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confidered as a crime justly punished by exclufion from favour and preferment, and was not yet openly profeffed, though fuperftition was gradually lofing its hold upon the publick. The ftudy of Greek was reputable enough, and Afcham purfued it with diligence and fuccefs equally confpicuous. He thought a language might be most easily learned by teaching it; and when he had obtained fome proficiency in Greek, read lectures, while he was yet a boy, to other boys, who were defirous of inftruction. His industry was much encouraged by Pember, a man of great eminence at that time, though I knew not that he has left any monuments behind him, but what the gratitude of his friends and fcholars has bestowed. He was one of the great encouragers of Greek learning, and particularly applauded Afcham's lectures, affuring him in a letter, of which Graunt has pre ferved an extract, that he would gain more knowledge by explaining one of Elop's fables to a boy, than by hearing one of Homer's poems explained by another.

Afcham took his bachelor's degree in 1534, Fe. bruary 18, in the eighteenth year of his age a time of life at which it is more common now to enter the univerfities than to take degrees, but which, according to the modes of education then in ufe, had nothing of remarkable prematurity. On the 23d of March following, he was chofen fellow of the college, which election he confidered as a fecond birth. Dr. Metcalf, the mafter of the college, a man, as Afcham tells us," meanly learned himself, but no mean en"courager of learning in others," clandeftinely promoted his election, though he openly feemed first to

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oppose it, and afterwards to cenfure it, because Afcham was known to favour the new opinions; and the mafter himself was accufed of giving an unjust preference to the Northern men, one of the factions into which this nation was divided, before we could find any more important reafon of diffention, than that fome were born on the Northern and fome on the Southern fide of Trent. Any caufe is fufficient for a quarrel; and the zealots of the North and South lived long in fuch animofity, that it was thought neceffary at Oxford to keep them quiet by chufing one proctor every year from each.

He seems to have been hitherto fupported by the bounty of Wingfield, which his attainment of a fellowship now freed him from the neceffity of receiving. Dependance, though in those days it was more common, and lefs irkfome, than in the prefent ftate of things, can never have been free from difcontent; and therefore he that was releafed from it muft always have rejoiced. The danger is, left the joy of escaping from the patron may not leave fufficient memory of the benefactor. Of this forgetfulness Ascham cannot 'be accused; for he is recorded to have preferved the moft grateful and affectionate reverence for Wingfield, and to have never grown weary of recounting his benefits.

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His reputation ftill increased, and many resorted to his chamber to hear the Greek writers explained. He was likewife eminent for other accomplishments. By the advice of Pember, he had learned to play on mufical inftruments, and he was one of the few who excelled in the mechanical art of writing, which then began to be cultivated among us, and in which we

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now furpass all other nations. He not only wrote his pages with neatness, but embellished them with elegant draughts and illuminations; an art at that time fo highly valued, that it contributed much both to his fame and his fortune.

He became master of arts in March 1537, in his twenty-first year, and then, if not before, commenced tutor, and publickly undertook the education of young men. A tutor of one and twenty, however accomplished with learning, however exalted by genius, would now gain little reverence or obedience; but in those days of discipline and regularity, the authority of the statutes easily supplied that of the teacher; all power that was lawful was reverenced. Befides, young tutors had ftill younger pupils.

Ascham is faid to have courted his scholars to study by every incitement, to have treated them with great kindness, and to have taken care at once to inftill learning and piety, to enlighten their minds, and to form their manners. Many of his fcholars rofe to great eminence; and among them William Grindal was fo much distinguished, that, by Cheke's recommendation, he was called to court as a proper master of languages for the lady Elizabeth.

There was yet no established lecturer of Greek; the university therefore appointed Ascham to read in the open schools, and paid him out of the publick purfe an honorary ftipend, fuch as was then reckoned fufficiently liberal. A lecture was afterwards founded by King Henry, and he then quitted the schools, but continued to explain Greek authors in his own college.

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He was at firft an opponent of the new pronunciation introduced, or rather of the ancient restored, about this time by Cheke and Smith, and made fome cautious struggles for the common practice, which the credit and dignity of his antagonists did not permit him to defend very publickly, or with much vehemence: nor were they long his antagonists; for either his affection for their merit, or his conviction of the cogency of their arguments, foon changed his opinion and his practice, and he adhered ever after to their method of utterance.

Of this controverfy it is not neceffary to give a circumftantial account; fomething of it may be found in Strype's Life of Smith, and fomething in Baker's Reflections upon Learning; it is fufficient to remark here, that Cheke's pronunciation was that which now prevails in the fchools of England. Difquifitions not only verbal, but merely literal, are too minute for popular narration.

He was not lefs eminent as a writer of Latin, than as a teacher of Greek. All the publick letters of the university were of his compofition; and as little qualifications must often bring great abilities into notice, he was recommended to this honourable employment not less by the neatness of his hand, than the elegance of his style.

However great was his learning, he was not always immured in his chamber; but, being valetudinary, and weak of body, thought it neceffary to spend many hours in fuch exercises as might best relieve him after the fatigue of study. His favourite amusement was archery, in which he spent, or, in the opinion of others, loft fo much time, that those

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whom either his faults or virtues made his enemies, and perhaps some whose kindness wished him always worthily employed, did not fcruple to cenfure his practice, as unfuitable to a man profeffing learning, and perhaps of bad example in a place of education.

To free himself from this cenfure was one of the reafons for which he published, in 1544, his "Toxo"philus, or the fchole or partitions of fhooting," in which he joins the praise with the precepts of archery. He defigned not only to teach the art of fhooting, but to give an example of diction more natural and more truly English than was used by the common writers of that age, whom he cenfures for mingling exotic terms with their native language, and of whom he complains, that they were made authors, not by skill or education, but by arrogance and temerity.

He has not failed in either of his purpofes. He has fufficiently vindicated archery as an innocent, falutary, useful, and liberal diverfion; and if his precepts are of no great use, he has only fhown, by one example among many, how little the hand can derive from the mind, how little intelligence can conduce to dexterity. In every art, practice is much; in arts manual, practice is almost the whole. Precept can at most but warn against error, it can never bestow excellence.

The bow has been fo long difufed, that moft Englifh readers have forgotten its importance, though it was the weapon by which we gained the battle of Agincourt, a weapon which, when handled by Eng lifh yeomen, no foreign troops were able to refist. We were not only abler of body than the French,

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