[xii] NOTE F. 



teraplation who live, tanquam in Republica Platonis : non tan- 

 quam in face Romuli. 



From the errors of youth nothing is to be dreaded. Imme 

 diate evil is prevented by the intelligence of the community 

 standing on the old ways : ultimate evil is prevented by youth 

 discovering its errors : for whatever may be its imaginations 

 of human perfection, it soon learns that. u In Orpheus s theatre, 

 all beasts and birds assembled ; and forgetting their several 

 appetites, some of prey, some of game, some of quarrel, stood 

 all sociably together listening to the airs and accords of the 

 harp; the sound whereof no sooner ceased, or was drowned 

 by some louder noise, but every beast returned to his own 

 nature: wherein is aptly described the nature and condition 

 of men, who are full of savage and unreclaimed desires of pro 

 fit, of lust, of revenge ; which as long as they give ear to pre 

 cepts, to laws, to religion, sweetly touched with eloquence and 

 persuasion of books, of sermons, of harangues, so long is society 

 and peace maintained ; but if these instruments be silent, or 

 sedition and tumult make them not audible, all things dissolve 

 into anarchy and confusion. &quot;(.x) 



With respect to the probable errors of contemplative life, 

 Lord Bacon is constant in his admonitions, that Error will al 

 ways exist, unless there is a union of contemplation and action. 

 In considering the objections made by politicians to the ad 

 vancement of learning, he says, &quot; 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 perfection, and to re 

 duce the corruption of manners to honesty of precepts, or ex 

 amples 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 Cicero 

 noteth this error directly in Cato the second, when he writes 

 to his friend Atticus ; Cato optime sentit, sed nocet inter- 



(x) See vol. 2. page 63. 



