the first foote and the last haue semblable harmonie and time For the sounde of the voyce is in the first sillable that is to saye in the thirde sillable from the ende and the seconde and thirde foote haue the sounde in the middest But in this verse it is otherwise Protenus aeger ago hanc etiam vix Tityre duco For though it be measured with the lyke féete yet doth it differ in the sound placing of the letters as appeareth in this draught .. .. .. For the first and seconde heroicall féete hath two sharpe soundes and the thirde hath a contraction of vowels and the two spondaicall féete are more sounding so that this verse as it is in matter more dolefull than the first so is it also grauer in sounde These examples are taken out of the Poetes but bicause I interpreted and shewed you these foresaide things this last sommer I purposed to vse such examples as you were alreadie acquainted withall and as you had lately hearde The same order we ought to folow in Orators and Hystorians For all writers haue amonge themselues manye thinges in common As for example if I woulde thus frame a sentence A wise man alwayes followeth honestie and for the maintenance thereof doth willingly offer himselfe to the death but a foole esteemeth pleasure more than honestie Whereas a wise man measureth not his pleasure by the wanton delight of the senses but by vertue and honestie This kinde of speach or sentence is philosophicall but it is framed according to the paterne that we tooke of the Poet which thing eyther can not be done or can hardlye be perceyued without this Arte practise or obseruation or else howsoeuer you lyst to terme it And this sentence differeth from Vergils verses in kinde and nature of wordes but in forme and shape it is almost all one For as two cotes differ the one from the other which are shaped both of one fashion the one being gréene and of a fresh and pleasant colour the other blacke and more sadder and the one hath an elle of cloth more or lesse than the other at the discretion of the Tayler To obserue these things and to set them in order in their proper places doth greatly helpe vs to practise imitate and of it selfe is verie pleasant to vnderstande And although it be variable and copious yet by bestowing one howre diligently euery daye where neyther wit nor teacher wanteth it is wonderfull howe much mans traueyle maye atchieue and attaine vnto in thrée yeares space But dulye considering your condicion of life and what your calling is I councell you chieflye to bestowe this your traueyle first in the Orations of Cicero and Demosthenes Secondly in Tullies bookes of philosophie and in hystories although also his epistles are euen at the first to be taken in hande In reading all these betwixt times we must make a steppe to Poets Howbeit it must be done sparingly neyther may wée tary in them ouer longe before our style be made both copious and méete for an Orator For I lyke well the councell of Anthonie in Tullie who did diligently and vsually exercise himselfe in ciuill controuersies and matters of Court Hystories he read for his pleasure and as for Philosophers although he read them yet he did not follow them by reason of their short and briefe disputations But from Poets he vtterlye abstayned as from those that spake in a straunge tongue Howbeit Anthonie did much dissemble his studie as he did also his Arte in pleading And whereas he sayeth he vnderstoode not Philosophers nor dealed not with Poetes he doth declare what is to be followed in imitating and what is to be shunned specially of an Orator whose talke ought to bée liked and allowed of the people And I write this to the ende that you maye sée in what thinges you ought chiefly to bestowe your traueyle whereby you might come vnto that ende which you shoote at But nowe bicause all obseruation and all noting and marking of examples is prepared for the style and is directed and referred vnto writing and other exercises hereafter we are to treate what order in writing you ought to follow Wherein this is the first precept that you consider well the Argument and matter whereof you will write which Aristotle calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That same must be such as we must fully and perfitely vnderstand neyther can it be that we should in writing expresse any maner of thing except we know the nature thereof no more than if a Paynter woulde paynt the buckler of Aiax or the Armour of Achylles or the honorable méeting and giftes of Diomed and Glaucus which he had neuer séene no neuer hearde of Therefore let this be the first precept that the whole nature of the thinge be knowne Out of this precept riseth another that is that we make choyse of things that in the beginning of this our exercise we choose such matter as maye be easily vnderstoode and handled and vttered without any tediousnesse For in tediousnesse when thinges be long and obscure it is to be feared least the traueyle shoulde be to painefull and laborsome for a yong beginner wherof riseth a lothsomnesse of this practise which we wishe to be delectable and pleasant and not heauie or lumpish For as he singeth not so well that is compelled to sing so also he writeth not so cunningly and skilfullye which is loth and vnwilling to write as he which writeth with a prompt and earnest desire Therefore the style is to be applied in the beginning to plaine thinges and not to those that be tedious and obscure To which two preceptes is ioyned a thirde and that is that our matter may be quickly dispatched for I will haue the diligence of this practise measured by the number of lynes and not by the whole nature of the matter This rule also may well be giuen in this place that the first yeare be spent in Cicero out of whom we gather matter for the style neyther doe I meane that we should write whole Orations to the imitation of him but first some small parts such as be of the shorter sort Which haue either some necessarie or some notable place in them I call that necessarie that is almost euer to be vsed notable which is commended for that it is seldome vsed bicause of the singuler finenesse and passing showe and in longer matters doth not appeare Wherefore we account the first yere for the reading of Tullies bookes and for the framing of our style as for other writers as well Gréeke as Latine it shall be sufficient for the time if we only reade them to vnderstande them And let this yeare be onely bestowed vppon Orators and Proes the other two yeares that follow may ioyne therewithall Hystoricall and Poeticall exercises so it be sparingly done that the other principall exercise be not hindered nor the senatorie and Courtlike speache of an Orator be not infected and corrupted vnawares
space we may be able to vnderstand and remember much that shall be commodious for our instruction in religion and for the framing of a Christian and godly life Chiefly when as our style shall be the better furnished with matter taken out of the holye writers so that of good Latine wée maye make better and for the Gréeke we maye eyther interprete it into pure Latine or so handle and polish it that there may appeare some goodly matter and yet men should not espie from whence it commeth or if it bée espied it should séeme more beawtifull and beare a shewe of greater learning These thrée times I saye of reading and writing will bréede in a man store and varietie of matter and as well for religion as other learning though he haue but a meane wit so that he ioyne thervnto continuall helpe of diligence The other howres in the morning I assigne to Ciceros workes and to the stile not doubtinge but Tullie maye be all read and vnderstoode in thrée yeares which if it be graunted this is also true that in the afternone howres as much maye be gotten out of other writers as well in the Gréeke as in the Latine tongue besides those bookes which shall be recited by the repeater of whom we haue spoken before Wherefore these thrée yeares space shall bring great knowledge of religion and of a great part of Philosophie in Tullie besides many ensamples and hystories of his time which in his Epistles and Orations are learned and further al kind of sentences coūcels déedes sayings And all this may be done with the mornings traueyle which shall neyther be great nor yet vnpleasant if order and measure be obserued Now the afternones studie shall giue and yéelde as much matter out of Aristotle Plato Demosthenes Xenophon Herodotus Thucidides Homer Hesiod Euripides Sophocles Pindar and out of the other Orators and Gréeke Poets also out of the Latine as Caesar Salust Cato Vergil Lucretius Catullus Horas and though you ioyne none other to these yet you easily perceyue how much learning and variety may be gotten out of them Howbeit I wishe no writer to be ouerpassed but that we taste somewhat of his doings and runne ouer some part of him and diligently obserue some things in him But yet in such wise that we haue care and regarde of the time with due consideration of the thrée yeare and of the ende of our studie which we haue appointed And for this cause neyther haue I named all writers neyther bid I you to reade all these neither forbid I you to knowe those which I haue not named Plautus is a pure Romaine Poet and Ouid a Poet by nature both plentifull and neate and both the Plinies very profitable and Liui is a loftie writer of an historie and Tacitus is a true reporter of things And as for those that haue written of husbandrye building and of warfare who denieth but a learned man shoulde be acquainted with them but my prescription is of thrée yeare and is agreable to your age calling and nobilitie For I write this worke for your sake wherein I consider what maner of Gentleman I would traine vp that may be méete to be a counceller of Emperors and Kings and to haue gouernement in the common welth And yet neuerthelesse I doe not doubt if you get those thinges which you ought partly to vnderstande and partly to haue in memorie as well out of holye writers as out of all Cicero and out of the best Orations of Demosthenes and out of the bookes of Plato and Aristotle written of the common welth and of lawes and out of those which I brieflye named a little before although you may ouerslippe some of them if the time so require neuerthelesse I saye if with care and order you atchieue but onely these thinges I doubt not but you shall be welcome to euery learned companie and to euery wise assemblie no lesse than Cotta and Sulpitius were acceptable auditors to Sceuola Crassus and Antonius in their thrée discourses of an Orator euen as Tullie was glad also of the companie of the yong man Triarius in his disputation that he had with Torquatus concerning the endes of good and euill But it is nowe time that I come to the order of reading and writing which is the principall part of this our purpose For now all men knowe almost what Authors are specially to be read and what euery one may reade to his most vtilitie and profit but how they ought to be read First fewe men knowe secondlye those that knowe are of diuers iudgements For as he sayth howe many heades so many wittes But I will declare my opinion as I thinke best and after mine owne maner chalenging nothing as proper to my selfe which other haue vsed as well as I and leauing to euery one his owne iudgement Councelling you not bindinge others to these my precepts Now in reading we ought specially to follow the same order which we vse in writing and speaking that first we care for things and matter then after for words But as in deuising and writing we are first to consider what we will teache defende or vtter and then by what meanes we maye attaine thereto so in readinge we must runne ouer the whole Booke or Oration or Epistle or some whole worke and after we must take in hande by péecemeale to consider and iudge and weigh euery poynt least any thing should escape our vnderstanding without the which all memory is weak and obseruation is vncertaine and imitation is deceytfull although it is true that oftentimes we méete with some places in olde and auncient writers which are of such difficultie and so obscure that they cannot be vnderstoode at all or else after they be vnderstanded the profite thereof is not worth the paynes such places doe I thinke best to ouerpasse I remember that being a yong student at Loueine and reading at home in my Chamber the Oration of Tullie for Roscius I lightly passed ouer the allegorie of the Seruilian Lake but when I publikely interpreted that Oration at Paris I indeuoured all that I coulde to expounde the same Allegorie hauing before asked Budes councell and aduise therein Yet I remember that I then gaue this councell also to my auditors that if they fortuned to méete with the like rockes and obscure places they should doe as good Plowmen doe as well in séede time as in haruest who are woont both in plowing and reaping to ouerpasse the thornie thickets and déepe rootes of trées and craggie stones if the cost surmount the fruite So also studentes shoulde note those places which cannot profitablye be vnderstoode at the first reading or present time Neuerthelesse as husbandemen ouerturne stones and digge vp stumpes of trées and plucke vp thornes when they can so doe and when any gaine maye come thereby so also it is good for students to staye at those sentences which may be vnderstoode although with some hardnesse specially if
buildings of Temples not that I take no delight in these but for that I am more delyghted with the other kinde of bewtifying and doe thinke it to be more séemely and méete For as the picture of GOD which is paynted by an excellent Painter doth more recreate and refreshe vs than that which is done by suche a one as wanteth skill And the Image of Ioue grauen by Polycletus was woont more to mooue the senses than those which were made by other workemen so also when religion and ceremonies haue gotten an eloquent expositor they are more playnely taught and more bewtifully set forth and thereby the loue and feare of God which by heauenly power is stirred vp in vs is not suffered to abate nor faynt awaye Wherefore cyuill knowledge which most beséemeth a Gentleman is greatly furthered by those wryters whose bookes we haue that treate of the common welth of maners moreouer by Histories as wel Gréeke as Latin also by expositors of other languages when time eyther serueth or requireth But specially by the Authors Doctors Historiographers of our religion And bicause we cal that ciuil knowledge which of the Gréekes is tearmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the science of the lawe is no small part it is requisite that agayn we reade those excellent monuments which Plato hath written of lawes and Tullies two bookes treating of the same matter Which being well vnderstoode will easily instruct vs what we ought to iudge and what to answere when question is moued of such matter as Lawyers haue compiled and set forth in wryting But that you be not troubled with a multitude neyther hindered with the varietie of languages and handling of manye matters before I shall come to the exercise of the tongue I wyll shewe you a way wherin I thinke you must walke that you maye ariue at the place appoynted Therfore I will deuide my whole treatise into thrée tymes one in hearing the other in reading and the thirde in considering and deuising In which thrée if measure be vsed and the order kept which I shall prescribe you shall both attayne the thing you labor for and there shal remaine a sufficient time euery daye after euery action to the recreation of the minde refection of the strength and confirmation of the health whereof I wishe great regarde to be had bicause that the minde is most pregnant and fresh when the bodie is in perfite helth doth then more quickly apprehende and séeth further and doth kepe those things more diligently which it hath learned perceiued and deuised I wil therefore returne to that that is proposed in the first place I meane the tyme of hearing in the which are two kindes of persons to be considered for both we vse trachers as M. Ciceros sonne Cratippus at Athens and also we haue repeators And Cicero in an Epistle to Atticus lamenteth the death of his Sositheus whom he calleth a pleasant boye Writers that be harde to vnderstande and such as treat of high matters must be learned at the handes of those whome we at this daye tearme readers professours of the tongues and Schoolemaisters Of this sort concerning Philosophie are Platos bookes called Gorgias and Protagoras and diuers other of his Dialogues Such are Aristotles first bookes of the common welth of maners Such is Thucidides among Historians Such is Lucan amomg Poetes For he doth also make a wise Citizen and a politike gouernour Such among Orators are Demosthenes and Tullie not for that their sayings be obscure but bicause their Arte is secret and close And as the eye sight is often glimsed by the beames of the Sunne so is the sharpenesse of the witte sometime dulled with the brightnesse of the sentence being amply adourned and beawtifully set forth You may read by your selues Caesars Commentaries and Xenophons Cyrus and Herodians Emperors and also Polibius The office of the repeater is to rehearse those things both which we haue learned of others as also which wée haue read oure selues and it is good sometime to haue the repeater recite that thing that we meane to reade and to haue him in fewe wordes expounde the darkest sentences which must afterwardes be recognised of vs both in reading and deuising Hitherto haue we shewed what ought to be expounded by our teachers and what is to be repeated of our domesticall repeaters And what we ought to reade our selues Nowe we will declare what order is to be vsed and what choyse must be made and what measure at all times must be kept That teacher therefore is chiefly to be chosen which professeth the Arte he teacheth and hath long exercised the same It is a pestilent thing in the Vniuersities to haue one man a teacher and a learner all at once and that they shoulde begin to teach who neuer began to learne the which in my time was ouermuch vsed Notwithstanding I denie not but there are many of goodly wittes which euen when they learne are better able to teache than some others that long before haue both learned and taught the same But we speake of that time when choyse is giuen vs of twaine that we may alwaies elect the best learned and of most experience Howbeit if it happen contrarie we will follow the example of great Capitaines and noble Emperours who are woont to preferre a valiaunt yong souldiour before an olde Cowarde or Crauen But in the choyse of two or more consideration must be had not onely of their learning but also of their order in teaching and facilitie in dispatching their matters In the which notwithstanding we haue to weighe what is the habilitie of the learner what capacitie he hath and howe much he hath profited When I was at Paris Peter Danes and Iames Tusan atchieued one purpose though by diuers meanes that they might haue many auditors They both dispatched a great number of lines in one howre Tusan did examine them aptly according to the rules of Grammer and Danes did so interprete Demosthenes so much as was in him to do and as farre as the tongue woulde giue him leaue that he made him séeme a Romaine beautified and set forth with Tullies words and sentences Therefore the learned gladly hearde the one the other had for his schollers such as woulde from the first foundation be taught that tongue of a learned Schoolemaster It is a signe of great iudgement and a token of much learning a signification of diligence and a sincere meaning not to staye longer in teaching a thing than néede requireth and ouerpasse nothing that is to be expounded as well for the matter as for the wordes and the Arte and the comparing of it with other writers And thus much touching the teacher Nowe we haue to speake of the order and choyse which you must vse and of the maner and waye which in reading and hearing you ought to folow Wherein eftsoones I must call to remembrance the
ende of your studies which is the knowledge of excellent learning ioyned with an honest life and a well pollished stile and a pure and vncorrupt speache beautified with ornamentes both of wordes and sentences And bicause you vnderstande for the most part the first Artes of speache and the preceptes and varietie of the two tongues I meane Gréeke and Latine wherevnto is ioyned the knowledge of wordes and matter for that that wordes are the images of things Therefore from this time forwarde you must ioyne togither and combine the studie of them both and to that ende tendeth all my talke Wherefore we will deuide the daye into two parts or times of which the one is the morning the other the afternoone Now as the morning must be bestowed vppon Tullie and writinge the time that remayneth after dinner shall serue for other Authors such as may teach vs other good Artes and knowledge Not as though these other Authors were not commended among learned men for their style and speache or as though Tullie were not full of excellent knowledge fetched from the verie depth and bottome of Philosophie and wisedome But although they are both helped the one by the other yet bicause I iudge that Cicero at all times is chieflye and most principally to be followed when we séeke for example I must make this difference that it maye be vnderstanded to whome at sometimes it is lawfull to digresse and from whome it is not lawfull to depart at all For séeing you accept me herein as a teacher thus thinke with your selfe that some thinges there bée which I accoumpt lawfull wherevnto I giue you leaue to diuert sometime and some other things which I accompt vnlawfull wherein if you make default I shall thinke you vnmindefull of this benifite which you haue receyued at my handes which is a foule vice in maners and not to be named For notwithstanding that I in the beginning did only craue of you temperance diligence and constancie yet I will not that the other vertues be neglected of you and for mine owne part I craue a faithfulnesse at your handes and a mindefulnesse of the councell I giue you which I account to be the certaine token of thankfulnesse And but if you beléeue that I giue true councell my talke shall be but of small authoritie with you For as much then as a Citie is a societie and fellowship of men one with another and séeing no societie is larger nor is more wider spreade through so many peoples and nations with an incredible vertue and strength than the fellowship of Christians which is called the Church to the which felowship Iesu the eternall sonne of the true God who hath a surname of a Kingly Maiestie and is named Christ hath called all mankinde out from euery part and corner of the worlde Sith therefore I saye this is the true societie néedes must it bée that ciuill knowledge be grounded chiefly on the doctrine of Christ and God and that a Christian man shoulde most trust vpon this doctrine séeing it is ordeyned for the obteyning of the heauenly societie and doth agrée to the heauenly lawes and the gouernement of god The Philosophers sought after this neyther coulde they finde it If Minos of Crete or Licurgus of Lacedemon or Solon of Athens had knowne this they had left their Countrie men in more blessed estate than we sée they haue This was vnknowne to Socrates Plato his maister to Plato himselfe yea Aristotle also wanted this doctrine to make his ciuill knowledge perfite Yet I say not this to that ende that they haue not written excellently and well and that in many places or rather in the most part but bicause they were ignorant of that diuinitie whereby they might call men to heauenly concorde and bring their Citizens to that ende which they haue purposed in their bookes I meane felicitie and such a life as is perfite of it selfe And surely if these things be true as in déede they are it is to be thought that there be some things which are to be reade all our liues long and some things that once reading sufficeth so that the memorie decaye not and some thinges which are to be recognised at certaine times Which order you must obserue for euer and you must neyther suffer nor bée content to be withdrawne or driuen from it if ye will continue in that constancie which you promised Religion therefore and the cogitation thereof is perpetually to be retained For often times most noble wise and most vertuous men after things done with great glorie and sometime after highe honors atchieued by gouerning the common welth haue left that charge eyther bicause of sickenesse or by reason of yeares who yet from vertue Religion and the godly ceremonies of their forefathers coulde not be driuen And I beléeue that Cicero and other Orators good and vertuous men did not purpose alwayes to pleade causes in the Court by reason of their age yet they intended neuer to forsake an honest life But alwayes to be doing some thing and as much as they coulde to write of such things in the Latine tongue as might both profite their Countrymen and pertaine wholye to the setting forth of Philosophie and wisedome in their natiue tongue Wherefore if Religion in all the life is to be regarded and chiefly when we drawe towarde our ende if a wise man ought not to cast awaye the penne out of his hande we ought perpetually to acquaint our selues with those writers whose style we are desirous to follow and thorowe whome we maye be the better instructed to vertue Religion and wisedome Now if this may not be denied then we may conclude that a wise man ought to spende his life in holy writers and an eloquent man ought to be daily conuersant in Tullies workes For as Religion maketh holie the societie of men so doth eloquence make it pleasant and both ioyned togither cause it to be helthfull To this studie of religion I doe ioyne the discipline of maners and all ciuill doctrine and hystories and in this I thinke a wise man ought to ende his life And these are those thinges which I déeme worthie to be read and studyed for euer now such things as it sufficeth to read but once are in this maner to be discerned For what soeuer is of that kinde hath this nature that eyther it is not worthie to be reade for the foolishnesse thereof or for the shortnesse or easinesse not néedefull to repeate of these two kindes that which is foolishe must be shunned And thother which is short and easie to vnderstande and remember must be applied to further that ende wherevnto the varietie of our studie is referred and is then chiefly to be vsed when the minde being wearied with the studie of weightyer labors for recreation sake doth withdraw it selfe and in this refreshing it is verie good to haue a repeater whose voyce doth showe some learning being cléere and distinct that it may
they bring light vnto the rest which without them woulde be obscure Therefore the first traueyle of reading doth consist in these two poyntes the next touching order and placing of thinges the thirde concerneth the handling of the matter In placing we note what is first set as in a shewe or the forefront of a battaile and what is reserued to the ende and what is handsomly conueyed into the middest In handling wée obserue what is largely discoursed what is shortlye discussed and howe oft any thing is repeated and that with what kindes of wordes and formes of sentences moreouer after what waye and maner of methode In these poyntes consisteth the whole reason or cunning of vnderstanding of imitating of writing of speaking to the atteyning whereof we must prouide thrée kinde of Bookes the one for things and matter which are called the bookes of common places as may represent the preceptes of Arte. The places of things and words are almost one notwithstanding howe they differ I haue declared in other bokes The places of Arte are taken from thence from whence we learned the rules and preceptes of the same which of all other are best set forth by Aristotle and Cicero Now this practise is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consisteth in resolution whereof you haue hearde me speake oftentimes which practise we ought to begin in our yong yeares but we must continually exercise and constantly go forward in the same if we meane to follow those Gréekes Romaines which haue bene praysed for learning and haue bene counted wise in gouernment I meane not only Rhetoricians or Orators or Philosophers but also Consuls Emperors and Kinges who haue nowe no lesse fame and glorie through learning than they haue obteyned by their notable and valiant déedes Wherefore the barbarous custome and rusticall opinion of our Gentlemen is the more to be blamed Who for the most part thinke themselues not worthie to bée accounted souldiers nor warlike ynough if they séeme skilfull in letters who are ashamed of learning and not of maners what maners I meane speciallye in some of them I am ashamed to report How much more is it to be praysed when in a noble house there be noble Gentlemen whose liues and learning are aunswereable to their birth and nobilitie Who as they take ensample of a noble and commendable life eyther of their owne elders or of better houses so doe they giue an ensample of the lyke to their posteritie that shall succéede them and encourage other men to follow their vertuous steppes What did more hinder the true glorie of the noble Athenian Alcibiades than that he folowed not the councell and good lessons of Socrates Pericles in the same common welth obteyning great prayes and high renoume hath to thanke eloquence and learning for the greatest part thereof The Romaines enuied and had in great hatred the newe vsurped kinde of tyrannie of Iulius Caesar yet is he the lesse enuied therefore the lesse dispraysed of honest men by reason of his bookes which are called his Commentaries wherein is expressed his Martiall prowesse which is no more renoumed by his valiant doinges than adorned and worthily set forth by his excellent writing But that I may returne thither from whence I am digressed it behoueth vs to haue these thrée kindes of volumes whereof I haue spoken That is to wéete of thinges of wordes and of Arte. And notwithstanding there be all readie set forth many Commentaries of the Latine tongue and though some men also haue indeuoured to gather togither common places of thinges and to store vs therewithall yet is it both profitable for memorie and the gaynest waye to perfection that euery man should gather and dispose his owne places whereby he shall haue occasion to adde or detract or chaunge something in the inuentions of others And for bicause I haue often both spoken written at other times of the places of words which are almost all one with the receptacles of things it shall not néede at this time to repeate the same As for the places of Arte they are gathered out of the bookes of Rhetoricians as for example concerning the partes of an Oration and the kindes as well of causes as of reasons and Rhetoricall figures and Periodes And bicause the obseruation of these things pertayneth to the second labor of reading wherof we began a little since to speak and bicause the times of reading obseruing and noting ought to bée ioyned and knit togither we will declare somewhat more at large this maner of obseruing and noting This practise I nowe speake off beginnes with marking and endes with comparison I call marking that which the Gréekes terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when we consider and vnderstande as well the matter as the handling thereof Likewise I call comparison as the Gréekes woulde say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is when we compare one thing with an other to sée how eyther they agrée or differ For first we haue to consider what is sayd and how it is sayd Then after forasmuch as one thing hath often a sundrie kinde of handling for comelynesse sake the present things are to be compared with other which are written and set forth eyther by the same Author or by some other After this bypartite and double labor we must go to noting and looke what we haue marked and vnderstoode we must apply the same to our places of Arte and note it in our bookes distinguishing euery thing as it were in the proper formes and seates Againe there are thrée kindes of noting one when we write out whole places another when we gather the summe of the same places in fewe wordes which the Grecians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may terme them abridgements The thirde kinde is when we drawe out euery part in figures which for the more playnnesse in teaching I am wont to call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to saye figuratiue draughts or if I might so terme thē defigurations For figurations doe more properlye pertaine to the Authors themselues our draughtes may aptlier be called defigurations Neyther is this a toy deuised by vs but a certaine thing which hath bene long since vsed in Gréece and Italie of the maisters of Logicke and Rhetoricke there For both the Peripatickes distinguish their kindes of conclusions and the contrarietie of Propositions by figures and likewise the Rhetoricians call their Periodes of thrée members some of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which haue all thrée partes of equall length and some of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which haue onelye two parts of like equalitie Likewise when Orators and other writers diuersly amplifie matters as a man would saye exedifications or buildinges And in the seconde of those thrée bookes which Tullie entituled De Oratore that is to saye an Orator Anthonie maketh mention of framinge and buildinge of an hystorie bicause all these thinges maye be drawne out and framed as buildinges are that the foundation maye