"The multiplicity of scholars, hatch'd and nourish'd in the idle calms of peace, makes them, like fishes, one devour another; and the community of learning has so played upon affections, that thereby almost Religion is come about to phantasy and discredited by being too much spoken of, in so many and mean mouths." (Act 1 Sc. 2). In one of Harvey's letters to Spenser we have an interesting sidelight on the state of affairs at Cambridge. "Aristotle much named but little read; Xenophon and Plato reckoned amongst discoursers and conceited, superficial fellows; much verbal and sophistical jangling; little subtle and effectual disputing.... In no age so little so much made of; every one highly in his own favour.... The Gospel taught not learnt; charity cold.... the moral abandoned; The Light, the Light' in every man's lips, but mark their eyes and you will say they are rather like owls than eagles." "What is most of our philosophy," asks Burton in The Anatomy of Melancholy, "but a labyrinth of opinions, idle questions, propositions and metaphysical terms?" I cannot resist quoting an amusing skit on contemporary learning that occurs in a manuscript play written about 1600. 2 SCENE III. Enter Hermogenes, Stilpo, and Speusippus in gowns. I Spenser. Dean Church, p. 25. 2 Timon of Athens in Dyce Collection, reprinted in Cassell's National Library with Shakespeare's Timon. Her. "Most graue philosophers, your company doth much delight mee; truly, I doe loue your witty disputations. Stil. A man may loue two manner of waies, effectiuely, or causally. Her. I pray thee, giue mee these 2 termes. Stil. Noe, a talente shall not buy them. Her. There is a question that long hath troubled mee,—whether there be a man in the moone? Speus. To wit, a numerically indiuiduall, which may haue there really and intrinsically an entitatiue acte and essence besides a formall existence; or whether that bee Platoes Idea abstracted from the humane species, which they affirme to bee vnder the concaue of the moone? Stil. The moone may bee taken 4 manner of waies; either specificatiuely, or quidditatiuely, or superficially, or catapodially. Her. To morrow, if Joue please, Ile buy these termes ! Stil. The man in the moone is not in the moone superficially, although he bee in the moone (as the Greekes will haue it) catapodially, specificatiuely, and quidditatiuely. Speus. I proue the contrary to thee thus. Whatsoeuer is moued to the motion of the moone, is in the moone superficially; but the man in the moone is moued to the motion of the moone; ergo the man in the moone really exists in the moone superficially. Stil. I answere by distinguishing. The man in the moone is moued to the motion of the moone according to a formall conceipte, æquiuocally and virtually, not entitatiue vnivocally and naturally; it is true respectiuely and vt quo, but not simply and vt quod. Her. Stilpo, how wilt thou sell these articles of distinction ? Stil. For £20. Her. For such trifles! how deare are thy wares wilt take 16? Stil. Dost thinke Philosophy is soe little worth? I cannot. Her. Bee it so; because these phrases please me, and their terminations ende all alike, thou shalt haue £20. Repeate them againe. Stil. A thinge may be moued entitatiuely or formally Her. Entitatiuely or formally! I pray thee, resolue mee of that scruple, am I moued entitatiuely or formally? Speus. Thou art moued formally, prioristically in the thing considered, not posterioristically in the manner of considering.' Awake to the pedantic follies of his contemporaries Bacon, in The Advancement of Learning, writes. There are three distempers of learning; effeminate learning; contentious learning and fantastical learning...... This same unprofitable subtlety or curiosity is of two sorts, either in the subject itself which they handle, when it is fruitless speculations or controversy, whereof there are no small number both in Divinity and Philosophy For, were it not better for a man in a fair room to set up one great light than to go about with a small watchcandle into every corner? And such is their method that rests not so much upon evid ...... ence of truth ... as upon particular confutations and solutions of every scruple, cavillation and objection; breeding for the most part one question as fast as it solveth another, even as in the former semblance when you carry the light into one corner you darken the rest. It was to rid Learning of these follies and to bring in a saner and more utile scheme of Philosophy, that Bacon concentrated his giant energies. "If," said he, "I could purge it of two sorts of rovers whereof the one with frivolous disputations, confutations and verbosities; the other with blind experiments and auricular traditions and impostures hath committed so many spoils; I hope I could bring in industrious observations, grounded conclusions and profitable inventions and discoveries." 1 In the Novum Organum he again reiterates his great utilitarianism-"The real and legitimate goal of the Sciences is the endowment of human life with new inventions and riches. The great crowd of teachers know nothing of this but consist of dictatorial hirelings. In this contest with Authority, Bacon seems to have enlisted the support of the playhouses. It will be observed how the dramatists go out of their way to tilt at plodders who derive their base authority from books. "His Lordship," we are told by Rawley, "had not his knowledge from books but from some grounds or notions from within himself. He was no plodder upon books. 3 Letter to Burleigh 1591. 2 Bk. I. LXXXI. 3 Life. We silly souls are only plodders at ergo, whose wits are clasped up with our books, and so full of learning are we at home that we scarce know good manners when we come abroad. Cunning in nothing but in making small things great by figures, pulling on with the sweat of our studies a great shoe upon a little foot, burning out one candle in seeking for another, raw worldings in matters of substance, passing wranglers about shadows. LYLY (Endymion 1. 4.) 1591. The wit and mind of man.... if it work upon itself, as the spider worketh its web, then it is endless and brings forth indeed cobwebs of learning, admirable for the fineness of thread and work, but of no substance or profit. BACON (Advancement of Learning) 1605. Men that removed from their inkhorn terms Brings forth no action worthy of their bread. NASH (Summers Last Will) 1592-1600. Small have continual plodders ever won He draweth out the thread of his verbosity SHAKESPEARE (Love's Labour's Lost A fantastical scholar like such who study to know how many knots was in Hercules club of what colour Achilles beard was, or ; whether Hector were not troubled with the toothache. He hath studied himself half bleareyed to know the true symmetry of Cæsars nose |