Of the Proficience and

Advancement of Learning,

Divine and Human.

To the King.

HERE were, under the Law, excellent King, both daily Sacrifices, and freewill Offerings; the one proceeding

upon ordinary obfervance, the other upon a devout cheerfulness in like manner there belongeth to Kings from their Servants both Tribute of duty and Prefents of affection. In the former of these I hope I fhall not live to be wanting, according to my moft humble duty, and the good pleasure of your Majefty's employments for the latter, I thought it more respective to make choice of fome oblation, which might rather refer to the propriety and excellency of your individual perfon, than to the business of your Crown and State.

Wherefore, reprefenting your Majesty many times unto my mind, and beholding you not with

the inquifitive eye of prefumption, to discover that which the Scripture telleth me is infcrutable, but with the obfervant eye of duty and admiration; leaving afide the other parts of your virtue and fortune, I have been touched, yea, and possessed with an extreme wonder at those your virtues and faculties, which the Philofophers call intellectual; the largeness of your Capacity, the faithfulness of your memory, the swiftness of your apprehension, the penetration of your Judgment, and the facility and order of your elocution: and I have often thought, that of all the perfons living that I have known, your Majefty were the best instance to make a man of Plato's opinion, that all knowledge is but remembrance, and that the mind of man by nature knoweth all things, and hath but her own native and original motions (which by the ftrangeness and darkness of this Tabernacle of the body are fequeftered) again revived and restored: fuch a light of Nature I have obferved in your Majefty, and fuch a readiness to take flame and blaze from the leaft occafion prefented, or the least spark of another's knowledge delivered. And as the Scripture faith of the wifeft king, That his heart was as the fands of the Sea; which though it be one of the largest bodies, yet it confifteth of the smallest and fineft portions; fo hath God given your Majefty a compofition of understanding admirable, being able to compass and comprehend the greatest matters, and nevertheless to touch and apprehend the leaft; whereas it should seem an impoffibility

in Nature, for the fame Inftrument to make itself fit for great and small Works. And for your gift of speech, I call to mind what Cornelius Tacitus faith of Auguftus Cæfar: Augufto profluens, et quæ principem deceret, eloquentia fuit. For, if we note it well, fpeech that is uttered with labour and difficulty, or speech that favoureth of the affection of art and precepts, or speech that is framed after the imitation of fome pattern of eloquence, though never so excellent; all this has fomewhat fervile, and holding of the fubject. But your Majesty's manner of speech is indeed prince-like, flowing as from a fountain, and yet streaming and branching itself into Nature's order, full of facility and felicity, imitating none, and inimitable by any. And as in your civil Estate there appeareth to be an emulation and contention of your Majesty's virtue with your fortune; a virtuous difpofition with a fortunate regiment; a virtuous expectation, when time was, of your greater fortune, with a profperous poffeffion thereof in the due time; a virtuous obfervation of the Laws of marriage, with moft bleffed and happy fruit of marriage; a virtuous and moft Chriftian defire of peace, with a fortunate inclination in your neighbour Princes thereunto: fo likewise, in these intellectual matters, there seemeth to be no less contention between the excellency of your Majefty's gifts of Nature, and the universality and perfection of your Learning. For I am well affured that this which I fhall fay is no amplification at all, but a positive and mea

fured truth; which is, that there hath not been fince Christ's time any King or temporal Monarch, which has been so learned in all literature and erudition, divine and human. For let a man seriously and diligently revolve and perufe the fucceffion of the Emperors of Rome; of which Cæfar the Dictator, who lived fome years before CHRIST, and Marcus Antoninus, were the best Learned; and so defcend to the Emperors of Græcia, or of the Weft; and then to the lines of France, Spain, England, Scotland, and the rest, and he shall find this judgment is truly made. For it seemeth much in a King, if, by the compendious extractions of other men's Wits and Labours, he can take hold of any fuperficial Ornaments and fhews of Learning; or if he countenance and prefer learning and learned men: but to drink indeed of the true Fountains of learning, nay, to have such a fountain of learning in himself, in a King, and in a King born, is almost a Miracle. And the more, because there is met in your Majesty a rare Conjunction, as well of Divine and facred literature, as of profane and human; fo as your Majesty standeth invested of that triplicity, which in great veneration was ascribed to the ancient Hermes; the power and fortune of a King, the knowledge and illumination of a Priest, and the learning and univerfality of a Philosopher. This propriety, inherent and individual attribute in your Majefty, deferveth to be expreffed not only in the fame and admiration of the present time, nor in the History or tradition

of the ages fucceeding, but alfo in some solid work, fixed memorial, and immortal monument, bearing a Character or fignature both of the power of a King, and the difference and perfection of fuch a King.

Therefore I did conclude with myself, that I could not make unto your Majefty a better oblation than of fome Treatife tending to that end, whereof the fum will confift of these two parts; the former, concerning the excellency of Learning and Knowledge, and the excellency of the merit and true glory in the Augmentation and Propagation thereof: the latter, what the particular acts and works are, which have been embraced and undertaken for the Advancement of Learning; and again, what defects and undervalues I find in fuch particular acts to the end, that though I cannot pofitively or affirmatively advise your Majefty, or propound unto you framed particulars; yet I may excite your Princely Cogitations to vifit the excellent treasure of your own mind, and thence to extract particulars for this purpose, agreeable to your Magnanimity and Wisdom.

N the entrance to the former of these, to clear the way, and as it were, to make filence, to have the true Tef

timonies concerning the dignity of

Learning to be better heard, without the interruption of tacit objections; I think good to deliver it from the difcredits and difgraces which it hath re