Which I thought in this place to touch onelie, not to prosecute at large, bicause, God willyng, in the _Latin_ tong, I will fullie handle it, in my booke _de Imitatione_. Now, to touch more particularlie, which of those Authors, that be now most commonlie in mens handes, will sone affourd you some peece of Eloquence, and what maner a peece of eloquence, and what is to be liked and folowed, and what to be misliked and eschewed in them: and how some agayne will furnish you fully withall, rightly, and wisely considered, som- what I will write as I haue heard Syr _Ihon Cheke_ many tymes say. The Latin tong, concerning any part of purenesse of it, from the spring, to the decay of the same, did not endure moch longer, than is the life of a well aged man, scarse one hundred yeares from the tyme of the last _Scipio Africanus_ and _Lælius_, to the Empire of _Augustus_. And it is notable, that _Velleius Pater- culus_ writeth of _Tullie_, how that the perfection of eloquence did so remayne onelie in him and in his time, as before him, were few, which might moch delight a man, or after him any, worthy admiration, but soch as _Tullie_ might haue seene, and such as might haue seene _Tullie_. And good cause why: for no perfec- tion is durable. Encrease hath a time, & decay likewise, but all perfit ripenesse remaineth but a moment: as is plainly seen in fruits, plummes and cherries: but more sensibly in flowers, as Roses & such like, and yet as trewlie in all greater matters. For what naturallie, can go no hier, must naturallie yeld & stoup againe. Of this short tyme of any purenesse of the Latin tong, for the first fortie yeare of it, and all the tyme before, we haue no peece of learning left, saue _Plautus_ and _Terence_, with a litle rude vnperfit pamflet of the elder _Cato_. And as for _Plautus_, except the scholemaster be able to make wise and ware choice, _the ready way to the Latin tong._ 287