COWPER.
Nemo eo sapientius desipuisse, nemo stultius sapuisse videtur.
Said of Cardan by I know not who.
Il y en a qui pensent que les lecteurs reçoivent peu d'instruction, quand on leur représente des choses qui n'ont pas esté achevées, qu'eux appellent œuvres imparfaites; mais je ne suis pas de leur advis; car quand quelque fait est descrit à la verité, et avec ses circonstances, encor qu'il ne soit parvenu qu' à mychemin, si peut-on tousjours en tirer du fruict.
LA NOUE.
Authors, you know of greatest fame,
Thro' modesty suppress their name;
And would you wish me to reveal
What these superior wits conceal?
Forego the search, my curious friend,
And husband time to better end.
All my ambition is, I own,
To profit and to please unknown,
Like streams supplied from springs below
Which scatter blessings as they flow.
DR. COTTON.
Thus have I, as well as I could, gathered a posey of observations as they grew,—and if some rue and wormwood be found amongst the sweeter herbs, their wholesomeness will make amends for their bitterness.
ADAM LITTLETON.
This worthy work in which of good examples are so many,
This orchard of Alcinous, in which there wants not any
Herb, tree, or fruit that may mans use for health or pleasure serve;
This plenteous horn of Acheloy, which justly doth deserve
To bear the name of Treasury of Knowledge, I present
To your good worships once again,—desiring you therefore
To let your noble courtesy and favour countervail
My faults, where art or eloquence on my behalf doth fail,
For sure the mark whereat I shoot is neither wreaths of bay,
Nor name of author, no, nor meed; but chiefly that it may
Be liked well of you and all the wise and learned sort;
And next, that every wight that shall have pleasure for to sport
Him in this garden, may as well bear wholesome fruit away
As only on the pleasant flowers his retchless senses stay.
GOLDING.
Doubtless many thoughts have presented, and are still presenting themselves to my mind, which once I had no idea of. But these, in I believe every instance, are as much the growth of former rooted principles, as multiplied branches grow from one and the same main stem. Of such an inward vegetation I am always conscious; and I equally seem to myself to perceive the novelty of the fresh shoot, and its connexion with what had been produced before.