224 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



investeth and crowneth man's nature. We see the dignity 

 of the commandment is according to the dignity of the 

 commanded: to have commandment over beasts, as herds- 

 men have, is a thing contemptible ; to have commandment 

 over children, as schoolmasters have, is a matter of small 

 honour ; to have commandment over galley-slaves is a 

 disparagement rather than an honour. Neither is the 

 commandment of tyrants much better, over people which 

 have put off the generosity of their minds : and therefore 

 it was ever holden that honours in free monarchies and 

 commonwealths had a sweetness more than in tyrannies ; 

 because the commandment extendeth more over the wills 

 of men, and not only over their deeds and services. And 

 therefore when Virgil putteth himself forth to attribute to 

 Augustus Caesar the best of human honours, he doth it in 

 these words : 



victorque volentes 

 Per populos datjura, viamque affectat Olympo. 



But yet the commandment of knowledge is yet higher than 

 the commandment over the will ; for it is a commandment 

 over the reason, belief, and understanding of man, which 

 is the highest part of the mind, and giveth law to the will 

 itself. For there is no power on earth which setteth up a 

 throne or chair of estate in the spirits and souls of men, and 

 in their cogitations, imaginations, opinions, and beliefs, but 

 knowledge and learning. And therefore we see the detest- 

 able and extreme pleasure that arch-heretics and false 

 prophets and impostors are transported with, when they 

 once find in themselves that they have a superiority in the 

 faith and conscience of men ; so great, that if they have 

 once tasted of it, it is seldom seen that any torture or 

 persecution can make them relinquish or abandon it. But 

 as this is that which the author of the Revelation calleth 

 the depth or profoundness of Satan ; so by argument of 

 contraries, the just and lawful sovereignty over men's 

 understanding, by force of truth rightly interpreted, is 

 that which approacheth nearest to the similitude of the 

 divine rule. 



