3 1 THE FIRST BOOK. 3 



indeed prince-like, flowing as from a fountain, and yet 

 streaming and branching itself into nature s order, full of 

 facility and felicity, imitating none, and inimitable by any. 

 And as in your civil estate there appeareth to be an emul 

 ation and contention of your Majesty s virtue with your 

 fortune ; a virtuous disposition with a fortunate regiment; 

 a virtuous expectation (when time was) of your greater 

 fortune, with a prosperous possession thereof in the due 

 time ; a virtuous observation of the laws of marriage, with 

 most blessed and happy fruit of marriage ; a virtuous and 

 most Christian desire of peace, with a fortunate inclination 

 in your neighbour princes thereunto : so likewise in these 

 intellectual matters, there seemeth to be no less con 

 tention between the excellency of your Majesty s gifts of 

 nature and the universality and perfection of your learn 

 ing. For I am well assured that this which I shall say is 

 no amplification at all, but a positive and measured truth ; 

 which is, that there hath not been since Christ s time any 

 king or temporal monarch, which hath been so learned in 

 all literature and erudition, divine and human. For let a 

 man seriously and diligently revolve and peruse the suc 

 cession of the emperors of Rome, of which Caesar the 

 Dictator, who lived some years before Christ, and Marcus 

 Antoninus were the best learned ; and so descend to the 

 emperors of Grecia, or of the West, and then to the 

 lines of France, Spain, England, Scotland, and the rest, 

 and he shall find this judgement is truly made. For it 

 seemeth much in a king, if, by the compendious ex 

 tractions of other men s wits and labours, he can take 

 hold of any superficial ornaments and shows of learning ; 

 or if he countenance and prefer learning and learned 

 men : but to drink indeed of the true fountains of learn 

 ing, nay, to have such a fountain of learning in himself, 



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