As a good housewife out of divers fleeces weaves one piece of cloth, a
bee gathers wax and honey out of many flowers, and makes a new bundle of
all,
_Floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant_,
I have laboriously collected this cento out of various authors, and that
_sine injuria_: I have wronged no authors, but given every man his own;
which Hierom so much commends in Nepotian; he stole not whole verses,
pages, tracts, as some do nowadays, concealing their authors' names; but
still said this was Cyprian's, that Lactantius, that Hilarius, so said
Minutius Felix, so Victorinus, thus far Arnobius: I cite and quote mine
authors (which, howsoever some illiterate scribblers account pedantical,
as a cloak of ignorance, and opposite to their affected fine style, I
must and will use) _sumpsi, non surripui_; and what Varro, lib. 6 de re
rust., speaks of bees, _minime maleficae, nullius opus vellicantes
faciunt deterius_, I can say of myself. Whom have I injured? The matter
is theirs most part and yet mine: _apparet unde sumptum sit_ (which
Seneca approves); _aliud tamen, quam unde sumptum sit, apparet_; which
nature doth with the aliment of our bodies, incorporate, digest,
assimilate, I do _concoquere quod hausi_, dispose of what I take: I make
them pay tribute, to set out this my Macaronican: the method only is
mine own. I must usurp that of _Wecker e Ter. nihil dictum quod non
dictum prius: methodus sola artificem ostendit_: we can say nothing but
what hath been said, the composition and method is ours only, and shows
a scholar. Oribasius, Aëtius, Avicenna, have all out of Galen, but to
their own method, _diverso stylo, non diversa fide_. Our poets steal
from Homer; he spews, saith Aelian, they lick it up. Divines use
Austin's words _verbatim_ still, and our story-dressers do as much; he
that comes last is commonly best,
--donec quid grandius aetas
Postera, sorsque ferat melior.