once reason hath so much over-mastered passion, as that the mind
hath a free desire to do well, the inward light each mind hath in
itself is as good as a philosopher's book: since in nature we know
it is well to do well, and what is well and what is evil, although
not in the words of art which philosophers bestow upon us; for out
of natural conceit the philosophers drew it; but to be moved to do
that which we know, or to be moved with desire to know, "hoc opus,
hic labor est."

Now, {40} therein, of all sciences (I speak still of human and
according to the human conceit), is our poet the monarch. For he
doth not only show the way, but giveth so sweet a prospect into the
way, as will entice any man to enter into it; nay, he doth, as if
your journey should lie through a fair vineyard, at the very first
give you a cluster of grapes, that full of that taste you may long
to pass farther. He beginneth not with obscure definitions, which
must blur the margin with interpretations, and load the memory with
doubtfulness, but he cometh to you with words set in delightful
proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for, the well-
enchanting skill of music; and with a tale, forsooth, he cometh unto
you with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from
the chimney-corner; {41} and, pretending no more, doth intend the
winning of the mind from wickedness to virtue; even as the child is
often brought to take most wholesome things, by hiding them in such
other as have a pleasant taste; which, if one should begin to tell
them the nature of the aloes or rhubarbarum they should receive,
would sooner take their physic at their ears than at their mouth; so
it is in men (most of them are childish in the best things, till
they be cradled in their graves); glad they will be to hear the
tales of Hercules, Achilles, Cyrus, AEneas; and hearing them, must