them close from the eyes of idleness.  She makes the king gracious and his council judicious, his clergy devout and his kingdom prosperous.  She gives honour to virtue, grace to honour, reward to labour, and love to truth.  She is the messenger of wisdom to the minds of the virtuous, and the way to honour in the spirits of the gracious.  She is the storehouse of understanding, where the affection of grace cannot want instruction of goodness, while, in the rules of her directions, reason is never out of square.  She is the exercise of wit in the application of knowledge, and the preserver of the understanding in the practice of memory.  In brief, she makes age honourable and youth admirable, the virtuous wise and the wise gracious.  Her libraries are infinite, her lessons without number, her instruction without comparison, and her scholars without equality.  In brief, finding it a labyrinth to go through the grounds of her praise, let this suffice, that in all ages she hath been and ever will be the darling of wisdom, the delight of wit, the study of virtue, and the stay of knowledge.

KNOWLEDGE.

Knowledge is a collection of understanding gathered in the grounds of learning by the instruction of wisdom.  She is the exercise of memory in the actions of the mind, and the employer of the senses in the will of the spirit:  she is the notary of time and the trier of truth, and the labour of the spirit in the love of virtue:  she is the pleasure of wit and the paradise of reason, where conceit gathereth the sweet of understanding.  She is the king’s counsellor and the council’s grace, youth’s guard and age’s glory.  It is free from doubts and fears no danger, while the care of Providence cuts off the cause of repentance.  She is the enemy of idleness and the maintainer of labour in the care of credit and pleasure of profit:  she needs no advice in the resolution of action, while experience in observation finds perfection infallible.  It clears errors and cannot be deceived, corrects impurity and will not be corrupted.  She hath a wide ear and a close mouth, a pure eye and a perfect heart.  It is begotten by grace, bred by virtue, brought up by learning, and maintained by love.  She converseth with the best capacities and communicates with the soundest judgments, dwells with the divinest natures and loves the most patient dispositions.  Her hope is a kind of assurance, her faith a continual expectation, her love an apprehension of joy, and her life the light of eternity.  Her labours are infinite, her ways are unsearchable, her graces incomparable, and her excellencies inexplicable; and therefore, being so little acquainted with her worth as makes me blush at my unworthiness to speak in the least of her praise, I will only leave her advancement to virtue, her honour to wisdom, her grace to truth, and to eternity her glory.

PRACTICE.