curious, in marking and piteling thus about the imitation of others: and that the olde worthie Authors did neuer busie their heades and wittes, in folowyng so preciselie, either the matter what other men wrote, or els the maner how other men wrote. They will say, it were a plaine slauerie, & inurie to, to shakkle and tye a good witte, and hinder the course of a mans good nature with such bondes of seruitude, in folowyng other. Except soch men thinke them selues wiser then _Cicero_ for teaching of eloquence, they must be content to turne a new leafe. The best booke that euer _Tullie_ wrote, by all mens iudge- ment, and by his owne testimonie to, in writyng wherof, he employed most care, studie, learnyng and iudgement, is his book _de Orat. ad Q. F._ Now let vs see, what he did for the matter, and also for the maner of writing therof. For the whole booke consisteth in these two pointes onelie: In good matter, and good handling of the matter. And first, for the matter, it is whole _Aristotles_, what so euer _Antonie_ in the second, and _Crassus_ in the third doth teach. Trust not me, but beleue _Tullie_ him selfe, who writeth so, first, in that goodlie long Epistle _ad P. Lentulum_, and after in diuerse places _ad Atticum_. And in the verie booke it selfe, Tullie will not haue it hidden, but both _Catulus_ and _Crassus_ do oft and pleasantly lay that stelth to _Antonius_ charge. Now, for the handling of the matter, was _Tullie_ so precise and curious rather to follow an other mans Paterne, than to inuent some newe shape him selfe, namelie in that booke, wherin he purposed, to leaue to posteritie, the glorie of his witte? yea forsoth, that he did. And this is not my gessing and gathering, nor onelie performed by _Tullie_ in verie deed, but vttered also by _Tullie_ in plaine wordes: to teach other men thereby, what they should do, in taking like matter in hand. And that which is specially to be marked, _Tullie_ doth vtter plainlie his conceit and purpose therein, by the mouth of the wisest man in all that companie: for sayth _Scæuola_ him selfe, _Cur non imitamur, Crasse, Socratem illum, qui est in Phædro Platonis &c._ And furder to vnderstand, that _Tullie_ did not _obiter_ and bichance, but purposelie and mindfullie bend him selfe to a precise and curious Imitation of _Plato_, concernyng the shape 270 _The second booke teachyng_