Truth Lies Open to All, by Ben Jonson

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For to all the observations of the Ancients, we have our own experience: which, if we will use, and apply, we have better means to pronounce. It is true they open’d the gates, and made the way that went before us; but as Guides, not Commanders: Non Domini nostri, sed Duces fuere.* Truth lies open to all; it is no man’s several.* Patet omnibus veritas; nondum est occupata. Multum ex illa, etiam futuris relicta est.

If in some things I dissent from others, whose Wit, Industry, Diligence, and Judgement I look up at, and admire: let me not therefore hear presently of Ingratitude, and Rashness. For I thank those, that have taught me, and will ever: but yet dare not think the scope of their labour, and enquiry, was to envy their posterity, what they also could add, and find out.

by Ben Jonson 1572-1637

From ‘Timber: or, Discoveries, Made Upon Men and Matter’ (1641), by Ben Jonson (1572-1637).

* The Latin sentences in this paragraph come from the Letters of Seneca, No. 34. In his translation of the letters, Richard M. Gummere gave: “Men who have made these discoveries before us are not our masters, but our guides. Truth lies open for all; it has not yet been monopolized. And there is plenty of it left even for posterity to discover.” Jonson translates all but the last of these for us; he leaves that for the sentiment expressed in the whole of the next paragraph.

* ‘Several’ means private property, property legally owned by specific individuals as opposed to common land.

Précis

The ancients, said Jonson, are our teachers and guides, to whom we should be grateful, and from whom we continue to learn; but it is not disrespectful of us to continue their work of discovery. They do not own Nature’s truth any more than we do, and they would not have begrudged us our chance to reveal more of it.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

Why did Jonson expect to be accused of ingratitude?

Suggestion

Because he had dared question his teachers.

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Jonson respected his teachers. He questioned their ideas. He did not think this ungrateful.

See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.

ILack. IIPrevent. IIISubject.

Précis

Questions for Critics

Sevens

Jigsaws

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