bring you forth the Place of Tully; lay them together, compare the one with the other; commend his good Choice, and right placing of Words; fhew his Faults gently, but blame them not over fharply; for of fuch Miffings, gently admonished of, proceedeth glad and good Heed-taking; of good Heed-taking, fpringeth chiefly Knowledge, which after groweth to Perfectnefs, if this Order be diligently ufed by the Scholar, and gently handled by the Mafter. For here fhall all the hard Points of Grammar, both easily, and furely be learned up; which Scholars in common Schools, by making of Latines, be groping at with Care, and Fear, and yet in many Years they fcarce can reach unto them. I remember, when I was young, in the North they went to the Grammar School little Children; they came from thence great Lubbers, always learning, and little profiting; learning without Book every thing, understanding within the Book lit tle or nothing. Their whole Knowledge by learning without the Book, was tied only to their Tongue and Lips, and never afcended up to the Brain and Head; and therefore was foon fpit out of the Mouth again. They were as Men always going, but ever out of the Way. And why? For their whole Labour, or rather great Toil without Order, was even vain Idleness. without Profit. Indeed they took great Pains about Learning, but employed small Labour in Learning; when by this Way prescribed in this Book, being ftraight, plain, and eafy, the Scholar is always labouring with Pleafure, and ever going right on forward with Profit. Always labouring I fay; for, or he have conftrued, parfed, twice tranflated over by good Advisement, marked out his fix Points by skilful Judgment, he fhall have neceffary Occafion, to read over every Lecture a dozen times at the leaft. Which because he fhall do always in Order, he fhall do it always with Pleasure, And Pleafuré allureth Love, Love bath lust to Labour, Labour always obtaineth his Purpofe; as moft truly both Ariftotle in his Rhetorick, Rhet.. and Oedipus in Sophocles do teach, faying, In Oe- πάν γὰρ ἐκπονουμενον άλισκε, &c. And this of dip. Tyr. reading, is the very right following of that good Counsel, (*) which Pliny doth give Epift. lib. to his Friend Fufcus, faying, Multum, non 7. Ep. 9. multa. But to my Purpofe again: وو When by this diligent, and fpeedy reading over those forenamed good Books of Tully, Terence, Cafar, and Livy, and by this fecond kind of tranflating out of your Englifh, Time fhall breed Skill, and Ufe fhall bring Perfection: Then ye may try, if ye will, your Scholar with the third kind of Tranflation: although the two firft Ways, by mine Opinion, be not only fufficient of themfelves, but alfo furer, both for the Mafter's Teaching, and Scholar's Learning, than this third Way is ; which is thus: (*) The Sentence in Pliny's Epiftles here referr'd to, is this: Tu. memineris, fui cujufq; generis auctores diligenter eligere. Aiunt enim, multùm legendum effe, non multa. Write Write you in English fome Letter, as it were from him to his Father, or to fome other Friend, naturally, according to the Difpofition of the Child; or fome Tale, or Fable, or plain Narration, according as Aphthonius beginneth his Exercises of Learning; and let him tranflate it into Latin again, abiding in fuch Place, where no other Scholar may prompt him. But yet, ufe you your felf fuch Difcretion for Choice therein, as the Matter may be within the Compafs, both for Words and Sentences, of his former Learning and Reading. And now take Heed, left your Scholar do not better in fome Point, than you your felf, except ye have been diligently exercised in these kinds of Translating before. I had once a Proof hereof, tried by good Experience, by a dear Friend of mine, when I came firft from Cambridge to ferve the Queen's Majefty, then Lady Elizabeth, lying at worthy Sir Antony Denys in Chefton. John Whitney, a young Gentleman, was my Bedfellow; who willing by good Nature, and provoked by mine Advice, began to learn the Latin Tongue, after the Order declared in this Book. We began after Christmas; I read unto him Tully de Amicitia, which he did every Day twice tranflate, out of Latin into English, and out of English into Latin again. About St. Laurence Tide after, to prove how he profited, I did chufe out Torquatus Talk de Amicitia, in the latter End of the first Book de Finibus; because that Place was the fame in Matter, like in Words Words and Phrafes, nigh to the Form and Falltion of Sentences, as he had learned before in de Amicitia. I did tranflate it my self into plain English, and gave it him to turn into Latin; which he did fo choicely, fo orderly, fo without any great Mifs in the hardest Points of Grammar, that fome in feven Year in Grammar Schools, yea, and fome in the University too, cannot do half fo well. This wor thy young Gentleman, to my greatest Grief, to the great Lamentation of that whole Houfe, and specially to that most noble Lady, now Queen Elizabeth_her felf, departed within few Days out of this World. And if in any Caufe, a Man may without Offence of God fpeak fomewhat ungodly, furely it was fome Grief unto me, to fee him hie fo haftily to God, as he did. A Court full of fuch young Gentlemen, were rather a Paradife, than a Court upon Earth. And though I had never poetical Head, to make any Verse in any Tongue; yet either Love, or Sorrow, or both, did wring out of me then, certain careful Thoughts of my good Will towards him; which in my Mourning for him fell forth more by Chance, than either by Skill or Ufe, into this kind of miforderly Metre. Mine own John Whitney, now farewell, No Death, but parting for a while, Therefore Therefore my Heart ceafe Sighs and Sobs, Yet when I think upon fuch Gifts Young Tears to yield fuch Fruit in Court, His Life be led, Chrift's Lore to learn, He read to know, and knew to live, So fast a Friend, fo Foe to few, I may well wish, but fcarcely hope. The greater Joy his Life to me, His Life fo good, his Death better, Thus God the good, while they be good, That we should mend our finful Life, Thus |