Out of this conceit Cato,
surnamed the Censor, one of the wisest men indeed that ever lived,
when Carneades the philosopher came in embassage 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 despatch with
all speed, lest he should infect and enchant 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 same conceit or
humour did Virgil, turning his pen to the advantage of his country
and the disadvantage of his own profession, make a kind of
separation between policy and government, and between arts and
sciences, in the verses so much renowned, attributing and
challenging the one to the Romans, and leaving and yielding the
other to the Grecians: Tu regere imperio popules, Romane, memento,
Hae tibi erunt artes, &c. So likewise we see that Anytus, the
accuser 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 disputatious, withdraw young men from due reverence
to the laws and customs of their country, and that he did profess a
dangerous and pernicious science, which was to make the worse matter
seem the better, and to suppress truth by force of eloquence and
speech.
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