16 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 



Eomans the art of empire, and leaving to others the ar > 

 of subjects ; yet so much is manifest, that the Romaic 

 never ascended to that height of empire, till the time they 

 had ascended to the height of other arts. For in the tin, i 

 of the two first Caesars, which had the art of governmert 

 in greatest perfection, there lived the best poet, Virgilii; > 

 Maro ; the best historiographer, Titus Livius ; the be-t 

 antiquary, Marcus Varro ; and the best, or second orato , 

 Marcus Cicero, that to the memory of man are know: . 



10 As for the accusation of Socrates, the time must be remen - ? 

 bered when it was prosecuted ; which was under the Thirl ,' 

 Tyrants, the most base, bloody, and envious persons thnt 

 have governed ; which revolution of state was no soom r 

 over, but Socrates, whom they had made a person crimina , 

 was made a person heroical, and his memory accumula>< 

 with honours divine and human ; and those discourses o : 

 his which were then termed corrupting of manners, wer 

 after acknowledged for sovereign medicines of the niin i 

 and manners, and so have been received ever since til 



20 this day. Let this, therefore, serve for answer to politician 

 which in their humorous severity, or in their feigned 

 gravity, have presumed to throw imputations upon learning ; 

 which redargution nevertheless (save that we know n<'t, 

 whether our labours may extend to other ages) were n< rj 

 needful for the present, in regard of the love and reveren< 

 towards learning, which the example and countenance * 

 two so learned princes, Queen Elizabeth and your Majest ; 

 being as Castor and Pollux, lucida sidera, [bright start ! 

 stars of excellent light and most benign influence, hal * 



30 wrought in all men of place and authority in our nation. 



Now therefore we come to that third sort of discred 

 or diminution of credit, that groweth unto learnin , 

 from learned men themselves, which commonly cleavet i 

 fastest : it is either from their fortune ; or from the i 

 manners ; or from the nature of their studies. For the firs 



