we shall see the economy and disposition of poems better observed than in Terence and the later [qu. Greek poets], who thought the sole grace and virtue of their fable the sticking in of sentences, as ours do the forcing 5 in of jests.

Fals[a] querel[a] fugiend[a].—We should not protect our sloth with the patronage of difficulty. It is a false quarrel against Nature, that she helps understanding but in a few; when the most part of mankind are 10 inclined by her thither, if they would take the pains, no less than birds to fly, horses to run, etc. which if they lose, it is through their own sluggishness, and by that means become her prodigies, not her children. confess, Nature in children is more patient of labor in 15 study than in age; for the sense of the pain, the judgment of the labor is absent: they do not measure what they have done. And it is the thought and consideration that affects us more than the weariness itself. Plato was

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not content with the learning that Athens could give him, 20 but sailed into Italy for Pythagoras's knowledge and yet not thinking himself sufficiently informed, went into Egypt, to the priests, and learned their mysteries. He labored, so must we. Many things may be learned together, and performed in one point of time; as musi25 cians exercise their memory, their voice, their fingers, and sometimes their head and feet at once. And so a preacher, in the invention of matter, election of words, composition of gesture, look, pronunciation, motion, useth all these faculties at once. And if we can express this 30 variety together, why should not divers studies, at divers hours, delight, when the variety is able alone to refresh and repair us? As, when a man is weary of writing, to read; and then again of reading, to write. Wherein howsoever we do many things, yet are we, in a sort, still 35 fresh to what we begin; we are recreated with change,

as the stomach is with meats. But some will say this
variety breeds confusion, and makes, that either we lose
all, or hold no more than the last. Why do we not then
persuade husbandmen that they should not till land, help
it with marl, lime, and compost? plant hop-gardens, 5
prune trees, look to bee-hives, rear sheep, and all other
cattle at once? It is easier to do many things and con-
tinue, than to do one thing long.

ΙΟ

Præcept[a] element[aria]. It is not the passing through these learnings that hurts us, but the dwelling 10 and sticking about them. To descend to those extreme anxieties and foolish cavils of grammarians, is able to break a wit in pieces, being a work of manifold misery and vainness, to be elementarii senes. Yet even letters are, as it were, the bank of words, and restore themselves 15 to an author as the pawns of language. But talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak, and to speak well, are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks; and out of the observation, knowledge, and the use of things, many writers perplex their readers and hearers 20 with mere nonsense. Their writings need sunshine. Pure and neat language I love, yet plain and customary. A barbarous phrase hath often made me out of love with a good sense, and doubtful writing hath wracked me beyond my patience. The reason why a poet is said 25 that he ought to have all knowledges is, that he should not be ignorant of the most, especially of those he will handle. And indeed, when the attaining of them is possible, it were a sluggish and base thing to despair; for frequent imitation of anything becomes a habit quickly. 30 If a man should prosecute as much as could be said of everything, his work would find no end.

De orationis dignitate. — Speech is the only benefit man hath to express his excellency of mind above other creatures. It is the instrument of society; therefore 35

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARIES

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Mercury, who is the president of language, is called deorum hominumque interpres. In all speech, words and sense are as the body and the soul. The sense is as the life and soul of language, without which all words are 5 dead. Sense is wrought out of experience, the knowledge of human life and actions, or of the liberal arts, which the Greeks called Εγκυκλοπαιδείαν. Words are the people's, yet there is a choice of them to be made; for verborum delectus origo est eloquentiæ. They are to be 10 chose according to the persons we make speak, or the things we speak of. Some are of the camp, some of the council-board, some of the shop, some of the sheepcot, some of the pulpit, some of the bar, etc. And herein is seen their elegance and propriety, when we use them fitly and draw them forth to their just strength and nature by way of translation or metaphor. But in this translation we must only serve necessity (nam temere nihil transfertur a prudenti) or commodity, which is a kind of necessity : that is, when we either absolutely want a word to express by, and that is necessity; or when we have not so fit a word, and that is commodity; as when we avoid loss by it, and escape obsceneness, and gain in the grace and property which helps significance. Metaphors far-fet hinder to be understood; and affected, lose their grace. 25 Or when the person fetcheth his translations from a wrong place as if a privy councillor should at the table take his metaphor from a dicing-house, or ordinary, or a vintner's vault; or a justice of peace draw his similitudes from the mathematics; or a divine from a bawdy-house, or taverns; 30 or a gentleman of Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, or the Midland, should fetch all the illustrations to his country neighbors from shipping, and tell them of the main-sheet and the bowline. Metaphors are thus many times deformed, as in him that said, Castratam morte 35 Africani rempublicam; and another, Stercus curia Glau

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ciam, and Cana nive conspuit Alpes. All attempts that
are new in this kind, are dangerous, and somewhat hard,
before they be softened with use. A man coins not a new
word without some peril and less fruit; for if it happen
to be received, the praise is but moderate; if refused, the 5
scorn is assured. Yet we must adventure; for things at
first hard and rough are by use made tender and gentle. It
is an honest error that is committed, following great chiefs.

Custom is the most certain mistress of language, as the public stamp makes the current money. But we must 10 not be too frequent with the mint, every day coining, nor fetch words from the extreme and utmost ages;

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since the chief virtue of a style is perspicuity, and noth learness
ing so vicious in it as to need an interpreter. Words
borrowed of antiquity do lend a kind of majesty to style, 15
and are not without their delight sometimes; for they
have the authority of years, and out of their intermission
do win themselves a kind of gracelike newness. But
the eldest of the present, and newest of the past lan-
guage, is the best. For what was the ancient language,
which some men so dote upon, but the ancient custom?
Yet when I name custom, I understand not the vulgar
custom; for that were a precept no less dangerous to
language than life, if we should speak or live after the
manners of the vulgar: but that I call custom of speech, 25
which is the consent of the learned; as custom of life,
which is the consent of the good. Virgil was most lov-
ing of antiquity; yet how rarely doth he insert aquai
and pictai! Lucretius is scabrous and rough in these ;
he seeks them: as some do Chaucerisms with us, which 30
were better expunged and banished. Some words are
to be culled out for ornament and color, as we gather
flowers to straw houses or make garlands; but they
are better when they grow to our style as in a meadow,
where, though the mere grass and greenness delights, yet 35

the variety of flowers doth heighten and beautify. Marry, we must not play or riot too much with them, as in paronomasies; nor use too swelling or ill-sounding words, quæ per salebras, altaque saxa cadunt. It is true, there 5 is no sound but shall find some lovers, as the bitterest confections are grateful to some palates. Our composition must be more accurate in the beginning and end than in the midst, and in the end more than in the beginning; for through the midst the stream bears us. And this is Io attained by custom, more than care or diligence.

We must express readily and fully, not profusely. There is difference between a liberal and prodigal hand. As it is a great point of art, when our matter requires it, to enlarge and veer out all sail, so to take it in and contract 15 it, is of no less praise, when the argument doth ask it. Either of them hath their fitness in the place. A good man always profits by his endeavor, by his help, yea, when he is absent; nay, when he is dead, by his example and memory: so good authors in their style. A strict and 20 succinct style is that where you can take away nothing without loss, and that loss to be manifest.

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Tacitus, The Laconic, Suetonius, Seneca, and Fabianus. The brief style is that which expresseth much in little; the concise style, which expresseth not enough 25 but leaves somewhat to be understood; the abrupt style, which hath many breaches, and doth not seem to end but fall. The congruent and harmonious fitting of parts in a sentence hath almost the fastening and force of knitting and connection; as in stones well squared, 30 which will rise strong a great way without mortar.

Periods are beautiful when they are not too long; for so they have their strength too, as in a pike or javelin. As we must take the care that our words and sense be clear, so if the obscurity happen through the 35 hearer's or reader's want of understanding, I am not to