Sir Henry Savile, grave,
and truly lettered; Sir Edwin Sandys, excellent in both; Lord
Egerton, the Chancellor, a grave and great orator, and best when he
was provoked; but his learned and able (though unfortunate)
successor is he who hath filled up all numbers, and performed that
in our tongue which may be compared or preferred either to insolent
Greece or haughty Rome. In short, within his view, and about his
times, were all the wits born that could honour a language or help
study. Now things daily fall, wits grow downward, and eloquence
grows backward; so that he may be named and stand as the mark and
[Greek text] of our language.
De augmentis scientiarum.--Julius Caesar.--Lord St. Alban.--I have
ever observed it to have been the office of a wise patriot, among
the greatest affairs of the State, to take care of the commonwealth
of learning. For schools, they are the seminaries of State; and
nothing is worthier the study of a statesman than that part of the
republic which we call the advancement of letters. Witness the care
of Julius Caesar, who, in the heat of the civil war, writ his books
of Analogy, and dedicated them to Tully.
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