ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 83 



and degenerate people; whence honors in free monarchies 

 and republics have ever been more esteemed than in tyran 

 nical governments, because to rule a willing people is more 

 honorable than to compel. But the command of knowledge 

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

 a command 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 up 

 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 

 torture or persecution can make them forego it. But as this 

 is what the Apocalypse calls the depths of Satan, 120 so the 

 just and lawful rule over men s understanding by the evi 

 dence of truth and gentle persuasion, is what approaches 

 nearest to the Divine sovereignty. 



With regard to honors and private fortune, the benefit 

 of learning is not so confined to states as not likewise to 

 reach particular persons; for it is an old observation, that 

 Homer has given more men their livings than Sylla, Caesar, 

 or Augustus, notwithstanding their great largesses. And 

 it is hard to say whether arms or learning have advanced 

 the greater numbers. In point of sovereignty, if arms or 

 descent have obtained the kingdom, yet learning has ob 

 tained the priesthood, which was ever in competition with 

 empire. 



Again, the pleasure and delight of knowledge and learn 

 ing surpass all others; for if the pleasures of the affections 

 exceed the pleasures of the senses as much as the obtain 

 ing a desire or a victory exceeds a song or a treat, shall not 

 the pleasures of the understanding exceed the pleasures 

 of the affections ? In all other pleasures there is a satiety, 

 and after use their verdure fades; which shows they are but 



120 Rev. ii. 24. 



