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for searching only. SUSENBROTUS 139
preserved beyond damage in the treasury of memory. On which matter, Erasmus Roterodamus, of all whom the sun sees here as wise as eloquent, votes with a white stone, enjoining the same plan as seems good to us. Furthermore, that you may know what I have sought to attain, first we exhibit all the more important figures of Xitsa, many faults of speech, then the virtues, among which are tropes; and all of them, though against the custom of others, we comprehend under the name of cx ta. Not because I think they are thus more correctly arranged, but because in this universal method they may be more easily digested into order, which especially aids memory. Then the names themselves, which are found almost everywhere corrupted, we have restored to their integrity according to the Greek, with those also which either Tully, or Fabius, or Diomedes have made Latin placed alongside, at the same time explaining each one, both with definitions and examples, etc.'
Since Erasmus approves the method of Mosellanus, Englishmen needs must, as we have already found Sir Thomas Elyot doing in 1531. Mosellanus was later improved upon by Susenbrotus, who is mentioned in the statutes and treatises of the latter half of the century. In very finicky Latin, Susenbrotus also lauds his wares in
a preface dated March 5, 1541.
It is the duty of a good preceptor, o youth desirous of letters, that in interpreting authors he pursue not only the etymology and the simple syntax of the words and other things of that kind but also that he explain exactly .eai uxpg3ess and fully point out the artifices both grammatical and rhetorical which contribute not a little to the understanding correctly authors both profane and sacred, so that thence they may be able the more easily to understand the mind of the author who is being read. For whosoever pass over, neglect, and contemn these artifices-I refer to tropes and schemes which must especially be pointed out while expounding-, and as the saying is, "flie past the cottage;"2 these act exactly like those who fight after the fashion of the Andabatae and in the same way attempt to teach one to hit some mark with closed eyes. I, indeed, that I might guard against this, while reading (lecturing) have pointed out as with the finger the ornaments of
Tabvlae, De Schematihos Petri Mesellani . Lipsia, M.D. XXXII, Aiv-Air. Bound with this copy belonging to the University of Illinois Library are similar tabulations of Melanchthon's Rhetoric, and Erasmus's Copia, together with half a dozen other rhetorical treatises. In my copy, Argentorad, 1549) the Melanchthan and Erasmus items make up the same volume, being mentioned on the tide page. Masellanus is also the last item of a volume De Figurer Sententiaruta, as Yerborum (Venice, ,333, personal), the other authors being P. Rutilius, Julius Rufinianus, and Beda. A copy of the revision by Lorichius, Lipsiae, is in a binding stamped ssso (copy in University of Illinois Library), together with the epitome of Valla's Elegantiae by Erasmus, and two grammatical treatises, one by Melanchthon and the other by Thymus. Mosellanus keeps significant company.
= I adopt Bernard's translation of this proverbial phrase from Terence, which Sargeaunt translates as "shoot beyond the mark." Erasmus interprets, "we are admonished lest we so flee one evil that uncautiously we fall into another greater" (Erasmus, Adagio (Basle, r574), p. r27).
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