And also


"Denique si quis adhuc praetendit nubila, livor
Occidet, et meriti post me referentur honores."


Those who by artifice endeavour to acquire or preserve the
reputation of abilities or ingenuity, while they abound in the words
of others, have little cause to boast of their own inventions. For
the composers of that polished language, in which such various cases
as occur in the great body of law are treated with such an
appropriate elegance of style, must ever stand forward in the first
ranks of praise. I should indeed have said, that the authors of
refined language, not the hearers only, the inventors, not the
reciters, are most worthy of commendation. You will find, however,
that the practices of the court and of the schools are extremely
similar; as well in the subtleties they employ to lead you forward,
as in the steadiness with which they generally maintain their own
positions. Yet it is certain that the knowledge of logic (the
acumen, if I may so express it, of all other sciences as well as
arts) is very useful, when restricted within proper bounds; whilst
the court (i.e. courtly language), excepting to sycophants or
ambitious men, is by no means necessary. For if you are successful
at court, ambition never wholly quits its hold till satiated, and
allures and draws you still closer; but if your labour is thrown
away, you still continue the pursuit, and, together with your
substance, lose your time, the greatest and most irretrievable of