SURPASSING PLEASURE OF KNOWLEDGE.

and commonwealths, as it doth not likewise give fortune to particular persons. For it was well noted long ago that Homer hath given more men their livings than either Sylla, or Cæsar, or Augustus ever did, notwithstanding their great largesses and donatives and distributions of lands to so many legions. And no doubt it is

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hard to say whether arms or learning have advanced greater numbers. And in case of sovranty, we see that that if arms or descent have carried away the kingdom, yet learning hath carried the priesthood, which ever hath 10 been in some competition with empire.

Again, for the pleasure and delight of knowledge and learning, it far surpasseth all other in nature. For shall the pleasures of the affections so exceed the pleasures of the senses, as much as the obtaining of desire or victory 15 exceedeth a song or a dinner; and must not, of consequence, the pleasures of the intellect or understanding exceed the pleasures of the affections? We see in all other pleasures there is satiety, and after they be used their verdure departeth; which showeth well they be but 20 deceits of pleasure, and not pleasures, and that it was the novelty which pleased, and not the quality. And therefore we see that voluptuous men turn friars, and ambitious princes turn melancholy. But of knowledge there is no satiety, but satisfaction and appetite are perpetually 25 interchangeable; and therefore appeareth to be good in itself simply, without fallacy or accident. Neither is that pleasure of small efficacy and contentment to the mind of man, which the poet Lucretius describeth elegantly:

Pleasant to gaze below, when winds disturb the deep,1

'It is a view of delight,' saith he, 'to stand or walk upon the shore side, and to see a ship tossed with tem

1 Suave mari magno, turbantibus æquora ventis, etc.

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A MEANS OF EARTHLY IMMORTALITY.

pest upon the sea; or to be in a fortified tower, and to see two battles join upon a plain. But it is a pleasure incomparable, for the mind of man to be settled, landed, and fortified in the certainty of truth, and from thence to 5 descry and behold the errors, perturbations, labors, and wanderings up and down of other men.'

Lastly, leaving the vulgar arguments that by learning man excelleth man in that wherein man excelleth beasts, that by learning man ascendeth to the heavens and their 10 motions, where in body he cannot come, and the like; let us conclude with the dignity and excellency of knowledge and learning in that whereunto man's nature doth most aspire, which is immortality or continuance for to this tendeth generation, and raising of houses and families; 15 to this tend buildings, foundations, and monuments; to this tendeth the desire of memory, fame, and celebration, and in effect the strength of all other human desires. We see then how far the monuments of wit and learning are more durable than the monuments of power or of the 20 hands. For have not the verses of Homer continued twenty-five hundred years or more without the loss of a syllable or letter, during which time infinite palaces, temples, castles, cities, have been decayed and demolished? It is not possible to have the true pictures or statuaes of 25 Cyrus, Alexander, Cæsar, no, nor of the kings or great personages of much later years; for the originals cannot last, and the copies cannot but leese of the life and truth. But the images of men's wits and knowledges remain in books, exempted from the wrong of time, and capable of 30 perpetual renovation. Neither are they fitly to be called images, because they generate still, and cast their seeds in the minds of others, provoking and causing infinite actions and opinions in succeeding ages. So that if the invention of the ship was thought so noble, which 35 carrieth riches and commodities from place to place, and

LEARNING ASSOCIATES DISTANT AGES.

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consociateth the most remote regions in participation of their fruits, how much more are letters to be magnified, which as ships pass through the vast seas of time, and V make ages so distant to participate of the wisdom, illuminations, and inventions, the one of the other? Nay 5 further, we see some of the philosophers which were least divine and most immersed in the senses, and denied generally the immortality of the soul, yet came to this point, that whatsoever motions the spirit of man could act and perform without the organs of the body, they thought 10 might remain after death, which were only those of the understanding, and not of the affection; so immortal and incorruptible a thing did knowledge seem unto them to be. But we, that know by divine revelation that not only the understanding, but the affections purified, not only 15 the spirit, but the body changed, shall be advanced to immortality, do disclaim in these rudiments of the senses. But it must be remembered both in this last point, and so it may likewise be needful in other places, that in probation of the dignity of knowledge or learning I did in 20 the beginning separate divine testimony from human; which method I have pursued, and so handled them both apart.

Nevertheless I do not pretend, and I know it will be impossible for me by any pleading of mine, to reverse 25 the judgment, either of Æsop's cock, that preferred the barley-corn before the gem; or of Midas, that being chosen judge between Apollo, president of the Muses, and Pan, god of the flocks, judged for plenty; or of Paris, that judged for beauty and love against wisdom 30 and power; or of Agrippina, Let him kill his mother so he be emperor, that preferred empire with any condition never so detestable; or of Ulysses, who preferred an old

1 Occidat matrem, modo imperet.

woman to immortality, being a figure of those which prefer custom and habit before all excellency; or of a number of the like popular judgments. For these things must continue as they have been; but so will that also 5 continue whereupon learning hath ever relied, and which faileth not: Wisdom is justified of her children.2

NOTES.

To the King James I of England and VI of Scotland (15661625), son of Lord Darnley and Mary Queen of Scots, who succeeded Queen Elizabeth in 1603. The reign of James in England was distinguished by many memorable events: it witnessed the literary and political careers of Bacon and Raleigh, the disgrace of both, and execution of the latter; the dramatic activity of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson; the translation of the English Bible; the colonization of Virginia and New England; the formation of two well-defined schools of English Protestantism; and the genesis of the struggle between King and Commons which brought the head of his successor to the block. James was despicable in his personal qualities was weak, cowardly, passionate, vindictive, cruel, superstitious, fanatical, and prone to fall under the influence of worthless favorites. Though absurdly lacking in kingly qualities, he thoroughly believed in his divine right to rule, setting forth his views on that subject in Basilikon Doron (1599). His learning was varied, though not scholarly; he published several other books, which were much praised by his flatterers, but have now only a historical interest' (Johnson's Cyclopædia). His flatterers called him the British Solomon. An instructive parallel to Bacon's dedication is that of the translators of the English Bible, which is usually prefixed to the Authorized Version. The current conceptions of James I are largely derived from Scott's Fortunes of Nigel. Cf. Green, Short History of the English People, Chap. 8, sect. 2.

We must remember that the Advancement of Learning was published two years after James' accession to the English throne. Macaulay says, in his essay on Bacon: James mounted the throne; and Bacon employed all his address to obtain for himself a share of the favor of his new master. This was no difficult task. The faults of James, both as a man and as a prince, were numerous;

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