THE FIRST BOOK 63 



ment over beasts, as herdmen have, is a thing con- 

 temptible : to have commandment over children, as 

 schoolmasters have, is a matter of small honour : to 

 have commandment over galley-slaves is a disparage- 

 ment rather than an honour. Neither is the com- 

 mandment of tyrants much better, over people which 

 have put oflE the generosity of their minds : and there- 

 fore it was ever holden that honours.in free monarchies 

 and commonwealths had a sweetness more than in 

 tyrannies, because the commandment extendeth more 

 over the wills of men, and not only over their deeds 

 and services. And therefore, when Virgil putteth him- 

 self forth to attribute to Augustus Caesar the best of 

 human honours, he doth it in these words : 



Victorque volentes 

 Per populos dat jura, viamque affectat Olympo. 



But yet the commandment of knowledge is yet higher 

 than the commandment over the will : for it is a com- 

 mandment over the reason, belief, and understanding 

 of man, which is the highest part of the mind, and 

 giveth law to the will itself. For there is no power on 

 earth which setteth up a throne or chair of estate in 

 the spirits and souls of men, and in their cogitations, 

 imaginations, opinions, and beliefs, but knowledge and 

 learning. And therefore we see the detestable and 

 extreme pleasure that arch -heretics, and false prophets, 

 and impostors are transported with, when they once 

 find in themselves that they have a superiority in the 

 faith and conscience of men ; so great as if they have 

 once tasted of it, it is seldom seen that any torture or 

 persecution can make them relinquish or abandon it. 

 But as this is that which the author of the Revelation 

 calleth the depth or profoundness of Satan, so by 

 argument of contraries, the just and lawful sovereignty 

 over men's understanding, by force of truth rightly 

 interpreted, is that which approacheth nearest to the 

 similitude of the divine rule. 



4. As for fortune and advancement, the beneficence 

 of learning is not so confined to give fortune only to 



