THE FIRST ROOK OF THE PKOFICIENCE AND 

 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 



To THE KING. 



T H ERE were under the law, excellent king, both daily sacrifices, 

 L and freewill offerings : the one proceeding upon ordinary obser 

 vance, the other upon a devout cheerfulness : in like manner there 

 belongcth to kings from their servants, both tribute of duty, and 

 presents of affection. In the former of these, I hope I shall not live 

 to be wanting, according to my most humble duty, and the good 

 pleasure of your majesty s employments : for the latter, I thought it 

 more respective to make choice of some oblation, which might rather 

 refer to the propriety and excellency of your individual person, than 

 to the business of your crown and state. 



Wherefore representing your majesty many times unto my mind, 

 and beholding you not with the inquisitive eye of presumption, to 

 discover that which the Scripture telleth me is inscrutable, but with 

 the observant eye of duty and admiration : leaving aside the other 

 parts of your virtue and fortune, I have been touched, yea, and 

 possessed with an extreme wonder at those your virtues and faculties, 

 which the philosophers call intellectual: the largeness of your capacity, 

 the faithfulness of your memory, the swiftness of your apprehension, 

 the penetration of your judgment, and the facility and order of your 

 elocution : and I have often thought, that of all the persons living, that 

 I have known, your majesty were the best instance to make a man of 

 Plato s opinion, that all knowledge is but remembrance, and that the 

 mind of man by nature knoweth all things, and hath but her own 

 native and original notions (which by the strangeness and darkness 

 of this tabernacle of the body are sequestered; again revived and 

 restored : such a light of n.xture I have observed in your majesty, 

 and such a readiness to take tlame, and blaze from the least occasion 

 presented, or the least spark of another s knowledge delivered. And 

 as the Scripture saith of the wisest king, &quot; That his heart was as the 

 sands of the sea ;&quot; which though it be one of the largest bodies, yet 

 it consisteth of the smallest and finest portions : so hath Ciod given 

 your majesty a composition of understanding admirable, being able 

 to compass and comprehend the greatest matters, and nevertheless 



