2 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [2. 



and faculties, which the Philosophers call intellectual ; 

 the largeness of your capacity, the faithfulness of your 

 memory, the swiftness of your apprehension, the pene 

 tration of your judgement, and the facility and order of 

 your elocution : and I have often thought, that of all the 

 persons living that I have known, your Majesty were 

 the best instance to make a man of Plato s opinion, 

 that all knowledge is but remembrance, and that the 

 mind of man by nature knoweth all things, and hath 

 but her own native and original notions (which by the 

 strangeness and darkness of this tabernacle of the body 

 are sequestered) again revived and restored : such a light 

 of nature I have observed in your Majesty, and such a 

 readiness to take flame and blaze from the least occasion 

 presented, or the least spark of another s knowledge de 

 livered. And as the Scripture saith of the wisest king, 

 That his heart was as the sands of the sea ; which though 

 it be one of the largest bodies, yet it consisteth of the 

 smallest and finest portions ; so hath God given your 

 Majesty a composition of understanding admirable, being 

 able to compass and comprehend the greatest matters, 

 and nevertheless to touch and apprehend the least ; 

 whereas it should seem an impossibility in nature, for 

 the same instrument to make itself fit for great and 

 small works. And for your gift of speech, I call to mind 

 what Cornelius Tacitus saith of Augustus Coesar: Augusto 

 profluens, et qua principem deceret, eloquentia fuit. For if 

 we note it well, speech that is uttered with labour and 

 difficulty, or speech that savoureth of the affectation of 

 art and precepts, or speech that is framed after the imita 

 tion of some pattern of eloquence, though never so ex 

 cellent; all this hath somewhat servile, and holding of 

 the subject. But your Majesty s manner of speech is 



