And therefore in that style or
addition, which is and hath been long well received and brought in
use, felicis memoriae, piae memoriae, bonae memoriae, we do
acknowledge that which Cicero saith, borrowing it from Demosthenes,
that bona fama propria possessio defunctorum; which possession I
cannot but note that in our times it lieth much waste, and that
therein there is a deficience.
(10) For narrations and relations of particular actions, there were
also to be wished a greater diligence therein; for there is no great
action but hath some good pen which attends it. And because it is
an ability not common to write a good history, as may well appear by
the small number of them; yet if particularity of actions memorable
were but tolerably reported as they pass, the compiling of a
complete history of times might be the better expected, when a
writer should arise that were fit for it: for the collection of
such relations might be as a nursery garden, whereby to plant a fair
and stately garden when time should serve.
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