indifferent things,
which were neither right nor wrong, but according as they
were rightly or wrongly used.[60]

Before he is seven years old we find the child writing a letter in
French to the States General of Holland, in which "he expresses his
great regard for the States, and gratitude for the good opinion, which
they had so early conceived of him, and of which he had received an
account from several persons."[61] And on his ninth birthday he writes a
letter to his father in Latin, beginning "_Rex serennissime et
amantissime pater_," in which he tells the king what progress he has
made, and how that "since the king's departure he had read over
Terence's _Hecyra_, the third book of Phaedrus's _Fables_, and two books
of Cicero's _Select Epistles_; and he now thought himself capable of
performing something in the commendatory kind of Epistles."[62] This is
a good deal for a little boy of eight years old to accomplish. How would
boys of our day like to do as much? They would probably prefer the other
part of young Prince Henry's education. In 1601, when he was seven years
old, he

began to apply himself to, and take pleasure in, active and
manly exercises, learning to ride, sing, dance, leap, shoot
with the bow and gun, toss the pike, etc., being instructed
in the use of arms by Richard Preston, a gentleman of great
accomplishments both of mind and body,

who was afterwards made Earl of Desmond in Ireland. Prince Henry was
devoted to these manly pursuits as we shall see further on; and his
fondness for them and his disregard of fatigue or exposure, helped, some
thought, to bring about his untimely death.

In 1603, at Queen Elizabeth's death, the prince was nine years old.
Before King James left Scotland, which he did immediately upon receiving
the proclamation that raised him to the throne of Great Britain, he
wrote a sensible letter to his son, telling him of the immense change in
their fortunes, but warning him not to let this news make him "proud or
insolent; for a king's son and heir was ye before, and no more are ye
now. The augmentation that is hereby like to fall unto you, is but in
cares and heavy burthens. Be therefore merry, but not insolent: keep a
greatness, but _sine fastu_: Be resolute, but not wilfull: keep your
kindness, but in honorable sort."[63] Excellent maxims; and it would
have been well for the writer of them to lay them to heart as earnestly
as his little son di