So again letters of affairs from such as manage them, or
are privy to them, are of all others the best instructions for
history, and to a diligent reader the best histories in themselves.
For apophthegms, it is a great loss of that book of Caesar's; for as
his history, and those few letters of his which we have, and those
apophthegms which were of his own, excel all men's else, so I
suppose would his collection of apophthegms have done; for as for
those which are collected by others, either I have no taste in such
matters or else their choice hath not been happy. But upon these
three kinds of writings I do not insist, because I have no
deficiences to propound concerning them.
(5) Thus much therefore concerning history, which is that part of
learning which answereth to one of the cells, domiciles, or offices
of the mind of man, which is that of the memory.
IV. (1) Poesy is a part of learning in measure of words, for the
most part restrained, but in all other points extremely licensed,
and doth truly refer to the imagination; which, being not tied to
the laws of matter, may at pleasure join that which nature hath
severed, and sever that which nature hath joined, and so make
unlawful matches and divorces of things--Pictoribus atque poetis,
&c.
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