1 1.1 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 209 



that I have read, not distempered in the heat of invention, nor in the 

 coldness of negligence ; not sick of business, as those are who lose 

 themselves in their order, nor of convulsions, as those which cramp in 

 matters impertinent ; not savouring of perfumes and paintings, as 

 those do who seek to please the reader more than nature beareth ; and 

 chiefly well disposed in the spirits thereof, being agreeable to truth, 

 and apt for action, and far removed from that natural infirmity where- 

 unto I noted those that write in their own professions to be subject, 

 which is, that they exalt it above measure : for your majesty hath 

 truly described, not a king of Assyria, or Persia, in their extern glory, 

 but a Moses, or a David, pastors of their people. Neither can I ever 

 lose out of my remembrance, what I heard your majesty in the same 

 sacred spirit of government deliver in a great cause of judicature, 

 which was, &quot; That kings ruled by their laws as God did by the laws of 

 nature, and ought as rarely to put in use their supreme prerogative, 

 as God doth his power of working miracles.&quot; And yet, notwith 

 standing, in your book of a free monarchy, you do well give men to 

 understand, that you know the plenitude of the power and right of a 

 king, as well as the circle of his office and duty. Thus have I pre 

 sumed to allcdge this excellent writing of your majesty, as a prime or 

 eminent example of Tractates concerning special and respective duties, 

 wherein I should have said as much if it had been written a thousand 

 years since: neither am I moved with certain courtly decencies, which 

 esteem it flattery to praise in presence ; no, it is flattery to praise in 

 absence, that is, when either the virtue is absent, or the occasion is 

 absent, and so the praise is not natural but forced, either in truth or in 

 time. But let Cicero be read in his oration pro Marccllo, which is 

 nothing but an excellent table of Caesar s virtue, and made to his face ; 

 besides the example of many other excellent persons wiser a great 

 deal than such observers, and we will never doubt, upon a full occasion, 

 to give just praises to present or absent. 



But to return, there belongeth farther to the handling of this part, 

 touching the duties of professions and vocations, a relative or opposite 

 touching the frauds, cautels, impostures, and vices of every profession, 

 which hath been likewise handled. But how ? Rather in a satire and 

 cynically, than seriously and wisely; for men have rather sought by 

 wit to deride and traduce much of that which is good in professions, 

 than with judgment to discover and sever that which is corrupt. For, 

 as Solomon saith, he that comcth to seek after knowledge with a mind 

 to scorn and censure, shall be sure to find matter for his humour, but 

 no matter for his instruction: &quot; Qua^renti derisori scicntiam, ipsa se 

 abscondit: sed -.tudioso fit obviam.&quot; But the managing of this argu 

 ment with integrity and truth, which I note as deficient, secmcth to me 

 to be one of the best fortifications for honesty and virtue that can be 

 planted. For, as the fable goeth of the basilisk, that if he see you first, 

 you die for it ; but if you see him first, he dieth : so is it with deceits 

 and evil arts, which, if they be first espied, lose their life ; but if they 

 prevent, they endanger. So that we are much beholden to Machiavel 

 and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do i 



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