ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 49 



restoration of the State, by abolishing the reputation of 

 wealth. And, indeed, as we truly say that blushing is 

 the livery of virtue, though it may sometimes proceed 

 from guilt, 30 so it holds true of poverty that it is the at 

 tendant of virtue, though sometimes it may proceed from 

 mismanagement and accident. 



As for retirement, it is a theme so common to extol a 

 private life, not taxed with sensuality and sloth, for the 

 liberty, the pleasure, and the freedom from indignity it 

 affords, that every one praises it well, such an agree 

 ment it has to the nature and apprehensions of mankind. 

 This may be added, that learned men, forgotten in States 

 and not living in the eyes of the world, are like the images 

 of Cassius and Brutus at the funeral of Junia, which not 

 being represented as many others were, Tacitus said of 

 them that &quot;they outshone the rest, because not seen.&quot; 81 



As for their meanness of employ, that most exposed to 

 contempt is the education of youth, to which they are com 

 monly allotted. But how unjust this reflection is to all who 

 measure things, not by popular opinion, but by reason, will 

 appear in the fact that men are more careful what they put 

 into new vessels than into those already seasoned. It is 

 manifest that things in their weakest state usually demand 

 our best attention and assistance. Hearken to the Hebrew 

 rabbis: &quot;Your young men shall see visions, your old men 

 shall dream dreams&quot;; 88 upon which the commentators ob 

 serve, that youth is the worthier age, inasmuch as revela 

 tion by vision is clearer than by dreams. And to say the 

 truth, how much soever the lives of pedants have been 

 ridiculed upon the stage, as the emblem of tyranny, be 

 cause the modern looseness or negligence has not duly re 

 garded the choice of proper schoolmasters and tutors; yet 

 the wisdom of the ancientest and best times always com 

 plained that States were too busy with laws and too remiss 



30 Diog. Cyn. ap. Laert. vi. 54; compare Tacitus, Agric. 45, of Domitian, 

 &quot;Ssevus vultus et rubor, a quo se contra pudorem muniebat. &quot; 



31 Annals, iii. 76. 82 Joel ii. 28. 



SCIENCE Yol. 21 3 



