honourable [55]precedents for this which I have done: I will cite one for
all, Anthony Zara, Pap. Epis., his Anatomy of Wit, in four sections,
members, subsections, &c., to be read in our libraries.

If any man except against the matter or manner of treating of this my
subject, and will demand a reason of it, I can allege more than one; I
write of melancholy, by being busy to avoid melancholy. There is no greater
cause of melancholy than idleness, "no better cure than business," as
[56]Rhasis holds: and howbeit, _stultus labor est ineptiarum_, to be busy
in toys is to small purpose, yet hear that divine Seneca, _aliud agere quam
nihil_, better do to no end, than nothing. I wrote therefore, and busied
myself in this playing labour, _oliosaque diligentia ut vitarem torporum
feriandi_ with Vectius in Macrobius, _atque otium in utile verterem
negatium_.

[57] "Simul et jucunda et idonea dicere vita,
Lectorem delectando simul atque monendo."

"Poets would profit or delight mankind,
And with the pleasing have th' instructive joined.
Profit and pleasure, then, to mix with art,
T' inform the judgment, nor offend the heart,
Shall gain all votes."

To this end I write, like them, saith Lucian, that "recite to trees, and
declaim to pillars for want of auditors:" as [58]Paulus Aegineta
ingenuously confesseth, "not that anything was unknown or omitted, but to
exercise myself," which course if some took, I think it would be good for
their bodies, and much better for their souls; or peradventure as others
do, for fame, to show myself (_Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc