noble [138]Ambrosius was to Origen, allowing him six or seven amanuenses to
write out his dictates; I must for that cause do my business myself, and
was therefore enforced, as a bear doth her whelps, to bring forth this
confused lump; I had not time to lick it into form, as she doth her young
ones, but even so to publish it, as it was first written _quicquid in
buccam venit_, in an extemporean style, as [139]I do commonly all other
exercises, _effudi quicquid dictavit genius meus_, out of a confused
company of notes, and writ with as small deliberation as I do ordinarily
speak, without all affectation of big words, fustian phrases, jingling
terms, tropes, strong lines, that like [140]Acesta's arrows caught fire as
they flew, strains of wit, brave heats, elegies, hyperbolical exornations,
elegancies, &c., which many so much affect. I am [141]_aquae potor_, drink
no wine at all, which so much improves our modern wits, a loose, plain,
rude writer, _ficum, voco ficum et ligonem ligonem_ and as free, as loose,
_idem calamo quod in mente_, [142]I call a spade a spade, _animis haec
scribo, non auribus_, I respect matter not words; remembering that of
Cardan, _verba propter res, non res propter verba_: and seeking with
Seneca, _quid scribam, non quemadmodum_, rather _what_ than _how_ to write:
for as Philo thinks, [143]"He that is conversant about matter, neglects
words, and those that excel in this art of speaking, have no profound
learning,"

[144] "Verba nitent phaleris, at nullus verba medullas
Intus habent"------

Besides, it was the observation of that wise Seneca, [145]"when you see a
fellow careful about his words, and neat in his speech, know this for a
certainty, that man's mind is busied about toys, there's no solidity in
him." _Non est ornamentum virile concinnitas_: as he said of a nightingale,
------_vox es, praeterea nihil_, &c. I am therefore in this point a