ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 37 



rule over men's understanding by the evidence 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 has advanced the greater numbers. 

 In point of sovereignty, if arms or descent have obtained the 

 kingdom, yet learning has obtained the priesthood, which was 

 ever in competition with empire. 



Again, the pleasure and delight of knowledge and learning 

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

 the pleasures of the senses as much as the obtaining 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 deceits and fallacies, and that 

 it was the novelty which pleased, not the quality; whence 

 voluptuous men frequently turn friars, and ambitious princes 

 melancholy. But of knowledge there is no satiety, for here 

 gratification and appetite are perpetually interchanging, and 

 consequently 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 : * " 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." 



To conclude. The dignity and excellence of knowledge and 

 learning are 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 

 l>-s in which time numberless palaces, temples, castles, and 

 cities have been demolished and are fallen to ruin. It is im 



