Let Marriners learn Astronomy; Merchants Factors study Arithmetick; Surveiers get them Geometry; Spectacle-makers Opticks; Landleapers Geography; Town-Clarks Rhetorick, what should he do with a spade, that hath no ground to dig? or they with Learning, that have no use of it? thus they reason, and are not ashamed to let Marriners, Prentises, and the basest servants be better qualified than themselves. In former times, Kings, Princes, and Emperors were the only Schollers, excellent in all faculties.

Iulius Cæsar mended the year, and writ his own Commentaries,

—— media inter prælia semper, Stellarum cælique plagis, superisque vacavit.

Antonius, Adrian, Nero, Seve. Iul. &c. Michael the Emperor, and Isacius, were so much given to their studies, that no base fellow would take so much pains: Orion, Perseus, Alphonsus, Ptolomeus, famous Astronomers: Sabor, Mithridates, Lysimachus, admired Physitians: Plato’s kings all: Evax that Arabian Prince, a most expert Jueller, and an exquisite Philosopher; the Kings of Ægypt were Priests of old, chosen and from thence, —— Idem rex hominum, Phœbique sacerdos:

but those heroical times are past; the Muses are now banished in this bastard age, ad sordida tuguriola, to meaner persons, and confined alone almost to Universities. In those daies, Schollers were highly beloved, honoured, esteemed; as old Ennius by Scipio Africanus, Virgil by Augustus, Horace by Mæcenas: Princes companions; dear to them, as Anacreon to Polycrates; Philoxenus to Dionysius, and highly rewarded.

Alexander sent Xenocrates the Philosopher 50. talents, because he was poor, visu rerum, aut eruditione præstantes viri, mensis olim regum adhibiti, as Philostratus relates of Adrian and Lampridius of Alexander Severus: famous Clarkes came to these Princes Courts, velut in Lycæum, as to an University, and were admitted to their tables, quasi divum epulis accumbentes;

Archilaus that Macedonian King would not willingly sup without Euripides, (amongst the rest he drank to him at supper one night and gave him a cup of gold for his pains) delectatus poetæ suavi sermone; and it was fit it should be so: Because as Plato in his Protagoras well saith, a good Philosopher as much excels other men, as a great King doth the Commons of his country;

and again, quoniam illis nihil deest, & minime egere solent, & disciplinas quas profitentur, soli à contemptu vindicare possunt, they needed not to beg so basely, as they compel Schollers in our times to complain of poverty, or crouch to a rich chuffe for a meales meat, but could vindicate themselves, & those Arts which they professed. Now they would & cannot:

for it is held by some of them, as an axiome, that to keep them poor, will make them study; they must be dieted, as horses to a race, not pampered, Alendos volunt, non saginandos, ne melioris mentis flammula extinguatur: a fat bird will not sing, a fat dog cannot hunt, and so by this depression of theirs, some want meanes, others will, all want incouragement, as being forsaken almost, & generally contemned. ’Tis an old saying, Sint Mæcenates non deerunt Flacce Marones, and ’tis a true saying still.

Yet oftentimes I may not deny it the main fault is in our selves. Our Academicks too frequently offend in neglecting patrons, as Erasmus well taxeth, or making ill choice of them; negligimus oblatos aut amplectimur parum aptos, or if we get a good one, non studemus mutuis officiis favorem ejus alere, we do not plye and follow him as we should.

Idem mihi accidit Adolescenti (saith Erasmus) acknowledging his fault, & gravissime peccavi, and so may I say my self, I have offended in this, and so peradventure have many others. We did not spondere magnatum favoribus, qui cœperunt nos amplecti, apply our selves with that readiness we should: idleness, love of liberty, immodicus amor libertatis effecit ut diu cum perfidis amicis, as he confesseth, & pertinaci paupertate colluctarer, bashfulness, melancholy, timourousness cause many of us to be too backward and remiss.

So some offend in one extream, but too many on the other, we are most part too forward, too solicitous, too ambitious, too impudent; We commonly complain deesse Mæcenates, want of encouragement, want of meanes, when as the true defect is in our own want of worth, our insufficiency: did Mæcenas take notice of Horace or Virgil till they had shewed themselves first? or had Bavius and Mevius any patrons?

Egregium specimen dent, saith Erasmus, let them approve themselves worthy first, sufficiently qualified for learning and manners, before they presume or impudently intrude and put themselves on great men as too many do, with such base flattery, parasitical colloging, such hyperbolical elogies they do usually insinuat, that it is a shame to hear and see. Immodicæ laudes conciliant invidiam, potius quam laudem, and vain commendations derogate from truth, and we think in conclusion, non melius de laudato, pejus de laudante, ill of both, the commender and commended.

So we offend, but the main fault is in their harshness, defect of patrons. How beloved of old, and how much respected was Plato to Dionysius? How dear to Alexander was Aristotle, Demeratus to Philip, Solon to Crœsus, Anexarcus and Trebatius to Augustus, Cassius to Vespasian, Plutarch to Trajan, Seneca to Nero, Simonides to Hieron? how honored?

Sed hæc prius fuere, nunc recondita Senent quiete,

those daies are gone:

Et spes, & ratio studiorum in Cæsare tantum:

As he said of old, we may truly say now, he is our Amulet, our Sun, our sole comfort and refuge, our Ptolomy, our common Mæcenas, Iacobus munificus, Iacobus pacificus, mysta Musarum, Rex Platonicus: Grande decus, columenque nostrum: A famous Scholler himself, and the sole Patron, Pillar, and sustainer of learning:

but his worth in this kind is so well known, that as Paterculus of Cato, Jam ipsum laudare nefas sit: and which Pliny to Trajan. Seria te carmina, honorque æternus annalium, non hæc brevis & pudenda prædicatio colet. But he is now gone, the Sun of ours set, and yet no night followes,

—— Sol occubuit, nox nulla sequuta est.

We have such another in his room

—— aureus alter Avulsus, simili frondescit virga metallo,

and long may he raign and flourish amongst us.

Let me not be malitious, and lie against my Genius, I may not denie, but that we have a sprinkling of our Gentry, here, and there one, excellently well learned, like those Fuggeri in Germany, Dubartus, Du Plessis, Sadael in France, Picus Mirandula, Schottus, Barotius in Italy;

Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto.

But they are but few in respect of the multitude, the major part (and some again excepted, that are indifferent) are wholly bent for Hawkes and hounds, and carried away many times with intemperate lust, gaming and drinking. If they read a book at any time, (si quod est interim otii à venatu, poculis, alea, scortis) ’tis an English Chronicle, Sr Huon of Bordeaux, Amadis de Gaule, &c. a play-book, or some pamphlet of Newes, and that at such seasons only, when they cannot stir abroad, to drive away time, their sole discourse is dogs, hawks, horses, and what Newes?

If some one have been a traveller in Italy, or as far as the Emperors Court, wintered in Orleance, and can court his Mistris in broken French, wear his clothes neatly in the newest fashion, sing some choice Out-landish tunes, discourse of Lords, Ladies, Townes, Palaces, and Cities, he is compleat and to be admired: Otherwise he and they are much at one; no difference betwixt the Master and the Man, but worshipful titles: wink and choose betwixt him that sits down (clothes excepted) and him that holds the Trencher behind him: yet these men must be our Patrons, our governors too sometimes, statesman, magistrates, noble, great, and wise by inheritance.