The Advancement of Learning (1605 first edition)

...matters of government and policy; by making them too inquisitive and hesitant through a variety of reading; or too dogmatic or assertive by the strictness of rules and principles; or too excessive and arrogant because of the greatness of historical examples; or too incompatible and out of step with the times because of the differences in those examples; or at least, that it diverts men’s labors from action and business and leads them to a love of leisure and privacy; and that it brings a relaxation of discipline into states, while every man is more ready to argue than to obey and act.

Out of this notion, Cato surnamed the Censor Cato the Elder (234–149 BC), a Roman statesman famous for his traditionalism and resistance to Greek cultural influence.—indeed one of the wisest men who ever lived—when Carneades the philosopher A Greek philosopher who visited Rome as an ambassador in 155 BC; his skeptical arguments famously unsettled Roman traditionalists. came as an ambassador to Rome, and the young men of Rome began to flock around him, drawn by the sweetness and majesty of his eloquence and learning, gave counsel in the open Senate that they should dismiss him with all speed. He feared Carneades might infect and enchant the minds and affections of the youth, and unintentionally bring about a change in the manners and customs of the State.

Out of the same notion or mood, Virgil—turning his pen to the advantage of his country and the disadvantage of his own profession—made a kind of separation between policy and government, and between arts and sciences, in those much-renowned verses original: A reference to the Aeneid (6.847–853), where Virgil suggests other nations might excel in arts and science, but the Roman's art is to rule and impose peace., attributing and claiming the former to the Romans, and...