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this nature, things but of mean appearance, but of fingular efficacy. For as the wronging or cherishing of feeds or young plants is that that is most important to their thriving: (and as it was noted that the first fix kings, being in truth as Tutors of the State of Rome in the infancy thereof, was the principal cause of the immense greatness of that state which followed :) fo the culture and manurance of Minds in youth hath such a forcible, though unseen, operation, as hardly any length of time or contention of labour can countervail it afterwards. And it is not amiss to observe also how fmall and mean faculties gotten by Education, yet when they fall into great men or great matters, do work great and important effects; whereof we see a notable example in Tacitus of two Stage players, Percennius and Vibulenus, who by their faculty of playing put the Pannonian armies into an extreme tumult and combustion: for there arising a mutiny amongst them upon the death of Auguftus Cæfar, Blafus the lieutenant had committed fome of the Mutineers, which were fuddenly rescued; whereupon Vibulenus got to be heard fpeak, which he did in this manner:-Thefe poor innocent wretches, appointed to cruel death, you have restored to behold the light; but who shall restore my brother to me, or life unto my brother, that was fent hither in message from the legions of Germany, to treat of the common Caufe? and he hath murdered him this last night by fome of his fencers and ruffians, that he hath about him for his executioners upon Soldiers. An

fwer, Blafus, what is done with his body? The mortaleft Enemies do not deny burial. When I have performed my last duties to the Corpfe with kiffes, with tears, command me to be flain befide him; fo that these my fellows, for our good meaning, and our true hearts to the Legions, may have leave to bury

us.

With which speech he put the army into an infinite fury and uproar: whereas truth was he had no brother, neither was there any fuch matter; but he played it merely as if he had been upon the stage.

But to return: we are now come to a period of Rational Knowledges; wherein if I have made the divifions other than those that are received, yet would I not be thought to difallow all those divisions which I do not ufe; for there is a double neceffity imposed upon me of altering the divifions. The one, because it differeth in end and purpose, to sort together those things which are next in Nature, and those things which are next in ufe; for if a fecretary of State fhould fort his papers, it is like in his study or general Cabinet he would fort together things of a Nature, as Treaties, Inftructions, &c. but in his Boxes or particular Cabinet he would fort together those that he were like to use together, though of several Natures; so in this general Cabinet of knowledge it was neceffary for me to follow the divifions of the Nature of things; whereas if myself had been to handle any particular knowledge, I would have respected the Divifions fitteft for ufe. The other, because the

bringing in of the Deficiences did by Confequence alter the Partitions of the reft: for let the knowledge extant, for demonftration fake, be fifteen ; let the knowledge with the Deficiences be twenty; the parts of fifteen are not the parts of twenty; for the parts of fifteen are three and five; the parts of twenty are two, four, five, and ten; fo as these things are without Contradiction, and could not otherwise be.

E proceed now to that knowledge
which confidereth of the Appetite and
Will of man; whereof Solomon faith,
Ante omnia, fili, cuftodi cor tuum ; nam

inde procedunt actiones vita. In the handling of this science, those which have written seem to me to have done as if a man, that profeffed to teach to write did only exhibit fair copies of Alphabets and letters joined, without giving any precepts or directions for the carriage of the hand and framing of the letters: fo have they made good and fair Exemplars and copies, carrying the draughts and portraitures of Good, Virtue, Duty, Felicity; propounding them well defcribed as the true objects and fcopes of man's will and defires; but how to attain these excellent marks, and how to frame and fubdue the Will of Man to become true and conformable to these pursuits, they pass it over altogether, or flightly and unprofitably for it is not the difputing, that moral virtues are in the Mind of man by habit and not by nature, or the diftinguishing that

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generous spirits are won by doctrines and persuafions, and the vulgar fort by reward and punishment, and the like scattered glances and touches, that can excuse the absence of this part.

The reason of this omiffion I suppose to be that hidden Rock whereupon both this and many other Barks of knowledge have been caft away; which is, that men have despised to be converfant in ordinary and common matters, the judicious direction whereof nevertheless is the wifeft doctrine, (for life confifteth not in novelties or fubtilties,) but contrariwise they have compounded Sciences chiefly of a certain refplendent or luftrous mass of matter, chosen to give glory either to the subtilty of disputations, or to the eloquence of difcourfes. But Seneca giveth an excellent check to eloquence; Nocet illis eloquentia, quibus non rerum cupiditatem facit, fed fui. Doctrine should be such as should make men in love with the Leffon, and not with the Teacher; being directed to the Auditor's benefit, and not to the Author's commendation: and therefore those are of the right kind, which may be concluded as Demofthenes concludes his counfel, Qua fi feceritis, non Oratorem duntaxat in præfentia laudabitis, fed vofmetipfos etiam non ita multo poft ftatu rerum veftrarum meliore.

Neither needed men of fo excellent parts to have despaired of a Fortune, which the Poet Virgil promised himself, and indeed obtained, who got as much glory of eloquence, wit, and learning in the expreffing of the observations of husbandry, as of the heroical acts of Æneas :

:

Nec fum animi dubius, verbis ea vincere magnum
Quam fit, et anguftis his addere rebus honorem.

Georg. iii. 289.

And surely, if the purpose be in good earnest, not to write at leifure that which men may read at leisure, but really to inftruct and fuborn Action and active life, thefe Georgics of the mind, concerning the husbandry and tillage thereof, are no less worthy than the heroical descriptions of virtue, duty, and felicity. Wherefore the main and primitive division of Moral knowledge seemeth to be into the Exemplar or Platform of Good, and the Regiment or Culture of the Mind: the one defcribing the nature of Good, the other prefcribing rules how to fubdue, apply, and accommodate the Will of Man thereunto.

The Doctrine touching the Platform or Nature of Good confidereth it either Simple or Compared; either the kinds of Good, or the degrees of Good; in the latter whereof those infinite difputations which were touching the fupreme degree thereof, which they term Felicity, Beatitude, or the highest Good, the doctrines concerning which were as the heathen Divinity, are by the Christian faith difcharged. And as Ariftotle faith, That young men may be happy, but not otherwife but by Hope; fo we must all acknowledge our Minority, and embrace the felicity which is by hope of the future world.

Freed therefore and delivered from this doctrine of the Philofopher's heaven, whereby they feigned a higher elevation of Man's Nature than was, (for

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