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The Advancement of Learning

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(2) The reason of this omission I suppose to be that hidden rock
whereupon both this and many other barks of knowledge have been cast
away; which is, that men have despised to be conversant in ordinary
and common matters, the judicious direction whereof nevertheless is
the wisest doctrine (for life consisteth not in novelties nor
subtleties), but contrariwise they have compounded sciences chiefly
of a certain resplendent or lustrous mass of matter, chosen to give
glory either to the subtlety of disputatious, or to the eloquence of
discourses. But Seneca giveth an excellent check to eloquence,
Nocet illis eloquentia, quibus non rerum cupiditatem facit, sed sui.
Doctrine should be such as should make men in love with the lesson,
and not with the teacher; being directed to the auditor's benefit,
and not to the author's commendation. And therefore those are of
the right kind which may be concluded as Demosthenes concludes his
counsel, Quae si feceritis, non oratorem dumtaxat in praesentia
laudabitis, sed vosmetipsos etiam non ita multo post statu rerum
vestraram meliore.

(3) Neither needed men of so excellent parts to have despaired of a
fortune, which the poet Virgil promised himself, and indeed
obtained, who got as much glory of eloquence, wit, and learning in
the expressing of the observations of husbandry, as of the heroical
acts of AEneas:


"Nec sum animi dubius, verbis ea vincere magnum
Quam sit, et angustis his addere rebus honorem."


And surely, if the purpose be in good earnest, not to write at
leisure that which men may read at leisure, but really to instruct
and suborn action and active life, these Georgics of the mind,
concerning the husbandry and tillage thereof, are no less worthy
than the heroical descriptions of virtue, duty, and felicity.
Wherefore the main and primitive division of moral knowledge seemeth
to be into the exemplar or platform of good, and the regiment or
culture of the mind: the one describing the nature of good, the
other prescribing rules how to subdue, apply, and accommodate the
will of man thereunto.

(4) The doctrine touching the platform or nature of good considereth
it either simple or compared; either the kinds of good, or the
degrees of good; in the latter whereof those infinite disputatious
which were touching the supreme degree thereof, which they term
felicity, beatitude, or the highest good, the doctrines concerning
which were as the heathen divinity, are by the Christian faith
discharged. And as Aristotle saith, "That young men may be happy,
but not otherwise but by hope;" so we must all acknowledge our
minority, and embrace the felicity which is by hope of the future
world.

(5) Freed therefore and delivered from this doctrine of the
philosopher's heaven, whereby they feigned a higher elevation of
man's nature than was (for we see in what height of style Seneca
writeth, Vere magnum, habere fragilitatem hominis, securitatem Dei),
we may with more sobriety and truth receive the rest of their
inquiries and labours. Wherein for the nature of good positive or
simple, they have set it down excellently in describing the forms of
virtue and duty, with their situations and postures; in distributing
them into their kinds, parts, provinces, actions, and
administrations, and the like: nay further, they have commended
them to man's nature and spirit with great quickness of argument and
beauty of persuasions; yea, and fortified and entrenched them (as
much as discourse can do) against corrupt and popular opinions.
Again, for the degrees and comparative nature of good, they have
also excellently handled it in their triplicity of good, in the
comparisons between a contemplative and an active life, in the
distinction between virtue with reluctation and virtue secured, in
their encounters between honesty and profit, in their balancing of
virtue with virtue, and the like; so as this part deserveth to be
reported for excellently laboured.

(6) Notwithstanding, if before they had come to the popular and
received notions of virtue and vice, pleasure and pain, and the
rest, they had stayed a little longer upon the inquiry concerning
the roots of good and evil, and the strings of those roots, they had
given, in my opinion, a great light to that which followed; and
specially if they had consulted with nature, they had made their
doctrines less prolix and more profound: which being by them in
part omitted and in part handled with much confusion, we will
endeavour to resume and open in a more clear manner.

(7) There is formed in everything a double nature of good--the one,
as everything is a total or substantive in itself; the other, as it
is a part or member of a greater body; whereof the latter is in
degree the greater and the worthier, because it tendeth to the
conservation of a more general form. Therefore we see the iron in
particular sympathy moveth to the loadstone; but yet if it exceed a
certain quantity, it forsaketh the affection to the loadstone, and
like a good patriot moveth to the earth, which is the region and
country of massy bodies; so may we go forward, and see that water
and massy bodies move to the centre of the earth; but rather than to
suffer a divulsion in the continuance of nature, they will move
upwards from the centre of the earth, forsaking their duty to the
earth in regard of their duty to the world. This double nature of
good, and the comparative thereof, is much more engraven upon man,
if he degenerate not, unto whom the conservation of duty to the
public ought to be much more precious than the conservation of life
and being; according to that memorable speech of Pompeius Magnus,
when being in commission of purveyance for a famine at Rome, and
being dissuaded with great vehemency and instance by his friends
about him, that he should not hazard himself to sea in an extremity
of weather, he said only to them, Necesse est ut eam, non ut vivam.
But it may be truly affirmed that there was never any philosophy,
religion, or other discipline, which did so plainly and highly exalt
the good which is communicative, and depress the good which is
private and particular, as the Holy Faith; well declaring that it
was the same God that gave the Christian law to men, who gave those
laws of nature to inanimate creatures that we spake of before; for
we read that the elected saints of God have wished themselves
anathematised and razed out of the book of life, in an ecstasy of
charity and infinite feeling of communion.

(8) This being set down and strongly planted, doth judge and
determine most of the controversies wherein moral philosophy is
conversant. For first, it decideth the question touching the
preferment of the contemplative or active life, and decideth it
against Aristotle. For all the reasons which he bringeth for the
contemplative are private, and respecting the pleasure and dignity
of a man's self (in which respects no question the contemplative
life hath the pre-eminence), not much unlike to that comparison
which Pythagoras made for the gracing and magnifying of philosophy
and contemplation, who being asked what he was, answered, "That if
Hiero were ever at the Olympian games, he knew the manner, that some
came to try their fortune for the prizes, and some came as merchants
to utter their commodities, and some came to make good cheer and
meet their friends, and some came to look on; and that he was one of
them that came to look on." But men must know, that in this theatre
of man's life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers
on. Neither could the like question ever have been received in the
Church, notwithstanding their Pretiosa in oculis Domini mors
sanctorum ejus, by which place they would exalt their civil death
and regular professions, but upon this defence, that the monastical
life is not simple contemplative, but performeth the duty either of
incessant prayers and supplications, which hath been truly esteemed
as an office in the Church, or else of writing or taking
instructions for writing concerning the law of God, as Moses did
when he abode so long in the mount. And so we see Enoch, the
seventh from Adam, who was the first contemplative and walked with
God, yet did also endow the Church with prophecy, which Saint Jude
citeth. But for contemplation which should be finished in itself,
without casting beams upon society, assuredly divinity knoweth it
not.

(9) It decideth also the controversies between Zeno and Socrates,
and their schools and successions, on the one side, who placed
felicity in virtue simply or attended, the actions and exercises
whereof do chiefly embrace and concern society; and on the other
side, the Cyrenaics and Epicureans, who placed it in pleasure, and
made virtue (as it is used in some comedies of errors, wherein the
mistress and the maid change habits) to be but as a servant, without
which pleasure cannot be served and attended; and the reformed
school of the Epicureans, which placed it in serenity of mind and
freedom from perturbation; as if they would have deposed Jupiter
again, and restored Saturn and the first age, when there was no
summer nor winter, spring nor autumn, but all after one air and
season; and Herillus, which placed felicity in extinguishment of the
disputes of the mind, making no fixed nature of good and evil,
esteeming things according to the clearness of the desires, or the
reluctation; which opinion was revived in the heresy of the
Anabaptists, measuring things according to the motions of the
spirit, and the constancy or wavering of belief; all which are
manifest to tend to private repose and contentment, and not to point
of society.

(10) It censureth also the philosophy of Epictetus, which
presupposeth that felicity must be placed in those things which are
in our power, lest we be liable to fortune and disturbance; as if it
were not a thing much more happy to fail in good and virtuous ends
for the public, than to obtain all that we can wish to ourselves in
our proper fortune: as Consalvo said to his soldiers, showing them
Naples, and protesting he had rather die one foot forwards, than to
have his life secured for long by one foot of retreat. Whereunto
the wisdom of that heavenly leader hath signed, who hath affirmed
that "a good conscience is a continual feast;" showing plainly that
the conscience of good intentions, howsoever succeeding, is a more
continual joy to nature than all the provision which can be made for
security and repose.

(11) It censureth likewise that abuse of philosophy which grew
general about the time of Epictetus, in converting it into an
occupation or profession; as if the purpose had been, not to resist
and extinguish perturbations, but to fly and avoid the causes of
them, and to shape a particular kind and course of life to that end;
introducing such a health of mind, as was that health of body of
which Aristotle speaketh of Herodicus, who did nothing all his life
long but intend his health; whereas if men refer themselves to
duties of society, as that health of body is best which is ablest to
endure all alterations and extremities, so likewise that health of
mind is most proper which can go through the greatest temptations
and perturbations. So as Diogenes' opinion is to be accepted, who
commended not them which abstained, but them which sustained, and
could refrain their mind in praecipitio, and could give unto the
mind (as is used in horsemanship) the shortest stop or turn.

(12) Lastly, it censureth the tenderness and want of application in
some of the most ancient and reverend philosophers and philosophical
men, that did retire too easily from civil business, for avoiding of
indignities and perturbations; whereas the resolution of men truly
moral ought to be such as the same Consalvo said the honour of a
soldier should be, e tela crassiore, and not so fine as that
everything should catch in it and endanger it.

XXI. (1) To resume private or particular good, it falleth into the
division of good active and passive; for this difference of good
(not unlike to that which amongst the Romans was expressed in the
familiar or household terms of promus and condus) is formed also in
all things, and is best disclosed in the two several appetites in
creatures; the one to preserve or continue themselves, and the other
to dilate or multiply themselves, whereof the latter seemeth to be
the worthier; for in nature the heavens, which are the more worthy,
are the agent, and the earth, which is the less worthy, is the
patient. In the pleasures of living creatures, that of generation
is greater than that of food. In divine doctrine, beatius est dare
quam accipere. And in life, there is no man's spirit so soft, but
esteemeth the effecting of somewhat that he hath fixed in his
desire, more than sensuality, which priority of the active good is
much upheld by the consideration of our estate to be mortal and
exposed to fortune. For if we might have a perpetuity and certainty
in our pleasures, the state of them would advance their price. But
when we see it is but magni aestimamus mori tardius, and ne
glorieris de crastino, nescis partum diei, it maketh us to desire to
have somewhat secured and exempted from time, which are only our
deeds and works; as it is said, Opera eorum sequuntur eos. The pre-
eminence likewise of this active good is upheld by the affection
which is natural in man towards variety and proceeding, which in the
pleasures of the sense, which is the principal part of passive good,
can have no great latitude. Cogita quamdiu eadem feceris; cibus,
somnus, ludus per hunc circulum curritur; mori velle non tantum
fortis, aut miser, aut prudens, sed etiam fastidiosus potest. But
in enterprises, pursuits, and purposes of life, there is much
variety; whereof men are sensible with pleasure in their inceptions,
progressions, recoils, reintegrations, approaches and attainings to
their ends. So as it was well said, Vita sine proposito languida et
vaga est. Neither hath this active good an identity with the good
of society, though in some cases it hath an incidence into it. For
although it do many times bring forth acts of beneficence, yet it is
with a respect private to a man's own power, glory, amplification,
continuance; as appeareth plainly, when it findeth a contrary
subject. For that gigantine state of mind which possesseth the
troublers of the world, such as was Lucius Sylla and infinite other
in smaller model, who would have all men happy or unhappy as they
were their friends or enemies, and would give form to the world,
according to their own humours (which is the true theomachy),
pretendeth and aspireth to active good, though it recedeth furthest
from good of society, which we have determined to be the greater.

(2) To resume passive good, it receiveth a subdivision of
conservative and effective. For let us take a brief review of that
which we have said: we have spoken first of the good of society,
the intention whereof embraceth the form of human nature, whereof we
are members and portions, and not our own proper and individual
form; we have spoken of active good, and supposed it as a part of
private and particular good. And rightly, for there is impressed
upon all things a triple desire or appetite proceeding from love to
themselves: one of preserving and continuing their form; another of
advancing and perfecting their form; and a third of multiplying and
extending their form upon other things: whereof the multiplying, or
signature of it upon other things, is that which we handled by the
name of active good. So as there remaineth the conserving of it,
and perfecting or raising of it, which latter is the highest degree
of passive good. For to preserve in state is the less, to preserve
with advancement is the greater. So in man,


"Igneus est ollis vigor, et caelestis origo."


His approach or assumption to divine or angelical nature is the
perfection of his form; the error or false imitation of which good
is that which is the tempest of human life; while man, upon the
instinct of an advancement, formal and essential, is carried to seek
an advancement local. For as those which are sick, and find no
remedy, do tumble up and down and change place, as if by a remove
local they could obtain a remove internal, so is it with men in
ambition, when failing of the mean to exalt their nature, they are
in a perpetual estuation to exalt their place. So then passive good
is, as was said, either conservative or perfective.

(3) To resume the good of conservation or comfort, which consisteth
in the fruition of that which is agreeable to our natures; it
seemeth to be most pure and natural of pleasures, but yet the
softest and lowest. And this also receiveth a difference, which
hath neither been well judged of, nor well inquired; for the good of
fruition or contentment is placed either in the sincereness of the
fruition, or in the quickness and vigour of it; the one superinduced
by equality, the other by vicissitude; the one having less mixture
of evil, the other more impression of good. Whether of these is the
greater good is a question controverted; but whether man's nature
may not be capable of both is a question not inquired.

(4) The former question being debated between Socrates and a
sophist, Socrates placing felicity in an equal and constant peace of
mind, and the sophist in much desiring and much enjoying, they fell
from argument to ill words: the sophist saying that Socrates'
felicity was the felicity of a block or stone; and Socrates saying
that the sophist's felicity was the felicity of one that had the
itch, who did nothing but itch and scratch. And both these opinions
do not want their supports. For the opinion of Socrates is much
upheld by the general consent even of the epicures themselves, that
virtue beareth a great part in felicity; and if so, certain it is,
that virtue hath more use in clearing perturbations then in
compassing desires. The sophist's opinion is much favoured by the
assertion we last spake of, that good of advancement is greater than
good of simple preservation; because every obtaining a desire hath a
show of advancement, as motion though in a circle hath a show of
progression.

(5) But the second question, decided the true way, maketh the former
superfluous. For can it be doubted, but that there are some who
take more pleasure in enjoying pleasures than some other, and yet,
nevertheless, are less troubled with the loss or leaving of them?
So as this same, Non uti ut non appetas, non appetere ut non metuas,
sunt animi pusilli et diffidentis. And it seemeth to me that most
of the doctrines of the philosophers are more fearful and cautious
than the nature of things requireth. So have they increased the
fear of death in offering to cure it. For when they would have a
man's whole life to be but a discipline or preparation to die, they
must needs make men think that it is a terrible enemy, against whom
there is no end of preparing. Better saith the poet:-


"Qui finem vitae extremum inter munera ponat
Naturae."


So have they sought to make men's minds too uniform and harmonical,
by not breaking them sufficiently to contrary motions; the reasons
whereof I suppose to be, because they themselves were men dedicated
to a private, free, and unapplied course of life. For as we see,
upon the lute or like instrument, a ground, though it be sweet and
have show of many changes, yet breaketh not the hand to such strange
and hard stops and passages, as a set song or voluntary; much after
the same manner was the diversity between a philosophical and civil
life. And, therefore, men are to imitate the wisdom of jewellers:
who, if there be a grain, or a cloud, or an ice which may be ground
forth without taking too much of the stone, they help it; but if it
should lessen and abate the stone too much, they will not meddle
with it: so ought men so to procure serenity as they destroy not
magnanimity.

(6) Having therefore deduced the good of man which is private and
particular, as far as seemeth fit, we will now return to that good
of man which respecteth and beholdeth society, which we may term
duty; because the term of duty is more proper to a mind well framed
and disposed towards others, as the term of virtue is applied to a
mind well formed and composed in itself; though neither can a man
understand virtue without some relation to society, nor duty without
an inward disposition. This part may seem at first to pertain to
science civil and politic; but not if it be well observed. For it
concerneth the regiment and government of every man over himself,
and not over others. And as in architecture the direction of
framing the posts, beams, and other parts of building, is not the
same with the manner of joining them and erecting the building; and
in mechanicals, the direction how to frame an instrument or engine
is not the same with the manner of setting it on work and employing
it; and yet, nevertheless, in expressing of the one you incidently
express the aptness towards the other; so the doctrine of
conjugation of men in society differeth from that of their
conformity thereunto.

(7) This part of duty is subdivided into two parts: the common duty
of every man, as a man or member of a state; the other, the
respective or special duty of every man in his profession, vocation,
and place. The first of these is extant and well laboured, as hath
been said. The second likewise I may report rather dispersed than
deficient; which manner of dispersed writing in this kind of
argument I acknowledge to be best. For who can take upon him to
write of the proper duty, virtue, challenge, and right of every
several vocation, profession, and place? For although sometimes a
looker on may see more than a gamester, and there be a proverb more
arrogant than sound, "That the vale best discovereth the hill;" yet
there is small doubt but that men can write best and most really and
materially in their own professions; and that the writing of
speculative men of active matter for the most part doth seem to men
of experience, as Phormio's argument of the wars seemed to Hannibal,
to be but dreams and dotage. Only there is one vice which
accompanieth them that write in their own professions, that they
magnify them in excess. But generally it were to be wished (as that
which would make learning indeed solid and fruitful) that active men
would or could become writers.

(8) In which kind I cannot but mention, honoris causa, your
Majesty's excellent book touching the duty of a king; a work richly
compounded of divinity, morality, and policy, with great aspersion
of all other arts; and being in some opinion one of the most sound
and healthful writings that I have read: not distempered in the
heat of invention, nor in the coldness of negligence; not sick of
dizziness, as those are who leese themselves in their order, nor of
convulsions, as those which cramp in matters impertinent; not
savouring of perfumes and paintings, as those do who seek to please
the reader more than nature beareth; and chiefly well disposed in
the spirits thereof, being agreeable to truth and apt for action;
and far removed from that natural infirmity, whereunto I noted those
that write in their own professions to be subject--which is, that
they exalt it above measure. For your Majesty hath truly described,
not a king of Assyria or Persia in their extern glory, but a Moses
or a David, pastors of their people. Neither can I ever leese out
of my remembrance what I heard your Majesty in the same sacred
spirit of government deliver in a great cause of judicature, which
was, "That kings ruled by their laws, as God did by the laws of
nature; and ought as rarely to put in use their supreme prerogative
as God doth His power of working miracles." And yet notwithstanding
in your book of a free monarchy, you do well give men to understand,
that you know the plenitude of the power and right of a king, as
well as the circle of his office and duty. Thus have I presumed to
allege this excellent writing of your Majesty, as a prime or eminent
example of tractates concerning special and respective duties;
wherein I should have said as much, if it had been written a
thousand years since. Neither am I moved with certain courtly
decencies, which esteem it flattery to praise in presence. No, it
is flattery to praise in absence--that is, when either the virtue is
absent, or the occasion is absent; and so the praise is not natural,
but forced, either in truth or in time. But let Cicero be read in
his oration pro Marcello, which is nothing but an excellent table of
Caesar's virtue, and made to his face; besides the example of many
other excellent persons, wiser a great deal than such observers; and
we will never doubt, upon a full occasion, to give just praises to
present or absent.

(9) But to return; there belongeth further to the handling of this
part, touching the duties of professions and vocations, a relative
or opposite, touching the frauds, cautels, impostures, and vices of
every profession, which hath been likewise handled; but how? rather
in a satire and cynically, than seriously and wisely; for men have
rather sought by wit to deride and traduce much of that which is
good in professions, than with judgment to discover and sever that
which is corrupt. For, as Solomon saith, he that cometh to seek
after knowledge with a mind to scorn and censure shall be sure to
find matter for his humour, but no matter for his instruction:
Quaerenti derisori scientiam ipsa se abscondit; sed studioso fit
obviam. But the managing of this argument with integrity and truth,
which I note as deficient, seemeth to me to be one of the best
fortifications for honesty and virtue that can be planted. For, as
the fable goeth of the basilisk--that if he see you first, you die
for it; but if you see him first, he dieth--so is it with deceits
and evil arts, which, if they be first espied they leese their life;
but if they prevent, they endanger. So that we are much beholden to
Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they
ought to do. For it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with
the columbine innocency, except men know exactly all the conditions
of the serpent; his baseness and going upon his belly, his
volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the rest--that is,
all forms and natures of evil. For without this, virtue lieth open
and unfenced. Nay, an honest man can do no good upon those that are
wicked, to reclaim them, without the help of the knowledge of evil.
For men of corrupted minds presuppose that honesty groweth out of
simplicity of manners, and believing of preachers, schoolmasters,
and men's exterior language. So as, except you can make them
perceive that you know the utmost reaches of their own corrupt
opinions, they despise all morality. Non recipit stultus verba
prudentiae, nisi ea dixeris quae, versantur in corde ejus.

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