[Sidenote: The examining of all the contentes of this booke.]
And what conclusion haue I set downe wherin they maye not very well agree with me, either for the first impression which set me on worke, or for the proofe, which confirmeth the impression? My first meaning was to procure a generall good, so farre as my abilitie would reach, I do not saye that such a conceit, deserueth no discourtesie for the very motion, how soeuer the effect do aunswere in rate: but this I may well thinke, that my countreymen ought of common courtesie to countenaunce an affection so well quallified, till the euent either shrine it with praise, or shoulder it with repulse. I do not herein take vpon me dictatorlike to pronounce peremptorily, but in waye of counsell, as one of that robe, to shew that, which long teaching hath taught me to saye, by reading somwhat, and obseruing more. And I must pray my good countrymen so to construe my meaning, for being these many yeares by some my freindes prouoked to publish something, and neuer hitherto daring to venture vpon the print, I might seeme to haue let the raine of all modesty runne to lowse, if at my first onset I should seeme like a _Cæsar_ to offerre to make lawes. Howbeit in very deede my yeares growing downward, and some mine obseruations seeming to some folkes to craue some vtteraunce, vpon shew to do some good: I thought rather to hasard my selfe in hope of some mens fauour, then to burie my conceit with most mens wonder. But before I do passe to mine Elementarie, which I meane to publish next after this booke, I must for mine owne contentation examine what I haue done in this, to see whether I haue hit right, or writen any thing that may call repentaunce. 1. Was I not to cut this course, and to begin at Positions? 2. And are not these the cheife and onely groundes in this argument? 3. And in speking of these haue I in any point passed beyond my best beseeming? 1. For the first. Whether I ought to begin at Positions, or no, that is not in doubte now I hope, bycause I made that pointe very plaine in the beginning of my booke: but whether I haue done well to dwell so long in them, that maye seeme to deserue some excuse, if I mislike it my selfe: or els some cause, to satisfie other.