(6) Another fault likewise much of this kind hath been incident to
learned men, which is, that they have esteemed the preservation,
good, and honour of their countries or masters before their own
fortunes or safeties. For so saith Demosthenes unto the Athenians:
"If it please you to note it, my counsels unto you are not such
whereby I should grow great amongst you, and you become little
amongst the Grecians; but they be of that nature as they are
sometimes not good for me to give, but are always good for you to
follow." And so Seneca, after he had consecrated that Quinquennium
Neronis to the eternal glory of learned governors, held on his
honest and loyal course of good and free counsel after his master
grew extremely corrupt in his government. Neither can this point
otherwise be, for learning endueth men's minds with a true sense of
the frailty of their persons, the casualty of their fortunes, and
the dignity of their soul and vocation, so that it is impossible for
them to esteem that any greatness of their own fortune can be a true
or worthy end of their being and ordainment, and therefore are
desirous to give their account to God, and so likewise to their
masters under God (as kings and the states that they serve) in those
words, Ecce tibi lucrefeci, and not Ecce mihi lucrefeci; whereas the
corrupter sort of mere politiques, that have not their thoughts
established by learning in the love and apprehension of duty, nor
never look abroad into universality, do refer all things to
themselves, and thrust themselves into the centre of the world, as
if all lines should meet in them and their fortunes, never caring in
all tempests what becomes of the ship of state, so they may save
themselves in the cockboat of their own fortune; whereas men that
feel the weight of duty and know the limits of self-love use to make
good their places and duties, though with peril; and if they stand
in seditious and violent alterations, it is rather the reverence
which many times both adverse parts do give to honesty, than any
versatile advantage of their own carriage.
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