84 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



deceits and fallacies, and that it was the novelty which 

 pleased, not the quality; whence voluptuous men fre 

 quently turn friars, and ambitious princes melancholy. 

 But of knowledge there is no satiety, for here gratifica 

 tion and appetite are perpetually interchanging, and con 

 sequently this is good in itself, simply, without fallacy or 

 accident. Nor is that a small pleasure and satisfaction to 

 the mind, which Lucretius describes to this effect 121 : &quot;It is 

 a scene of delight to be safe on shore and see a ship tossed 

 at sea, or to be in a fortification and see two armies join 

 battle upon a plain. But it is a pleasure incomparable for 

 the mind to be seated by learning in the fortress of truth, 

 and from thence to view the errors and labors of others.&quot; 

 To conclude. The dignity and excellence of knowledge 

 and learning is what human nature most aspires to for the 

 securing of immortality, which is also endeavored after by 

 raising and ennobling families, by buildings, foundations, 

 and monuments of fame, and is in effect the bent of all 

 other human desires. But we see how much more durable 

 the monuments of genius and learning are than those of the 

 hand. The verses of Homer have continued above five and 

 twenty hundred years without loss, in which time number 

 less palaces, temples, castles, and cities have been demol 

 ished and are fallen to ruin. It is impossible to have the 

 true pictures or statues of Cyrus, Alexander, Caesar, or 

 the great personages of much later date, for the originals 

 cannot last, and the copies must lose life and truth; but 

 the images of men s knowledge remain in books, exempt 

 from the injuries of time, and capable of perpetual renova 

 tion. Nor are these properly called images ; because they 

 generate still, and sow their seed in the minds of others, so 

 as to cause infinite actions and opinions in succeeding ages. 

 If, therefore, the invention of a ship was thought so noble, 

 which carries commodities from place to place and conso- 



121 &quot;Suave mari magno turbantibus sequora ventis,&quot; etc. De Rerum Natura, 

 ii 1-13. 



