Learning is the life of reason and the light of nature, where time,
order, and measure square out the true course of knowledge; where
discretion in the temper of passion brings experience to the best fruit
of affection; while both the Theory and Practice labour in the life of
judgment, till the perfection of art show the honour of understanding.
She is the key of knowledge that unlocketh the cabinet of conceit,
wherein are laid up the labours of virtue for the use of the scholars of
wisdom; where every gracious spirit may find matter enough worthy of the
record of the best memory. She is the nurse of nature, with that milk of
reason that would make a child of grace never lie from the dug. She is
the schoolmistress of wit and the gentle governor of will, when the
delight of understanding gives the comfort of study. She is unpleasing
to none that knows her, and unprofitable to none that loves her. She
fears not to wet her feet, to wade through the waters of comfort, but
comes not near the seas of iniquity, where folly drowns affection in the
delight of vanity. She opens her treasures to the travellers in virtue,
but keeps them close from the eyes of idleness. She makes the king
gracious and his council judicious, his clergy devout and his kingdom
prosperous. She gives honour to virtue, grace to honour, reward to
labour, and love to truth. She is the messenger of wisdom to the minds
of the virtuous, and the way to honour in the spirits of the gracious.
She is the storehouse of understanding, where the affection of grace
cannot want instruction of goodness, while, in the rules of her
directions, reason is never out of square. She is the exercise of wit in
the application of knowledge, and the preserver of the understanding in
the practice of memory. In brief, she makes age honourable and youth
admirable, the virtuous wise and the wise gracious. Her libraries are
infinite, her lessons without number, her instruction without
comparison, and her scholars without equality. In brief, finding it a
labyrinth to go through the grounds of her praise, let this suffice,
that in all ages she hath been and ever will be the darling of wisdom,
the delight of wit, the study of virtue, and the stay of knowledge.