The Marriage of Philology and Mercury

...most certain, that since man surpasses wild beasts and cattle in almost no other respect than by reason original: "ratione" and the judgment of the mind, those alone among the human race ought to excel who stand out as much as possible above others through the cultivation of reason and wisdom. Therefore, many Emperors, Kings, and Princes have followed this precept, and by it—as if by some thread of Ariadne A mythological reference to the thread used by Ariadne to help Theseus navigate the Labyrinth; here it signifies a guiding principle through complex ideas.—they seem to have been led to the inner shrines of Philosophy and the secrets of the sciences.

Dionysius, the Tyrant of Sicily, felt the truth of this saying above all others. If he had listened to it while his affairs were still in a sound state, he would never have been forced to practice in exile those arts he neglected in his kingdom out of a necessity to earn a living. Dionysius II of Syracuse was said to have become a schoolteacher in Corinth after being deposed, proving that knowledge is the only possession one cannot lose. Thus, he was obliged to confess that from the storehouse of the sciences, almost the only...