_Thucydides_ likewise wrote his storie, not at home in Grece, but
abrode in Italie, and therefore smelleth of a certaine outlandish
kinde of talke, strange to them of _Athens_, and diuerse from their
writing, that liued in Athens and Grece, and wrote the same
tyme that _Thucydides_ did, as _Lysias, Xenophon, Plato_, and
_Isocrates_, the purest and playnest writers, that euer wrote in any
tong, and best examples for any man to follow whether he
write, Latin, Italian, French, or English. _Thucydides_ also
semeth in his writing, not so much benefited by nature, as
holpen by Arte, and caried forth by desire, studie, labor, toyle,
and ouer great curiositie: who spent xxvii. yeares in writing his
eight bookes of his history. _Salust_ likewise wrote out of his
Dionys. // contrie, and followed the faultes of _Thuc._ to
Halycar. // moch: and boroweth of him som kinde of writing,
ad Q. / which the Latin tong can not well beare, as _Casus_
Tub. de // _nominatiuus_ in diuerse places _absolutè positus_, as in
Hist. Thuc. // that place of _Iugurth_, speaking _de leptitanis, itaque ab
imperatore facilè quæ petebant adepti, missæ sunt eò cohortes
ligurum
quatuor_. This thing in participles, vsed so oft in _Thucyd._ and other
Greeke authors to, may better be borne with all, but _Salust_ vseth
the same more strangelie and boldlie, as in thies wordes, _Multis
sibi quisque imperium petentibus_. I beleue, the best Grammarien in
England can scarse giue a good reule, why _quisque_ the nominatiue
case, without any verbe, is so thrust vp amongest so many
oblique cases. Some man perchance will smile, and laugh to
scorne this my writyng, and call it idle curiositie, thus to busie
my selfe in pickling about these small pointes of Grammer, not
fitte for my age, place and calling, to trifle in: I trust that man,
be he neuer so great in authoritie, neuer so wise and learned,
either, by other mens iudgement, or his owne opinion, will yet
thinke, that he is not greater in England, than _Tullie_ was at
_Rome_, not yet wiser, nor better learned than _Tullie_ was him
selfe, who, at the pitch of three score yeares, in the middes of
the broyle betwixt _Cæsar_ and _Pompeie_, whan he knew not,
whether to send wife & children, which way to go, where to
hide him selfe, yet, in an earnest letter, amongest his earnest
Ad Att. // councelles for those heuie tymes concerning both
Lib. 7. Epi- // the common state of his contrey, and his owne
stola. 3. // priuate great affaires he was neither vnmyndfull
nor ashamed to reason at large, and learne gladlie of _Atticus_,
_the ready way to the Latin tong._ 301
a lesse point of Grammer than these be, noted of me in _Salust_,
as, whether he should write, _ad Piræea, in Piræea_, or _in
Piræeum_, or _Piræeum sine præpositione:_ And in those heuie
tymes, he was so carefull to know this small point of Grammer,
that he addeth these wordes _Si hoc mihi zetema persolueris,
magna me molestia liberaris_. If _Tullie_, at that age, in that
authoritie, in that care for his contrey, in that ieoperdie for him
selfe, and extreme necessitie of hys dearest frendes, beyng also
the Prince of Eloquence hym selfe, was not ashamed to descend
to these low pointes of Grammer, in his owne naturall tong,
what should scholers do, yea what should any man do, if he do
thinke well doyng, better than ill doyng: And had rather be,
perfite than meane, sure than doutefull, to be what he should
be, in deed, not seeme what he is not, in opinion. He that
maketh perfitnes in the _Latin_ tong his marke, must cume to it
by choice & certaine knowledge, not stumble vpon it by chance
and doubtfull ignorance: And the right steppes to reach vnto it,
be these, linked thus orderlie together, aptnes of nature, loue of
learnyng, diligence in right order, constancie with pleasant
moderation, and alwayes to learne of them that be best, and so
shall you iudge as they that be wisest. And these be those
reules, which worthie Master _Cheke_ dyd impart vnto me con-
cernyng _Salust_, and the right iudgement of the _Latin_ tong.
¶ _Cæsar._
_Cæsar_ for that litle of him, that is left vnto vs, is like the
halfe face of a _Venus_, the other part of the head beyng hidden,
the bodie and the rest of the members vnbegon, yet so
excellentlie done by _Apelles_, as all men may stand still to mase
and muse vpon it, and no man step forth with any hope to
performe the like.
His seuen bookes _de bello Gallico_, and three _de bello Ciuili_, be
written, so wiselie for the matter, so eloquentlie for the tong,
that neither his greatest enemies could euer finde the least note
of parcialitie in him (a meruelous wisdome of a man, namely
writyng of his owne doynges) nor yet the best iudegers of the
_Latin_ tong, nor the most enuious lookers vpon other mens
writynges, can say any other, but all things be most perfitelie
done by him.