1-1 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARMXG. 101 



Therefore I did conclude with myself, that I could not make unto 

 your majesty a better oblation, than of some treatise lending to that 

 end, \vhcrcof the sum will consist of these two parts ; the former 

 concerning the excellency of learning and knowledge, and the excel 

 lency of the merit and true glory in the augmentation and propagation 

 thereof; the latter, what the particular acts and works are, which 

 have been embraced and undertaken for the advancement of learning: 

 and again, what defects and undervalues I find in such particular acts: 

 to the end, that though I cannot positively or affirmatively advise 

 ) our majesty, or propound unto you framed parlici lars ; yet I may 

 excite your princely cogitations to visit the excellent treasure of your 

 own mind, and thence to extract particulars for this purpose, agreeable 

 to your magnanimity and wisdom. 



In the entrance to the former of these, to clear the way, and, as 

 it were, to make silence, to have the true testimonies concerning the 

 dignity of learning to be better heard, without the interruption of 

 tacit objections ; 1 think good to deliver it from the discredits and 

 disgraces which it hath received, all from ignorance, but ignorance 

 severally disguised ; appearing sometimes in the zeal and jealousy 

 of divines, sometimes in the severity and arrogancy of politicians, and 

 sometimes in the errors and imperfections of learned men themselves. 



I hear the former sort say, that knowledge is of those things 

 which are to be accepted of with great limitation and caution ; that 

 the aspiring to overmuch knowledge, was the original temptation and 

 sin, whereupon ensued the fall of man ; that knowledge hath in it 

 somewhat of the serpent, and therefore where it cntcreth into a man 

 it makes him swell; Scicntia inflat: that Solomon gives a censure, 

 &quot; That there is no end of making books, and that much reading is 

 weariness of the flesh ;&quot; and again in another place, &quot;That in spacious 

 knowledge there is much contristation, and that he that increascth 

 knowledge increaseth anxiety;&quot; that St. Paul giv a caveat, &quot; That 

 we be not spoiled through vain philosophy ;&quot; that experience demon 

 strates how learned men have been arch-heretics, how learned times 

 have been inclined to atheism, and how the contemplation of second 

 causes doth derogate from our dependence upon God, who is the 

 first cause. 



To discover then the ignorance and error of this opinion, and the 

 misunderstanding in the grounds thereof, it may well appear these 

 men do not observe or consider, that it was not the pure knowledge of 

 nature and universality, a knowledge by the light whereof man did give 

 names unto other creatures in paradise, as they were brought before 

 him,according unto their proprieties, which gave the occasion to the fall ; 

 but it was the proud knowledge of good and evil, with an intent in man 

 to give law unto himself, and to depend no more upon God s com 

 mandments, which was the form of the temptation. Neither is it any 

 quantity of knowledge, how great soever, that can make the mind of 

 man to swell ; for nothing can fill, much less extend the soul of man. 

 but God, and the contemplation of God; and therefore Solomon. 



