BOOK 1.] EXCELS OTHER 30URCES OF PLEASURK. 69 



of learning is not so confined to states as not like^wise 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 ]i^.ve advanced the 

 greater numbers. In point of sovereigntj-, ii 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 learn- 

 ing 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 1 In all other pleasures there is a satiety, and after 

 use their verdure fades; which shows they are but d*^ceits and 

 fallacies, and that it was the novelty which pleased, not the 

 quality ; whence voluptuous men frecjuently 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 j^leasure 

 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 

 laboui*s of others.** 



To conclude. The dignity and excellence of knowledge 

 and learning is what human nature most as}>ires to for the 

 securing of immortality, which is also endeavoured 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 loss, in which time number- 

 less palaces, temples, castles, and cities have been demolished 

 and are fallen to ruin. It is impossible to have the true pic- 



* " Suave marl niagno uibantiDus sequoia ventis." &c Dt> Reri'ni 

 K*iU a, ii. 1-13. 



