ABSTRACT
It might seem to have more convenience, excellent King, though it come often otherwise to pass, that those who are fruitful in their generations, and have as it were the foresight of immortality in their descendants, should likewise be more careful than other men of the good estate of future times, to which they know they must transmit these their dearest pledges. Queen Elizabeth, rather a sojourner in the world than an inhabitant, in respect of her unmarried life, was an ornament to her own times and prospered them in many ways. But to your Majesty (whom God in His goodness has already blessed with so much royal issue, worthy to continue and represent you for ever, and whose youthful and fruitful bed still promises more 3 ) it is proper and convenient not only to shed a lustre (as you do) on your own age, but also to extend your care to those things which all memory may preserve and which are in their nature eternal. Amongst which (if affection for learning transport me not) there is not any more noble or more worthy than the further endowment of the world with sound and fruitful knowledge. For how long shall we let a few received authors stand up like Hercules' columns, beyond which there shall be no sailing or discovery in science, when we have so bright and benign a star as your Majesty to conduct and prosper us?
