II. 8.] THE FIRST BOOK. 



assuredly a mere depravation and calumny, without 

 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 man can by a light. 

 And it is without all controversy, that learning doth make 

 the minds of men gentle, generous, maniable, and pliant 

 to government ; whereas ignorance makes them churlish, 

 thwart, and mutinous: and the evidence of time doth 

 clear this assertion, considering that the most barbarous, 

 rude, and unlearned times have been most subject to 

 tumults, seditions, and changes. 



9. And as to the judgement of Cato the Censor, he 

 was well punished for his blasphemy against learning, in 

 the same kind wherein he offended ; for when he was 

 past threescore years old, he was taken with an extreme 

 desire to go to school again, and to learn the Greek 

 tongue, to the end to peruse the Greek authors ; which 

 doth well demonstrate that his former censure of the 

 Grecian learning was rather an affected gravity, than 

 according to the inward sense of his own opinion. And 

 as for Virgil s verses, though it pleased him to brave the 

 world in taking to the Romans the art of empire, and 

 leaving to others the arts of subjects ; yet so much is 

 manifest that the Romans never ascended to that height 

 of empire, till the time they had ascended to the height of 

 other arts. For in the time of the two first Caesars, which 

 had the art of government in greatest perfection, there 

 lived the best poet, Virgilius Maro ; the best historio 

 grapher, Titus Livius ; the best antiquary, Marcus Varro ; 

 and the best, or second orator, Marcus Cicero, that to 

 the memory of man are known. As for the accusation 



c 



