lightlie the worse opinion, and baren of discretion // returne out to make trewe difference betwixt good and ill, // of Italie, betwixt troth, and vanitie, the fourth, a proude // lesse lear- disdainfulnes of other good men, in all honest // ned and matters. _Homere_ and _Plato_, haue both one // worse ma- meanyng, looke both to one end. For, if a man // nered. inglutte himself with vanitie, or walter in filthi- // _Homer_ and nes like a Swyne, all learnyng, all goodnes, is // _Plato_ ioy- sone forgotten: Than, quicklie shall he becum // ned and ex- a dull Asse, to vnderstand either learnyng or //pounded. honestie: and yet shall he be as sutle as a Foxe, // A Swyne. in breedyng of mischief, in bringyng in misorder, // An Asse. with a busie head, a discoursing tong, and a factious harte, in // A Foxe. euery priuate affaire, in all matters of state, with this pretie propertie, alwayes glad to commend the worse // aphrosyne, partie, and euer ready to defend the falser // Quid, et opinion. And why? For, where will is giuen // vnde. from goodnes to vanitie, the mynde is sone caryed from right iudgement, to any fond opinion, in Religion, in Philosophie, or any other kynde of learning. The fourth fruite of vaine pleasure, by _Homer_ and _Platos_ iudgement, is pride // hybris. in them selues, contempt of others, the very badge of all those that serue in _Circes_ Court. The trewe meenyng of both _Homer_ and _Plato_, is plainlie declared in one short sentence of the holy Prophet of God // Hieremias _Hieremie_, crying out of the vaine & vicious life // 4. Cap. of the _Israelites_. This people (sayth he) be fooles and dulhedes to all goodnes, but sotle, cunning and bolde, in any mischiefe. &c. The true medicine against the inchantmentes of _Circes_, the vanitie of licencious pleasure, the inticementes of all sinne, is, in _Homere_, the herbe _Moly_, with the blacke roote, and white flooer, sower at the first, but sweete in the end: which, _Hesiodus_ termeth the study of vertue, hard and // Hesiodus irksome in the beginnyng, but in the end, easie // de virtute. and pleasant. And that, which is most to be marueled at, the diuine Poete _Homere_ sayth plainlie that this medicine against sinne and vanitie, is not found // Homerus, out by man, but giuen and taught by God. And // diuinus for some one sake, that will haue delite to read // Poeta. 228 _The first booke teachyng_ that sweete and Godlie Verse, I will recite the very wordes of _Homere_ and also turne them into rude English metre. chalepon de t oryssein andrasi ge thnetoisi, theoi de te panta dynantai. In English thus. _No mortall man, with sweat of browe, or toile of minde, But onely God, who can do all, that herbe doth finde._