The minde wilbe stirring, bycause it stirres the body, and some good meane will make it to furnish very well, so the choice be well made, wherin: the order well laid, wherby: and both well kept, wherwith: it shalbe thought best trained. The body which lodgeth a restlesse minde by his owne reste is betrayed to the common murtherers of a multitude of scholers, which be vnholesome and superfluous humors, needelesse and noysom excrementes, ill to feele within, good to send abroad.
Neither is it enough to saye, that children wilbe stirring alwaie of themselues, and that therefore they neede not any so great a care, for exercising their bodies. For if by causing them learne so and sitting still in schooles, we did not force them from their ingenerate heat, and naturall stirring, to an vnnaturall stilnesse, then their owne stirring without restraint, might seeme to serue their tourne, without more adoe. But stilnesse more then ordinarie, must haue stirring more then ordinarie: and the still breding of ill humours, which stuffe vp the body for want of stirring, must be so handled, as it want no stilling to send them away. Wherfore as stilnesse hath her direction by order in schooles, so must stirring be directed by well appointed exercise. And as quiet sitting helpes ill humors to breede, and burden the bodie: so must much stirring make a waie to discharge the one, and to disburden the other. Both which helpes, as I most earnestly require at the parent, and maisters hand: so I meane my selfe to handle them both, to the helping of both.
In the meane while, for the entring time thus much. The witte must be first wayed, how it can conceiue, and then the bodie considered, how it can beare labour: and the consorte of their strength aduisedly maintained. They haue both their peculiar functions, which by mediocrities are cherished, by extremities perished, hast doing most harme, euen to the most, and lingring not but some, sometimes to the best. And yet haste is most harmefull, where so euer, it setts foote, as we that teache alwaie finde, and they that learne, sometimes feele. For the poore children when they perceiue their owne weaknesse, whereof most commonly they maye thanke haste, they both faint, and feare, and very hardly get forward: and we that teach do meet with to much toile, when poore young babes be committed to our charge, before they be ripe. Whom if we beat we do the children wrong in those tender yeares to plant any hatred, when loue should take roote, and learning grow by liking.