Their good is so entangled with their bad as
forcibly one must draw on the other's death with it. A sponge
dipped in ink will do all:-
"--Comitetur Punica librum
Spongia.--" {44a}
Et paulo post,
"Non possunt . . . multae . . . liturae
. . . una litura potest."
Cestius--Cicero--Heath--Taylor--Spenser.--Yet their vices have not
hurt them; nay, a great many they have profited, for they have been
loved for nothing else. And this false opinion grows strong against
the best men, if once it take root with the ignorant. Cestius, in
his time, was preferred to Cicero, so far as the ignorant durst.
They learned him without book, and had him often in their mouths;
but a man cannot imagine that thing so foolish or rude but will find
and enjoy an admirer; at least a reader or spectator. The puppets
are seen now in despite of the players; Heath's epigrams and the
Sculler's poems have their applause. There are never wanting that
dare prefer the worst preachers, the worst pleaders, the worst
poets; not that the better have left to write or speak better, but
that they that hear them judge worse; Non illi pejus dicunt, sed hi
corruptius judicant.
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