t thieves are still
included, and a little gain evil gotten will subvert the rest of their
goods." The eagle in Aesop, seeing a piece of flesh now ready to be
sacrificed, swept it away with her claws, and carried it to her nest; but
there was a burning coal stuck to it by chance, which unawares consumed her
young ones, nest, and all together. Let our simoniacal church-chopping
patrons, and sacrilegious harpies, look for no better success.

A second cause is ignorance, and from thence contempt, _successit odium in
literas ab ignorantia vulgi_; which [2051]Junius well perceived: this
hatred and contempt of learning proceeds out of [2052]ignorance; as they
are themselves barbarous, idiots, dull, illiterate, and proud, so they
esteem of others. _Sint Mecaenates, non deerunt Flacce Marones_: Let there
be bountiful patrons, and there will be painful scholars in all sciences.
But when they contemn learning, and think themselves sufficiently
qualified, if they can write and read, scramble at a piece of evidence, or
have so much Latin as that emperor had, [2053]_qui nescit dissimulare,
nescit vivere_, they are unfit to do their country service, to perform or
undertake any action or employment, which may tend to the good of a
commonwealth, except it be to fight, or to do country justice, with common
sense, which every yeoman can likewise do. And so they bring up their
children, rude as they are themselves, unqualified, untaught, uncivil most
part. [2054]_Quis e nostra juventute legitime instituitur literis? Quis
oratores aut Philosophos tangit? quis historiam legit, illam rerum
agendarum quasi animam? praecipitant parentes vota sua_, &c. 'twas Lipsius'
complaint to his illiterate countrymen, it may be ours. Now shall these men
judge of a scholar's worth, that have no worth, that know not what belongs
to a student's labours, that cannot distinguish between a true scholar and
a drone? or him that by reason of a voluble tongue, a strong voice, a
pleasing tone, and some trivially polyanthean helps, steals and gleans a
few notes from other men's harvests, and so makes a fairer show, than he
that is truly learned indeed: that thinks it no more to preach, than to
speak, [2055]"or to run away with an empty cart;" as a grave man said: and
thereupon vilify us, and our pains; scorn us, and all learning. [2056]
Because they are rich, and have other means to live, they think it concerns
them not to know, or to trouble themselves with it; a fitt