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Ancient Books ~ Politics, Philosophy & Liberty Religio Medici, Hydriotahia, And The Letter To A Friend ~ Sect. 24.Sect. 24.--I have heard some with deep sighs lament the lost lines of Cicero; others with as many groans deplore the combustion of the library of Alexandria;<33> for my own part, I think there be too many in the world; and could with patience behold the urn and ashes of the Vatican, could I, with a few others, recover the perished leaves of Solomon. I would not omit a copy of Enoch's pillars,<34> had they many nearer authors than Josephus, or did not relish somewhat of the fable. Some men have written more than others have spoken. Pineda<35> quotes more authors, in one work,* than are necessary in a whole world. Of those three great inven- tions in Germany,<36> there are two which are not without their incommodities, and 'tis disputable whether they exceed not their use and commodities. 'Tis not a melan- choly utinam of my own, but the desires of better heads, that there were a general synod--not to unite the incom- patible difference of religion, but,--for the benefit of * Pineda, in his "Monarchia Ecclesiastica," quotes one thousand and forty authors. learning, to reduce it, as it lay at first, in a few and solid authors; and to condemn to the fire those swarms and millions of rhapsodies, begotten only to distract and abuse the weaker judgments of scholars, and to maintain the trade and mystery of typographers. Religio Medici, Hydriotahia, And The Letter To A Friend ~ Sect. 24. | < Last - Next > |
