40 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [bOOK i 



aggmndize myself and diminish yon, but sometimes not ex- 

 pedient for me to give, though always expedient for you to 

 follow." "^ So Seneca, after consecrating the five years o.. 

 Nero's minority to the immortal glory of learned governors, 

 held on his honest course of good counsel after his master 

 grew extremely corrupt. Nor can this be other-svise; for 

 learning gives men a true sense of their frailty, the casualty 

 of fortune, and the dignity of the soul and its ofiice ; whence 

 they cannot think any greatness of fortune a worthy end ot 

 their living, and therefore live so as to give a clear and 

 acceptable account to God and their superiors; whilst the 

 corrupter sort of politicians, who are not by learning esta- 

 blished in a lo^e of duty, nor ever look abroad into univer- 

 sality, refer all things to themselves, and thrust their persons 

 into the centre of the world, as if all lines should meet in 

 them and their fortunes, without regarding in storms what 

 becomes of the ship of the state, if they can save themselves 

 in the cock-boat of their own fortune. 



Another charge brought against learned men, which may 

 rather be defended than denied, is, " That they sometimes 

 fail in making court to particular persons." This want of 

 application arises from two causes — the one the largeness of 

 their mind, which can hardly submit to dwell in the exami- 

 nation and observance of any one person. It is the speech 

 of a lover rather than of a wise man, " Satis magnum alter 

 alteri theatrum sumus."^ Nevertheless he who cannot con- 

 tract the sight of his mind, as well as dilate it, wants a great 

 talent in life. The second cause is, no inability, but a rejec- 

 tion upon choice and judgment; for the honest and just 

 limits of observation in one person upon another extend no 

 farther than to understand him sufficiently, so as to give 

 him no offence, or be able to counsel him, or to stand upon 

 reasonable guard and caution with respect to one's self; but 

 to pry deep into another man, to learn to work, wind, or 

 govern him, proceeds from a double heart, which in friend- 

 ship is want of integrity, and towards princes or superiors 

 want of duty. The eastern custom which forbids subjects 

 to gaze upon princes, though in the outward ceremony bar- 



* Oration or, the Crow?i« • Seneca, Ej). Mor. i. 7. 



