Of the Advancement of Learning

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I do not look with the inquisitive eye of presumption to discover that which the Scripture tells me is inscrutable original: "inscrutable" — meaning impossible to understand or interpret; beyond human searching; but rather with the observant eye of duty and admiration. Leaving aside the other parts of your virtue and fortune, I have been touched—indeed, possessed—with an extreme wonder at those virtues and faculties of yours which the philosophers call intellectual: the largeness of your capacity, the faithfulness of your memory, the swiftness of your apprehension, the penetration of your judgment, and the facility and order of your elocution original: "elocution" — the skill of clear and expressive speech.

I have often thought that of all the living persons I have known, your Majesty would be the best instance to prove Plato's opinion: that all knowledge is but remembrance, and that the mind of man by nature knows all things. According to this view, the mind only has its own native and original motions revived and restored—motions which were sequestered original: "sequestred" — hidden away or separated by the strangeness and darkness of this "tabernacle of the body" A biblical metaphor (2 Corinthians 5:1-4) referring to the physical human body as a temporary dwelling for the soul. I have observed such a light of Nature in your Majesty, and such a readiness to take flame and blaze from the slightest occasion presented, or the smallest spark of another's knowledge delivered.

And as the Scripture says of the wisest King Referring to King Solomon; see 1 Kings 4:29: That his heart was as the sands of the sea, which, though it is one of the largest bodies, yet consists of the smallest and finest portions; so has God given your Majesty an admirable composition of understanding. You are able to encompass and comprehend the greatest matters, and nevertheless to touch and apprehend the least;