but then again it obfcureth and concealeth the stars and celestial Globe: fo doth the Sense discover Natural things, but it darkeneth and hutteth up Divine. And hence it is true, that it hath proceeded, that divers great Learned men have been Heretical, whilft they have fought to fly up to the fecrets of the Deity by the waxen Wings of the Senfes. And as for the conceit that too much knowledge fhould incline a man to Atheism, and that the ignorance of second caufes fhould make a more devout dependence upon GOD, which is the first caufe; First, it is good to afk the question which Job afked of his friends: Will you lie for GOD, as one man will do for another, to gratify him? For certain it is that GOD worketh nothing in Nature but by fecond caufes and if they would have it otherwise believed, it is mere imposture, as it were in favour towards GOD; and nothing else but to offer to the Author of Truth the unclean facrifice of a lie. But farther, it is an afsured Truth, and a Conclufion of Experience, that a little or superficial knowledge of Philofophy may incline the mind of man to Atheism, but a farther proceeding therein doth bring the mind back again to Religion for in the entrance of Philosophy, when the fecond Caufes, which are next unto the fenfes, do offer themselves to the mind of Man, if it dwell and stay there it may induce fome oblivion of the highest cause; but when a man passeth on farther, and feeth the dependence of causes, and the works of Providence; then, according to the Allegory of

the Poets, he will eafily believe that the highest Link of Nature's Chain muft 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 ftudied in the Book of God's Word, or in the Book of GOD's Works; Divinity or Philofophy; but rather let Men endeavour an endless Progrefs or proficience in both; only let men beware that they apply both to Charity, and not to fwelling; to use, and not to oftentation; and again, that they do not unwifely mingle or confound these Learnings together.

And as for the difgraces which Learning receiveth 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 difpofitions for matter of government and policy; in making them too curious and irrefolute by variety of reading; or too peremptory or positive by strictnefs 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 reafon of the diffimilitude of examples; or at least, that it doth divert men's travails from action and business, and bringeth them to a love of leifure and privateness; and that it doth bring into States a relaxation of difcipline, whilft every Man is more ready to argue, than to obey and execute.

Out of this conceit, Cato, furnamed the Cenfor, one of the wifeft men indeed that ever lived, when Carneades the Philofopher came in Embaffage 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, left he should infectand 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 fame conceit, or humour, did Virgil, turning his pen to the advantage of his Country, and the difadvantage of his own profeffion, make a kind of feparation between policy and government, and between Arts and Sciences, in the verfes fo much renowned, attributing and challenging the one to the Romans, and leaving and yielding the other to the Grecians; Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento, Hæ tibi erunt artes, &c. So likewife we fee that Anytus, the accufer 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 difputations, withdraw young men from due reverence to the Laws and Customs of their Country; and that he did profefs a dangerous and pernicious Science, which was, to make the worfe matter feem the better, and to fupprefs truth by force of eloquence and speech.

But these, and the like imputations, have rather a countenance of gravity, than any ground of Juf

tice for experience doth warrant, that both in perfons and in times, there hath been a meeting and concurrence in Learning and Arms, flourishing and excelling in the fame men and the fame ages. For, as for men, there cannot be a better, nor the like instance, as of that pair, Alexander the Great and Julius Cæfar the Dictator; whereof the one was Ariftotle's Scholar in Philofophy, and the other was Cicero's Rival in eloquence: or if any man had rather call for Scholars that were great Generals, than Generals that were great Scholars, let him take Epaminondas the Theban or Xenophon the Athenian; whereof the one was the firft that abated the power of Sparta, and the other was the first that made way to the overthrow of the Monarchy of Perfia. And this concurrence is yet more vifible in times than in perfons, by how much an age is a greater object than a Man. For both in Egypt, Affyria, Perfia, Græcia, and Rome, the fame times that are most renowned for Arms, are likewise most admired for Learning; fo that the greatest Authors and Philofophers, and the greatest Captains and Governors have lived in the fame ages. Neither can it otherwise be for as, in Man, the ripeness of strength of the body and mind cometh much about an age, fave that the ftrength of the body cometh fomewhat the more early; fo in States, Arms and Learning, whereof the one correfpondeth to the body, the other to the foul of Man, have a concurrence or near fequence in times.

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And for matter of Policy and Government, that Learning should rather hurt, than enable thereunto, is a thing very improbable: we fee it is accounted an error to commit a natural body to Empiric Physicians, which commonly have a few pleafing receipts, whereupon they are confident and adventurous, but know neither the caufes of diseases, nor the complexions of Patients, nor peril of accidents, nor the true method of Cures: we fee it is a like error to rely upon Advocates or Lawyers, which are only men of practice, and not grounded in their Books, who are many times. eafily furprised, when matter falleth out befides their experience, to the prejudice of the causes they handle fo, by like reafon, it cannot be but a matter of doubtful confequence, if States be managed by Empiric Statefmen, not well mingled with men grounded in Learning. But contrariwife, it is almoft without inftance contradictory, that ever any government was difaftrous that was in the hands of Learned Governors. For howfoever it hath been ordinary with politic men to extenuate and difable Learned men by the names of Pedants; yet in the Records of time it appeareth, in many particulars, that the Governments of Princes in minority (notwithstanding the infinite difadvantage of that kind of State) have nevertheless excelled the government of Princes of mature age, even for that reason which they seek to traduce, which is, that by that occafion the State hath