§10.2.1ex his ceterisque lectione dignis auctoribus et verborum sumenda copia est et varietas figurarum et componendi ratio, tum ad exemplum virtutum omnium mens dirigenda.
From these and other authors worthy of reading, an abundance of words must be taken, as well as a variety of figures and the method of composition, and then the mind must be directed to the example of all virtues.
neque enim dubitari potest, quin artis pars magna contineatur imitatione.
For it cannot be doubted that a great part of art is contained in imitation.
nam ut invenire primum fuit estque praecipuum, sic ea, quae bene inventa sunt, utile sequi.
For just as finding was first and is primary, so it is useful to follow those things which have been well found.
§10.2.2atque omnis vitae ratio sic constat, ut quae probamus in aliis facere ipsi velimus.
And the whole system of life is so established that we wish to do ourselves what we approve in others.
sic litterarum ductus, ut scribendi fiat usus, pueri sequuntur, sic musici vocem docentium, pictores opera priorum, rustici probatam experimento culturam in exemplum intuentur; omnis denique disciplinae initia ad propositum sibi praescriptum formari videmus.
Thus children follow the traces of letters so that the habit of writing may be formed, thus musicians look to the voice of those who teach, painters to the works of their predecessors, and farmers to cultivation proven by experience as an example; in short, we see the beginnings of every discipline being formed according to the model prescribed for them.
§10.2.3et hercule necesse est aut similes aut dissimiles bonis sirus.
And by Hercules, it is necessary that we be either similar or dissimilar to the good.
similem raro natura praestat, frequenter imitatio.
Nature rarely provides a similar person, imitation frequently does.
sed hoc ipsum, quod tanto faciliorem nobis rationem rerum omnium facit quam fuit iis, qui nihil quod sequerentur habuerunt, nisi caute et cum iudicio apprehenditur, nocet.
But this very fact, which makes the system of all things so much easier for us than it was for those who had nothing to follow, does harm unless it is apprehended cautiously and with judgment.
§10.2.4ante omnia igitur imitatio per se ipsa non sufficit, vel quia pigri est ingenii contentum esse iis, quae sint ab allis inventa.
Before all things, therefore, imitation by itself is not sufficient, if only because it belongs to a lazy mind to be content with those things which have been found by others.
quid enim futurum erat temporibus illis, quae sine exemplo fuerunt, si homines nihil, nisi quod iam cognovissent, faciendum sibi aut cogitandum putassent? nempe nihil fuisset inventum.
For what would have happened in those times which were without example, if men had thought that nothing was to be done or thought by them except what they had already known? Surely, nothing would have been found.
§10.2.5cur igitur nefas est reperiri aliquid a nobis, quod ante non fuerit? an illi rudes sola mentis natura ducti sunt in hoc ut tam multa generarent, nos ad quaerendum non eo ipso concitemur, quod certe scimus invenisse eos qui quaesierunt?
Why then is it a sin for something to be found by us which did not exist before? Or while those uncivilized men, led solely by the nature of the mind, were brought to generate so many things, are we not stirred to inquiry by the very fact that we know for certain that those who sought did find?
§10.2.6et cum illi, qui nullum cuiusquam rei habuerunt magistrum, plurima in posteros tradiderunt, nobis usus aliarum rerum ad eruendas alias non proderit, sed nihil habebimus nisi beneficii alieni? quemadmodum quidam pictores in id solum student, ut describere tabulas mensuris ac lineis sciant.
And when those who had no teacher of any matter handed down so very much to posterity, will the use of other things not profit us for unearthing others, but we shall have nothing except of another's benefit? Just as certain painters strive solely for this, that they may know how to copy pictures by measures and lines.
§10.2.7turpe etiam illud est, contentum esse id consequi quod imiteris.
That also is disgraceful, to be content to attain only that which you imitate.
nam rursus quid erat futurum, si nemo plus effecisset eo quem sequebatur? nihil in poetis supra Livium Andronicum, nihil in historiis supra Pontificum annales haberemus; ratibus adhuc navigaremus; non esset pictura, nisi quae lineas modo extremas umbrae, quam corpora in sole fecissent, circumscriberet.
For again, what would have happened if no one had accomplished more than the one he was following? We would have nothing in the poets above Livius Andronicus, nothing in histories above the annals of the Pontiffs; we would still be sailing on rafts; there would be no painting except that which merely circumscribed the outermost lines of the shadow which bodies had made in the sun.
§10.2.8ac si omnia percenseas, nulla mansit ars, qualis inventa est, nec intra initium stetit, nisi forte nostra potissimum tempora damnamus huius infelicitatis, ut nunc demum nihil crescat.
And if you should run through all things, no art remained as it was found, nor did it stand within its beginning, unless perchance we condemn our own times above all of this unhappiness, that now at last nothing grows.
nihil autem crescit sola imitatione.
But nothing grows by imitation alone.
§10.2.9quodsi prioribus adiicere fas non est, quomodo sperare possumus illum oratorem perfectum? cum in his, quos maximos adhuc novimus, nemo sit inventus, in quo nihil aut desideretur aut reprehendatur.
But if it is not permitted to add to predecessors, how can we hope for that perfect orator? Since among those whom we have known as the greatest so far, no one has been found in whom nothing is either wanted or blamed.
sed etiam qui summa non appetent, contendere potius quam sequi debent.
But even those who will not aim at the highest things ought to strive rather than to follow.
nam qui hoc agit ut prior sit, §10.2.10forsitan, etiamsi non transierit, aequabit.
For he who strives for this, to be first, will perhaps, even if he does not surpass, equal.
eum vero nemo potest aequare, cuius vestigiis sibi utique insistendum putat; necesse est enim semper sit posterior qui sequitur.
But no one can equal him in whose footsteps he thinks he must by all means tread; for it is necessary that he who follows is always behind.
adde quod plerumque facilius est plus facere quam idem.
Add that it is generally easier to do more than the same.
tantam enim difficultatem habet similitudo, ut ne ipsa quidem natura in hoc ita evaluerit, ut non res quae simillimae, quaeque pares maxime videantur, utique discrimine aliquo discernantur.
For similarity has such great difficulty that not even nature herself has so prevailed in this that things which seem most similar and most equal are not by all means distinguished by some difference.