ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 



doubted, the philosopher of a Stoic would turn to be a Cynic.&quot; But 

 abo\e all the rest, the gross and palpable flattery, whcrcunto many, 

 not unlearned, have abased and abused their wits anil pens, turning, a-j 

 Du I tart as saith, Hecuba into Helena, and Faustina into Lucretia, hath 

 most diminished the price and estimation of learning. Neither is the 

 modern dedications of books and writings, as to patrons, to be com 

 mended : for that books, such as are worthy the name of books, ought 

 to have no patrons but truth and reason. And the ancient custom was, 

 to dedicate them only to private and equal friends, or to intitle the 

 books with their names ; or if to kings and great persons, it was to 

 some such as the argument of the book was lit and proper for : but 

 these and the like courses may deserve rather reprehension than 

 defence. 



Not that I can tax or condemn the morigcration orapplicat! &amp;gt;n of 

 learned men to men in fortune. For the answer was good that 

 Diogenes made to one that asked him in mockery, &quot; How it came to 

 pass that philosophers were the followers of rich men, and not rich 

 men of philosophers?&quot; He answered soberly, and yet sharply, 

 &quot; Because the one sort knew what they hail need of, and the other did 

 not.&quot; And of the like nature was the answer which Aristippus made, 

 when having a petition to Dionysius, and no ear given to him, he fell 

 down at his feet ; whereupon Dionysius staid, and gave him the hearing, 

 and granted it ; and afterwards some person, tender on the behalf of 

 philosophy, reproved Aristippus, that he would offer the profession 

 of philosophy such an indignity, as for a private suit to fall at a tyrant s 

 feet. But he answered, &quot; It was not his fault, but it was the fault of 

 Dionysius, that he had his ears in his feet.&quot; Neither was it accounted 

 weakness, but discretion in him that would not dispute his best with 

 Adrianus Caesar ; excusing himself, &quot;That it was reason to yield to him 

 that commanded thirty legions.&quot; These and the like applications, 

 and stooping to points of necessity and convenience, cannot be dis 

 allowed : for though they may have some outward baseness, yet in a 

 judgment truly made, they arc to be accounted submissions to the 

 occasion, and not to the person. 



Now I proceed to those errors and vanities, which have intervened 

 amongst the studies themselves of the learned, which is that which is 

 principal and proper to the present argument; wherein my purpose is 

 not to make justification of the errors, but, by a censure and separation 

 of the errors, to make a justification of that which is good and sound, 

 and to deliver that from the aspersion of the other. For we see, that 

 it is the manner of men to scandalize and deprave that which retaincth 

 the state and virtue, by taking advantage upon that which is corrupt 

 and degenerate ; as the heathens in the primitive Church used to 

 blemish and taint the Christians with the faults and corruptions of 

 heretics. But nevertheless I have no meaning at this time to make 

 any exact animadversion of the errors ;md impediments in matter:; 

 of learning, which are more secret and remote from vulgar opinion, but 

 only to speak unto such as do fall under, or near unto, a popular 

 observation. 



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