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according to the teachings of the philosophers. Moreover, nothing is
more essential to the government of the people, nothing better for the
guidance of life into the paths of honorable character, than the grace
which wisdom gives, and the glory of training and the power of learning.
Therefore it is that in its praise, Solomon, the wisest of all men,
exclaims, "Better is wisdom than all precious things, and more to be
desired" (Prov. viii. 11 _seq_). To secure this with every possible
effort and to get possession of it by daily endeavor, do you, my lord
King, exhort the young men who are in your Majesty's palace, that they
strive for this in the flower of their youth, so that they may be deemed
worthy to live through an old age of honor, and that by its means they
may be able to attain to everlasting happiness. I, myself, according to
my disposition, shall not be slothful in sowing the seeds of wisdom
among your servants in this land, being mindful of the injunction, "Sow
thy seed in the morning, and at eventide let not thy hand cease; since
thou knowest not what will spring up, whether these or those, and if
both together, still better is it" (Eccles. xi. 6). In the morning of my
life and in the fruitful period of my studies I sowed seed in Britain,
and now that my blood has grown cool in the evening of life, I still
cease not; but sow the seed in France, desiring that both may spring up
by the grace of God. And now that my body has grown weak, I find
consolation in the saying of St. Jerome, who declares in his letter to
Nepotianus, "Almost all the powers of the body are altered in old men,
and wisdom alone will increase while the rest decay." And a little
further he says, "The old age of those who have adorned their youth with
noble accomplishments and have meditated on the law of the Lord both day
and night becomes more and more deeply accomplished with its years, more
polished from experience, more wise by the lapse of time; and it reaps
the sweetest fruit of ancient learning." In this letter in praise of
wisdom, one who wishes can read many things of the scientific pursuits
of the ancients, and can understand how eager were these ancients to
abound in the grace of wisdom. I have noted that your zeal, which is
pleasing to God and praiseworthy, is always advancing toward this wisdom
and takes pleasure in it, and that you are adorning the magnificence of
your worldly rule with still greater intellectual splendor. In t