THE FIRST BOOK 169 



time ; a virtuous observation of the laws ot marriage, 

 with most blessed and happy fruit of marriage ; a 

 virtuous and most Christian desire of peace, with a for- 

 tunate inclination in your neighbour princes thereunto : 

 so likewise in these intellectual matters, there seemeth to 

 be no less contention between the excellency of your 

 Majesty's gifts of nature and the universality and per- 

 fection of your learning. For I am well assured that this 

 which L shall .say is no. amplification at all, but a positive 

 and measured truth; which is, that there hath not been 

 since Christ's time any king or temporal monarch which 

 hathJ3eJo..sa learned in all literature and erudition, divine 

 and human. For let a man seriously and diligently re- 

 volve and peruse the succession of the emperors of Rome, 

 of which Caesar the dictator, who lived some years before 

 Christ, and Marcus Antoninus were the best learned ; and 

 so descend to the emperors of Graecia, or of the West, and 

 then to the lines of France, Spain, England, Scotland, 

 and the rest ; and he shall find this judgment is truly 

 made. For it seemeth much in a king, if by the com- 

 pendious extractions of other men's wits and labours he 

 can take hold of any superficial ornaments and shows of 

 learning, or if he countenance and prefer learning and 

 learned men : but to drink indeed of the true fountains of 

 learning, nay to have such a fountain of learning in him- 

 self, in a king, and in a king born, is almost a miracle. 

 And the more, because there is met in your Majesty a 

 rare conjunction as well of divine and sacred literature 

 as of profane and human ; so as your Majesty standeth 

 invested of that triplicity which in great veneration 

 Vwas ascribed to the ancient Hermes ; the power and 

 fortune of a King, the knowledge and illumination of a 

 Priest, and the learning and universality of a Philosopher. 

 This propriety inherent and individual attribute in 

 your Majesty deserveth to be expressed not only in 

 the fame and admiration of the present time, nor in 

 the history or tradition of the ages succeeding; but also 

 in some solid work, fixed memorial, and immortal 

 monument, bearing a character or signature both of the 



