something like theirs, which hath an of a vessel lasts, and the tinct the wool authority above their own. Nay, sometimes it is the reward of a man's study, the praise of quoting another man fitly: and though a man be more prone, and able for one kind of writing than another, yet he must exercise all. For as in an instrument, so in style, there must be a harmony and consent of parts.

first receives; therefore a master should temper his own powers, and descend to the other's infirmity. If you pour a glut of water upon a bottle, it receives little of it; but with a funnell, and by degrees, you shall fill many of them, and spill little of your own; to their capacity they will all receive and be full. And as it is fit to read the best authors to youth first, so let them be of the openest and clearest.* As Livy before Sallust, Sidney before Donne: and beware of letting them taste Gower, or Chaucer at first, lest falling too much in love with antiquity, and not apprehending the weight, they grow rough and barren in language only. When their judgments are firm, and out of danger, let them read both the old and the new; but no less take heed that their new flowers and sweetness do not as much corrupt as the others' dryness and squalor, if they choose not carefully. Spenser, in affecting the ancients, writ no language; yet I would have him read for his matter, but as Virgil read Ennius. The reading of Homer and Virgil is counselled by Quintilian, as the best way of informing youth and confirming man. For, besides that the mind is raised with the height and sublimity of such a verse, it takes spirit from the greatness of the matter, and is tincted with the best things. Tragic and Lyric poetry is good too, and Comic with the best, if the manners of the reader be once in safety. In the Greek poets, as also in Plautus, we shall see the economy and disposition of poems better observed than in Terence; and the latter, who thought the sole grace and virtue of their fable the sticking in of sentences, as ours do the forcing in of jests.

Præcipiendi modi.-I take this labour in teaching others, that they should not be always to be taught, and I would bring my precepts into practice: for rules are ever of less force and value than experiments; yet with this purpose, rather to shew the right way to those that come after, than to detect any that have slipt before by error, and I hope it will be more profitable. For men do more willingly listen, and with more favour, to precept, than reprehension. Among divers opinions of an art, and most of them contrary in themselves, it is hard to make election; and therefore though a man cannot invent new things after so many, he may do a welcome work yet to help posterity to judge rightly of the old. But arts and precepts avail nothing, except nature be beneficial and aiding. And therefore these things are no more written to a dull disposition, than rules of husbandry to a barren soil. No precepts will profit a fool, no more than beauty will the blind, or music the deaf. As we should take care that our style in writing be neither dry nor empty; we should look again it be not winding, or wanton with far-fetched descriptions; either is a vice. But that is worse which proceeds out of want, than that which riots out of plenty. The remedy of fruitfulness is easy, but no labour will help the contrary; I will like and praise some things in a young writer; which yet, if he continue in, I cannot but justly hate him for the same. There is a time to be given all things for maturity, and that even your country-husbandman can teach; who to a young plant will not put the proyning-knife, because it seems to fear the iron, as not able to admit the scar. No more would tell a green writer all his faults, lest I should make him grieve and faint, and at last despair. For nothing doth more hurt than to make him so afraid of all things, as he can endeavour nothing. Therefore youth ought to be instructed betimes, and * Livy. Sallust. Sidney. Donne. Gower. in the best things; for we hold those Chaucer. Spenser. Virgil. Ennius. Homer. longest we take soonest: as the first scent Quintilian. Plautus. Terence.

natio in Italiam. We should not protect Fals. querel. fugiend.-Platonis peregriour sloth with the patronage of difficulty. It is a false quarrel against nature, that she most part of mankind are inclined by her helps understanding but in a few, when the thither, if they would take the pains; no less than birds to fly, horses to run, &c., which if they lose, it is through their own sluggishness, and by that means become her prodigies, not her children. I confess nature in children is more patient of laof the pain, the judgment of the labour is bour in study, than in age; for the sense

writing hath wracked me beyond my patience. The reason why a poet is said 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. If a man should prosecute as much as could be said of everything, his work would find no end.

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 not content with the learning that Athens could give him, but sailed into Italy, for Pythagoras' knowledge and yet not thinking himself sufficiently informed, went into Egypt, to the priests, and learned their mysteries. He laboured, so must we. Many things may be learned together, and performed in one point of time; as musicians exercise their memory, their voice, their fingers, and sometimes their head and feet at once. -Metaphora.-Speech is the only benefit 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 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 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 marle, lime, and compost? plant hop-gardens, prune trees, look to beehives, rear sheep, and all other cattle at once? It is easier to do many things and continue, than to do one thing long.

De orationis dignitate.—Ενκυκλοπαίδεια.

man hath to express his excellency of mind above other creatures. It is the Instru

ment of Society; therefore Mercury, who is the president of language, is called Deorum hominumque interpres. In all speech, soul. The sense is, as the life and soul of words and sense are as the body and the dead. Sense is wrought out of experience, language, without which all words are the knowledge of human life and actions, or of the liberal arts, which the Greeks called Εγκυκλοπαιδειαν. 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 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 sheep-cote, some of the pulpit, some of the bar, &c. And herein is seen their elegance and propriety, when their just strength and nature, by way of we use them fitly, and draw them forth to translation or metaphor. But in this transPræcept. element.—It is not the passing temerè nihil transfertur à prudenti), or lation we must only serve necessity (Nam through these learnings that hurts us, but the dwelling and sticking about them. To commodity, which is a kind of necessity: descend to those extreme anxieties and that is, when we either absolutely want a foolish cavils of grammarians, is able to word to express by, and that is necessity; break a wit in pieces, being a work of or when we have not so fit a word, and manifold misery and vainness, to be ele- that is commodity; as when we avoid mentarii senes. Yet even letters are as it loss by it, and escape obscureness,1 and were the bank of words, and restore them-gain in the grace and property which helps selves to an author, as the pawns of lan- significance. Metaphors far-fet hinder guage: 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 use of things, many writers perplex their readers and hearers 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

to be understood; and affected, lose their grace. Or when the person fetcheth his translations from a wrong place. As if a privy-counsellor 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 mathe

Poet. Quintil. 1. 8. Ludov. Vives, p. 6 and 7.
* Julius Cæsar. Of words, see Hor. de Art.

[I have ventured to substitute obscureness for the obsceneness of the folio and Gifford.-F. C.]

matics, or a divine from a bawdy-house, or taverns; or a gentleman of Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, or the Midland, should fetch all the illustrations to his country neighbours from shipping, and tell them of the main-sheet and the boulin. Metaphors are thus many times deformed, as in him that said, Castratam morte Africani rempublicam. And another, Stercus curie Glauciam. And Cand 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 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.

cerism.

Consuetudo.-Perspicuitas, Venustas.Authoritas.-Virgil.-Lucretius.- Chau- Paronomasia. Custom is the most certain mistress of language, as the public stamp makes the current money. But we must not be too frequent with the mint, every day coining, nor fetch words from the extreme and utmost ages; since the chief virtue of a style is perspicuity, and nothing so vicious in it as to need an interpreter. Words borrowed of antiquity do lend a kind of majesty to style, 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 grace-like newness. But the eldest of the present, and newest of the past language, 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, which is the consent of the learned; as custom of life, which is the consent of the good. Virgil was most loving 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 were better expunged and banished. Some words are to be culled out for ornament and colour, as we gather flowers to strow

1 [The folio and Gifford read newness; a palpable misprint in the former case.-F. C.]

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 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 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 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 it, is of no less praise, when the argument Either of them hath their fitdoth ask it.

ness in the place. A good man always profits by his endeavour, 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 succinct style is that, where you can take away nothing without loss, and that loss to be manifest.

De Stylo.-Tacitus.-The Laconic.Suetonius.-Seneca, and Fabianus.-The brief style is that which expresseth much in little. The concise style, which expresseth not enough, 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 connexion; as in stones well squared, which will rise strong a great way without mortar.

Periodi.-Obscuritas offundit tenebras. Superlatio.-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 hearer's or reader's want of understanding, I am not to answer for them, no more than for their not listening or marking; I must neither find them ears nor mind. But a man cannot put a word so in sense, but something about it will illustrate it, if the writer understand

himself. For order helps much to perspicuity, as confusion hurts. Rectitudo lucem adfert; obliquitas et circumductio offuscat. We should therefore speak what we can the nearest way, so as we keep our gait, not leap; for too short may as well be not let into the memory, as too long not kept in. Whatsoever loseth the grace and clearness, converts into a riddle: the obscurity is marked, but not the value. That perisheth, and is passed by, like the pearl in the fable. Our style should be like a skein of silk, to be carried and found by the right thread, not ravelled and perplexed; then all is a knot, a heap. There are words that do as much raise a style, as others can depress it. Superlation and over-muchness amplifies. It may be above faith, but never above a mean. It was ridiculous in Cestius, when he said of Alexander :

Fremit oceanus, quasi indignetur, quòd terras relinquas;

But propitiously from Virgil:

Credas innare revulsas
Cycladas.

we

Oratio imago animi.-Language most shews a man: Speak, that I may see thee. It springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parent of it, the mind. No glass renders a man's form or likeness so true as his speech. Nay, it is likened to a man: and as we consider, feature and composition in a man, so words in language; in the greatness, aptness, sound, structure, and harmony of it.

Structura et statura, sublimis, humilis,

pumila.-Some men are tall and big, so some language is high and great. Then the words are chosen, their sound ample, the composition full, the absolution plenteous, and poured out all grave, sinewy, and strong. Some are little, and dwarfs ; so of speech it is humble and low, the words poor and flat, the members and periods thin and weak, without knitting or

number.

Mediocris plana et placida.-The middle are of a just stature. There the language is plain and pleasing; even without stopping, round without swelling: all welltorned, composed, elegant, and accurate.

Vitiosa oratio, vasta-tumens-enormis

is vast and gaping, swelling and irregular: when it contends to be high, full of rock, mountain, and pointedness: as it affects to be low, it is abject and creeps, full of bogs and holes. And according to their subject these styles vary, and lose their names: for that which is high and lofty, declaring excellent matter, becomes vast and tumorous, speaking of petty and inferior things: so that which was even and apt in a mean and plain subject, will appear most poor and humble in a high argument. Would of state in a flat cap, with his trunk hose, you not laugh to meet a great counsellor and a hobby-horse cloak, his gloves under his girdle, and yond haberdasher in a velvet gown, furred with sables? There is a certain latitude in these things, by which we find the degrees.

He doth not say it was so, but seemed to be so. Although it be somewhat incredible, that is excused before it be spoken.--affectata-abjecta.-The vicious language But there are hyperboles which will become one language, that will by no means admit another. As Eos esse P. R. exercitus, qui cælum possint perrumpere,* who would say this with us but a madman? Therefore we must consider in every tongue what is used, what received. Quintilian warns us, that in no kind of translation, or metaphor, or allegory, we make a turn from what we began; as if we fetch the original of our metaphor from sea and billows, we end not in flames and ashes: it is a most foul inconsequence. Neither must draw out our allegory too long, lest either we make ourselves obscure, or fall into affectation, which is childish. But why do men depart at all from the right and natural ways of speaking? sometimes for necessity, when we are driven, or think it fitter to speak that in obscure words, or by circumstance, which uttered plainly Figura.-The next thing to the stature, would offend the hearers. Or to avoid is the figure and feature in language; that obscureness, or sometimes for pleasure is, whether it be round and straight, which and variety, as travellers turn out of the highway, drawn either by the commodity of a foot-path, or the delicacy or freshness of the fields. And all this is called ασχηματισμένη, Οor figured language.

* Cæsar. Comment. circa fin.

consists of short and succinct periods, numerous and polished, or square and firm, which is to have equal and strong parts everywhere answerable and weighed.

Cutis sive Cortex. Compositio. The third is the skin and coat, which rests in the well-joining, cementing, and coagmen.

tation of words; when as it is smooth, gentle, and sweet, like a table upon which you may run your finger without rubs, and your nail cannot find a joint; not horrid, rough, wrinkled, gaping, or chapt: after these, the flesh, blood, and bones come in question.

Carnosa

adipata-redundans.- We say it is a fleshy style, when there is much periphrasis and circuit of words; and when with more than enough, it grows fat and corpulent; arvina orationis, full of suet and tallow. It hath blood and juice when the words are proper and apt, their sound sweet, and the phrase neat and picked. Oratio uncta, et benè pasta. But where there is redundancy, both the blood and juice are faulty and vicious: Redundat sanguine, quia multò plus dicit, quàm necesse est. Juice in language is somewhat less than blood; for if the words be but becoming and signifying, and the sense gentle, there is juice; but where that wanteth, the language is thin, flagging, poor, starved, scarce covering the bone,

and shews like stones in a sack.

Fejuna, macilenta, strigosa.—Ossea, et nervosa. Some men, to avoid redundancy, run into that; and while they strive to have no ill blood or juice, they lose their good. There be some styles again, that have not less blood, but less flesh and corpulence. These are bony and sinewy; Ossa habent,

et nervos.

falsehood, truth grows in request. We must not go about, like men anguished and perplexed, for vicious affectation of praise: but calmly study the separation of opinions, find the errors have intervened, awake antiquity, call former times into question; but make no parties with the present, nor follow any fierce undertakers, mingle no matter of doubtful credit with the simplicity of truth, but gently stir the mould about the root of the question, and avoid all digladiations, facility of credit, or superstitious simplicity, seek the consonancy and concatenation of truth; stoop only to point of necessity, and what leads to convenience. Then make exact animadversion where style hath degenerated, where flourished and thrived in choiceness of phrase, round and clean composition of sentence, sweet falling of the clause, varying an illustration by tropes and figures, weight of matter, worth of subject, soundness of argument, life of invention, and depth of judgment. This is monte potiri, to get the hill; for no perfect discovery can be made upon a flat or a level.

De optimo scriptore.-Cicero.-Now that I have informed you in the knowing these things, let me lead you by the hand a little farther, in the direction of the use, and make you an able writer by practice. The conceits of the mind are pictures of things, and the tongue is the interpreter of those pictures. The order of God's creatures in themselves is not only admirable and gloNota domini Sti. Albani de doctrin. in- | rious, but eloquent: then he who could aptemper.--Dictator.-Aristoteles. It was prehend the consequence of things in their well noted by the late lord St. Alban, that truth, and utter his apprehensions as truly, the study of words is the first distemper of were the best writer or speaker. Therefore learning; vain matter the second; and a Cicero said much, when he said, Dicere third distemper is deceit, or the likeness of rectè nemo potest, nisi qui prudenter intruth; imposture held up by credulity. telligit. The shame of speaking unskilAll these are the cobwebs of learning, and fully were small, if the tongue only thereby to let them grow in us, is either sluttish, or were disgraced; but as the image of a King, foolish. Nothing is more ridiculous than in his Seal ill represented, is not so much a to make an author a dictator, as the schools blemish to the wax, or the signet that have done Aristotle. The damage is in-sealed it, as to the prince it representeth; so finite knowledge receives by it; for to many things a man should owe but a temporary belief, and a suspension of his own judgment, not an absolute resignation of himself, or a perpetual captivity. Let Aristotle and others have their dues; but if we can make farther Discoveries of truth and fitness than they, why are we envied? Let us beware, while we strive to add, we do not diminish, or deface; we may improve, but not augment. By discrediting

disordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. Neither can his mind be thought to be in tune, whose words do jar; nor his reason in frame, whose sentence is preposterous; nor his elocution clear and perfect, whose utterance breaks itself into fragments and uncertainties. Were it not a dishonour to a mighty prince, to have the majesty of his