i4 ADVANCEMENT Ol&amp;lt; LEARNING. [Book 



back again to religion ; for in the entrance of philosophy, when the 

 second causes, which are next unto the senses, do offer themselves to 

 the mind of man, if it dwell and stay there it may induce some oblivion 

 ot the highest cause ; but when a man passcth on farther, and secth 

 the dependence of causes and the works of providence ; then, accord 

 ing to the allegory of the poets, he will easily believe that the highest 

 link of nature s chain must needs be tied to the foot of Jupiter s chair, 

 To conclude therefore : let no man, upon a weak conceit of sobriety, 

 or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search 

 too far, or be too well studied in the book of God s word, or in the book 

 of God s works ; divinity or philosophy ; but rather let men endeavour 

 an endless progress, or proficience in both ; only let men beware that 

 they apply both to charity, and not to swelling ; to use, and not to 

 ostentation ; and again, that they do not unwisely mingle, or confound 

 these learnings together. 



And as for the disgraces which learning reccivcth from politicians, 

 they be of this nature ; that learning doth soften men s minds, and 

 makes them more unapt for the honour and exercise of arms ; that it 

 doth mar and pervert men s dispositions for matter of government and 

 policy, in making them too curious and irresolute by variety of reading, 

 or too peremptory or positive by strictness of rules and axioms, or too 

 immoderate and overweening by reason of the greatness of examples, 

 or too incompatible and differing from the times, by reason of the 

 dissimilitude of examples ; or at least, that it doth divert men s travels 

 from action and business, and bringeth them to a love of leisure and 

 privatencss ; and that it doth bring into states a relaxation of dis 

 cipline, whilst every man is more ready to argue than to obey and 

 execute. Out of this conceit, Cato, surnamed the Censor, one of the 

 wisest men indeed that ever lived, when Carneades the philosopher 

 &amp;lt;:amo in embassage to Rome, and that the young men of Rome began 

 to flock about him, being allured with the sweetness and majesty of 

 his eloquence and learning, gave counsel in open senate, that they 

 should give him his dispatch with all speed, lest he should infect and 

 inchant the minds and affections of the youth, and at unawares bring 

 in an alteration of the manners and customs of the state. Out of the 

 same conceit, or humour, did Virgil, turning his pen to the advantage 

 of his country, and the disadvantage of his own profession, make a 

 kind of separation between policy and government, and between arts 

 and sciences, in the verses so much renowned, attributing and 

 challenging the one to the Romans, and leaving and yielding the other 

 to the Grecians ; &quot; Tu rcgcre imperio populos, Romane, memento, Hai 

 tibi erunt artes, etc.&quot; So likewise we see that Anytus, the accuser of 

 Socrates, laid it as an article of charge and accusation against him, 

 that he did, with the variety and power of his discourses and dis 

 putations, withdraw young men from due reverence to the laws and 

 customs of their country ; and that he did profess a dangerous and 

 pernicious science, which was, to make the worse matter seem the 

 better, and to suppress truth by force of eloquence and speech. 



Hut these, and the like imputatiors, have rather a countenance of 



