No More Learning

Cause, principle and unity
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . So let us praise the ancient race. Philosophers then had so much value that from their ranks were recruited lawmakers, counsellors and kings. And the counsellors and kings were such that from those func- tions they were elevated to the priesthood. In our age, most of the priests are such that they themselves are discredited, and do discredit to the divine laws; nearly all the philosophers we see are worth so little that they are dis- paraged along with their science. What is worse, a multitude of scoundrels, like a mass of nettles, have grown used to smothering with poisonous mirages what little truth and virtue get revealed to the few.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Iknownophilosopherwhogetssoarousedinfavourofdis- credited philosophy, nor do I perceive any, Elitropio, as impassioned by his science as Teofilo. What would happen if all other philosophers had the same character, I mean if they had so little patience?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Those others have not made so many discoveries, nor do they have as much to preserve or defend. They can easily devalue philoso- phy that is worthless, or what is nearly worthless, or that which they do not know; but one who has found truth, which is a hidden treasure, is inspired by the beauty of that divine face and grows jealous to defend her against plunder, negligence and contamination. Just so, a miser may conceive a passion for gold, diamonds and carbuncles, or a man for the beauty of a foul woman.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . But let us get back to our subject and arrive at the quia [why]. They say of you, Teofilo, that in your supper you criticize and insult a whole city, an entire province, a complete kingdom.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . That, I never thought, never intended, never did. If I had ever thought, wished or done so, I would condemn myself with utmost severity and bend over backwards to make a thousand disavowals, retrac- tions and disclaimers; not only if I had insulted a noble and ancient realm such as this, but any other, however great its reputation for barbarism. And I mean not only if I had offended any city, however widespread its reputa- tion for incivility, but even if I had insulted any class whatsoever, however savage it was held to be, or even any one family, however inhospitable it was considered. There cannot be a race, kingdom, city or house where contrary and opposing manners do not exist, and to which one can assign the same temperament to all, such that it is impossible for one man to find pleasure in what displeases another.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . AsfarasIamconcerned,Ihaveread,re-readandmeditated upon all you have said (although on some points, I do not know just why, I
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First dialogue
? find you a bit excessive), and you seem to me for the most part to proceed with moderation, reason and discernment; but the noise has spread as I have set out.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Thatnoiseofthisandotherthingshasbeenbandiedabout through the meanness of some of those who felt themselves touched. Eager to take revenge, but conscious of the weaknesses of their arguments, their doctrine, their intelligence and their strength, they not only fabricate as many lies as they can, to which no one but their like gives credit, but they try to enlist partisans by making out that your condemnation of some individuals constitutes a pervasive insult.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . I think, on the contrary, there are people, not without wis- dom and judgement, who gauge the insult universal because you indicate certain manners as belonging to people of this or that nation.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Butwhataretheseallegedmanners? Arenotsimilarorworse ones, not to mention manners much more peculiar in genus, species and number, found in the most excellent parts of the world? Would you claim that I were abusive and ungrateful toward my own country, if I said that in Italy, in Naples or Nola, similar or more criminal manners can be found? Would you say that I had abused that blesse`d realm, often set at the head and the right hand of our globe simultaneously, governor and tamer of the other nations (and ever regarded by us and by others as mistress, nurse and mother of all the virtues, disciplines, humanities and the qualities of mod- esty and courtesy), when esteemed poets, themselves, have justly sung its praises, but yet do not shrink from calling her, if the occasion requires, mistress of all vice, error, greed and cruelty?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Thisiscertainlyinkeepingwiththepreceptsofyourphi- losophy, by virtue of which you maintain that contraries coincide both in principle and in reality. Thus, minds most suited to high, worthy and gen- erous enterprises will fall, if they are perverted, into extreme vice. Moreover, we generally find the rarest and choicest wits amongst the most foolish and ignorant folk, and there where the people are generally the least civil and the most lacking in courtesy, we find, in some individual cases, extreme civility and good manners - so that, in one way or another, many nations seem to have received an equal measure of perfections and imperfections.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Whatyousayistrue.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Andyet,Teofilo,Iamdistressed,asaremanyothers,thatin our friendly nation you have come up against the kind of people who have so irked you that you vent your complaints by means of a sooty supper,
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Cause, principle and unity
? instead of having met those, much more numerous, who would have shown you how much our country (even if it is presented by your countrymen as penitus toto divisus ab orbe8 [utterly cut off from the whole world]) is dis- posed to all literature, arms, chivalry, humanities and courtesy. We venture with all our strength not to be inferior to our ancestors in those domains, nor to be outclassed by other nations - especially those who believe them- selves naturally endowed with noble manners, science, arms and civility.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Onmyfaith,Armesso,Ineitherwouldnorcouldcontradict anything you say, neither with words, nor with reasonings, nor in con- science. You defend your cause with extreme modesty and keen argument, rather than attacking me out of some sort of barbarous pride. Thus I deplore all the more the fact that the individuals of whom we have been speaking have given me occasion to pain you, and others of honourable and humane temperament. I am beginning to feel sorry that those dialogues were ever published, and, if it will please you, I will see to it that they are circulated as little as possible.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . My pain, like that of other very noble souls, stems so little from the publication of those dialogues that I would willingly undertake to have them translated into our tongue, in order to serve as a lesson for those few among us who are so lacking in education and manners. Maybe, on see- ing with what nerve their impertinent attacks are received and how inap- propriate they are, and with what traits they are described, even if they choose not to change tack and follow the examples and the lessons of the best and brightest men, they might at least amend their ways and imitate them out of the shame of being identified as part of that number. They might learn that honour and courage are not forged by the capacity and the art of molesting but by quite opposite behaviour.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Youshowmuchabilityandshrewdnessindefenceofyour country, and in contrast to the crowd of those poor in arguments and wis- dom, you know how to recognize and appreciate others' merits. But Filoteo does not seem to me as deft in defending himself and protecting his repu- tation. As nobility and rusticity differ, just so opposing effects are to be expected and feared from them. On one hand, a Scythian oaf will manage to look wise and will be celebrated for his success if, leaving the banks of the Danube, he goes away, bearer of audacious reproaches and legitimate complaints, to put to the test the authority and majesty of the Roman
8 Virgil, Bucolics, ? , ? ? : 'et penitus tot divisos orbe Britannos' ('(the Britons) isolated at the end of the world').
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First dialogue
? Senate, which, if it finds in his censure and invective occasion to accom- plish an act of high prudence and magnanimity, does its severe critic the honour of a colossal statue. On the other hand, a Roman senator and gen- tleman would demonstrate very scarce wisdom in abandoning the mild banks of the Tiber, even armed with legitimate complaint and completely justified reprimand, to go try the Scythian oafs, who would seize the occa- sion to build, at his expense, towers and Babels of arguments of the utmost baseness, insolence and infamy, unleashing popular fury and stoning him in order to show other nations how much difference there is between deal- ing with human beings and with those who are merely made in their image and likeness.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Let it never come to pass, Teofilo, that I could or should consider it proper for me, or anyone else endowed with even greater judge- ment than myself, to take up the cause of those who are the object of your satire under the pretext that they are of our nation, which some natural law impels us to defend. I will never admit - nor could I ever be anything but the enemy of anyone who makes such a claim - those people as country- men. Our nation is comprised exclusively of people as noble, civil, polite, educated, measured, humane and reasonable as those of any other place. Even if such people exist within our borders, surely they are nothing but filth, scum, dirt and swine; part of the kingdom, or city, only in the sense that the bilge is part of a ship. We should not, therefore, bother ourselves overmuch about such individuals, because in doing so we might grow as injurious as they are. Among their ranks I include numerous priests and doctors, some of whom certainly become gentlemen, thanks to their doc- torates. But most of them, who before did not dare show their rude author- ity, come boldly and arrogantly out into the open, later becoming hardier and more presumptuous when they rise to the titles of literary men and priests.
Hence, it is no wonder that you see swarms of those who, despite their priesthood and their doctorate, retain more of the herd, the flock and the stable than actual ploughmen, goatherds and grooms. Thus, I would have preferred you had not attacked our university so harshly, condemn- ing it as a whole, so to speak, without regard for what it once was, and can or will be in future, and is, in part, today.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Have no fear. Although on this occasion we looked primar- ily at your university, it commits no worse errors than others whose mem- bers consider their academy superior, but which produce asses dressed up with diadems and hacks decked with rings under the title of doctors, for the
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Cause, principle and unity
? most part. However, I do not dispute the great value of your university's original statutes, nor the beauty of its programme of studies, nor the majesty of its ceremonies, nor the fine organization of its works, nor the solemnity of its traditions, not to mention other qualities which serve to honour and embellish any university, and for which it must doubtless be considered the finest in Europe and, therefore, the world. And I cannnot deny that, as far as fineness of spirit and sharpness of wit are concerned, both of which Britain produces naturally here and there, your university really is similar to, and may be on par with, the best schools elsewhere. We have not for- gotten, either, that speculative studies first flourished here, before spread- ing to other parts of Europe, nor that its princes of metaphysics (though barbarous of tongue and cowled by profession) have disseminated the splendour of a most rare and noble part of philosophy, in our day nearly extinct, to all the universities of non-barbarous countries. But one thing concerns me that seems annoying and comical at the same time. Although I have not found doctors more Roman and more Attic than these here, still, for the most part, they boast that they are the opposites of their forerun- ners, resembling them in nothing - those predecessors who, caring little for eloquence or grammatical rigour, devoted themselves entirely to spec- ulative research, called by these current doctors 'sophismata'. As for myself, I prize the metaphysics of these latter more, in which they sur- passed their teacher Aristotle - notwithstanding the fact that it is impure, and dirtied with certain empty arguments and theorems that are neither philosophical nor theological, but the products of idle or badly-used intel- lects - than what the others today can bring us, with all their eloquence and Ciceronian declamatory art.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Thoseartsarenottobebelittled.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . True,butifwehavetochoosebetweenthetwo,Isetthecul- ture of the mind, however mean it may be, over that of words and phrases, however eloquent.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . YourcommentbringsFraVenturatomind. Commenting on the Gospel passage 'reddite quae sunt Caesaris Caesari' 9 [render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's], he cites on that occasion the names of all the coins circulating at the time of the Romans, with their imprints and their weights - names that he had come across in I do not know what damned annals or opuscules, more than a hundred and twenty of them - in order to show us the range of his studies and the power of his memory. At the end
9 Matthew ? ? , ? ? . ? ?
? First dialogue
? of his sermon some fine fellow accosted him and said, 'Reverend father, lend me a carline. ' To which he answered that he belonged to an order of mendicants.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . What'sthepointofthisstory?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . I mean that those who are versed in the science of names and phrases but do not worry about things are astride the same ass as that reverend father of asses.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . I think that, apart from the study of eloquence, in which they outshine all their predecessors and are unsurpassed by their contem- poraries, they are neither destitute in philosophy nor in other speculative disciplines. Without ability in these, they cannot be promoted to any rank, because the university statutes, to which they are bound by oath, resolve that 'Nullus ad philosophiae et Theologiae magisterium et doctoratum pro- moveatur, nisi epotaverit e fonte Aristotelis' [Let no-one who has not drunk of the Aristotelian fountain be promoted to the title of master and doctor of philosophy and theology]. 10
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Ah, but I will tell you what they have done to avoid per- juring themselves. To one of the three fountains of the university they have given the name Fons Aristotelis [Aristotelian fountain], they have called another Fons Pythagorae [Pythagorean fountain], and the third is dubbed Fons Platonis [Platonic fountain]. Since the water to make beer and ale is drawn from these three fountains, as well as the water for horses and cows, it follows that nobody who has spent three or four days in those study rooms or colleges fails to drink, not only of the Aristotelian fountain, but also of the Pythagorean and Platonic.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Tootrue,unfortunately. Soithappens,Teofilo,thatdoctors come as cheaply as sardines, since they are made, found and hooked with little trouble. The herd of doctors today being thus (leaving aside the rep- utation of some of them, such as Tobias Matthew,11 Culpepper,12 and others whose names I have forgotten, distinguished alike for their eloquence, their doctrine and their high courtesy), the result is that the title of doctor, far fromcreditingonewithasupplementarydegreeofnobility,placesoneunder
10 No such formula is found in the Statuta antiqua Universitatis Oxoniensis, ed. Gibson (Oxford, ? ? ? ? ). Aristotelian doctrines are, however, stressed in the statutes.
11 Tobias Matthew (? ? ? ? -? ? ? ? ), President of St John's College from ? ? ? ? to ? ? ? ? , Dean of Christ Church from ? ? ? ? to ? ? ? ? , and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford in ? ? ? ? . Promoted to Dean of Durham in ? ? ? ? and named Bishop of York in ? ? ? ? .
12 Martin Culpepper, Professor of Medicine and Rector of New College from ? ? ? ? to ? ? ? ? , Dean of Chichester from ? ? ? ? , and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford in ? ? ? ? .
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Cause, principle and unity
? the suspicion (unless one is known personally) of having a completely opposite nature and character. Hence, it happens that even men noble by birth or by accident, and enriched by the principal part of nobility which is learning, are ashamed to be promoted to the title of doctor, and so con- tent themselves with merely being learned. You will find many more of these in the courts than you will among the pedants at the university.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . You will find both kinds everywhere there are doctors and priests, Armesso, so hold your complaining. Those who are true doctors and true priests, even if of modest origin, can only gain in civility and nobil- ity, because knowledge is the most expedient way of making the human soul heroic. The more those others thunder from on high with divum pater [divine father], like the giant Salmoneus,13 the more clearly they reveal their rudeness, strutting like satyrs or fauns dressed in purple, with that horrendous and imperial majesty, after having determined from the height of their magisterial chair to what declension hic [this, masc. ], haec [this, fem. ] and hoc nihil [this, nothing] belong.
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