Fals. querel. fugiend. Platonis peregrinatio in Italiam.--We should
not protect our sloth with the patronage of difficulty. It is a
false quarrel against Nature, that she helps understanding but in a
few, when the most part of mankind are inclined by her thither, if
they would take the pains; no less than birds to fly, horses to run,
&c., which if they lose, it is through their own sluggishness, and
by that means become her prodigies, not her children. I confess,
Nature in children is more patient of labour in study than in age;
for the sense of the pain, the judgment of the labour is absent;
they do not measure what they have done. And it is the thought and
consideration that affects us more than the weariness itself. Plato
was not content with the learning that Athens could give him, but
sailed into Italy, for Pythagoras' knowledge: and yet not thinking
himself sufficiently informed, went into Egypt, to the priests, and
learned their mysteries. He laboured, so must we. Many things may
be learned together, and performed in one point of time; as
musicians exercise their memory, their voice, their fingers, and
sometimes their head and feet at once.
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