ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 51 



&quot;Cato optime sentit sed nocet interdum Reipublicae; lo 

 quitur enim tanquam in Republica Platonis, non tanquam 

 in f sece Romuli. 37 The same orator likewise excuses and 

 blames the philosophers for being too exact in their pre 

 cepts. These preceptors, said he, have stretched the lines 

 and limits of duties beyond their natural boundaries, think 

 ing that we might safely reform when we had reached the 

 highest point of perfection. 38 And yet himself stumbled 

 over the same stone, so that he might have said, &quot;Monitis 

 sum minor ipse meis. 39 



3. Another fault laid to the charge of learned men, and 

 arising from the nature of their studies, is, &quot;That they es 

 teem the preservation, good, and honor of their country 

 before their own fortunes or safeties.&quot; Demosthenes said 

 well to the Athenians, &quot;My counsels are not such as tend 

 to aggrandize myself and diminish you, bat sometimes not 

 expedient for me to give, though always expedient for you 

 to follow. &quot; 40 So Seneca, after consecrating the five years 

 of Nero s minority to the immortal glory of learned gov 

 ernors, held on his honest course of good counsel after his 

 master grew extremely corrupt. Nor can this be other 

 wise; for learning gives men a true sense of their frailty, 

 the casualty of fortune, and the dignity of the soul and its 

 office; whence they cannot think any greatness of fortune a 

 worthy end of their living, and therefore live so as to give 

 a clear and acceptable account to God and their superiors; 

 while the corrupter sort of politicians, who are not by learn 

 ing established in a love of duty, nor ever look abroad into 

 universality, refer all things to themselves, and thrust their 

 persons into the centre of the world, as if all lines should 

 meet in them and their fortunes, without regarding in storms 

 what becomes of the ship of the State, if they can save them 

 selves in the cock- boat of their own fortune. 



Another charge brought against learned men, which 



37 Cicero to Atticus, epis. ii. 1. 38 Oratio pro L. Mursena, xxxi. 65. 



&quot;I am unequal to my teaching.&quot; Ovid, Ars Amandi, ii. 548. 

 40 Oration on the Crown. 



