INTRODUCTION xxxiii 



legibly, and had a stronge passion for Greeke. The number of 

 verses he could recite was prodigious, and what he remembered 

 of the parts of playes, which he would also act ; and when 

 seeing a Plautus in one's hand, he ask'd what booke it was, 

 and being told it was comedy, and too difficult for him, he 

 wept for sorrow. Strange was his apt and ingenious appli- 

 cation of fables and morals, for he had read JEsop ; he had a 

 wonderful disposition to mathematics, having by heart divers 

 propositions of Euclid that were read to him in play, and he 

 would make lines and demonstrate them. As to his piety, 

 astonishing were his applications of Scripture upon occasion, 

 and thus early, he understood ye historical part of ye Bible 

 and New Testament to a wonder, how Christ came to 

 redeeme mankind, and how comprehending these necessarys 

 himselfe, his godfathers were discharg'd of their promise. 

 These and like illuminations, far exceeding his age and 

 experience, considering the prettinesse of his adresse and 

 behaviour, cannot but leave impressions in me at the memory 

 of him. When one told him how many days a Quaker had 

 fasted, he replied that was no wonder, for Christ had said 

 that man should not live by bread alone, but by ye Word of 

 God. He would of himselfe select ye most pathetic psalms, 

 and chapters out of Job, to reade to his mayde during his 

 sicknesse, telling her when she pitied him, that all God's 

 children must suffer affliction. He declaim'd against ye 



vanities of the world before he had scene any How 



thankfully would he receive admonition, how soone be recon- 

 ciled ! how indifferent, yet continually chereful ! He would 

 give grave advice to his Brother John, beare with his impert- 

 inencies, and say he was but a child ! ' Even allowing for 

 Evelyn's tendency to exaggeration, this is surely one of the 

 very saddest stories about a child of tender years, reared in 

 a wrong manner, that has ever been written in the English 

 language. This loss was no doubt the occasion of his writing 

 his fourth work, The Golden Book of St. John Chrysostom, 

 concerning the Education of Children. Translated out of the 

 Greek, which was published in September, 1658. A further 

 relief from grief was also found in the translation of The 

 French Gardiner : instructing how to cultivate all sorts of Fruit- 

 trees and Herbs for the Garden; together with directions to 



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