The B. of Sarisburie.
M. Hardinge ouer muche paineth him selfe to prooue that thinge, that no wise man wil denie him. For howe can it seeme likely, that the whole Easte, whiche is in a manner the one halfe parte of the worlde, conteininge so many, and so sun∣drie Nations, shoulde speake al one tongue: seeinge we our selues in this one litle Kingdome of Englande, haue the vse of fiue tongues, and not one of them vnder∣standinge an other? I maruel that M. Hardinge alleged not the Fables of Hero∣dotus, that Bek in the Phrygians tongue signifieth Breade: Kiki in the Egypti∣ans tongue, an ointement: Achmach, one of the Garde: or Alila, or Vrotal, in the Arabike tongue, and suche like. For these might haue stande him in steede of good proufes, yt al the Nations of the whole East parte of the worlde spake not Greeke.
And although we agree with him in the principal, that in the Easte parte were vsed sundrie languages, and likewise that the Greeke tongue was common∣ly vsed emonge the learned, yet his distinction of al in General, and al in Particu∣lar, that he hath here diuised to shifte of S. Hierome, seemeth very homely, and home made. For how cā it be a General, onles it include euery Particular? By M. Hardinges construction we must take, Al, for Some: or, Al, not for the tenth parte of Al: and by this Rhetorique, lesse then halfe is as muche as Al: and so, Al, is not Al. Thus M. Hardinges General is a meere Particular: and to conclude, his General is no General. So weakely, and so loosely his answeare standeth.
As touchinge the Galathians, of whome S. Hierome saithe, that biside their owne natural tongue, they had also the vse of the Greeke, bicause, as Apollodorus saithe, they of al others arriued laste into that Countrie, it is likely, they keapte their owne Barbarous speache longer then others. But, like as, whether they al of al sortes spake Greeke or no, as M. Harding saithe, of necessitie it cannot be prooued, so in deede it