Skip to main content

Full text of "Roger Ascham Toxophilus 1545"

See other formats


102

No man wyll denie that.
fl But yet to hit the marke alwayfe w^re an
excellent thyng.

KQX, Excellent furelie.

Pfjil Than I am fure thofe be wifer men, which
couete to Ihoote wyde than thofe whiche couete to hit
the prycke.

2T0x, Why fo I pray you.

Pfjtl Becaufe to fhote wyde is a thynge poffyble,
and therfore as you faye youre felfe, of euery wyfe
man to be folowed. And as for hittinge ye prick,
bycaufe it is vnpoffible, it were a vaine thynge to go
aboute it ; but in good fadneffe Toxophile thus you fe
that a man might go throghe all craftes and fciences,
and proue that anye man in his fcience coueteth that
which he fhal neuer gette.

2C0it By my trouth (as you faye) I can not denye,
but they do fo : but why and wherfore they fhulde do
fo, I can not learne.

Pfjilo. I wyll tell you, euerye crafte and fcience
ftandeth in two thynges : in Knowing of his crafte, and
Working of his crafte : For perfyte knowlege bringeth
a man to perfyte workyng. This knowe Paynters,
karuers, Taylours, fhomakers, and all other craftes
men, to be true. Nowe, in euery crafte, there is a
perfite excellencie, which may be better knowen in a
mannes mynde, then folowed in a mannes dede : This
perfyteneffe, bycaufe it is generally layed as a brode
wyde example afore al men, no one particuler man
is able to compaffe it ; and as it is generall to al men,
fo it is perpetuall for al time whiche proueth it a
thynge for man vnpoffible : although not for the ca-
pacitie of our thinkyng whiche is heauenly, yet furetye
for the habilitie of our workyng whyche is worldlye.

God gyueth not full perfyteneffe to one man (fayth
Tullie) left if one man had all in any one
fcience, ther fhoulde be nothyng lefte for    De< Inuena-
an other.    Yet God fuffereth vs to haue the perfvt
knowledge of it, that fuch a knowledge dilligentiy