Page:The Fables of Bidpai (Panchatantra).djvu/111
hereof wrote it doubtlesse with great iudgement, trayned thereto with a feruent desire that their doctrine shoulde not onely remayne in perpetuitie for euer, but that it shoulde also be imprinted in the Readers minde, assuring themselues it shoulde profite all, and dislyke none. For it maye in maner be called an artificiall memorie, to benefite themselues at all times and seasons, and in all argumentes, with euerye perticular thing these wise and graue men haue inuented, shadowed with tales and parables, and with the examples of brute and dumme beastes.
The Sages of auncient nations (expert in all the Sciences) diſrous to publiſhe to thoſe that came after them their great knowledge and wiſedome, euen with a determinate minde and counſell premeditate decreed to ſet foorth a peece of woorke, adapted with diuers ſimilitudes andſundrie compariſons of vnreaſonable beaſts and birds, by which they might greatly beautifie their doctrine, and this they did for diuers reſpectes. Firſt, to give occaſion that their wiſedome and learning ſhould be knowne to the worlde. Secondly, that men of iudgement and diſcretion reading the ſame might reape the benefite of their rules to direct this fraile lyfe. Thirdlye, that hee thatunderstandeth