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ance, or beare any great authoritie abrode in the world, but
either liue obscurelie, men know not how, or dye obscurelie,
men marke not whan. They be like trees, that shewe forth,
faire blossoms & broad leaues in spring time, but bring out
small and not long lasting fruite in haruest time: and that
190 The first booke teachyng
onelie soch, as fall, and rotte, before they be ripe, and so, neuer,
or seldome, cum to any good at all. For this ye shall finde
most true by experience, that amongest a number of quicke
wittes in youthe, fewe be found, in the end, either verie
fortunate for them selues, or verie profitable to serue the common
wealth, but decay and vanish, men know not which way:
except a very fewe, to whom peraduenture blood and happie
parentage, may perchance purchace a long standing vpon the
stage. The which felicitie, because it commeth by others
procuring, not by their owne deseruinge, and stand by other
mens feete, and not by their own, what owtward brag so euer
is borne by them, is in deed, of it selfe, and in wise mens eyes,
of no great estimation.
Some wittes, moderate enough by nature, be many tymes
Som sci- // marde by ouer moch studie and vse of some
ences hurt // sciences, namelie, Musicke, Arithmetick, and
mens wits, // Geometrie. Thies sciences, as they sharpen mens
and mar // wittes ouer moch, so they change mens maners
mens ma- // ouer sore, if they be not moderatlie mingled, &
ners. //
wiselie applied to som good vse of life. Marke all Mathe-
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