not I will not alledge that the old learned men vsed darknesse in deliuerie in matters of relligion to win reuerēce to the argumēt as of another world not of ordinarie speche neither that the old wisedom was expressed by ridles prouerbs fables oracles and oracle like verses to draw on studie and set that sure in memorie which was soundlie studied for ear it was so vttered Be anie of our best and eldest writers which we studie at this daie haue ben thought the best eche in their kinde euer since theie wrote first vnderstood at once reading and at the verie first tho he that studieth them do know their tung as well as we think we know English naie and better to bycause it is more labored or is their manner of penning to be disallowed as dark bycause the ignorant reader or the nice student maie not streight waie rush into it That theie fell into that short close kinde of writing euen for verie pith to saie much where theie speak least the commenting of thē declareth which openeth that with great lēgth which theie set down in som short sentēce naie in som short cut of no verie long sentēce Be not all the chefe paragons principall leaders in euerie profession of this same sort vnpearceable for the commō tho in their common tūg but reserued to learning as to store them that will studie But maie not this dark falt be in him that finds it not in the matter which is plane of it self and is plainelie vttered tho it be not so to him Our daintinesse deceiues vs our want of good will blinds vs naie our want of skill is the verie witch which bereueth vs of sense tho we pretend cunning countenance for learning For euerie one that bids a book good morow is not therefor a scholler nor a sufficient iudge of the book arguments What if he haue studied verie well but neither much nor long nor once medled or not soundlie medled with the argumēt whereof he wil be iudge What if desire of prefermēt haue cut of his studie in the midst of his hope greatest towardnesse Naie what if what not where the means be so manie to work infirmitie notwithstanding either countināce in the partie or opinion in the peple do muster verie fare for som shew of learning Euerie man maie iudge well of euerie thing which he hath studied well practised full if the studie require practis with all the circumstances that belong thereto Pretie skill som one waie and in som one thing will somtimes glance at further matter and shew som smak of further cunning but no more then a smak no further then a glance And therefor in my iudging of another mans writing so much of my iudgement is trew as I am able to proue soundlie if I were sadlie apposed by those that can iudge and not so much as I maie carie vncontrolled either by pleasing my self or som as ignorāt as my self Apelles could allow the coblers opinion where his clouting was his cunning but not an inch further For my maner of writing if I misse in choice I misse with warrāt still rather minding the matter with substance then the person with surface For howsoeuer it be in speche in that kinde of penning which wil be like to speche plane for plane argument where performance must be present deliuerie without delaie certainlie where the matter must bide the tuch and be tryed by the hāmer of a learned resolution there wold be precisenesse there wold be ordinat method and deliuerie well coucht euerie word bearing weight euerie sentēce being well euen that well well weighed where both time doth lend weing and the matter deserues weing Which kinde of writing tho it want estimation in som one age by sleightnesse of the time yet maie win it in another when weight shal be in price as som hundreth years be writen both to shrine saincts and to autorise books For the generall penning in the English tung I must nedes saie this much that in som points of handling by the tung there is none more excellent then ours is As in the teaching kinde no work memorie with delite like the old leonine verses which run in rime it doth admit such daliance with the letter as I know not anie And in that kinde where remembrance is the end it is without blame tho otherwise not if it com in to often and bewraie affectation not sound but followed In the staie of speche strong ending it is verie forcible and stout bycause of the monosyllab which is the chefe ground ordinarie pitch of both our pen tung For fine translating in pithie terms either pere to or passing the foren quiknesse I find it wonderfull pliable and redie to discharge a quik conceit in verie few words For close deliuerie of much matter in not manie words generallie it will do as much in the primitiue vtterance as in anie translation Which close deliuerie in few words maie seme hard somtimes but onelie there where ignorance is harbored or idlenesse is the idoll which will not be entreated to crak the nut tho he couet the kernell I nede no example in anie of these whereof mine ownpenning is a generall patern Neither shall anie man iudge so well of these points in our tūg as those shall which haue matter flowing vpon their pen that wil be so vttered or will vtterlie refuse him which refuseth that vtterance For as in other tungs there is a certain propertie in their own dialect so is there in ours for our deliuerie both as pretie and as pithie as anie is in theirs In the force of words which was the third note and pretence of obscuritie there ar to be considered Commonesse for euerie man beawtie for the learned brauerie to rauish borowing to enlarge our naturall speche rediest deliuerie And therefor if anie reader find falt with anie word which is not sutable to his ear bycause it is not he for whom that word serues let him mark his own which he knoweth and make much of the other which is worthie his knowing Know you not som words why no maruell It is a metaphor a learned translation remoued from where it is proper into som such place where it is more properlie vsed and most significant to if it be well vnderstood take pains to know it you haue of whom to learn It is not commonlie so vsed as I do vse it but I trust not abused naie peraduentur in a more statelie calling then euer you herd it Then mark that the place doth honor the parson and think well of good words which tho you hādle but with ordinarie lips those somtimes foul yet in a fairer mouth or vnder a finer pen theie maie com to honor Is it a stranger but no Turk tho it were an enemies word yet good is worth the getting tho it be from
Whatsoeuer shall belōg to coloring to shadowing such more workmanlie points by cause theie ar nearer to the painter thē to the drawing learner I will reserue thē to the after habit to the studēts choice whē he is to diuert to betake himself to som one trade of life At which time if he chaūce to chuse the pen pēcil to liue by this introduction then will proue his great frind as he himself shall find when he feles it in prouf Last of all forsomuch as drawing is a thing whose thorough help manie good workmen do vse which liue honestlie thereby in good degre of estimation welth as architectur pictur embroderie engrauing statuarie all modelling all platforming manie the like besides the learned vse thereof for Astronomie Geometrie Chorographie Topographie and som other such I will therefor pik out som certain figures proper to so manie of the foresaid faculties as shall seme most fit to teach a child to draw withall I will shew how theie be to be delt with euen frō their first point to their last perfection seing it is out of all controuersie that if drawing be thought nedefull as it shall be proued to be it is now to be delt with while the finger is tēder the writing yet in hād that both the pen pēcill both the rule cōpas maie go forward together As for Musik which I have deuided into voice and instrument I will kepe this currant The training vp in musik as in all other faculties hath a speciall eie to these thre points The childe himself that is to learn the matter it self which he is to learn and the instument it self whereon he is to learn Wherein I will deall so for the first and last that is for the childe and the instrument as neither of them shall lak whatsoeuer is nedefull either for framing of the childes voice or for the righting of his finger or for the prikking of his lessons or for the the tuning of his instrumēt For in the voice there is a right pitch that it be neither ouer nor vnder strained but delicatelie brought to hir best ground both to kepe out long to rise or fall within dew compas and so to becom tunable with regard to helth and pleasant to hear And in the fingring also there is a regard to be had both that the childe strike so as he do not shufle neither spoill anie sound and that his finger run so both sure and sightiie as it cumber not it self with entāgled deliuerie Where of the first commōlie falleth out by to much hast in the young learner who is euer longing vntill be a leauing the second falt coms of the master himself who doth not consider the naturall dexteritie and sequele in the ioynts which being vsed right in a naturall consequence procureth the finger a nimblenesse with ease and helpeth the deliuerie to readinesse without pain as the vntoward fingring must nedes bring in corruption tho corrupt vse do not vse to cōplain For the matter of musik which the childe is to learn I will set it down how and by what degres in what lessons a boy that is to be brought vp to sing maie ought to procede by ordinarie ascēt from the first term of Art the first note in sound vntill he shal be able without anie oftē or anie great missing to sing his part in priksōg either himself alone which is his first in rudenesse or with som cōpanie which is his best in practis For I take so much to be enough for an Elemē tarie institution which saluteth but the facultie tho it perfit the princple I refer the residew for setting discāt to enciease of cūning which dailie will grow on to further years whē the hole bodie of musik wil com craue place And yet bycause the childe must still mount somwhat that waie I will set him down sō rules of setting discāt which will make him better able to iudge of singing being a setter himself as in the tung he that vseth to write shal best iudge of a writer Cōcerning the virginalls the lute which two instrumēts I haue therfor chosen bycause of the full musik which is vttered by thē the varietie of fingring which is shewed vpō thē I will also set down so manie chosen lessons for either of them as shall bring the young learner to plaie reasonable well on them both tho not at the first sight whether by the ear or by the book allwaie prouided that priksong go before plaing All which lessons both for instumēt voice I will not onelie name and set the learner ouer to get them where he can in the writen song books set furth by musik masters but I will cause them all to be prikt and printed in the same principle of musik that both the reader maie iudge of them and the scholer learn by them Which thing as well as all the rest that I haue vndertaken to perform in this Elementarie I hope by Gods help to bring to such effect thorough cōference with the best practicioners in our time and the counsell of the best learned writers in anie time in euerie of the principles besides mine own trauell and som not negligent experience as I shall discharge my promis and content my good cuntrimen What thing soeuer else besides this that I haue named shall seme to be nedefull for the better opening of anie particular point I will se to it there tho I saie nothing of it here This is the sō of my Elemētarie platform for the matter thereof For the maner of teaching and consideration of circumstance in executing thereof which was the second part of my generall plat in my first diuision hath the same place if not a greater in the particular performāce of anie executiō for what auaileth precept if it be not performed or what performance is it that procedeth not in order I entend to do thus Bycause all these things tho neuer so good of themselues tho neuer so commended by writers tho neuer so well liked of parents yet maie miscarie in the handling if theie be not well followed with all dew circumstances I will therefor set down a particular direction for euerie principle when to begin and in what degre of ripenesse to ioyn with another and that so as neither to soon mar nor to much confound how to handle the young wit how to ioyn exercise of the bodie with these principles for the mind what method in teaching them maie seme to be best what pretie deuises must be vsed to cause the childe of himself shew what he can do and what metle there is in him with all such considerations as be naturallie incident to such an execution that the young learner maie both thank me for his helth and think well of me for his learning as a willing instrument to do him som good if it
of that their saing tendeth to this my conclusion For if we haue of our own as significant and as proper what nede a rich man to be a thefe If we haue either none or not so toward why in our own nede shall we not enfranchis forenners If we mean to vse them but for a time or to som end the premunition will be our warrant If we mean to make them ours then let them take an othe to be trew to our tung and the ordinances thereof If this point be not agrëid on great inconueniences will follow and all the rules which be kept in our tung must take exception against the foren or the foren against them when theie com to the writing Wherefor it will proue best for all parts that our tung the rules of hir right writing be made the generall right For the naturall words the propertie is hir own for the foren the vse is hirs and therefor the handling of them to hir own best Neither must anie learned man think it strange to write foren Englished terms after an English ear tho it be contrarie to his acquaintance seing it is not contrarie to the custom of his cuntrie Neither is it anie embasing to learning to lend the common man the vse of his learning tho he kepe the substance neither yet both to se and suffer the learneddest terms that he hath to com vnder an English hand seing there is no dishonor ment them where there be made peres to our own Thus much at this time concerning the right writing of foren words when theie becom ours to vse and attire themselues to the English complexion which we ourselues think reasonable well of and I as well as anie what account soeuer my thinking maie be of in such an argument as I haue thought thus much of Cap. XXIII Of Prerogatiue I Said before that those men which will giue anie certain direction for the writing of anie tung or for anie thing else which concerneth anie tung must take som period in the tung or else their rules will proue vnrulie For euerie tung hath a certain ascent from the meanest to the height and a discent again from the height to the meanest the one in the remouing kinde as the other was in mounting And as in the ascent it is not yet com to the assurance of note bycause it is not thorouglie artificiall so in the discent it growes not worth the noting bycause it becoms rude again and in a maner withered Hence commeth it that Demosthenes his age is the prince of Grece Tullies age the flour of Rome whose tungs if learned writing had not commended to the tuition of books theie had ben of small worth naie of no remembrance long before this daie as the spokē tungs of the same soils beginning in their daies to change be now quite altered or at the least nothing like that where the carnation grew tho full of good flowers in an other kinde So that kooks giue life where bodies bring but death Mark the Greke or Latin writers before and after those mens ages and by comparing them with these ye shall se the ods that I speak of and the one to rude to be ruled the other departing from their rule and yeilding to a change This period of mine and these risings to mount as the dismounting again till decaie ensew do giue vs to wit that as all things else which belong to man be subiect to change so the tung also is which changeth with the most and yet contineweth with the best Whereupon it must nedes be that there is som sóulish substance in euerie spoken tung which fedeth this change euen with perceptible means that pretend alteration For if anie tung be absolute and fré from motion is is shrined vp in books and not ordinarie in vse but made immortall by the register of memorie This secret misterie or rather quikning spirit in euerie spoken tung and therefor in ours call I prerogatiue bycause when sound hath don his best when reason hath said his best when custom hath effected what is best in both this prerogatiue will except against anie of them all and all their rules be theie neuer so generall be theie neuer so certain Whereby it maketh a waie to a new change that will follow in som degré of the tūg if the writers period be chosen at the best I cannot compare this customarie prerogatiue in speche to anie thing better then vnto those which deuise new garments and by law ar left to the libertie of deuise Hence cummeth it in apparell that we be not like ourselues anie long time tho the best most semelie like an artificial rule do best please the wisest peple But by the waie is it not a maruell that the period of a tung being so quik an instrumēt shall continew lōger then the fashiō of apparell being a thing so thought on sadlie misformd Vpon the like libertie in speche to be hir own caruer com our exceptions against our generall rules Hēce coms the writing of com the simple with o the compound with u cumfort cumpasse Hence whom most sound lik rome roste tho not qualifyed with e. Hence cometh it that enough bough tough such other primitiues be so strāglie writen and more strangelie sounded Whereby prerogatiue semeth to be a quiksiluer in custom euer stirring and neuer staied tho the generall custom as a thing of good staie do still offer it self to be ordered by rule as a nere frind to reason This stirring quintessence the leader to change in a thing that is naturallie changeable and yet not blamed for the change som not verie well aduised peple esteme as an error and a priuat misuse contrarie to custom bycause it semes to be a verie imperious controller but theie ar deceiued For in dede this prerogatiue tho it chek generall conclusions thorough priuat oppositions yet that opposition came not of priuat men but it is a priuat thing it self and the verie life blood which preserueth tungs in their naturall best from the first time that theie grew to accoūt till theie com to decaie a new period growen different from the old tho excellent in the altered kinde and yet it self to depart and make roum for another when the circular turn shall haue ripened alteration I take this present period of our English tung to be the verie height thereof bycause I find it so excellentlie well fined both for the bodie of the tung it self and for the customarie writing thereof as either foren workmanship can giue it glosse or as homewrought hanling can giue it grace When the age of our peple which now vse the tung so well is dead and departed there will another succede and with the peple the tung will alter and change Which change in the full haruest thereof maie proue comparable to this but sure for this which we now vse it semeth euen now to be at the
credit in a doutfull case tho it pretēded profit to haue bene beleued before it had perswaded by plane euidence To haue the thing proued ear it were perceiued that it wold be profitable not onelie for the present but in time to com also and that in euerie mans eie which had anie foresight If the first could do so both in finding and perswading both in first admitting and still continewing his follower must do so or be in falt himself and deliuer the thing from opinion of hardnesse which riseth of himself being not well appointed for sufficient deliuerie If the partie which readeth do not conceiue the thing well bycause he is ignorant he is to be pardoned the disease proceding from mere infirmitie But if he do not bycause he will not hauing abilitie to do tho not with the most he is punished enough by being peuish ignorāt if he can do with the best will deal with the worst blinded vnderstanding is the greatest darknesse punisheth the ill humor with deprauing of reason which should iudge right If the partie deliuerer be himself weak where mine own part coms in being a deliuerer my self he is either vnaduised if he write ear that he know or not well aduised if he mēd not where he misseth so he know wherein and can tell how Yet the readers curtesie is som couert against error for him that writeth as his pardon is protection for him that readeth if simple ignorance be their onelie falt without further want or defect in good will It fareth oftimes with readers in the iudging of books as it doth with beholders in iudging of fauor as it doth with tasters in iudging of relice In the matter of fauor where louing is all things be amiable where lothing is there nothing is liked no not beawtie it self But where affection is voided and reason in place being able to iudge there beawtie is beawtie and deformitie is ill fauored and euerie thing so weighed as it is worth in dede The like varietie is in matters of diet a sikkish humor can relice nothing well an ouergiuen delite likes nothing at all but his own choice an healthfull humor and a right taste neither ouerlothes with siknesse nor ouerloues with fant sie but measureth what he t◅steth with a right sense And therefor in iudge ment of fauor the corrupt opinion must be freid from passion in discerning of iuyces the corruption of taste must be cleared from distem per in matters of reason right information must be mean to right iudgement or else that passion is to imperious whom information cānot rule Howbeit I fear not anie so strong a passion in anie my reader and therefor I will on with my argument of hardnesse Admit this diuision to be trew that the hardnesse about matter either riseth of the thing it self or of the handling Is the thing hard saie you Then is it such as is strāge to the reader either for differēce of trade betwene the readers profession and the thing which he rea deth or for want of full studie which marreth that in hādling that was neuer so studied as it could be well handled For the first what affinitie is there in respect of their profession betwene a simple plowman a warie merchant and a subtill lawyer betwene manuarie trades and metaphysicall discourses either for the mathematiks for physik or for diuinitie Again can anie thing at all be easie euē to students who professe allyance with the thing which theie studie as the other do not whose trades be mere fremd if theie haue not trauelled sufficiētlie therein I nede saie no more but onelie this that where there is no acquaintance in profession there is no ease to help vnderstanding where no familiaritie there no facilitie where no cōferēce there no knowledge If the man delue the earth the matter dwell in heauen there is no mean to vnite where the distance is so great without compatibilitie And whereas the vnderstanding in affinitie of trade is clear insufficient there is far more hardnesse then in diffe rence of professiō bycause vain persuasiō in such imperfitnesse brings much more error then weak knowledge can work vnderstanding In the ignorant vnacquaint◅d there maie som good follow if he begin to like but the lukewarm learned doth mar his own waie by preiudi cat opinion But all this while if there be anie difficultie about the matter the mean is cause of hardnesse which is in the man and not the propertie which is in the matter and maie easilie be had if it be carefullie sought I am quik in teaching and so hard to vnderstand but to whom and why To him forsoth that is not acquainted with such a currant neither yet familiar to the matter so coursed Well then if want of acquaintance be the cause of difficultie and supposed hardnesse acquaintāce once made and frindlie continewed will reme die that complaint if the matter seme worthie the mās acquaintāce in his naturall tung for that is a question in a conceit blinded with the foren fauor or if the partie be desirous to be rid of such a gest as ignorance is for that is another question in a vain opinion ouerweining it self For ane hole book being writen in English and so manie Englishmen being so well able to satisfy euen at full the most ignorant reader in anie case of a book in that tung it were to great discourtesie not to lighten a mans labor with a short question and as long an answer but to pretend difficultie as a shadow not to seke where the matter it self being no pleasant tale nor anie amorous de uise but an earnest argument concerning sober aduised learning not acquainted with all readers nor yet with all writers doth protest no ease before it be sought and deseruing to be sought either for knowledge sake to instruct our selues or for cuntries sake to enlarge hir speche if it be not sought at all and thereby not found it doth bewraie an vnnaturall idlenesse which desireth rather to find salt thē ease For what reason is it for one to labor to help all none to list to help that one naie for anie to list not to help himself frō the danger bondage of blind ignorance If the book were all Latin no one word of the readers acquaintāce thē the thing were desperate for a mere Englishmā to compas Where as now anie man maie do it with verie small enquirie of his skilfull neighbour Wherefor if anie thing seme hard to such an ignorant as desireth to know doth not know thorough the argument it self being mere strang to his kinde of life he must handle the thing often and so make it soft where it semeth to be hard and in questions of dowt confer with those which ar cūning allredie He must take acquaintāce make the thing familiar if it seme to be strange For all strange things seme great nouelties hard of