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Full text of "Roger Ascham Toxophilus 1545"


diuerfe men [to] loke at theyr marke diuerfe wayes: yet
they al lede a mans hand to fhoote ftreight yf nothyng
els floppe. So that cumlyneffe is the only iudge of Deft
lokyng at the marke. Some men wonder why in calling
a mans eye at ye marke, the hand mould go flreyght.
Surely ye he confydered the nature of a mans eye, he
wolde not wonder at it: For this I am certayne of,
that no feiuaunt to hys mayfter, no chylde to hys
father is fo obedient, as euerye ioynte and pece of the
, body is to do what foeuer the eye biddes. The eye is
the guide, the ruler and the fuccourer of al the other
partes. The hande, the foote and other members
dare do nothynge without the eye, as doth appere on
the night and darke corners. The eye is the very
tonge wherwith wyt and reafon doth fpeke to euery
parte of the body, and the wyt doth not fo fone fignifye
a thynge by the eye, as euery parte is redye to folow,
or rather preuent the byddyng of the eye. Thys is
playne in many thinges, but moft euident in fence and
feyghtynge, as I haue heard men faye. There euery
parte ftandynge in feare to haue a blowe, runnes to the
eye for helpe, as yonge chyldren do to ye mother: the
foote, the hand, and al wayteth vpon the eye. Yf the
eye byd ye hand either beare of, or fmite, or the foote
ether go forward, or backeward, it doth fo : And that
whyche is mooft wonder of all the one man lookynge
ftedfaftly at the other mans eye and not at his hand,
wyl, euen as it were, rede in his eye where he
purpofeth to fmyte nexte, for the eye is nothyng els
but a certayne wyndowe for wit to Ihote oute hir
head at.

Thys wonderfull worke of god in makynge all the
members fo obedient to the eye, is a pleafaunte thynge
to remember and loke vpon: therfore an Archer maye
be fure in learnyng to looke at hys marke when he is
yong, alwayes to moote ftreyghte. The thynges that
hynder a man whyche looketh at hys marke, to Ihote
ilreyght, be thefe: A fyde wynde, a bowe either to
ftronge, or els to weake, an ill arme, whan the fether
runneth on the bowe to much, a byg brefled fhafte, for