began to govern it: And since your Majesty complains much of the factions of the Bear- Fish- Fly- Ape- and Worm-men, the Satyrs, Spider-men, and the like, and of their perpetual disputes and quarrels, I would advise your Majesty to dissolve all their societies; for ’tis better to be without their intelligences, than to have an unquiet and disorderly government. The truth is, said she, wheresoever learning is, there is most commonly also controversy and quarrelling; for there be always some that will know more, and be wiser than others: some think their arguments come nearer to truth, and are more rational than others; some are so wedded to their own opinions, that they’ll never yield to reason; and others, though they find their opinions not firmly grounded upon reason, yet, for fear of receiving some disgrace by altering them, will nevertheless maintain them against all sense and reason, which must needs breed factions in their schools, which at last break out into open wars, and draw sometimes an utter ruin upon a state or government. The Empress told the Duchess, that she would willingly follow her advice; but she thought it would be an eternal disgrace to her, to alter her own decrees, acts, and laws.