2 om 7 at? ees 
_ 
22 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [its 
to them as they are learned; except it be a fault (which 
was the supposed fault of Demosthenes, Cicero, Cato the 
second, Seneca, and many more) that because the times . 
they read of are commonly better than the times they live 
in, and the duties taught better than the duties practised, 
they contend sometimes too far to bring things to per- 
fection, and to reduce the corruption of manners to 
honesty of precepts or examples of too great height. 
And yet hereof they have’ caveats enough in their own 
walks. For Solon, when he was asked whether he had 
given his citizens the best laws, answered wisely, Yea of 
such as they would receive : and Plato, finding that his own 
heart could not agree with the corrupt manners of his 
country, refused to bear place or office; saying, Zhat a@ 
man’s country was to be used as his parents were, that ts, 
with humble persuasions, and not with contestations. And 
Ceesar’s counsellor put in the same caveat, Von ad vetera 
tnstitula revocans que jampridem corruptis moribus ludibrio 
sunt: and Cicero noteth this error directly in Cato the 
second, when he writes to his friend Atticus ; Cav/o opiime 
senttt, sed nocet interdum retpublice ; loguitur enim lanquam 
in republicd Platonis, non tanquam in fece Romuli. And 
the same Cicero doth excuse and expound the philo- 
sophers for going too far and being too exact in their 
prescripts, when he saith, Js/¢ spsz preceplores virtues et 
magistri videntur fines officiorum paulo longius quam natura 
vellet proiulisse, ut cum ad ultimum animo contendissemus, tbt 
tamen, ubt oportet, consisteremus: and yet himself might 
have said, Monzit’s sum minor ipse meis ; for it was his 
own fault, though not in so extreme a degree. 
6. Another fault likewise much of this kind hath been 
incident to learned men; which is, that_they-have™ es- 
teemed the preservation, good, and honour of their 
— a 
