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La re 
72 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, [VIUll.5. 
errors, perturbations, labours, and wanderings up ang. down 
- of other men. 
6. Lastly, leaving the vulgar arguments,-that by learn- 
ing man excelleth man in that wherein man excelleth 
—beasts; that by learning man ascendeth to the heavens 
and their motions, where in body he cannot come; and 
the like ; let us conclude with the dignity and excellency 
of knowledge and learning in that whereunto man’s na- 
ture doth most aspire, which is immortality or continu- 
je —ance; for to this tendeth generation, and raisin of houses 
and families; to this tend buildings, foundatitng, and 
monuments ; to this tendeth the desire of memory; fame, 
and celebration ; and in effect the strength of all other 
human desires. We see then how far the monuments of 
wit and learning are more a than the monuments 
of power or of the hands. “For have not ‘the verses of 
Homer continued twenty-five hundred years, or~- more, 
without the loss of a syllable or letter ;: during which time 
I infinite palaces, temples, castles, cities, have been decayed 
zo —and demolished? It is not possible to have the true pig- 
tures or statuaes of Cyrus, Alexander, Czesar, no nor \ 
the kings or great personages of much later years; for 
the originals cannot last, and the copies cannot but leese 
of the life and truth. But the images of men’s wits and 
~ knowledges remain in books, exempted from the’ wrong 
of time and capable of perpetual renovation?” Neither 
are they fitly to be called images, because they géfierate 
still, and cast their seeds in the minds of others, pro- 
voking and causing infinite actions and opinions in suc- 
2.~ceeding ages. So that if the invention of the ship was 
thought so noble, which carrieth richés and commodities 
from place to place, and consociateth the most remote 
regions in participation of their fruits, how much more 
