learning is gotten in a sommer heat, and washed away, with
a Christmas snow againe: who neuerthelesse, are lesse to be
blamed, than those blind bussardes, who in late yeares, of
wilfull maliciousnes, would neyther learne themselues, nor
could teach others, any thing at all.
_Paraphrasis_ hath done lesse hurt to learning, than _Epitome_:
for no _Paraphrasis_, though there be many, shall neuer take
away _Dauids_ Psalter. _Erasmus Paraphrasis_ being neuer so
good, shall neuer banishe the new Testament. And in an
other schole, the _Paraphrasis_ of _Brocardus_, or _Sambucus_, shal
neuer take _Aristotles_ Rhetoricke, nor _Horace de Arte Poetica_, out
of learned mens handes.
But, as concerning a schole _Epitome_, he that wold haue an
example of it, let him read _Lucian_ peri kallous which is the
verie _Epitome_ of _Isocrates_ oration _de laudibus Helenæ_,
whereby
he may learne, at the least, this wise lesson, that a man ought
to beware, to be ouer bold, in altering an excellent mans
worke.
Neuertheles, some kinde of _Epitome_ may be vsed, by men
of skilful iudgement, to the great proffet also of others. As if
a wise man would take _Halles_ Cronicle, where moch good
matter is quite marde with Indenture Englishe, and first change,
strange and inkhorne tearmes into proper, and commonlie vsed
wordes: next, specially to wede out that, that is superfluous
and idle, not onelie where wordes be vainlie heaped one vpon
an other, but also where many sentences, of one meaning, be
clowted vp together as though _M. Hall_ had bene, not writing
the storie of England, but varying a sentence in Hitching
schole: surelie a wise learned man, by this way of _Epitome_, in
cutting away wordes and sentences, and diminishing nothing at
all of the matter, shold leaue to mens vse, a storie, halfe as
moch as it was in quantitie, but twise as good as it was, both
for pleasure and also commoditie.
An other kinde of _Epitome_ may be vsed likewise very well,
to moch proffet. Som man either by lustines of nature, or
brought by ill teaching, to a wrong iudgement, is ouer full of
words, sentences, & matter, & yet all his words be proper, apt
& well chosen: all his sentences be rownd and trimlie framed:
his whole matter grownded vpon good reason, & stuffed with
full arguments, for his intent & purpose. Yet when his talke
_the ready way to the Latin tong._ 261
shalbe heard, or his writing be red, of soch one, as is, either of
my two dearest frendes, _M. Haddon_ at home, or _Iohn Sturmius_
in Germanie, that _Nimium_ in him, which fooles and vnlearned
will most commend, shall eyther of thies two, bite his lippe, or
shake his heade at it.
This fulnes as it is not to be misliked in a yong man, so in
farder aige, in greater skill, and weightier affaires, it is to be
temperated, or else discretion and iudgement shall seeme to be
wanting in him. But if his stile be still ouer rancke and lustie,
as some men being neuer so old and spent by yeares, will still
be full of youthfull conditions as was Syr _F. Bryan_, and euer-
more wold haue bene: soch a rancke and full writer, must vse,
if he will do wiselie the exercise of a verie good kinde of
_Epitome_, and do, as certaine wise men do, that be ouer fat and
fleshie: who leauing their owne full and plentifull table, go to
soiorne abrode from home for a while, at the temperate diet of
some sober man: and so by litle and litle, cut away the
grosnesse that is in them. As for an example: If _Osorius_
would leaue of his lustines in striuing against _S. Austen_, and his
ouer rancke rayling against poore _Luther_, and the troth of Gods
doctrine, and giue his whole studie, not to write any thing of
his owne for a while, but to translate _Demosthenes_, with so straite,
fast, & temperate a style in latine, as he is in Greeke, he would
becume so perfit & pure a writer, I beleue, as hath bene fewe
or none sence _Ciceroes_ dayes: And so, by doing himself and all
learned moch good, do others lesse harme, & Christes doctrine
lesse iniury, than he doth: & with all, wyn vnto himselfe many
worthy frends, who agreing with him gladly, in y^e loue &
liking of excellent learning, are sorie to see so worthie a witte,
so rare eloquence, wholie spent and consumed, in striuing with
God and good men.
Emonges the rest, no man doth lament him more than
I, not onelie for the excellent learning that I see in him, but
also bicause there hath passed priuatelie betwixt him and me,
sure tokens of moch good will, and frendlie opinion, the one
toward the other. And surelie the distance betwixt London and
Lysbon, should not stoppe, any kinde of frendlie dewtie, that I
could, eyther shew to him, or do to his, if the greatest matter
of all did not in certeyne pointes, separate our myndes.
And yet for my parte, both toward him, and diuerse others