weEN fa 
II. 7.] THE FIRST BOOK. re 25. 
barbarous, but the moral is good: for men ought not by 
2 \ sate | a= tele ae reper pane and_penetrate 
|fSto Hie Heats sot Sings, which the. scripture hath de- 
\clared tobe inscrutable... 
| "8. There is yet another fault (with which I will con- 
clude this part) which is often noted in learned | men, | that 
they do: many times fail to observe observe decency 3 and discre- 
tion in their_behaviour _and_carriagé, and commit. errors 
in small and ordinary points of action, so as the vulgar 
sort of f capacities do make a judgement ¢ of them in greater 
matters by that which they find wanting in them in 
smaller. But this consequence doth oft deceive men, 
for which I do refer them over to that which was said by 
Themistocles, arrogantly and uncivilly being applied to 
himself out of his own mouth, but, being applied to the 
general state of this question, pertinently and justly; 
when being invited to touch a lute he said He could 
not fiddle, but he could make a small town a great state. 
So no doubt many may be well seen in the passages of 
government and policy, which are to seek in little and 
punctual occasions. I refer them also to that which 
Plato said of his master Socrates, whom he compared 
to the gallipots of apothecaries, which on the outside had 
apes and owls and antiques but contained within so- 
vereign and precious liquors and confections ; acknow- 
ledging that to an external report he was not without 
superficial levities and deformities, but was inwardly re- 
plenished with excellent virtues and powers. And so 
~_—Much-touching the point of manners of learned men. 
g. But in the mean time I have no purpose to give 
allowance to some conditions and courses base and 
unworthy, wherein divers professors of learning have 
wronged themselves and gone too far; such as were 
