them with other, whiche lacked or had nat so moche of doc-
trine. Verily they be ferre from good raison, in myne opinion,
whiche couaite to haue their children goodly in stature,
stronge, deliuer,* well synging, wherin trees, beastes, fysshes,
and byrdes, be nat only with them equall, but also ferre do
excede them. And connynge, wherby onely man excelleth
all other creatures in erthe, they reiecte, and accounte un-
worthy to be in their children. What unkinde appetite were it

| [το desyre to be father rather of a pece of flesshe, that can
_onely meue and feele, than of a childe that shulde have the

| ghee ἐς fourme of a man? What so perfectly expresseth
a man as doctrine? Diogines the philosopher seing one
without lernynge syt on a stone, sayde to them that were with
him, beholde where one stone sytteth on an other ;” whiche
wordes, well considered and tried, shall appere to contayne in

‘it wonderfull matter for the approbation of doctrine, wherof a


familiar connection with the subjects and strangers whom he invited to his court to
educate both the prince and people. His own studies were tardy, laborious, and
imperfect ; if he spoke Latin and understood Greek, he derived the rudiments of
knowledge from conversation, rather than from books ; and in his mature age the
emperor strove to acquire the practice of writing, which every peasant now learns
in his infancy. The grammar and logic, the music and astronomy, of the times
were only cultivated as the handmaids of superstition ; but the curiosity of the
human mind must ultimately tend to its improvement, and the encouragement of
learning reflects the purest and most pleasing lustre on the character of Charle-
magne. ’—Decline and Fall of Rom. Empire, vol. vi. p. 172.
