By which means it happens that what they have
discredited
and
impugned in one week, they have before or after extolled the same in
another.
impugned in one week, they have before or after extolled the same in
another.
Ben Jonson - Discoveries Made Upon Men, and Some Poems
These men err not by chance, but
knowingly and willingly; they are like men that affect a fashion by
themselves; have some singularity in a ruff cloak, or hat-band; or their
beards specially cut to provoke beholders, and set a mark upon
themselves. They would be reprehended while they are looked on. And
this vice, one that is authority with the rest, loving, delivers over to
them to be imitated; so that ofttimes the faults which be fell into the
others seek for. This is the danger, when vice becomes a precedent.
_Not. _ 5. --Others there are that have no composition at all; but a kind of
tuning and rhyming fall in what they write. It runs and slides, and only
makes a sound. Women's poets they are called, as you have women's
tailors.
"They write a verse as smooth, as soft as cream,
In which there is no torrent, nor scarce stream. "
You may sound these wits and find the depth of them with your middle
finger. They are cream-bowl or but puddle-deep.
_Not. _ 6. --Some that turn over all books, and are equally searching in all
papers; that write out of what they presently find or meet, without
choice.
By which means it happens that what they have discredited and
impugned in one week, they have before or after extolled the same in
another. Such are all the essayists, even their master Montaigne.
These, in all they write, confess still what books they have read last,
and therein their own folly so much, that they bring it to the stake raw
and undigested; not that the place did need it neither, but that they
thought themselves furnished and would vent it.
_Not. _ 7. --Some, again who, after they have got authority, or, which is
less, opinion, by their writings, to have read much, dare presently to
feign whole books and authors, and lie safely. For what never was, will
not easily be found, not by the most curious.
_Not. _ 8. --And some, by a cunning protestation against all reading, and
false venditation of their own naturals, think to divert the sagacity of
their readers from themselves, and cool the scent of their own fox-like
thefts; when yet they are so rank, as a man may find whole pages together
usurped from one author; their necessities compelling them to read for
present use, which could not be in many books; and so come forth more
ridiculously and palpably guilty than those who, because they cannot
trace, they yet would slander their industry.
_Not. _ 9. --But the wretcheder are the obstinate contemners of all helps
and arts; such as presuming on their own naturals (which, perhaps, are
excellent), dare deride all diligence, and seem to mock at the terms when
they understand not the things; thinking that way to get off wittily with
their ignorance. These are imitated often by such as are their peers in
negligence, though they cannot be in nature; and they utter all they can
think with a kind of violence and indisposition, unexamined, without
relation either to person, place, or any fitness else; and the more
wilful and stubborn they are in it the more learned they are esteemed of
the multitude, through their excellent vice of judgment, who think those
things the stronger that have no art; as if to break were better than to
open, or to rend asunder gentler than to loose.
_Not. _ 10.
knowingly and willingly; they are like men that affect a fashion by
themselves; have some singularity in a ruff cloak, or hat-band; or their
beards specially cut to provoke beholders, and set a mark upon
themselves. They would be reprehended while they are looked on. And
this vice, one that is authority with the rest, loving, delivers over to
them to be imitated; so that ofttimes the faults which be fell into the
others seek for. This is the danger, when vice becomes a precedent.
_Not. _ 5. --Others there are that have no composition at all; but a kind of
tuning and rhyming fall in what they write. It runs and slides, and only
makes a sound. Women's poets they are called, as you have women's
tailors.
"They write a verse as smooth, as soft as cream,
In which there is no torrent, nor scarce stream. "
You may sound these wits and find the depth of them with your middle
finger. They are cream-bowl or but puddle-deep.
_Not. _ 6. --Some that turn over all books, and are equally searching in all
papers; that write out of what they presently find or meet, without
choice.
By which means it happens that what they have discredited and
impugned in one week, they have before or after extolled the same in
another. Such are all the essayists, even their master Montaigne.
These, in all they write, confess still what books they have read last,
and therein their own folly so much, that they bring it to the stake raw
and undigested; not that the place did need it neither, but that they
thought themselves furnished and would vent it.
_Not. _ 7. --Some, again who, after they have got authority, or, which is
less, opinion, by their writings, to have read much, dare presently to
feign whole books and authors, and lie safely. For what never was, will
not easily be found, not by the most curious.
_Not. _ 8. --And some, by a cunning protestation against all reading, and
false venditation of their own naturals, think to divert the sagacity of
their readers from themselves, and cool the scent of their own fox-like
thefts; when yet they are so rank, as a man may find whole pages together
usurped from one author; their necessities compelling them to read for
present use, which could not be in many books; and so come forth more
ridiculously and palpably guilty than those who, because they cannot
trace, they yet would slander their industry.
_Not. _ 9. --But the wretcheder are the obstinate contemners of all helps
and arts; such as presuming on their own naturals (which, perhaps, are
excellent), dare deride all diligence, and seem to mock at the terms when
they understand not the things; thinking that way to get off wittily with
their ignorance. These are imitated often by such as are their peers in
negligence, though they cannot be in nature; and they utter all they can
think with a kind of violence and indisposition, unexamined, without
relation either to person, place, or any fitness else; and the more
wilful and stubborn they are in it the more learned they are esteemed of
the multitude, through their excellent vice of judgment, who think those
things the stronger that have no art; as if to break were better than to
open, or to rend asunder gentler than to loose.
_Not. _ 10.
