22 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, [ill. 5 



to them as they are learned ; except it be a fault (which 

 was the supposed fault of Demosthenes, Cicero, Cato the 

 second, Seneca, and many more) that because the times 

 they read of are commonly better than the times they live 

 in, and the duties taught better than the duties practised, 

 they contend sometimes too far to bring things to per 

 fection, and to reduce the corruption of manners to 

 honesty of precepts or examples of too great height. 

 And yet hereof they have caveats enough in their own 

 walks. For Solon, when he was asked whether he had 

 given his citizens the best laws, answered wisely, Yea of 

 such as they would receive : and Plato, finding that his own 

 heart could not agree with the corrupt manners of his 

 country, refused to bear place or office ; saying, That a 

 man s country was to be used as his parents were, that is, 

 with humble persuasions, and not with contestations. And 

 Caesar s counsellor put in the same caveat, Non ad vetera 

 instituta revocans qua jampridem corruptis moribus ludibrio 

 sunt: and Cicero noteth this error directly in Cato the 

 second, when he writes to his friend Atticus ; Cato optime 

 sentit, sed nocet interdum reipublicce ; loquitur enim tanquam 

 in republic d Platonis, non tanquam in face Romuli. And 

 the same Cicero doth excuse and expound the philo 

 sophers for going too far and being too exact in their 

 prescripts, when he saith, Isti ipsi prceceptores virtutis et 

 magistri videntur fines officiorum paulo longius quam natura 

 v el let protulisse, ut cum ad uUimum animo contendissemus, ibi 

 tamen, ubi oportet, consisteremus : and yet himself might 

 have said, Monitis sum minor ipse meis ; for it was his 

 own fault, though not in so extreme a degree. 



6. Another fault likewise much of this kind hath been 

 incident to learned men ; which is, that they have es 

 teemed the preservation, good, and honour of their 



