Even the simple narratives in _Hakluyt's Voyages_ are not free from it, and one may hardly hope to read an account of a voyage to the Indies without stumbling on a preliminary reference to the opinions of Aristotle and Plato.

Lastly, _Euphues_ is characterised by an extraordinary wealth of allusion to natural history, mostly of a fabulous kind.

"I have read that the bull being tied to the fig tree loseth his tail; that the whole herd of deer stand at gaze if they smell a sweet apple; that the dolphin after the sound of music is brought to the shore," and so on.

His book is full of these things, and the style weakens and loses its force because of them.
Of course there is much more in his book than this outward decoration.
He wrote with the avowed purpose of instructing courtiers and gentlemen how to live.

_Euphues_ is full of grave reflections and weighty morals, and is indeed a collection of essays on education, on friendship, on religion and philosophy, and on the favourite occupation and curriculum of Elizabethan youth--foreign travel.