And the participyls forget thou not,
And the comparison be in thi thought,
The ablative case be in thi minde,
That he be saved in hys kind, &c.
There is something in this last fragment very suggestive of the rod. What would have been the fate of the unhappy grammarian, if in spite of this solemn counsel he had failed to have his ablative case in his mind, we dare not conjecture. Our forefathers had strict views on the subject of sparing the rod and spoiling the child. Thus one old writer observes of children in general:—
To thir pleyntes mak no grete credence,
A rodd reformeth thir insolence;
In thir corage no anger doth abyde,
Who spareth the rodd all virtue sette asyde
Yet the strictness was mingled, as of old, with paternal tenderness, and children appear to have treated their masters with a singular mixture of familiarity and reverence. And it is pleasant to find among the same collection of school fragments a little distich which speaks of peacemaking:—