professed disciple of [146]Apollonius a scholar of Socrates, I neglect
phrases, and labour wholly to inform my reader's understanding, not to
please his ear; 'tis not my study or intent to compose neatly, which an
orator requires, but to express myself readily and plainly as it happens.
So that as a river runs sometimes precipitate and swift, then dull and
slow; now direct, then _per ambages_, now deep, then shallow; now muddy,
then clear; now broad, then narrow; doth my style flow: now serious, then
light; now comical, then satirical; now more elaborate, then remiss, as the
present subject required, or as at that time I was affected. And if thou
vouchsafe to read this treatise, it shall seem no otherwise to thee, than
the way to an ordinary traveller, sometimes fair, sometimes foul; here
champaign, there enclosed; barren, in one place, better soil in another: by
woods, groves, hills, dales, plains, &c. I shall lead thee _per ardua
montium, et lubrica valllum, et roscida cespitum, et [147]glebosa
camporum_, through variety of objects, that which thou shalt like and
surely dislike.

For the matter itself or method, if it be faulty, consider I pray you that
of _Columella, Nihil perfectum, aut a singulari consummatum industria_, no
man can observe all, much is defective no doubt, may be justly taxed,
altered, and avoided in Galen, Aristotle, those great masters. _Boni
venatoris_ ([148]one holds) _plures feras capere, non omnes_; he is a good
huntsman can catch some, not all: I have done my endeavour. Besides, I
dwell not in this study, _Non hic sulcos ducimus, non hoc pulvere
desudamus_, I am but a smatterer, I confess, a stranger, [149]here and
there I pull a flower; I do easily grant, if a rigid censurer should
criticise on this which I have writ, he should not find three sole faults,
as Scaliger in Terence, but three hundred. So many as he hath done in
Cardan's subtleties, as many notable errors as [150]Gul Laurembergius, a
late professor of Rostock, discovers in that anatomy of Laurentius, or