Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	world_n	year_n	young_a	110	3	5.5671	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12224	An apologie for poetrie. VVritten by the right noble, vertuous, and learned, Sir Phillip Sidney, Knight; Defence of poetry	Sidney, Philip, Sir, 1554-1586.	1595 (1595)	STC 22534; ESTC S111043	39,253	86

with a scornefull interogatiue doe soberly aske whether it bee possible to finde any path so ready to leade a man to vertue as that which teacheth what vertue is and teacheth it not onely by deliuering forth his very being his causes and effects but also by making known his enemie vice which must be destroyed and his combersome seruant Passion which must be maistered by shewing the generalities that contayneth it and the specialities that are deriued from it Lastly by playne setting downe how it extendeth it selfe out of the limits of a mans own little world to the gouernment of families and maintayning of publique societies The Historian scarcely giueth leysure to the Moralist to say so much but that he loden with old Mouse-eaten records authorising himselfe for the most part vpon other histories whose greatest authorities are built vpon the notable foundation of Heare-say hauing much a-doe to accord differing VVriters and to pick trueth out of partiality better acquainted with a thousande yeeres a goe then with the present age and yet better knowing how this world goeth thē how his owne wit runneth curious for antiquities and inquisitiue of nouelties a wonder to young folkes and a tyrant in table talke denieth in a great chafe that any man for teaching of vertue and vertuous actions is comparable to him I am Lux vitae Temporum magistra Vita memoriae Nuncia vetusiatis c. The Phylosopher sayth hee teacheth a disputatiue vertue but I doe an actiue his vertue is excellent in the dangerlesse Academie of Plato but mine sheweth foorth her honorable face in the battailes of Marathon Pharsalia Poitiers and Agincourt Hee teacheth vertue by certaine abstract considerations but I onely bid you follow the footing of them that haue gone before you Olde-aged experience goeth beyond the fine-witted Phylosopher but I giue the experience of many ages Lastly if he make the Song-booke I put the learners hand to the Lute and if hee be the guide I am the light Then woulde hee alledge you innumerable examples conferring storie by storie how much the wisest Senatours and Princes haue beene directed by the credite of history as Brutus Alphonsus of Aragon and who not if neede bee At length the long lyne of theyr disputation maketh a poynt in thys that the one giueth the precept and the other the example Nowe whom shall wee finde sith the question standeth for the highest forme in the Schoole of learning to bee Moderator Trulie as mee seemeth the Poet and if not a Moderator euen the man that ought to carrie the title from them both and much more from all other seruing Sciences Therefore compare we the Poet with the Historian and with the Morrall Phylosopher and if hee goe beyond them both no other humaine skill can match him For as for the Diuine with all reuerence it is euer to be excepted not only for hauing his scope as far beyonde any of these as eternitie exceedeth a moment but euen for passing each of these in themselues And for the Lawyer though Ius bee the Daughter of Iustice and Iustice the chiefe of Vertues yet because hee seeketh to make men good rather Formidine paenae then Virtutis amore or to say righter dooth not indeuour to make men good but that their euill hurt not others hauing no care so hee be a good Cittizen how bad a man he be Therefore as our wickednesse maketh him necessarie necessitie maketh him honorable so is hee not in the deepest trueth to stande in rancke with these who all indeuour to take naughtines away and plant goodnesse euen in the secretest cabinet of our soules And these foure are all that any way deale in that cōsideration of mens manners which beeing the supreme knowledge they that best breed it deserue the best commendation The Philosopher therfore and the Historian are they which would win the gole the one by precept the other by example But both not hauing both doe both halte For the Philosopher setting downe with thorny argument the bare rule is so hard of vtterance and so mistie to bee conceiued that one that hath no other guide but him shall wade in him till hee be olde before he shall finde sufficient cause to bee honest for his knowledge standeth so vpon the abstract and generall that happie is that man who may vnderstande him and more happie that can applye what hee dooth vnderstand On the other side the Historian wanting the precept is so tyed not to what shoulde bee but to what is to the particuler truth of things and not to the generall reason of things that hys example draweth no necessary consequence and therefore a lesse fruitelesse doctrine Nowe dooth the peerelesse Poet performe both for whatsoeuer the Philosopher sayth shoulde be doone hee giueth a perfect picture of it in some one by whom hee presupposeth it was doone So as hee coupleth the generall notion with the particuler example A perfect picture I say for hee yeeldeth to the powers of the minde an image of that whereof the Philosopher bestoweth but a woordish description vvhich dooth neyther strike pierce nor possesse the sight of the soule so much as that other dooth For as in outward things to a man that had neuer seene an Elephant or a Rinoceros who should tell him most exquisitely all theyr shapes cullour bignesse and perticular markes or of a gorgeous Pallace the Architecture with declaring the full beauties might well make the hearer able to repeate as it were by rote all hee had heard yet should neuer satisfie his inward conceits with being witnes to it selfe of a true liuely knowledge but the same man as soone as hee might see those beasts well painted or the house wel in moddel should straightwaies grow without need of any discription to a iudiciall cōprehending of them so no doubt the Philosopher with his learned definition bee it of vertue vices matters of publick policie or priuat gouernment replenisheth the memory with many infallible grounds of wisdom which notwithstanding lye darke before the imaginatiue and iudging powre if they bee not illuminated or figured foorth by the speaking picture of Poesie Tuslie taketh much paynes and many times not without poeticall helpes to make vs knowe the force loue of our Countrey hath in vs. Let vs but heare old Anahises speaking in the middest of Troyes flames or see Vlisses in the fulnes of all Calipso's delights bewayle his absence from batraine and beggerly Ithaca Anger the Stoicks say was a short maddesse let but Sophocles bring you Aiax on a stage killing and whipping Sheepe Oxen thinking them the Army of Greeks with theyr Chieftaines Agamemnon and Menelaus and tell me if you haue not a more familiar insight into anger then finding in the Schoolemen his Genius and difference See whether wisdome and temperance in Vlisses and Diomedes valure Achilles friendship in Nisus and Eurialus euen to an ignoraunt man carry not an apparent shyning and contrarily the remorse of conscience in