d insolent fictions, under the name of
so noble a philosopher as Democritus, to get themselves credit, and by that
means the more to be respected," as artificers usually do, _Novo qui
marmori ascribunt Praxatilem suo_. 'Tis not so with me.

[11] "Non hic Centaurus, non Gorgonas, Harpyasque
Invenies, hominem pagina nostra sapit."

"No Centaurs here, or Gorgons look to find,
My subject is of man and human kind."

Thou thyself art the subject of my discourse.

[12] "Quicquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas,
Gaudia, discursus, nostri farrago libelli."

"Whate'er men do, vows, fears, in ire, in sport,
Joys, wand'rings, are the sum of my report."

My intent is no otherwise to use his name, than Mercurius Gallobelgicus,
Mercurius Britannicus, use the name of Mercury, [13]Democritus Christianus,
&c.; although there be some other circumstances for which I have masked
myself under this vizard, and some peculiar respect which I cannot so well
express, until I have set down a brief character of this our Democritus,
what he was, with an epitome of his life.

Democritus, as he is described by [14]Hippocrates and [15]Laertius, was a
little wearish old man, very melancholy by nature, averse from company in
his latter days, [16]and much given to solitariness, a famous philosopher
in his age, [17]_coaevus_ with Socrates, wholly addicted to his studies at
the last, and to a private life: wrote many excellent works, a great
divine, according to the divinity of those times, an expert physician, a
politician, an excellent mathematician, as [18]Diacosmus and the rest of
his works do witness. He was much delighted with the studies of husbandry,
saith [19]Columella, and often I find him cited by [20]Constantinus and
others treating of that subject. He knew the natures, differences of all
beasts, plants, fishes, birds; and, as some say, could [21]understand the
tunes and voices of them. In a word, he was _omnifariam doctus_, a general
scholar, a great student; and to the intent he might better contemplate,
[22]I find it related by some, that he put out his eyes, and was in his old
age voluntarily blind, yet saw more than all Greece besides, and [23] writ
of every subject, _Nihil in toto opificio naturae, de quo non scripsit_.
[24]A man of an excellent wit, profound conceit; and to attain knowledge
the better in his younger years, he travelled to Egypt and [25] Athens, to
confer