fautor: patun, favorer

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absoluta. I do not desire to be equal to those that went before; but to have my reason examined with theirs, and so much faith to be given them, or me, as those shall evict. I am neither author nor fautor of any sect. I will have no man addict himself to me; but if I have anything right, defend it as Truth's, not mine, save as it conduceth to a common good. It profits not me to have any man fence or fight for me, to flourish, or take a side. Stand for truth, and 'tis enough: Non mihi cedendum, 10 sed veritate.

Scientia liberales non vulgi sunt. Arts that respect the mind were ever reputed nobler than those that serve the body, though we less can be without them, as tillage, spinning, weaving, building, etc., without which we could 15 scarce sustain life a day. But these were the works of every hand; the other of the brain only, and those the most generous and exalted wits and spirits, that cannot rest or acquiesce. The mind of man is still fed with labor: Opere pascitur.

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There is a more secret cause, and the power of liberal studies lies more hid than that it can be wrought out by profane wits. It is not every man's way to hit. There are men, I confess, that set the caract and value upon things as they love them; but science is not every man's mistress. 25 It is as great a spite to be praised in the wrong place, and by a wrong person, as can be done to a noble nature.

Honesta ambitio. - If divers men seek fame or honor by divers ways, so both be honest, neither is to be blamed ; but they that seek immortality are not only worthy of love, 30 but of praise.

Maritus improbus.

- He hath a delicate wife, a fair fortune, a family to go to be welcome; yet he had rather be drunk with mine host and the fiddlers of such a town, than go home.

Deploratis facilis descensus Averni. — Many might go to heaven with half the labor they go to hell, if they would venture their industry the right way; but "The 5 devil take all!" quoth he that was choked in the milldam, with his four last words in his mouth.

travels a footman or a post out of the way.

Prodigo nummi nauci. - Bags of money to a prodigal 10 person are the same that cherry-stones are with some boys, and so thrown away.

Munda et sordida. - A woman, the more curious she is about her face is commonly the more careless about her house.

Debitum deploratum.

Of this spilt water there is a little to be gathered up: it is a desperate debt.

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Latro sesquipedalis. - The thief that had a longing at the gallows to commit one robbery more before he was hanged. And like the German lord, when he went out 20 of Newgate into the cart, took order to have his arms set up in his last herborough: said he was taken and committed upon suspicion of treason, no witness appearing against him; but the judges entertained him most civilly, discoursed with him, offered him the courtesy of the 25 rack; but he confessed, etc.

Calumniæ fructus. I am beholden to calumny, that she hath so endeavored and taken pains to belie me. It shall make me set a surer guard on myself, and keep a better watch upon my actions.

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A tedious person is one a man would leap a steeple from, gallop down any steep hill to avoid him; forsake his meat, sleep, nature itself, with all her benefits, to shun him. A mere impertinent; one that touched neither heaven nor earth in his discourse. He opened 35

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an entry into a fair room, but shut it again presently. I spake to him of garlic, he answered asparagus; consulted him of marriage, he tells me of hanging, as if they went by one and the same destiny.

Bellum scribentium. What a sight it is to see writers committed together by the ears for ceremonies, syllables, points, colons, commas, hyphens, and the like, fighting as for their fires and their altars; and angry that none are frighted at their noises and loud brayings under their asses' skins. There is hope of getting a fortune without digging in these quarries. Sed meliore in omne ingenio animoque quam fortuna sum usus.

Pingue solum lassat; sed juvat ipse labor.

Wits made out

Differentia inter doctos et sciolos. 15 their several expeditions then for the discovery of truth, to find out great and profitable knowledges; had their several instruments for the disquisition of arts. Now there are certain scioli or smatterers that are busy in the skirts and outsides of learning, and have scarce anything 20 of solid literature to commend them. They may have some edging or trimming of a scholar, a welt or so; but it is no more.

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Impostorum fucus. Imposture is a specious thing, yet never worse than when it feigns to be best, and to none discovered sooner than the simplest. For truth and goodness are plain and open; but imposture is ever ashamed of the light.

Icuncularum motio. A puppet-play must be shadowed and seen in the dark; for draw the curtain, et sor30 det gesticulatio.

Principes et administri. -There is a great difference in the understanding of some princes, as in the quality of their ministers about them. Some would dress their masters in gold, pearl, and all true jewels of majesty;

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others furnish them with feathers, bells, and ribbons, and are therefore esteemed the fitter servants. But they are ever good men that must make good the times; if the men be naught, the times will be such. Finis exspectandus est in unoquoque hominum; animali ad mutationem 5 promptissimo.

Scitum Hispanicum. It is a quick saying with the Spaniards, Artes inter hæredes non dividi. Yet these have inherited their fathers' lying, and they brag of it. He is a narrow-minded man that affects a triumph in any 10 glorious study; but to triumph in a lie, and a lie themselves have forged, is frontless. Folly often goes beyond her bounds; but impudence knows none.

Non nova res livor. Envy is no new thing, nor was it born only in our times. The ages past have brought it 15 forth, and the coming ages will. So long as there are men fit for it, quorum odium virtute relicta placet, it will never be wanting. It is a barbarous envy, to take from those men's virtues which, because thou canst not arrive at, thou impotently despairest to imitate. Is it a crime in 20 me that I know that which others had not yet known but from me? or that I am the author of many things which never would have come in thy thought but that I taught them? It is a new but a foolish way you have found out, that whom you cannot equal or come near in doing, you 25 would destroy or ruin with evil speaking; as if you had bound both your wits and natures prentices to slander, and then came forth the best artificers when you could form the foulest calumnies.

Nil gratius protervo lib[ro]. Indeed nothing is of 30 more credit or request now than a petulant paper, or scoffing verses; and it is but convenient to the times and manners we live with, to have then the worst writings and studies flourish when the best begin to be despised. Ill

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arts begin where good end. The time was when men would learn and study good things, not envy those that had them. Then men were had in price for learning; now letters only make men vile. Jam literæ sordent. He is upbraidingly called a poet, as if it were a most contemptible nick-name: but the professors, indeed, have made the learning cheap - railing and tinkling_rimers, whose writings the vulgar more greedily read, as being taken with the scurrility and petulancy of such wits. He shall not have a reader now unless he jeer and lie. Pastus hodier[ni] ingen[i]. It is the food of men's natures; the diet of the times; gallants cannot sleep else. The writer must lie and the gentle reader rests happy to hear the worthiest works misinterpreted, the clearest actions obscured, the innocentest life traduced: and in such a licence of lying, a field so fruitful of slanders, how can there be matter wanting to his laughter? Hence comes the epidemical infection; for how can they escape the contagion of the writings, whom the virulency of the cal umnies hath not staved off from reading?

Nothing doth more invite a greedy reader than an unlooked-for subject. And what more unlooked-for than to see a person of an unblamed life made ridiculous or odious by the artifice of lying? Sed seculi morbus. But it 25 is the disease of the age; and no wonder if the world,

growing old, begin to be infirm: old age itself is a disease.

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It is long since the sick world began to dote and talk idly would she had but doted still! but her dotage is now broke forth into a madness, and become a mere 30 frenzy.

Alastoris malitia.—This Alastor, who hath left nothing unsearched or unassailed by his impudent and licentious lying in his aguish writings (for he was in his cold quaking fit all the while), what hath he done more than a 35 troublesome base cur? barked and made a noise afar off;