THE SECOND BOOK 375 



can judge of his own work, not much better than that 

 noise or sound which musicians make while they are 

 tuning their instruments ; which is nothing pleasant to 

 hear, but yet is a cause why the music is sweeter after- 

 wards. So have I been content to tune the instruments 

 of the muses, that they may play that have better hands. 

 And surely, when I set before me the condition of these 

 times, in which learning hath made her third visitation or 

 circuit, in all the qualities thereof, as the excellency and 

 vivacity of the wits of this age ; the noble helps and lights 

 which we have by the travails of ancient writers ; the art 

 of printing, which communicateth books to men of all 

 fortunes ; the openness of the world by navigation, 

 which hath disclosed multitudes of experiments, and a 

 mass of natural history ; the leisure wherewith these times 

 abound, not employing men so generally in civil business, 

 as the states of Graecia did in respect of their popularity, 

 and the state of Rome in respect of the greatness of their 

 monarchy , the present disposition of these times at this 

 instant to peace ; the consumption of all that ever can be 

 said in controversies of religion, which have so much 

 diverted men from other sciences ; the perfection of your 

 Majesty's learning, which as a phoenix may call whole 

 vollies of wits to follow you ; and the inseparable propriety 

 of time, which is ever more and more to disclose truth ; I 

 cannot but be raised to this persuasion, that this third 

 period of time will far surpass that of the Graecian and 

 Roman learning : only if men will know their own strength 

 and their own weakness both ; and take one from the 

 other light of invention, and not fire of contradiction ; and 

 esteem of the inquisition of truth as of an enterprise, and 

 not as of a quality or ornament; and employ wit and 

 magnificence to things of worth and excellency, and not to 

 things vulgar and of popular estimation. As for my 

 labours, if any man shall please himself or others in the 

 reprehension of them, they shall make that ancient and 

 patient request, Verbera sed audi, let men reprehend them, 

 so they observe and weigh them. For the appeal is 

 (lawful though it may be it shall not be needful) from the 



