Virgil was most loving of antiquity; yet how rarely doth he insert
aquai and pictai! Lucretius is scabrous and rough in these; he
seeks them: as some do Chaucerisms with us, which were better
expunged and banished. Some words are to be culled out for ornament
and colour, as we gather flowers to strew houses or make garlands;
but they are better when they grow to our style; as in a meadow,
where, though the mere grass and greenness delight, yet the variety
of flowers doth heighten and beautify. Marry, we must not play or
riot too much with them, as in Paronomasies; nor use too swelling or
ill-sounding words! Quae per salebras, altaque saxa cadunt. {114a}
It is true, there is no sound but shall find some lovers, as the
bitterest confections are grateful to some palates. Our composition
must be more accurate in the beginning and end than in the midst,
and in the end more than in the beginning; for through the midst the
stream bears us. And this is attained by custom, more than care of
diligence. We must express readily and fully, not profusely. There
is difference between a liberal and prodigal hand.
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