But it is a pleasure incomparable, for the mind of man to be
settled, landed, and fortified in the certainty of truth; and from
thence to descry and behold the errors, perturbations, labours, and
wanderings up and down of other men.
(6) Lastly, leaving the vulgar arguments, that by learning man
excelleth man in that wherein man excelleth beasts; that by learning
man ascendeth to the heavens and their motions, where in body he
cannot come; and the like: let us conclude with the dignity and
excellency of knowledge and learning in that whereunto man's nature
doth most aspire, which is immortality, or continuance; for to this
tendeth generation, and raising of houses and families; to this tend
buildings, foundations, and monuments; to this tendeth the desire of
memory, fame, and celebration; and in effect the strength of all
other human desires. We see then how far the monuments of wit and
learning are more durable than the monuments of power or of the
hands. For have not the verses of Homer continued twenty-five
hundred years, or more, without the loss of a syllable or letter;
during which the infinite palaces, temples, castles, cities, have
been decayed and demolished? It is not possible to have the true
pictures or statues of Cyrus, Alexander, Caesar, no nor of the kings
or great personages of much later years; for the originals cannot
last, and the copies cannot but leese of the life and truth.
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