2io OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



quarrel, stood all sociably together listening unto the airs 

 and accords of the harp ; the sound whereof no sooner 

 ceased, or was drowned by some louder noise, but every 

 beast returned to his own nature : wherein is aptly de- 

 scribed the nature and condition of men ; who are full of 

 savage and unreclaimed desires, of profit, of lust, of 

 revenge, which as long as they give ear to precepts, to 

 laws, to religion, sweetly touched with eloquence and per- 

 suasion of books, of sermons, of harangues, so long is 

 society and peace maintained ; but if these instruments be 

 silent, or that sedition and tumult make them not audible, 

 all things dissolve into anarchy and confusion. 



But this appeareth more manifestly, when kings them- 

 selves, or persons of authority under them, or other 

 governors in commonwealths and popular estates, are 

 endued with learning. For although he might be thought 

 partial to his own profession, that said, ' Then should 

 people and estates be happy, when either kings were 

 philosophers, or philosophers kings' ; yet so much is verified 

 by experience, that under learned princes and governors 

 there have been ever the best times : for howsoever kings 

 may have their imperfections in their passions and customs, 

 yet if they be illuminate by learning, they have those 

 notions of religion, policy, and morality, which do preserve 

 them and refrain them from all ruinous and peremptory 

 errors and excesses ; whispering evermore in their ears, 

 when counsellors and servants stand mute and silent. And 

 senators or counsellors likewise which be learned, do 

 proceed upon more safe and substantial principles than 

 counsellors which are only men of experience ; the one 

 sort keeping dangers afar ofF, whereas the other discover 

 them not till they come near hand, and then trust to the 

 agility of their wit to ward or avoid them. 



Which felicity of times under learned princes (to keep 

 still the law of brevity, by using the most eminent and 

 selected examples) doth best appear in the age which passed 

 from the death of Domitianus the emperor until the reign 

 of Commodus ; comprehending a succession of six princes, 

 all learned or singular favourers and advancers of learning ; 



