Second Commentary on the Doctrine of Abstinence

VII

As often as I weigh these things, so often am I drawn into admiration, and most recently, I have come to the same opinion as Morerius, having followed the lead of the AUTHOR OF THE MEMORABLE MATTERS OF BRANDENBURG. For his book, which is inscribed anonymously as Memoires pour servir à l'histoire de la maison de Brandebourg [Memoirs serving for the history of the house of Brandenburg], possesses many things which cannot but please its readers, which attract them, which hold them fast, and which commend themselves. The man who is supreme in all learning, ISAAC CASAUBON, praises Polybius in the letter in which he dedicates him to Henry IV, King of France and Navarre—a letter most full of good fruit—and asserts a glory peculiar to that excellent author, in that he manages two things at once with almost equal care: to narrate and to advise. a) p. 27 a) The founder of the memorable matters of Brandenburg shall not be cheated of the same praise. For he does not commemorate the facts, which also cohere in a most suitable order, in a simple style of speech, but, having investigated the sources and principles of all things, he couples them with pragmatic judgments