ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 43 



The reflections cast upon learning by politicians, are 

 these. 1. &quot;That it enervates men s minds, and unfits them 

 for arms; 2. That it perverts their dispositions for govern 

 ment and politics; 3. That it makes them too curious and 

 irresolute, by variety of reading; too peremptory or positive 

 by strictness of rules; too immoderate and conceited by the 

 greatness of instances; too unsociable and incapacitated for 

 the times, by the dissimilitude of examples; or at least, 

 4. That it diverts from action and business, and leads to 

 a love of retirement; 5. That it introduces a relaxation in 

 government, as every man is more ready to argue than 

 obey; whence Cato the censor when Carneades came am 

 bassador to Eome, and the young Komans, allured with his 

 eloquence, flocked about him gave counsel in open senate, 

 to grant him his despatch immediately, lest he should infect 

 the minds of the youth, and insensibly occasion an alteration 

 in the State.&quot; 19 



The same conceit is manifest in Yirgil, who, preferring 

 the honor of his country to that of his profession, challenged 

 the arts of policy in the Romans, as something superior to 

 letters, the pre-eminence in which, he freely assigns to the 

 Grecians. 



&quot;Tu regere imperio populos, Romane memento: 

 Hse tibi erunt artes. &quot; JEn. vi. 851. 



And we also observe that Anytus, the accuser of Socrates, 

 charged him in his impeachment with destroying, in the 

 minds of young men, by his rhetorical arts, all authority 

 and reverence for the laws of the country. 20 



1. But these and the like imputations have rather a show 

 of gravity, than any just ground; for experience shows that 

 learning and arms have flourished in the same persons and 

 ages. As to persons, there are no better instances than 

 Alexander and Csesar, the one Aristotle s scholar in phi- 



and knowledge subject Lo faith and religion. The author is clear, that they 

 should be kept separate, as will more fully appear hereafter, when he comes 

 to treat of theology. Shaw. 



19 Plutarch in M. Cato. 20 Plato, Apol. Soc. 



