ure, who teacheth us the
rule of pleasure, instructeth also in the bounds thereof and
where its line expireth. And therefore temperate minds, not
pressing their pleasures until the sting appeareth, enjoy their
contentations contentedly and without regret, and so escape the
folly of excess, to be pleased unto displacency."

* * * * *

"Bring candid eyes unto the perusal of men's works, and let not
Zoilism or detraction blast well-intended labours. He that
endureth no faults in men's writings must only read his own,
wherein for the most part all appeareth white. Quotation
mistakes, inadvertency, expedition and human lapses, may make not
only moles but warts in learned authors, who notwithstanding,
being judged by the capital matter, admit not of disparagement.
I should unwillingly affirm that Cicero was but slightly versed
in Homer, because in his work _De Gloria_ he ascribed those
verses unto Ajax which were delivered by Hector. What if Plautus,
in the account of Hercules, mistaketh nativity for conception?
Who would have mean thoughts of Apollinaris Sidonius, who seems
to mistake the river Tigris for Euphrates; and, though a good
historian and learned Bishop of Auvergne, had the misfortune to
be out in the story of David, making mention of him when the ark
was sent back by the Philistines upon a cart, which was before
his time? Though I have no great opinion of Machiavel's learning,
yet I shall not presently say that he was but a novice in Roman
History, because he was mistaken in placing Commodus after the
Emperor Severus. Capital truths are to be narrowly eyed,
collateral lapses and circumstantial deliveries not to be too
strictly sifted. And if the substantial subject be well forged
out, we need not examine the sparks which irregularly fly from
it."

Coleridge, as we have seen, charges Browne with corrupting the style of the
great age. The charge is not just in regard to either of the two great
faults which are urged against the style, strictly speaking; while it is
hardly just in reference to a minor charge which is brought against what is
not quite style, namely, the selection and treatment of the thought. The
two charges first referred to are Latinising of vocabulary and disorderly
syntax of sentence. In regard to the first, Browne Latini