tural that men
should go to the classics, and more especially to classical orators, as
models of good speech. It must not be imagined that this process was a
conscious one. In many countries the rhetorical style was already formed
by scholars before it became the speech of the Court. In fact the
beginnings of modern prose style are to be found in humanism. Ascham
with his hatred of the "Italianated gentleman," was probably quite
unconscious of his own affinity to that objectionable type, when
imitating the style of his favourite Tully in the _Schoolmaster_. The
classics it must be remembered were not discovered by the humanists,
they were only rediscovered. The middle ages had used them, as they had
used the Old Testament, as prophetic books. Virgil's mediaeval
reputation for example rests for the most part upon the fourth Eclogue.
The humanists, on the other hand, looked upon the classics as literature
and valued them for their style. But here again they drank from tainted
sources; for, with the exception of a few writers such as Cicero and
Terence, the classics they knew and loved best were the product of the
silver age of Rome, the characteristics of which are beautifully
described by the author of _Marius the Epicurean_ in his chapter
significantly called _Euphuism_. Few of the Renaissance students had the
critical acumen of Cheke, and they fell therefore an easy prey to the
stylism of the later Latin writers, with its antithesis and
extravagance. But, with all this, men could not quite shake off the
middle ages. There is much of the Scholastic in Lyly, and the exuberance
of ornament, the fantastic similes from natural history, and the moral
lessons deduced from them, are quite mediaeval in feeling. We learnt the
lessons of the classics backward; and it was not until centuries after,
that men realised that the essence of Hellenism is restraint and
harmony.

I have spoken of the movement generally, but it passed through many
phases, such as arcadianism, gongorism, dubartism; and yet of all these
phases euphuism was, I think, the most important: certainly if we
confine our attention to English literature this must be admitted. But,
even if we keep our eyes upon the Continent alone, euphuism would seem
to be more significant than the movements which succeeded it; for it was
a definite attempt, seriously undertaken, to force modern languages into
a classical mould, while the other and later affectations were merely
pas