And in all matters of wisdom [and] understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians [and] astrologers that [were] in all his realm.
Ver. 20. And in all matters of wisdom.] God will honour them that honour him: his gifts and graces he giveth to pure souls, and according to their study of purity, as to Daniel chiefly.
He found them ten times better.] Masters of knowledge, skilled usque ad apices literarum, right up to the very peak of learning, a and therefore highly favoured by the king, who was himself a great philosopher. Daniel was a leviathan of learning, both divine and human, as one saith of Archbishop Ussher; Unicum istius cetatis miraculum et musarum delicium, as Erasmus saith of Alciat, the miracle of his age, and the muse's darling - one that better deserved, for his learning, to be called Magnus Great than ever Albertus did. The perfection even of human arts is to be found in the Church. See my Common Place of "Arts."
a Mr Fuller.