And as it is fit to read the best authors to youth first, so let them be
of the openest and clearest: as Livy before Sallust, Sidney before
Donne; and beware of letting them taste Gower or Chaucer at first, lest
falling too much in love with antiquity, and not apprehending the
weight, they grow rough and barren in language only. When their
judgements are firm and out of danger, let them read both the old and
the new; but no less take heed that their new flowers and sweetness do
not as much corrupt as the others' dryness and squalor, if they choose
not carefully. Spenser, in affecting the ancients, writ no language: yet
I would have him read for his matter, but as Virgil read Ennius. The
reading of Homer and Virgil is counselled by Quintilian as the best way
of informing youth and confirming man. For, besides that the mind is
raised with the height and sublimity of such a verse, it takes spirit
from the greatness of the matter, and is tincted with the best things.
Tragic and lyric poetry is good too; and comic with the best, if the
manners of the reader be once in safety.--BEN JONSON. _Timber._