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
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
harde to atchieue Whereof we haue to speake hereafter and to consider which way we may atteyne and come vnto it neyther am I in doubt but that in this aboundance and plentie of welth your intent is to attaine to honestie and learning of the which two one belongeth to the discipline of nurture the other pertaynes to our present purpose and bringeth great help vnto the former and truely in this world that lyfe is blessed in mine opinion which to the antiquitie of parentage ioyneth godly manners and good behauiour and doth garnishe and bewtifie aboundant welth with excellent learning Therefore will I deuyde thys my treatise of precepts into two partes whereof the one concerneth the knowledge of things which polisheth the minde the other pertayneth to the exercise of the tongue and practise of spéeche which is to be vttred discretely and eligantly and being represented to the eares of the hearers it doth shewe a swéete and sugred consent of the minde which we may more easily vnderstande than that musicall harmonie of the heauenly Spheres which we neuer heard though Pythagoras taught it long ago But to begin with the first part that is to say with the knowledge of things I sée not what may more become you or better set forth your nobilitie than the vnderstanding of ciuill pollicie which the Grecicians terme Politicen Which if you obtaine as you ought to doe you shall greatly beautifie both your countrie and also your house and kindred For what is better or what more excellent than for a noble man to be learned politike which two doe contayne all learning vertue and Religion wherfore whether it be an Arte or science or else a vertue and fealtie wée will declare by what way you may attaine to the knowledge therof that you may not onely liue profitable to others but also pleasantly to your selues and that you may appeare to haue bene acceptable and welcome among your friends at home pleasant and gentle and abroade honorable nowe this knowledge of ciuill policy may well be learned in those bookes which Aristotle hath written of a common welth But bicause the foundations of noble Cities consist in the vertuous manners of the Citizens morall science maye well be ioyned with ciuill policie which Aristotle hath also handled in manye bookes but of all the knowledge of stories doth speciallye helpe Wherein we may sée the diuers and variable beginnings of common welthes and howe the same haue bene preserued and how they haue bene altered and ouerthrowne besides store of good councell in doubtfull and vncertaine matters sundrie examples to frame our lyfe by verilye I know not wherein you should better bestowe your traueyle than in this studie specially after that you are sufficiently furnished with the precepts of Grammer Logick and Rhetorick In obteyning whereof you must haue a regard of the Latine spéech that it be not corrupted with the varietie of tongues and diuersitie of words which are proper and peculier to euery Arte and language and to euery wryter and in euery kinde for oft times in the handling of one matter dyuers Authors doe greatly differ one from another both in placing their wordes and in the whole order of framing their sentences for Herodotus is a Historian and in the same countrie and language I meane the Gréeke Thucidodes is also a Historiographer and the style of them both is goodly and bewtifull yet how greatly doe they differ in swéetenesse in grauitie in placing of woordes in figures of Sentences and as it were in a certaine transforming of partes members and periodes and finally of the whole order of composition The actes of the Romaynes were wrytten by Caesar Liuius and Tacitus But what diuersitie is there betwixt them in all these ornamentes which I now rehearsed But yet doth Tully more differ from them all and euen Ciceros owne bookes haue in them verie great diuersitie Write you an Epistle in that kinde of style in the which Tully wrote the Proaeme of his Dration that he made in the defence of Milo although you shall finde some amonge the vnskilfull that will commende your doing yet those that be of right iudgement will disalowe it and thinke you haue passed the rules and boundes of that which is méete and séemely Wherefore we must take héede that as knowledge of thinges doe store vs with substaunce to the handeling of dyuers matters so it doe not hurt our style with straunge wordes and phrases Not as though eyther these were no Latines or the other no Grecians but for this reason that as horsemen and footemen went not a lyke nor the Romaynes nor Grecians did not alwayes weare one kinde of garment both in the Senate in the Court and in their houses at home So in the handelyng and wryting vpon dyuers thinges they followe not one manner of style nor vsed not alwayes one forme of spéech I commende some man for séeing of Rome and I lyke well that you haue heard Cratippus at Athens I also am content and prayse you with others that you be called Atticus but for you to weare at Rome a Gréekishe cloke I cannot praise For I iudge it a token of lightnesse and an argument of folly So al these wryters with all other are good to learne but euery one in his kinde for euery one of them had some ▪ thing proper vnto himselfe that best lyked hym which they all of their owne authority might desently do Now touching the know ledge of the greatest matters that is of God religion pietie charitie and the residue o◠the vertues and praise worthie maners and of mans saluation what is more godly o◠more necessarye than those thinges which Moyses the Apostles and Prophets wrote 〈◊〉 yet may these thinges be better bewtified i◠due polishing and the puritie of the Latin◠tongue be adioyned therevnto so that the Romaine spéeche and Latine eloquence b◠not corrupted with Hebrue phrases which are in their owne tongue verie pleasant bu◠in an other offende the eares and doe make plaine matters séeme obscure Therefore Thucidides and Herodotus Xenophon Polybius Halicarnassius and Herodianus are to be learned amonge the Gréekes and among the Romaines Caesar Liuius and Tacitus ought to be read and diligently to be vnderstood that your iudgement may be confirmed your memory augmented and the knowledge of thinges may be increased Chiefly we ought to study that doctrine which was first delyuered from heauen vnto the Iewes then after the death of Christ the same was more cléerely set abroade But alwayes prouyded that euen as our mindes ought to be clensed and kept vndefiled and pure by the reading therof so would I wishe our tongue should not be hindered but amended thereby for it is not vngodly and chiefely in this our age that our tongue and hart should be pure cleane and neate alyke And perhaps it were much more conuenient that Christes religion should be set forth with cumlynesse of spéeche than with great and gorgeous
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
eyther with vnwoonted exercises of Hystorians or with straunge tongues and termes of Poetes Now all this they shall most easily and most surely obteyne who haue instructors to direct and teache them And bicause there are fewe which can doe it we must diligentlye take héede least in stede of a learned and a skilfull teacher we prouide one that hath neyther learning nor skill And thus much touching the stile and the vse of writing whervnto the auncient men ioyned meditations and declamations before they woulde deale with ciuill causes and matters in court But bicause al these things without imitation are to no purpose we are from henceforth to speake of that wherein these questions may be demaunded What is Imitation and what authors are to be as examples and patternes for to imitate and whether we ought to take ensample of one or of many moreouer what things are to be imitated and how lastly at what time we shoulde beginne this imitation Of all which poyntes I will shewe you mine opinion and that briefely For in this small volume and to satisfie your purpose it is not séemelye to discourse at large of all these matters I doe not teach what is requisite for all Imitators to doe but what way you ought to take who both in noblenesse of birth and in state calling differ from other learned men that purpose onely to spende their lyfe in learning I call Imitation that which the Gréekes name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say an ardent desire and loue to attayne to that in the Oration and speache of an other séemeth worthie of prayse and admiration And is nothing else but a meanes and way howe to expresse in your owne talke those maners and formes of speaking which the Gréekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which be commendable and beautifull in the talke of an other We will haue an Arte to be in this practise that nothing be done contrarie to comlinesse which is to be obserued wyth great care and there is in it a science of an vniuersall thing and of all things and not of some one thing or one parte alone For who doth commende that paynter which onely can paynt the hande of a man and not the other partes or that can onely drawe the heades of men and cannot represent other liuing creatures with méete and apte colours and conuenient shadowes This practise requireth no small arte nor slender science but in this doctrine is to be obserued whatsoeuer is requisite to all kindes of eloquent spéech to the which all imitation is to be referred and hereby we may the better vnderstande the seconde question to wéete who is most chiefly to be imitated whome we may count for an ensample and patterne to followe For he whose vertues are most in number and greatest in excellencie ought chiefly to stirre vp our desires to attayne to the lyke not that these beautifications are so to be applyed that euery man may easilye perceyue them but I speake of you and such as be Imitatours who can spie and discerne these kindes of Rhetoricall speaches and the figures of the same though other men can not sée them But forasmuch as amongst the Latine writers I meane those olde Romaines whose spéech was both rounde pure and eloquent there is none that hath more plainelye expressed to vs all these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and formes of speaking then Marcus Cicero and séeing that both the writers of his time and also those that did afterwarde succéede him haue yelded vnto him the chief price of eloquence who can doubt but he ought to be accounted as the standardbearer in all examples There is no forme either of Rhetorical eloquence or of phisicall discourse or of dayly spéech but that he hath eyther wholy expressed it or he hath left such a draught of some part of it that a meane workeman may easily perceyue how the other partes shoulde be deuised and framed Therefore let this be graunted as a certaine principle that in the latine tongue there is no ensample eyther more certayne or more excellent than this writer but let vs sée also whether he be the onely example and whether other be not excellent as well as he In the which question if a man will demaunde this of me whether Tullie hath written of all matters or no and whether all his writings are yet extaunt I must néedes say that I am demaunded that which neyther can be vnknowne nor ought to be asked For wée want his bookes intituled of a common welth as all Gramarians doe knowe wée haue no hystories written by him neyther wrote he any of those thinges which Varro hath written of husbandrie or Plinie of naturall things or Vegetius of warfare or Vitruuius of buildings Furthermore how many things are there in the Gréeke Philosophers and Hystorians which Tullie hath not touched but we speake of the science of imitation which onely maketh a perfite Artes man and is the Moderatris and ruler of the style although the style it selfe is called the maker and maister of speaking I permit that all Authors and all thinges he read but with discretion and iudgement hauing alwaye this opinion that we maye gather great store of good matter out of other writers yea and wordes also but the style whereof we spake being an imitator of the best examples should euer vse a choyse and should applie such formes as are most agréeable to the things the kindes and properties of the which formes can be founde no where better than in Tullies workes Although I ought to confesse and gladly doe confesse that there be some thinges in Demosthenes the like whereof you cannot easily finde in Cicero And in Platos dialogues there are many notable and diuine thinges worthie imitation whereof though Tullie haue shewed nowe and then a shadowe yet hath he expressed no perfite ymage Besides who woulde denie that as if we had verses to make we should imitate a Poet so if we had an Hystorie to write we shoulde make choyse of some Hystorian wyth whome we might contende endeuoring to come as neare as we coulde to his patterne and ymage How is it then verily looke what order must be kept in reading the same must be obserued in imitation The first and chiefe trauell must be bestowed in Cicero and whatsoeuer he wanteth we must séeke for it in other places But first learne Tullie and exercise your selfe in him and so long as you go forwarde and finde profite repent not of your example I made mention before of comparing of writers which the Grecians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which practise doth much profite our studies Who denieth that Tullie and Demosthenes doe handle and set forth many thinges oftentimes in like sort and oftentimes also who doth not think it lawdable when you find in other writers that which is good and singuler to note