ON THE DIGNITY AND 



ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 

 FIRST BOOK. 



rhe 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^ — the one arising out of 

 ritual observance, and the other from a pious generosity, 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 

 doubtful of the worthiness of my choice, I thought it more 

 befitting to tender to your Majesty that ser^dce which rather 

 refers to tlie 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 develo])ment of that part of your nature which 

 I)hilosophers call intellectual. The deep and broad capacity 

 of your mind, the grasp of your memory, the quickness of 

 your apprehension, the penetration of your judgment, your 

 lucid method of arrangement, and easy facility of speech : — 

 at such extraordinary endowments I am forcibly reminded 

 of the saying of Plato, "that all science is but remem- 

 brance," '^ and that the human mind is originally imbued 

 with all knowledge ; that which she seems adventitiously to 

 acquire in life being nothing more than a return to her first 

 conceptions, which had been overlaid by the grossness of the 



* See Numb, xxviii. 23 ; Levit. xxii. 18. 



» Plato's Phsedo, i. 72 (Steph.) ; Theat. I 166, 191; Menon, ii. 81; 

 end Ai-istot. de Memor. 2. 



