12 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 



particulars, that the governments of princes in minority 

 (notwithstanding the infinite disadvantage of that kind of 

 state) have nevertheless excelled the government of princes 

 of mature age, even for that reason which they seek to 

 traduce, which is, that by that occasion the state hath been 

 in the hands of pedants : for so was the state of Rome for the 

 first five years, which are so much magnified, during the 

 minority of Nero, in the hands of Seneca^a^gedant : so it 

 was again, for ten years' space or more, during tHe minority 



1 of Gordianus the younger, with great applause and contenta- 

 tion in the hands of Misitheus &pedant : so was it before 

 that, in the minority of AlexanHer Severus, in like happiness, 

 in hands not much unlike, by reason of the rule of the 

 women, who were aided by the teachers and preceptors. 

 Nay, let a man look into the government of the Bishops of 

 Rome, as by name, into the government of Pius Quintus, 

 and Sextus Quintus, in our times, who were both at their 

 entrance esteemed but as pedantical friars, and he shall find 

 that such Popes do greater things, and proceed upon truer 



20 principles of estate, than those which have ascended to the 

 papacy from an education and breeding in affairs of estate 

 and courts of princes ; for although men bred in learning are 

 perhaps to seek in points of convenience and accommodating 

 for the present, which the Italians call ragioni di stato, 

 [reasons of state,] whereof the same Pius Quintus could not 

 hear spoken with patience, terming them inventions against 

 religion and the moral virtues ; yet on the other side, to 

 recompense that, they are perfect in those same plain 

 grounds of religion, justice, honour, and moral virtue, which 



30 if they be well and watchfully pursued, there will be seldom 

 use of those other, no more than of physic in a sound or 

 well-dieted body. Neither can the experience of one man's 

 life furnish examples and precedents for the ewits of one 

 man's life : for, as it happen eth sometimes that the grand 

 child, or other descendant, resembleth the ancestor more 

 than the son ; so many times occurrences of present times 



