sdom and justice; for a battle shall
be more successfully fought by serving-men, porters, bailiffs, padders,
rogues, gaol-birds, and such like tag-rags of mankind, than by the
most accomplished philosophers; which last, how unhappy they are in the
management of such concerns, Socrates (by the oracle adjudged to be the
wisest of mortals) is a notable example; who when he appeared in the
attempt of some public performance before the people, he faltered in the
first onset, and could never recover himself, but was hooted and hissed
home again: yet this philosopher was the less a fool, for refusing the
appellation of wise, and not accepting the oracle's compliment; as also
for advising that no philosophers should have any hand in the government
of the commonwealth; he should have likewise at the same time, added,
that they should be banished all human society.

And what made this great man poison himself to prevent the malice of his
accusers? What made him the instrument of his own death, but only his
excessiveness of wisdom? whereby, while he was searching into the nature
of clouds, while he was plodding and contemplating upon ideas, while he
was exercising his geometry upon the measure of a flea, and diving into
the recesses of nature, for an account how little insects, when they
were so small, could make so great a buzz and hum; while he was intent
upon these fooleries he minded nothing of the world, or its ordinary
concerns.

Next to Socrates comes his scholar Plato, a famous orator indeed, that
could be so dashed out of countenance by an illiterate rabble, as to
demur, and hawk, and hesitate, before he could get to the end of one
short sentence. Theo-phrastus was such another coward, who beginning to
make an oration, was presently struck down with fear, as if he had seen
some ghost, or hobgoblin. Isocrates was so bashful and timorous, that
though he taught rhetoric, yet he could never have the confidence to
speak in public. Cicero, the master of Roman eloquence, was wont to
begin his speeches with a low, quivering voice, just like a school-boy,
afraid of not saying his lesson perfect enough to escape whipping:
and yet Fabius commends this property of Tully as an argument of a
considerate orator, sensible of the difficulty of acquitting himself
with credit: but what hereby does he do more than plainly confess that
wisdom is but a rub and impediment to the well management of any affair?
How would these heroes crouch, and