Nine Books on the Dignity and Advancement of Learning

me the Sciences in their purity: and I dare promise myself, that you will find in this Work enough to entertain yourself; when you are able to give yourself over to your praiseworthy inclinations.

The first Book discourses in general on the perfections of the Sciences; on the merit of learned men, with the resolution of what may be objected to them; on the necessity of being skilled in this genre to succeed well in the conduct of a State; on the remarkable examples by which it appears that there have even been learned men who were great Captains; and on the union of arms and letters in the persons of the two greatest Monarchs of antiquity, namely Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great. But I am wrong to point out foreign examples to you; since you have domestic ones. For the good fortune of your birth has given you a father, who under a very eloquent King, defended by his doctrine the truth of the Faith, against the first efforts of the heresy of our time; as we see in the Works that he left behind: and by his Valor he retained in the service of this same King this Province, the government of which was then given to him; this Province, I say, which calls itself happy now to have as Governor the one in whom the greatest Monarch of the Universe recognizes these hereditary perfections, which he rewards with an infinity of favors.

The second begins the dissection of the entire body of all human knowledge; and is divided into three principal parts, which relate to the three mistress faculties found in the Understanding; namely in History which is placed in Memory; in Poetry which occupies the Imagination; and in Philosophy which makes its dwelling in reasoning.