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The Advancement of Learning

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(41) Another precept of this knowledge is, not to engage a man's
self peremptorily in anything, though it seem not liable to
accident; but ever to have a window to fly out at, or a way to
retire: following the wisdom in the ancient fable of the two frogs,
which consulted when their plash was dry whither they should go; and
the one moved to go down into a pit, because it was not likely the
water would dry there; but the other answered, "True, but if it do,
how shall we get out again?"

(42) Another precept of this knowledge is that ancient precept of
Bias, construed not to any point of perfidiousness, but to caution
and moderation, Et ama tanquam inimicus futurus et odi tanquam
amaturus. For it utterly betrayeth all utility for men to embark
themselves too far into unfortunate friendships, troublesome
spleens, and childish and humorous envies or emulations.

(43) But I continue this beyond the measure of an example; led,
because I would not have such knowledges, which I note as deficient,
to be thought things imaginative or in the air, or an observation or
two much made of, but things of bulk and mass, whereof an end is
more hardly made than a beginning. It must be likewise conceived,
that in these points which I mention and set down, they are far from
complete tractates of them, but only as small pieces for patterns.
And lastly, no man I suppose will think that I mean fortunes are not
obtained without all this ado; for I know they come tumbling into
some men's laps; and a number obtain good fortunes by diligence in a
plain way, little intermeddling, and keeping themselves from gross
errors.

(44) But as Cicero, when he setteth down an idea of a perfect
orator, doth not mean that every pleader should be such; and so
likewise, when a prince or a courtier hath been described by such as
have handled those subjects, the mould hath used to be made
according to the perfection of the art, and not according to common
practice: so I understand it, that it ought to be done in the
description of a politic man, I mean politic for his own fortune.

(45) But it must be remembered all this while, that the precepts
which we have set down are of that kind which may be counted and
called Bonae Artes. As for evil arts, if a man would set down for
himself that principle of Machiavel, "That a man seek not to attain
virtue itself, but the appearance only thereof; because the credit
of virtue is a help, but the use of it is cumber:" or that other of
his principles, "That he presuppose that men are not fitly to be
wrought otherwise but by fear; and therefore that he seek to have
every man obnoxious, low, and in straits," which the Italians call
seminar spine, to sow thorns: or that other principle, contained in
the verse which Cicero citeth, Cadant amici, dummodo inimici
intercidant, as the triumvirs, which sold every one to other the
lives of their friends for the deaths of their enemies: or that
other protestation of L. Catilina, to set on fire and trouble
states, to the end to fish in droumy waters, and to unwrap their
fortunes, Ego si quid in fortunis meis excitatum sit incendium, id
non aqua sed ruina restinguam: or that other principle of Lysander,
"That children are to be deceived with comfits, and men with oaths:"
and the like evil and corrupt positions, whereof (as in all things)
there are more in number than of the good: certainly with these
dispensations from the laws of charity and integrity, the pressing
of a man's fortune may be more hasty and compendious. But it is in
life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and
surely the fairer way is not much about.

(46) But men, if they be in their own power, and do bear and sustain
themselves, and be not carried away with a whirlwind or tempest of
ambition, ought in the pursuit of their own fortune to set before
their eyes not only that general map of the world, "That all things
are vanity and vexation of spirit," but many other more particular
cards and directions: chiefly that, that being without well-being
is a curse, and the greater being the greater curse; and that all
virtue is most rewarded and all wickedness most punished in itself:
according as the poet saith excellently:


"Quae vobis, quae digna, viri pro laudibus istis
Praemia posse rear solvi? pulcherrima primum
Dii moresque dabunt vestri."


And so of the contrary. And secondly they ought to look up to the
Eternal Providence and Divine Judgment, which often subverteth the
wisdom of evil plots and imaginations, according to that scripture,
"He hath conceived mischief, and shall bring forth a vain thing."
And although men should refrain themselves from injury and evil
arts, yet this incessant and Sabbathless pursuit of a man's fortune
leaveth not tribute which we owe to God of our time; who (we see)
demandeth a tenth of our substance, and a seventh, which is more
strict, of our time: and it is to small purpose to have an erected
face towards heaven, and a perpetual grovelling spirit upon earth,
eating dust as doth the serpent, Atque affigit humo divinae
particulam aurae. And if any man flatter himself that he will
employ his fortune well, though he should obtain it ill, as was said
concerning Augustus Caesar, and after of Septimius Severus, "That
either they should never have been born, or else they should never
have died," they did so much mischief in the pursuit and ascent of
their greatness, and so much good when they were established; yet
these compensations and satisfactions are good to be used, but never
good to be purposed. And lastly, it is not amiss for men, in their
race towards their fortune, to cool themselves a little with that
conceit which is elegantly expressed by the Emperor Charles V., in
his instructions to the king his son, "That fortune hath somewhat of
the nature of a woman, that if she he too much wooed she is the
farther off." But this last is but a remedy for those whose tastes
are corrupted: let men rather build upon that foundation which is
as a corner-stone of divinity and philosophy, wherein they join
close, namely that same Primum quaerite. For divinity saith, Primum
quaerite regnum Dei, et ista omnia adjicientur vobis: and
philosophy saith, Primum quaerite bona animi; caetera aut aderunt,
aut non oberunt. And although the human foundation hath somewhat of
the sands, as we see in M. Brutus, when he broke forth into that
speech,


"Te colui (Virtus) ut rem; ast tu nomen inane es;"


yet the divine foundation is upon the rock. But this may serve for
a taste of that knowledge which I noted as deficient.

(47) Concerning government, it is a part of knowledge secret and
retired in both these respects in which things are deemed secret;
for some things are secret because they are hard to know, and some
because they are not fit to utter. We see all governments are
obscure and invisible:


"Totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet."


Such is the description of governments. We see the government of
God over the world is hidden, insomuch as it seemeth to participate
of much irregularity and confusion. The government of the soul in
moving the body is inward and profound, and the passages thereof
hardly to be reduced to demonstration. Again, the wisdom of
antiquity (the shadows whereof are in the poets) in the description
of torments and pains, next unto the crime of rebellion, which was
the giants' offence, doth detest the offence of futility, as in
Sisyphus and Tantalus. But this was meant of particulars:
nevertheless even unto the general rules and discourses of policy
and government there is due a reverent and reserved handling.

(48) But contrariwise in the governors towards the governed, all
things ought as far as the frailty of man permitteth to be manifest
and revealed. For so it is expressed in the Scriptures touching the
government of God, that this globe, which seemeth to us a dark and
shady body, is in the view of God as crystal: Et in conspectu sedis
tanquam mare vitreum simile crystallo. So unto princes and states,
and specially towards wise senates and councils, the natures and
dispositions of the people, their conditions and necessities, their
factions and combinations, their animosities and discontents, ought
to be, in regard of the variety of their intelligences, the wisdom
of their observations, and the height of their station where they
keep sentinel, in great part clear and transparent. Wherefore,
considering that I write to a king that is a master of this science,
and is so well assisted, I think it decent to pass over this part in
silence, as willing to obtain the certificate which one of the
ancient philosophers aspired unto; who being silent, when others
contended to make demonstration of their abilities by speech,
desired it might be certified for his part, "That there was one that
knew how to hold his peace."

(49) Notwithstanding, for the more public part of government, which
is laws, I think good to note only one deficiency; which is, that
all those which have written of laws have written either as
philosophers or as lawyers, and none as statesmen. As for the
philosophers, they make imaginary laws for imaginary commonwealths,
and their discourses are as the stars, which give little light
because they are so high. For the lawyers, they write according to
the states where they live what is received law, and not what ought
to be law; for the wisdom of a law-maker is one, and of a lawyer is
another. For there are in nature certain fountains of justice
whence all civil laws are derived but as streams; and like as waters
do take tinctures and tastes from the soils through which they run,
so do civil laws vary according to the regions and governments where
they are planted, though they proceed from the same fountains.
Again, the wisdom of a law-maker consisteth not only in a platform
of justice, but in the application thereof; taking into
consideration by what means laws may be made certain, and what are
the causes and remedies of the doubtfulness and uncertainty of law;
by what means laws may be made apt and easy to be executed, and what
are the impediments and remedies in the execution of laws; what
influence laws touching private right of meum and tuum have into the
public state, and how they may be made apt and agreeable; how laws
are to be penned and delivered, whether in texts or in Acts, brief
or large, with preambles or without; how they are to be pruned and
reformed from time to time, and what is the best means to keep them
from being too vast in volume, or too full of multiplicity and
crossness; how they are to be expounded, when upon causes emergent
and judicially discussed, and when upon responses and conferences
touching general points or questions; how they are to be pressed,
rigorously or tenderly; how they are to be mitigated by equity and
good conscience, and whether discretion and strict law are to be
mingled in the same courts, or kept apart in several courts; again,
how the practice, profession, and erudition of law is to be censured
and governed; and many other points touching the administration and
(as I may term it) animation of laws. Upon which I insist the less,
because I purpose (if God give me leave), having begun a work of
this nature in aphorisms, to propound it hereafter, noting it in the
meantime for deficient.

(50) And for your Majesty's laws of England, I could say much of
their dignity, and somewhat of their defect; but they cannot but
excel the civil laws in fitness for the government, for the civil
law was nonhos quaesitum munus in usus; it was not made for the
countries which it governeth. Hereof I cease to speak because I
will not intermingle matter of action with matter of general
learning.

XXIV. Thus have I concluded this portion of learning touching civil
knowledge; and with civil knowledge have concluded human philosophy;
and with human philosophy, philosophy in general. And being now at
some pause, looking back into that I have passed through, this
writing seemeth to me (si nunquam fallit imago), as far as a man can
judge of his own work, not much better than that noise or sound
which musicians make while they are in tuning their instruments,
which is nothing pleasant to hear, but yet is a cause why the music
is sweeter afterwards. So have I been content to tune the
instruments of the Muses, that they may play that have better hands.
And surely, when I set before me the condition of these times, in
which learning hath made her third visitation or circuit in all the
qualities thereof; as the excellency and vivacity of the wits of
this age; the noble helps and lights which we have by the travails
of ancient writers; the art of printing, which communicateth books
to men of all fortunes; the openness of the world by navigation,
which hath disclosed multitudes of experiments, and a mass of
natural history; the leisure wherewith these times abound, not
employing men so generally in civil business, as the states of
Graecia did, in respect of their popularity, and the state of Rome,
in respect of the greatness of their monarchy; the present
disposition of these times at this instant to peace; the consumption
of all that ever can be said in controversies of religion, which
have so much diverted men from other sciences; the perfection of
your Majesty's learning, which as a phoenix may call whole volleys
of wits to follow you; and the inseparable propriety of time, which
is ever more and more to disclose truth; I cannot but be raised to
this persuasion, that this third period of time will far surpass
that of the Grecian and Roman learning; only if men will know their
own strength and their own weakness both; and take, one from the
other, light of invention, and not fire of contradiction; and esteem
of the inquisition of truth as of an enterprise, and not as of a
quality or ornament; and employ wit and magnificence to things of
worth and excellency, and not to things vulgar and of popular
estimation. As for my labours, if any man shall please himself or
others in the reprehension of them, they shall make that ancient and
patient request, Verbera, sed audi: let men reprehend them, so they
observe and weigh them. For the appeal is lawful (though it may be
it shall not be needful) from the first cogitations of men to their
second, and from the nearer times to the times further off. Now let
us come to that learning, which both the former times were not so
blessed as to know, sacred and inspired divinity, the Sabbath and
port of all men's labours and peregrinations.

XXV. (1) The prerogative of God extendeth as well to the reason as
to the will of man: so that as we are to obey His law, though we
find a reluctation in our will, so we are to believe His word,
though we find a reluctation in our reason. For if we believe only
that which is agreeable to our sense we give consent to the matter,
and not to the author; which is no more than we would do towards a
suspected and discredited witness; but that faith which was
accounted to Abraham for righteousness was of such a point as
whereat Sarah laughed, who therein was an image of natural reason.

(2) Howbeit (if we will truly consider of it) more worthy it is to
believe than to know as we now know. For in knowledge man's mind
suffereth from sense: but in belief it suffereth from spirit, such
one as it holdeth for more authorised than itself and so suffereth
from the worthier agent. Otherwise it is of the state of man
glorified; for then faith shall cease, and we shall know as we are
known.

(3) Wherefore we conclude that sacred theology (which in our idiom
we call divinity) is grounded only upon the word and oracle of God,
and not upon the light of nature: for it is written, Caeli enarrant
gloriam Dei; but it is not written, Caeli enarrant voluntatem Dei:
but of that it is said, Ad legem et testimonium: si non fecerint
secundum verbum istud, &c. This holdeth not only in those points of
faith which concern the great mysteries of the Deity, of the
creation, of the redemption, but likewise those which concern the
law moral, truly interpreted: "Love your enemies: do good to them
that hate you; be like to your heavenly Father, that suffereth His
rain to fall upon the just and unjust." To this it ought to be
applauded, Nec vox hominem sonat: it is a voice beyond the light of
nature. So we see the heathen poets, when they fall upon a
libertine passion, do still expostulate with laws and moralities, as
if they were opposite and malignant to nature: Et quod natura
remittit, invida jura negant. So said Dendamis the Indian unto
Alexander's messengers, that he had heard somewhat of Pythagoras,
and some other of the wise men of Graecia, and that he held them for
excellent men: but that they had a fault, which was that they had
in too great reverence and veneration a thing they called law and
manners. So it must be confessed that a great part of the law moral
is of that perfection whereunto the light of nature cannot aspire:
how then is it that man is said to have, by the light and law of
nature, some notions and conceits of virtue and vice, justice and
wrong, good and evil? Thus, because the light of nature is used in
two several senses: the one, that which springeth from reason,
sense, induction, argument, according to the laws of heaven and
earth; the other, that which is imprinted upon the spirit of man by
an inward instinct, according to the law of conscience, which is a
sparkle of the purity of his first estate: in which latter sense
only he is participant of some light and discerning touching the
perfection of the moral law; but how? sufficient to check the vice
but not to inform the duty. So then the doctrine of religion, as
well moral as mystical, is not to be attained but by inspiration and
revelation from God.

(4) The use notwithstanding of reason in spiritual things, and the
latitude thereof, is very great and general: for it is not for
nothing that the apostle calleth religion "our reasonable service of
God;" insomuch as the very ceremonies and figures of the old law
were full of reason and signification, much more than the ceremonies
of idolatry and magic, that are full of non-significants and surd
characters. But most specially the Christian faith, as in all
things so in this, deserveth to be highly magnified; holding and
preserving the golden mediocrity in this point between the law of
the heathen and the law of Mahomet, which have embraced the two
extremes. For the religion of the heathen had no constant belief or
confession, but left all to the liberty of agent; and the religion
of Mahomet on the other side interdicteth argument altogether: the
one having the very face of error, and the other of imposture;
whereas the Faith doth both admit and reject disputation with
difference.

(5) The use of human reason in religion is of two sorts: the
former, in the conception and apprehension of the mysteries of God
to us revealed; the other, in the inferring and deriving of doctrine
and direction thereupon. The former extendeth to the mysteries
themselves; but how? by way of illustration, and not by way of
argument. The latter consisteth indeed of probation and argument.
In the former we see God vouchsafeth to descend to our capacity, in
the expressing of His mysteries in sort as may be sensible unto us;
and doth graft His revelations and holy doctrine upon the notions of
our reason, and applieth His inspirations to open our understanding,
as the form of the key to the ward of the lock. For the latter
there is allowed us a use of reason and argument, secondary and
respective, although not original and absolute. For after the
articles and principles of religion are placed and exempted from
examination of reason, it is then permitted unto us to make
derivations and inferences from and according to the analogy of
them, for our better direction. In nature this holdeth not; for
both the principles are examinable by induction, though not by a
medium or syllogism; and besides, those principles or first
positions have no discordance with that reason which draweth down
and deduceth the inferior positions. But yet it holdeth not in
religion alone, but in many knowledges, both of greater and smaller
nature, namely, wherein there are not only posita but placita; for
in such there can be no use of absolute reason. We see it
familiarly in games of wit, as chess, or the like. The draughts and
first laws of the game are positive, but how? merely ad placitum,
and not examinable by reason; but then how to direct our play
thereupon with best advantage to win the game is artificial and
rational. So in human laws there be many grounds and maxims which
are placita juris, positive upon authority, and not upon reason, and
therefore not to be disputed: but what is most just, not absolutely
but relatively, and according to those maxims, that affordeth a long
field of disputation. Such therefore is that secondary reason,
which hath place in divinity, which is grounded upon the placets of
God.

(6) Here therefore I note this deficiency, that there hath not been,
to my understanding, sufficiently inquired and handled the true
limits and use of reason in spiritual things, as a kind of divine
dialectic: which for that it is not done, it seemeth to me a thing
usual, by pretext of true conceiving that which is revealed, to
search and mine into that which is not revealed; and by pretext of
enucleating inferences and contradictories, to examine that which is
positive. The one sort falling into the error of Nicodemus,
demanding to have things made more sensible than it pleaseth God to
reveal them, Quomodo possit homo nasci cum sit senex? The other
sort into the error of the disciples, which were scandalised at a
show of contradiction, Quid est hoc quod dicit nobis? Modicum et
non videbitis me; et iterum, modicum, et videbitis me, &c.

(7) Upon this I have insisted the more, in regard of the great and
blessed use thereof; for this point well laboured and defined of
would in my judgment be an opiate to stay and bridle not only the
vanity of curious speculations, wherewith the schools labour, but
the fury of controversies, wherewith the Church laboureth. For it
cannot but open men's eyes to see that many controversies do merely
pertain to that which is either not revealed or positive; and that
many others do grow upon weak and obscure inferences or derivations:
which latter sort, if men would revive the blessed style of that
great doctor of the Gentiles, would be carried thus, ego, non
dominus; and again, secundum consilium meum, in opinions and
counsels, and not in positions and oppositions. But men are now
over-ready to usurp the style, non ego, sed dominus; and not so
only, but to bind it with the thunder and denunciation of curses and
anathemas, to the terror of those which have not sufficiently
learned out of Solomon that "The causeless curse shall not come."

(8) Divinity hath two principal parts: the matter informed or
revealed, and the nature of the information or revelation; and with
the latter we will begin, because it hath most coherence with that
which we have now last handled. The nature of the information
consisteth of three branches: the limits of the information, the
sufficiency of the information, and the acquiring or obtaining the
information. Unto the limits of the information belong these
considerations: how far forth particular persons continue to be
inspired; how far forth the Church is inspired; and how far forth
reason may be used; the last point whereof I have noted as
deficient. Unto the sufficiency of the information belong two
considerations: what points of religion are fundamental, and what
perfective, being matter of further building and perfection upon one
and the same foundation; and again, how the gradations of light
according to the dispensation of times are material to the
sufficiency of belief.

(9) Here again I may rather give it in advice than note it as
deficient, that the points fundamental, and the points of further
perfection only, ought to be with piety and wisdom distinguished; a
subject tending to much like end as that I noted before; for as that
other were likely to abate the number of controversies, so this is
likely to abate the heat of many of them. We see Moses when he saw
the Israelite and the Egyptian fight, he did not say, "Why strive
you?" but drew his sword and slew the Egyptian; but when he saw the
two Israelites fight, he said, "You are brethren, why strive you?"
If the point of doctrine be an Egyptian, it must be slain by the
sword of the Spirit, and not reconciled; but if it be an Israelite,
though in the wrong, then, "Why strive you?" We see of the
fundamental points, our Saviour penneth the league thus, "He that is
not with us is against us;" but of points not fundamental, thus, "He
that is not against us is with us." So we see the coat of our
Saviour was entire without seam, and so is the doctrine of the
Scriptures in itself; but the garment of the Church was of divers
colours and yet not divided. We see the chaff may and ought to be
severed from the corn in the ear, but the tares may not be pulled up
from the corn in the field. So as it is a thing of great use well
to define what, and of what latitude, those points are which do make
men mere aliens and disincorporate from the Church of God.

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