Of the Advancement of Learning

What I shall say is no exaggeration at all, but a positive and measured truth: which is, that there has not been since Christ’s time any King or secular original: "temporall" monarch who has been so learned in all literature and erudition, both divine and human. For let a man seriously and diligently examine original: "reuolue" and peruse the succession of the Emperors of Rome—of whom Caesar the Dictator (who lived some years before Christ) and Marcus Antoninus Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor were the most learned—and then descend to the Emperors of Greece, or of the West, and then to the lineages of France, Spain, England, Scotland, and the rest, and he shall find this judgment is truly made.

For it seems a great achievement in a King if, through the concise summaries original: "compendious extractions" of other men’s wits and labors, he can grasp any superficial ornaments and displays of learning, or if he encourages and favors learning and learned men. But to drink indeed from the true fountains of learning—nay, to have such a fountain of learning within himself—is, in a King, and in a King born to the throne, almost a miracle.

And it is all the more so because there is met in your Majesty a rare conjunction of both divine and sacred literature, as well as secular original: "prophane" and human literature. Thus, your Majesty stands invested with that triplicity triplicity a threefold nature, referring here to the legend of Hermes Trismegistus, or "Thrice-Great Hermes" which, with great veneration, was ascribed to the ancient Hermes: the power and fortune of a King; the knowledge and illumination of a Priest; and the learning and universality of a Philosopher. This characteristic original: "propriety", an inherent and individual attribute in your Majesty, deserves to be expressed, not only in the fame and...