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The First Part of the Elementarie which entreath Chieflie of the right Writing of the English tung. Lond. 1582. 4to.

No second part is known to have been printed.

The following extracts place Mulcaster among the earliest advocates of the study of the vernacular in the Public Schools of England.

On the Study of English, 1582.

But bycause I take vpon me in this Elementarie, besides som frindship to secretaries for the pen, and to correctors for the print, to direct such peple as teach children to read and write English, and the reading must nedes be such as the writing leads vnto, thererfor, (sic) befor I medle with anie particular precept, to direct the Reader, I will thoroughlie rip vp the hole certaintie of our English writing, so far furth and with such assurance, as probabilitie can make me, bycause it is a thing both proper to my argument, and profitable to my cuntrie. For our naturall tung being as beneficial vnto vs for our needfull deliuerie, as anie other is to the peple which vse it: & hauing as pretie, and as fair obseruations in it, as anie other hath: and being as readie to yield to anie rule of Art, as anie other is: why should I not take som pains to find out the right writing of ours, as other cuntrimen haue don to find the like in theirs? & so much the rather, bycause it is pretended, that the writing thereof is meruellous vncertain, and scant to be recouered from extreme confusion, without some change of as great extremitie? I mean therefor so to deall in it, as I maie wipe awaie that opinion of either vncertaintie for confusion, or impossibilitie for direction, that both the naturall English maie haue wherein to rest, & the desirous st[r]anger maie haue whereby to learn. For the performance whereof, and mine own better direction, I will first examin those means, whereby other tungs of most sacred antiquitie haue bene brought to Art and form of discipline for their right writing, to the end that by following their waie, I maie hit vpon their right, and at the least by their president deuise the like to theirs, where the vse of our tung, & the propertie of our dialect will not yield flat to theirs. That don, I will set all the varietie of our now writing, & the vncertain force of all our letters, in as much certaintie, as anie writing can be, by these seuen precepts, -1. Generall rule, which concerneth the propertie and vse of ech letter: Proportion which reduceth all words of one sound to the same writing: 3. Composition, which teacheth how to write one word made of mo: 4. Derivation, which examineth the ofspring of euery originall: 5. Distinction which bewraieth the difference of sound and force in letters by som written figure or accent: 6. Enfranchisement, which .directeth the right writing of all incorporate foren words: 7. Prerogatiue, which declareth a reseruation, wherein common vse will continew hir precèdence in our English writing, as she hath don euerie where else, both for the form of the letter, in som places, which likes the pen better: and for the difference in writing, where som particular caueat will chek a common rule. In all these seuen I will so examin the particularities of our tung, as either nothing shall seme strange at all, or if anie thing do seme, yet it shall not seme so strange, but that either the self same, or the verie like vnto it, or the more strange then it is, shal appear to be in, those things, which ar more familiar vnto vs for extraordinarie learning, then required of vs for our ordinarie vse. And forasmuch as the eie will help manie to write right by a sene president, which either cannot vnderstand, or cannot entend to vnderstand the reason of a rule, therefor in the end of this treatis for right writing, I purpos to set down a generall table of most English words, by waie of president, to help such plane peple, as cannot entend the vnderstanding of a rule, which requireth both time and conceit in perceiuing, but can easilie run to a generall table, which is readier to their hand. By the which table I shall also confirm the right of my rules, that theie hold throughout, & by multitude of examples help som maim (so) in precepts. Thus much for the right writing of our English tung, which maie seme (so) for a preface to the principle of Reading, as the matter of one is the maker of the other.

2.

These extracts might be extended. We add one more with the orthography modernized.

Slavery to the Latin.

Is it not a marvelous bondage to become servants to one tongue, for learning's sake, the most part of our time, with loss of most time, whereas we may have the very same treasure in our own tongue with the gain of most time? our own bearing the joyful title of our liberty and freedom, the Latin tongue remembering us of our thraldom and bondage? I love Rome, but London | better; I favor Italy, but England more; I honor the Latin, but I worship the English... I honor foreign tongues, but wish my own to be partaker of their honor. Knowing them, I wish my own tongue to resemble their grace. I confess their furniture, and wish it were ours. The diligent labor of learned countrymen did so enrich those tongues, and not the tongues themselves; though they proved very pliable, as our tongue will prove, I dare assure it, of knowledge, if our learned countrymen will put to their labor. And why not, I pray you, as well in English as either Latin or any tongue else? Will ye say it is needless? sure that will not hold. If loss of time, while ye be pilgrims to learning, by lingering about tongues be no argument of need; if lack of sound skill while the tongue distracteth sense more than half to itself, and that most of all in a simple student or a silly wit, be no argument of need, then ye say somewhat which pretend no need. But because we needed not to lose any time unless we listed, if we had such a vantage, in the course of study, as we now lose while we travail in tongues; and because our understauding also were most full in our natural speech, though we know the foreign exceedingly well -methink necessity itself doth call for English, whereby all that gaiety may be had at home which makes us gaze so much at the fine stranger.

The Emperor Justinian said, when he made the Institutes of force, that the students were happy in having such a foredeal [i.e. advantage-German Vortheil as to hear him at once, and not to wait four years first. And doth not our languaging hold us back four years and that full, think you? . . . [But this is not all.] Our best understanding is in our natural tongue, and all our foreign learning is applied to our use by means of our own: and without the application to particular use, wherefore serves learning? . . . [As for dishonoring antiquity,] if we must cleave to the eldest and not the best, we should be eating acorns and wearing old Adam's pelts. But why not all in English, a tongue of itself both deep in conceit and frank in delivery? I do not think that any language, be it whatsoever, is better able to utter all arguments either with more pith or greater plainness than our English tongue is. It is our accident which restrains our tongue, and not the tongue itself, which will strain with the strongest and stretch to the furthest, for either government if we were conquerors, or for cunning if we were treasurers; not any whit behind either the subtil Greek for couching close, or the stately Latin for spreading fair.

In the Grammar Schoole, (printed in 1592) Brinsley urges the study of English not only because it is the native tongue of all English scholars, but because it is the only language which the great mass of the pupils of every Grammar School will have occasion to use.

1.

There seemes vnto mee, to bee a verie maine want in all our Grammar schooles generally, or in most of them; whereof I haue heard som great learned men to complain; That there is no care had in respect, to traine vp schollars so as they may be able to expresse their minds purely and readily in our owne tongue, and to increase in the practice of it, as well as in the Latine or Greeke; whereas our chiefe indeuour should bee for it, and that for these reasons. Because that language which all sorts and conditions of men amongst vs are to haue most vse of, both in speech & writing, is our owne natiue tongue. 2. The purity and elegancie of our owne language is to be esteemed a chiefe part of the honour of our nation: which we all ought to aduance as much as in vs lieth. As when Greece and Rome and other nations haue most florished, their languages also haue beene most pure: and from those times of Greece & Rome, wee fetch our chiefest patterns, for the learning of their tongues. 3. Because of those which are for a time trained vp in schooles, there are very fewe which proceede in learning, in comparison of them that follow other callings.

POSITIONS WHEREIN THOSE PRIMITIVE CIRCUMSTANCES BE EXAMINED, WHICH ARE NECESSARIE FOR THE TRAINING UP OF CHILDREN, EITHER FOR SKILL IN THEIR BOOKE, OR HEALTH IN THEIR BODIE.

WRITTEN by RICHARD MULCASTER, master of the schoole erected in London, anno 1561, in the parish of St. Lawrence, Powtneie, by the worshipfull company of the merchant tailers of the said citie.

The above is the title page in full of one of the earliest Treatises in the English language on the general principles of Education, in which nearly all the conditions of a good school, and of an education at once liberal and practical, as held by the best teachers of the present day, are set forth in a masterly manner. We give the Contents, in which the spelling is conformed to present usage.

The arguments handled in every particular tille.

CAP. 1. The entry to the Positions, containing the occasion of this present discourse, and the causes why it was penned in English.

2. Wherefore these Positions serve, what they be, and how necessary it was to begin at them.

3. Of what force circumstance is in matters of action, and how warily authorities be to be used, where the contemplative reason receives the check of the active circumstance, if they be not well applied. Of the alleging of authors.

4. What time were best for the child to begin to learn. What matters some of the best writers handle ere they determine this question. Of lets and liberty, whereunto the parents are subject in setting their children to school. Of the difference of wits and bodies in children. That exercise must be joined with the book, as the schooling of the body.

5. What things they be wherein children are to be trained, ere they pass to the Grammar. That parents and masters ought to examine the natural abilities in children, whereby they become either fit, or unfit, to this, or that kind of life. The three natural powers in children, Wit to conceive by, Memory to retain by, Discretion to discern by. That the training up to good manners, and nurture, doth not belong to the teacher alone, though most to him, next after the parent, whose charge that is most, because his commandment is greatest, over his own child, and beyond appeal. Of Reading, Writing, Drawing, Music by voice, and instrument: and that they be the principal principles, to train up the mind in. A general answer to all objections, which arise against any, or all of these.

6. Of exercises and training the body. How necessary a thing exercise is. What health is, and how it is maintained; what sickness is, how it cometh, and how it is prevented. What a part exercise playeth in the maintenance of health. Of the student and his health. That all exercises, though they stir some one part most, yet help the whole body.

7. The branching, order, and method, kept in this discourse of exercises. 8. Of exercise in general, and what it is, and that it is Athletical for games, Martial for the fields, Physical for health, preparative before, postparative after the standing exercise: some within doors for foul weather, some without for fair. 9. Of the particular exercises. Why I do appoint so many, and how to judge of them, or devise the like.

10. Of loud speaking. How necessary, and how proper an exercise it is for a scholar.

11. Of loud singing, and in what degree it cometh to be one of the exercises. 12. Of loud and soft reading.

13. Of much talking, and silence.

14. Of laughing, and weeping. And whether children be to be forced toward virtue and learning.

15. Of holding the breath.

16. Of dancing, why it is blamed, and how delivered from blame.

17. Of wrestling.

18. Of fencing, or the use of the weapon.

19. Of the top, and scourge.

20. Of walking.

21. Of running.
22. Of leaping.
23. Of swimming.
24. Of riding
25. Of hunting.
26. Of shooting.

27. Of the ball.

28. Of the circumstances, which are to be considered in exercise.

29. The nature and quality of the exercise.

30. Of the bodies which are to be exercised.

31. Of the exercising places.

32. Of the exercising time.

33. Of the quantity that is to be kept in exercise.

34. Of the manner of exercising.

35. An advertisement to the training master. Why both the teaching of the mind and the training of the body be assigned to the same master. The inconveniences which ensue, where the body and the soul be made particular subjects to several professions. That who so will execute any thing well, must of force be fully resolved, in the excellency of his own subject. Out of what kind of writers the exercising master may store himself with cunning. That the first grounds would be laid by the cunningest workman. That private discretion in any executor is of more efficacy than his skill.

36. That both young boys and young maidens are to be put to learn. Whether all boys be to be set to school. That too many learned be burdenous: too few to bear: wits well sorted civil: missorted seditious. That all may learn to write and read without danger. The good of choice, the ill of confusion. The children which are set to learn having either rich or poor friends, what order and choice is to be used in admitting either of them to learn. Of the time to choose.

37. The means to restrain the overflowing multitude of scholars. The cause why every one desireth to have his child learned, and yet must yield over his own desire to the disposition of his country. That necessity and choice be the best restrainers. That necessity restraineth by lack and law. Why it may be admitted that all may learn to write and read that can, but no further. What is to be thought of the speaking and understanding of Latin, and in what degree of learning that is. That considering our time, and the state of religion in our time, law must needs help this restraint, with the answer to such objections as are made to the contrary. That in choice of wits, which must deal with learning, that wit is fittest for our state which answereth best the monarchy, and how such a wit is to be known. That choice is to help in schooling, in admission into colleges, in proceeding to degrees, in preferring to livings, where the right and wrong of all the four points be handled at full.

38. That young maidens are to be set to learning, which is proved by the custom of our country, by our duty towards them, by their natural ability, and by the worthy effects of such, as have been well trained. The end whereunto their education serveth, which is the cause why and how much they learn. Which of them are to learn. When they are to begin to learn. What and how much they may learn. Of whom and where they ought to be taught.

of

30. Of the training of young gentlemen. Of private and public education, with their general goods and ills. That there is no better way for gentlemen to be trained by in any respect, then the common is, being well appointed. rich men's children, which be no gentlemen. Of nobility in general. Of gentlemanly exercises. What it is to be a nobleman or a gentleman. That infirmities in noble houses be not to be triumphed over. The causes and grounds of nobility. Why so many desire to be gentlemen. That gentlemen ought to profess learning, and liberal sciences for many good and honorable effects. Of traveling into foreign countries, with all the branches, allowance, and disallowance thereof: and that it were to be wished, that gentlemen would profess to make sciences liberal in use, which are liberal in name. Of the training up of a young prince.

40. Of the general place and time of education. Public places, elementary, grammatical, collegiate. Of boarding of children abroad from their parents' houses, and whether that be the best. The use and commodities of a large and well situated training place. Observations to be kept in the general time. 41. Of teachers and trainers in general; and that they be either Elementary, Grammatical, or Academical. Of the elementary teacher's ability and entertainment; of the grammar master's ability and his entertainment. A means to have both excellent teachers and cunning professors in all kinds of learning: by the division of colleges according to profession: by sorting like years into the same rooms: by bettering the students' allowance and living: by providing and maintaining notably well learned readers. That for bringing learning forward in her right and best course, there would be seven ordinary ascending colleges for tongues, for mathematics, for philosophy, for teachers, for physicians, for lawyers, for divines. And that the general study of law would be but one study. Every of these points with his particular proofs sufficient for a posiOf the admission of teachers.

tion.

42. How long the child is to continue in the elementary, ere he pass to the tongues and grammar. The incurable infirmities which posting haste maketh in the whole course of study. How necessary a thing sufficient time is for a scholar.

43. How to cut off most inconveniences wherewith schools and scholars, masters and parents be in our schooling now most troubled, whereof there be two means, uniformity in teaching and publishing of school orders. That uniformity in teaching hath for companion dispatch in learning and sparing of expenses. Of the abridging of the number of books. Of courtesy and correction. Of school faults. Of friendliness between parents and masters.

44. That conference between those which have interest in children; certainty of direction in places where children use most; and constancy in well keeping that which is certainly appointed, be the most profitable circumstances both for virtuous mannering and cunning schooling.

45. The peroration, wherein the sum of the whole book is recapitulated, and proofs used, that this enterprise was first to be begun by Positions, and that these be the most proper to this purpose. A request concerning the well taking of that which is so well meant.

The occasion of the Publication, and in the English Tongue.

The experience of twenty-two years, and the observation of others still more successful, has satisfied the author that neither he or they have done as much as they could, if they could begin anew with a knowledge of the hindrances in the way, and the remedies for evils executed. The language used (the English) will convey my meaning as well to those who know Latin, and better to those who know it not, who will constitute by far the larger portion of my readers who will be no Latinists.'

In the second chapter, the author announces his purpose 'to help the whole trade of teaching,' not only in the Grammar, but also the Elementarie,'-and especially in the latter, because it is the lowest and first to be dealt with-and as such it is important to settle-'at what time the child is to be set to schoole -what to learne-whether all are to attend, maidens, and young gentlemenin public or private schooles-of adaptation of wittes, places, times, teachers and orders,' and in dealing with these Positions, I follow nature and reason, custom and experience.

The circumstances of the country, the possibilities under ordinary circumstances, and not the theories of writers, must be regarded in ordering the education of a people.

When Formal Instruction should begin.

'When the child shall begin to learne, must be determined by the strength of witte and hardness of body, in each case, and the continued health of the latter is the main thing to be considered.' A strong witte in as strong a bodie,' is the motto of Mulcaster, as it was of Locke (a sound mind in a sound body), two hundred years later, and of Horace (sans mens in sano corpore), fifteen hundred years before. The whole training of the school, and especially in its earliest stages, must be based in 'bettering of the body,' and the negligence of the parents for not doing that which in person they might, and in duty they

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