ioo ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [Boot? 



to touch and apprehend the least ; whereas it should seem an impossi 

 bility in nature, for the same instrument to make itself lit for great 

 and small works. And for your gift of speech, I call to mind what 

 Cornelius Tacitus saith of Augustus Cesar: &quot;Augusto proflucns, et qure 

 principem deccret, eloqucntia fuit.&quot; For, if we note it well, speech 

 that is uttered with labour and difficulty, or speech that savoureth of 

 the affectation of art and precepts, or speech that is framed after the 

 imitation of some pattern ofcloqucp.ee, though never so excellent ; all 

 this has somewhat servile, and holding of the subject. But your 

 majesty s manner of speech is indeed prince-like, flowing as from a 

 fountain, and yet streaming and branching itself into nature s order, 

 hill of facility and felicity, imitating none, and inimitable by any. 

 And as in yoiir civil estate there appeareth to be an emulation and 

 contention of your majesty s virtue with your fortune ; a virtuous 

 disposition with a fortunate regiment ; a virtuous expectation, when 

 lime was, of your greater fortune, with a prosperous possession thereof 

 in the due time ; a virtuous observation of the laws of marriage, with 

 most blessed and happy fruit of marriage ; a virtuous and most 

 Christian desire of peace, with a fortunate inclination in your 

 neighbour princes thereunto: so likewise in these intellectual matters, 

 there sccmeth to be no less contention between the excellency of your 

 majesty s gifts of nature, and the universality and perfection of your 

 learning. For I am well assured, that this which I 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 hath been so learned in all literature and erudition, divine and 

 human. For let a man seriously and diligently revolve and peruse 

 the succession of the cmperois 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 Graccia, 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 

 scemcth much in a king, if, by the compendious 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 himself, 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 was 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\i 

 philosopher. This propriety, inherent and individual attribute in 

 your majesty, dcservcth to be expressed, not only in the fame and 

 admiration of the present time, nor in the history or tradition of the 

 j gcs succeeding ; but also in some solid work, fixed memorial, and 

 immortal monument, bearing a character or signature, both of the 

 )f a king, and the difference and perfection of such a king 



