Fabius esteems no better of most of them, either in speech, action, gesture, then as men beside themselves, insanos declamatores; so doth Gregory, Non mihi sapit qui sermone, sed qui factis sapit. Make the best of him, a good Orator is a turn-coat, an evil man, bonus Orator pessimus vir, his tongue is set to sale, he is a meer voice, as he said of a Nightingale, dat sine mente sonum, an hyperbolical liar, a flatterer, a parasite,

and as Ammianus Marcellinus will, a corrupting cosener, one that doth more mischief by his fair speeches, then he that bribes by mony: for a man may with more facility avoid him that circumvents by money, then him that deceives with glosing terms; which made Socrates so much abhor and explode them.

Fracastorius, a famous Poet, freely grants all Poets to be mad; so doth Scaliger; and who doth not? Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit, Hor. Sat. 7. l. 2. Insanire lubet, i. versus componere. Virg. 3. Egl. so Servius interprets it, all Poets are mad, a company of bitter Satyrists, detractors, or else parasitical applauders;

and what is Poetry it self, but as Austin holds, vinum erroris ab ebriis doctoribus propinatum? You may give that censure of them in general, which Sir Thomas Moore once did of Germanus Brixius Poems in particular. ——vehuntur. In rate stultitiæ, sylvam habitant Furiæ.

Budæus in an Epistle of his to Lupsetus, will have civil Law to be the tower of wisdom; another honours physick, the Quintessence of Nature; a third tumbles them both down, and sets up the flag of his own peculiar science.

Your supercilious Criticks, Grammatical triflers, Note-makers, curious Antiquaries, finde out all the ruines of wit, ineptiarum delicias, amongst the rubbish of old writers; Pro stultis habent nisi aliquid sufficiant invenire, quod in aliorum scriptis vertant vitio, all fools with them that cannot find fault; they correct others, & are hot in a cold cause,

puzzle themselves to finde out how many streets in Rome, houses, gates, towers, Homers countrey, Æneas mother, Niobes daughters, an Sapho publica fuerit? ovum prius extiterit an gallina? &c. & alia quæ dediscenda essent scire, si scires, as Seneca holds.

What clothes the Senators did wear in Rome, what shoes, how they sat, where they went to the close-stool, how many dishes in a messe, what sauce; which for the present for an historian to relate, according to Lodovic. Vives, is very ridiculous, is to them most precious elaborate stuff, they admired for it, and as proud, as triumphant in the mean time for this discovery, as if they had won a city, or conquered a province; as rich as if they had found a Mine of Gold ore.

Quosvis authores absurdis commentis suis percacant & stercorant, one saith, they bewray and dawb a company of books and good Authors, with their absurd Comments, correctorum sterquilinia Scaliger cals them, and shew their wit in censuring others, a company of foolish note-makers, humble-bees, dors or beetles, inter stercora ut plurimum versantur,

they rake over all those rubbish and dunghils, and prefer a manuscript many times before the Gospel it self, thesaurum criticum, before any treasure, and with their deleaturs, alii legunt sic, meus codex sic habet, with their postremæ editions, annotations, castigations, &c. make books dear, themselves ridiculous, and do no body good,

yet if any dare oppose or contradict, they are mad, up in arms on a sudden, how many sheets are written in defence, how bitter invectives, what apologies? Epiphillides hæ sunt ut meræ nugæ. But I dare say no more of, for, with, or against them, because I am liable to their lash, as well as others.

Of these and the rest of our Artists and Philosophers, I wil generally conclude they are a kind of mad men, as Seneca esteems of them, to make doubts & scruples, how to read them truly, to mend old authors, but will not mend their own lives, or teach us ingenia sanare, memoriam officiorum ingerere, ac fidem in rebus humanis retinere, to keep our wits in order or rectifie our manners.

Nunquid tibi demens videtur, si istis operam impenderit? is not he mad that draws lines with Archimedes, whiles his house is ransacked, and his city besieged, when the whole world is in combustion, or we whilst our souls are in danger, mors sequitur, vita fugit, to spend our time in toyes, idle questions, and things of no worth?

That Lovers are mad, I think no man will deny, Amare simul & sapere, ipsi Iovi non datur, Jupiter himself cannot intend both at once, Non bene conveniunt, nec in unâ sede morantur Majestas & amor.

Tully when he was invited to a second marriage, replied, he could not simul amare & sapere, be wise and love both together. Est orcus ille, vis est immedicabilis, est rabies insana, Love is madnesse, a hell, an incurable disease; impotentem & insanam libidinem Seneca cals it, an impotent and raging lust. I shall dilate this subject apart: in the mean time let Lovers sigh out the rest.

Nevisanus the Lawyer holds it for an axiome, most women are fools, consilium fæminis invalidum; Seneca men, be they yong or old; who doubts it, youth is mad as Elius in Tully, Stulti adolescentuli, old age little better, deliri senes, &c.

Theophrastes in the 107. year of his age, said he then began to be wise, tum sapere cæpit, and therefore lamented his departure. If wisdom come so late, where shall we finde a wise man? our old ones dote at threescore and ten. I would cite more proofs, and a better Author, but for the present, let one fool point at another.