as they give ear to precepts, to laws, to religon, sweetly touched with eloquence and persuasion of books, of sermons, of harangues, so long is society and peace maintained; but if these instruments be silent, or sedition and tumult make them not audible, all things dissolve into anarchy and confusion 3. Proof of this position by shewing the conjunction between learning in the prince and happiness in the people. 64 But for a tablet, or picture of smaller volume, (not presuming to speak of your majesty that liveth,) in my judgment the most excellent is that of queen Elizabeth, your immediate predecessor in this part of Britain; a princess that, if Plutarch were now alive to write lives by parallels, would trouble him, I think, to find for her a parallel amongst women. This lady was endued with learning in her sex singular, and rare even amongst masculine princes ; whether we speak of learning, language, or of science, modern or ancient, divinity or humanity: and unto the very last year of her life she was accustomed to appoint set hours for reading, scarcely any young student in an university more daily, or more duly. As for her government, I assure myself, I shall not exceed, if I do affirm that this part of the island never had forty-five years of better times; and yet not through the calmness of the season, but through the wisdom of her regimen. For if there be considered of the one side, the truth of religion established, the constant peace and security, the good administration of justice, the temperate use of the prerogative, not slackened, nor much strained, the flourishing state of learning, sortable to so excellent a patroness, the convenient estate of wealth and means, both of crown and subject, the habit of obedience, and the moderation of discontents; and there be considered, on the other side, the differences of religion, the troubles of neighbour countries, the ambition of Spain, and opposition of Rome, and then, that she was solitary and of herself: these things, I say, considered, as I could not have chosen an instance so recent and so proper, so, I suppose, I could not have chosen one more remarkable or eminent to the pur pose now in hand, which is concerning the conjunction of learning in the prince with felicity in the people.(k) 3. There is a concurrence between learning and military virtue 69 78 When Casar, after war declared, did possess himself of the city of Rome; at which time entering into the inner treasury to take the money there accumulated, Metellus being tribune, forbade him: whereto Cæsar said, “That "if he did not desist, he would lay him dead in the place." And presently taking himself up, he added, " Adolescens, "durius est mihi hoc dicere quàm facere." Young man, it is harder for me to speak than to do it. A speech compounded of the greatest terror and greatest clemency that could proceed out of the mouth of man. 4. Learning improves private virtues 1. It takes away the barbarism of men's minds. 2. It takes away levity, temerity, and insolency. 80 81 If a man meditate much upon the universal frame of nature, the earth with men upon it, the divineness of souls excepted, will not seem much other than an ant-hill, where as some ants carry corn, and some carry their young, and some go empty and all to-and-fro a little heap of dust. 4. It mitigates the fear of death or adverse fortune. Virgil did excellently and profoundly couple the knowledge of causes and the conquest of all fears together, as "concomitantia." "Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas Quique metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum 82 The unlearned man knows not what it is to descend into himself, or to call himself to account; nor the pleasure of that " sua vissima vita, indies sentire se fieri meli (k) This beautiful passage is omitted in the Treatise De Augmentis. Certain it is that "veritas" and "bonitas" differ but as the seal and the print: for truth prints goodness; and they be the clouds of error which descend in the storms of passions and perturbations. 5. Learning is power. (1) 6. Learning advances fortune 7. The pleasure of knowledge is the greatest of plea sures 84 85 We see in all other pleasures there is satiety, and after they be used, their verdure departeth; which sheweth well they be but deceits of pleasure, and not pleasures; and that it was the novelty which pleased, and not the quality : and therefore we see that voluptuous men turn friars, and ambitious princes turn melancholy. But of knowledge there is no satiety, but satisfaction and appetite are perpetually interchangeable. "It is a view of delight, to stand or walk upon the "shore side, and to see a ship tossed with tempest upon "the sea; or to be in a fortified tower, and to see two "battles join upon a plain; but it is a pleasure incompar"able, for the mind of man to be settled, landed, and for"tified in the certainty of truth; and from thence to (6 descry and behold the errors, perturbations, labours, and “wanderings up and down of other men." 8. Learning insures immortality 87 If the invention af the ship was thought so noble, which carrieth riches and commodities from place to place, and consociateth the most remote regions in participation of their fruits, how much more are letters to be magnified, which, as ships, pass through the vast seas of time, and make ages so distant to participate of the wisdom, illuminations, and inventions, the one of the other? Nevertheless, I do not pretend, and I know it will be impossible for me, by any pleading of mine, to reverse the judgment, either of Esop's cock, that preferred the barleycorn before the gem; or of Midas, that being chosen judge (1) See note (L) at the end. between Apollo president of the Muses, and Pan god of the flocks, judged for plenty; or of Paris, that judged for beauty and love against wisdom and power; nor of Agrippina, "occidat matrem, modo imperet," that preferred empire with conditions never so detestable; or of Ulysses, 66 qui vetulam prætulit immortalitati." being a figure of those which prefer custom, and habit before all excellency ; or of a number of the like popular judgments. For these things continue as they have been : but so will that also continue whereupon learning hath ever relied, and which faileth not: "justificata est sapientia a filiis suis.” BOOK II. WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, AND WHAT IS OMITTED. 1. Dedication to the king 2. Preliminary considerations. 1. Modes by which difficulties are overcome. 96 1. Amplitude of reward to encourage exertion. man. 2. The objects about which the acts of merit towards learning are conversant 1. The places of learning. 2. The books of learning. 3. The persons of the learned. I. THE PLACES OF LEARNING. . 91 As water, whether it be the dew of heaven, or the springs of the earth, doth scatter and lose itself in the ground, except it be collected into some receptacle, where it may by union comfort and sustain itself, (and for that cause the industry of man hath made and framed springheads, conduits, cisterns, and pools, which men have accustomed likewise to beautify and adorn with accomplishments of magnificence and state, as well as of use and necessity) so this excellent liquor of knowledge, whether it descend from divine inspiration, or spring from human sense, would soon perish and vanish to oblivion, if it were not preserved in books, traditions, conferences, and places appointed, as universities, colleges, and schools, for the receipt and comforting of the same. 1. Works relating to places of learning. 1. Foundations and buildings. 1. Libraries. 2. II. THE BOOKS OF LEARNING 92 They are as the shrines where all the relics of the ancient saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or imposture, are preserved and reposed. 1. Learned men should be countenanced. 2. There should be rewards. 1. For readers in sciences extant. 2. For inventors. 3. Defects of universities. First defect. Colleges are all dedicated to professions 93 If men judge that learning should be referred to action, they judge well; but in this they fall into the error described in the ancient fable, in which the other parts of the body did suppose the stomach had been idle, because it neither performed the office of motion, as the limbs do, nor of sense, d |