ON THE DIGNITY 



AND 



ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 

 FIRST BOOK 



The Different Objections to Learning stated and confuted ; its Dignity 

 and Merit maintained 



TO THE KING 



AS under the old law, most excellent King, there were daily 

 sacrifices and free oblations a the one arising out of 

 ritual observance, and the other from a pious gen- 

 erosity, so I deem that all faithful subjects owe their kings a 

 double tribute of affection and duty. In the first I hope I shall 

 never be found deficient, but as regards the latter, though doubt- 

 ful of the worthiness of my choice, I thought it more befitting 

 to tender to your Majesty that service which rather refers to the 

 excellence of your individual person than to the business of the 

 state. 



In bearing your Majesty in mind, as is frequently my custom 

 and duty, I have been often struck with admiration, apart from 

 your other gifts of virtue and fortune, at the surprising develop- 

 ment of that part of your nature which philosophers call intel- 

 lectual. The deep and broad capacity of your mind, the grasp 

 of your memory, the quickness of your apprehension, the pene- 

 tration of your judgment, your lucid method of arrangement, 

 and easy facility of speech: at such extraordinary endow- 

 ments I am forcibly reminded of the saying of Plato, " that all 

 science is but remembrance/'^ and that the human mind is orig- 

 inally imbued with all knowledge; that which she seems ad- 

 ventitiously to acquire in life being nothing more than a return 

 to her first conceptions, which had been overlaid by the gross- 

 ness of the body. In no person so much as your Majesty does 



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