ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 7 



the causes of diseases, nor the constitutions of patients, nor the 

 danger of accidents, nor the true methods of cure. And so it 

 must needs be dangerous to have the civil body of states man- 

 aged by empirical statesmen, unless well mixed with others who 

 are grounded in learning. On the contrary, it is almost with- 

 out instance, that any government was unprosperous under 

 learned governors. For however common it has been with 

 politicians to discredit learned men, by the name of pedants, yet 

 it appears from history, that the governments of princes in 

 minority have excelled the governments of princes in maturity, 

 merely because the management was in learned hands. The 

 state of Rome for the first five years, so much magnified, during 

 the minority of Nero, was in the hands of Seneca, a pedant : so 

 it was for ten years, during the minority of Gordianus the 

 younger, with great applause in the hands of Misitheus, a 

 pedant ; and it was as happy before that, in the minority of Alex- 

 ander Severus, under the rule of women, assisted by preceptors. 

 And to look into the government of the bishops of Rome, par- 

 ticularly that of Pius and Sextus Quintus, who were both at 

 their entrance esteemed but pedantical friars, we shall find that 

 such popes did greater things, and proceeded upon truer princi- 

 ples of state, than those who rose to the papacy from an educa- 

 tion in civil affairs, and the courts of princes. For though men 

 bred to learning are perhaps at a loss in points of convenience, 

 and present accommodations, called t reasons of state, yet they 

 are perfect in the plain grounds of religion, justice, honor, and 

 moral virtue, which, if well pursued, there will be as little use of 

 reasons of state, as of physic in a healthy constitution. Nor can 

 the experience of one man's life furnish examples and prece- 

 dents for another's ; present occurrences frequently correspond 

 to ancient examples, better than to later. And, lastly, the 

 genius of any single man can no more equal learning, than a 

 private purse hold way with the exchequer. 



3. As to the particular indispositions of the mind for politics 

 and government, laid to the charge of learning, if they are 

 allowed of any force, it must be remembered, that learning 

 affords more remedies than it breeds diseases ; for if, by a secret 

 operation, it renders men perplexed and irresolute, on the other 

 hand, by plain precept, it teaches when, and upon what grounds, 

 to resolve, and how to carry things in suspense, without preju- 

 dice : if it makes men positive and stiff, it shows what things are 



