OBSERVATIONS ON A LIBEL. 391 



VI. Certain true general notes upon the actions 

 of the. lord Burleigh. 



VII. Of divers particular untruths and abuses 

 dispersed through the libel. 



VIII. Of the height of impudency that these 

 men are grown into, in publishing and avouching 

 untruths ; with a particular recital of some of them 

 for an assay. 



I. Of the scope or drift of the libeller. 



It is good advice, in dealing with cautelous and 

 malicious persons, whose speech is ever at distance 

 with their meanings, &quot; non quid dixerint, sed quo 

 &quot; spectarint, videndum :&quot; a man is not to regard 

 what they affirm, or what they hold ; but what they 

 would convey under their pretended discovery, and 

 what turn they would serve. It soundeth strangely 

 in the ears of an Englishman, that the miseries of 

 the present state of England exceed them of former 

 times whatsoever. One would straightway think 

 with himself, doth this man believe what he saith 1 

 Or, not believing it, doth he think it possible to 

 make us believe it ? Surely, in my conceit, neither 

 of both; but his end, no doubt, was to round the 

 pope and the king of Spain in the ear, by seeming 

 to tell a tale to the people of England. For such 

 books are ever wont to be translated into divers 

 languages ; and, no doubt, the man was not so 

 simple as to think he could persuade the people of 

 England the contrary of what they taste and feel. 

 But he thought he might better abuse the states 



