Thomas Elyot

“ He was one of the commissioners in the inquiry instituted by Cromwell prior to the suppression of the monasteries, but he did not obtain any share of the spoils. There is little doubt that his known friendship for Thomas More militated against his chances of success, for in a letter addressed to Cromwell he admitted his friendship for More, but protested that he rated higher his duty to the king. William Roper, in his Life of More, says that Elyot was on a second embassy to Charles V., in the winter of 1535–1536, when he received at Naples the news of More’s execution. ”

“ There is great difficulty in determining to which of Throckmorton's two brothers-in-law—to Richard or to George Puttenham—this epitaph, with the rest of the work, should be assigned. Such evidence as is procurable points to the elder brother.
In 1535 Sir Thomas Elyot, in dedicating his ‘Education or Bringinge up of Children’ to his sister, Margery Puttenham, urges her to train up his nephews in the precepts of Plutarch. They appear to have quickly developed a marked taste for literature, but in adult life betrayed a very defective moral training. ”

“ Therefore in all faculties, diligent practice and earnest exercise are the only thynges that make men prove excellent."
Contemporary with Wilson and More, was Sir Thomas Elyot, whose treatise called "The Governor," is a fine example of vigorous English. Cranmer and Ridley were not less distinguished for their fine style than for their liberal principles; and Roger Ascham, the instructor of Lady Jane Grey and Queen Elizabeth, was equally distinguished for his fine caligraphy, his musical talents, his proficiency in the new learning—Greek—for his classical Latin, and his English composition. ”

“ Stubbes may be set down by many as a sour-visaged, sour-voiced Puritan; but a very gracious courtier of his day, an intelligent and thoughtful man, Sir Thomas Elyot, was equally severe on the game. He wrote, in 1537, The Boke named the Gouvernour, full of sensible advice and instruction. In it he says:—
"Foot-ball wherein is nothynge but beastlye furie and exstreme violence, whereof proceedeth hurte ”

“ Toxophilus (1545) , and Laurence Humphrey: The Nobles (1560) . William Horman, headmaster of Eton College School, in his Vulgaria (in 1519) holds the opinion: “It is a shame that young gentlemen should lose time at the dice and tables, cards and hazard.”
19 As to charts, e.g., Sir Thomas Elyot, in the Gouvernour (1531) , says: “I cannot tell what more pleasure should happen to a gentle wit than to behold in his own house (i.e., in pictures and maps) everything that within all the world is contained.”
20 See p. 95.
21 Dialogue IX.
22 Dialogue VIII. ”

“ He tacitly retracts in this treatise all he had said against free-will in the first edition of the Loci Communes; in hac quæstione moderatio adhibenda est, ne quas amplectamur opiniones immoderatas in utramque partem, quæ aut moribus officiant, aut beneficia Christi obscurent, p. 34.
Sir T. Elyot’s Governor. 31. Sir Thomas Elyot’s Governor, published in 1531, though it might also find a place in the history of political philosophy, or of classical literature, seems best to fall under this head; education of youth being certainly no insignificant province of moral science. ”

“ The knowledge which maketh a wise man, 1533; Pasquine the playne, 1535; lsocrates’s Doctrinal of Princes, 1534; Pico de Mirandula’s Rules of a Christian Life, 1534; The Castell of Health, compiled out of the chief authours of Physick, 1534; Dictionarium, 1538 (a copy in the Brit. Museum belonged to Cromwell, and has an autograph Latin letter from Elyot on the blank leaf at the beginning) ”

“ The former, remarkable as the first English book of its kind, contains not only purely lexicographical matter, but little paragraphs on geographical, mythological, and historical proper names, and descriptions of natural objects, diseases, and the like. As a writer Sir Thomas was eminently didactic; his works have all a direct practical purpose, and he is not slow to assert the benefit that must accrue to the reader’s character from their perusal. ”

“ Elyot tells us—“His grace not only took it in the better part, but with princely words, full of majesty, commended my diligence, simplicity, and courage, in that I spared no estate in the rebuking of vice.” The king, at the same time that he protected Elyot from his petty critics, rewarded the early efforts of another vernacular author, who had dedicated to him his first work in English prose, by a pension, which enabled the young student, Roger Ascham, to set off on his travels. ”

“ And then our visit to the Lewes's in their lovely home drew to an end, and we said our farewells, little thinking as we four stood in that porch, that we should never in this world look on their faces more.
The history of George Eliot's intellect is to a great extent legible in her books. But there are thousands of her readers in both hemispheres who would like to possess a more concrete image of her in their minds—an image which should give back the personal peculiarities of face, voice, and manner, that made up her outward form and semblance. ”

“ This letter conveys a favourable impression of the real character of this learned man; but Elyot had condescended abjectly to join with the herd in the general scramble for the monastic lands; and if he feigned poverty, the degradation is not less. There are cruel epochs in a great revolution; moments of trial which too often exhibit the lofty philosopher shrinking into one of the 275 people. ”

“ Elyot for us had been little more than a name, as have been many retired students, from the negligence of contemporaries, had he not been one of those interesting authors who have let us into the history of their own minds, and either prospectively have delighted to contemplate on their future enterprises, or retrospectively have exulted in their past labours. ”

“ But I never was in Ravenna for a longer time than a week in my life.
It was many years after the visit of George Eliot and Mr. Lewes to my house at Ricorboli that I and my wife visited them at The Heights, Witley, in Surrey. I found that George Eliot had grown! She was evidently happier. There was the same specially quiet and one may say harmonious gentleness about her manner and her thought and her ways. But her outlook on life seemed to be a brighter, a larger, and as I cannot doubt, a healthier one. She would no longer, I am well assured, have talked of regretting that she had been born! ”

“ It was close at hand in a drawer, for he had often asked for it before.
"You know what there is in the letter, father?" said Tom, as he gave it to him.
"To be sure I do," said Mr. Tulliver, rather angrily. "What o' that? If Furley can't take to the property, somebody else can; there's plenty o' people in the world besides Furley. But it's hindering–my not being well–go and tell 'em to get the horse in the gig, Luke; I can get down to St. Ogg's well enough–Gore's expecting me."
"No, dear father!" Maggie burst out entreatingly ”

“ I have a different way of showing my affection."
"Because you are a man, Tom, and have power, and can do something in the world."
"Then, if you can do nothing, submit to those that can."
"So I will submit to what I acknowledge and feel to be right. I will submit even to what is unreasonable from my father, but I will not submit to it from you. You boast of your virtues as if they purchased you a right to be cruel and unmanly, as you've been to-day. Don't suppose I would give up Philip Wakem in obedience to you. The deformity you insult would make me cling to him and care for him the more." ”

“ I want you."
"Is there anything the matter, father?" said Tom.
"You sit down, all of you," said Mr. Tulliver, peremptorily.
"And, Tom, sit down here; I've got something for you to write i' the Bible."
They all three sat down, looking at him. He began to speak slowly, looking first at his wife.
"I've made up my mind, Bessy, and I'll be as good as my word to you. There'll be the same grave made for us to lie down in, and we mustn't be bearing one another ill-will. ”

“ Though very exhaustible in bodily force, he was inexhaustible in cheerfulness, and above all in unwearied, incessant, and minute care for "Polly." In truth, if any man could ever be said to have lived in another person, Lewes in those days, and to the end of his life, lived in and for George Eliot. ”

“ Nothing could be more enjoyable than the evenings passed by the partie carrée consisting of herself and Lewes, and my wife and myself. I am afflicted by hardness of hearing, which shuts me out from many of the pleasures of society. And George Eliot had that excellency in woman, a low voice. ”

“ Tom will pay them all; he says he will, when he's a man."
She felt her father beginning to tremble; his voice trembled too, as he said, after a few moments:
"Ay, my little wench, but I shall never live twice o'er."
"But perhaps you will live to see me pay everybody, father," said Tom, speaking with a great effort.
"Ah, my lad," said Mr. Tulliver, shaking his head slowly, "but what's broke can never be whole again; it 'ud be your doing, not mine." Then looking up at him, "You're only sixteen; it's an up-hill fight for you, but you mustn't throw it at your father ”

“ The young ones beat me. As old Nestor says—the gods don’t give us everything at one time: I was a young fellow once, and now I am getting an old and wise one. Old, at any rate; which is a gift that comes to everybody if they live long enough, so it raises no jealousy.” The Earl smiled comfortably at his wife.
“Oh, my lord, people who have been neighbors twenty years must not talk to each other about age,” said Mrs. Arrowpoint. “Years, as the Tuscans say, are made for the letting of houses. But where is our new neighbor? I thought Mr. Grandcourt was to be here to-day.” ”

“ Tom drew to the corner of the table near his father when the tin box was set down and opened, and the red evening light falling on them made conspicuous the worn, sour gloom of the dark-eyed father and the suppressed joy in the face of the fair-complexioned son. The mother and Maggie sat at the other end of the table, the one in blank patience, the other in palpitating expectation. ”

“ Her countenance is constantly changing." The said lips and mouth were distinctly sensuous in form and fulness.
She has been compared to the portraits of Savonarola (who was frightful) and of Dante (who though stern and bitter-looking, was handsome) . Something there was of both faces in George Eliot's physiognomy. Lewes told us in her presence, of the exclamation uttered suddenly by some one to whom she was pointed out at a place of public entertainment—I believe it was at a Monday Popular Concert in St. James's Hall. "That," said a bystander, "is George Eliot." ”

“ The fact that it was written in English by one who was not a doctor roused much wrath on the part of the medical profession. Elyot replied to his medical critics in a preface to the edition of 1541. The treatise was very popular till the close of the century. 7. ‘The Bankette of Science,’ London, 1539, 1542, 1545, 1557, a collection of moral sayings chiefly from the fathers. 8. ‘The Dictionary of Syr T. Eliot, knyght,’ London, fol. 1538 and 1545, Latin-English. The copy presented by Elyot to Cromwell is at the British Museum, and with it there is a long Latin letter by Elyot to Cromwell. ”

“ He himself had labored jointly with Eliot, with so much zeal and patience, and with such an unselfish and devout spirit, that he had attained a full knowledge and appreciation of all the exactions and embarrassments of the enterprise. While himself cheerful and assured, he was not over-sanguine, still less enthusiastic. He was always cautious, moderate, and discreet, recognizing alike the serious difficulties of the undertaking from the rude material with which he had to deal, and from the distrust and lack of sympathy of many of the English. ”

“ Tom went up to his mother and kissed her, a sign of unusual good-humor with him. Hardly a word or look had passed between him and Maggie in all the three weeks; but his usual incommunicativeness at home prevented this from being noticeable to their parents.
"Father," said Tom, when they had finished tea, "do you know exactly how much money there is in the tin box?"
"Only a hundred and ninety-three pound," said Mr. Tulliver. "You've brought less o' late; but young fellows like to have their own way with their money. ”

“ We'd need save our money to keep the poor man with, instead o' spending it on furniture as he can neither eat nor drink. You will be so hasty, Jane, as if I didn't know what was reasonable."
"Then speak accordingly, Mr. Glegg!" said his wife, with slow, loud emphasis, bending her head toward him significantly.
Tom's countenance had fallen during this conversation, and his lip quivered; but he was determined not to give way. He would behave like a man. Maggie, on the contrary, after her momentary delight in Tom's speech, had relapsed into her state of trembling indignation. ”

“ But at last she heard the word "dearest" uttered in the softest tone of pained entreaty, like that of a patient who asks for something that ought to have been given without asking. She had never heard that word since the moments in the lane at Basset, when it had come from Stephen again and again, almost as involuntarily as if it had been an inarticulate cry. Philip could hear no word, but he had moved to the opposite side of the piano, and could see Maggie start and blush, raise her eyes an instant toward Stephen's face, but immediately look apprehensively toward himself. ”

“ Eliot, insisting that his disciples should have but one wife, was asked, “If an Indian have two wives, the first without, the second with children, which of them shall he put away? If he renounces the first, then he wrongs the one who has the strongest claim upon him. If he discards the second, then he breaks a living tie, and makes his children bastards.” “If one man sins knowingly and another ignorantly, will God punish both alike?” ”