many objects and discerning their dependency without confounding them according as the humours and their qualities are variously tuned and harmoniz'd together whence more or lesse according to the predominancy of hot and cold dry and moist we have abilities more apt to one than to another Science according to the temper of the qualities that the instruments require for the better disposing them to operation And this ability of power well disposed towards such sorts of objects is the foundation of that which they call Genius Because that there being in every one by natural instinct an in-nate desire of knowing and Nature not erring but being conscious of that which she is to apply us to the desire of as our Good a thing which to obtein we have not power sufficient thence it is that she carrieth us to the desire of that to attein which we are sufficently disposed The proportion therefore of the power to the object and the desire which we have to know of which one applyeth the other determineth causeth that sympathy which we may call the Form of the Genius So that it is not the disposition figure colour nor masse of the members of the body that we should observe as immediate or true testimonies of the Wit in applying any to Learning But from the Acts the most natural testimonies of the Powers we may argue their internal Temper thereby to find to which of the Arts it hath most agreeable proportion Thus since the honey cannot be fetch from its Sourse which is the Stars as Pliny speaks at least let them strive to make it as pure as they can by working it out of those slowers which most resemble them in nature Ibi enim optimus semper ros mellis ubi optimorum doliolis florum conditur Since Science can be enjoyed no otherwise than as faln from Heaven into these terene Bodies at least-wise let them apply themselves to gather it of those which with tempers like to Heaven fiery and subtle but withal stable and regular most symbolize and agree with it AMBITION The folly of many who desirous to seem Learned doe publish themselves in Print to be Ignorant THat insatiate I will not say desire but madnesse which we have of publishing our selves to the World for men of Learning I could wish that it would whet the Wit as well as it sharpens the Pen that so the Sciences might increase in weight as Books increase in number Scarce have we got in the nest of a School the down of the first feathers upon the brain but we already think our selves not only Eagles but Mercuries with Wings on our heads Scarce is there enkindled in us a spark of Wit but presently we desire in Print to shine as Suns and make our selves with a strange Ambition Masters before we be compleatly Scholars Every thought that the mind conceives we think worthy of the light and although many times it is no more than Ridiculus Mus we by all means will call the Press to be Lucina and collect it and keep it not only alive but immortal The Gnats Moths and Flyes of our own brains seem to us worthy to be embalmed as that Bee in Electer and exposed to the sight and admiration of the World Thus Tenet insanibile multos Scribendi cacoethes agro in corde senescit Happy would Learning be if Books also should have their Winter and the leaves of the greatest part of them should fall as the leaves of trees fall every year after Autumn The World would be thereby so much the more wise by how much fewer the number would be of the Masters of Errours and Oracles of Lies How many Books come to hand which bear in their frontispices Inscriptiones propter quas vadimonium deseri possit In perusing the proud promises of their Titles you will ccall to mind either that Verse of Horace Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu or that scoffe with which Diogenes mocked at the great Gate of a little City saying Shut this gate or else the Town will run out at it and leave you without house or home The eye and the hand run with impatience this to turn over and that to read the leaves at cum intraveris Dii Deaeque quà m nihil in medio invenies Affrick which is incompassed with such delightful shoares is within most of it barren sands and naked deserts of gravel The first leaf like that famous Sheet of Parrhasius seems so painted as if it covered a Picture whereupon Zeuxis deceived flagitavit tandem remoto linteo ostendi picturam but in reality there was no other picture than the sheet deluder of the eyes with the lies of the pencil Thus in this is that saying of Seneca verified Speciosa magna contra visentibus cum ad pondus revocata sunt fallunt Books many times deceive as the Apples of Sodom that being fair to look upon have nothing but the hypocrisie of appearance for within they are ashes and smoak and in opening they vanish into nothing Si qua illic poma conantur saith Tertullian oculis tenus caeterum conacta cinerescunt A Learned Man doth indeed deserve great compassioÌ„ that setting himself earnestly to one of these Books which hath nothing but Perspective and appearance findeth that to be a painted Cloud which he believed to be a rich Juno and instead of extracting thence the treasures which he expected he sees that the Book costs him more in regard of the time he unprofitably spends in reading it than it stood him in by reason of the money he gave for it He sisheth therein day and night till that with a Nihil coepimus he casts it away He soares with a curious Wit to the apparance of some singular conceit of some Master-piece of Art but as the Birds that slew to the painted Grapes of Zeuxis if he came with appetite he departs hungry O! to how many Writers which more than once have made the Presse to groan may we repeat that Verse of Ausonius Utiliùs dormire â—uit quà m perdere somnum Atque oleum The wretches have watched many a night to compasse a Book which shall lay a sleep all that read it if their resentments of Choler against the Author keep them not awake To how many Books under the Title they bear in their Frontispiece may we write the name with which Zuazo a Spanish Doctor called a little Desert Isle to which approaching in his Indian Navigation he found neither herb nor any other sustenance therefore he gave it this name Nolite cogitare quid edatis And yet as Saint Ambrose ingeniously calls them Books are the Ports wherein the Soul not only recovereth rest from storms in Lucam but plenty from poverty But take three Reasons only amongst many whence it comes that so many unprofitable Books and devoid of all goodnesse are printed 1 Some think they do nothing if
true but for the most part pernitious the which both because unprofitable and because prejudicial Nescire quà m scire meliùs est Who will drink Cyrces poyson for the Cups being of Gold and of Pearl Who out of the greatnesse of their curiosity would behold in the Shield of Pallas the head of Medusa if the sight of it cost them a metamorphosis into stone which to become Satis est vidisse semel How irrational both in honesty conscience not to speak of the shamelesse liberty of the bad is the too much affiance of the simply good that with a pretence of polishing the wit by the mirrour of such kind of Books to draw the riches of precious conceits from the treasuries of so Learned Authors do as those that in taking the Jems out of the head of the Dragon drink the venom and poyson They run at the songs and are caught in the snare They become desirous of certain Spirits that so disorder the mind in taking them in that they lose their Senses thereby He that travails in dust or dirt howbeit he treads lightly alwayes reteines some filthinesse on his feet and even the Stars saith Pliny which notwithstanding that they are Stars that is to say the pure substance of Heaven mingled and consolidated with light in regard they are nourished with Terrene humours sordid Aliment which they exhale from here below they become spotted and deformed Thus though without any reason for it doth Pliny hold Masculas enim non esse aliud quà m terrae raptas cum humore sordes This indeed is true that minds although of Coelestial professions and lives if they diet themselves with sordid humours imbibed from Petronius from Apuleius from Ovid and besides many others from some Poets in our Language worse than all the rest they will contract impurity at their hearts with a hazard of conceiving desires like to the objects they behold as the Sheep of Jacob did at the sight of the party-coloured Rods whose Lambs were gravid again with the same devise of many-coloured spots Is there any want of Books of lesse danger and equal delight and utility to one of a sound Palateâ— VVho would sound the Flute said Alcibiades should they see the wry mouthes and the bladder-cheeks that they deformedly make when they may have the Lute and the Gittern which afford more delight without causing any deformity And with that he threw them away nor was there any in Athens that would from thence-forth use them Books which make you Monsters and transform the beauty of Gods Image imprinted in your Soules into a Beastly and Brutish deformity to what end are they read if there be so many others of equal pleasure and of greater profit Drink not therefore the dregs of impurest Authors as Galato with an ingenious invention depainted many Poets the imitators or thieves of Homer that with open mouth received that which he vomited if els-where there is Nectar without Lees and so much more sweet by how much the more pleasant the cleanly Viands of the Mind are than the sluttish offals of the Sense at whose Table much more melodiously than at that of the Queen of Tyre By Jopas that new Phoebus is exprest In Robes of Lovely yellow bravely drest With charming Looks and Scepter of pure Gold Heav'ns Miracles and Motions which the old World-bearing Atlas to Alcydes told He sings the Moons obliquely Reg'lar ways Which her become and oft eclips Sols Rays How men and beasts at first were made how Raines Winds and Lightnings are produced now The subject of his song in the next strain Is of the Bears Crow Hyades and Wain And why the Vernal-dayes to th' Ocean fly So swifily and the nights so leasurely A paranetical reprehension of the Writers of obscene Poems HEar me ô ye Lucifers of the Earth Did God endue you with a wit full of lofty conceits and an acute fancy to the end you should turn the point of it ingratefully against himself Did he instruct you to manage the Pen with applause to the end you make thereof a Dart to transfix him in his honour Did God bestow upon you Angelical minds to have you prove enemies like the Devils Tell me not The vain of our genius is good oâ—ly at these Theams I will say to you that which Tertullion said of the Israelites Maluâ—stis alium saepe quà m coelum fragrare The clarity of your wits which might shine as benevolent Stars you have made lights of rotten wood compounded of putrefaction and corruption Grant it to be true that you are good for nothing but Poetry Yet to write Lascivious Poetry was it the necessity of the Wit or the vice of the Will It sufficeth as Pythagoras did with a Lascivious Lutanist that you alter the tune of your Muses Lyre and change a Lascivious Lydian into a Grave Dorick instead of exciting in others affections and motions of Lascivious passions to represse them But if still you are enamoured upon a Strumpet Muse and tainted with that which you call a Genius or humour of unchast versifying I shall say of you and that with more reason what Lactantius said of Leucyppus the Phylosopher the first inventor of Atomes and defender of Chance Quanto melius fuerat tacere quà m in usus tà m miserabiles tà m inanes habere linguam Is it not better to have no vain of Poetry than to have a vain of vomiting venom and poyson A prudent Emperour would never consent that his Wife should drink wine although the Physicians swore to him that there was no other way to make her of barren that she was to become fruitfull That discreet Prince esteemed the remedy worse than the disease and said Malo Uxorem sterilem quà m Vinosam O how much better would this other saying sound in your mouth Malo Musam Sterilem quà m Lascivam Did I not know any other Language than that of an irrational Creature I would rather choose to be a dumbe Man than a speaking Beast And what gain you when you spend your Wits consume your age and life to publish a work to the World which suppose it should be granted Immortal if for the same you shall be applauded on Earth and tormented under the Earth praised where you are not and tormented where you shall eternally be The Horace's the Catulluss's the Ovids the Gallio's the Martiall 's to omit those of our own of a holier Religion but of a prophaner Poetry what availes it theÌ„ that they remain yet to the light of publick Fame if in the mean-time they remain buried in the darknesse of Hell for every particle of that obscenity which they writ they are tormented there below whilest here without there knowledge they are for the same unprofitably applauded Suppose that after many years study your Pen should send forth a VVork of immortal merit in which notwithstanding Pauci quos aequus amavit
prescribing order to the Colours and giving a rule to the Design FINIS The Table of the most material Contents A ABrahams generous sacrificing Isaak 2â—8 Achilles his Characteâ— c. 78 106 110 129 279 381. Affections not mov'd with to affected a style 389 Age excuseth not from studying â—o profit others 331 Alcibiades his Character c 56 198 205 249 381. Alexander Magnus his Characteâ— c. 26 34 35 96 105 120 131 151 192 351 361 388. Alexander Severus his Character c. 4 â—4 â—2 Alexarehus Grammat concet of his own Learning 244 Allegories excuse not lasâ—ivious Poets 18â— Ambition of seeming witty makes some affect Obscurity 344 Amendment of errors is the most used by best Wits 222 Anaxagoras his Doctrine and Character 27 35 46 63 76 113 Alphonsus Rex preferr'd himself in Astronomy to God 245 Apologies with what caution to be writ 220 Apuleius Phylosopher his Apophthegms c. 33 198 Architas his character c 174 183 Architecture 164 185 284 Archimedes Syracus Character commendation 73 98 132 165 268 353 354 Argument to be discust should be adequate to the capacity 349 Aristo's inscription over his Gate 143 Aristides killed by a Fly 225 Ariscomachus sluâ—dred the nature of Bees 67 years 319 Aristophanes Phylosophus 132 Aristotle his character and doctrine 96 131 260 Ariscippus answer to Dionysiusâ—yâ—cus â—yâ—cus 6 Arms and Arts make a compleat Captain 101 Astronomy its delight c. 15 128 150 155 156 159 171 172 173 200 Astrology censured 323 Athenians observed their Childrens Genius's 275 Augustus Sanct 180 224 258 Auguseus Emp. his Character c. 94 280 Austerity adds not to Majesty 98 Authors good Books incomparably happy 328 B Beauty of Body no true sign of beauty of Mind 288 Bees their subtlety 140 Beginning of all things difficult 366 Bodies held by some to answer the Souls of their owners 284 Books abide when all things decay 329. Not to be rejected for a few 〈◊〉 but corrected 190. Not to be valued as Great but Good 309. If bad they some wayes hurt the Reader 197. If wholly â—ad not to be read 195. If partly good partly bad with circumspection 191. Sometimes have nothing good but their Titles 306 Brutus his justice upon his Son 209 Buonarottiâ—â—â—cified â—â—â—cified a man to paint the Passion by him 214 Businesse of the Idle in Cities 48 C Caesar Dictat his praises 104 207 Caligula Emp. his Character 95 137 206 Captains glorious if Conquering they can wâ—te their Conquests 104 Carneades moderation in writing against â—eno 236 268 Cato his love of Books 191 Cautions to those that borrow from other Authors 160 Cebes Tables 186 276 Censures not to be commonly practised 222 Chymists and their discoveries 146 316 337 Cicero his love of jesting 213 Cleanthes his charâ—â—â— and doctrine â—3 159 Columbas discoverer of W. India â—52 Composures should he submitted to others judgment 403 Composures of brave Authors Coppy's for others imitation 161 Conceies as Jewels must be True and Proper 587 Condemning others is oft the fault of the Ignorant 226 Courts full of Scholars a Princes Glory 97 Court of Dionysius of a Shambles turn'd Academy 100 Constellations obscene unworthy of Heaven 172 Crates his Character c. 37,38 195 287 Cruelty of Buonarotti 214. Of the Japponois ibid. of Patillus 215 Cyrces Rod 169. Cup 197 D Death feared is Deadly 72 Delight to be taken in Astornâ—m contemplate 16 Demosthenes his Character c. 10 193 268 170 403 Democâ—â—us his Character c. 114 159 Demenax his Cynical Apophtheg 116 122 Detraction how pleasing to some 211 Defined 212 Dialling 156 â—69 Domitian Caesar his Character 94 Diogenes his Character Apophtheg 36 38 39 47 99 123 134 158 215 235 267 306 322 Difficulty of making new discoveries in Learning 151 Dionysius Tyran 3 6 99 121 134 404 Discourse of man cannot 〈◊〉 the truths of Faith 253 E Earth behâ—ld from the Stars seem contemptible to the Mind as little to the Eye 23 Elius Verus Emp. his Charact. 97 182 Epicurus his Doctrine 67 Erasmus his witty Eccho 150 Euripides compos'd his Tragaedies in solitude 63 Exile to a wise-man not loss but gain 44 F Families happy in a succession of Learned Men 117 Fear of Death a deadly evil 72 Fortitude of mind requir'd by Stoâ—cks in bodily Torments 68 Fountains of Artificial contrivance 166 G Galaton a famous Painter 199 Giotto another 122 Galilâ—us prais'd for inventer of Optick Telescopes 138 155 Gallen Emp. his strange sentence in â—avour of an ill Marks-man 123 Genius what and whence it is 302. It may be misled never wholly suprest 274 Geography 156 253 343 Glory of a Captain that can manage both Pike and Pen victoriously 104 H Heads of great bulk held capable of great wit 289 Helena painted by Zeuxis admired by Nicostâ—atus 20 Heliogabalus his Charact. 322 394 Heraclitus his Character and Doctrine 114 158 159 Hercules his Character and Labours 33 102 111 125 141 172 123 256 313 335 Hermotimus soul could leave its body at pleasure 58 Hierogâ—yphicks 91 186 History commended 103 Horace Apology for his Poems 148 Homer Princeps Poetar 106 154 180 199 Humours that serve the wit of what â—â—mper they should be 275 Hyppocrates his Doctrine c. 177 235 261 I Ignorance Epidemical and none are exempt from it 219. Shameful in a Souldier especially in time of peace 108 Ignorant men intolerably insolent in writing against the Learned 223. They censure for obscure what they do not understand 247 Imitation distorting a good Author is worse than stealing 168 Impatience in revising our writings cause of their imperfections 365 Inclination of the Genius may be misled but not totally supprest 274 Igenuity known by palenesse 290 Intentions pretendedly good of Lascivious Poets were they so excuse them not 187 John the Emperours constancy 92 93 Jerome Saint 172 242 257 L LaÌ„pis his method in growing rich 366 Learned Mens paucity the crime of great men that regard them not 2 Honours done them by several Princes 3 Learning its two great enemies Ignorance and Vice Praesat By some held needlesse in Rich-men 112. Not evil because some make ill use of it 128. Hard to make new discoveries in it 151. Not to be obteiued by every Genius 275. Honoured by our Saviouâ— 80. his Apostles 81. and by God himself 84 87. Hated by Licinius 93 and Lewis XI ibid. Leucippus the Inventer of Atomes Chance 201 Leocras an excellent Imager 169 Life too short for great undertakings 261 Love of life â—nventeresse of many things 333 Love of our Books makes us partial judges of them 248 Love of Posterity should move us to publish our studies 325 M Man is placed in the midst of the world to contemplate it 163 Martial the Poet 141 202 Metellus the happiest man of his time 337 Method the principal part of a Book 356 Methrodorus first affirmer of Multiplicity of worlds 159 Mercury God of Scholars is also
Garments of the body are more honoured than the vertuous habits of the minde it proâ—iteth not to have Sapience and Goodnesse in the brest as orient pearls for if your poor clothes make you seem a contemptible shell of Mother pearl there 's few will look on you and fewer esteem you All this holdeth true aswell in Learning as in Vertue for it also as born under the same Ascendant hath it for its fate To it all favours are Retrograde all Benefactors absent all the Aspects full of disrespect and the course of Fortune every way unfortunate Now-a-dayes is reputed amongst Miracles for a Dionysius to become Driver of his Royal Chariot to carry Plato upon the high way into Syracusa and pride himself in the glory of the fact as if he had guided the Chariot of the Moon or carryed the Sunne in triumph An Alexander Severus to cover a Ulpian Professor of the Law with his Royal Mantle and to make his Imperial Purple a Robe to honour and a shield to defend him A Justinian a Sigismond Emperours and some others like them to make their Courts Academies and to frequent Academies as their Courts holding dear the mortal life of those from whom they receive in recompence an immortal life of their Name and Glory to Posterity These once so fruitful trees are now become barren affording neither fruit to feed them nor shadow to comfort them in the Courts of Princes more than in the Cave of Aeolus there are kept under lock and key those Zephirusses fathers of Fecundity and Winds proper to the Golden age nor only is the Custom lost that Penes Sapientis Regnum sit which Possidoâ—ius said had been used per illo saeculo quod aurâ—um perhibetur but moreover also that Penes Reges sint Sapientes Nor because the Books of learned men chance sometimes to be read of Grandees and exact from them prayse and commendation must it therefore follow that the civil entertainment and honours they meet withal should reflect on the Authors which is just as Lactantius saith in another case They adore the Images of the Gods but care not for the Artiâ—icers that engraved them they offer gifts to the Statues and exact tribute of the Statuary's they honour the Stones as Divinities and tramle on those that formed them as if they were Stones Simulachra Deorum venerantur fabros qui illa facere contemnunt Quid inter se tam contrarium quà m statuarium despicere statuam adorare eum ne in convivium quidem admittere qui tibi Deos faciat Fortunate Princes saith a great Duke of Millan have Nets of Gold and Purple wherewith they sith for men of great wisdom and worth which are the preciousest pearls that Heaven can bestow on Mortals they have wealth wherewith to purchase Wits exellent in every Profession of Learning a Merchandise only worthy of Princes Famous is the foolishnesse of a poor rich man who knowing himself to be an Owle and desiring to become an Eagle gave a great summe of money for the Lanthorn by whose divine light Epictetus watching became a Sunne of Moral Prudence A Lanthorn its true might give light to the paper but not to the unstanding might give light to the eyes but with what profit to the Student if the mind be blind Living Scholars are living Lanthorns by the beams of whose radient lustre are discovered the features of Pallas Conservatrix of States and Patronesse of Princes These are the eyes of which that is verified which was falsly reported of those of the Gorgons that they could lend them to one another and with these a blind Prince may become a Hundred-eyed Argos all eye Nor ought they to be lesse if the Aphorisme hold true in peace which is read in Vigetius concerning matters of Warre Neque quenquam magis decet vel meliora scire vel plura quà m principem cujus doctrina omnibus potest prodesse subjectis Before that King Dionysius would understand this more for scorn then curiosity he demanded of Aristippus whence it was that Phylosophers went to rich mens houses to beg a livelihood and the rich went not to the houses of Phylosophers to get Wisdom and had this no lesse true then ready answer Because poor Phylosophers know what they stand in need of and ignorant rich men do not That men of great learning are not born but only as the Phoenix one in five hundred years that there are not some who inrich the World with new inventions in Letters and Arts is not because the Ages are grown barren or the places unfruitful in Wits The fault lyeth in great part upon them who open not the Port to them that would launch out nor shew the lure to him that flyeth for there wants not some Minds with great Wings and Wits with large Sails He had proved the same who said The Poets and the Studious are few lack And when these beasts both food and Covert They then their place of feeding do renew That there are not some with the noise of whose great Wisdom Fame should make the World ring and strike it into dumb astonishment it is the fault of great men which contrive not their Theaters with that advice which Vitruvius gave where he counselleth that above all things they have regard to the building of the Theater where Comedies are acted and Musick recited so that it be not deaf and by that means the Musicians and Comedians unprofitably spend their voice and pains O how many like to cold and livelesse vapours ascend not a foot from the earth which if they should meet with a beneficient Sunne that might infuse heat into their labours and advance them would shine like so many Stars For the Vines fruitfulnesse is in great part to be acknowledged to proceed from the support of the elme on wihch it resteth To passe the terms of ordinary in any profession and to attein to those of excellent is a task hard enough to require and long enough to take up our whole lives Now what wonder is it if there be none that will spend so much to gain nothing consuming thir lives and yet to get no more than a sufficiency wherewith to maintein them alive Well-rigged-vessels farre excel others in velocity and being well calked surpasse themselves so that those which before moved dully and as it were against their wills are now so yarre that they rather seem to flie then sail Favours infuse wit even into the ingenious themselves and where the fraught is a Golden Fleece the Oares as it was with Argo move alone Finally for Students to be forced to dispute every day with poverty to contrast every hour with her miseries to divide their thoughts into a thousand several places whither their necessities call them these are thorns in which Learning makes not her nest He that will have his bees gather honey must not expose them to the violence of the winds for where
is no other help There are many Books in which as in the head of the Pulp-â—ish that which Plutarch saith of Poetry there is some-thing good and some-thing bad The danger is for those that are as that Ancient Cato Helluo librorum so greedy that without picking they swallow the good and the bad whereupon afterwards they sustein some incommodity I give you leave saith Augustine to make a prey or booty of the Books of evil writers but in the same manner as the Israelites did upon the Houses of the Aegyptians where they took the Vessels of Gold but not the Idols although they were also of Gold Sharpen as the Hebrews did the Sithe of your Wit at the Hones of the Philistines but mowe not in their Feilds freeing the Harvest and the Sithe from all suspition for they have more Weeds than Corn. He that hath good eyes sees exposed in the Books of the Ingenious things as various as heretofore were shewn by the Witty Vlisses when in the disguize of a Merchant he Displayed a thousand VVomans trifles before the Virgins of Scyros with the fortunate invention of a wise Knight to the end he might discover and gain to the VVars Achilles whom his timerous mother had hid among those Virgins under a womans habit The successe was that whilst some of them run to the Mirrours others to the Tablets to the Bracelets to the Rings Achilles remembering himself betook him to a Sword which was put amongst those Femenine trinkets for the same purpose and with that discovered and as overcome by Vlisses he yeilded himself and agreed to be his Companion in the Trojan Expedition In the same manner ought we in reading of Books to deport our selves with a carriage nobly Masculine that disdaineth and avoideth what ever savoureth of Femenine and bend our desire and put our hands to only such things as are worthy of us Even in this did Alexander shew himself like himself that is Great when being offered the Lute of Paris to which he had so often sung the beauties of Helen and his own Loves he vouchsafed it not so much as a look but in its stead desired that which Achilles played upon in the Cave of old Chyron with his hands still reeking in the blood of the new-kild Tygers and Lions But it s not alone sufficient in the reading of dangerous Books to have a good end if we have not also a good Method so that in reading them we be so circumspected and wary as if we were to go Per ignes Suppositos cineri doloso St. Basil ingeniously evinceth it where he saith That we must never give our minds as the Helm up into the hand of the Author we read for him to turn us at his will and steer us at his pleasure Keep a loof from the Cramp-fish that his venemous frigidity seize you not lest if otherwise he fasten upon you and render you stupid and insensible he make you his prey Herbs pursues Basil as sweet as they be if they be mixt with Henbane Hair Flowers as fair as they seem if they conceal under them Vipers and Aspes would be gathered with a hand more cautelous than curious By how much the more the danger is concealed by so much the more is it to be feared Laughter in the mouth and flattery in the face are the semblances that maske treasons It is not only in the Ring of Demosthenes of Cleopatra of Annibal but in Books also that the poysons are concealed under Jewels nor are they therefore the lesse mortal for being the more precious Those sublime Wits like the Heavens enriched with as many Stars as are the goodly and lofty conceits which resplend in their writings should never leave us so secure but that in our lâ—ction of them we should use much suspension and caution since it oft eveneth in Books as in Heaven that the fairest Stars compose the most deformed figures whence in the study of them the advice is necessary which the Sun gave to Phaëton still to keep his eye on his way and his hand strait on his reines since even in travelling among the Stars Per insidias iter est formasque ferarum Here the advertancy of the Dogs of Egypt serveth to our purpose that drink the waters of Nylus running nor are they so earnest to quench according to custome their thirst but that they more fear to satiate the hunger of the Crocodiles Here also let me insert the cautelousnesse of the Eagle which when it chaseth a poysonous Dragon Occupat adversum ne saeva retorqueat ora All this when the Books are such that there may be profit extracted from them by those that read them and profit without prejudice by those that deliberately read them Otherwise if they are either of that kind of which may be averred what Tertullian said of the ancient Spectacles Quorum summa gratia de spurcitia plurimum concinnata est or replenished with poysonous Doctrine and pestilential Opinions we should not wish as the Comick sayes ex arbore pulchra strangulari What If this and the other Lascivious Poet should not have composed and published his Poems could not I know how to be a Poet and may not I say as sick Pompey when the Physician prescribed him for supper by way of restorative a Mavis adding since that it was out of season that Lucullus could help him to one as preserving them all the year Quid said Pompey with a disdainful look Nisi Lucullus luxuriaret non viveret Pompeius VVith such Books whence nothing may be extracted but poyson and pestiferous documents we should do as Crates the Theban did with the money arising upon the sail of his goods casting it into the Sea and therewith saying Ite perdo vos ne perdere à vobis And just so Origen and after him St. Ambrose called the mischievous Doctrines of fertile wits in the language of David Divitias peccatorum The songs of the Syrens are sweet and melodious Nor are the Remorra's so powerful in staying the Ships when they grapple them with their teeth as they in enchanting them so that without casting Anchor or striking sail as if they were run a-ground they remain immoveable Delatis licet huc incumberet aura carinis Implessentque sinum ventide puppe ferentes Figebat vox una ratem But what ensues after the song comes sleep and after the sleep death Thus they only enjoyed so much as was requisite for sleep so much they slept as was sufficient to die Nec dolor ullus erat mortem dabat ipsa voluptas There is no better escape from these perils than by the stopping our eares to their chantings and enchantings using for that purpose the famous wax of Vlisses Qui cogitavit felicissimam surditatem ut quam vincere intelligendo non poterat melius non advertendo superaret No lesse should we do with these enchanting Syrens of Books pleasant its
they make only one Book They alone would make a Library Hinc oblita modi millesima pagina surgit Omnibus crescit multa damnosa papyro A hundred Volumnes of a thousand pages a piece Children of one sole VVit Births of one only Mind VVorks of one only Pen this makes one go high and stately And yet the Glory and Fame is not to be given to the number but to the worth of Books For how many times in a River of words there is not a drop of VVit in a Sea of Ink there is not one Pearl in a Forest of Paper there is not one branch of Gold All the VVork be it a hundred Volumns may say as the Echo of Ausonius Aëris linguae sum silia mater inanis Judicii linguam quae sine mente gero So that its a rare miracle of patience in the Reader if slinging away the Book he say not to the Author of it that of Martial Vis garrule quantum Accipis ut clames accipere ut taceas Books as saith Domiâ—ius Piso cited by Pliny Thesaurus oportet esse non libros Every word should be a Pearl every leaf a Jewel so that he which reads them should in one hour enrich himself with that which we have been ten years in gathering Aelas what is become of that precious custome and fortunate age when the Honey of the Sciences was put into the Wax on which it was then the custome to write with a Style with how much the slower hand the words were indented by the style the tenacity of the wax retarding it the more were they fixed on the thoughts and came to be better examined Now a-dayes the Pen carries the words in a slight from the hand and the conceits from the head and those and these the lighter by how much the lesse weighed That ostentatious Souldier in the Comick which said Ego hanc manchaeram mihi consolari volo Ne lamentetur neve animum despondeat Quia jam pridem feriatam gestem Lively expresseth the itch many have to Write and write much as it were to comfort their Pens that complain they stand Idle in their Ink-horns without wearing blunt with writing at the least one Book It is not the muchnesse but the goodness that is valued Books are the Souls whose grandure is not measured by the bulk of the body but by the nobility of the Spirit And most true is the Aphorism of great Augustine In iis quae non mole magna a sunt idem est esse majus quà melius The stones of mountains are 〈◊〉 bignesse yet a Diamond which is only saith Manilius Punctum lapidis as far surpasseth them in worth as they exceed it in magnitude If you were to speak to an assembly of a hundred of the most ingenious and Learned Men of the World would you say what came next to the tongues end without deliberation without refining and many times without substance and order Or rather would you not study to speak not onely Roses as they said of old but Pearls and Gold and do not you know that by the Presse you speak not to a hundred or a thousand but to all the Wisemen in the World that will read and hear you Therefore why do you not as Phocion that being asked why he stood upon a time so profoundly pensive answered That being to speak in publick to the Athenians he was picking his words one by one and examining them if there was any that he should omit Laudato ingentia rura saith the Poet Exiguum colito Honour the Gygantical Volumnes of others but strive not so much to imitate them in bulk as to surpasse them in worth Write one only good one but one that may be more worth than many One but one of which you may say as Ceres of her onely Daughter Numeri damnum Proserpiâ—a pensat 2 The other reason of the unfortunate success of Books is the undertaking to handle a matter and wanting a Wit proportionable I chanced to write an Octave or Epigram and presently I conceited that they called them Heroick Poems or Tragoedies Non ideo debet pelago se credere si qua Audet in exiguo ludere cymbalacu That Hercules doth enterprize the conquest of the Heavens and desire to do it by his strength never wonder Since he hath already tride them and knows their weight Et posse caelum viribus vinci suis Didicit ferendo Do ye likewise measure the strength of your shoulders by the weight of the burden and where you can say Par onerâ— cervix take up the same and go on Prudentia hominis est saith St. Jerome nosse mensuram suam nec imperitiae suae â—orbem testem facere Yee should unite Argus and Briareus so that ye should not have a hundred hands ready to write if ye have not also in the Intellect an hundred eyes open to understand Let not a spacious field of noble Argument so transport and hurry your Spirits that the desire of running through it make you forget that you have neither wings nor ability to doe it Vale your too venturous plumes that would sooner make you fall than flie and do Like to the un-slegg'd Stork that strives to fly And being untimely hasty fluttering leaves Its lothed Nest and so a fall receives But of this I am to speak upon another accasion by and by 3 The third cause why there is more abortives than births is from the impatient desire to bring them forth before they be perfectly formed They hear not the precept of Horace Nonnunque prematur in annum Membranus intus positis delere licebit Quod non edi deris Nescit vox missa reverti It is no wonder if Mushrums that grow up in one hour rot in the next and our works prove saith Plato like those famous Gardens of Adonis Qui subito die uno nati celerrimè pereunt Agatharchus was a Painter for whom all the Cloth of Greece all the Colours of the East sufficed not He compiled the draughts of his Tables with more expedition than the Sun draws the Rain-bow in the Clouds But what then They were pictures that hung in every sordid place and exposed without regard lived no longer than the men sown by Cadmus On the contrary Zeuxis who in bringing forth his works was more tedious than the Elephant and gave not a touch with his Pencil which he recall'd not to a critical examination merited that eternity of glory for which alone he painted The wisest men are ever the most severe with the works of their own Wits knowing that they ought to be not only read but examined by men of great judgment which made them say with young Plinius Nil est curae meae satis Cogito quam sit magnum dare aliquid in manus hominum nec persuadere mihi possum non cum multis saepè tractandum quod
placere semper omnibus cupias And so much sufficeth to have said of those that being but ill furnished with Wit undertake to write of things above their capacities Now I ought not to omit certain others which misusing the Wit wherein they are rich consume themselves spend their studies about certain unprofitable matters Quas neque scire compendium saith Arnobius neque ignorare detrimentum est ullum The unfortunate pains of such who study and write matters wholly unprofitable ALchymists are men of more hardinesse than judgment Judgment indeed they have none albeit of the great tree of folly there 's in appearance perhaps is the goodliest branch namely that branch of Gold that sends one to Hell sooner than to the Elyzian Fields But they are neverthelesse fortunate for seeking as they say the Phylosophers Stone with the favour of Art they finally end it and it is that Ancient Golden Poverty the true Lapis Phylosophorum which leaving them nothing in the World freeth them from the care of keeping and danger of losing both priviledges of the true Golden age They un-avisedly pretend to fix Mercury in Silver and perceive not that the God of Thieves knows better how to take away from others then to impart of his own They would change the Moon into a Sun That Moon which never loseth it self more than when it most approacheth to the Sun But above all things the efficacy of that most pleasing enchantment of hope is worthy of admiration which bereauing the heads of these wretched fools of Wisedom their hands of money their eyes of sleep and their hearts of the love of all the World so blindeth them that they see not what they suffer and tormenting their lives no lesse than the minerals on which they work renders them stupid to pain and insensible of torment Thus you see them like gnats wind themselves every moment about a little candle which gives heat to an Hermetical Furnace and in one instant to laugh at that sire and weep at that smoak Till such time as the mystery compleated they at the gathering of the fruit of all find a goodly Ex nihilo nihil sit All their hope is evapoâ—ated and only the dregs remain Fortune that stood upon a Ball of Glasse that being broken is faln And from all it is at last concluded That Gold grows not but only in Negotiation and makes no Veines and Mines but in Banks I have with two touches of the Pen rudely pourfoil'd the equally foolish and unfortunate pains of miserable Alchymists which with no other gain than of a smoak that makes them weep spend all that they have or are to the end that in theirs you may the better observe their folly of as many as being endow'd with a certain tallent of Wit spend both that and their time and pains whereby they shorten their lives and limbick their brains about the unprofitable composure of certain Books whose contents serve only to consume the time of him that reads them as they impare the health of him that writes them I know that Phavorinus adviseth that for sharpning of the VVit when it seems blunted and dulled by long idlenesse the best means is to undertake matters of lesse utility and more jollity Thus did he that praised Thyrsites and the Quartan Feaver as Dyon did the Fore-top Sinesius Baldnesse Lucian a Fly and an hundred others about the like subjects have busied themselves But it s one thing to awaken and stirre up the VVit with matters although not profitable at least facetious and another to weary it dull it with over much intencenesse and tedious expecting from them all the glory of his prolix studies as that other that said Ille ego suum nulli nugarum laude secundus VVhat think you of Aristomachus that with exactest observations of every day I had like to have said of every hour for sixty two years continually pryed into the nature of Bees So many years such diligence would seem to me to have acquired no lesse than a discovery of all the secrets of Heaven and an establishment of all the periods of the Planets Seneca was offended with certain Phylosophers of his time that consumed the tedious watches of the night and the implacable disputes of the day about certain fooleries meriting I know not whether more of laughter than lashes Mus syllaba est syllaba caseum non rodit Mus ergo causeum non rodit O pueriles ineptas In hoc supercilia subduximus In hoc barbam demisimus Hoc est quod tristes docemus pallidi Men are wont to say that we are twice Children once when we come out of our Swathing-clouts and again when in extream old age we reassume childishnesse but he that imployes not to say consumeth his life in these conceited vanities Non bispuer est ut vulgo dicitur sedsemper verùm hoc interest quod majora ludit To what end shall we studying unbowel our selves to weave but fly-intangling webs To what purpose should we with Nero imploy â—ets of Purple and Gold thoughts and discourses of a precious Wit to fish for Shad and Bream Quis non miretur said Pliny speaking of Platans trees that produce nothing but leaves for shade arborem umbrae gratia tantùm ex alieno petitam orbe Are perhaps shades so rare in Europe or these of Plantans because barbarous are they therefore the more beauteous that we should run through nausrages to the farthest parts of the VVorld to get the plant that produceth them Is there so great a scarcity of unprofitable bablings or are they sold so dear that to stuâ—â—e of thousand unhappy leaves it must cost you study waking toiling and no small part of your life If I can have fancies of sublime Ingenuity that sore a lost as the Eagle or Falcon to make new acquist of prey wherefore should I wish that they be like the Lark which seeks no other benefit from a troublesome aspiring and painful slight than that unprofitable chattering which they make after which they descend from their altitude directly to the earth ravished and content as if they had taught a Lecture of Musick to the Coelestial Syrenes There is writes Oviedus in the Western India's great abundance of Cotton Alumn Salt and such like ordinary Merchandizes with which that place is most plentiful but there is no man vouchsafeth to carry them away nor do they frequent those Ports but only to fraight themselves with Gold Silver Pearls and Aromatick Perfumes A Voyage so long so difficult so dangerous such it was in those primitive times none would undertake for lesse Alas most simple Merchants The Voyage of your life a great part whereof you spend in study the felicity of the fancy the toil of composing which might fill your Books with Gold and Pearls you only employ to enrich your selves with what Fables empty Questions it had like to have scap't my Pen
of the life of him that professeth Learning be such as that of the Ancient Vestals of Rome which was divided into three equal parts In the first they learnt the Rites and Ceremonies as Scholars to the Eldest In the second they practised them as Companions of the midle sort In the last they taught them as Mistresses of the Younger Thus the leaves usher in the blossomes and the blossomes falling with a happy end do knit in fruit The incomparable felicity of Good Authors that appear in Print THe desire of living hath been the Inventeress of a hundred ways of not dying And because Physick hath neither the hearbs of Medea against Old-age nor the Ambrosia of Jupiter against Death but that it s too true as Sydonius saith that many Doctors assistentes dissidentes parùm docti satis seduli languidos mulios officiosissime occidunt we betake our selves to the Arts of Colouring Linnens Ingraving Marbles Founding Brasse erecting Arches Mausoleums and Theaters that so if we cannot long be men yet at least we may be the Superficies of men on Pedestals the images of men in the Inscriptions of Arches and Epitaphs of Sepulchers But there is nothing of our invention as I have above adverted so able to conserve us alive after death as the procreation of Children whereby Nature provideth for the maintenance of the common Species and private desire of every one Mortuus est pater saith Ecclesiasticus quasi non est mortuus simileni enim reliquit sibi post se But howbeit it be true that the Father transfuses himself into his Child that he begets whereby dying he doth not die whilst he liveth still in him yet neverthelesse the Child oft-times so degenerates not only from the looks but from the Genius Customes of the Father that very often it comes to passe As in the Egyptian god Apis that the Father is a Lightning and the Son an Ox. Caused in that the temper of the Issue follows not the will of the agent but the nature of the matter nor doe we make our Children such as we would but such as we may But Books are the Children of the mind Heirs of the better part lively Images of our selves these only are they in whom we have as much of life as we can enjoy after death Contingit saith Cassiodore dissimilem filium plerumque generari oratio dispar moribus vix unquam potest inveniri Est ergo ista valdè certior arbitrii proles They are immortal Sons that make our dying only a cessation from misery to commence in them a life of glory like even as Hercules leaving the earth was received from his Labours into Heaven and in the midst of it he began to shine with the Stars whose body consumed in the flames of the funeral pile seemed reduced to a handful of ashes What so strong support what so stable Basis hath the memory of the names and the glory of the merits of Great Souls comparable to the eternal duration of Books Observe the ruines that time makes in every thing precipitating some and gently gnawing others The Rocks do they not as it were decrepit and bending under the heavy burden of age incline towards the grave and mouldring bit by bit and scattering their divided members rather bones here and there do they not seem to beg a Tomb from their own Vallies Doth not even Iron it self worn away by the rust consume to dust by the Deaffile of Time Once-stately-Edifices now old Carkasses and naked Anatomies not of Fabricks but of ruines if with some fragments of broken walls more falling than standing they keep upon their feet do they not more manifest a Trophee of Time than a testimony of their former greatnesse Where once were the Temples of the Gods Courts of Kings Assemblies of Senators Accademies of Students there can now hardly an Owl nest her self but revenous Wolves have there their Coverts In the mean-time in the midst of the ruines of all the resisting durable things of the World how do the Trophees of great Wits abide In the death of all things even of the lifelesse how live Books or rather how live in Books their Fathers and Writers Let the most Sapient Roman Stoick say it Caetera quae per constructionem lapidum marmoreas moles aut terrenos tumulos in magnam eductos aeltitudinem constant non propagabunt longam diem quippe ipsa intereunt Immortalis est ingenii memoria Let the Poet Martial speak it Marmora Messalae findit caprificus audax Dimidios Crispi mulio ridet equos At chartis nec furta nocent nec secula praesunt Solaque non norunt haec monumenta mori Well may we call Metellus happy who was borne to his Sepulcher upon the shoulders of his four Sons of which two had been one was and the other was a while after to be Consul of Rome This was so superbose a funeral pomp that the Historian admiring it said Hoc est nimirum magis feliciter de vita migrare quà m mori but in fine it was De vita migrare and his Sons though with great pomp yet carried him to the Grave Books alone not four Children but as many as we multiply with the Presse their Father retiring to death and the Sepulcher bear him alive into every place where they come and put him not so much into the hand as into the eye of as many as read him into the mind of as many as understand him And oh how many times he who living in his native Country either un-known or un-regarded so that with much ado he drew to himself the eyes of some few that ook't upon him as a Man of VVit in his Books draws to himself the hearts of a VVorld Like as heretofore the famous Lyre of Orpheus that on Earth saith Manilius ravished the Trees Stones savagâ— Beasts in Heaven whether he was translated drew the Stars after him Tunc sylvas saxa trahens nunc sydera ducit VVitnesse that most pleasing desire that any one hath to know of what semblance were the faces and what the features of those who in paper have stamped so goodly portraitures of their VVits hence proceeds the care of delineating them yea of counterfeiting them when thorow the oblivion of many ages their faces are unknowable Non enim solum ex auro argentove aut etiam ex aere in bibliothecis dicantur illi quoâ—um immortales animae in iisdem locis loquuntur quin imò etiam quae non sunt singuntur pariuntque desideria non tra liti vultus sicut in Homero evenit Quo majus ut quidem arbitror nullum est felicitatis specimen quà m semper omnes scire cupere qualis â—uerit aliquis And not onâ—y so but as oft as the dubious mind knows not how to unknit the knoâ—s of intricate difficulties that wilder the thoughts so oft with desire it runs to covet
it the discord of so many motions so harmonize the wandrings of so many Stars are so reformed that there is not only no disorder occasioned from their variety nor confusion from their multiplicity but moreover the Planets shew and as it were teach one another viewing themselves with Sextiles Quadrats Trines Aspects and opposite Diameters looks all wherewith they do not so much glance at one another as semblably shew themselves to those which behold them Thus it is saith Manilius Haud quicquam in tanta magis est mirabile mole Quam ratio certis quòd legibus omnia parent Nusquam turba nocet nihil his in partibus erat For if there be wanting in Composures the right Division of the parts and with it a good Method as he that hath made the first Rough-chyzelling of a Statue of Marble lame and deficient though he afterwards pollish it and exactly work it takes not away its being a Monster so it shall be more or lesse monstrous Nor boots it that a disorderly discourse be replenished with high speculations and sublime fancies with solid reasons and with Ancient and Modern crudition to the end they may seem illustrated with so many lights and embellished with so many ornaments the Aphorisme holding in such like Composures which Hyppocrates writes of ill-affected bodies Quò plus nutries eò magis laedes It 's necessary therefore wisely to imitate the Bees which first work their Wax into Combes and sub-divide the rancks and this is their first businesse in which they employ greater time and industry and after they go abroad in search of Honey with which in few dayes they fill their empty Cels. The prepartion of the Matter called Sylva TO the Argument found to the parts disposed follows the composing which is at it were to cover the bones with flesh and to make a body of a Sheleton And here take to begin with it an ordinary errour of such who bringing to such labours onely clean Paper a Pen and his own brain would in one and the same instant Invent Dispose and Compose attending at one and the same time to the Matter Method and Manner as if he were the Sun that to paint a Rain-bow in a Cloud without difference in the Circle without disorder in the Colours hath no more to do but to behold it and there withal to stretch forth the Pencil of a beam wherewith in a moment he designs and colours it These whilst they gnaw their Pen gaze on the roof and buzzing like Beetles hum to themselves putting down beginnings without conclusions and find themselves at the end of the work in the beginning how seasonably might one whisper in their ear for a jeer and the caution that common Axiom which saith Ex nihilo nihil Ye pretend to rain down Gold from the head where you have it not in Mine and farther that you will mint it into weighty money and with the impression of lawful Coin thus in one and the same time you play the Alchymist Assayer Coiner Treasurer Prince every thing Which is the direct way to do just nothing Ne igitur resupini respectantesque tectum cogitationem murmurare agitantes expectemus quid obveniat Imagine that the compiling a Book is the building of a House It s not enough to have Platform and Model if one want Stones Morter Beams and Iron-work Therefore Sylva rerum sententiarum paranda est ex rerum enim cognitione eâ—â—lorescere debet redundarum oratio He that hath not in his head a living Library collected with long study from Stories Sacred Prophane Natural and Civil from Politick Instructions from Ancient Laws and Rites from grave and sententious Sayings of Wise men from Fables from Hierogly phicks from Proverbs and that which is more than all from Phylosophy Natural and Moral from the Mathematicks from Civil Law from Medicine and as much as is requisite from Theology it is requisite that from dead Books he borrow and collect that which shall suffice his occasions It little imports to have conceived a good Argument if when ye be to bring it forth you have not breasts full of milk to nourish it so that it is forced to die in your hands of pure famine Stasicrates that would engrave Alexander with making him a more than a Gigantical Statue of the Mountain Athos was not aware that the City which he designed to put in one of his hands in regard it had not about it fields to cultivate would become unhabitable To this Alexander had an eye more than to any thing else Delectus enim saith Vitruvius ratione formae staim quaesivit si essent agri circa qui possent frumentaria ratione eam civitatem tueri And understanding in the negative he refused with a courteous smile the offer of the incoÌ„siderate Statuary Ut enim natus infans sine nutricis lacte non potest ali neque ad vitae crescentis gradus perduci sic Civitas c. Just so what ever Theame one assumes if he hath not wherewith to nourish it it cannot grow nor maintein it self but like a sprout springing up in the dry sands of Arabia deserta no sooner doth it shoot up but it is deprived in one instant both of moisture and life Therefore they do prudently who before they resolve upon an Argument look if there is or if they have whence to extract matter sufficient to compleat it Thus experienced Architects saith St. Ambrose in designing of all Fabricks employ their first thoughts in contriving how they may bring in the Lights with best convenience into every Room Antequam fundamentum ponat unde lucem ei infundat explorat ea prima est gratia quae si desit tota domus deformi horret incultu Therefore its needful to have knowledg of and acquaintance with many Books and a Judgment of competent ability to pick out but of greater maturity to apply the things that one finds that so where cause requires they may in an ingenious and singular manner expresse that which they have to say And in this it s an infallible observation that every one gathers that for himself that to his Genius to which alwayes concurs the manner of Speaking is most apt and agreeable And as Neminem delectant sordida magnarum enim rerum species ad se vocat extollit so some there are that leave Diamonds with the Cock of Aesop and as if their brains were of yellow Amber they attract nothing but Chaffe Thus there are some that from flowers take only the sight some onely the odour others the images painting them others the waters distilling them but the Bees take thence the honey and the honey all of one sweetnesse and of one Savour though from flowers of diverse natures and tasts they gather it The same happens in Books Meadows of odoriferous flowers and hearbs for the maintenance of the Wit There be those who only take from
them the sight in the delight of reading them others some spirit of good odour to waken the Brain and comfort the Wit There are some that bundle up herbs carelesly gathering what comes first to hand and some that with greater curiosity pick only flowers to weave thereof Crownes and Garlands Some squeeze out the juice others extract the waters Few from a great multitude of Subjects different from one another know how to gather honey of the same tast so applying things that all speak to the same purpose and so that there may be the Delight of Variety without wanting the Union of Sense These diverse manners of election and application submit to the Judgment and the Judgment follows the Genius which every one hath of speaking some in one style and some in another suitable to the Idea of his mind Therefore matters extracted from Books may be said to be like the dew which if it fall into the shell of a Conchylia according as some believe is changed into Pearls if upon a rotten Tree it becomes Toad-stools But in uniting matter to form thereof a Book I hint in the last place that it may be of no lesse prejudice to have too much than to have nothing My SCHOLAR ought not to be so sparing in the gathering as if be would that the Work he is to publish were more meâ—ger than an Aristarchus than a Phyletas than a living Skeleton so that one may count the bones and see all the courses of the veins the ligatures of the nerves the dispositions of the muscles the motions of the arteries and almost the Soul it self Nor ought he to be prodigal as if he were about to form a man so corpulent that he should seem rather a Botle than a Man He that amasseth together superfluous stuffe unlesse he be Magnus Deus as the Ancients called Love as being the methodizer of Chaos is not able to dispose it but that in such a crowd there will be a confusion Further more upon a superfluous Collection it comes to passe that we exceedingly grutch after having cull'd out the most excellent and opposite things to cast away the rest as unprofitable which yet will be far more than those that are pertinent thinking it not the property of a good Judgment but a propension to prodigality to lose together with so many things the toil and time spent in gathering them By this meanes whilst all pleaseth and the Author seeks a place for every thing he stuffs his Books as the GluttoÌ„ doth his belly more for greediness of swallowing than out of any heat he hath to digest and so from the abundance of corrupt humours ariseth the indisposure of the body the consumption of the strength palenesse and a hundred diseases Idem igitur in his quibus aluntur ingenia pestemus ut quecunque hausimus non patiamur integra esse ne aliena sint sed coquamus illa Thus let us be advertised that as to Bodies so to Books we give not so much as they can receive but so much as they can concoct and digest Now the Argument found the Parts methodized the Matter collected and ranged in order let him proceed to Composing The Discouragement of those that meet with difficulties in the beginning IN every Art and Enterprize the beginning is more difficult than all the remainder The first steps require the greatest strength and constancy after which as having mounted the acclivity of a high Rock the way still proves more smooth and easie All Arts may say of their beginnings what Apollo instructing Phaëton said of his journey Ardua prima via est per quam vix mane recentes Enituntur equi So in the gains of Merchandize the hardest is to get out of poverty Pecunia saith the Stoick circa paupertatem plurimam moram habet dum ex illa ereptat Whence Lampis a very rich Man being asked how of a Beggar that he was he was become â—o wealthy My small riches I got said he by watching a nights my great I get now sleeping a dayes I moyled more in the beginning for a Farthing than I did afterwards for a Talent nor did my being now so rich cost me any more than the first pains I took to cease to be poor This not being understood by the unexperienced in the mystery of Composing is the cause that encountring in the first onset with sterile fancies dry veins and an incomprehensive Wit they grow impatient and either condemn themselves as unable to proceed or abandon the Art as too difficult to apprehend They consider not that one cannot immediately passe from Nocturnal Obscurity to Meridian Clarity There precede it the first glimmerings that are a small light mixt with much obfuscation after that the Dawn lesse dusky which also grows white upon the edge of the Horizon next Aurora more rich with light more adorn'd with colours and lastly the Sun and this in its first peeping above our Hemisphere is thick vaporous oblique weak and twinkling but getting at length above the Horizon as he that with great trouble climes a pendent Cliffe by little and little it recovers the Zenith point of Heaven They remember not that a man must first be a child and must creep before he can run carrying his reeling at everystep-stumbling body upon his feeble feet and tender arms Nor that he is not furnished with speech till first he hath been long silent and then he attains a puling cry than a stuttering and stammering tongue and halved and broken words crying with much a-do Dad and Mam and at last learning the syllables and words one by one from others mouthes he repeats them as the Eccho piece-meal more imitating others speech than speaking Great Men are not made by Founding as the Statues of Brasse which in one moment are formed whole and entrie but are wrought like Marbles with the point of the Chizzel by a little and a little The Apelles's the Zeuxis's the Parrhasius's those great Masters of Painting of whose Pictures it could not be said that they wanted Souls to seem living for that they knew how to appear a live even without Souls when they begun to handle their Pencils and to Pourfoil do not you think that they gave one false touch in two and that it needed to be written under their Work what the Pictures were that a Lion might not be taken for a Dog It is the opinion of Pliny that Nature her self notwithstanding she is so great an Artist and Mistresse of the most excellent Works before she set her self to make the Lilly a work of great Art did prepare her self by making as it were the rough draught and model in the Convolvus a white and simple flower therefore called by him veluti naturae rudimentum Lilia facere condiscentis If you have seen the Campidoglio of Rome and in it the Temple of Jupiter enriched with the spoils of all the World would you know it for that