“When I peruse this tract which I have writ,
        I am abash’d, and much I hold unfit.”

Et quod gravissimum, in the matter itself, many things I disallow at this present, which when I writ, [136]_Non eadem est aetas, non mens_; I would willingly retract much, &c., but ’tis too late, I can only crave pardon now for what is amiss.

I might indeed, (had I wisely done) observed that precept of the poet,
------nonumque prematur in annum, and have taken more care:  or, as
Alexander the physician would have done by lapis lazuli, fifty times washed
before it be used, I should have revised, corrected and amended this tract;
but I had not (as I said) that happy leisure, no amanuenses or assistants. 
Pancrates in [137]Lucian, wanting a servant as he went from Memphis to
Coptus in Egypt, took a door bar, and after some superstitious words
pronounced (Eucrates the relator was then present) made it stand up like a
serving-man, fetch him water, turn the spit, serve in supper, and what work
he would besides; and when he had done that service he desired, turned his
man to a stick again.  I have no such skill to make new men at my pleasure,
or means to hire them; no whistle to call like the master of a ship, and
bid them run, &c.  I have no such authority, no such benefactors, as that
noble [138]Ambrosius was to Origen, allowing him six or seven amanuenses to
write out his dictates; I must for that cause do my business myself, and
was therefore enforced, as a bear doth her whelps, to bring forth this
confused lump; I had not time to lick it into form, as she doth her young
ones, but even so to publish it, as it was first written quicquid in
buccam venit, in an extemporean style, as [139]I do commonly all other
exercises, effudi quicquid dictavit genius meus, out of a confused
company of notes, and writ with as small deliberation as I do ordinarily
speak, without all affectation of big words, fustian phrases, jingling
terms, tropes, strong lines, that like [140]Acesta’s arrows caught fire as
they flew, strains of wit, brave heats, elegies, hyperbolical exornations,
elegancies, &c., which many so much affect.  I am [141]_aquae potor_, drink
no wine at all, which so much improves our modern wits, a loose, plain,
rude writer, ficum, voco ficum et ligonem ligonem and as free, as loose,
idem calamo quod in mente, [142]I call a spade a spade, animis haec
scribo, non auribus, I respect matter not words; remembering that of
Cardan, verba propter res, non res propter verba:  and seeking with
Seneca, quid scribam, non quemadmodum, rather what than how to write: 
for as Philo thinks, [143]"He that is conversant about matter, neglects
words, and those that excel in this art of speaking, have no profound
learning,”

[144]  “Verba nitent phaleris, at nullus verba medullas
Intus habent”------

Besides, it was the observation of that wise Seneca,