" "Indeed," said
Demosthenes, "there is a great difference between the things that
you and I do by lamp-light." So as no man need doubt that learning
will expel business, but rather it will keep and defend the
possession of the mind against idleness and pleasure, which
otherwise at unawares may enter to the prejudice of both.
(8) Again, for that other conceit that learning should undermine the
reverence of laws and government, it is assuredly a mere depravation
and calumny, without all shadow of truth. For to say that a blind
custom of obedience should be a surer obligation than duty taught
and understood, it is to affirm that a blind man may tread surer by
a guide than a seeing man can by a light. And it is without all
controversy that learning doth make the minds of men gentle,
generous, manageable, and pliant to government; whereas ignorance
makes them churlish, thwart, and mutinous: and the evidence of time
doth clear this assertion, considering that the most barbarous,
rude, and unlearned times have been most subject to tumults,
seditious, and changes.
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