nomber of images welfauouredlie and minionlie What maner made afore. So should wee take no persones to bee receiued persones ought vnto our frendship, but soche as wee perfectly into frendship. knowe, to haue tried themselues faithfull, and seruiceable frendes to others aforetymes.

Of a certaine man, somewhat sharpely beatyng 15. a bonde seruaunt of his own, Socrates asked, Many men

others thesame

whiche theimselfes are offen

wherfore he was so vengeable eagre, Marie Punishe in (quoth the other) because this knaue, whereas thinges in he is the greatest glutton and rauener of meates that maie be, yet is he the moste idle lubber aliue, ders. and whereas he is the moste couetous felowe in the worlde, yet is he the moste slothfull that is possible to be. Then said Socrates, Haue ye neuer yet vnto this daie, cast well in your minde, whether of bothe hath more neede of coiling, ye, or your seruaunt?

¶ Would God, that euery bodie, whensoeuer thei rebuke & punishe in other persones, the same thyng that thei perdone in theimselfes (or if not thesame, a moche wurse thyng) would saie to theimselfes, that Socrates saied to that manne.

were certain gaimes of renning & wrastling, whiche

Hercules did

To a certain persone, whiche in deede would 16. verie faine haue gon from home to the *Olympia, *Olympia, with the tediousnes of trauailyng so ferre a iourney, vtterly discouraged, thus saied Socrates: Whereas being here at home, thou walkest to and fro, oftseasons in maner all the whole daie, aswel afore diner, as before supper: if thou stretch the walkings that thou vsest at home, and laie theim on length, by the space of fiue or sixe daies together, thou shalt easily reache to Olympia.

This high witted man did euidently shewe, that thyng that maketh vs false harted, in taking peines and labours, to be rather our imaginacion and con

ceipte,

first ordein in the honor of lupiter to be celebrate and kepte euery 5

yere, in a certain place called Olympia, situate and liyng in the

countree of A

chaia, betwene

the 2. tounes

Elis, and Pisa,

in whiche

Olympia Iupiter had a temple, and was therefore called Iupiter Olimpicus, or Olympius.

To take pein

or trauaill in

honest matters

eache man findeth excuses.

Diseases of late banquetting and whorhaunting.

17.

Nicenes and tendernes ma

keth man vnapt to labour.

18.

ceipte, then the verie laboures in deede. If any daunger, losse or trauaill must be susteined about any honest matters, wee finde excuses, we will none of it, it standeth clene against our stomackes, whereas in matters, not worth a blewe poinct (for I will not saie in thinges vnhonest) we wil spare for no cost: thus some persones being inuited and exhorted, to fall to the studie of letters, make their excuse that thei bee sickely, that thei can not slepe, ne take their naturall reste in the nightes, that bookes are verie chargeable: and yet in the meane tyme, thei will plaie all the whole night through at Dice, thei will with bollyng and drinking get the feuer, the goute, the hydropsie, & a paire of blered iyes: thei will with whore haunting catch the paulsie, or the great pockes, otherwise called the French pockes.

An other certain man complaining, that he was euen doggue wearie, and clene tiered with goyng a long iourney, Socrates asked, whether his boye had been hable enough to kepe foote with hym all the waie? He saied, yea. Went he leere (quoth Socrates) or els charged with the charge of any burden? He caried a good preatie packe on his necke, saied the man. And what? Dooeth the boie finde any faute, that he is werie, quoth Socrates? When the feloe had saied naie, And art thou not ashamed (said Socrates) of soche nicenes, that goyng on the waie emptie, and voide of any burden, thou shouldest be werie, sens that he hauyng caried a fardelle, complaineth not of wearinesse.

¶ Socrates declared the seruaunt in this behalfe, to bee in moche better case then the maister, that for asmoche as he was better enured with labouryng he feeled lesse grefe of his labour.

It was a common guise, to tell folkes, thesame

that

that in other places is called, eatyng, or feastyng, to bee called in Greke emonges the Atheniens, evwxeioba, by the whiche worde he saied, that

surablie to bee

we wer put in remembraunce, that meate ought Repastes meato be taken, with soche measure and sobrietee, taken. as neither the bodie, nor the minde, might be ouercharged. Alludyng (I suppose) to this, that the Greke woorde, oxcîoba, souneth in Englishe to be caried, wherof is deriued a nowne, oxeîov in Englishe a carre. Albeit, oxy is Greke also for meate, and thereunto is added this sillable, ev, that vpon the bodie might not be laied a more heauie burden, then it wer wel able to awaie withal.

¶For this sillable, ev, in composicion of Greke vocables, betokeneth a certain facilitee & commodiousnes, annexed to the thing. Then evoxeîσbai is to bee not ouer full gorged, but to bee refreshed with a light repast, soche as the bodie maie easily, and without incommoditee awaie withal, taken by translacion of the easie lading or burden of a cart.

He saied, that vpon soche children especially, ought to be bestowed vertuous educacion, and good bringying vp, as wer best of birth, and came of the moste honeste parentage. For in soche is comonly seen (said he) thesame thyng that is seen in Horses, emong whom, soche as been Coltishe, or full of courage, and of kindly towardnes, if thei be broken in season, and well taught, euen while thei be verie young coltes, thei growe to bee pure bonie ones, and appliable to doe whatsoeuer a man will put them vnto: if otherwise, thei waxe skittishe past maistering, and good for no purpose. And therfore it chaunceth, that in maner all excellent goodlie wittes be marred, through default of skill in their teachers & bringers

19.

The better of

birthe that a

childe is, the better ought his bringing vp to bee.

Excellent good lie wittes marred by euill maisters.

Critias and

20.

Charicles wer two of the thir

Athenes.

& bringers vp, who euen at the firste dashe, of quicke horses, maken verie dull Asses, because thei can no skill how to maister, haulte couraged stomackes, and soche hartes as will not be brought vnder, ne be made vilaines.

Many a tyme and ofte did he saie, that persone to doe like one without all shame, whiche, where as he made his oxen euery daie fewer and fewer, yet required in any wise, to be accompted a good cowheard: but yet a thyng moche more standing againste reason, if a man would desire to be reputed a good gouernour in a common weale, when he daily diminisheth the nomber of his people.

These wordes he spake aferre of against Critias & Charicles, whiche had put to death, many of the tie tirannes in Citezens, neither was thesame vnknowen vnto them. For Critias manaced and thretened hym, that onelesse he chambred his tongue in season, there should ere long be one oxe the fewer for hym. And what he thretened in woordes, he performed in deede. For, by the meanes of Critias was Socrates put to death.

21.

Idlenes euermore worthie blame.

Unfruitfull doinges bee as

euill as idlenes

22.

He had chosen out of the old aucthours certaine verses, whiche he vsed verie often tymes for Prouerbes, emong whiche this verse of Hesiodus was one:

Εργον δ' οὐδὲν ὄνειδος, ἀεργείη δέ τ' ὄνειδος.
No kinde of labour is a thing of shame.
But idlenes euermore, worthie blame.

¶ By this verse he did counsaill young folkes, not onely from idlenes, but also from all vnprofitable or vnfruitfull accions. For, Socrates rekened theim also, in the noumber of idle persones, whiche spent all their tyme in dicyng, in reueling or banquetting, and in whorehuntyng,

Also this verse of Homere, as sheweth bothe Gellius and Laertius:

ὅττι

ὅττι τοι ἐν μεγάροισι καλῶν τ' ἀγαθῶν τε τέτυκται.

That is.

What euer is doen eche where about,
As well within our hous as without.

To be overfull of medleing in euery bodies matters.

ensueth of the

¶ By this verse, he did not onely call back, soch as would giue eare to hym, from busie medleyng with other mennes matters, but also from al kindes of learnyng, beyng not necessarie to bee had: (as from the exacte knowlege of Astrologie, or of Geometrie, or of what goodnes naturall causes, or of thinges supernaturall) to the knowledge of knowlege of morall Philosophie, the perfect intelligence morall Philowherof doeth make, that we maie throughly knowe sophie. our selfes, and that wee maie gouerne & conueigh, aswell our own priuate matters, as also the publique affaires of the common weale accordingly, & to good purpose.

To the same purpose serueth this saiyng also, 23. whiche is fathered on Socrates, and is of greate aucthoritee, What is aboue our reach, we haue naught to doe withall.

whatso is aboue our reche we haue naught to doe withall.

¶ For, thus was he wont to aunswere menne, wondryng why he would euermore be reasonyng of maners, & of good behaueour, but neuer of the starres, nor of thinges gendred aboue in the aire, or of any* impres- *Soche sions there chauncyng.

natu

ralle effectes as

bee doen nigh vnto the sterres, or (as ye would saie) aboue the reache of mannes familiare knowlege, are called in Greke, μeréwpa, as for example: the generacion of mistes, haile, raine, snowe, lightenyng, shoting of sterres, opening of the aire, blasing sterres, heggues that are seen in the feldes by night like Fierbrandes, or Torches, with soche other thinges. Of the naturall causes producing, and generacion of whiche things, Aristotles writeth 4 bokes, & entitleth them Tepì μETEÚρOV. But Socrates would neuer take vpon him, to determine soche thinges, as were aboue the compace of mannes familiare handeling.

When a certain feloe, had of a lasciuiousnes or 24. malapertnes, giuen him a spurne on the shin, as he was goyng on his waie, in the strete: to soche as wondrede, that he could paciently suffre it, Why, what should I doe (quoth he?) when thei counPaciently sailled hym to take the law on the feloe: a spoken. gentle