diligent student would take paynes to compare them togither, he should easelie perceiue, that I do say trew. A booke, thus wholie filled with examples of Imitation, first out of _Tullie_, compared with _Plato, Xenophon, Isocrates, Demosthenes_ and _Aristotle_: than out of _Virgil_ and _Horace_, with _Homer_ and _Pindar_: next out of _Seneca_ with _Sophocles_ and _Euripides_: Lastlie out of _Liuie_, with _Thucydides, Polibius_ and _Halicarnassæus_, gathered with good diligence, and compared with right order, as I haue expressed before, were an other maner of worke for all kinde of learning, & namely for eloquence, than be those cold gatheringes of _Macrobius, Hessus, Perionius, Stephanus_, and _Victorius_, which may be vsed, as I sayd before, in this case, as porters and caryers, deseruing like prayse, as soch men do wages; but onely _Sturmius_ is he, out of whom, the trew suruey and whole workemanship is speciallie to be learned. I trust, this my writyng shall giue some good student occasion, to take some peece in hand of this worke of Imitation. And as I had rather haue any do it, than my // Opus de selfe, yet surelie my selfe rather than none at all. // recta imi- And by Gods grace, if God do lend me life, with // tandi ratione. health, free laysure and libertie, with good likyng and a merie heart, I will turne the best part of my studie and tyme, to toyle in one or other peece of this worke of Imitation. This diligence to gather examples, to giue light and vnder- standyng to good preceptes, is no new inuention, but speciallie vsed of the best Authors and oldest writers. For _Aristotle_ // _Aristoteles._ him selfe, (as _Diog. Laertius_ declareth) when he had written that goodlie booke of the _Topickes_, did gather out of stories and Orators, so many examples as filled xv. bookes, onelie to expresse the rules of his _Topickes_. These were the Commentaries, that _Aristotle_ thought fit for hys // Commen- _Topickes_: And therfore to speake as I thinke, I // tarij Græ- neuer saw yet any Commentarie vpon _Aristotles_ // ci et Lati- Logicke, either in _Greke_ or _Latin_, that euer I // ni in Dia- lyked, bicause they be rather spent in declaryng // lect. Ari- scholepoynt rules, than in gathering fit examples // stotelis. for vse and vtterance, either by pen or talke. For preceptes in all Authors, and namelie in _Aristotle_, without applying vnto them, the Imitation of examples, be hard, drie, and cold, and therfore barrayn, vnfruitfull and vnpleasant. But _Aristotle_, 278 _The second booke teachyng_