appetere vt non metuas sunt animi pusilli diffidentis And it seemeth to me that most of the doctrines of the Philosophers are more fearefull and cautionary then the Nature of things requireth So haue they encreased the feare of death in offering to cure it For when they would haue a mans whole life to be but a discipline or preparation to dye they must needes make men thinke that it is a terrible Enemy against whom there is no end of preparing Better saith the Poet Qui sinem vitae extremum inter Munera ponat Naturae So haue they sought to make mens minds to vniforme and harmonicall by not breaking them sufficiently to cōtrary Motions the reason whereof I suppose to be because they themselues were men dedicated to a pri uate free and vnapplied course of life For as we see vpon the lute or like Instrument a Ground though it be sweet and haue shew of many changes yet breaketh not the hand to such strange and hard stoppes and passages as a Set song or Voluntary much after the same Manner was the diuersity betweene a Philosophicall and a ciuile life And therefore men are to Imitate the wisedome of Iewellers who if there be a graine or a cloude or an I se which may be ground forth without taking to much of the stone they help it but if it should lessen and abate the stone to much they will not meddle with it So ought men so to procure Serenity as they destroy not magnanimity Hauing therefore deduced the Good of Man which is priuate particular as far as seemeth fit wee will now returne to that Good of man which respecteth and be beholdeth Society which we may terme Duty bicause the term of duty is more propper to a minde well framed disposed towards others as the terme of vertue is applyed to a mind well formed cōposed in it selfe though neither can a man vnderstand vertue without some relation to Society nor duety without an inwarde disposition This part may seem at first to pertaine to Science Ciuile and Politicke but not if it be wel obserued For it concerneth the Rcgimēt gouernment of euery man over himself not ouer others And as in architectur the directiō of framing the postes beames other parts of building is not the same with the maner of ioyning them and erecting the building And in mechanicalls the direction how to frame an Instrument or Engyne is not the same with the manner of setting it on woorke and imploying it and yet neuerthelesse in expressing of the one you incidently expresse the Aptnesse towardes the other So the doctrine of Coniugation of men in Socyety differereth from that of their conformity therevnto This part of Duty is sudiuided into two parts the common duty of euery man as a Man or member of a State The other the respectiue or speciall duty of euery man in his prosession vocation and place The first of these is extāt wel laboured as hathbeen said The secōd like wise I may report rather dispersed thē dcficiēt which maner of dispersed writing in this kind of Argumēt I acknowledge to be best For who cā take vpō him to write of the proper duty vertue cha and right of euery seuerall vocation profession and place For although sometimes a Looker on may see more then a gamester and there be a Prouerb more arrogant theu sound That the vale best discouereth the hill yet there is small doubt but that men can write best and most really materialy in their owne professions that the writing of speculatiue men of Actiue Matter for the most part doth seeme to men of Experience as Phormioes Argument of the warrs seemed to Hannibal to be but dreames and dotage Onely there is one vice which accompanieth them that write in their own professions that they magnify thē in excesse But generally it were to be wished as that which wold make learning indeed solide fruit ful that Actiue men woold or could become writers In which kind I cannot but mencion Honoris causa your Maiesties exellent book touching the duty of a king a woorke ritchlye compounded of Diuinity Morality and Policy with great aspersion of all other artes being in myne opinion one of the moste sound healthful writings that I haue read not distempered in the heat of inuention nor in the Couldnes of negligence not sick of Dusinesse as those are who leese themselues in their order nor of Convulsions as those which Crampe in matters impertinent not sauoring of perfumes paintings as those doe who seek to please the Reader more then Nature beareth and chiefelye wel disposed in the spirits thereof beeing agreeable to truth and apt for action and farre remooued from that Naturall insirmity whereunto I noted those that write in their own professions to be subiect which is that they exalt it aboue measure For your Maiesty hath truly described not a king of Assyria or Persia in their extern glory but a Moses or a Dauid Pastors of their people Neither can I euer leese out of my remembraunce what I heard your Maiesty in the same sacred spirite of Gouernment deliuer in a great cause of Iudicature which was That Kings ruled by theyr lawes as God did by the lawes of Nature and ought as rarely to put in vse theyr supreme Prerogatiue as God doth his power of working Miracles And yet notwithstandiug in your book of a free Monarchy you do well giue men to vnderstand that you know the plenitude of the power and right of a King as well as the Circle of his office and duty Thus haue I presumed to alledge this excellent writing of your Maiesty as a prime or eminent example of Tractates concerning speciall respectiue dutyes wherin I should haue said as much if it had beene written a thousand yeares since Neither am I mooued with cer tain Courtly decencyes which esteeme it flattery to prayse in presence No it is flattery to prayse in absence that is when eyther the vertue is absent or the occasion is absent and so the prayse is not Naturall but forced either in truth or in time But let Cicerobe read in his Oration pro Marcello which is nothing but an excellent Table of Caesars vertue and made to his face besides the example of many other excellent per sons wiser a great deale then such obseruers and we will neuer doubt vpon a full occasion to giue iust prayses to present or absent But to return there belongeth further to the handling of this partie touching the duties of professions and vocations a Relatiue or opposite touching the fraudes cautels impostures vices of euery profession which hath been likewise handled But howe rather in a Satyre Cinicaly then seriously wisely for men haue rather sought by wit to deride and traduce much of that which is good in professions then with Iudgement to discouer and seuer that which is corrupt For
to light vppon somewhat formerly reiected and by reiection brought into obliuion as if the multitude or the wisest for the multitudes sake were not readie to giue passage rather to that which is popular and superficiall than to that which is substantiall and profound for the truth is that time seemeth to be of the nature of a Riuer or streame which carryeth downe to vs that which is light and blowne vp and sinketh and drowneth that which is weightie and solide Another Errour of a diuerse nature from all the former is the ouer-early and peremptorie reduction of knowledge into Artsand Methodes from which time commonly Sciences receiue small or no augmentation But as young men when they knit and shape perfectly doeseldome grow to a further stature so knowledge while it is in Aphorismes and obseruations it is in groweth but when it once is comprehended inexact Methodes it may perchance be further pollished and illustrate and accommodated for vse and practise but it encreaseth no more in bulke and substance Another Errour which doth succeed that which we last mentioned is that after the distribution of particular Arts and Sciences men haue abandoned vniuersalitie or Philosophia prima which cannot but cease and stoppe all progression For no perfect discouerie can bee made vppon a slatte or a leuell Neither is it possible to discouer the more remote and deeper parts of any Science if you stand but vpon the leuell of the same Science and ascend not to a higher Science Another Error hath proceeded from too great a reuerence and a kinde of adoration of the minde and vnderstanding of man◅ by meanes whereof men haue withdrawne themselues too much from the contemplation of Nature and the obseruations of experience and haue tumbled vp and downe in their owne reason and conceits vpon these Intellectuallists which are notwithstanding commonly taken for the most sublime and diuine Philosophers Heraclitus gaue a iust censure saying Men sought truth in their owne little worlds and not in the great and common world for they disdaine to spell and so by degrees to read in the volume of Gods works and contrarywise by continuall meditation and agitation of wit doe vrge and as it were inuocate their owne spirits to diuine and giue Oracles vnto them whereby they are deseruedly deluded Another Error that hath some connexion with this later is that men haue vsed to infect their meditations opinions and doctrines with some conceits which they haue most admired or some Sciences which they haue most applyed and giuen all things else a tincture according to them vtterly vntrue and vnproper So hath Plato intermingled his Philosophie with Theologie and Aristotle with Logicke and the second Schoole of Plato Proclus and the rest with the Mathematiques For these were the Arts which had a kinde of Primo geniture with them seuerally So haue the Alchymists made a Philosophie out of a few experiments of the Furnace and Gilbertus our Countrey man hath made a Philosophie out of the obseruations of a Loadstone So Cicero when reciting the seuerall opinions of the nature of the soule he found a Musitian that held the soule was but a harmonie sayth pleasantly Hic ab arte sua non recessit c. But of these conceits Aristotle speaketh seriously and wisely when he sayth Qui respiciunt ad pauca'de facili pronuntiant Another Errour is an impatience of doubt and hast to assertion without due and mature suspention of iudgement For the two wayes of contemplation are not vnlike the two wayes of action commonly spoken of by the Ancients The one plain and smooth in the beginning and in the end impassable the other rough and troublesome in the entrance but after a while faire and euen so it is in cotemplation if a man will begin with certainties hee shall end in doubts but if he will be content to beginne with doubts he shall end in certainties Another Error is in the manner of the tradition and deliuerie of knowledge which is for the most part Magistrall and peremptorie and not ingenuous and faithfull in a sort as may be soonest beleeued and not easilest examined It is true that in compendious Treatises for practise that fourme is not to bee disallowed But in the true handling of knowledge men ought not to fall either on the one side into the veyne of Velleius the Epicurean Nil tam metuen◅ quam ne dubitare aliqua de re videretur Nor on the other side into Socrates his irronicall doubting of all things but to propound things sincerely with more or lesse asseueration as they stand in a mans owne iudgement prooued more or lesse Other Errors there are in the scope that men propound to themselues whereunto they bend their endeauours for whereas the more constant and deuote kind of Professors of any science ought to propound to themselues to make some additions to their Science they conuert their labours to aspire to certaine second Prizes as to be a profound Interpreter or Cōmenter to be a sharpe Champion or Defender to be a methodicall Compounder or abridger and so the Patrimonie of knowledge commeth to be sometimes improoued but seldome augmented But the greatest Error of all the rest is the mistaking or misplacing of the last or furthest end of knowledge for men haue entred into a desire of Learning and knowledge sometimes vpon a naturall curiositie and inquisitiue appetite sometimes to entertaine their mindes with varietie and delight sometimes for ornament and reputation and sometimes to inable them to victorie of wit and contradiction and most times for lukar and profession and seldome sincerely to giue a true account of their guist of reason to the benefite and vse of men As if there were sought in knowledge a Cowch whervpon to rest a searching and restlesse spirite or a tarras◅e for a wandring and variable minde to walke vp and downe with a faire prospect or a Tower of State for a proude minde to raise it selfe vpon or a Fort or commaunding ground for strife and contention or a Shoppe for profite or sale and not a rich Store-house for the glorie of the Creator and the reliefe of Mans estate But this is that which will indeed dignifie and exalt knowledge if contemplation and action may be more neerely and straightly conioyned and vnited together than they haue beene a Coniunction like vnto that of the two highest Planets Saturne the Planet of rest and contemplation and Iupiter the Planet of ciuile societie and action Howbeit I doe not meane when I speake of vse and action that end before mentioned of the applying of knowledge to ◅uker and profession For I am not ignorant howe much that diuerteth and interrupteth the prosecution and aduauncement of knowledge like vnto the goulden ball throwne before Atalanta which while shee goeth aside and stoopeth to take vp the race is hindred Declinat cursus aurumque volubile tollit Neither is my meaning as was spoken of Socrates to call Philosophy down
drawe vse of knowledge insomuch as that which if doubts had not preceded a man should neuer haue aduised but passed it ouer without Note by the suggestion and sollicitation of doubts is made to be attended and applied But both these commodities doe scarcely counteruaile an Inconuenience which wil intrude it selfe if it be not debarred which is that when a doubt is once receiued men labour rather howe to keepe it a doubt still then howe to solue it and accordingly bend their wits Of this we see the familiar example in Lawyers and Schollers both which if they haue once admitted a doubt it goeth euer after Authorized for a doubt But that vse of wit and knowledge is to be allowed which laboureth to make doubtfull thinges certaine and not those which labour to make certaine things doubtfull Therefore these Kalenders of doubts I commend as excellent things so that there be this caution vsed that when they bee throughly sifted brought to resolution they bee from thence forth omitted decarded and not continued to cherish and encourage men in doubting To which Kalender of doubts or problemes I aduise be annexed another Kalender as much or more Materiall which is a Kalender of popular Errors I meane chiefly in naturall Historie such as passe in speech conceit and are neuerthelesse apparantly detected cōuicted of vntruth that Mans knowledge be not weakened nor imbased by such drosse and vanitie As for the Doubts or Nonliquets generall or in Totall I vnderstand those differences of opinions touching the principles of Nature and the fundamentall points of the same which haue caused the diuersitie of Sects Schooles and Philosophies as that of Empedocles Pythagoras Democritus Parmenides and the rest For although Aristotle as though he had bin of the race of the Ottomans thought hee could not raigne except the first thing he did he killed all his Brethren yet to those that seeke truth and not Magistralitie it cannot but seeme a Matter of great profit to see before them the seueral opinions touching the foundations of Nature not for any exact truth that can be expected in those Theories For as the same Phenomena in Astronomie are satisfied by the receiued Astronomie of the diurnall Motion and the proper Motions of the Planets with their Eccentriques and Epicicles and likwise by the Theorie of Copernicus who supposed the ◅arth to moue the Calculations are indifferently agreeable to both So the ordinarie face and viewe of experience is many times satisfied by seuerall Theories Philosophies whereas to finde the reall truth requireth another manner of seueritie attention For as Aristotle saith that children at the first will call euery woman mother but afterward they come to distinguish according to truth So Experience if it be in childhood will call euery Philosophie Mother but when it commeth to ripenesse it will discerne the true Mother So as in the meane time it is good to see the Seuerall Glosses and Opinions vpon Nature wherof it may bee euery one in some one point hath seene clearer then his fellows Therfore I wish some collection to be made painfully and vnderstandingly de Antiquis Philosophijs out of all the possible light which remaineth to vs of them Which kinde of worke I finde deficient But heere I must giue warning that it bee done distinctly and seuerely The Philosophies of euery one throughout by themselues and not by titles packed and fagotted vp together as hath beene done by Plutarch For it is the harmonie of a Philosophie in it selfe which giueth it light and credence whereas if it bee singled and broken it will seeme more forraine and dissonant For as when I read in Tacitus the Actions of Nero or Claudius with circumstances of times inducements and occasions I finde them not so strange but when I reade them in Suetonius Tranquillus gathered into tytles and bundles and not in order of time they seeme more monstrous and incredible So is it of any Philosophy reported entier and dismembred by Articles Neither doe I exclude opinions of latter times to bee likewise represented in this Kalender of Sects of Philosophie as that of Theophrastus Paracelsus eloquently reduced into an harmonie by the Penne of Seuerinus the Dane And that of Tylesius and his Scholler Donius beeing as a Pastorall Philosophy full of sense but of no great depth And that of Fracastorius who though hee pretended not to make any newe Philosophy yet did vse the absolutenesse of his owne sense vpon the olde And that of Gilbertus our countreyman who reuiued with some alterations and demonstrations the opinions of Xenophanes and any other worthy to be admitted Thus haue we now dealt with two of the three beames of Mans knowledge that is Radius Directus which is referred to Nature Radius Refractus which is referred to God and cannot report truely because of the inequalitie of the Medium There resteth Radius Reflexus whereby Man beholdeth and contemplateth himselfe WE come therefore now to that knowledge whereunto the ancient Oracle directeth vs which is the knowledge of our selues which deserueth the more accurate handling by howe much it toucheth vs more neerely This knowledge as it is the end and Terme of Naturall Philosophy in the intention of Man So notwithstanding it is but a portion of Naturall Philosophy in the continent of Nature And generally let this be a Rule that all partitions of knowledges be accepted rather for lines veines then for sections and separations and that the continuance and entirenes of knowledge be preserued For the contrary here of hath made particular Sciences to become barren shallow erronious while they haue not bin N◅urished and Maintained from the cōmon fountaine Sowe see Cicero the Orator complained of Socrates and his Schoole that he was the first that separated Philosophy and Rhetoricke whereupon Rhetorick became an emptie verball Art So wee may see that the opinion of Copernicus touching the rotation of the earth which Astronomie it self cānot correct because it is not repugnant to any of the Phainomena yet Naturall Philosophy may correct So we see also that the Science of Medicine if it be destituted forsaken by Natural Philosophy it is not much better then an Empeirical practize with this reseruation therefore we proceed to HVMANE PHILOSOPHY or HVMANITIE which hath two parts The one considereth Man segregate or distributiuely The other congregate or in societie So as HVMANE PHILOSOPHY is either SIMPLE and PARTICVLAR or coniugate and Ciuile HVMANITIE PARTICVLAR consisteth of the same parts whereof Man consisteth that is of KNOVVLEDGES WHICH RESPECT THE BODY of KNOVVLEDGES THAT RESPECT THE MIND But before we distribute so far it is good to constitute For I doe take the consideration in generall and at large of HVMANE NATVRE to be fit to be emancipate made a knowledge by it self Not so much in regard of those delightfull and elegant discourses which haue bin made of the dignitie of Man of his
Sonne and in the application to the Holy spirit for by the Holy Ghost was Christ conceiued in flesh and by the Holy Ghost are the Elect regenerate in spirite This worke likewise we consider either effectually in the Elect or priuately in the reprobate or according to apparance in the visible Church For manners the Doctrine thereof is contained in the lawe which discloseth sinne The lawe it selfe is deuided according to the edition thereof into the lawe of Nature the lawe Morall and the lawe Positiue and according to the stile into Negatiue and Affirmatiue Prohibitions and Commandements Sinne in the matter and subiect thereof is deuided according to the Commandements in the forme thereof it referreth to the three persons in deitie Sinnes of Infirmitie against the father whose more speciall attribute is Power Sinnes of Ignorance against the Sonne whose attribute is wisedome and sinnes of Malice against the Holy Ghost whose attribute is Grace or Loue. In the motions of it it either mooueth to the right hand or to the left either to blinde deuotion or to prophane libertine transgressiō either in imposing restraint where GOD granteth libertie or in taking libertie where GOD imposeth restrainte In the degrees and progresse of it it deuideth it selfe into thought word or Act. And in this part I commend much the diducing of the Lawe of GOD to cases of conscience for that I take indeede to bee a breaking and not exhibiting whole of the bread of life But that which quickneth both these Doctrines of faith and Manners is the eleuatition and consent of the heart whereunto appertaine bookes of exhortation holy meditation christian resolution and the like For the Lyturgie or seruice it consisteth of the reciprocall Acts betweene GOD and Man which on the part of GOD are the Preaching of the word and the Sacraments which are seales to the couenant or as the visible worde and on the part of Mans Inuocation of the name of GOD and vnder the law Sacrifices which were as visible praiers or confessions but now the adoration being in Spiritu veritate there remaineth only vituli labiorum although the vse of holy vowes of thankefulnesse and retribution may be accounted also as sealed petitions And for the Gouernment of the Church it consisteth of the patrimonie of the church the franchises of the Church and the offices and iurisdictions of the Church and the Lawes of the Church directing the whole All which haue two considerations the one in them selues the other how they stand compatible and agreeable to the Ciuill Estate This matter of Diuinitie is handled either in forme of instruction of truth or in forme of confutation of falshood The declinations from Religion besides the primitiue which is Atheisme and the Branches thereof are three Heresies Idolatrie and Witch-craft Heresies when we serue the true GOD with a false worship Idolatrie when wee worship false Gods supposing them to be true and Witch-craft when wee adore false Gods knowing them to be wicked and false For so your Maiestie doth excellently well obserue that Witch-craft is the height of Idolatry And yet we see thogh these be true degrees Samuel teacheth us that they are all of a nature when there is once a receding from the word of GOD for so he saith Quasi Peccatum ariolandi est repugnare quasi scelus Idololatriae nolle acquiescere These thinges I haue passed ouer so briefely because I can report noe deficience concerning them For I can finde no space or ground that lieth vacant and vnsowne in the matter of Diuinitie so diligent haue men beene either in sowing of good seede or in sowing of Tares Thus haue I made as it were a small Globe of the Intellectuall world as truly and faithfully as I coulde discouer with a note and description of those parts which seeme to mee not constantly occupate or not well conuerted by the labour of Man In which if I haue in any point receded from that which is commonly receiued it hath beene with a purpose of proceeding in melius and not in aliud a minde of amendment and proficience and not of change and difference For I could not bee true and constant to the argument I handle if I were not willing to goe beyond others but yet not more willing then to haue others goe beyond mee againe which may the better appeare by this that I haue propounded my opinions naked and vnarmed not seeking to preoccupate the libertie of mens iudgements by confutations For in any thing which is well set downe I am in good hope that if the first reading mooue an obiection the second reading will make an answere And in those things wherein I haue erred I am sure I haue not preiudiced the right by litigious arguments which certainly haue this contrarie effect and operation that they adde authoritie to error and destroy the authoritie of that which is well inuented For question is an honour and preferment to falshood as on the other side it is a repulse to truth But the errors I claime and challenge to my selfe as mine owne The good if any bee is due Tanquam adeps sacrificij to be incensed to the honour first of the diuine Maiestie and next of your Maiestie to whom on earth I am most bounden Historia Literarū Historia Naturae Errantis Historia Mechanica Historia Prophetica Metaphisica siue De formis F◅bus Rerū Naturalis Magiasiue Phisica Operatiua Maior Inuentarium Opum bumanarum Continuatio Problematum in Natura Catalogus Falsitatū grassantiū in historia Naturae De Antiquis Philosophijs Narrationes Medicinales Anatomia comparata Inquisitio vlterior de Morbis insanabisibus De Euthanasia exteriore Medicinae experimentales Imitatio Naturae in Balneis Aquis Medicinalibus Filum Medicinale siue de vicibus Medicinarum Experientia literata interpretatio Naturae Elenchi magni s◅e d◅ Idolis animi humani natiuis aduentitijs De Analogia Demonstrationum De Notis Rerum De Methode syncera siue ad filios Scientiarum De prudentia Traditionis De Productione Axiomatum Deprudentia sermonis priuati Colores boni mali simplicis comparati Antitheta rerum De cultura Animi Faber Fortunae siue de Am. bitu vitae De prudētia legislatoria fiue de fontibus Iuris De vsu legittimo rationis humanae in diuinis Degradibus vnitatis in Ci◅itate Dei Emanationes Scripturarum in doctrinas Positiuas