Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	history_n	time_n	year_n	3,198	5	4.9573	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13115	A ritch storehouse or treasurie for nobilitye and gentlemen, which in Latine is called Nobilitas literata, written by a famous and excellent man, Iohn Sturmius, and translated into English by T.B. Gent. Seene and allowed according to the order appointed; Nobilitas literata. English	Sturm, Johannes, 1507-1589.; Browne, Thomas, of Lincoln's Inn.	1570 (1570)	STC 23408; ESTC S117934	43,048	120

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

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