I have heard some with deep sighs lament the lost lines of Cicero;
others with as many groans deplore the combustion of the library of
Alexandria. For my own part, I think there be too many in the world, and
could with patience behold the urn and ashes of the Vatican, could I,
with a few others, recover the perished leaves of Solomon. I would not
omit a copy of _Enoch's Pillars_, had they many nearer authors than
Josephus, or did not relish somewhat of the fable. Some men have
written more than others have spoken. Pineda quotes more authors in one
work than are necessary in a whole world. Of those three great
inventions in Germany, there are two which are not without their
incommodities, and 'tis disputable whether they exceed not their use and
commodities. 'Tis not a melancholy _Utinam_ of mine own, but the desires
of better heads that there were a general synod; not to unite the
incompatible differences of religion, but for the benefit of learning,
to reduce it as it lay at first, in a few and solid authors; and to
condemn to the fire those swarms and millions of rhapsodies, begotten
only to distract and abuse the weaker judgements of scholars, and to
maintain the trade and mystery of typographers.--SIR T. BROWNE. _Religio
Medici._