m. I am conscious that
to the extent of my poor ability, whatever I knew before, and whatever I
could collect for the service of this work, I have candidly and
ingenuously made a communication of, for the instruction of those who
might be willing to reap any advantage from it: and it is enough for an
honest man to have taught what he knows.

To be good men, which is the first and most important thing, consists
chiefly in the will, and whoever has a sincere desire to be a man of
integrity, will easily learn the arts that teach virtue; and these arts
are not involved in so many perplexities, neither are they of such
great number, as not to be learned by a few years' application. The
ordering of an upright and happy life is attainable by an easy and
compendious method, when inclination is not lacking. Nature begot us
with the best dispositions, and it is so easy to the well-inclined to
learn that which is good, that we can not help being surprized, on
making a due estimate of things, how there can be so many bad persons in
the world. For, as water is naturally a proper element for fish, dry
land for quadrupeds, and air for birds, so indeed it ought to be more
easy to live according to the prescript of nature than to infringe her
laws.

As to the rest, tho we might measure our age, not by the space of more
advanced years, but by the time of youth, we should find that we had
quite years enough for learning, all things being made shorter by
order, method, and the manner of application. To bring the matter home
to our oratorical studies, of what significance is the custom which I
see kept up by many, of declaiming so many years in schools, and of
expending so much labor on imaginary subjects, when in a moderate time
the rules of eloquence may be learned, and pursuant to their directions,
a real image framed of the contests at the bar? By this I do not mean to
hint in the least that exercises for speaking should ever be
discontinued, but rather that none should grow old in any one particular
exercise for that purpose, for we may require the knowledge of many
sciences, and learn the precepts of morality, and exercise ourselves in
such causes as are agitated at the bar, even while we continue in the
state of scholars. And indeed the art of oratory is such as need not
require many years for learning it. Each of the arts I have mentioned
may be abridged into few books, there being no occasion to consider them
so minutely and so m