Laudator Temporis Acti

Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, prologue to Book II (tr. J.M. Cohen):

So far as I am concerned, I would have every man put aside his proper business, take no care for his trade, and forget his own affairs, in order to devote himself entirely to this book. I would have him allow no distraction or hindrance from elsewhere to trouble his mind, until he knows it by heart; so that if the art of printing happened to die out, or all books should come to perish, everyone should be able, in time to come, to teach it thoroughly to his children, and to transmit it to his successors and survivors, as if from hand to hand, like some religious Cabala.

Et à la mienne volunté que un chascun laissast sa propre besoine, ne se souciast de son mestier et mist ses affaires propres en oubly, pour y vacquer entierement sans que son esperit feust de ailleurs distraict ny empesché, jusques à ce que l'on les tînt par cueur, affin que, si d'adventure l'art de l'imprimerie cessoit ou en cas que tous livres périssent, on temps advenir un chascun les peust bien au net enseigner à ses enfants, et à ses successeurs et survivens bailler comme de main en main, ainsy que une religieuse caballe.