University of Virginia Library

To Criticus. Children must be instructed.

Soft claye, may formde and framed be
how and to what you will,

[28]

The tender waxe, to any shape,
is prest and pliant still:
So youth in tender yeares may be
instructed hou you list,
And how they frame themselues in youth,
so lightly they persist.
Wherfore in vertue, Criticus
instruct thy child betyme:
To no admonishment their eares
the grauer sort incline.