68 ADVANCEMENT OP LEARNING. .LOOK i. 



for the illiterate person knows not what it is to descend into 

 himself, or call himself to an account, nor the agreeableness 

 of that life which is daily sensible of its own improvement ; 

 lie may perhaps learn to show and employ his natural talents, 

 but not increase them ; he will learn to hide and colour his 

 faults, but not to amend them, like an unskilful mower, who 

 continues to mow on without whetting his scythe. The man 

 of learning, on the. contrary, always joins the correction and 

 improvement c* nis mind with the use and employment 

 thereof. To conclude, truth and goodness differ but as the 

 seal and the impression ; for truth imprints goodness, whilst 

 the storms of vice and perturbation break from the clouds of 

 error and falsehood. 



From moral virtue we proceed to examine whether any 

 power be equal to that afforded by knowledge. Dignity of 

 command is always proportionable to the dignity of the com 

 manded. To have command over brutes as a herdsman is a 

 mean thing; to have command over children as a school 

 master is a matter of small honour ; and to have command 

 over slaves is rather a disgrace than an honour. Nor is the 

 command of a tyrant much better over a servile and dege 

 nerate people ; whence honours in free monarchies and re 

 publics have ever been more esteemed than in tyrannical 

 governments, because to rule a willing people is more honour 

 able than to compel. But the command of knowledge is 

 higher than the command over a free people, as being a com 

 mand over the reason, opinion, and understanding of men, 

 which are the noblest faculties of the mind that govern the 

 will itself; for there is no power on earth that can set iip a 

 throne in the spirits of men but knowledge and learning; 

 whence the detestable and extreme pleasure wherewith arch- 

 heretics, false prophets, and impostors are transported upon 

 finding they have a dominion over the faith and consciences of 

 men, a pleasure so great, that if once tasted scarce any tor 

 ture or persecution can make them forego it. But as this is 

 what the Apocalypse calls the depths of Satan, d so the just 

 *v&amp;gt;d lawful rule over men s understanding by the evidence of 

 trutn and gentle persuasion, is what approaches nearest to 

 tiie Uivine sovereignty. 



With regard to honours and private fortune, the benefit 

 * Rev. \i. 24. 



