Nine Books on the Dignity and Advancement of Learning

likewise, namely, that each of them might offer them not only presents in the form of tribute, but also testimonies of goodwill, as pledges of the affection they have for their service.

As for the first, I hope not to fail in it; but I have found myself hindered as to how to satisfy the latter. Finally, I have resolved to present to you something that might address more particularly the Excellence of your sacred person, rather than touch upon the affairs of your Kingdom.

For having very often conversed with an unspeakable contentment of the rare qualities that are noticed in you, SIRE, without dwelling upon your perfections which are known to everyone, nor upon the power that Fortune has placed in your hand; I feel enraptured with admiration when I consider with what eminence you possess the Virtues and Faculties that Philosophers call Intellectual, namely the goodness of the Understanding which renders you capable of such high knowledge; the firmness of Memory; the vivacity of the Spirit; the easy Intelligence of that which is most difficult; the admirable Eloquence and the ease of expressing yourself. When, I say, I take heed of these Royal Virtues, this maxim of Plato comes to my thought:

That knowl-
edge is nothing other than a Remembrance; that the Spirit knows
all things naturally, when it has recovered its own light,
which the obscurity of the body where it was in prison stole from it.