pose now in hand, which is concerning the conjunction of learning in the prince with felicity in the people.(k) 69 3. There is a concurrence between learning and military virtue 78 When Cæsar, 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 Casar 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 quam 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 5. It disposes the mind not to be fixed in its defects 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" orem.." (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 84 7. The pleasure of knowledge is the greatest of plea sures 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 "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 aad love against wisdom and power; nor of Agrippina, " occidat matrem, modo imperet," that preferred empire with conditions never so detestable; or of Ulysses, " 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. 1. Amplitude of reward to encourage exertion. 2. Soundness of direction to prevent confusion. 96 3. Conjunction of labours to supply the frailty of man. 8. 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 1. Works relating to places of learning. 1. Libraries. 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. 2. New editions of authors. III. THE PERSONS OF THE LEARNED 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 108 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 as the head doth; but yet, notwithstanding, it is the stomach that digesteth and distributeth to all the rest: so if any man think philosophy and universality to be idle studies, he doth not consider that all professions are from thence served and supplied. And this I take to be a great cause that hath hindered the progression of learning, because these fundamental knowledges have been studied but in passage. For if you will have a tree bear more fruit than it hath used to do, it is not any thing you can do to the boughs, but it is the stirring of the earth, and putting new mould about the roots, that must work it. It is injurious to government that there is not any collegiate education for statesmen Second defect. The salaries of lecturers are too small 110 94 If you will have sciences flourish, you must observe David's military law, which was, "That those which staid " with the carriage should have equal part with those which "were in the action. Third defect. There are not sufficient funds for providing models, instruments, experiments, &c. (m) 95 Fourth defect. There is a neglect in the governors of consultation, and, in superiors of visitation as to the propriety of continuing or amending the established courses of study 1. Scholars study logic and rhetoric (n) 95 96 For minds empty and unfraught with matter, and which have not gathered that which Cicero calleth " Sylva" and " supellex," stuff and variety, to begin with those arts, (as if one should learn to weigh, or to measure, or to paint the wind), doth work but this effect, that the wisdom of those arts, which is great and universal, is almost made contemptible, and is degenerate into childish sophistry and ridiculous affectation. (n) (m) See note (M) at the end. (n) See note (N) at the end. |