Jnfinity Anxiety and Seducement of Knowledge Three preservatives § That it instruct us our Mortality § That it give us content § That it soare not too high § And so Philosophy leads the Mind by the Linkes of Second Causes unto the First CAP. II. I. Discredits cast upon Learning from the objections of Politiques That Learning softens Mens natures and makes them unfit for Exercise of Armes That Learning perverts mens minds for matter of Goverment Other particular indispositions pretended II. The solution Learning makes not men unapt for Armes III. Learning inables men for Civile affaires IV. Particular seducements imputed to Learning As curious incertainty § Pertinacious Regularity § Misleading Book-Presidents § Retired slothfulnesse § Relaxation of Discipline are rather cured than caused by Learning CAP. III. I. Discredits of Learning from Learned mens Fortunes Manners Nature of studies II. Derogations derived from Fortune are these Scarcity of Means § Privatenesse of life § Meannesse of imployment III. From their Manners these too Regular for the times § Too sensible of the good of others and too neglective of their own § A defailance in applying themselves to Persons of Quality § A Failing in some lesser Ceremonies of demeanure § Grosse Flattery practised by some Learned men § Instanced in the Moderne Dedication of Bookes § Discreet Morigeration allowed CAP. IV. I. Distempers of Learning from Learned mens studies are of three sorts Phantasticall Learning Contentious Learning Delicate Learning II. Delicate Learning a curiosity in words through profusenesse of speech § Decent expression commended § Affected brevity censured III. Contentious Learning a curiosity in matter through Novelty of Termes or strictnesse of Positions § A vanity either in Matter or in Method IV. Phantasticall Learning hath two branches Imposture Credulity § Credulity a Belief of History or a Beliefe of Art or Opinion and that either Reall in the Art it selfe § Or Personall in the Author of such an Art or Science CAP. V. Peccant Humors in Learning I. Extreme affection to two extremes Antiquity Novelty II. A distrust that any thing New should now be found out III. That of all Sects and Opinions the best hath still prevailed IV. An over-early reduction of Knowledge into Arts and Methods V. A neglect of PRIMITIVE PHILOSOPHY VI. A Divorce of the Jntellect from the Object VII A contagion of Knowledge in Generall from Particular inclinations and tempers VIII An impatience of suspense hast to positive assertion IX A Magistrall manner of Tradition of Knowledge X. Aime of Writers Illustration not Propagation of Knowledge XI End of studies Curiosity Pleasure Profit Preferment c. CPA VI. The Dignity of Learning from Divine Arguments and Testimonies I. From Gods Wisdome § Angels of Illumination § The first Light § The first Sabbath § Mans imployment in the Garden § Abels contemplation § The Invention of Musique § Confusion of Tongues II. The excellent Learning of Moses § Job § Salomon § Christ § St Paul § The Ancient Doctors of the Church § Learning exalts the Mind to the Celebration of Gods glory and is a preservative against Error and unbeliefe CAP. VII The Dignity of Learning from human Arguments and Testimonies I. Naturall Inventors of new Arts for the Commodity of Mans life consecrated as Gods II. Politicall Civile Estates and Affaires advanced by Learning § The best and the happiest times under Learned Princes and others § Exemplified in six continued succeeding Emperors from the death of Domitian III. Military The Concurrence of Armes and Learning § Exemplified in Alexander the Great § Julius Caesar the Dictator § Xenophon the Philosopher CAP. VIII The Merit of Learning from the influence it hath upon Morall virtues § Learning a Soveraign remedy for all the diseases of the Mind § The domininion thereof greater than any Temporall Power being a Power over Reason and Beliefe § Learning gives Fortunes Honours and Delights excelling all other as the soule the sense § Durable monuments of Fame § A prospect of the Immortality of a future world THE SECOND BOOK THE PROEM THe Advancement of Learning commended to the Care of Kings I. The Acts thereof in generall three Reward Direction Assistance II In speciall about three Objects Places Books Persons § In Places foure Circumstances Buildings Revenues Priviledges Lawes of Discipline § In Books two Libraries good Editions § In Persons two Readers of Sciences extant Jnquiries into Parts non-extant III. Deficients in the Acts of Advancement six want of Foundations for Arts at large § Meannesse of Salary to Readers § Want of allowance for experiments § Preposterous Institutions unadvised practises in Academicall studies § Want of Intelligence between the Vniversities of Europe § Want of Enquirers into the Defects of Arts. § The Authors particular designe § Modest defence CAP. I I. An Vniversall Partition of Human Learning into § History II. Poesy III. Philosophy § This Partition is drawn from the three Intellective Faculties Memory Imagination Reason § The same distribution is agreeable unto Divine Learning CAP. II. I. The Partition of History into Naturall and Civile Ecclesiasticall and Literary comprehended under Civile II. The Partition of Naturall History into the History of Generations III. Of Preter-Generations IV. Of Arts. CAP. III. I. A Second Partition of Naturall History from the Vse and End thereof into Narrative and Jnductive And that the most noble end of Naturall History is that it Minister and Conduce to the building up of Philosophy which end Inductive History respecteth II. The Partition of the History of Generations into the History of the Heavens The History of the Meteors The History of the Earth and Sea The History of Massive Bodies or of the greater Collegiats The History of Kinds or of the Lesser Collegiats CAP. IV. I. The Partition of History Civile into Ecclesiasticall and Literary and which retaines the generall name Civile II. Literary Deficient § Precepts how to compile it CAP. V. Of the Dignity and Difficulty of Civile History CAP. VI. The first Partition of Civile History into § Memorials § Antiquities § Perfect History CAP. VII The Partition of Perfect History into Chronicles of Times Lives of Persons Relation of Acts. § The explication of the History of Lives § Of Relations CAP. VIII The Partition of the History of Times into universall and particular History The advantages and disadvantages of both CAP. IX The Second Partition of the History of Times into Annals and Iournals CAP. X. A Second Partition of Speciall-Civile History in History Simple and Mixt. CAP. XI I. The Partition of Ecclesiasticall History into the Generall History of the Church II. History of Prophecy III. History of Providence CAP. XII The Appendices of History Conversant about the words of Men as History it selfe about Mens Acts. The partition of them into Speeches Letters and Apophthegmes CAP. XIII The Second Principall part of Human Learning Poesy I. The Partition of Poesy into Narrative II. Drammaticall III. Parabolicall § Three Examples of Parabolicall Poesy propounded IV.
of HENRY THE VII KING OF ENGLAND whereof I have spoken largely in the History of his life was profound and admirable in making Farmes and Houses of Husbandry of a standard that is maintain'd with such a Proportion of land unto them as may breed a subject to live in convenient plenty and to keep the Plough in the hands of the Owners or at least usu-fructuary and not hirelings Mercenaries and thus a Countrey shall merit that Character whereby Virgil expresses ancient Jtaly Aen. I. Terra potens Armis atque ubere Gleba Neither is that state which is almost peculiar to England and for any thing I know hardly to be found any where else except it be perhaps in Poland to be passed over J meane the state of Free-servants and Attendants upon Noble-men and Gentle-men of which sort even they of inferior condition doe no waies yeeld unto the Yeomanry for Jnfantery And therefore out of all question the Magnificence and that Hospitable splendor the Household servants and great Retinues of Noble-men and Gentle-men receiv'd into custome in England doth much conduce unto Martiall Greatnesse whereas on the other side the close reserved and contracted living of Noble-men causeth a Penury of Military Forces 4 By all means it is to be procured that the Trunck of Nebuchadnezzars Tree of Monarchy be great enough to beare the Branches and the Boughes that is that the number of Naturall Subjects to the Crowne or State beare a sufficient proportion for the over-topping the stronger subjects Therefore all States that are liberal of Naturalization towards strangers are fit for the Greatnesse of Empire For it is a vaine opinion to think that a handfull of people can with the greatest courage and Policy in the world keep and represse under the lawes of Empire too large and spacious extent of Dominion this may hold for a time but it will faile sodainly The Spartans were a spareing and nice People in point of Naturalization whereby while they kept their compasse they stood firme and assured but when they began to spread and to enlarge their Dominion and that their boughs multiplied by strangers were becomen too great for the stemme of the Spartans they became a wind-fall upon the sodaine Never any State was in this point so open to receive strangers into their Body as were the Romanes therefore their Fortune seconded their wise institution for they grew to the greatest Monarchy in the world Their manner was to grant Naturalization which they called Ius Civitatis and to grant it in the highest degree that is Exempla apud Cic. pro L. C. Bal. not only Ius Commercii Ius Connubii Ius Haereditatis but also Ius Suffragii and Ius Petitionis sive Honorum and this not to singular persons alone but likewise to whole families yea to Citties and sometimes to whole Nations Adde to this their custome of Plantation of Colonies whereby the Romane Plants were removed into the soile of other Nations and putting both constitutions togither you will say that it was not the Romans that spread upon the world but it was the world that spread upon the Romanes which was the securest way of Enlarging the Bounds of Empire I have marvailed sometimes at Spaine how they claspe and governe so large Dominions with so few naturall Spaniards but surely the whole compasse of Spaine is a very great body of a Tree being it containes farre more ample Territories than Rome or Sparta at their first riseings And besides thoe the Spaniards have not had that useage to Naturalize liberaly yet they have that which is next to it that is To imploy almost indifferently all Nations in their Militia of Ordinary souldiers yea and sometimes they conferre their highest commands of warre upon Captaines that are no naturall Spaniards nay it seemes not long agoe they have begun to grow sensible of this want of Natives and to seek a Remedy as appears by the Pragmaticall Sanction publisht this yeare 5 Jt is most Certaine that sedentary and within-doore Mechanicall Arts and Delicate Manufactures that require rather the Finger than the Arme have in their nature a contrariety to a Military Disposition And generally all warlike People are a litle idle and love danger better than travaile neither must they be too much broken of it if we will have their spirits preserv'd in vigor Therefore it was great advantage in the ancient states of Sparta Athens Rome and others that they had the use not of Free-men but of Slaves which commonly did rid those Manufactures but the use of Slaves since the receiving of the Christian Law is in greatest part abolisht That which comes neerest to this custome is to leave those Arts chiefly to strangers which for that purpose are to be allured or at least the more easily to be received The vulgar Natives should consist of three sorts of men that is of Tillers of Ground Free-servants and Handy-crafts-men of strong and Manly Arts as Smithes Masons Carpenters c. not reckoning professed Souldiers 6 But above all for the Greatnesse of Empire it imports most that a Nation doe professe Armes as their glory Principall study and chiefest Honor. For the things which we formerly have spoken of are but Habilitations towards Armes and to what purpose is Habilitation without endeavour to produce it into Act Liv. lib. I. v.c. 37. Romulus after his death as they report or faigne sent a present to the Romans that above all they should intend Armes and than they should prove the greatest Empire of the World The whole Fabrique of the State of Sparta was industriously thoe not so wisely compos'd and built to that scope and end The Persians and Macedonians had the same useage but not so constant and lasting The Britans Galls Germans Goths Saxons Normans for a flash of time gave themselves chiefly to Armes The Turkes not a litle instigated thereto by their Law retaine the same discipline at this day thoe as it is now practised with great declination of their Militia Of Christian Europe they that retaine and professe it are in effect only the Spaniards But it is so liquid and manifest that every man profiteth most in that he most intendeth that it needs not to be stood upon It is enough to point at it That no Nation which doth not professe Armes and practise Military Arts making it their principal study and occupation may ever hope to have any notable greatnesse of Empire fall into their mouthes and on the other side it is a most certaine Oracle of time That those Nations that have continued long in the profession and study of Armes as the Romanes Turkes principally have done for the propagation of Empire work wonders Nay those that have flourisht for the glory of Armes but for the space only of one age have commonly attain'd that Greatnesse of Dominion in that one age which maintained them long after when their profession and exercise of Armes hath growen to decay 7
12. who was only learned amongst the Apostles was chiefly imployed by God in the Scriptures of the new Testament § So again we know that many of the Ancient Bishops and Doctors of the Church were excellently read and studied in all the Learning of the Heathen in so much that the Edict of the Emperour Iulian Epist ad Iambl whereby it was interdicted unto Christians to be admitted into Schooles or exercises of Learning was estimed and accounted a more pernitious Engine and Machination against the Christian Faith than were all the sanguinary prosequtions of his predecessors P. Diac. l. 3. Parag. 33. Neither could the emulation and jealousie of Gregory the First otherwise an excellent man who designed to extinguish and obliterate Heathen Auctors and Antiquity ever obtain the opinion of Piety and Devotion amongst holy men But contrariwise it was the Christian Church which amidst the inundations of the Scythians from the North-west and the Saracens from the East did preserve in the sacred Lap and Bosome thereof the pretious reliques of Heathen Learning which otherwise had utterly perisht and bin extinguisht And of late in our age we may likewise see the Iesuites who partly in themselves and partly by emulation and provocation of Adversaries have much quickned and strengthned the state of Learning we see J say what notable services they have done and what helps they have brought in to the repairing and establishing of the Roman Sea § Wherefore to conclude this Part there are two principall Duties Services besides ornament and illustration which human Learning doth performe to Faith and Religion The one because they are effectuall incitements to the exaltation and celebration of the Glory of God for as the Psalmes Psal XIX and other Scriptures doe often invite us to the contemplation and publication of the magnificent and wonderfull works of God so if we should rest only in the outward forme as they first offer themselves unto our senses we should doe the like injury to the Majesty of God as if we should judge of the store and wealth of some excellent Jeweller by that only which is set out towards the street in his shop The other Mat. 22. because they minister a singular help and preservative against unbeliefe and errors You erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of God Where he layes before us two books or volumnes to study if we will be secur'd from errors First the volumne of Scriptures which reveale the will of God than the volume of Creatures which expresse his power whereof the latter is as a key to the former not only opening our understanding to conceive the true sense of Scriptures by the generall rules of Reason and Lawes of speech but besides chiefly opening our beliefe in drawing us unto a due meditation of the omnipotency of God the characters whereof are chiefly signed and engraven upon his works Thus much for Divine Testimonies and Evidences concerning the true Dignity and value of Learning CAP. VII The Dignity of Learning from humane Arguments and Testimonies I. Naturall Inventours of New Arts for the Commodities of Mans life consecrated as Gods II. Politicall Civill Estates and affaires advanced by Learning § The best and happiest times under Learned Princes and others § Exemplified in the immediat succeeding Emperors from the death of Domitian III. Military The concurrence of Armes and Learning § Exemplified in Alexander the Great § Iulius Caesar the Dictator § Xenophon the Philosopher AS for Humane Testimonies and Arguments it is so large a field as in a discourse of this compendious nature and brevity it is fit rather to use choice than to imbrace the variety of them I. First therefore in the degrees of Honor amongst the Heathens it was the highest to attain to a Veneration and Adoration as a God this indeed to the Christians is as the forbidden fruit but we speak now separately of Humane Testimony Therefore as we were saying with the Heathens that which the Grecians call Apotheosis and the Latines Relatio inter Divos Herodia l. 4 Dio. Reliqui was the supreme Honour which man could attribute unto Man specially when it was given not by a formall Decree or Act of Estate as it was used amongst the Roman Emperors but freely by the assent of Men and inward beliefe Of which high Honour there was a certain degree and midle terme For there were reckoned above Humane Honours Honours Heroicall and Divine in the Distribution whereof Antiquity observed this order Founders of States Lawgivers Extirpers of Tyrants Fathers of their Country and other eminent Persons in Civile Merit were honour'd with the title of Worthies only or Demi-Gods such as were Theseus Minos Romulus and the like on the other side such as were Inventors and Authors of new Arts and such as endowed mans life with new Commodities and accessions were ever consecrated among the Greater and Entire Gods which hapned to Ceres Bacchus Mercury Apollo and others which indeed was done justly and upon sound judgement For the merits of the former are commonly confined within the circle of an Age or a Nation and are not unlike seasonable and favoring showers which though they be profitable and desirable yet serve but for that season only wherein they fall and for a Latitude of ground which they water but the benefices of the latter like the influences of the Sunne and the heavenly bodies are for time permanent for place universall those again are commonly mixt with strife and perturbation but these have the true character of Divine presence and come in Aura leni without noise or agitation II. Neither certainly is the Merit of Learning in Civile affaires and in repressing the inconveniences which grow from man to man much inferior to the other which relieve mans necessities which arise from Nature And this kind of merit was lively set forth in that fained relation of Orpheus Theatre Philost in Orph. where all beasts and birds assembled which forgetting their proper naturall appetites of Prey of Game of Quarrell stood all sociably and lovingly together listning unto the Aires and accords of the harpe the sound whereof no sooner ceased or was drown'd by some lowder noise but every beast returned to his own nature In which Fable is elegantly described the nature and condition of men who are tossed and disordered with sundry savage and unreclaim'd desires of Profit of Lust of Revenge which yet as long as they give eare to precepts to the perswasion of Religion Lawes and Magistrates eloquently and sweetly coucht in Bookes to Sermons and Haranges so long is society and peace maintaind but if these instruments be silent or that seditions and tumults make them not audible all things dissolve and fall back into Anarchy and Confusion § But this appeareth more manifestly when Kings or Persons of Authority under them or other Governors in States are endowed with Learning Plato de Rep. 5. For although he might be thought
Barbarisme but inded the accent had need be put upon Fideliter for a superficiall confused knowledge doth rather work a contrary effect I say Learning takes away levity temerity and insolency whilest it suggests all dangers and doubts together with the thing it selfe ballanceth the weight of reasons and arguments on both sides turnes back the first offers and placits of the mind as suspect and teacheth it to take a tried and examin'd way The same doth extirpate vain and excessive admiration which is the root of all weak advisement For we admire things either because they are New or because they are Great As for novelty no man that wades in Learning and the contemplation of things throughly but hath this printed in his heart Eccles 1. Nihil novi sub sole neither can any man much marvaile at the play of Puppets that thrusts but his head behind the curtain and adviseth well of the organs and wires that causeth the motion As for Magnitude as Alexander the Great after he was used to great Battles and conquests in Asia when at any time he receaved Letters out of Greece of some fights and services there which were undertaken commonly for some Bridge or a Fort or at most for the besiege of some City was wont to say It seemed to him that he was advertised of the Battles of Homers Froggs and Mise So certainly if a man meditate upon the world and the Fabrick thereof to him the Globe of the Earth with men marching upon it the Divinenesse of soules excepted will not seem much other Sen. Nat. Q lib. 1. pref than a Hillock of Ants whereof some creep and run up and down with their Corne others with their Egges others empty all about a litle heap of Dust § Againe Learning takes away or at least mitigates the fear of death and adverse Fortune which is one of the greatest impediments to Virtue or Manners For if a mans mind be seasoned and imbued with the contemplation of Mortality and the corruptible nature of things he will in his apprehension concurre with Epictetus who going forth one day saw a woman weeping for her Pitcher of Earth and going forth the next day saw another woman weeping for her sonne Enchir. c. 33. Arr. l. 3. c. 24. said Heri vidi fragilem frangi hodie vidi mortalem mori Therefore Virgil did excellently and profoundly couple the knowledge of the cause and the conquest of Feares together as concomitants Geor. 2. Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas Quique metus omnes inexorabile fatum Subjecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari It were too long to goe over the particular Remedies which Learning doth minister to all the diseases of the Mind sometimes purging the ill Humors sometimes opening the obstructions sometimes helping digestion sometimes exciting ap-appetite often healing the wounds and exulcerations thereof and the like Therefore I will conclude with that which seemes to be the summe of all which is that Learning so disposeth and inclineth the minde as that it is never wholly setled and fixt in the defects thereof but ever awakes it selfe and breaths after a Growth and Perfection Plat. Alcib Porph. in Stob. Sen. Epist Plut. Mor. For the unlearn'd man knowes not what it is to descend into himselfe or to call himselfe to account or what a sweet life it is sensibly to feele that he is every day better If he chance to have any good parts he will still be boasting these and every where expose them to the full view and it may be use them dexterously to his own advantage and reputation but not much improve or encrease them Againe what faults soever he hath he wil use art and industry to hide and colour them but not to amend them like an ill Mower that mowes on still and never whets his sythe Contrariwise a learned man doth not only imploy his mind and exercise his good parts but continually reformes himselfe and makes Progression in virtue Nay to say all in a word Certaine it is that Veritas Bonitas differ but as the seale and the Prints for goodnesse is Truth 's impression and on the contrary the stormes and tempests of Vice and Passions breake from the Clouds of error and falshood II From Morality let us passe on to matter of power and commandment and consider whether there be any soveraignty or empirie comparable to that wherewith Learning invests and crownes mans nature We see the Dignity of commanding is according to the dignity of the commanded Commandement over Beasts and Cattle such as Heardmen and Shepheards have is a thing contemptible Commandment over children such as School-masters and Tutors have is a matter of small honour commandment over slaves is a disparagement rather then an honour neither is the commandment of Tyrants much better over a servile People dismantled of their Spirits and generosity of mind therefore it was ever helde that honours in free Monarchies and Common-wealths had a sweetnesse more than in Tyrannies because a command over the willing is more honourable than over the forced and compelled Wherefore Virgil when hee would out of the highest straine of his Art expresse the best of Humane honours that he could attribute to Caesar he doth it in these words victorque volentes Per Populos dat jura viamque affectat Olympo Georg. 4. But the Commandment of knowledge is farre higher than the Commandment over the will though free and not enslaved and vassal'd For it is a Dominion over Reason Beliefe and the Vnderstanding which is the highest part of man and gives Law to the will it selfe For without Question there is no power on earth which advanceth and sets up a Throne and as it were a Chaire of estate in the soules of men and their Cogitations Assents and Beliefe but Knowledge and Learning And therefore we see the detestable and extreme pleasure that Arch-Heretiques false Prophets and Impostors are ravish't and transported withall when once they find that they begin to have a Dominion and Superiority over the faith and consciences of men indeed so great as hee that hath once tasted it it is seldome seen that any persecution or torture can make them relinquish this Soveraignty But as this is that which the Divine Auctor of the Revelation calls Apoc. 2. The depth or profoundnesse of Satan so on the contrary the just and lawfull Soveraignty over mens minds establish't by the cleer evidence and sweet commendation of Truth approacheth certainly neerest to the similitude of the Divine Rule § As for Fortunes and Honours the munificence of Learning doth not so enrich and adorne whole Kingdomes and Common-wealths as it doth not likewise amplifie and advance the Fortunes and Estates of particular persons For it is an ancient observation that Homer hath given more men their living than either Sylla or Caesar or Augustus ever did notwithstanding their great Largesses such infinite donatives and distributions
diligence of Divines being practis'd in Duties Morall virtues Cases of Conscience and circumscriptions of sinne have farre out-gone the Philosophers Notwithstanding to returne to the Philosophers if before they had address'd themselves to the popular and reciv'd notions of Virtue Vice Paine Pleasure and the rest they had stayd a litle longer and had searched the Rootes of Good and Evill and the strings of those Rootes they had given in my judgement a great light unto all which might fall into enquirie afterwards especially if they had consulted as well with the Nature of things as with the Axioms of Moralitie they had made their Doctrines lesse prolixe and more profounde which being by them eyther altogither omitted or very confusedly handled wee will briefely reexamine and endeavour to open and cleare the springs of Morall habits before we come unto the doctrine of the Culture or Manurance of the Minde which we set downe as DEFICIENT II. There is imbred and imprinted in every thing an appetite to a duple Nature of Good the One as everything is a Totall or Substantive in it selfe the other as it is a part or membre of some greater Totall and this latter is more excellent and potent than the other because it tendeth to the conservation of a more ample forme The first may be called Jndividuall or selfe-Good the latter the Good of Communion Jron in a particular Sympathie moves to the Loadstone but yet if it exceed a certaine Quantitie it forsakes those affections and like a good Citizen a true Patriot moves to the Earth which is the Region and Country of its connaturalls To proceed a litle further Dense and Massie Bodies move to the earth to the great Congregation of close-compacted Bodies yet rather than to suffer a divulsion in the continuance of nature and that there should be as they call it a Vacuum these Bodies will move upwards forsaking their dutie to the Earth that they may performe the generall duty they owe unto the World So it is ever seen that the Conservation of the more generall and publique forme commands and governs the lesser and more particular Appetites and Inclinations But this Prerogative of the Good of Communion is especially engraven upon Man if he degenerate not according to that memorable speech of Pompeius Magnus who being in Commission for purveyance for a Famine at Rome and being disswaded with great vehemence and instance by his friends that hee would not hazard himselfe to Sea in an extremitie of weather he answered only this Necesse est ut eam non ut vivam So as the love of life which in every Individuall Creature is so predominant an affection could not out-ballance his love and loyaltie to the state But why doe we dwell upon this Point There was never extant in any age of the world either Philosophy or Sect or Religion or Law or Discipline which hath so highly exalted the Good of Communion and depress'd Good private and particular as the Holy Christian Faith whereby it cleerely appeares that it was one and the same God that gave the Christian Law to Men who gave those Lawes of Nature to Creatures of inferior order Wherefore we read that many of the elect Saints of God have rather wished themselves anathematiz'd and raz'd out of the Book of Life than that their brethren should not attain salvation Rom. IX provoked through an extasie of Charitie and an infinite feeling of the Good of Communion This being set down and strongly planted doth judge and determine many of the profoundest Controversies in Morall Philosophie For first it decideth the Question touching the preferment of the Contemplative or Active life and that against the opinion of Aristotle for all the reasons which he brings for the Contemplative respect a private Good and the pleasure and dignitie of an Individuall onely in which respects no question a Contemplatixe life hath the preheminence For the Contemplative life is not much unlike to that comparison to which Pythagoras made for the gracing and magnifying of Philosophie and Contemplation who being askt by Hiero what he was answered That if Hiero were ever at the Olympian Games Iamb in vita he knew the manner that some came to trie their fortunes for the prizes and some came as Merchants to utter their commodities and some came to make good cheere to be merry and to meet with their friends and some came to look on and that hee was one of them that came to look on But men must know that in this Theatre of Mans life it is reserved onley for God and Angels to be Lookers on Neither surely could it have bin that any doubt touching this point should ever have bin rais'd in the Church notwithstanding that saying was frequent in many mens Mouths Psal CXVI Pretiosa in oculis Domini mors sanctorum ejus by which place they use to exalt their Civile Death and the Lawes of a Monastique and Regulare course of life but upon this defence that the Monasticall life is not simply Contemplative but is altogether conversant in Ecclesiastique Duties such as are incessant Prayer Sacrifices of Vowes performed to God the writing also in such great leasure Theologicall Books for the propagation of the knowledge of the Divine Law Exod. XXIII as Moses did when he abode so many daies in the retir'd secresie of the Mount And so we see Enoch the seventh from Adam who seemes to be the first founder of a Contemplative life Gen. V. for he is said to have walked with God yet endowed the Church with a Book of Prophecie which is also cited by St Iude. In Epist But as for a meere Contemplative life and terminated in it selfe which casteth no Beames of heat or light upon humane society assuredly Divinity knowes it not It decides also the Question controverted with such heat between the Schooles of Zeno and Socrates on the one side who placed Felicitie in Virtue simple or attended which hath a great share in the Duties of life and on the other side other Sects and Professions as the Schooles of the Cirenaiques and Epicureans who placed it in pleasure and made Virtue as it is used in some Comoedies where the Mistresse and the Maid change habits to be but as a hand-maid without which Pleasure cannot be well waited and attended upon as also that other as it were reformed Schoole of Epicurus Laert. in vita which asserted Felicity to be nothing else than a Tranquilitie and Serenitie of Minde free and void of all Perturbations as if they would have deposed Jupiter from his Throne and restored Saturne with the Golden Age when there was no Summer nor Winter nor Spring nor Autumne but all after one Aire and Season Lastly the exploded Schoole of Pyrrho and Herillus which placed Felicity in the utter extinction and extirpation of all the scruples and disputes of the mind making no fixt and constant nature of Good and Evill but estiming
that the entrailes were not prosperous he closely murmur'd to himselfe Erunt laetioracum volo which saying of his preceded not long before the misfortune of his death But this extremity of Confidence as we have said as it is an unhallowed thing so was it ever unblest And therefore they that were great Politiques indeed and truly wise thought it their safest course ever to ascribe their successes to their Felicity and not to their skill and virtue So Sylla surnam'd himselfe Felix not Magnus and Cesar more advisedly than before saith to the Pilot Plut. in I. Caes Caesarem vehis fortunam ejus But yet neverthelesse these Positions Faber Quisque Fortunae suae Sapiens dominabitur Astris Jnvia virtuti nulla est via and the like if they be understood and applied rather as spurres to industry than as stirrops to insolency and rather to beget in men courage and constancy of Resolutions than Arrogancy and ostentation are deservedly accounted sound and healthfull and no question have bin ever imprinted in the greatest Minds so sensibly as sometimes they can scarce dissemble such cogitations For we see Augustus Caesar who compared with his uncle was rather diverse than inferior but certainly a person more staid and solemne when he died Suet. in August desired of his friends that stood about his Bed that when he expired they would give him a Plaudite as if he were conscient to himselfe that he had plaid his part well upon the stage This portion also of knowledge is to be summ'd up amongst DEFICIENTS not but that it hath bin usurped and frequented in Practise farre more excessively than is fitting but because books concerning this Argument are silent Wherefore according to our custome as we did in the former we will set downe some heads or passages of it and we will call it Fabrum Fortunae or as we have said Doctrinam de Ambitu vitae Wherein at the first view I may seem to handle a new and strange Argument in teaching men how they may be raisers and makers of their own fortune a doctrine certainly to which every man will willingly yeeld himselfe a Disciple till he throughly conceives the difficulty thereof For the conditions are neither lighter or fewer or lesse difficult to the Purchase of Fortune than to the purchase of virtue and it is as hard and severe a Thing to be a true Politique as to be truly Morall But the handling hereof concernes learning greatly both in Honour and in Substance For it is a principall point which neerely concernes the Honour of Learning that Pragmatique men may know that Learning is not like some small Bird as the Larke that can mount and sing and please hir selfe and nothing else but that she holds as well of the Hauke that can soare aloft and after that when she sees hir time can stoop and ceyze upon her Prey Againe this kind of wisdome much respects the Perfection of Learning because it is the right rule of a perfect enquiry that nothing be found in the Globe of Matter that hath not a Parallel in the Christalline Globe or the Intellect That is that there be not any thing in Being and Action that should not be drawne and collected into contemplation and Doctrine Neither doth learning otherwise admire or estime this Architecture of Fortune than as a worke of an inferior kinde for no mans proper fortune can be a retribution any way worthy the donation of his Essence and Being granted him from God nay it often comes to passe that men of excellent guifts abandon their Fortunes willingly that their minds may be vacant for more sublime respects yet neverthelesse Fortune as an Organ of virtue and merit deserves likewise hir speculation and Doctrine § Vnto this knowledge appertaine precepts some summary and Principall some spars'd and various Precepts Summary are conversant about the true knowledge both of others and of himselfe The first Precept wherein the principall point of the knowledge of Others doth consist may be determined this that we procure to our selves so farre as may be that window which Momus once required He Plato de Rep. when he saw in the frame of Mans heart so many Angles and Recesses found fault that there was not a window through which a man might look into those obscure and crooked windings This window we shall obtaine if with all diligent circumspection we purchase and procure unto our selves good information touching particular Persons with whom we negociate and have to deale as also of their natures their desires their ends their customes their Helps and Advantages whereby they are chiefly supported and are powerfull and againe of their weaknesses and disadvantages and where they lye most open and are obnoxious of their Friends Factions Patrons and Dependancies and againe of their Opposites Enviers Competitors as also their Moodes Times and Criticall seasons of easy Accesse Sola viri molles Additus Virg. Aen. IV. tempora noris Lastly the Principles and Rules which they have set downe to themselves and the like And this information must be taken not only of Persons but of Particular Actions also which are on Foote from time to time and as it were hott upon the Anvile how they are conducted and succeed by whose futherances they are favour'd by whom oppos'd of what weight and moment they are and what consequence they inferre and the like For the knowledge of present Actions is not only materiall in it selfe but hath this advantage also as without it the knowledge of Persons will be very deceitfull and erroneous for Men change with the Actions and while they are implicated in Actions engaged and environed with busines they are one when they returne to their Nature they are another These Informations touching Particulars respecting as well Persons as Actions are as the Minor Propositions in every Active Syllogisme for no verity or excellency of Observations or Axiomes whereof the Major Propositions Politique are made can suffice to ground a conclusion if there be error and mistakeing in the Minor Proposition And that such knowledge may be compassed Salomon is our surety who saith Counsil in the Heart of a Man is like a deepe water Prov. XX. but a wise man will draw it out And although the knowledge it selfe fall not under Precept because it is of Individuals yet instuctions for the deduceing of it may with profit be set downe § The knowledge of Men six wayes may be disclosed and drawne out by their Faces and Countenances by Words by Deeds by their Nature by their Ends and by the Relations of others As for the Visage and Countenance let not the ancient Adage move us Fronti nulla Fides Iuv. Sat. II. for though this saying may not amisse be meant of the outward and generale composure of the Countenance and Gesture yet there are certaine subtile motions and labours of the Eyes Face Lookes and Gesture whereby as Q. Cicero elegantly saith is