not very prosperous) that if I came to hold office in the State, I
might get something done too for the good of men's souls. When I
found, however, that my zeal was mistaken for ambition, and my life
had already readied the turning-point, and my breaking health
reminded me how ill I could afford to be so slow, and I reflected,
moreover, that in leaving undone the good that I could do by myself
alone, and applying myself to that which could not be done without
the help and consent of others, I was by no means discharging the
duty that lay upon me--I put all those thoughts aside, and (in
pursuance of my old determination) betook myself wholly to this
work. Nor am I discouraged from it because I see signs in the times
of the decline and overthrow of that knowledge and erudition which
is now in use. Not that I apprehend any more barbarian invasions
(unless possibly the Spanish empire should recover its strength, and
having crushed other nations by arms should itself sink under its
own weight); but the civil wars which may be expected, I think
(judging from certain fashions which have come in of late), to
spread through many countries--together with the malignity of sects,
and those compendious artifices and devices which have crept into
the place of solid erudition--seem to portend for literature and the
sciences a tempest not less fatal, and one against which the
Printing-office will be no effectual security. And no doubt but that
fair-weather learning which is nursed by leisure, blossoms under
reward and praise, which cannot withstand the shock of opinion, and
is liable to be abused by tricks and quackery, will sink under such
impediments as these. Far otherwise is it with that knowledge whose
dignity is maintained by works of utility and power. For the
injuries, therefore, which should proceed from the times, I am not
afraid of them; and for the injuries which proceed from men, I am
not concerned. For if any one charge me with seeking to be wise
over-much, I answer simply that modesty and civil respect are fit
for civil matters; in contemplations nothing is to be respected but
Truth. If any one call on me for _works_, and that presently, I tell
him frankly, without any imposture at all, that for me--a man not
old, of weak health, my hands full of civil business, entering
without gu