1 8 The Advancement of Learning 



from the manners of learned men not inherent ^ to them as 

 they are learned; except it be a fault (which was the sup- 

 posed fault of Demosthenes, Cicero, Cato the second, Seneca, 

 and many more) that, because the times they read of are 

 commonly better than the times they live in, and the duties 

 taught better than the duties practised, they contend some- 

 times too far to bring things to perfection, and to reduce the 

 corruption of manners to honesty of precepts, or examples 

 of too great height. And yet hereof they have caveats 

 enough in their own walks. For Solon, when he was asked 

 whether he had given his citizens the best laws, answered 

 wisely. Yea of such as they would receive : ^ and Plato, finding 

 that his own heart could not agree with the corrupt manners 

 of his country, refused to bear place or office, saying, That 

 a man's country was to he used as his parents were, that is, 

 with humble persuasions, and not with contestations.^ And 

 Caesar's counsellor put in the same caveat, Non ad Vetera 

 instituta revocans quce jampridem corruptis morihus ludibrio 

 sunt:* and Cicero noteth this error directly in Cato the 

 second, when he writes to his friend Atticus; Cato optime 

 sentit, sed nocet interdum reipuhlicce ; loquitur enim tanquam 

 in reipublicd Platonis, non tanquam in fcBce Romuli} And 

 the same Cicero doth excuse and expound the philosophers 

 for going too far, and being too exact in their prescripts, 

 when he saith, Isti ipsi prcBceptores virtutis et magistri, viden- 

 tur fines officiorum paulo longius quam natura vellet protulisse, 

 ut cum ad ultimum animo contendissemus, ibi tamen, ubi 

 oportet, consisteremus : ^ and yet himself might have said, 

 Monitis sum minor ipse meis;'' for it was his own fault, 

 though not in so extreme a degree. 

 6. Another fault likewise much of this kind hath been 

 incident to learned men ; which is, that they have esteemed 

 the preservation, good, and honour of their countries or 

 masters before their own fortunes or safeties. For so saith 

 Demosthenes unto the Athenians ; If it please you to note it, 

 my counsels unto you are not such whereby I should grow great 



* De Augm. has nullum occurrit dedecus Uteris ex litter atorum 

 moribus, quatenus. sunt literati, adharens, which explains it. The 

 not before inherent goes with cannot according to the rule of double 

 negative, as it prevailed in early English writers, 



» Plutarch, Vit. Solon. • Plato, Epist. Z. iii. 331. 



* Sail. Epist. de Rep. ord. • Cic. ad Att. ii. i. 



* Cic. pro Mur. xxxi. 6?. • Ovid, Ars Am. ii. 548. 



