Book I
Dedication to King James the First
To the King. There were under the law, excellent King, both daily sacrifices and freewill offeri...
I. Of Cavils against Learning
(1) In the entrance to the former of these—to clear the way and, as it were, to make silence, to ...
II. Objections of Politicians
(1) And as for the disgraces which learning receiveth from politics, they be of this nature: that...
III. Pretended discredits to Learning by learned men
(1) Now therefore we come to that third sort of discredit or diminution of credit that groweth un...
IV. How the follies of Learned Men have dishonoured Learning
(1) Now I proceed to those errors and vanities which have intervened amongst the studies themselv...
V. Other Errors of Learned Men which mar the Progress and Credit of Learning
(1) The first of these is the extreme affecting of two extremities: the one antiquity, the other ...
VI. Divine Proofs of the Dignity of Learning
(1) First, therefore, let us seek the dignity of knowledge in the archetype or first platform, wh...
VII. Human Proofs
(1) As for human proofs, it is so large a field, as in a discourse of this nature and brevity it ...
VIII. Excellencies of Learning enumerated
(1) To proceed now from imperial and military virtue to moral and private virtue; first, it is an...