Jeremias Triverius Galen's Method

Jeremias Triverius (Drivere) explains the methods of Galen:

"Now Galen also held that the definitive way is more suitable for memory and for brevity (compendium): indeed he explained the reason for the one but hid the reason for the other—or rather it is obscure in itself. Therefore we must discriminate all the kinds of prolixity and brevity, for there are many of them. First of all, he who does not understand a Subject very well is prolix. For how can he teach briefly if he only knows the subject in a cloudy fashion? Another is when a person knows the subject quite well and has his thoughts on the tip of his tongue but cannot find the words: and so he too is unable to express anything briefly but wanders around aimlessly. Moreover these forms of prolixity and brevity do not arise from the nature of the doctrine itself but from the aptitude of the teacher—or rather his lack of knowledge. Whence it comes about that the Ancients had a twofold short cut over us for the purpose of brevity: a supply of words and a thorough knowledge of things them- selves. Far different is the manner of those who write compendia today: they omit the more detailed and all the best problems and breeze through the more general aspects of their subject, already known to all, with a light touch, so that there is neither much art nor much utility to their work. The fourth mode of brevity is that of those who hurry on to the conclusions of an art but omit the reasons." Gilbert, Renaissance Concepts of Method, 105.