(9) And as to the judgment of Cato the Censor, he was well punished
for his blasphemy against learning, in the same kind wherein he
offended; for when he was past threescore years old, he was taken
with an extreme desire to go to school again, and to learn the Greek
tongue, to the end to peruse the Greek authors; which doth well
demonstrate that his former censure of the Grecian learning was
rather an affected gravity, than according to the inward sense of
his own opinion. And as for Virgil's verses, though it pleased him
to brave the world in taking to the Romans the art of empire, and
leaving to others the arts of subjects, yet so much is manifest--
that the Romans never ascended to that height of empire till the
time they had ascended to the height of other arts. For in the time
of the two first Caesars, which had the art of government in
greatest perfection, there lived the best poet, Virgilius Maro; the
best historiographer, Titus Livius; the best antiquary, Marcus
Varro; and the best or second orator, Marcus Cicero, that to the
memory of man are known.
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