Witnesses be proofes of things done or not done, whose office is to speake what they haue heard or knowne: the confirmation or confutation of which proofe dependeth vpon the goodnesse or euilnesse of the persons.
He that wil write or speake of any matter probably, wisely, or copiously: or will vnderstand the effect, tenor, arguments, and proofes of other mens speaches, and writings, hath as much need to be practised in these places, as a Huntsman is in knowing the haunts of his game which hee hunteth, for with∣out that, he shall wander long time in vaine, and hardly find that which he seeketh: neither is it enough to know the pla∣ces, vnlesse you can aptly applie them and vse them when oc∣casion shall serue, in disputations made either by mouth or pen, which requireth a continuall exerciso of such as will be perfect therein. And therefore to the intent you might the better learne how to exercise your selfe in the foresaid places, I haue thought good here to giue you at the least one example set downe by Hunneus in his Logicke: the Theame of which example is thus: Man ought to embrace vertue: which Theam hee doth not onely handle after the Logicall manner with short speach, but also after the Rhetoricall manner with co∣pious speach, vsing therein this threefold order: For first, hee bringeth in such proofes as are to be gathered in respect of the subiect of the Theame. Secondly, those that are to be gathe∣red in respect of the Predicate of the same: and thirdly, those that are to be had in respect of both.