No More Learning

In her indagations oft-times new
scents put her by, and she takes in errors into her by the same conduits
she doth truths.

_Otium Studiorum_. --Ease and relaxation are profitable to all studies.
The mind is like a bow, the stronger by being unbent. But the temper in
spirits is all, when to command a man's wit, when to favour it. I have
known a man vehement on both sides, that knew no mean, either to intermit
his studies or call upon them again. When he hath set himself to writing
he would join night to day, press upon himself without release, not
minding it, till he fainted; and when he left off, resolve himself into
all sports and looseness again, that it was almost a despair to draw him
to his book; but once got to it, he grew stronger and more earnest by the
ease. His whole powers were renewed; he would work out of himself what
he desired, but with such excess as his study could not be ruled; he knew
not how to dispose his own abilities, or husband them; he was of that
immoderate power against himself. Nor was he only a strong, but an
absolute speaker and writer; but his subtlety did not show itself; his
judgment thought that a vice; for the ambush hurts more that is hid. He
never forced his language, nor went out of the highway of speaking but
for some great necessity or apparent profit; for he denied figures to be
invented for ornament, but for aid; and still thought it an extreme
madness to bind or wrest that which ought to be right.

_Stili eminentia_. --_Virgil_. --_Tully_. --_Sallust_. --It is no wonder men's
eminence appears but in their own way.
Virgil's felicity left him in
prose, as Tully's forsook him in verse. Sallust's orations are read in
the honour of story, yet the most eloquent. Plato's speech, which he
made for Socrates, is neither worthy of the patron nor the person
defended. Nay, in the same kind of oratory, and where the matter is one,
you shall have him that reasons strongly, open negligently; another that
prepares well, not fit so well. And this happens not only to brains, but
to bodies. One can wrestle well, another run well, a third leap or throw
the bar, a fourth lift or stop a cart going; each hath his way of
strength. So in other creatures--some dogs are for the deer, some for the
wild boar, some are fox-hounds, some otter-hounds. Nor are all horses
for the coach or saddle, some are for the cart and paniers.

_De Claris Oratoribus_. --I have known many excellent men that would speak
suddenly to the admiration of their hearers, who upon study and
premeditation have been forsaken by their own wits, and no way answered
their fame; their eloquence was greater than their reading, and the
things they uttered better than those they knew; their fortune deserved
better of them than their care. For men of present spirits, and of
greater wits than study, do please more in the things they invent than in
those they bring. And I have heard some of them compelled to speak, out
of necessity, that have so infinitely exceeded themselves, as it was
better both for them and their auditory that they were so surprised, not
prepared. Nor was it safe then to cross them, for their adversary, their
anger made them more eloquent. Yet these men I could not but love and
admire, that they returned to their studies. They left not diligence (as
many do) when their rashness prospered; for diligence is a great aid,
even to an indifferent wit; when we are not contented with the examples
of our own age, but would know the face of the former. Indeed, the more
we confer with the more we profit by, if the persons be chosen.