AN APOLOGY FOR SCHOOLMASTERS,  
Tending to the advancement of Learning, and to the virtuous education of Children.  
By THOMAS MORRIS, Master of Artes.  
LONDON, Printed by Bernard Alsop, for Richard Fleming, and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the three Flower-de Luce's in Saint Paul's Alley near Saint Gregory's Church. 1619.   

TO THE RIGHT HOnourable the Lord Rosse, Son and Heir apparent of the Right Honourable Earl of Rutland.  
MY especial good Lord, I presume to preset to your Honour this title treatise concerning learned Knowledge, and the Teacher thereof: Seeing that as God hath blessed you now in your Childhood with a virtuous and most Noble disposition, a loving and kind nature, quick apprehension, pregnant wit, ready utterance, and firm memory: so if it pleaseth his Divine Majesty (which I hearty desire) to grant you prosperous health, I hope by the careful education of your right Honourable Parents, you will in process of time attain to excellent knowledge. Your virtuous, and right Honourable sister the Lady Katherine, may obtain the perfect understanding of the Latin tongue in very short time, such is the excellency of her wit and memory, if she continue as she began in the study thereof. Good endeavouers, even the best enterprises, by sinister suggestions whispered, or scandalous aspersions scattered, are sometimes hindered. I trust your Honour will accept of this slender token, offered with as good a will to your Lordship, as the widow did her small mite to the Treasury; or the poor man his handful of clear and clean water to the Persian King Artaxerses. For albeiit my body, against my will, is absent from you, notwithstanding my mind is with you, my memory of you, my love towards you, and my prayers to Almighty God are for your health, long life, and perpetual happiness. So I rest  
Your Honours ever devoted. Thomas Morrice.   

To the courteous Reader.  
SEeing that (gentle Reader) all men are naturally desirous of knowledge: and that many have been advanced thereby, to Nobility, Principality, Regal and Imperial authority. And considering that this knowledge, whether it be Reminiscentia, as the Platonistes, or de novo, as the peripatetics do more truly maintain: is instilled, and derived unto us originally, & ordinarily by Schoolmasters, which are the instrumental causes thereof, ordained by Almighty God to that intent and purpose.  
I thought it not amiss, in this short treatise, to incite and stir up some, which in this age are exorbitant herein, to a due consideration, to a more religious respect, to a more requisite usage, and to a more grateful remembrance of Schoolmasters. Albeit there be faults in all professions, and in all forts of people; yet some imperfections we ought rather with Sem and japhet to cover, then with cursed Cham to scoff at. The sweetest rose hath a prickle; and the finest cloth a brack. I request thee to be advertised, that I treat here of learned and honest Schoolmasters, not of unlearned and dishonest intruders into that function.  
Abel will offer sacrifice, Cain will sacrifice too: jacob will have a blessing, Esau would have a blessing: too: Simon Petter will work miracles, Simon Magus would do so too: Constantine the great will be a Warrior, Thraso will be one to: Quintilian will be a Schoolmaster, Rombus will be one too. The imps of Satan, sometimes will be the apes of the Children of God. I do not defend irregular, unlearned, or unfit persons, which intrude themselves, and usurp the office of teaching: but approved, learned, & discreet Schoolmasters: which for the benefit of publique-weales are not a little to be regarded. Thus wishing thee increase of virtuous knowledge, I rest ever thy Well-willer.  
T.M.   

¶ The Contents of the Treatise following.  

1. The dignity of Learning and the degrees thereof maintained.  
2. The election of a Schoolmaster, and the education of Noble and generous Children briefly declared.  
3. The Office of a Schoolemamaster, and his place, being entertained into a Nobleman's house, discussed.  
4. The errors of them which abandon, or at least debase learning and the Professors thereof, displayed and confuted.  
5. The confutation of them which hold, that a Schoolmaster is a servant to any subject, who in consideration of learning giveth him allowance.  
6. A demonstration how necessary Schoolmasters are for the good of public Weals, and how they ought to be regarded.  
7. A Frenchman is not so fit to teach children in England, to read, understand, speak and write English, Latin, and Greek, as an Englishman.  
8. The absurd opinion of them which prefer the French tongue before the Latin, or do parallel it with the Latin tongue, impugned.  
9 The use and benefit of travel, after the knowledge tongue is attained unto.    

AN APOLOGY for Schoolmasters, tending to the advancement of Learning, and to the virtuous education of Children.  
I Am determined (GOD assisting me) to make an Apology against proud and blind ignorance; the only adversary to noble and learned knowledge: for, Scientia non habet inimicum praeter ignorantem; Knowledge hath no enemy but the ignorant person, who reputeth the Schoolmaster, and teacher of the Liberal Sciences: albeit he be a Doctor, or Master of Arts, to be a servant to any subject in Christendom. I say, to any subject: for I confess, that he is a servant to God, and to his King. Wherein I purpose to prove, that by the Divine Law, by the Law of Nature, and Nations, by the Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical: by the Statute Law of our Realm, by the judgement of the Heathen men, illuminated by natural reason, that a Schoolmaster, as a Schoolmaster, and teacher of the Liberal Sciences, is not a servant to any subject, much less an inferior servant. He doth acknowledge in all humility his Lord, of whom he receiveth his allowance, to be his especial good Lord, his very Honourable benefactor, his Noble Maecenas or Patron, to whom he belongeth, of whom he dependeth, and to whom in all liberal duty he is obliged.  
Schoolmasters, who have taken degrees of School in the Universities of this Land, lest they do otherwise, let them remember their Oath: for they have sworn to defend and maintain their degrees. They must not make the Profession of the Liberal Sciences servile, being Masters of Arts, by reason of the teaching thereof, they ought not to be inferior servants. All learned men, ancient and modern, might justly be thought unprovident, and unwise, for bestowing so long time, so much pains, so great charges to attain to Learning, and the degrees thereof, if by teaching of it to other subjects, they themselves should become inferior servants.  
The most Noble Earls of this Kingdom do take the degree of Master of Arts willingly, as an Ornament to their Nobility, which they would not do, if they held the degree servile, or the persons servants, in respect of their Profession of the Arts. I request not to be mistaken, for I acknowledge and confess, that Masters of Arts may very well, and not without cause, be noblemen's servants, in offices, and places appertaining to servants; but not as their chaplains, or their Schoolmasters; for herein they exercise their Professions of Divinity, and of Arts, which are not servile, and this they must defend, as they are bound by Oath, and I hope they will not make shipwreck of their consciences. Every one is to be regarded, and esteemed according to his vocation and degree, and the subject or object thereof about the which he is conversant: The Divine for his Theology. The Lawyer for administration and execution of justice. The Physician for the preservation of the health of the body. The Schoolmaster for the good education of children. The Steward for the overseeing and well ordering of servants, who are inferior to the children.  
Furthermore, seeing that Honour is the reward of virtuous Learning, and Learning the promoter, or advancer, the maintainer, and principal Ornament of Nobility, it seemeth to be great want of discretion, to make a Schoolmaster an inferior servant: for how will the noble and ingenious children be animated to learning, whereby they may become worthy Governors of their Country, when they shall perceive the teacher thereof to be reputed an inferior servant, and his learning servile. This will be distasteful, and a discouragement to their Honourable natures and dispositions, and a whetstone to pride and disobedience, the very bane of youth. For Noblemen, and gentlemen's children are to be brought up in humility, the root of all virtues. Otherwise, by sinister minds, and means, not only the Liberal Sciences, and the Professors thereof are disgraced; but also the children are by their own Parents dishonoured, and debased, by making an imputed servant their Master, to the exceeding hurt & hindrance of their good education and profit in knowledge, the advancer and preserver of true Nobility, whereby, in process of time, they may become wise councillors, fit and discreet Governors; For how will the Noble and generous children stand in obedience, due awe, and regard to a servant? or love and delight in learning so vilified? This preposterous course, by all probability, will breed in them contempt of the one, and dislike of the other.  
There is an objection propounded by the proud ignorant to be confuted; who ever (say they) receiveth meat, drink, and money, for the execution of bis Office, or function, is a servant unto him, of whom he receiveth it.  
I answer, that this assertion in the general is manifestly false and erroneous. Offices and functions are not to be huddled up, and confounded, but to be judicially distinguished. There are some Offices servile, they who execute these, are servants. There are other Offices liberal, they who undertake these, are not servants, but only to GOD, and their King; albeit they receive allowance, stipend, see, or salary, as their deserts require. Such are the Professors of Divinity, Law, Physic, and the Liberal Sciences. He who holdeth these Sciences to be servile, may be yoked with Anaxagoras, who held the Snow to be black. His opinion is erroneous: And if he persist stiffnecked therein, heretical, and worse than Heathenish: for the Heathen men were not so deprived of understanding. A man giveth meat, drink and money to a Lawyer for the devising of lands, by making conveyances or assurances thereof to his sons: Is the Lawyer therefore his servant? Or in like manner, giveth to a Physician for ministering Physic to his children: Is the Physician therefore his servant? One giveth yearly certain quarters of wheat, and malt, which are equivalent to meat, and drink, and money, to an other, because he bestoweth upon his son, for term of life a Tenement: Is he therefore who bestoweth the Tenement the others servant? Likewise one giveth meat, drink and money to a Schoolmaster, because he conferreth upon his son Learning, which by the judgement of the Wise is betttet than a Tenement Is the Schoolmaster therefore his servant? They who persuade themselves these Consequences to be true, are infected with an error which is scandalous and prejudicial to all Universities, Inns of the Court, and degrees of Learning, which worthily have advanced, do still, and will advance many descended of mean parentage, to true Gentry, true Nobility, and to high dignities in Christendom.  
After a Noble man his son is six years of age, diligent industry is to be used, and especial care is to be taken, to have a fit and sufficient Schoolmaster for him. By the judgement of the wise he is deemed to be fit, and sufficient, who is adorned with these qualities, viz: Who is a man of a found belieefe, honest life, and civil conversation, an ancient man, rather than a young: For a young is commonly more proner to lewd lust, more apt to give bad example to his Scholar, more inconsiderate, of less discretion and experience, than an ancient man. A man tried for methodical teaching, and training up of children, and well allowed for the same: A man known to be learned, of ready utterance, and perfect pronunciation of speech, and of reputation, having taken the degrees of learning. It may be demanded, why so learned a Master is to be provided for a child of such tender years: I answer, that it is very requisite, and needful for divers considerations A vessel being well seasoned at the first, retaineth the taste, and preserveth the liquor, that shall be powered thereinto. A sure and firm foundation is first to be laid of pure and perfect English, to be delivered with decent action and gesture, with a right accent, and distinct pronunciation: that when he cometh to ripe years, being in eminent places, he may communicate his learned knowledge judicially, and eloquently in his Native tongue, to the benefit of his own Country. In like manner, he is to be taught pure and perfect Latin, & if it be not too tedious for him, the Greek may very well be joined thereunto, that he may not only read with understanding for increase of knowledge, most learned books in the said languages, & hear with judgement exercises & disputations, accomplished by the learned of famous Universities; but also impart his intellectual conceits in eloquent Latin to foreign nations, most honourably in any important employment for the weal public. another consideration isl, that a well learned Schoolmaster is expedient, or rather necessary, because he is to stay with his Scholars; for change of Masters maketh seldom good Scholars: many men, many minds, many masters, many manners & methods of teaching, which hurt & hinder knowledge. The rolling stone gathereth little moss. This noble child is to be kept in awe & obedience, & with gentleness to be allured to virtue & knowledge: To be commended for his good endeavours, & praised for his well doing, that he may love learning, take delight in understanding and pleasure in pithy and witty discourses, delivered unto him in pure speech with perfect pronunciation.  
His discreet Schoolmaster is to consider his Nature, and disposition, and to frame his instructions and precepts thereunto, according to the child his capacity: not to daunt his Spirit, or dull his wit: for in the recreation of his mind and memory, Music and honest sports are to be used: And for the health of his body, moderate exercises are to be practised.  
Honest, civil and careful men are to attend upon him, who will give him no bad example, but encourage him to proceed in virtue and learning. Wicked flatterers in any case are to be debarred from him; who to dehort him from humility, and the path of virtue, and learning, will tell him that his Schoolmaster is his servant, that he is descended of high Nobility, and shall have living and lands in plentiful abundance. Why should he lone the book, why should he listen to, or be ruled by an inferior servant? he is to command: why should he be governed, or in any sort debarred of his will: It is fit for him to take his pleasure, and to do what he list. Thus a Parasite, or a Gnato by sugared words, will attempt to corrupt him, having jacobs' voice, & Fsaus hands, smooth words, and rough works. Of all tame Creatures, a flatterer is the worst. Likewise other evil disposed persons are not to intrude themselves into his company: such as commonly will use swearing, cursing, slandering, lying, evil speaking, or bad actions in his presence, or hearing: They also are not to be admitted, to converse with him, who will teach him foul & foolish songs, dishonest actions, or to mock & deride any one: or to do harm to others.  
These are to be taken heed of, and sharply to be rebuked: for children by nature are more prone to vice then virtue: and are not so much or soon furthered by things well done or spoken, as they be hindered, and corrupted by deeds, lewdly committed, or words wickedly uttered.  
In a Noble man his house, the Schoolmaster his place is next to the chaplains. The office of the Chaplain is to celebrate divine Service, to preach and to teach the true worship of of God. The office of the Schoolmaster is by gentle means to instill into his Scholars, by little and little, as their capacities are able to bear, the excellent knowledge of divine and human things: to instruct them in the Liberal Sciences, that they may daily increase and fructify therein; with the perfect understanding, ready and distinct speaking of die learned Tongues: I mean Latin & Greek. These Offices are liberal, not servile, appertaining to the soul.  
Of Offices belonging to servants, the Stewards is chief; he weareth the Livery and Cognisance of his Lord and Master. If the Chaplain and Schoolmaster were servants, they also should wear the Livery & Cognisance, as the Steward, and other servants usually do. I could never yet be advertised, what law could be produced, or what reasons could be rendered, why the Steward, Gentleman of the Horse, or the Receiver of the Rents, servants to any Noble man, being a subject, should persuade themselves, their offices & places to be above the Schoolmasters. They are conversant about Servants, Horses, Rents, as the proper objects of their Offices. The Schoolmaster about the Noble Children, as the proper object of his Office, Are servants, horses, rents, more to be respected then Noble Children? Or, do they think, the over-seeing of certain servants, the managing of horses, the receiving of some rents, to be preferred before the governance and teaching of honourable Children the excellent knowledge of divine and human things? Herein, as it seemeth, they offer indignity, not only to the Noble Children, but also to the Professors of Learning, and the degrees thereof, which worthily have advanced, and continually do, many from mean estate to true Gentility, Nobility, and to the chiefest Dignities. Where order is not, there is confusion: the Sexton there will be above the Clerk.  

Certain Reasons demonstrating the priority of Place of the Schoolmaster, before the Steward to any subject.  
1. FIrst, because of the Vocation: For the Schoolmaster is not a servant. The Steward is properly a semant. For proof thereof, I refer them who are opposite posite in opoinion, to the Constitutions & Canons Ecclesiastical, & to the Statute law of our Realm; where they may evidently see Schoolmasters distinguished from servants by several titles, and sundry Statutes concerning them.  
2. Secondly, Because of office; for the one is to instruct, and furnish with the knowledge of divine and human things: the other to manage matters appertaining to servants.  
3. Thirdly, Because of the object of the office: for the one is to govern and teach the children: the other to oversee and order the servants, which are inferior to the children.  
4. Fourthly, Because of the love of parents, descending naturally to their children, which induceth them as it were by the law of nature, if they do not unnaturally abandon natural love & learning, to prefer him, who hath the education and instruction of their children, before a servant.  
5. Fiftly, Because of discretion and wisdom that is or aught to be in Parents, being very lawful & forcible motives to cause them more to grace and countenance the Master of their children then a servant: for that redoundeth to the profit, worth, and honour of their children.  
6. Sixtly, Because of the good of the children, that they may better stand in due regard, awe, & obedience to their Master, may more esteem & honour learning, wherewith being adorned, they themselves may be more esteemed and honoured: and consequently continue with augmentation the name and fame of their house.  
7. Seventhly: Because of custom, which is a law unwritten, and showeth, that the Steward weareth the Livery and Cognisance of his Lord and Master: the Chaplain and Schoolmaster do not; for they are not servants. The Steward hath a table assigned to him: but it is in the Hall, termed, The Steward's Table. The Chaplain and Schoolmaster usually sit either at their Lord's Table, or at a side table, anciently called, The Chapleines table.  
8. Eightly: Because of the dignity of Learning, and the degrees thereof: For it were extreme folly, or rather madness in Parents, to bring up their children so chargeably in learning, and semblably in their sons, to bestow so many years, even the prime of their time, to disburse so great expenses, to be so vigilant, and to take such pains for the attaining to learning, and the degrees thereunto belonging; if Promotion, Preferment, Worship, Honour, Grace, were not the due rewards thereof. Honos alit Artes.  
The divine Plato being demanded what difference there was between ignorant man, and a learned, answered; As much as between a sick man and a sound: For blind and proud ignorance is the sickness, and virtuous learning the health of the soul. We usually say, At your service. Your servant. Rememember my service, to such, and to such a one. Those are mere verbal compliments: when indeed we are not their servants: and we know, and take our places, according to our offices and degrees.  
A Schoolmaster, who hath received the degree of Master of Arts in the Universities of our Land, must not make his office of teaching servile: for a public oath hath been tendered and ministered to him, according to this form and tenor; (viz.) Tu tueberis gradum tuum, etc. Thou shall defend and maintain thy degree of Arts, etc.  
These Arts always, and most truly, have been called Liberal: Why should any person be so lewdly disposed, as to attempt to make the Profession of them servile? In what great estimation Phenix was, when he was Schoolmaster to Achilles, Homer declareth. And in what honourable credit Epaminondas was, when he was Tutor to Philip, who was after King of Macedonia, Plutarch showeth. Alexander the great was accustomed to say openly, that he was as much beholding to Aristotle his Master, as he was to King Philip his Father: for of his Father he took the occasion to live; of his Master he received the reason & way to live well. Dionysius King of Sicily, being banished by his subjects, taught publicly, & kept a Grammar School in Italy: He affirmed openly, that although he were exiled unjustly by his subjects, notwithstanding, in despite of them, he did, and would still reign: intimating thereby the authority which he had, being a Schoolmaster over his scholars. The Sicilians understanding his heroical resolution, repent themselves, and established him in the Kingdom again. They who will read, and advisedly consider the lives of these most Noble Emperors, Alexander the Great, jualius Caesar, Severus, Tacitus, Probus, Aurelius, trajan, Adrian, Antonine Constantine the great, Theodosius, Charles the great, surnamed Charlemagne, shall easily perceive: these being trained up in their youth by skilful Schoolmasters, more to have flourished, and to have been more revowmed than other Emperors, by reason they were more excellent than the other in learning: whereby the saying of Plato is verified, That those public weals are happy, and blessed, wherein either Philosophers reign, or Kings are in Philosophy studious.  
Of what reputation Schoolmasters in all former ages have been, and how necessary for the benefit of public weals, experience proveth, and Historiographers relate, and testify  
Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Isocrates, Plutarch, Seneca, Quintilian, and very many more, which might be nominated, were all Sehoolemasters: All of them were reverenced, and well regarded in their places of teaching, and at this day are renowned for learning. Their published Books eternize their names and fame.  
Our Saviour CHRIST graceth the office of teaching. He himself taught: the twelve Apostles were his Scholars. They also according to his commandment, taught. Saint Mark was Saint Peter's scholar, Saint Luke was saint Paul's scholar.  
Sir Thomas Elyot that right worthy Knight, in his book entitled, The Governor, dedicated to King Henry the Eight, declareth three principal causes, why Noble men, and Gentlemen were not so excellent in Learning then, as their ancestors were, who thereby much advanced themselves, augmented their estates, profited, and protected their Country. contrarywise, some of their posterity decay their houses, being not fit to be politic Statesmen, or wise councillors, or discreet Governors, nor sufficiently furnished to execute the Laws, or to administer justice, tempered with equity, because they want learned knowledge. The first cause that he allegeth is the pride of many Parents, who do not esteem learning as they ought to do, nor respect the Teacher thereof, as they should do. He noteth not any subject in his days to be so seduced or blinded with ignorance, or to be so puffed up with pride, as to account a Schoolmaster an inferior servant. Even in his time Hadrian, the sixth of that name, was made Pope, and Wolsey was created a Cardinal, both of them were Schoolmasters.  
The second cause he affirmeth to be the Avarice or divers Parents, who being desirous to pinch and spare their purses, are loath to give sufficient allowance, or bountiful salary to a well learned Schoolmaster. They will not buy learned knowledge for their children, unless they may have it cheap, & at a very low rate, regarding more, like Aesop's Cock, a grain of Barley, than a precious jewel.  
The third cause he avouched to be the negligence of Parents, who do not bring up their children as God commandeth them, as nature bindeth, & birth requireth, and as the hopeful expectance of their Country craveth at their hands. There are some Parents in our time (I am sorry to speak it) who before they receive into their service a Cook, a Falconer, or an Horserider, they have an especial care to have them skilful and cunning in their qualities, and to have the best and most expert they can get: But when they entertain a Schoolmaster, to teach their children, being the props and continuing stays of their houses, the monuments of their names and fame, they are desirous to have a young man, who will take small allowance, which they term Wages, will be an inferior servant, will wait, and serve at table, will use verbal and iesticular compliments. Such a one, according to their sinister surmises, is fit to teach. They do not much care whether he be well learned, or hath taken any degree of School, or is lawfully allowed to teach, or hath any good method in teaching, or hath had experience and approbation in the training up of children, and doth understand and speak perfectly pure English, Latin and Greek, with the right accent and true pronunciation thereof. These things, which are most material and necessary, they least regard, using more exact diligence, in making choice of servants for their sports & pleasures, then of Schoolmasters, for the virtuous education of their children: wherein they swerver and degenerate from their wise Ancestors, transgress the laws which distinguish Schoolmasters from servants. Debase their children, by making a servant their Master, disgrace as much as in them lieth, the Office of Schoolmasters; and that which is worst of all, abuse learned knowledge, being a singular blessing and principal benefit which Almighty God bestoweth upon man, by making little reckoning thereof, and accounting it as it were a servile matter. I pray God they do not therefore incur his heavy displeasure and just indignation, he threateneth by the mouth of his holy Prophet, saying: Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee. I have diligently observed, and perceive, that their children very seldom prove learned; and such Parents, for the most part, do not prosper. Their estates by little and little do decay. julian the Apostata published an Edict, forbidding the Professors of learning to teach the Christians children. Christian Parents are desirous to have their children taught, yet some of them (I would that some were lesser) repute their children's Teacher, and Master to be an inferior servant, exhibiting allowance unto him not competent. The wicked Apostata persecuted Christians and their children: albeit these do not so, yet (with their favour be it spoken) they debase Learning, and the Christian Professors thereof. Aristotle (by general opinion the chiefest Philosopher) saith, That to God, to our Parents, and Schoolmasters, we can never give enough, or that which is equal to their deserts. Although the Philosopher out of his wisdom telleth us, that we can never give enough; notwithstanding in this age it is thought by (some that to Schoolmasters there can never be given too little. Such scandalous aspersions are cast upon them by the proud ignorant. A wise man hearing an unlearned Gallant speak absurdly, and nothing to the purpose, said; En ex aurea vagina plumbeum educit gladium: Behold this brave Gallant, out of his golden sheath draweth a leaden sword. Diogenes seeing an ignorant fellow sitting upon a stone, affirmed, That one stone there did sit upon another. The more a man is with virtuous knowledge beautified, the more he approacheth to God; and the more he is with ignorance blemished, the more near he resembleth a Beast. The heathen men induced thereunto by the law of nature, highly regarded their Professors of learning. The Indians, their Gynnosophists: The Egyptians, their Semnothei: The Persians, their Magis: The Gauls, now called the French, their druids: The Grecians, their Philosophers. Philip, King of the Macedonians, intending to conquer and subdue the Athenians, not long after he had proclaimed and made war against them, sent Ambassadors with an offerture of peace, upon condition they would put from them Demosthenes and other learned men. Demosthenes, a most famous Orator, smelling the stratagem, in an eloquent Oration, wherein he dissuaded the people from embracing such a Peace, told them this tale: On a time there was great war between the Wolves & the Sheep; at length the Wolves, politicly and fraudulently, promised the Shepherds and the Sheep to join in firm friendship with them, so that they would put their Dogs from them. The credulous Shepherds & simple sheep yielded thereunto. As soon as the Dogs were gone, which protected them, the Wolves assaulted the sheep, and devoured them. Even so, said the Orator, (my dear Athenians) the Macedonians, if you condescend unto them, will make havoc of you presently after the departure of the Learned men, which instruct and direct you.  
Our life, as sacred Scripture showeth, is here a warfare; we wage war against the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. These three mortal enemies tempt and solicit the unlearned, pretending to link themselves in league and love with them: so that they would disgrace, put or pull down their Schoolmasters, which are indeed the first instrumental causes and ordinary means ordained by God to furnish and fortify them with divine and human knowledge. If these subtle adversaries could compass effectually their plot and project herein, they would, no doubt, deal with the unlearned, having none of reputation or account to teach them, as the ravenous Wolves did with the silly sheep, having none to defend them.  
Gerson, a famous Doctor, relinquished and gave over the office of the chancellorship of Paris, being a place of high credit, and for the good of the weak public, became an instructor or teacher of children. Theodosius, that right noble, wise, & Christian Emperor, when his son Arcadius was six years of age, advancing him to the Empire, and taking an especial care, to have him furnished with virtue and leaming, requisite for imperial rule and dignity, used most exact diligence in the searching out, and providing of Arsenius, a grave, honest, and well learned Schoolmaster for him. At the time he delivered his son to be taught, and did commit the charge of him to Arsenius, he spoke in this manner: Postbac tu magis pater eius quam ego, hereafter you are (being his Schoolmaster) rather a father unto him, than I. This wise and discreet Emperor, not long after coming into the school and finding Areadius his son sitting, and Arsenius standing and reading unto him, blamed them both, telling the one, that he did not perform the office of a Master, and the other that he did not show the duty of a Scholar, and caused Arsenius to sit down and read, and Arcadius to stand up bareheaded to give attentive ear to his lecture: Adding these words, that then his son would be fit for the Empire, when by humility & obedience, he had attained unto sufficient knowledge.  
Nicholas Frigantius in his description of the Provinces, Kingdoms, and manners of the people subject to that puissant Monarch the King of China, among other discourses declared), what reverend, dutiful, and grateful respect, the inhabitants of those countries bear to their Schoolmasters. For albeit (saith he) they have been their scholars but for a short space, notwithstanding, per vitam deinceps universam eos magistros appellant, & pro magistris colunt. In all their life time after they call them masters, and do reverence them as their masters. There is a contagious disease wherewith horses are infected, called the Fashions: I fear lest the name thereof extendeth to reasonable creatures, insomuch that some of them also, may truly be said to be affected to, or infected with the fashions. There is a fashion lately start up, to have a Frenchman to teach: If he speak broken, and not pure and perfect English, with the right accent distinctly pronounced, and truly write it, there is danger lest he hurt the children's english, being far more necessary for them, than the French and so pull down with one hand, more than he can build with the other. I have had conference with divers French men, whom I like, & love; I have not heard any one of them to speak, and pronounce english, as perfectly as an Englishman doth.  
They in whom intellectual reason ouerswa●eth sensual appetite, do well discern and perceive, that a Frenchman is not able so much to profit, nor is so fit to teach children in England, to read, ununderstand, speak, and write perfect english, latin, and greek, as an Englishman is, albeit he be as skilful in the latin, & the greek, as the Englishman: & the reason is, because he is to make the children to understand the learned tongues, by a language which they themselves understand already: as in the exposition of the latin, if he keep due method, he is to give to every latin word, the true proper & significant English thereof; to declare the variety of words and sentences, which are proper, which are figurative: To deliver the peculiar phrases of every Dialect: To cause them to observe Orthography: to translate English into Latin; Latin into Greek; and again, Greek into Latin; Latin into English. The Frenchman therefore being not so perfect in the English as the Englishman, faileth in that Language, which directeth the children to the knowledge of the other: and consequently, is neither so fit to teach, nor so well able to profit them.  
Now it remaineth that I briefly refute an error of some of our Countrymen, who stiffly hold, that the French tongue is better than the Latin: That Noblemen, Gentlemen, and Ladies, ought rather to learn it then the Latin.  
This is a most absurd Paradox, seeing that the Latin, being the Carholike, or universal Language of Christians, who are learned, is commonly taught, both privately in houses, & publicly in Schools and Universities, throughout all Nations in Christendom. A good thing, the more general it is, the better it is. There are but three learned Tongues, the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. The French was never reckoned to be any. It is peculiar to that particular Country, as English is to England, Irish to Ireland; so French to France. The French themselves, especially the Nobility & Gentry, disburse large expenses for the training up of their children in the study of the Latin. Who hath the knowledge thereof, may travel therewith throughout all Christian Kingdoms. In this tongue all learned Books, for the most part, are written, wherein the conferences, disputes, and exercises of the Learned are performed, which promoteth to the degrees of School, whereby Worshipful, Honourable, and gracious preferments are obtained: and is of that sacred estimate by the laws of our Land, that the very reading thereof saveth many Malefactors from untimely death. I do not discommend the French, but for the causes before mentioned, I prefer the Latin before it by many degrees.  
There hath been an ancient and laudable custom still observed by the wiser and better sort, that after their sons can understand the Latin perfectly, and speak it readily, to send them to travel into France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, to the intent that they may there learn their Languages, which they shall sooner, with more facility and judgement accomplish and attain unto, having the Latin Tongue before: because the Italian French, and Spanish, borrow very many words of the said Latin, albeit they do clip, chop, and change divers letters and syllables therein. Where they travel, they may see the people, converse and confer with the better sort, perceive their natures, dispositions, and manners, know their orders, laws, and customs, behold the situations of the Cities, the flourishing Academies, the courses of the Rivers, the Castles, Fortresses, and Havens, the fruitfulness and barrenness of the Soil: And so further, & furnish themselves, not only with the Languages, but also with the Geographical knowledge of those countries. If the gainsayers cannot produce any law, or allege sufficient authority to the contrary of that which is here delivered, I hope they will yield, and not shut their eyes against the clear light of truth, as it evidently appeareth. And I trust, they will not persevere obstinately in errors, remaining therein not illuminated by God, to tally eclipsed, and silenced.  
FINIS.