Of the advancement of learning,

Knowledge of philosophy may incline the mind of man toward atheism, but a deeper progression in it brings the mind back again to religion. For at the start of philosophy, when second causes the natural, physical laws and processes that occur in the world—which are closest to our senses—present themselves to the human mind, if the mind rests and stays there, it may cause some forgetfulness of the highest cause God. But when a man passes on further and sees the dependency of causes and the works of providence, then according to the allegory of the poets, he will easily believe that the highest link of nature's chain must necessarily be tied to the foot of Jupiter's chair original: "Iupiters chaire." This refers to a passage in Homer’s Iliad where a golden chain connects the earth to the throne of Zeus/Jupiter, symbolizing the connection between the physical world and the divine..

To conclude, therefore, let no man—out of a weak conceit of sobriety a misguided idea of being humble or cautious or an ill-applied moderation—think or maintain that a man can search too far or be too well-studied in the book of God's word the Bible or Theology or in the book of God's works Nature or Science; Divinity or Philosophy. Instead, let men endeavor toward an endless progress or proficiency in both. Only let men beware that they apply both to charity and not to swelling original: "swelling"; meaning pride or arrogance; to use, and not to ostentation; and again, that they do not unwisely mingle or confound these different types of learning together.

And as for the disgraces which learning receives from politicians original: "Politiques", they are of this nature: that learning softens men's minds and makes them more unfit for the honor and exercise of arms; that it ruins and perverts men's dispositions for...