I.-J ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 



And for the conceit, that learning should dispose men to leisure 

 and privateness, and make men slothful ; it were a strange thing if 

 that, which accustomcth the mind to a perpetual motion and agitation, 

 should induce slothfulncss ; whereas contrariwise it may be truly 

 affirmed, that no kind of men love business for itself, but those that 

 are learned : for other persons love it for profit ; as an hireling, that 

 loves the work for the wages ; or for honour, as because it bearcth them 

 up in the eyes of men, and refresheth their reputations, which other 

 wise would wear; or because it putteth them in mind of their fortune, 

 and giveth them occasion to pleasure and displeasure ; or because it 

 exerciseth some faculty wherein they take pride, and so entertaincth 

 them in good humour and pleasing conceits towards themselves ; or 

 because it advanceth any other their ends. So that, as it is said of 

 untrue valours, that some men s valours are in the eyes of them that 

 look on; so such men s industries are in the eyes of others, or at 

 least in regard of their own dcsigmncnts : only learned men love 

 business, as an action according to nature, as agreeable to health of 

 mind, as exercise is to health of body, taking pleasure in the action 

 itself, and not in the purchase: so that of all men they are the most 

 indefatigable, if it be towards any business which can hold or detain 

 their mind 



And it any man be laborious in reading and study, and yet idle 

 in business and action, it groweth from some weakness of body, or 

 softness of spirit ; such as Seneca speakcth of : &quot; Quidam tarn stint 

 umbratiles, ut putent in turbido esse, quicquid in luce cst;&quot;and not 

 of learning: well may it be, that such a point of a man s nature may 

 make him give himself to learning, but it is not learning that brcedeth 

 any such point in his nature. 



And that learning should take up too much time or leisure: I 

 answer ; the most active or busy man, that hath been or can l&amp;gt;e, hath, 

 no question, many vacant times of leisure, while he expecteth the 

 tides and n. turns of business (except he be either tedious and of no 

 dispatch, or lightly and unworthily ambitious to meddle in things 

 that may be better done by others:) and then the question is but, 

 how those spaces and times of leisure shall be filled and spent ; 

 whether in pleasures, or in studies ; as was well answered by Demos 

 thenes to his adversary yKschines, that was a man given to pleasure, 

 and told him, &quot; that his orations did smell of the lamp:&quot; &quot; Indeed,&quot; 

 said Demosthenes, &quot; there is a great difference between the things 

 that you and 1 do by lamp-light.&quot; So as no man need doubt, that 

 learning will expulse business, but rather it will keep and defend the 

 possession of the mind against idleness and pleasure ; which other 

 wise, at unawares, may enter to the prejudice of both. 



Again, for that other conceit, that learning should undermine the 

 reverence of laws and government, it is assuredly a mere depravation 

 and calumny, without all shadow of truth. For to say, that a blind 

 custom of obedience should be a surer obligation, than duty taught 

 and understood ; it is to affirm, that a blind man may tread surer by 

 a guide, than a seeing man can by a light. And it is without all 



