TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
The cover image was created by the transcriberand is placed in the public domain.
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have beencorrected after careful comparison with other occurrences withinthe text and consultation of external sources.
No other changes have been made to the text.
PUBLISHED BY
JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS, GLASGOW,
Publishers to the University.
MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.
| New York, | The Macmillan Co. |
| London, | Simpkin, Hamilton and Co. |
| Cambridge, | Macmillan and Bowes. |
| Edinburgh, | Douglas and Foulis. |
MCMIII.
THE
EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS
OF
RICHARD MULCASTER
(1532–1611)
ABRIDGED AND ARRANGED, WITH A CRITICAL ESTIMATE
BY
JAMES OLIPHANT, M.A., F.R.S.E.
AUTHOR OF “VICTORIAN NOVELISTS,” ETC.
GLASGOW
JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS
Publishers to the University
1903
GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY
ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO.
TO MY SISTER
AMY M. SMITH
Some apology is needed for the presentation of anElizabethan writer to English readers in any form butthat of the original text. The justification of thepresent volume must lie in the fact that in the threecenturies and more that have elapsed since the educationalwritings of Richard Mulcaster were given to theworld, they have entirely failed to gain acceptance asliterature. This neglect of one of our most interestingand important educationists is no doubt chiefly to beregarded as part of the general indifference which untilrecently the British public has consistently shown to alldiscussion of educational problems, but when we considerthe reputation of Mulcaster’s contemporary, RogerAscham, who had far less to say, but knew how to sayit with lucidity and grace, we are constrained to admitthat Mulcaster has lost his opportunity of catching theworld’s ear, and that if his writings are to be known andappreciated as they deserve by this generation, it mustbe rather for their substance than for their literary style.It is true that the serious student may now be trusted toinvestigate for himself the thoughts of earlier authorsin spite of difficulties of form and expression, but thegeneral reader will expect more help than, in the caseof Mulcaster at least, is at present available. The[viii]earlier of his two chief