation? Easier shall it be for a Camel, to creep through the eye of a needle, than a rich man to enter into the tabernacle of the Lord. Thy nigh and dear brother walketh abroad, shaded with the cloak of misery, and thou sittest at home with thy banqueting dishes, not having any regard to his extreme necessity, or if he desire but a small alms, thou canst not spare him a crust of bread to ease his hunger. He sitteth naked in the cold, being pinched with many a sharp storm, when thou art clothed with rich array, and passest by him without all pity or compassion.   

¶ Can any man associated with wicked persons be good?  
Loth alone walked the right way, 
Gene. 19  dwelling amongst the wicked multitude of the Sodomites. Therefore yet their sentence is not true which say, that it can not come to pass that they should be good, which live in towns, and among the company or often assemble of men, but such as live in the wilderness and solitary places. Neither do we speak this to the end we would condemn solitary living, for it is evident or plain, that many lived holily in the wilderness, but we declare to such as be willing to spend their time honestly, that the common custom of men can hinder nothing at all. To a slow and negligent person, what availeth living by himself: for neither place, but the mind and manners do good. I would that as Loth was, so you should exceed one another in virtue, that as glistering sparcks, in the midst of a City shining, you might draw the rest unto you.   

¶ The virtues of those which died long since, to be profitable to us of this present state.  
LEt this always be the desire of a Christian man, let all his endeavouring tend hereunto, that in living well, he might leave a perpetual memory of his praise, and no vain glory (as the Poets did in the art of versifying) behind him, but that he passing from hence, his successors may have his diligent conversation of life, as a monument & looking glass, daily to behold. A good righteous and chaste man, hath not only a respect, seeing the body which he carrieth about, is brickle and mortal, to live in this world, but study how to profit by examples of virtue, those after his disease, that be willing to live in the same rate. That every man therefore might know and understand, how much the good works of others and like examples might kindle us to do well, if we be willing to follow continency and chastity, we will bring to your mind a notable example of joseph the Israelite, which being a young man of an excellent shape or making, as ever nature framed, had a marvelous constancy of chaste living before his eyes, who in this slippery time of brickle age, would not marvel to see the like: joseph being made Perfect over Putiphar his master's household, being a proper young man, his Mistress burned vehemently in lust after him, and when she spied her time, caught him by the cloak as he passed by, exhorting him to this horrible fact, and wickedness with her, but he leaving his cloak behind him, fled from her presence. etc. O notable spectacle to all the whole world. The simple Lamb fell into the hands of the greedy and revenous Lion, yet escaping without hurt.   

¶ By the great love we bear to god, charity to arise toward our neighbour.  
Jacob served for Rachel seven years, counting them for a few days, because he loved her. Hear this O thou ignorant Christian, and most unthankful toward God. This righteous man that he might obtain this virgin, disdained not to suffer all the bitter troubles of a shepherds life, to lie on the ground, to feed with misery, despising rain, wind, cold and snow. How wilt thou then excuse thyself, which lovest not God the giver of all good gifts, with a like fervent zeal? which requireth none other thing of thee, than that thou love him with all thy heart. Which thing if thou do, being mindful of the word of our lord, thou wilt never despise thy brother. 
Math. 23.  He that bestoweth any thing on the least of these, bestoweth it on me. Thus bestowing thy alms with a liberal mind upon the poor, and as it were laying it in the hand of the Lord, he will restore it unto thee with a double advantage.   

¶ That alms to be bell, whereunto other virtues he adjoined.  
Wilt thou profit thyself? give of thy substance to the needy. Suppress all the affections of the flesh, root out of thy mind, the enticements of concupiscence, as evil cogitation, anger, hatred, in whose stead let virtues succeed.   

¶ Many offend by anger and lust, because they know not the ends of good and evil  
AS God hath given divers senses to man's body, to the use of life very necessary: so likewise are there attributed various effections to the soul. Of the which reason or way of man's conversation doth depend, containing also a certain lust prescribed by the word of God, to beget children. The affection of anger is given to bridle offences. But what a grief is it to see how many being ignorant of the fines of good and evil, used the wicked lust of their flesh to punish virgins at wicked meetings or assemblies. They use their anger, to hurt those whom they hate. Hereupon daily it ariseth, that we run to great wickedness, and thereby likewise ensueth strife between men, fight & contention.   

¶ The manners and conversation of many to be changed in tyme.  
WE see many, daily in age to repent, that of sinners, they be made righteous, of wicked, good, of dishonest, honest. I have seen many extortioners in youth, dicers (I will not say worse) which afterward were worthy of praise.   

¶ God is pacified in no other thing, so much as in the amending of our manners.  
THe amendment of our behaviour, appeaseth the heavenly power being displeased with our wickedness, and not Frankincense, not sacrifices, not precious or costly gifts, which we see subject to corruption. Wilt thou make the anger of God transitory, not long enduring? Cease from doing ill. Therefore God doth punish those things which we do in this present life, so that we might have leisure to repent.   

¶ God is to be loved and feared.  
LEt us love God as a father, let us worship him as a Lord, let us give honour to him as a benefactor, and let us fear him as replenished with severity. We can not be Godly, if we do not love God, the nourisher or tender father of our soul. Neither can he be despised without danger, unto whom the Creator of all things, and Lord over all men, true & eternal power remaineth. He is a father as the which hath ministered a birth or beginning to us, to see the light which we enjoy. He is God, whose gentleness aideth the usage of mankind. He alone nourisheth us, he alone feedeth us. And therefore this to be his house in which we dwell, and we to be his family, we cannot once deny.   

¶ faith is nothing without good works. Ex Chrisostomo.  
THou art learned, thou despisest life. What profiteth life? Again, thou carest for life. For life thou boastest in faith, neither truly canst thou so be saved. He that heareth and doth the same, him we liken to a wise man.   

¶ We must have a regard to our brethren.  
IT is the duty of every man, to lead as it were by the hand unto virtue our brother, wandering through the proneness of sin. God himself for this cause taking upon him our flesh, entered into the world. He suffered & did many things being a child. To conclude, he took death upon his shoulders, that he might redeem mankind from sin, being guilty of damnation. By the which example we must remember to further our neighbour or brother, considering he is a member of us. I pray you is not our brother delivered out of the chaps of the Devil, which by any man's sound doctrine, is reduced into the path of virtue, & doth that which is right, & being rich, bestoweth much upon the poor? Great, great is his reward, that by continual admonition and teaching, bringeth the slothful apt unto vice, into the right way.   

¶ What manner of Wife is to be sought.  
WHat time as the unquenchable thirst, and greedy desire of covetousness, was but of small force, if a young honest man coveted a wife, there was no questioning of much substance, no reasoning of riches, small demanding of land, and scarce any question propounded of the beautifulness of her person, but how honest she was & civil, which should marry the foresaid young man. But now a days, we demand how rich is she, what heritage doth she look for, according to the saying of Horace. 
Horat.  We seek even to the very apparel of her back, as for her manners that is no matter, that is last. A proud Damasell, a wicked Maid, if she be riches if she have coin, or if she be landed, makes up our mouth.   

¶ Why god should the day of death to be uncertain unto us.  
FOr this cause god would that man should be ignor at of the time of his fate, that he might by a continual study of virtues, he prepared to watch. He saith: Vigilate, quia nescitis diem neqúe horam. Watch, because ye know not the time and hour. etc. But men do quite contrary. He commanded them to watch, and they sleep down right, not practising any goodness at al. Therefore they slumber in virtue, and watch in vice. What kind of men is this? How many do we see daily to bold in wickedness, and slow or tardy in goodness. They die, they fade away, as well the young lambs skin as the old sheeps. Death is indifferent, death spareth none: yet notwithstanding are we led by this unto virtue, neither do we so prepare ourselves to despise this present estate, and covet the estate to come.   

¶ We must have a regard to our children.  
YOu Parents, teach your children continency. For the custom of doing evil after that it hath once taken root, and is of any force, by the the travace of time, it can not be won by any admonition. Then youth being led as it were into captivity, rusheth whither so ever the wicked spirit calleth it, and followeth the same, willing nothing but pernicious destruction, or obeyeth it, only having respect of present pleasure, unmindful of the torments to come, according to the proverb. Sweet meat must have sour sauce. Therefore yoke your children in time, lest they be punished for their sins. It is best to resist evils always assaying us. The medicine is to late prepared, when the wound is to much festered. You that have children, take heed, that they be virtuously brought up. You Masters also & others, which nourter youth, be it to your charge, and think it a great profit or utility, to instruct them to live godly. Teach them to flee sin, exhort them to virtuous exercise.   

¶ To hoard up treasure is a dangerous thing.  
THou covetous rich man, to leave much behind thee, thou hoardest up daily, thou buyest ground, thou buildest, thou pluckest down, thou choppest and changest four cornered stones for round. And that thou mayst finish all this thy greedy desire, thou pillest and pullest from other, thou defraudest other, and makest the workman labour in vain. If any ask thee, why thou dost thus, straight ways thou makest an answer, for thy children's behoof. O blindness, O madness, dost thou not see these riches to be left as an occasion for thy children to live wickedly? If this age be prone by itself unto lust, to riottousnesse & other vices, how much the more than by abundance of wealth doth it run headlong unto the Devil? Hast thou never seen fire, as soon as it hath found out a breach, to issue out with stronger flames? So also youth is kindled or stirred up to sin, by riches the provocation of all evils.   

¶ Who be poor & who be rich to God.  
IF thou never stirrest, or strivest to attain righteousness, thou art poor, although a thousand of thy barns were filled with grain. He is only rich unto God, that is endued with virtue. Wilt thou be acceptable unto him? Perform goodness and innocency. Wilt thou be excellent? Sow the seed of mercifulness. Wilt thou be perfect? Fulfil all the degrees of virtue, that is, abstain from wicked works, evil words, & the cogitation of pestilent things.   

¶ What man is healthful truly.  
IF thine eyes, thy head, thy feet, thy side, & thy other members, be in good taking, the common people judge thee in health. But the Philosopher saith nothing less. If thou be angry, if thou be puffed up with pride, if thou be subject unto lust, if thou burn in concupiscence, or if thou be covetous. He will say that thou art sound, if thou bend not thine eyes upon other men's goods. For an envious person waxeth lean or repineth at an other man's prosperity. If thou gaze not upon riches, if thou lust not after an other man's wife, if thou desire or covet nothing at all, then is there Mens sana in corpore sano. But thou must also be humble, pitiful, beneficious, gentle, and having a perpetual peace in thy mind. He that leadeth his life in this race according to the saying of the Philosopher, he is healthful, and in every member perfect.   

¶ The works of mercy.  
THat man is merciful in deed, which redeemeth the captives from their enemies, that visiteth the poor, that cherisheth the needy, and suffereth them not to lie unburied, which die in the streets: A pitiful person taketh away by violence those that be oppressed of the mighty, opening his door to them that want lodging, & defendeth the cause of the widows & fatherless: He that doth these works, offereth unto God a true and acceptable sacrifice.   

¶ The comfort of Repentance.  
reap thy house immaculate, clear thy breast from every spot, that it may be the Temple of the Lord, which is not decked with the comeliness of gold or ivory, but with the brightness of faith & chastity. I hear what thou sayest very well. But I say it is a hard thing for a man to live without spot or blemish. Therefore, I counsel thee to flee unto Repentance, which possesseth not the least place among virtues. For this is her correction, that if by chance thou offend in word or deed, by and by repent, confess thou hast offended, and desire of God pardon for thy sins, which he will not deny for his unspeakable mercy, except thou persever still in thine offence, and return as the Dog doth again to his vomit. Great is the comfort of Repentance. It healeth our wounds, and our sins, this hope, this port of salvation have we.   

¶ Where, and what Godliness is.  
BOdlynesse dwelleth in his breast which knoweth not dissension, which agreeth with his neighbour, which is a friend unto enemies, which loveth all men as his own brethren, which knoweth how to bridle his anger, and appease all the fury of his mind, by a quiet mean.   

¶ All wickednesses which are done, spring of these three affections, anger, desire, and lust.  
ANger is to be cohibited, desire to be kept under, & lust to be subdued, so shalt thou flee vice. For all things almost which we unjustly and wickedly commit, flow and proceed from these three affections. All the strife of men shall be drowned, if the violence of anger be suppressed. Thou shalt see no man tangled in deceits or ready to mischief. If we keep under greediness or desire, no man need be afraid by land or by Sea to be rob or spoiled of his substance. If every man endeavour to cohibit lust, both young and old, men and women, shall for ever possess holiness.   

¶ Sepulture not to be greatly regarded.  
WHo would not greatly disallow those that prodigaly wast their Patrimonies, about superfluous things, building for themselves Sepulchres of Marble stone? It seemeth unto me truly, that they bury their goods in the earth. Neither do such works bring any memorial sign or eternity of their name which peradventure is sought. For either one Earthquake may scatter it abroad, either fire by chance consume it, or hostile violence overwhelm the same. But if none of these chance, verily continuance of time shall bring it to nought. Deservedly therefore a man may reprehend those that have so fond a care or regard. Call not him a wretch that departeth in a strange land in the wilderness, in an obscure place or corner, yea what if I said not in his bed, but that died in his sins. Is he a laughing stock, that died far from his kin, neither at his departure was any friend present? Not so, though he lacked the honour of burial. For by the same he suffered no damage. The sepulchres of many Prophets & Apostles be not known of in the world. Be sorrowful, lament and weep, if thy friend die, not yet wiped from his iniquity. For the death of sinners is the worst. Rejoice if he left the world being pure and clean from all his offences. For precious in the sight of the lord is the death of his saints. For they pass into a better life, where they shall receive the rewards of their labours.   

¶ Modesty, that fair virtue, to be acceptable unto God.  
Wilt thou imitate the modesty of the Ancient fathers? Look thou be not presumptuous, nor high minded: but with modesty give place unto other, and covet to be counted an inferior, neither use thyself as an adversary unto those which proffer thee injury. Thou being afflicted by reproach, seem not cruel, although he be more spiteful that have slandered thee. Let gentleness and lenity appease thy wrath. By these virtues thou attaynest, being delivered from all bitterness, pleasant quiet rest.   

¶ Such as our talk is, such our sports and banquets ought to be.  
IN all things which thou sayest or dost, it behoveth thee to have thy mind free from all thoughts, neither must thou be moved by any lust or fear lest a spark of greediness slothfulness or ignominy appear in your communication. Likewise, so use thy pastime and pleasure, that all petulancy and filthy talk be far off. We must obey the precepts, by the which we are commanded, that we should neither rejoice at fond or ribald communication. All the acts of Venery are condemned without wedlock.   

¶ An exhortation to mercifulness, mixed with chiding.  
MAny of us have money at home, superfluous and idle, lying by us. No evangelical reading, not Hieremie, not Augustine, no lucubrations of so many holy Fathers writing of the contempt of such things, can bring us to this point, to distribute some small part of the same to our neighbour, labouring with hunger, & waxing stiff with cold. O hard, O stony hearts, with what eyes shall we behold the presence of the almighty judge, whose commandment we have neglected? God doth not command that we should cast away our riches, but use the same. And when we have satisfied our use, then to have a respect unto the poor. The merciful God hath not bestowed riches upon us, that they might be kept in our Chests, and Coffers, nay rather there mould, but that by our abundance the neediness of other might be eased, and thoroughly refreshed. This man wasteth much riches upon divers and dainty banquets: this man lassheth out substance on gorgeous apparel, and this man wasteth his treasure at the Table of gluttons, when in the mean season one sick brother standeth knocking at the gate, & can not be heard, requiring none of all this superfluity, but wherewith to sustain his feeble nature, whereby he might live, & not through want of food, suffer detriment or perish. How shall we, that be not moved with the prayers and tears of our fraternal calamity, look to be excused at the hands of God.   

¶ The glory of men is not purchased, only of good works.  
Wilt thou attain to good works? See thou do not any thing for the favour of men, but that the same eye might praise thee which never sleepeth. For if thou covet to be praised of men, thou makest thyself unworthy to be extolled of the Lord. Both hurteth, both are pernicious in good work, if any man have a respect to human glory, and thinketh loftily of himself. What other I pray thee shalt thou be called then a miserable Miser. This only pernicious affection made the Publican worse than the Pharisie. What so ever therefore good works thou dost, always have the saying of Christ to his Disciples in thy mind. When you have done all that ever you can, say we are unprofitable servants.   

¶ The covetous man is chidden.  
whether dost thou rage (O covetous man) in hounding up or gathering of treasure. What greediness leadeth thee forward, that thou art never satisfied but art counted none other than a drunken person. For as the more Wine they drink, the more they gulge in, & the more drier they be: so thou being subject to the tyranny of avarice, never hast any stint at all. Cressit amor nummi, quantum ipsa pecunia cressit: sayeth the Poet. The covetous desire of money, increaseth as much as the money itself. The more riches we have, the greedier we be. I ask thee but this one question. What utility gettest thou hereby, if thou mightest obtain the whole world, being sure to suffer the detriment of the soul, which covetousness blindeth, and daily filleth with all kind of mischief?   

¶ What God requireth in repentance.  
GOD asketh nothing of us sinners, but that we be quiet from sin. He calleth for no account of that which is paste, if he see any spark of Repentance. For this is he which daily crieth: I will not the death of a sinner, but that he turn from his wickedness & live. This is he which sayeth, in the midst of thy talk will I say: Behold I am present. (O merciful God) see we be not so greedy of our own salvation, as he would the we should be saved. One thing he requireth, to confess our sins, and being confessed, to abstain from the same.   

¶ What manners are to be observed in the Church.  
WE must remember in the temple of the Lord, to restrain from blasphemous words, unprofitable trifles, giggling and dalliance, especially, when the Minister practiseth his divine office. They which abstain not from these things, offend more grievous than those which the lord scourged out of the Temple. For they sin grievously which are occupied in the house of the Lord, none other way, than in a place convenient to sport or play. I will not speak what wickedness the lewdness of men dare commit in most sacred places.   

¶ The prayer of the sinner continuing in his offences to be unfruitful.  
OUr own sins are the occasion that we be not heard praying unto God. Because we do wickedly, and daily provoke the lord unto anger, he will not be entreated. For we pray in vain, if we do not departed from our sins: We cease not to be righteous, or do any other thing which is contrary to the word of God. We make our supplications unto him, and yet we swell with hatred against our neighbour. We would be loved of God, and yet we disdain that man which he hath made to his own similitude or likeness, & which he hath redeemed with his precious blood. Every offence shall be remitted, if we love him that hateth us. Then may we preseht our gifts before the Altar. God will not hear us, except he see that charity grafted which ought to be in every man. That prayer is also abject from him, which tendeth not only to please the lord, whether we desire the health of the body or any other necessary things, always we must ask to this end, that we may speedily having obtained favour, serve our only saviour.   

¶ Sluggishness is nought.  
Let your sleep be no longer than nature requireth: For by continual sluggishness, the time of doing well is lost, and we are made more apt unto vice: Therefore it was well spoken of Cato.  
Plus vigila semper, 
Cato.  nec somno deditus esto  
Nam diuturna quies, vitijs alimenta ministrat.  
Seek not more sluggish for to be  
than nature doth require:  
For sleeping much as we do see,  
to vices doth aspire.  
None will judge, those worthy of the name of a man which spend their time in sleeping exercise, and being at last awaked, with their hands unwashed, call for their breakfast, & then their dinner, when they have scarce sleeped out the last meals sustenance. Therefore, we must watch, pray, study and labour with tooth and nail, lest we enter into temptation, from the which, Lord be our defender.   

¶ What manner of man he ought to be, that preacheth jesus to the people.  
YOu that cry unto the people in the Church of god, take diligent heed, that your works be agreeable to your doctrine. For he that doth as he saith, shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. Wilt thou reprove other men's offences, so that other may not find the like in thee: Teachest thou humility? be gentle thyself. Dost thou exhort unto patience? let no anger remain in thee. Hatest thou whoredom and adultery? keep chastity. Teachest thou righteousness? Inueighest thou against vices? see thou do no wickedness, covet not a worldly praise, boast not of thy wit, but give God the praise, in whom, and by whom we have purchased so great a wisdom.   

¶ Detraction or backbiting is to be eschewed.  
WHen any be absent, thou must either hold thy peace or speak friendly behind their back. For by the intemperance of the tongue, it is evident that most part of contentions arise. If a good name be better than great riches, he sinneth grievously that detracteth undeservedly the same. A backbiter of men is an abomination. David hateth them when he sayeth: I persecuted him that slandered his neighbour. If thou hap on such a man's company, bow not thine ear to his talk, but turn away thy face, that thou mayest learn good, and become a true labourer in the vinyeard of the Lord, unto the which God for his sons sake jesus, that pure & unspotted Lamb, the Redeemer of all mankind, now and ever vouchsafe to lead us. Amen.  
FINIS. N. Boorman.    

Imprinted at London by Henry Denham, for Thomas Hacket, and are to be sold at his shop in Lumbart street.