Therefore I did conclude with myself that I could not make unto your
Majesty a better oblation than of some treatise tending to that end,
whereof the sum will consist 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 such
particular acts: to the end that though I cannot positively or
affirmatively advise your Majesty, or propound unto you framed
particulars, yet I may excite your princely cogitations to visit the
excellent treasure of your own mind, and thence to extract
particulars for this purpose agreeable to your magnanimity and
wisdom.
I. (1) In the entrance to the former of these--to clear the way and,
as it were, to make silence, to have the true testimonies concerning
the dignity of learning to be better heard, without the interruption
of tacit objections--I think good to deliver it from the discredits
and disgraces which it hath received, all from ignorance, but
ignorance severally disguised; appearing sometimes in the zeal and
jealousy of divines, sometimes in the severity and arrogancy of
politics, and sometimes in the errors and imperfections of learned
men themselves.
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