be intermitted then, if not wholly laid aside.

a

But Languet was not serviceable to his young friend merely as prudential adviser; Sydney was sensible that he had acquired from him a higher tone of morals than was to be learnt in courts, or in the feelings of chivalrous honour even when at its highest standard. We have his grateful acknowledgment of this in verse: the lines are in his Arcadia:

The song I sang old Languet had me taught, Languet, the shepherd best swift Ister knew,

For clerkly rede, and hating what is naught, For faithful heart, clean hands, and mouth as true;

With his sweet skill my skilless youth

he drew

improved himself in those manly exercises which were then esteemed necessary accomplishments for a man of rank, and were nowhere in more estimation than at the court of Elizabeth. Though of a spare or even lean habit, he was distinguished for activity and strength, and excelled in the violent exercise of running and tennis, as well as in tilting, throwing the spear, and the use of the sword. His beautiful treatise in defence of poetry begins with a characteristic of the riding master from whom he took lessons at this time:

When the right virtuous E(dward) W(otton) and I [he says], were at the Emperor's horsemanship of John Pietro Pugliano, one court together, we gave ourselves to learn that with great commendation had the place of an esquire in his stable; and he, according to the fertileness of the Italian wit, did not only afford us the demonstration of his practice, but sought to enrich our minds with the contemplation therein, which he thought most precious. But with none, I remember, mine ears were at any time more loaden, than when (either angered with slow payment, or moved with our learner-like admiration) he exercised his speech in the praise of his faculty. He said, soldiers were the noblest estate of mankind, and horsemen the noblest of soldiers. He said they were the masters of war, and ornaments of peace; speedy goers, and strong abiders; triumphers both in camps and courts; nay, to so unbelieved a point he proceeded, as that no earthly thing bred such wonder to a prince as to be a good horseman; skill of government was but a pedanteria in comparison. Then would he add certain praises, by telling what a peerless beast the horse was, the only serviceable courtier without flattery, courage, and such more, that if I had not the beast of most beauty, faithfulness, been a piece of a logician before I came to him, I think he would have persuaded me to have wished myself a horse. But thus much, at least, with his no few words he drave into me, that self-love is better than any gilding, to make that seem gorgeous wherein ourselves be parties.

Either Sydney's plans were not fixed when he left Vienna, or he

feared that Languet would disapprove and endeavour to dissuade him from them. At his departure he said he should not be absent beyond the third day; but he proceeded to Venice and there resided for some time. The fears which Languet had felt for him while he was on his journey, were not much relieved by hearing that he was in Italy, in no part of which could he, he thought, be safe, if any great political movement should arise in England, rumours of which were continually preparing, because there were always conspiracies at work. He urged him to return to Germany, or at least to join the Count of Hanau and some other of his German friends at Padua, on whose prudence and goodwill he could rely; and he offered him money, knowing that a traveller's remittances were far from certain, and saying that the kindness would be on his part in accepting it, as he would thereby prove that he understood the sincerity of his friend's attachment. Sydney occasionally availed himself of this accommodation, and Languet requested him never to be anxious about repaying it. His English companions were Edward, afterward Lord Wotton, an elder brother of Sir Henry, and Daniel Rogers, who, like Languet, had been Melancthon's pupil, and was the friend and correspondent of Buchanan. Having remained some months at Padua he returned to Venice; in either of those cities Languet thought him less in danger of contamination than in other parts of Italy, for the inhabitants, he said, retained something of the simplicity of the nations from whom they were derived, whether Phrygians, Paphlagonians, or Gauls; the Genoese and Tuscans he deemed the worst of the Italians, and the Florentines among the Tuscans pre-eminently bad, as having been the authors of all those evil arts

whereby, during that and the preceding age, the Christian princes had converted mild and well constituted monarchies into despotism.

But nowhere in Italy did Languet think him safe; there was personal danger for him in many parts, moral danger everywhere. He warned him against venturing to Milan, lest he should find himself lodged in the citadel there; for the Spaniards, irritated at late losses in the Netherlands, were exclaiming against the English, the Germans, and the French, as the authors of those misfortunes, and declaring that they were all heretics, and all deserving to be burnt alive. He feared that Sydney might have books with him which might bring him into peril. But above all he dreaded the pestilent influence of Italian manners, lest creeping into his mind by little and little, it might sully its native candour and purity, even if it did not fix dark spots there. No garment could remain white amid smoke and dust, nor could men journey on under a powerful sun without bearing the marks of it on their complexion. Especially he entreated him not to go to Rome, for Sydney, though his first intention had been not to cross the Apennines, meditated such a journey at this time.

Although nothing [said he] can be dearer to me than you are, and there is no one living for whom I could fear so greatly, yet my love for you is of that kind that, if I saw you from any effeminacy of mind omitting any thing which might strengthen you in virtue, no person would reprimand you more severely. A journey to Constantinople, as to the dangers of the way, and the fatigues to be undergone, and the difficulties, is far more arduous than a journey to Rome; but if your intention were to undertake, I should not so strenuously endeavour to dissuade you, for thus your piety, your conscience, and your reputation, than which nothing should be dearer to us, would not be in danger, but which nevertheless may most easily be injured, and can hardly be healed. For were you to fall into the hands of those robbers, you must either renounce the religion which

you profess, or be in danger of your life. Entirely to escape them is impossible for you; for though you might have no cause to fear treachery from those who perhaps only pretend to be your friends, yet the dignity of your appearance would make very many be inquisitive concerning you. Should you have the slightest attack of fever, immediately your landlord, or the physician who might be called in, would give information of it to the parish priest, for so they are enjoined to do. And what mighty advantage would accrue to you if you could for a few days, and in fear, explore the ruins of Rome, merely that you might boast of having seen them? God has granted to you a power of genius, such as I know not whether the like hath been granted to anyone whom I have ever fallen with, not that you should misapply it in examining vain objects to your own danger, but that it should be employed for the benefit of your country, and of all good men. You are his

steward only, and you offend Him who conferred so much upon you if you abuse what has been committed to your charge.

Languet then bade him remember what had lately befallen a person of great prudence and experience in weighty affairs because he had relied upon finding at the court of Rome that civil humanity which used to be found even among the most barbarous nations.

Some of our friends [said Languet, in a subsequent letter] have signified to me what they have heard from you and your people, that you have no other motive for returning into Germany, than to convince me by so doing of your love towards me. My dearest Sydney, I cannot deny it, nothing is dearer to me than you are; nothing more agreeable could befall me than to see you again; but, believe me, if I thought that your return to Germany would in any respect be disadvantageous to you, I of all persons would most earnestly dissuade you from it; and by our friendship I adjure you, that on considering this matter you will allow nothing to my wishes, but to determine concerning your own affairs, as you shall think most reasonable. The pleasure which I may derive rom seeing you will not be lasting; I fear

too, that the grief which will follow upon your departure may remain too deeply fixed on me, and that thought already troubles and distresses me.

Proceeding then to state the moral reasons for which he wished him not to make a longer tarriance in Italy, he says:

I do not so much admire the wisdom of the Italians as to hold all their sayings for oracles; nor do I approve the reasoning of those persons who believe that they form to themselves an excellent rule of life, if they approach as near as possible to Italian manners. Whatever nations indeed have, within my memory, followed their counsels in administering public affairs, have thereby involved their countries in the greatest calamities. I say nothing of their wickedness. Are not those persons most commended in Italy who know how to dissemble, how to flatter, and how to insinuate themselves by any means into the favour of men in power, and so to accommodate themselves to the inclination of such men; to consider sacred

whatever the haughty resentment of him in whose service they have engaged may prescribe to them, and to contend for it as they would for their hearths and altars? Yea, so broken are their minds by long servitude contumely, if only they are not deprived of that they willingly endure indignities and their money and their infamous pleasures: and think themselves fortunate if he upon whose nod they depend condescends sometimes to bestow a look upon them without opening his lips. Nothing in my judg ment can be more pernicious to ingenuous minds than those arts which debilitate their manly virtue, and prepare them for slavery; and that slavery is the reward of such arts, the Italians themselves know by their own woful experience. Is it not more accor dant with your disposition and your birth, to cultivate piety, to keep your faith, to have your lips and your heart in unison, to defend good men against iniquitous force, and to esteem the safety of your country above life itself? Because this is more easily learned in Germany than in Italy, I have endeavoured to recall you hither, not that you may learn, but that you may cultivate and improve qualities which are implanted in you by nature.