Page:A methode or comfortable beginning for all vnlearned (1570).djvu/4

Rh mented and proued the certaintie and profite, in the eae and readinee of the ayde newe maner of teaching, to the comfort of diuers which are extant and liuing, to certifie uch as maye doubt therof: and o the ame is mot profitable for uch as can not read, and are otherwie out of al hope euer to be able to attain to read. Yet I wrote my ayde Treatie for the learned ort to conider of, to proue what they woulde like or milike thereof: and finding that few haue thought it worth their labour to reade, and fewer, yet ome uch as to their learning are of greater experience & acquaintance with vulgare tongues of our Southerly neighbors, haue ounded it o deepely as to foreee the commodity which may come by the renuing, and haue wihed the meanes were deuied and put in execution, for the general ve therof: which they themelues could not begin, except they knew others (to whome they might write) were in likewie perfite therein. And the other ort finding themelues erued, haue no regarde to the multitude, liuing nor for to come. It is manifet that no priuate man, or any one profeion of men, eyther of the Uniuerities, or of the Innes of Court, or of Marchaunts, or Scriueners, are able vpon a odaine to chaunge a peoples manner of writing, no more than of their peaking: and yet time and occaions haue done both, and that much in England within thee few hundreds of yeares. And if a certaintie, order, and reaon may by experience be found to be profitable for the vnlearned ort, it may in hort time preuaile generally: for the effect of writing coniteth not in the letter, but to hew what is ment by the letter. So that, as there is no thankes nor benifite to be hoped for, in the continuaunce of uch letters as our prediceors ved: no more hall it offende or grieve any reaonable creature liuing, to ée other letters ved, than uch as hée hath learned, nor is any man bounde to the hape of this or that letter, but that which is eaiet to be written, and bet giueth the Reader the vndertanding of the writers meaning, and is mot eaieft to be taught, to the ignorant of all letters, that is to be accounted the bet maner of writing. And therefore, when the learned ort of all poeions hall ée the experience, how eaily, and