Copy-books survive from the days of the Empire with the corrections of the masters still adorning the margins; the abundance of errors would console the modern schoolboy.133 The chief method of instruction was the dictation or copying of texts, which were written upon potsherds or limestone flakes.134 The subjects were largely commercial, for the Egyptians were the first and greatest utilitarians; but the chief topic of pedagogic discourse was virtue, and the chief problem, as ever, was discipline. “Do not spend thy time in wishing, or thou wilt come to a bad end,†we read in one of the copy-books. “Let thy mouth read the book in thy hand; take advice from those who know more than thou dostâ€â€”this last is probably one of the oldest phrases in any language. Discipline was vigorous, and based upon the simplest principles. “The youth has a back,†says a euphemistic manuscript, “and attends when he is beaten, . . . for the ears of the young are placed on the back.†A pupil writes to his former teacher: “Thou didst beat my back, and thy instructions went into my ear.†That this animal-training did not always succeed appears from a papyrus in which a teacher laments that his former pupils love books much less than beer.135