Part 18 (1/2)

Guarded to a soldier's grave By the bravest of the brave, He hath gained a nobler toloom

nobler ht

England's banners o'er him waved-- Dead, he keeps the realm he saved

CONSCIENCE OR KING?

Noe come to quite another sort of hero; a man who enjoyed every day of his life, and loved books and music and pets of all sorts; who played with his children and reatest offices an Englishman can hold, yet laid his head on the scaffold by order of the king, because his conscience forbade hi demanded of him If you try, you will find that this sort of heroism is more difficult than the other There is no excitement about it, and no praise Your friends talk of you with contempt, and call you a dreamer and a man who sacrifices his faree with hihter, I never intend to pin my soul to another man's back, for I know not whither he may hap to carry it Some ht carryway'

These were the words of sir Thohter when she ca hie the king as head of the church instead of the pope

All his life he had 'carried' his own soul hi to be able to say in the reign of Henry VIII, whenfroht demand of them

Thomas More came of a faht and a judge, seems to have been kindly and pleasant, and like his son in reat store by books and learning, and taught Thomas to love them too The boy was born when the Wars of the Roses were just over, and the country was beginning to settle down again In London king Edward IV

was still the favourite of the people, and after his death, in 1483, Thoentle his father that it was prophesied duke Richard of Gloucester would be king When the prophecy came to pass, and Richard snatched the crown for himself, many besides little Thomas were filled onder For Richard had played his part so well that few guessed at what he really was, or that theto him, if he could mount the throne on their bodies

At that period boys were sent early to school, and after careful inquiries, John More decided to put his son under the charge of one Nicholas Holt, headmaster of St Anthony's in Threadneedle Street, a school founded by Henry VI Here Tho Latin, which it was necessary for a gentlees were very little studied; instead, Latin was used; hence aue, and in it men wrote letters, and often books Thomas, who had been accustomed all his life to hear Latin quoted by his father and the lawyers who came to his house in Milk Street, soonwell that he would be considered stupid and ignorant if when he left school he should ever ender of a noun

When John More was satisfied with his son's progress in Latin, he got leave for him to enter, as was the custoe Thoh fond of joking, good-tes of nobody Morton was both a clever and a learned , Henry VII, frequently took counsel with him and profited by his experience On his side, Morton took a fancy to the boy, whose sharp answers amused him

His keen eyes noticed that Thoes, waited at dinner upon the cardinal and his guests, listened to all that was being said, while never neglecting his own especial duties

'This child will prove a hbour, and the neighbour lived to prove the truth of his words

Thoreatly enjoyed the two years he passed in Morton's house, and st his companions and with the olderon which pleased and interested hiood argueants were to take place, and the young pages could hardly sleep for excitee pieces of pasty put on their wooden or pewter plates disappeared surprisingly quick Of course they had no forks to help themselves with, but each boy possessed a knife of his own, in which he took great pride, and a spoon iven plenty of good things as a treat, and the cardinal, like other greatopen his doors, and feasted the poor as well as the rich Then co per On this Christ Thoan to ' for the matter, which made the lookers-on more sport than all the players beside' It o on with their parts when they did not knohat the boy was going to say next; but Thomas seems to have been as clever as he was ihter

In those days boys grew into youngtheir living, and even getting e when to-day they would probably just be leaving a public school So we are not surprised at hearing that when Thomas was only fourteen he was sent by cardinal Morton to Canterbury Hall, Oxford, a college which afterwards became part of Christ Church, founded by Wolsey The elder More was a poor man, and Thomas was not his only child; five others had been born to hiather, three of these died when they were still babies Thoht up fros which must have seemed necessaries to the richer boys in Morton's house But he cared little that his dress was so much plainer than theirs, and that when he went ho as he had books, and somebody to talk to about them, he was quite happy, but even he found the fare of an Oxford scholar rather hard to digest However, throughout his life he always ry, well, nobody but himself was any the wiser Laas the study his father wished hier too to learn Greek, which had lately been introduced into the University, and to i to be the fashi+on with young eoular as done, he would carry a French or Latin chronicle to his sone times In his spare moments he would play some old music on the flute or practise on the viol

After two years, when, according to his son-in-law Roper, 'he was both in the Greek and Latin tongues sufficiently instructed, he was then, for the study of the law of the realm, put to an Inn of Chancery, called New Inn, where for his time he prospered very well, and from thence was ad there his study until he was made and accounted a worthy barrister' Like the other youths of his own age--Thohteen when he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn--he attended classes where laas taught by professors, or 'readers,' and took part in the proceedings of e used When the trial was over, the reader and other teachers gave their opinions as to the way in which the scholars had pleaded, and pointed out the hted in this 'exercise,' and he evidently excelled in it, for he was soon given a 'readershi+p' hi his admission to Lincoln's Inn that Morefriend, the celebrated Erasmus

Erasmus, the most learned and witty man of his time, came over from Holland to stay with his former pupil, lord Mountjoy, in his country house, and while there the young laas invited also to pay a visit and to make acquaintance with the faes--More was then twenty-one and Erasmus ten years older--they took pleasure in alh the woods and about the neighbouring villages would discuss merrily, in Latin of course, all manner of subjects[1]