ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 8^ 



being instituted not for an ephemeral purpose, but for the 

 constant transmission and extension of learning, it is of 

 the utmost importance that the men selected to fill them 

 be learned and gifted. But it is idle to expect that the 

 ablest scholars will employ their whole energy and time 

 in such functions unless the reward be answerable to that 

 competency which may be expected from the practice of a 

 profession. The sciences will only flourish on the condition 

 of David s military law that those who remain with the 

 baggage shall have equal part with those who descend to 

 the fight, otherwise the baggage will be neglected. Lec 

 turers being in like manner guardians of the literary stores 

 whence those who are engaged in active service draw, it is 

 but just that their labors should be equally recompensed, 

 otherwise the reward of the fathers of the sciences not being 

 sufficiently ample, the verse will be realized 



&quot;Et patrum invalid! referent jejunia nati.&quot; 6 



The next deficiency we shall notice is, the want of phil 

 osophical instruments, in crying up which we are aided by 

 the alchemists, who call upon men to sell their books, and 

 to build furnaces, rejecting Minerva and the Muses as barren 

 virgins, and relying upon Yulcan. To study natural phi 

 losophy, physic, and many other sciences to advantage, 

 books are not the only essentials other instruments are 

 required; nor has the munificence of men been altogether 

 wanting in their provisions. For spheres, globes, astrolabes, 

 maps, and the like, have been provided for the elucidation 

 of astronomy and cosmography; and many schools of medi 

 cine are provided with gardens for the growth of simples, 

 and supplied with dead bodies for dissection. But these 

 concern only a few things. In general, however, there will 

 be no inroad made into the secrets of nature unless experi 

 ments, be they of Vulcan or Da3dalus, furnace, engine, or 

 any other kind, are allowed for; and therefore as the secre- 



* Virg. Georg. iii. 128. 



