"I have given up my whole soul to Greek learning," he writes, "and as soon as I get any money I shall buy Greek books--and then I shall buy some clothes." It was in despair of reaching Italy that the young scholar made his way in 1498 to Oxford, as the one place on this side the Alps where he would be enabled through the teaching of Grocyn to acquire a knowledge of Greek.

But he had no sooner arrived there than all feeling of regret vanished away.

"I have found in Oxford," he writes, "so much polish and learning that now I hardly care about going to Italy at all, save for the sake of having been there.

When I listen to my friend Colet it seems like listening to Plato himself.

Who does not wonder at the wide range of Grocyn's knowledge?
What can be more searching, deep, and refined than the judgement of Linacre?
When did Nature mould a temper more gentle, endearing, and happy than the temper of Thomas More ?" [Sidenote: Revival of Letters] But the new movement was far from being bounded by the walls of Oxford.
The printing press was making letters the common property of all.