tom was want of sleep, which he endeavoured to obtain by the motion of a cradle. Growing every day weaker, he found it vain to contend with his distemper, and prepared to die with the resignation and piety of a true Christian. He was attended on his death-bed by Gravet, vicar of St. Sepulchre, and Dr. Nowel, the learned dean of St. Paul's, who gave ample testimony to the decency and devotion o his concluding life. He frequently testified his desire of that dissolution which he soon obtained. His funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Nowel. Roger Ascham died in the fifty-third year of his age, at a time when, according to the general course of life, much might yet have been expected from him, and when he might have hoped for much from others but his abilities and his wants were at an end together; and who can determine, whe ther he was cut off from advantages, or rescued from calamities? He appears to have been not much qualified for the improvement of his fortune. His disposition was kind and social; he delighted in the pleasures of conversation, and was probably not much inclined to business. This may be suspected from the paucity of his writings. He has left little behind him; and of that little, nothing was published by himself but the Toxophilus, and the account of Germany. The Schoolmaster was printed by his widow; and the epistles were collected by Graunt, who dedicated them to Queen Elizabeth, that he might have an opportunity of recommending his son Giles Ascham to her patronage. The dedication was not lost the young man was made, by the queen's mandate, fellow of de sopes the Aven't vous cocamed for his my, her ta dete, that support wind he id Act in the very penny procure them. Visenter te ww poor by ta own fant, or the fat dvin, con now be decided; but it is certain that many have been rich with less merit. His pèswintig would have gained him broer in any untry; and among us it may justly call for that reverence which all nations owe to those who Erat rouse them from ignorance, and kindle among them the light of literature. Of his manners nothing can be said but from his own testimony, and that of Lús his contemporaries. Those who mention him allow kim many virtues. His courtesy, benevolence, and Liberality, are celebrated; and of his piety we have not only the testimony of his friends, but the evidence of his witings. That his English works have been so long neglected, is a proof of the uncertainty of literary fame, He was scarcely known as an author in his own language till Mr. Upton published his Schoolmaster with learned notes. His other pieces were read only by those few who delight in obsolete books; but as they are now collected into one volume, with the addition of some letters never printed before, the publick has an opportunity of recompensing the injury, and allotting Ascham the reputation due to his knowledge and his cloquence. LETTERS. LETTER I. To Mr. JAMES ELPHINSTON. DEAR SIR, Sept. 25th, 1750. YOU have, as I find by every kind of evidence, lost an excellent mother; and I hope you will not think me incapable of partaking of your grief. I have a mother, now eighty-two years of age, whom therefore I must soon lose, unless it please God that she rather should mourn for me. I read the letters in which you relate your mother's death to Mrs. Strahan, and think I do myself honour, when I tell you, that I read them with tears; but tears are neither to you, nor to me, of any farther use, when once the tribute of nature has been paid. The business of life summons us away from useless grief, and calls us to the exercise of those virtues, of which we are lamenting our deprivation. The greatest benefit which one friend can confer upon another, is to guard, and excite, and elevate his virtues. This your mother will still perform, if you diligently preserve the memory of her life, and of her death: a life, so far as I can learn, useful, |