ners, before they presume or impudently intrude and put
themselves on great men as too many do, with such base flattery,
parasitical colloguing, such hyperbolical elogies they do usually insinuate
that it is a shame to hear and see. _Immodicae laudes conciliant invidiam,
potius quam laudem_, and vain commendations derogate from truth, and we
think in conclusion, _non melius de laudato, pejus de laudante_, ill of
both, the commender and commended. So we offend, but the main fault is in
their harshness, defect of patrons. How beloved of old, and how much
respected was Plato to Dionysius? How dear to Alexander was Aristotle,
Demeratus to Philip, Solon to Croesus, Auexarcus and Trebatius to Augustus,
Cassius to Vespasian, Plutarch to Trajan, Seneca to Nero, Simonides to
Hieron? how honoured?

[2069] "Sed haec prius fuere, nunc recondita
Senent quiete,"

those days are gone; _Et spes, et ratio studiorum in Caesare tantum_:
[2070] as he said of old, we may truly say now, he is our amulet, our
[2071]sun, our sole comfort and refuge, our Ptolemy, our common Maecenas,
_Jacobus munificus, Jacobus pacificus, mysta Musarum, Rex Platonicus:
Grande decus, columenque nostrum_: a famous scholar himself, and the sole
patron, pillar, and sustainer of learning: but his worth in this kind is so
well known, that as Paterculus of Cato, _Jam ipsum laudare nefas sit_: and
which [2072] Pliny to Trajan. _Seria te carmina, honorque aeternus
annalium, non haec brevis et pudenda praedicatio colet_. But he is now
gone, the sun of ours set, and yet no night follows, _Sol occubuit, nox
nulla sequuta est_. We have such another in his room, [2073]_aureus alter.
Avulsus, simili frondescit virga metallo_, and long may he reign and
flourish amongst us.

Let me not be malicious, and lie against my genius, I may not deny, but
that we have a sprinkling of our gentry, here and there one, excellently
well learned, like those Fuggeri in Germany; Dubartus, Du Plessis, Sadael,
in France; Picus Mirandula, Schottus, Barotius, in Italy; _Apparent rari
nantes in gurgite vasto_. But they are but few in respect of the multitude,
the major part (and some again excepted, that are indifferent) are wholly
bent for hawks and hounds, and carried away many times with intemperate
lust, gaming and drinking. If they read a book at any time (_si quod est
interim otii a venatu, poculis, alea, scortis_) 'tis an English Chronicle,
St. Huon of Bordeaux, Amadis de Gaul, &c.,