one rhetorician, after another.
Oppose then what thou wilt,

"Allatres licet usque nos et usque
Et gannitibus improbis lacessas."

I solve it thus. And for those other faults of barbarism, [104]Doric
dialect, extemporanean style, tautologies, apish imitation, a rhapsody of
rags gathered together from several dunghills, excrements of authors, toys
and fopperies confusedly tumbled out, without art, invention, judgment,
wit, learning, harsh, raw, rude, fantastical, absurd, insolent, indiscreet,
ill-composed, indigested, vain, scurrile, idle, dull, and dry; I confess
all ('tis partly affected), thou canst not think worse of me than I do of
myself. 'Tis not worth the reading, I yield it, I desire thee not to lose
time in perusing so vain a subject, I should be peradventure loath myself
to read him or thee so writing; 'tis not _operae, pretium_. All I say is
this, that I have [105]precedents for it, which Isocrates calls _perfugium
iis qui peccant_, others as absurd, vain, idle, illiterate, &c. _Nonnulli
alii idem fecerunt_; others have done as much, it may be more, and perhaps
thou thyself, _Novimus et qui te_, &c. We have all our faults; _scimus, et
hanc, veniaim_, &c.; [106]thou censurest me, so have I done others, and may
do thee, _Cedimus inque vicem_, &c., 'tis _lex talionis, quid pro quo_. Go
now, censure, criticise, scoff, and rail.

[107] "Nasutus cis usque licet, sis denique nasus:
Non potes in nugas dicere plura meas,
Ipse ego quam dixi, &c."

"Wert thou all scoffs and flouts, a very Momus,
Than we ourselves, thou canst not say worse of us."

Thus, as when women scold, have I cried whore first, and in some men's
censures I am afraid I have overshot myself, _Laudare se vani, vituperare
stulti_, as I do not arrogate, I will not derogate. _Primus vestrum non
sum, nec imus_, I am none of the best, I am none of the meanest of you. As
I am an inch, or so many feet, so many parasangs, after him or him, I may
be peradventure an ace before thee. Be it therefore as it is, well or ill,
I have essayed, put myself upon the stage; I must abide the censure, I may
not escape it. It is most true, _stylus virum arguit_, our style bewrays
us, and as [108]hunters find their game by the trace, so is a man's genius
descried by his works, _Multo melius ex sermone quam lineamentis, de
moribus hominum judicamus_; it was old Cato's rule. I have laid myself open
(I know it) in this treatise