our who can read them? As already, we shall have a vast chaos and confusion of books: we are Poppressed with them; eyes ake with reading, our fingers with turning. For my part, I am one of the number; nos numerus sumus: I do not deny it. I have only this of Macrobius to say for my self, Omne meum, nihil meum, 'tis all mine, and none mine. As a good house-wife out of divers fleeces weaves one piece of cloth, a bee gathers wax and honey out of many flowers, and makes a new bundle of all, Floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant, r S I have laboriously collected this cento out of divers writers, and that sine injuria: I have wronged no authors, but given every man his own; which Hierom so much commends in Nepotian; he stole not whole verses, pages, tracts, as some do now a days, concealing their authors names; but still said this was Cyprians, that Lactantius, that Hilarius, so said Minutius Felix, so Victorinus, thus far Arnobius: I cite and quote mine authors (which, howsoever some illiterate scriblers account pedantical, as a cloke of ignorance, and opposite to their affected fine stile, I must and will use) sumpsi, non surripui; and what Varro, lib. 6. de re rust. speaks of bees, minime maleficæ, nullius opus vellicantes faciunt deterius, I can say my self. Whom have I injured? The matter is theirs most part, and yet mine: apparet unde sumptum sit (which Seneca approves); aliud tamen, quam unde sumptum sit, apparet; which nature doth with the aliment of our bodies, incorporate, digest, assimilate, I do concoquere quod hausi, dispose of what I take: I make them pay tribute, to set out this my Maceronicon: the method only is mine own: I must usurp that of Wecker e Ter. nihil dictum quod non dictum prius : methodus sola artificem ostendit: we can say nothing but what hath been said, the composition and method is ours only, and shews a scholar. Oribasius, Aëtius, Avicenna, have all out of Galen, but to their own method, diverso stylo, non diversá fide. Our poets steal from Homer; he spews, saith Ælian, they lick it up. Divines use Austins words verbatim still, and our story-dressers do as much; he that comes last is commonly best, -donec quid grandius ætas Postera, sorsque ferat melior. P Onerabuntur ingenia, nemo legendis sufficit. a Libris obruimur: oculi r Quidquid legendo, manus volitando dolent. Fam. Strada, Momon. Lucretius. ubique bene dictum facio meum, et illud nunc meis ad compendium, nunc ad fidem et auctoritatem alienis, exprimo verbis: omnes auctores meos clientes esse arbitror, &c. Sarisburiensis ad Polycrat. prol. In Epitaph. Nep. illud Cyp. hoc Lact. illud Hilar. est, ita Victorinus, in hunc modum loquutus est Arnobius, &c. Syntax. med. Præf. ad Though there were many giants of old in physick and philosophy, yet I say with "Didacus Stella, A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant, may see farther than a giant himself; I may likely add, alter, and see farther than my predecessors: and it is no greater prejudice for me to indite after others, than for Elianus Montaltus, that famous physician, to write de morbis capitis after Jason Pratensis, Heurnius, Hildesheim, &c. Many horses to run in a race, one logician, one rhetorician, after another. Oppose then what thou wilt, Allatres licet usque nos et usque, Et gannitibus improbis lacessas; I solve it thus. And for those other faults of barbarism, * Dorick dialect, extemporanean style, tautologies, apish imitation, a rhapsody of rags gathered together from several dung-hills, excrements of authors, toyes and fopperies confusedly tumbled out, without art, invention, judgement, wit, learning, harsh, raw, rude, phantastical, absurd, insolent, indiscreet, ill-composed, indigested, vain, scurrile, idle, dull and dry; I confess all ('tis partly affected): thou canst not think worse of me than I do of my self. 'Tis not worth the reading, I yield it: I desire thee not to lose time in perusing so vain a subject; I should be peradventure loth my self to read him or thee so writing: 'tis not operæ pretium. All I say, is this, that I have precedents for it, which Isocrates calls perfugium iis qui peccant, others as absurd, vain, idle, illiterate, &c. Nonnulli alii idem fecerunt, others have done as much, it may be more, and perhaps thou thy self: Novimus et qui te, &c. we have all our faults; scimus, et hanc veniam, &c. thou censurest me, so have I done others, and may do thee: Cadimus, inque vicem, &c. 'tis lex talionis, quid pro quo. Go now censure, criticise, scoff and rail. a Nasutus sis usque licet, sis denique nasus, Non potes in nugas dicere plura meas, Ipse ego quam dixi, &c. Wer'st thou all scoffs and flouts, a very Momus, Than we our selves, thou canst not say worse of us. Thus, as when women scold, have I cryed whore first; and, in some mens censures, I am afraid I have overshot my self. Laudare se vani, vituperare stulti: as I do not arrogate, I will not derogate. Primus vestrum non sum, nec imus, I am none of the best, I am none of the meanest of you. As I "In Luc. 10. tom. 2. Pygmæi gigantum humeris impositi plus quam ipsi gigantes vident. * Nec aranearum textus ideo melior, quia ex se fila gignuntur, nec noster ideo vilior, quia ex alicnis libamus, ut apes. Lipsius adversus dialogist. y Uno absurdo dato, mille sequuntur. 1 Non dubito multos lectores hic fore stultos. a Martial. 13. 2. am an inch, or so many feet, so many parasanges, after him or him, I may be peradventure an ace before thee. Be it therefore as it is, well or ill, I have assayed, put my self upon the stage: I must abide the censure; I may not escape it. It is most true, stylus virum arguit, our style bewrayes us, and bhunters find their game by the trace, so is a mans genius descried by his works: multo melius ex sermone quam lineamentis, de moribus hominum judicamus; 'twas old Cato's rule. I have laid my self open (I know it) in this treatise, turned mine inside outward: I shall be censured, I doubt not; for, to say truth with Erasmus, nihil morosius hominum judiciis, there's nought so pievish as mens judgments: yet this is some comfort-ut palata, sic judicia, our censures are as various as our palats. Tres mihi convivæ prope dissentire videntur, Our writings are as so many dishes, our readers guests; our books like beauty; that which one admires, another rejects; so are we approved as mens fancies are inclined. Pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli. That which is most pleasing to one is amaracum sui, most harsh to another. Quot homines, tot sententiæ, so many men, so many minds: that which thou condemnest, he commends. Quod petis, id sane est invisum acidumque duobus. d e He respects matter; thou art wholly for words: he loves a loose and free stile; thou art all for neat composition, strong lines, hyperboles, allegories: he desires a fine frontispiece, enticing pictures, such as Hieron. Natali* the Jesuit hath cut to the Dominicals, to draw on the readers attention, which thou rejectest; that which one admires, another explodes as most absurd and ridiculous. If it be not point-blank to his humour, his method, his conceit, si quid forsan omissum, quod is animo conceperit, si quæ dictio, &c. if ought be omitted, or added, which he likes, or dislikes, thou art mancipium pauca lectionis, an ideot, an ass, nullus es, or plagiarius, a trifler, a trivant, thou art an idle fellow; or else 'tis a thing of meer industry, a collection without wit or invention, a very toy. Facilia sic putant omnes quæ jam facta, nec de salebris cogitant, ubi via strata; so men are valued, their labours vilified, by fellows of no worth themselves, as things of nought: who could not have done as much? unusquisque abundat sensu suo, every man abounds in his own sense; and Ut venatores feram e vestigio impresso, virum scriptiunculâ. Lips. c Hor. J Hor. Lipsius. whilest each particular party is so affected, how should one please all? h Quid dem? quid non dem? Renuis tu, quod jubet ille. i How shall I hope to express my self to each mans humor and conceit, or to give satisfaction to all? Some understand too little, some too much, qui similiter in legendos libros, atque in salutandos homines irruunt, non cogitantes quales, sed quibus vestibus induti sint, as Austin observes, not regarding what, but who write, orexin habet auctoris celebritas, not valuing the mettal, but the stamp that is upon it; cantharum aspiciunt, non quid in eo. If he be not rich, in great place, polite and brave, a great doctor, or full fraught with grand titles, though never so well qualified, he is a dunce. But as Baronius hath it of cardinal Caraffa's works, he is a meer hog that rejects any man for his poverty. Some are too partial, as friends to overween; others come with a prejudice to carp, vilifie, detract and scoff; (qui de me forsan quidquid est, omni contemptu contemptius judicant) some as bees for honey, some as spiders to gather poyson. What shall I do in this case? As a Dutch host, if you come to an inn in Germany, and dislike your fare, diet, lodging, &c. replyes in a surly tone, aliud tibi quæras diversorium, if you like not this, get you to another inn: I resolve, if you like not my writing, go read something else. I do not much esteem thy censure: take thy course: 'tis not as thou wilt, nor as I will: but when we have both done, that of Plinius Secundus to Trajan will prove true, Every mans witty labour takes not, except the matter, subject, occasion, and some commending favourite happen to it. If I be taxed, exploded by thee and some such, I shall haply be approved and commended by others, and so have been (expertus loquor); and may truly say with "Jovius in like case (absit verbo jactantia) heroum quorundam, pontificum, et virorum nobilium familiaritatem et amicitiam, gratasque gratias, et multorum bene laudatorum laudes sum inde promeritus: as I have been honoured by some worthy men, so have I been vilified by others, and shall be. At the first publishing of this book, (which P Probus of Persius satyrs) editum librum continuo mirari homines, atque avide deripere cœperunt, I may in some sort apply to this my work. The first, second, and third edition were suddenly gone, eagerly read, and, • Hor. m Fieri non potest, ut quod quisque cogitat, dicat unus. Muretus. Lib. 1. de ord. cap. 11. k Erasmus. Annal. tom. 3. ad annum 360. Est porcus ille qui sacerdotem ex amplitudine redituum sordide demetitur. Erasm. dial. Epist. 1. 6. Cujusque ingenium non statim emergit, nisi materiæ fautor, occasio, commendatorque contingat. n Præf. hist. • Laudari a laudato laus est. m P Vit. Persii. S r as I have said, not so much approved by some, as scornfully rejected by others. But it was Democritus his fortune, Idem admirationi et irrisioni habitus. "Twas Seneca's fate: that superintendant of wit, learning, judgement, ad stuporem doctus, the best of Greek and Latin writers, in Plutarch's opinion; that renowned corrector of vice, as Fabius terms him, and painful omniscious philosopher that writ so excellently and admirably well, could not please all parties, or escape censure. How is he vilified by Caligula, Agellius, Fabius, and Lipsius himself, his chief propugner? In eo pleraque perniciosa, saith the same Fabius: many childish tracts and sentences he hath, sermo illaboratus, too negligent often and remiss, as Agellius observes, oratio vulgaris et protrita, dicaces et inepta sententia, eruditio plebeia, an homely shallow writer as he is. In partibus spinas et fastidia, habet, saith * Lipsius; and, as in all his other works, so especially in his Epistles, alia in argutiis et ineptiis occupantur: intricatus alicubi, et parum compositus, sine copia rerum hoc fecit: he jumbles up many things together immethodically, after the Stoicks fashion: parum ordinavit, multa accumulavit, &c. If Seneca be thus lashed, and many famous men that I could name, what shall I expect? How shall I that am vix umbra tanti philosophi, hope to please? No man so absolute, Erasmus holds, to satisfie all, except antiquity, prescription, &c. set a bar. But as I have proved in Seneca, this will not alwayes take place, how shall I evade? 'Tis the common doom of all writers: I must (I say) abide it: I seek not applause; "Non ego ventosa venor suffragia plebis; again, non sum adeo informis: I would not be vilified; - laudatus abunde, Non fastiditus si tibi, lector, ero. t I fear good mens censures; and to their favourable acceptance I submit my labours, - et linguas mancipiorum Contemno- As the barking of a dog, I securely contemn those malicious and scurrile obloquies, flouts, calumnies of railers and detractors; I scorn the rest. What therefore I have said, pro tenuitate meá I have said. Minuit præsentia famam. Lipsius, Jadic. de Senecâ. r Lib. 10. Plurimum studii, multam rerum cognitionem, omnem studiorum materiam, &c. multa in eo probanda, multa admiranda. • Suet. Arena sine calce. Introduc. ad Sen. Judic. de Sen. Vix aliquis tam absolutus, ut alteri per omnia satisfaciat, nisi longa temporis præscriptio, semotâ judicandi libertate, religione quâdam animos occupârit. u Hor. Ep. 1. lib. 29. x Æque turpe frigide laudari ac insectanter vituperari. Phavorinus. A. Gel. lib. 19. c. 2. y Ovid. Trist. 1. eleg. 6. Juven. Sat. 5. |