OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [l. 5. 



highest cause ; but when a man passeth on further, and 

 seeth the dependence of causes, and the works of Pro- 

 / vidence, then, according to the allegory of the poets, he 

 y will easily- believe that the highest link of nature s chain 

 f must needs be tied to the foot of Jupiter s chair. To 

 conclude therefore, let no man upon a weak conceit of 

 sobriety or an ill-applied moderation think or maintain, 

 that a man can search too far, or be too well studied in 

 the book of God s word, or in the book of God s works, 

 divinity or philosophy ; but rather let men endeavour an 

 endless progress or proficience in both; only let men 

 beware that they apply both to charity, and not to 

 swelling ; to use, and not to ostentation ; and again, 

 that they do not unwisely mingle or confound these 

 learnings together. 



II. i. And as for the disgrai^&-As4Trek-4earning .xe^ 



be of this nature; that 

 learning doth soften men s r 



\s 



learning doth soften men s minds, and makes them 

 more unapt for the honour and exercise of arms ; that it 



doth mar and pervert men s dispositions for matter of 

 government and policy, in making them too curious and 

 irresolute by variety of reading, or too peremptory or 

 Positive by strictness of rules and axioms, or too im- 

 [moderate and overweening by reason of the greatness 

 ipf examples, or too incompatible and differing from the 

 ftimes by reason of the dissimilitude of examples ; or at 

 least, that it doth divert men s travails from action and 

 business, and bringeth them to a love of leisure and 

 : privateness ; and that it doth bring into states a relaxa 

 tion of discipline, whilst every man is more ready to 

 argue than to obey and execute. Out of this conceit, 

 Cato, surnamed the Censor, one of the wisest men 

 indeed that ever lived, when Carneades the philosopher 



