Now this, you must know, being my chapter upon chapters, which I promised to write before I went to sleep, I thought it meet to ease my conscience entirely before I laid down, by telling the world all I knew about the matter at once: Is not this ten times better than to set out dogmatically with a sententious parade of wisdom, and telling the world a story of a roasted horse----that chapters relieve the mind--that they assist--or impose upon the imagination--and that in a work of this dramatic cast they are as necessary as the shifting of scenes----with fifty other cold conceits, enough to extinguish the fire which roasted him? --O! but to understand this, which is a puff at the fire of _Diana's_ temple--you must read _Longinus_--read away--if you are not a jot the wiser by reading him the first time over--never fear--read him again--_Avicenna_ and _Licetus_ read _Aristotle's_ metaphysicks forty times through apiece, and never understood a single word. --But mark the consequence--_Avicenna_ turned out a desperate writer at all kinds of writing--for he wrote books _de omni scribili_; and for _Licetus_ (_Fortunio_) though all the world knows he was born a ftus,[4.6] of no more than five inches and a half in length, yet he grew to that astonishing height in literature, as to write a book with a title as long as himself------the learned know I mean his _Gonopsychanthropologia_, upon the origin of the human soul.

Now this, you must know, being my chapter upon chapters, which I promised to write before I went to sleep, I thought I should ease my conscience by telling the world all I knew about the matter at once. Is not this ten times better than setting out with a parade of wisdom, and saying that chapters relieve the mind - assist the reader - and that in a work of this dramatic cast they are as necessary as the scene-shifting?
O! but to understand this, you must read Longinus - if you are no wiser after that, never fear, read him again - Avicenna and Licetus read Aristotle's metaphysics forty times, and never understood a single word. But mark the consequence - Avicenna turned out a desperate writer; and as for Licetus, though all the world knows he was born a foetus of only five inches and a half in length, yet he grew to such astonishing height in literature as to write a book with a title as long as himself - the learned know I mean his Gonopsychanthropologia, upon the origin of the human soul.
