they were the ancient treasurers of the Grecian's divinity; to
believe, with Bembus, that they were the first bringers in of all
civility; to believe, with Scaliger, that no philosopher's precepts
can sooner make you an honest man, than the reading of Virgil; to
believe, with Clauserus, the translator of Cornutus, that it pleased
the heavenly deity by Hesiod and Homer, under the veil of fables, to
give us all knowledge, logic, rhetoric, philosophy natural and
moral, and "quid non?" to believe, with me, that there are many
mysteries contained in poetry, which of purpose were written darkly,
lest by profane wits it should be abused; to believe, with Landin,
that they are so beloved of the gods that whatsoever they write
proceeds of a divine fury. Lastly, to believe themselves, when they
tell you they will make you immortal by their verses.

Thus doing, your names shall flourish in the printers' shops: thus
doing, you shall be of kin to many a poetical preface: thus doing,
you shall be most fair, most rich, most wise, most all: you shall
dwell upon superlatives: thus doing, though you be "Libertino patre
natus," you shall suddenly grow "Herculea proles,"


"Si quid mea Carmina possunt:"


thus doing, your soul shall be placed with Dante's Beatrix, or
Virgil's Anchisis.

But if (fie of such a but!) you be born so near the dull-making
cataract of Nilus, that you cannot hear the planet-like music of
poetry; if you have so earth-creeping a mind, that it cannot lift