L I D. I. Of the Advancement of Learning. 37 



tains and Commanders were murthered by treafon, condufted ten thou- 

 (and Foot, through the heart of all the Kings high Countries, from' 

 BabylonioGrecia, in defpite of all the Kings forces 5 to the aftonifh- 

 ment of the world, and the encouragement of the Grecians in time 

 fucceeding , to make invafion upon the Perftan Monarchy znd to fubvert 

 it. Which indeed foon after, Jafon the Thejfalian conceivd and de- 

 fign'd 5 Ageftlaus the Spartan attempted and commenced ; Alexander 

 the Macedonian at laft atchievedjall being ftirred up, by this brave lead' 

 ing A& of that young Scholar. 



Chap. VIII. 



The Merit of Learning from the influence it hath upon Moral Vir- 

 tues. § Learning a foveraign remedy for all the difeafet of the 

 Mind, (j The Dominion thereof greater than any Tem-poral Pow- 

 er^ being a Porver over Reafon-and Belief ^ Learning gives For- 

 tunes^ Honours J Delights excelling all others^ as the foul the fenfe. 

 § Durable Monuments of Fame. ^ A ProfpeCf of the immortality 

 of a future rvorld. 



TO proceed now, from Imperial and Military Virtue, to Moral, and 

 that which is the Virtue of Private men : Firft, that of the Poet 

 13 a moft certain truth, 



Scilicet ingenuas didiciffe fideliter Artes Ovid, da 



EmoUit mores nee finit ejfe feros. Pont. 



For Learning doth reclaim mens minds from Wildenefs and Barbarifm ; 

 but indeed, the accent had need be put upon Fideliter •-, for a fuperfi- 

 cial confufed knowledge doth rather work a contrary eStOi. I fay. 

 Learning takes' aivay levity, temerity, and infokncy^ whilft it fuggefts all 

 dangers and doubts, together with the thing it (elf 5 ballanceth the 

 weight of reafons and arguments on both fides 3 turns back the firft 

 offers and placits of the mind as fufpeft, andteacheth it to take a tried 

 and examin'd way : The fame doth extirpate vain and excejjive admi* 

 ration, which is the root of all weak advifement. For we admire 

 things, either becaufe they are Nerv, or becaufe they are Great : As 

 for novelty, no man that wades in Learning,and contemplation of things 

 throughly, but hath this printed in his heart, N// novi fubfole : nei- Ecclcf.i;' 

 ther can any man much marvail at the play of Puppets, that thrufts but 

 his head behind the curtain 5 and advifeth well of the organs and 

 wires that caule the motion. As for Magnitude , as Alexander the 

 Great , after he was ufed to great Battles, and conquefts in Afia'j when 

 at anytime he received Letters out of Greece, of forae fights and fer- 

 vices there, v/hich were undertaken commonly for fome Bridge, or a 

 Fort, or at moft for the beficge of (bme City ^ was wont to (ay, It 

 feemed to him, that he was advertifedof the Battles (9/ Homers Frogs and 

 Mice : So certainly, if a man meditate upon the world and the Fabrick 



thereof? 



