Locke knew no other books in English “fit to engage the liking of children and tempt them to read”; and indeed there were few to know. _The Seven Wise Masters of Rome_ is an example of what was thought fit for children. This was a very old sequence of Eastern parables first printed by Wynkyn de Worde. Francis Kirkman, who translated it from the French in 1674, declared that it was “held in such estimation in Ireland that it was always put into the hands of young children immediately after the horn book”. English copies were common; but the tales had less interest for children than those of the _Gesta_. “Pedants and Schoolmasters” must have conspired to keep it in print.