THE FIRST BOOK. 21 



would wear ; or because it putteth them in mind of their 

 fortune, and giveth them occasion to pleasure and displeasure ; 

 or because it exerciseth some faculty wherein they take pride, 

 and so entertaineth them in good-humour and pleasing conceits 

 towards themselves ; or because it advanceth any other their 

 ends. So that as it is said of untrue valours, that some men s 

 valours are in the eyes of them that look on, so such men s 

 industries are in the eyes of others, or, at least, in regard of 

 their own designments ; only learned men love business as an 

 action according to nature, as agreeable to health of mind as 

 exercise is to health of body, taking pleasure in the action 

 itself, and not in the purchase, so that of all men they are the 

 most indefatigable, if it be towards any business which can 

 hold or detain their mind. 



(6) And if any man be laborious in reading and study, and 

 yet idle in business and action, it groweth from some weakness 

 of body or softness of spirit, such as Seneca speaketh of : 

 Quidam tarn sunt umbratiles, ut putent in turbido esse quicquid 

 in luce est ; and not of learning : well may it be that such a 

 point of a man s nature may make him give himself to learning, 

 but it is not learning that breedeth any such point in his 

 nature. 



(7) And that learning should take up too much time or 

 leisure : I answer, the most active or busy man that hath been 

 or can be, hath (no question) many vacant times of leisure 

 while he expecteth the tides and returns of business (except 

 he be either tedious and of no despatch, or lightly and un 

 worthily ambitious to meddle in things that may be better 

 done by others), and then the question is but how those spaces 

 and times of leisure shall be filled and spent; whether in 

 pleasure or in studies ; as was well answered by Demosthenes 

 to his adversary ^schines, that was a man given to pleasure, 

 and told him &quot;That his orations did smell of the lamp.&quot; 

 &quot;Indeed,&quot; said Demosthenes, &quot;there is a great difference 

 between the things that you and I do by lamp-light.&quot; So as 

 no man need doubt that learning will expel business, but 

 rather it will keep and defend the possession of the mind 

 against idleness and pleasure, which otherwise at unawares 

 may enter to the prejudice of both. 



(8) Again, for that other conceit that learning should under 

 mine the reverence of laws and government, it is assuredly a 

 mere depravation and calumny, without all shadow of truth. 

 For to say that a blind custom of obedience should be a surer 

 obligation than duty taught and understood, it is to affirm 

 that a blind man may tread surer by a guide than a seeing 





