his own co-disciples he would recite it by heart backwards; and did sometimes prove on his finger-ends to his mother 'Quod de Modis Significandi non erat Scientia.' Then was read to him the Compost [for knowing the age of the moon, etc.] on which he spent sixteen years and two months. And at that very time, which was in the year 1420, his said Preceptor died.

"Afterwards he got an old coughing fellow to teach him, named Master Jobelin Bridé, who read unto him Hugutio, Hebrard's 'Graecism,' the 'Doctrinale' [a metrical Latin grammar], the 'Partes,' the 'Quid est,' the 'Supplementum, Marmotretus, De Moribus in Mensa Servandis,' Seneca 'de quatuor Virtutibus Cardinalibus,' 'Passavantus cum Commento'; and 'Dormi Securè,' for the holidays, and other such like stuff; by reading of which he became as wise as any we have since baked in an oven.”

But what was the result of all this? "That he did profit nothing; but, which is worse, grew thereby a fool, a sot, a dolt, and a blockhead." Being introduced to a youth of excellent accomplishments, called Eudemon, who had followed a more modern style of education-intelligence instead of mere technical memory having been cultivated-Grandgousier thereupon resolves to send his son to Paris, placing him under Ponocrates, the tutor of the charming Eudemon. We have an account of his life there, which was devoted to hard work, bodily and mental. In the midst of much absurdity and grotesque exaggeration we see that athletics, mathematics, medicine, music, and the reading of classic authors, constituted his chief studies. Rabelais points to the importance of method when he represents Ponocrates, the tutor of Eudemon, as studying the character and natural bent of his pupil Gargantua. He also points to the value of manual work; for Gargantua and his companions "did recreate themselves with bottling hay, cleaving and sawing wood, and threshing sheaves of corn in the barn. They also studied the art of painting and carving."

At a subsequent period Gargantua writes a letter of advice. to his own son Pantagruel, in which we find the views of Rabelais further developed. Athletics, music, classical studies, and the study of Nature are all included in his proposed curriculum. Religious instruction is to be from the Bible as opposed to both scholastic theology and ceremonialism. The aim is, like that of Montaigne subsequently, to develope the pupil's own thought. The letter is as follows :—

"But although my deceased father, of happy memory, Grandgousier, had bent his best endeavours to make me profit in all perfection and political knowledge, and that my labour and study was fully correspondent to, yea, went beyond his desire; nevertheless, as thou may'st well understand, the time then was not so proper and fit for learning as it is at present, neither had I plenty of such good masters as thou hast had : for that time was darksome, obscured with clouds of ignorance, and savouring a little of the infelicity and calamity of the Goths, who had, wherever they set footing, destroyed all good literature, which in my age hath by the divine goodness been restored unto its former light and dignity, and that with such amendment and increase of knowledge, that now hardly should I be admitted with the first form of the little Grammar schoolboys: I say, I, who in my school-days was (and that justly) reputed the most learned of that age. Which I do not speak in vain-boasting.

"Now it is that the minds of men are qualified with all manner of discipline, and the old sciences revived, which for many ages were extinct: now it is, that the learned languages are to their pristine purity restored, viz. Greek (without which a man may be ashamed to account himself a scholar), Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldean, and Latin. Printing likewise is now in use, so elegant, and so correct, that better cannot be imagined, although it was found out in my time but by divine inspiration;

as by a diabolical suggestion, on the other side, was the invention of ordnance. All the world is full of knowing men, of most learned school-masters, and vast libraries; and it appears to me as a truth, that neither in Plato's time, nor Cicero's, nor Papinian's, there was ever such conveniency for studying, as we see at this day there is. Nor must any adventure henceforward to come in public, or represent himself in company, that hath not been pretty well polished in the shop of Minerva. I see robbers, hangmen, free-booters, tapsters, ostlers, and such like, of the very rubbish of the people, more learned now, than the doctors and preachers were in my time.

"What shall I say? The very women and children have aspired to this praise and celestial manna of good learning; yet so it is, that at the age I am now of, I have been constrained to learn the Greek tongue which I contemned not like Cato, but had not the leisure in my younger years to attend the study of it. And I take much delight in the reading of Plutarch's morals, the pleasant dialogues of Plato, the monuments of Pausanias, and the antiquities of Athenaeus, whilst I wait the hour wherein God my Creator shall call me, and command me to depart from this earth and transitory pilgrimage. Wherefore, my son, I admonish thee to employ thy youth to profit as well as thou canst, both in thy studies and in virtue. Thou art at Paris, where the laudable examples of many brave men may stir up thy mind to many gallant actions; and hast likewise for thy tutor the learned Epistemon, who by his lively and vocal documents may instruct thee in the arts and sciences.

"I intend, and will have it so, that thou learn the languages perfectly. First of all, the Greek, as Quintilian will have it; secondly the Latin; and then the Hebrew, for the holy Scripture's sake. And then the Chaldee and Arabic likewise. And that thou frame thy style in Greek, in imitation of Plato ; and for the Latin, after Cicero. Let there be no history which thou shalt not have ready in thy memory; and to help thee

therein, the books of cosmography will be very conducible. Of the liberal arts of geometry, arithmetic, and music, I gave thee some taste when thou wert yet little, and not above five or six years old; proceed further in them and learn the remainder if thou canst. As for astronomy, study all the rules thereof: let pass nevertheless the divining and judicial astrology, and the art of Lullius, as being nothing else but plain cheats and vanities. As for the civil law, of that I would have thee to know the texts by heart, and then to compare them with Philosophy.

"Now in matter of the knowledge of the works of nature, I would have thee to study that exactly; so that there be no sea, river or fountain, of which thou dost not know the fishes; all the fowls of the air; all the several kinds of shrubs and trees, whether in forest or orchard; all the sorts of herbs and flowers that grow upon the ground; all the various metals that are hid within the bowels of the earth; together with all the diversity of precious stones that are to be seen in the orient and south parts of the world; let nothing of all these be hidden from thee. Then fail not most carefully to peruse the books of the great Arabian and Latin physicians: not despising the Talmudists and Cabalists; and by frequent anatomies get thee the perfect knowledge of the microcosm, which is man. And at some hours of the day apply thy mind to the study of the holy Scriptures: first in Greek, the New Testament with the Epistles of the Apostles; and then the Old Testament, in Hebrew. In brief, let me see thee an abyss and bottomless pit of knowledge: for from henceforward, as thou growest great and becomest a man, thou must part from this tranquillity and rest of study; thou must learn chivalry, warfare, and the exercise of the field, the better thereby to defend our house and our friends and to succour and protect them at all their needs against the invasion and assaults of evil-doers.

"Furthermore I will that very shortly thou try how much thou hast profited, which thou canst not better do than by

maintaining publicly theses and conclusions in all arts, against all persons whatsoever, and by haunting the company of learned men, both at Paris and otherwhere. But because, as the wise man Solomon saith, wisdom entereth not into a malicious mind and that science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul; it behoveth thee to serve, to love, to fear God, and on Him to cast all thy thoughts and all thy hope, and by faith formed in charity, to cleave unto Him so that thou may'st never be separated from Him by thy sins. Suspect the abuses of the world; set not thy heart upon vanity, for this life is transitory; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. Be serviceable to all thy neighbours, and love them as thyself; reverence thy preceptors; shun the conversation of those whom thou desirest not to resemble, and receive not in vain the graces that God hath bestowed upon thee. And when thou shalt see that thou hast attained all the knowledge that is to be acquired in that part, return unto me, that I may see thee and give thee my blessing before I die. My son, the peace and grace of our Lord be with thee. Amen.

Thy father,

GARGANTUA.

FROM UTOPIA,

the 17th day of the month of March."

There is in this letter much extravagance, and it is to be presumed that Rabelais did not regard his whole scheme as practicable, while yet holding to its main purport. If we collate this letter with Gargantua's own education in Paris, the opinions of Rabelais on education may be summed up as follows:-He was bitterly opposed to the grammatical and scholastic studies of his time, and had a wholesome dislike of commentators and critics. He accepted to the full the teaching of the Humanistic revival and desired to send the pupil direct to the works of great writers, and away from futile