Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	wood_n	write_v	writing_n	21	3	8.5399	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05335	Of the interchangeable course, or variety of things in the whole world and the concurrence of armes and learning, thorough the first and famousest nations: from the beginning of ciuility, and memory of man, to this present. Moreouer, whether it be true or no, that there can be nothing sayd, which hath not bin said heretofore: and that we ought by our owne inuentions to augment the doctrine of the auncients; not contenting our selues with translations, expositions, corrections, and abridgments of their writings. Written in French by Loys le Roy called Regius: and translated into English by R.A.; De la vicissitude ou variete des choses en l'univers. English	Leroy, Louis, d. 1577.; Ashley, Robert, 1565-1641.	1594 (1594)	STC 15488; ESTC S113483	275,844	270

their defect haue bin often changed and augmented how should they then satisfie another In somuch that it seemeth to some to bee a thing impossible that a people hauing a peculier tongue of their owne should vse strange letters but with great difficultie as we see in the Dutch and English vsing Latin letters and in the Turke and Persian which vse the Arabian As also they are of opinion that the historie of one Nation can not conueniently be written in another language then that of the same countrie induced to think so by the Romain historie which being written in Greeke seemeth no more to be Romain especially where there is question of customs lawes magistrates moneyes reuenewes and ceremonies wherein the Greeke tongue being otherwise rich and plentiful seemeth rude barbarous where the latin is fine and eloquent The same is befalne to the Greek Historie written in the Latin tongue and likewise to the French made by Gaguinus Paulus Emilius and others representing little and ill to the purpose the affaires of Fraunce in a strange language vsed onely now a daies in schooles whereas Froissard Monstrellet Phillip de Commines Guill and Martin du Bellay are found large and conuenient But to th end not to digresse from our commenced purpose I will returne to speake of Letters The Hebrewes and Latines haue twentie and two The Slauons and Iacobites two and thirtie The Armenians 38 The Abissins or Ethiopians 47 The Arabians 31 The Chaldeans 28 The Latins Greeks and other inhabitants of Europe and the Indians of Malabar hauing peculiar letters of their owne do write from the left side towards the right The Hebrewes Chaldees Arabians and generally all the Asiatickes and Africans from the right to the left imitating the mouing of the Heauen which is from the right hand to the left and is most perfect according to Aristotle approching neerest to the vnitie which of Plato is called the motion of similitude or of vniformity The Cathayans or people of China Iapania from aboue downe-wards saying that therein they follow the order of nature which hath giuen to men their heads placed aboue and their feete below Diodorus the Sicilian writeth that in a certaine Island found towards the South by Iambolus thinhabitants did not write from one side to thother as we do but drew their lyne straight from aboue downwards hauing 28 letters in number according to the signification which they giue them Other maners of writing there can not be except one would write a crosse or ouerthwart The Eastern and Southern nations do vse points the Greekes their abbreuiations the Latines their titles the Egiptians in holy things did vse the figures of beastes for letters which they called Hierogliphicks The most Auncients did write in the rynde or barke of trees and in tables and leaues of wood others in Palm-leaues according to the commoditie of their countrey others in lead Their missiue letters or Epistles were written in tables or waxe the Lawes and other durable things were engrauen in brasse or copper They did write also in fine linnen cloth Themperor Commodus vsed the fine bark of the Linden tree called of the Latins Tylia or Philyra Others the rynds of a little tree called Papyrus growing in the marishes of Egipt which were thicker from whence came the name of Paper vsed at this present which is made of old raggs of cloth steeped along time in water and braied in the mill after brought into a kind of past which being stretched out on a gredyron of brasse to thend to drie it being put betwen locks of woll and pressed after it is a little dried becommeth fine smooth thin white paper we vse Parchmin also more strong durable then paper which is made of sheepskins goatskins and calueskins coried and dressed by the Leather-dressers and parchminmakers Herodotus in his Terpsichore witnesseth that they vsed these skins to write on in his time And Iosephus saith that the holy Scriptures were first written in them M. Varro thinks they were first found out at Pergamus a Citie of Asia from whence they yet take their name at such time as the two kings Ptolomeus and Eumenes erected their Libraries enuying one the other Diodorus the Sicilian writeth that the letters of the Ethiopians were made after the likenesse of sundrie beasts and the extremities of diuers members of man and of diuers instruments and tooles of artificers and their intentions words were not expressed by composition of sillables or letters but by formes and figures of Images whose signification remained vnto them by vse in the memorie of men for they would set downe a Kyte a Crocodile a mans eye a hand a face and other such like things The Kyte signified a thing soone done because he is one of the swiftest birds and this character is properly applied to home affaires which are speedily dispatched the Crocodile did note some euil thing the eye an obseruer of Iustice and a gard or watchman of the bodie the right hand with the fingers stretched out betokened libertie or liberalitie and the left hand closed was hardnes and greedines After this maner the figures of other parts of the bodie formes of certain instruments did notifie some other thing amongst those Ethiopians who retayning it thorough long practize in their memorie did readily vnderstand what the said figures ment and signified Those of Malabar and other Indians dwelling between the riuer of Inde and Ganges do yet at this day write in palm-leaues either greater or lesser according to the matter which they intend to write In whole ones they write such things as they would haue to endure long as the affaires of their Religion and their Histories the other things of lesse consequence in a quarter or half quarter aswell on th one side as thother And when they haue written a great number meaning to ioin them in books they fasten them betwene two bordes in steed of those forels or couers which we vse after as we sow our leaues so do they tie theirs with strings to the said couers For their missiue letters it suffiseth that the leaf be writtē and rolled vp in it self in steed of sealing of it they bind it with a thred of the palm it self They vse to writ with an instrumēt of yron or wood sharpned passing lightly ouer the leaf not percing it and imprinting the characters of their letters in such sort that they may write on both sides Thother writings more permanent as foundations of Churches are ●●t in Copper or grauen in stone Peter Marty●a Milanois historian writing of the difcouerie of the new found lands made by the Castilians saith that the inhabitants of Collacuan brought into Spaine amongst other gifts certaine bookes written in the fine inner ryndes of trees which are found betweene the wood and the thicke vttermost barke And that they are taken sometimes of willowes or of Alders which they couered with course cloth and fastned together with

cyment and rubbed ouer with fine plaister which when it is drie they write what they will on them There bookes are not made by leaues but they stretch them forth many cubits in length and bring them into square peeces ioined in such sort with cyment or soder that they are easie to turne and seeme to be made of bordes or tables of wood and wheresoeuer they are opened there appeare twosides written in maner of two pages as much there is vnderneath if they be not stretched out in length because that vnder one leafe are many leaues written The letters and characters are like vnto hookes ginnes files starres and other such formes where with they write in lines after our fashion representing in some sort the auncient maner of the Egiptians and Ethiopians and they paint between the lines figures of liuing creatures namely of men as is aforesaid as of Kings and princes reciting their acts They write also their Lawes sacrifices ceremonies obseruations of the starres and of husbandrie Both the vpper and vnder side is of fine workmanship and such as when they are foulded vp they seeme nothing different from ours They make little table-bookes also of bordes of figtree to write common things on which they can easilie deface againe The said Martyr saith also that there haue bin found in Darienna bookes made of the leaues of trees sowed together and that at Mesira they vse figures by which they signifie their affaires aswell as by writing Moreouer that in Hispaniola there is found a tree called Coppeia whose leafe is as fit to write on as paper with a needle or pin or a pointed sticke and that it is to be thought that this is the tree in the leaues of which the Chaldees the first inuentors of Letters did write their conceits before the vse of letters was inuented The leafe will abide writing on both sides aswell as our paper it is about twelue fingers broad and almost round thicker then double parchmine and verie tough When it is wet the letters appeare white in the greene leafe but when it is dried it becoms white and hard as a woodden borde but then the letters are yellow it is neuer marred nor defaced for wetting if it be not burnt Paulus Venetus writeth that in the prouince of Arcadan which is subject to the great Cham there are neither letters nor characters but that men there make their contracts and obligations by little bordes or tablets which they diuide in the midst and compare afterwardes together and confer their markes and signes one with the other and so doe acknowledge the cause of such contracts The simple people of the new found land not knowing the vse of Letters did maruaile much to see that Christians by meanes of them vnderstood one an other and thought that the written leaues did speake by their commandement and reported their secrets in such sort that they touched and caried them with feare as if there had bin some spirite in them and that they had spoken by some diuinitie and not by industrie of man THE most cōmon kind of writing which we vse at this day in these parts is with black Inke which heretofore was made of the sweat of bathes and furnaces but now of gaules gum Arabick and ryndes of pomgranats being all steeped in water of victriol or copperis beaten into pouder There is vsed also red ynke made either of Vermilion or of the shauings or fylings of Brasell steeped in strong Lye being yet warme and putting a little Alum to it and Azure made of some blew stone or earth yelow of goldsand or pouder Also one may write with the iuyce of Mulberies Cheries and other such fruicts And that with pennes made of reedes or canes such as Erasmus vsed or of brasse gold or siluer or of goose-feathers swans peacockes or ostriches Without speaking of the subtilities of writing with Cyphers which Princes vse and notes which Cicero inuented or with Alum where the letters do not appeare nor can not be read except they be dipt in water or with salt Armoniack iuyce of an orenge limon citron or onyon to be discouered onelie when they are held neere the fire or with grease cinders and coales But the maner to write by imprinting hath excelled all the rest in readynes and diligence dispatching more worke in a day then many speedie or swift writers are able to doe in a yeare And since it commeth in so fitlie to our purpose we will intermeddle here a little and say briefly as much as we shall think fit for this present discourse of that which we haue heard and learned of the most expert touching this so rare so profitable and admirable Art to the end that if by warres or other humaine mischiefes and casualties the vse thereof should at any time be left off yet it should not bee altogether lost but be faithfully kept and preserued by bookes as it hath saued and preserued manie bookes TO MAKE Characters for imprinting it is requisite first to haue ponchions of steel softned by the fire on the which they graue with coūter-ponchions hardned or grauing yrons steeled the white which is within the letters perfecting and smoothing the bodies of them with fyles where they are eminent or vneuen not at the right ends but at the contrarie after they wet these ponchions in water to harden them and then polish them and do strike them into little peeces of fine copper that haue bin in the fire which being so engrauen do naturally represent the forme of the letters which the artisans do call striking of the matrices Then do they iustify their matrices on moulds of yron and in the white therof make their castings with lead tinglasse antimony and other mixed maters to the end to harden them and that they may endure the longer The Letters being thus cast made are put in a great case or box of wood ful of little boxes in to which they are distributed according to their seuerall sorts From whence the Compositors hauing layd before them the writing which they are to imprint do take thē one by one dispose them by pages and formes which they put again into other chasies or frames of yron with one or two crosses locked or shut fast with furnitures of wood Then the gouernour of the Presse taketh these last chasies or fourmes and laieth them on the marble of his Presse then beateth them with balles of wood filled with woll couered with white leather and soaked or rubbed with ynke well mixed and distributed placing the leafe that is to be printed on a double tympan or parchmin hauing a wollen cloth betwixt them and a moyst linnen cloth to keepe the leafe from mackling and putting downe the frisquet of parchmin which couereth the white or margent of the leafe he maketh the traine of the presse to roule which resteth on the cariage till it come vnder the vice or spindle vnto which the plattin is fastned and

aboundance of oliues that was to come wherin he might haue gained much showing that it were easy for Philosophers to enriche themselues if they would but it is not their study and profession And Plato in his Theaetetus telleth that as he beheld the starres and looked vpwards he fell into a diche whereof he was reprehended by his maide who was pleasant and witty that he woulde endeuour to know what was in heauen being ignorant of that which was in earth and before his feete DEMOCRITVS is called by Seneca in the seuenth of his naturall questions the most subtill of the auncients and in his booke of the shortnes of life he reckoneth him amongst the chiefe and most excellent masters of the sciences Cicero in his first Booke of the ends of good and euill calleth him a man learned and perfect in Geometrie and recommendeth his stile or maner of writing vnto Brutus in his Oratour saying that albeit it be estraunged from verse yet because it is eleuated and enriched with most cleare lights of words that it seemeth rather to be a poeme then the verses of Comick Poets Plinie telleth howe that hee and Pythagoras trauailed into Persia Arabia Egypt and Ethiopia to the end to learne Magicke and that they two were the first that did celebrate it in these parts And in an other place it is manifest saith hee that DEMOCRITVS a wise man otherwise profitable vnto life hath erred through too much desire which he had to be helpful vnto mē And in his vij Book he promised saith he to reuiue others which hath not raised vp himselfe He was so exceedingly giuen to cōtemplation that his citizens the Abderites counted him franticke and sent for Hippocrates to heale him who when he came to Abdera found him only wise amongst them all Seneca writing of the diuine prouidence saith that he abandoned riches thinking them to be burden som to a good wit Some say that willingly with a burning glasse he depriued himselfe of his sight that he might see more clerly with his vnderstanding Tully in his fifth Tusculane DEMOCRITVS saith he hauing lost the sight of his eies could not discerne white black but wel could he the good and euil iust and vniust honest and dishonest profitable and vnprofitable And could liue wel and happely without the sight of colours but not without the knowledge of things This mā thought the sight of the mind to be hindred by the sight of the eies And as others did not see oft-times that which was before their feet so he wandered throughout al infinity without consisting in any extremity Plutarch in his treatise of curiosity affirmeth it to be false Seneca in his second Booke of Anger saith that HERACLITVS going out of his house and seeing about him so many liuing euil or rather dying in euil he had pity of them all and wept on the contrary DEMOCRITVS was neuer seene but laughing HIPPOCRATES had his honor to haue bin the first that did write perspicuously of Physick of the rules therof Plutarch witnesseth of him that hauing written touching the seames or ioinings of mans head in Anatomy and afterwards finding that he had failed in somwhat he did publickly declare his fault for feare lest others might fall into the like errour Saint Augustin after him hath bin the only man that hath publickly corrected himselfe by setting forth his retractations Others are commonly so ouergon with glory and so opinatiue that they had rather dye then yeld in any thing EMPEDOCLES the Agrigentine a famous natural Philosopher wrote in verse vj books of the knowledg of nature wherof Aristotle maketh often mētion especially in his Poetry where he saith that Homer Empedocles had nothing one like thother but their verses and that the one is a right Poet and thother ought rather to be called a naturall Philosopher then a Poet. And in his Metaphysicks speaking of him and of Anaxagoras he witnesseth that Anaxagoras was superior in age to Empedocles but inferior to him in works And he saith in his problemes that he was of melancholick cōplexion Plinie saith that he trauailed far to learne Magick as did Pithagoras Democritus And Horace in his art of Poetry that being desirous to leaue an opinion of himselfe that he was a God and was vanished secretly out of the sight of men he cast himselfe into the burning and smoking hole of the hil Etna and that this deed was afterwardes discouered by one of his slippers which being made of bras was cast vp by the vehemency of the fire and wind ANAXAGORAS a Clazomenian gentleman became a very excellent Philosopher and was called by those of his time Nous which signifieth the minde or vnderstanding were it for admiration which they had of his knowledge and vnderstanding which appeared to be great especially in naturall Philosophy or els because he was the first which added the intelligence vnto the matter and appointed vnto naturall things for their beginning and first cause of their distinction and ordinance the intelligence Plinie writeth of him that by knowledge of the starres hee foretolde that within certaine daies after there would fall a stone from heauen which happened in the parts of Thrace in the day time He was the first that published books written by him and liued in the time of Democritus In auncient time in Greece they which did write first of diuine celestial naturall morall politicke and military matters were the Poets and they were commonly Priests Theologians Musicians Astrologians and Physicians as Linus Musaeus Orpheus and Amphion LINVS the sonne of Apollo and of Terpsichore being very skilfull in Musick was the master of Hercules of Tamyras and of Orpheus They say that he brought the knowledge thereof out of Phenicia into Greece as did Atlas the Astrology out of Lybia Museus was reputed as a Prophet hauing deliuered many Cerimonies to the Grecians of whom Virgill giueth a very honourable testimony in the sixth Booke of his Aneids calling him an excellent Poet in great perfection and making him to seeme in the Elysian fields the most eminent amongst all the men of honour and learning that were there which haue had a memorable name in all ages ORPHEVS and AMPHION were such excellent musicions that they were said by their sweete Songes to moue trees and stones to stop the course of riuers and to tame the fiercenes of wild beasts ORPHEVS first instituted in Greece the Initiatiōs of the Gods the purgation of sinnes remedies of diseases by charmes and Inchauntmentes and meanes to appease the wrath of the Gods They say that of him and of Zoroaster as fathers and authors came al the ancient wisedome Iamblicus affirmeth that Pythagoras followed Orpheus his diuinity as a paterne on the which he framed formed his Philosophy which is more that the words of Pythagoras had not bin esteemed holy or sacred but for being deriued from the precept of Orpheus That from thence came the secret doctrine

former famous ages The world is such as it was before The heauen and the time keepe the same order which they did The Sunne and thother Planets haue not changed their courses and there is no starre remoued out of his place The Elements haue the same power men are made of the same matter in the same sort disposed as they were in old time And were not the maner of lyuing corrupted which we vse preferring idlenesse before diligence pleasure before profit and riches before vertue nothing would let but this age might bring foorth as eminent personages in Philosophie as were Plato and Aristotle in Physick as Hippocrates and Galen or in the Mathematicks as Euclide Archimedes and Ptolomey Considering the help which we receiue of their books the examples wherwith antiquitie hath instructed vs so many obseruations and inuentions sithence their time and so long experience of all things In such sort that if we consider it well there was neuer age more happie for the aduancement of learning then this present if weying the shortnes of mans life we resolue to employ our whole endeuour industrie on the studie of true knowlege Wisdom hath not fulfilled her work much remaineth and will alwaies remaine and there will neuer be wanting occasion to add therunto Trueth doth offer her selfe to all those that wil seek her and are of capacitie to receiue her albeit Democritus complayneth that she is hid in a place as deep as a well wherhence in his opinion it is not possible to draw her foorth Whosoeuer giueth himself to it in good earnest shall find alway somewhat to do therin All the mysteries of God and secrets of nature are not discouered at one time The greatest things are difficult and long in comming How many are there not yet reduced into art How many haue bin first knowen and found out in this age I say new lands new seas new formes of men maners lawes and customes new diseases and new remedies new waies of the Heauen and of the Ocean neuer before found out and new starres seen yea and how many remaine to be knowen by our posteritie That which is now hidden with time will come to light and our successours will wonder that wee were ignorant of them M. Varro witnesseth that in the space of a thousand yeares the Arts were inuented and augmented which yet vntill this time are not perfected and accomplished But if the perfection of them hath not hitherto bin found it followeth not therof that it cannot be found For those things which at this day are held to be the greatest and most admirable had a time of beginning and that which is now verie good was not so at the first but is increased by little and little amending from time to time Certainly the excellencie in all thinges is slow difficult and rare seing that there is scarcely found in many hundreds and thousands of yeares amongst an infinite number of Students one man worthie of admiration beeing learned and eloquent indeed that with a good naturall wit liuelynes and sharpnes of vnderstanding experience and vse of things hath the constancie and pacience to perseuere which are requisite to such an interprise This notwithstanding we ought not to faint or to dispaire for if there be but small hope to excell and go beyond the best yet is it an honour to follow them and if there be no meanes to reach them yet is it commendable to be second or third vnto them It is therefore conuenient to applie our industrie to the searching out of the trueth as they haue done and to endeuour to augment the doctrine of the Auncients without so much subiecting our selues to antiquitie that we do nothing for our age and haue no care of our posteritie Moreouer many things inuented by the Auncients are lost The wisdome of the Egiptians Persians Indians and Bactrians hath not come vnto vs many good Greek and Latine Authours are not found And amongst those that remayne there are few agreable to the present maners and affaires We do not build now adaies after the fashion of Vitruuius neither tyl the ground nor plant according to Varro or Columella nor take foode or physick after the ordinance of Hippocrates and Galen We iudge not according to the Ciuil Law of the Romaines neither plead we as did Demosthenes and Cicero or gouerne our common wealthes by the Lawes of Solon and Lycurgus or following the politicke precepts of Plato and Aristotle We sing not as did the Auncients neither warre we according to Vegetius the art militarie being changed and all kind of armes both offensiue and defensiue Ptolomey in his Cosmographie doth aduertize men to beleeue the latest trauaylers touching the longitude and latitude of places Aristotle saith that the Quadrature of the Circle may be knowen but that it is not yet found out Plato affirmeth that Geometrie was vnperfect in his time and that Stereometrie and the Cubike wanted The Calculations of the Heauens are not all found true Vesalius curiously obseruing Anatomie hath found manie pointes therein omitted by Aristotle and Galen Plinie boasteth that he hath added in the Historie of liuing Creatures that which Aristotle was ignorant of Leonicenus reproueth Plinie of lyes and errours in manie places Auenreis hath written agaynst Galene Galene against Aristotle and Aristotle against Plato There is no Authour so accomplished or perfected in whom one may not finde somewhat wanting or worthie of reproofe And that which is worse there are some men so giuen and so affectionate to antiquitie that they are ignorant or haue very smal knowledge of the Countrie and time wherein they liue They know in euery point how Athens Lacedemon Carthage Persia Egipt were gouerned not knowing the affaires of their owne Countrie wherin they are strangers As there are found many among vs discoursing of the assembly of the Ariopagites of the Comices of the Romains vnderstanding nothing of the counsaile of France the handling of the reuenewes and the order of the Parliaments Is it not then an abusing of studie and of learning to dwell continually among the Auncients and not to endeuour to bring foorth new inuentions agreeable to the maners and affaires of this time When wil we leaue taking of grasse for corne the flower for the fruit and the rind for the wood doing nothing but translate correct expound or abridge the bookes of the Auncients who if they had bin also of this mind not setting themselues to write or to say any thing but that which had bin written or said before no Art should haue bin inuented or at least they had all remained in their beginnings without receiuing any increase The perpetuall Imitatours or alwaies Translatours or Commentatours hyding themselues vnder the shadow of others are verie slaues and haue no generous courage in them if they dare not once to do that which they haue so long time learned They alwaies distrust themselues and follow the first in those things

wherin the later haue not agreed with the former namely in those which are not yet sought out and will neuer be found if we content our selues with that which is alreadie inuented without adding any thing therunto By occasion whereof I will aunswere them henceforward which obiect that there are too many bookes Certainly if all that hath bin written by the auncient Philosophers Historiographers Oratours Poets Physitians Diuines and Lawiers had come to our hands all had bin full of bookes and we should haue had no other moueables in our house but bookes we should be constrained to go sit and lie vpon bookes And yet there remaine so many and are made from day to day that the age of man could not suffice to read not onely the writings in many disciplines but in one particuler and seldome are the Inuentories found perfect The great number serueth rather for charge then for instruction and it is much better to read some few that be good then to wander thorough many which are euill Lucian blameth an ignorant person which boasted that he had many bookes and Martial mocketh an other who thought thereby to be accounted learned Seauen hundred Volumes were found in the Librarie of Alexandria which were all burned together by a mischance of fire The learned caried their books thither from all parts as to the Theater of learning and they read them in the Museum which was there at the plaies ordained for the honour of Apollo and of the Muses the vanquishers receiuing great gifts in the sight and knowledge of all the world In somuch that none were reckoned learned which had not won some prize there Liuie calleth that great Librarie a worthy work of kingly care and magnificence But Seneca saith that it was neither care nor magnificēce but a studious pompe or superfluity yet not studious because the K s. Ptolomeyes had not erected it to serue for study but for a shew and spectacle As we see many priuate men also which haue gathered many togither wel printed boūd gilded to serue onely for ornaments which they neuer looke in themselues nor suffer others for feare of fouling them Also king ATTALVS assembled at Pergamus in emulation of the Ptolomeyes two hundred thousand volumes which were giuen by Antonius to Cleopatra so vanished There were in the Library of the GORDIANS xl thousand and a great number of exquisite ones in that of LVCVLLVS and AVGVSTVS There are some at this present very wel furnished both amongst the Christians and the Mahometists But going by the professions I haue read that DIDYMVS a Grammarian composed foure thousand books APPIAN sixe thousand who was so arrogant as to say that he made them immortall to whom hee dedicated his workes CICERO said that if his age were doubled yet would it not suffice to read all the Lyrick Poets Seneca thinketh as much of those that haue written of Logick There is no people nation citie common-wealth seigniorie coūtrey kingdom or empire but hath his Cronicles and Histories In Greece one only war of Marathon found three hundred Historiographers Plutarch in his liues alleageth more then two hundred of them SALVST and LIVIE are come to vs vnperfect and faulty as are also many others of lesse reckoning both Greekes and Romaines It is not possible to recken the books that are made of Phisicke which hath many times bin changed and diuided into diuers sects ARISTOTLE the Philosopher composed iiij hundred volumes and VARRO the most learned amongst the Romains as many The Emperour IVSTINIAN by the excessiue multitude of books which were of the ciuil Law was constrained to cause the Pandects to be made on which contrary to his edict haue bin heaped innumerable cōmentaries S. Iohn the euangelist saith that the world is not able to receiue all the books which should bee written of IESVS CHRIST as appeared in the time following wherein were infinite written in many languages concerning the Christian religion and the exposition of the old and new Testament ORIGEN alone hath written sixe thousand bookes The Gothes Vandales Alanes Hunnes Lombards Sarazens Turkes and Tartarians brought an inestimable losse to the libraries and corruption to the languages Bookes are different also according to the disposition of the times and inclination of the countries wherein they are made euen as wines are diuers according to the territorie qualitie of the aire and disposition of the yere the nature of the vine industry of the keeper Euery age hath his peculiar kind of speech Euery nation and age his phrase the Greekes and Latins writing after one sort the Hebrewes Chaldees and Arabians after an other All are not of continuance and as many are lightly and easily made so they are estsoones and incontinently lost Some are left off for the obscurity and to affected subtilty and barbarousnes which is in them Others despised or neglected as vnprofitable or consumed by length of time or destroied by warres changes of tonges and of religions or by being euil written and copied out or corrupted depraued In others there is nothing but tedious repetitions by changing the order and the words Plinie a man of great reading saith that in conferring and comparing of authours he hath found the old written out word for word by those that were next after them concealing their names and choosing rather to be taken in their theft then to acknowledge the debt Those which are respected here as holy are burned elswhere as abhomination The affected to some certaine sect religion or profession are red onely by people of the same sect religion and profession The poemes orations epistles chronicles histories comedies and tragedies are not loked on but by such as vnderstand the tongue wherin they are written out of it they commonly lose their grace There are not any which please and satisfy al people or which are receiued in al places except they be aduisedly made with great iudgment profound learning by a singular grace of God and a rare goodnes of nature resisting against enuious old age warranting themselues from the silence of obliuion Such as seeme to be those of Plato Aristotle Hippocrates Ptolomey who not content with the images of things and shadows of opiniōs haue sought the truth directly haue therfore escaped the iniury of time of fire of water of wars among so many nations contrary sects translated into diuers languages yet keeping stil the same grace as when they were newly made For as time abolisheth the opinions that are not wel groūded so it also cōfirmeth the infallible iudgemēts of a wise vnderstanding nature augmēting alwaies the reputatiō of those writers which haue best obserued vnderstood it The iudgment of time discouereth in the end the secret faults of al things who being the father of truth and a iudge void of passion hath alwaies accustomed to giue a iust sentēce of the life or death of writings But seeing that the arts