with other things.
In its archetype it is the Divine wisdom, or sapience, manifested in the
creation. In the celestial hierarchy the supposed Dionysius of Athens
places the angels of knowledge and illumination before those of office
and domination. Then, the first material form that was created was
light, which corresponds in corporal things to knowledge in incorporai.
The day wherein God contemplated His own works was blessed above the
days wherein He accomplished them. Man's first employment in Paradise
consisted of the two chief parts of knowledge, the view of creatures,
and the imposition of names. In the age before the Flood, Scripture
honours the names of the inventors of music and of works in metal. Moses
was accomplished in all the learning of the Egyptians. The book of Job
is pregnant with natural philosophy. In Solomon, the gift of wisdom and
learning is preferred before all other earthly and temporal felicity.

Our Saviour first showed His power to subdue ignorance by His conference
with the doctors, before He showed His power to subdue Nature by
miracles; and the coming of the Holy Spirit was chiefly figured in the
gift of tongues, which are the vehicles of knowledge. St. Paul, most
learned of the apostles, had his pen most used in the New Testament.
Many of the ancient fathers of the Church were excellently read in all
the learning of the heathen; and that heathen learning was preserved,
amid Scythian and Saracen invasions, in the sacred bosom of the Church.
And in our own day, when God has called the Roman Church to account for
degenerate manners and obnoxious doctrines. He has also ordained a
renovation of all other knowledges; and, on the other side, the Jesuits,
by quickening the state of learning, have done notable service to the
Roman See. Wherefore two principal services are performed to religion by
human learning: first, the contemplation of God's works is an effectual
inducement to the exaltation of His glory; and, secondly, true learning
is a singular preservative against unbelief and error.

To pass now to human proofs of the dignity of learning, we find that
among the heathen the inventors of new arts, such as Ceres, Bacchus, and
Apollo, were consecrated among the gods themselves by apotheosis. The
fable of Orpheus, wherein quarrelsome beasts stood sociably listening to
the harp, aptly described the nature of men among whom peace is
maintained so long as they give ear to precepts, laws, and rel