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Non sai se l'arte, o il caso abbia fornita Cosi bell opra, o siano entrambi a parte ; Perocchè l'arte è tal che il caso imita,

El caso è tal che rassomiglia all' arte: E questo a quella, e quella a questo unita, Quanto può, quanto sa, mesce e comparte. Un la materia al bel lavor dispose,

L'altra meglio adornolla, e poi s' ascose.

METASTASIO.

Tous ceux qui ont quelquesfois pesé le grand travail et le labeur de l'imagination, l'ont jugé pour le plus grand qui se puisse trouver, et ont eu raison; d'autant que celuy lequel veut et desire en contenter plusieurs, doit aussi chercher des moyens differens, afin que ce qui est ennuyeux à l'un, l'autre le trouve doux et agreable; car de le donner à tous, il est impossible; veu, qu'entre trois personnes seulement que l'on aura conviées, il se trouvera une grande diference de gouts, ainsi que l'a dit Horace, luy dis-je qui l'avoit si bien experimenté : par ainsi il n'est pas possible qu'en une si longue histoire que celle dont je vay traictant, que je ne donne de la peine par la diversité des chapitres. Toutesfois si le jugement s'en faict par des personnes privees et libres de toute passion, ils diront que c'est le vray moyen d'entretenir les esprits curieux.

L'HISTOIRE DU CHEVALIER DU SOLEIL.

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In some passages you will observe me very satirical. Writing on such subjects I could not be otherwise. I can write nothing without aiming, at least, at usefulness. It were beneath my years to do it, and still more dishonourable to my religion. I know that a reformation of such abuses as I have censured is not to be expected from the efforts of an author; but to contemplate the world, its follies, its vices, its indifferences to duty, and its strenuous attachment to what is evil, and not to reprehend, were to approve it. From this charge, at least, I shall be clear; for I have neither tacitly, nor expressly flattered either its characters or its customs. COWPER.

Nemo eo sapientius desipuisse, nemo stultius sapuisse videtur.

Said of Cardan by I know not who.

Il y en a qui pensent que les lecteurs reçoivent peu d'instruction, quand on leur représente des choses qui n'ont pas esté achevées, qu'eux appellent œuvres imparfaites; mais je ne suis pas de leur advis; car quand quelque fait est descrit à la verité, et avec ses circonstances, encor qu'il ne soit parvenu qu'à mychemin, si peut-on tousjours en tirer du fruict. LA NOUE.

Authors, you know of greatest fame,
Thro' modesty suppress their name;
And would you wish me to reveal
What these superior wits conceal?
Forego the search, my curious friend,
And husband time to better end.

All my ambition is, I own,

To profit and to please unknown,
Like streams supplied from springs below
Which scatter blessings as they flow.

DR. COTTON.

Thus have I, as well as I could, gathered a posey of observations as they grew,-and if some rue and wormwood be found amongst the sweeter herbs, their wholesomeness will make amends for their bitterness.

ADAM LITtleton.

This worthy work in which of good examples are so

many,

This orchard of Alcinous, in which there wants not any Herb, tree, or fruit that may mans use for health or pleasure serve;

This plenteous horn of Acheloy, which justly doth de

serve

To bear the name of Treasury of Knowledge, I present To your good worships once again,-desiring you there

fore

To let your noble courtesy and favour countervail
My faults, where art or eloquence on my behalf doth fail,
For sure the mark whereat I shoot is neither wreaths of
bay,

Nor name of author, no, nor meed; but chiefly that it

may

Be liked well of you and all the wise and learned sort ; And next, that every wight that shall have pleasure for to sport

Him in this garden, may as well bear wholesome fruit

away

As only on the pleasant flowers his retchless senses stay. GOLDING.

Doubtless many thoughts have presented, and are still presenting themselves to my mind, which once I had no idea of. But these, in I believe every instance, are as much the growth of former rooted principles, as multiplied branches grow from one and the same main stem. Of such an inward vegetation I am always couscious; and I equally seem to myself to perceive the novelty of the fresh shoot, and its connexion with what had been produced before. ALEXANDER KNOX.

The extensive argument and miscellaneous nature of the work led him to declare his sentiments on a multitude of questions, on which he thought differently from other writers, and of course, to censure or confute their opinions. Whole bodies of men, as well as individuals of the highest reputation, were attacked by him, and his manner was to speak his sense of all with freedom and force. So that most writers, and even readers, had some ground of complaint against him. Not only the free-thinkers and unbelievers, against whom the tenour of his book was directed, but the heterodox of every denomination were treated without much ceremony, and of the orthodox themselves, some tenet or other, which till then they had held sacred, was discussed and reprobated by him. Straggling heresies, or embodied systems, made no difference with him; as they came in his way, no quarter was given to either, "his end and manner of writing," as Dr. Mid dleton truly observed, "being to pursue truth wherever he found it." HURD'S LIFE OF WARBURTON.

Thou art like my rappee, here, a most ridiculous superfluity; but a pinch of thee now and then is a more delicious treat. CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE.

Yea-but what am I?

A scholar, or a schoolmaster, or else some youth?

A lawyer, a student, or else a country clown?

A brumman, a basket-maker, or a baker of pies?

A flesh, or a fishmonger, or a sower of lies?

A louse, or a louser, a leek or a lark,

A dreamer, a drommell, a fire or a spark?

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Etsi verò, quæ in isto opere desiderentur, rectiùs forsan quàm quivis alius, perspiciam; et si meo plane voto standum fuisset, id, in tantâ, quæ hodie est librorum copiâ, vel plane suppressissem, vel in multos annos adhuc pressissem; tamen aliquid amicis, aliquid tempori dandum; et cum iis qui aliquid fructus ex eo sperant, illud communicandum putavi. Hunc itaque meum qualemcunque laborem, Lector candide, boni consule; quod te facilè facturum confido, si eum animum ad legendum attuleris, quem ego ad scribendum, veritatis nimirum aliisque inserviendi cupidum. SENNERTUS.

[Prefixed to Vol. VII. in the original Edition.] PRELUDE OF MOTTOES.

Well: we go on. MERIC CASAUBON.
Ventri utinam pax sit, sic variante cibo.
VENANTIUS FORTUNATUS.

I had forgot one half, I do protest,
And now am sent again to speak the rest. DRYDEN.
Well said, Master Doctor, well said;

By the mass we must have you into the pulpit.
LUSTY JUVENTUS.

Why this is quincy quarie pepper de watchet single goby, of all that ever I tasted! ROBERT GREENE.

Alonso. Prythee no more! thou dost talk nothing to me. Gonzalo. I did it to minister occasion to these gentlemen who are of such sensible and nimble lungs, that they always use to laugh at nothing.

TEMPEST.

Comme l'on voit, à l'ouvrir de la porte
D'un cabinet royal, maint beau tableau,
Mainte antiquaille, et tout ce que de beau
Le Portugais des Indes nous apporte;
Aussi deslors que l'homme qui medite,

Et est sçavant, commence de s'ouvrir,
Un grand thresor vient à se descouvrir,
Thresor caché au puits de Democrite.

QUATRAINS DE PIBRAC.

Cum enim infelicius nihil sit iis ingeniis, ut rectè J. Cæs. Scaliger censet, quæ mordicus sentiunt Majores nostros nihil ignorasse, mancipium alienarum opinionum nunquam esse volui. Contra nec me puduit ab aliis discere, et quædam ex iis in mea scripta transferre ; quod omnibus seculis ab omnibus viris doctis factitatum video, neminemque adhuc inventum existimo, qui omnia, quæ in publicum edidit, in suo cerebro nata esse gloriari potuerit. Invenient tamen, qui volent, in mcis aliqua, eaque à veritate non aliena, quæ in aliorum scriptis forsan non ita sunt obvia. Verùm omnibus placere impossibile; et, ut J. Cæs. Scaliger ait

Qui sevit, ab alto pluviam satis precatur ; At iter faciens imbribus imprecatur atris, Non sæpe Deus placet ; et tu placere credis? Ideoque invidorum obtrectationibus nihil motus, tomum seztum Doctoris in publicum edidi, ac septimum jam in

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I desire the unlearned readers not to be offended for that I have in some places intermixed Greek and Latin— (and other tongues) with the English. For I have an especial regard unto young scholars and students, unto whom it is not possible to be expressed what great utility, benefit, and knowledge doth redound, of conferring one strange language with another. Neither is it to be doubted, but that such as are towards the discipline of good literature in divers tongues, may of such doings as this pick out as much utility and furtherance of their studies, as the unlearned shall take pleasure and fruit of the English for their use. Whoso careth not for the Latin may pass it over, and satisfy himself with the English. Who passeth not on the Greek, may semblably pass it over, and make as though he see none such. There is in this behalf no man's labour lost but mine, and yet not that all lost neither, if my good zeal and honest intent to do good to all sorts, be in good part interpreted and accepted. NICHOLAS UDALL.

Truly for the Englishman to be offended with the admixtion of Latin, or the Latin-man to dislike the powdering of Greek, appeareth unto me a much like thing, as if at a feast with variety of good meats and drinks furnished, one that loveth to feed of a capon should take displeasure that another man hath appetite to a coney; or one that serveth his stomach with a partridge should be angry with another that hath a mind to a quail; or one that drinketh small beer, should be grieved with his next fellow for drinking ale or wine. NICHOLAS UDALL. If food and amusement are wanted for the body, what does he deserve who finds food and amusement for the mind? GNOMICA.

Mai voi,-seguitate il ragionamento del Dottore; et mostrateci, come havete bona memoria; che credo se saperete ritaccarlo ove lo lasciaste, non farete poco.

CASTIGLIONE.

If any complain of obscurity, they must consider, that in these matters it cometh no otherwise to pass than in sundry the works both of art and also of nature, where that which hath greatest force in the very things we see, The is, notwithstanding, itself oftentimes not seen. stateliness of horses, the goodliness of trees, when we behold them, delighteth the eye; but that foundation which beareth up the one, that root which ministereth unto the other nourishment and life, is in the bosom of the earth concealed; and if there be at any time occasion to search into it, such labour is then more necessary than pleasant, both to them which undertake it, and for the lookers on. HOOKER.

Alcuni dicono ch' io ho creduto formar me stesso, persuadendomi che le conditioni ch' io al Dottore attribuisco, tulle siano in me. A' questi tali non voglio già negar di non haver tentato tutto quello, ch' io vorrei che sapesse i Dottore; et penso che chi non havesse havuto qualche notitia delle cose che nel libro si trattano, per erudito che fosse stato, male haverebbe potuto scriverle: ma io non son tanto privo di giudicio in conoscere me stesso, che mi presuma saper tutto quello, che so desiderare.

CASTIGLIONE.

In a building, if it be large, there is much to be done in preparing and laying the foundation, before the walls appear above ground; much is doing within, when the work does not seem, perhaps, to advance without, and when it is considerably forward, yet being encumbered with scaffolds and rubbish, a bystander sees it at great disadvantage, and can form but an imperfect judgment of it. But all this while the architect himself, even from the laying of the first stone, conceives of it according to the plan and design he has formed; he prepares and adjusts the materials, disposing each in its proper time and place, and views it in idea as already finished. In due season it is compleated, but not in a day. The top-stone is fixed, and then, the scaffolds and rubbish being removed, it appears to others as he intended it should be. JOHN NEWTON.

Non si dea adunque l' uomo contentare di fare le cose buone, ma dee studiare di farle anco leggiadre. E non è altro leggiadria, che una cotale quasi luce, che risplende dalla convenevolezza delle cose, che sono ben composte, e ben divisate l' una con l'altra, e tutte insieme; senza la quel prísura eziandio il bene non è bello, e la bellezza non é piacevole. M. GIO. DELLA Casa, Galateo.

Pick out of mirth, like stones out of thy ground,
Profaneness, filthiness, abusiveness;

These are the scum with which coarse wits abound;
The few may spare them well.
HERBERT.

The wise, weighs each thing as it ought,
Mistakes no term, nor sentence wrests awry;
The fond will read awhile, but cares for nought,
Yet casts on each man's work a frowning eye.
This neither treats of matters low nor high,
But finds a meane, that each good meaning might
In all true means take Charity aright. CHURCHYARD.
While others fish with craft for great opinion,
I with great truth catch mere simplicity.
Whilst some with cunning gild their copper crowns,
With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare.
Fear not my truth; the moral of my wit
Is-plain and true;-there's all the reach of it.
SHAKSPEARE.

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