Sir Thomas Elyot stands as a character altogether typical of the period, and is one of the pleasantest figures of the time; as an able lawyer and man of business, a clever diplomatist with a grand capacity for work, and an ornament to English knighthood because of his extensive knowledge, a man strictly honourable in nature, and of genuine piety. The unselfish Renaissance-zeal for culture, the impulse to learn and to teach, live vigorously in him, and his entire literary activity testifies to the fact. In addition to this we have in him that naïve, joyous hopefulness, lost for the greater part to our age, the faith in the power of aiding the enlightenment and improvement of men by means of popular moralizing writings. This middle kind of literature, which sets forth the general principles of education, of morals, of politics, not primarily in the interest of theory, but in an eminently practical sense for the educated world, has become almost unknown to our day. So far as they are found at all, the tendencies by which it was upheld are to be found now only among our poets. Scientific literature has become strictly specialized, and in popular writings we handle by preference natural science or history, rather than ethics or pedagogism. When our writers pursue practical objects, they deal with subjects sharply distinguished and narrowly defined-burning questions of the day, party interests. Whoever would, nowadays, think of writing a "dial of princes"?

It was with a species of "dial of princes" that Sir Thomas Elyot began his literary career. The year 1531 saw the publication of his Boke named the Governour, the dedication of which was graciously accepted by Henry VIII. The domain which Elyot thus entered had frequently been cultivated during the Middle Ages, and not least so in England; and during the period of the humanists this work had been continued with increasing zeal. Elyot was well acquainted with the literature in question and made use of many of the works of his predecessors, of the "Polycraticus" of John of Salisbury, and of the "Institutio principis christiani" of Erasmus, upon which he bestows extravagant praise; he is also greatly indebted to Giovanni Pontano's treatise "De principe," and, above all, to the work of Francesco Patrizi of Siena (Bishop of Gaeta between 1460

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1496), "De regno et regis institutione," the first edition. of which had appeared in 1518, and the first French translation of which was printed as early as 1520. Both as regards the plan and very many of the details, great similarities have been pointed out between Patrizi's work and "The Governour." Being intimately acquainted with the ancient writers, Elyot gathered in handfuls from the Greek and Latin philosophers, poets, historians, and collectors of anecdotes; and thus was produced a book such as the period delighted in-a book full of borrowed, but by no means undigested wisdom. "The Governour is more than a mere compilation; it distinctly shows us the author's individuality: a clear-headed man, whose learning is supplemented by experience and applied with judgment and tact, a man with thoughts and convictions of his own, and who sets out towards his self-imposed object by somewhat roundabout ways, it is true, but with conscientious endeavours. The object which Elyot has here in view is a political one, the paths by which he endeavours to reach it are pædagogic and ethical. In his introductory chapters he investigates the nature of the State which he defines thus: "A publicke weale is a body living, compacte or made of sondry astates and degrees of men, whiche is disposed by the ordre of equite and governed by the rule and moderation of reason." He then tries to prove that a commonwealth cannot, in the long run, be successful, except when controlled by one sovereign governour,' and goes on to show that this chief governour requires "inferior governours called magistrates" to superintend the various branches of the State. These "inferior governours" of the second and third orders, Elyot then deals with in the further course of his work, and in such a way that what is stated about them applies likewise to the governor-inchief, the monarch. For example, after stating that he means to defer his examination of the organism of the State-the limitation and sphere of action of the several offices of the State-to a later opportunity, he turns to discuss the education and training of those who may one day be called upon to fill leading positions in the commonwealth, and then broaches the question as to what principles should be inculcated upon those appointed to offices in

the State, and what virtues they should cultivate. The rest of the first Book is devoted wholly to pædagogical subjects, the second to ethical matter, and the third to the Governour. Specially interesting are the Books referring to education; where teaching is discussed we have the enthusiastic student of classical learning, where physical exercises and games are dealt with we have a man of refined culture and wide views and, more especially where the question of archery is mooted, the downright Englishman in all his intensity. The other two Books, however, are in no way without interest; the whole work is rich in good and striking thoughts, and shows us an experienced, able, well-intentioned man and a warm patriot. At the same time, as the author himself remarks in his Introduction,* the work "is infarced (stuffed full of) with histories and sentences" from classic antiquity and the Bible, partly also, from later times as well. Elyot has, in particular, borrowed many an episode from English history, and the admirers of Shakspere will be interested in the fact that the story of Prince Henry and the Lord Chief Justice is met with first in "The Governour." + But Elyot narrates most fully the story of Titus and Gesippus, as the pattern of true friendship, perhaps not directly from Boccaccio's "Decameron," § but from the Latin version of Filippo Beroaldo, yet his own version differs in essential features both from the copy he had before him, as well as from the original.

The abundance of subject-matter in "The Governour and the attractive manner it was dealt with, won for it a large circle of enthusiastic readers. In the course of half a century the book ran through eight editions, and by having influenced the intellectual culture, the opinions of a large number of Englishmen of the upper classes, it also left its mark on the literature of the day. Even though it may be doubtful whether Budé, or even Johannes Sturm, T betray, in their works on the subject, any knowledge of Elyot's "Governour," still it is certain that subsequent educational and ethical works in England are in many ways

The Governour, ed. Croft, i. 27.

Ibid., ii. 133, ff.

De l'institution du prince. 1547.

Ibid., ii. 61, ff.
Giorn. x. No. 8.

De educandis erudiendisque principum liberis. 1570.

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connected with his book, and that, besides this, traces of his influence are observable even in the historians and poets.

Much as Elyot wrote and published at a later date, this first work of his has remained the most famous of all his productions. And perhaps justly so, as what is peculiar to him as a man and a writer is exhibited, probably, most fully and from the most varied points of view in his "Governour." Many of the themes which Elyot only touches upon there, received special and fuller treatment in his subsequent works. Of his pædagogic treatises, one is a translation from Plutarch, and is entitled "The Education or bringinge up of Children," and is dedicated “to his only entirely beloved syster Margery Puttenham;" in his Introduction he expresses the hope that she will endeavour, in accordance with Plutarch's principles, "to adapte and forme in [his] lyttel neuewes inclinacion to vertue and doctrine." Among Elyot's political treatises we have "The Doctrinal of Princes" (1534), a translation of the famous oration of Isocrates to Nicocles, and another "dial of princes" of more doubtful origin in "The Image of Governance compiled of the actes and sentences notable of the moste noble Emperour Alexander Severus, late translated out of Greke into Englyshe by syr Thomas Elyot, Knight, in the fauour of nobylitie" (1540).* The first sketch of this last work belongs to the period when "The Governour" was produced, and is closely connected with it—in fact, a supplement to it. In tendency and plan it reminds us of Guevara's "Marco Aurelio," but is superior to it in genuine richness of substance, in greater steadfastness of form, and simplicity of presentation. Elyot has been reproached, as it seems wrongfully, for intentional deception with regard to this work. It is probable that he was deceived himself, and that, in fact, he fully believed the statement of a later Greek treatiseno longer extant-which claimed to be the work of Encolpius, a contemporary of Alexander Severus. This treatise was his chief authority, and the accounts given by it he afterwards supplemented from communications given by other ancient historians and other authorities.

Elyot's tendency in philosophy, as exhibited in his

• Other editions appeared in 1544, 1549, 1556.

works, and more especially as regards moral philosophy, finds its most beautiful expression, perhaps, in his "Dialogue" between Plato and Aristippus, which had been suggested to his mind by reading Diogenes Laërtius, and which was published in 1533, and again in the following year, under the title: Of that Knowledge which maketh a Wise Man. Two other Dialogues by Elyot deal with subjects less far-reaching, and, if we may say so, more specific in character. His Pasquil the Playne (1533 and 1540), which is satirical and half jocose, deals with the theme of speech and silence, and may perhaps have been suggested by a work that had shortly before appeared in Rome, and introduced local types from that city: "Dialogus Marphorii et Pasquilli." Altogether serious, on the other hand, is his Defence of Good Women, which in addition to defending the weaker sex from its calumniators, was also written with the view of teaching good women to know their duties. These dialogues exhibit a certain resemblance to the poetical contests of the Middle Ages, above all to the dramatic disputations that John Heywood and others wrote for the stage.

In the above-mentioned works Elyot moves in domains which are gladly conceded to a man of refined culture in his position in life. But his activity far exceeded the limits to which tradition or prejudice would have confined it. As a humanist he set himself a strictly philological task in undertaking to compile a Latin-English dictionary. When almost half of the first draft of this work had been set up in type, Elyot remodelled it entirely by making use of material which Henry VIII. had placed at his disposal, and then had the work published in 1538 under the title of Bibliotheca. He very properly dedicated the work to the King, while one copy, with an introductory letter in Latin, was dedicated to Lord Cromwell. This Dictionary not only far surpassed everything of the kind that had hitherto appeared in England, but, in fact, in spite of all the defects attached to it, marks a very important advance in the field of Latin lexicography. A second edition. appeared in 1545. After Elyot's death the work was again remodelled by Thomas Cooper, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, and published in 1550, with various improvements