Page:Entertaining life & death of the amiable Lady Jane Gray (1).pdf/4

 and under their instructions, and especially that of Aylmer, she made a molt extraordinary proficiency. She spoke and wrote her own language with peculiar accuracy; and it is said, that the French, Italian, and Latin tongues, and especially Greek, were as natural toiler as her own; for she not only understood them perfectly, but spoke and wrote them with the greatest freedom. She was likewise versed in the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic; and all this while a mere child! She had also a sedateness of temper, a quickness of apprehension, and a solidity of judgment, that enabled her not only to become the mistress of languages, but of sciences; so that she thought, spoke. and reasoned, upon subjects of the greatest importance, in a manner that greatly surprised even men of the best judgment and abilities. And she was in no respect elated, by these extraordinary endowments, but remark- ably mild, humble and modest in her demeanour.

Her parents, as appears from her own testimony, were both of them somewhat austere in their behaviour to her; and,