Sciences which they have most applied; and given all things else a tincture according to them, utterly untrue and improper. So hath Plato intermingled his Philosophy with Theology, and Aristotle with Logic; and the second School of Plato, Proclus and the reft, with the Mathematics. For these were the Arts which had a kind of Primogeniture with them severally. So have the Alchymists made a Philosophy out of a few experiments of the Furnace; and Gilbertus, our Countryman, hath made a Philofophy out of the obfervations of a Loadftone. So Cicero, when, reciting the feveral opinions of the nature of the foul, he found a Mufician that held the foul was but a Harmony, faith pleafantly, Hic ab arte fua non receffit, &c. But of these conceits Aristotle speaketh seriously and wifely, when he faith, Qui refpiciunt ad pauca de facili pronunciant.

Another Error is an impatience of doubt, and hafte to affertion without due and mature fufpenfion of judgment. For the two ways of contemplation are not unlike the two ways of action, commonly spoken of by the Ancients; the one plain and smooth in the beginning, and in the end impaffable; the other rough and troublesome in the entrance, but after a while fair and even: so it is in contemplation; if a man will begin with certainties, he fhall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Another Error is in the manner of the tradition

and delivery of Knowledge, which is for the most part Magistral and peremptory, and not ingenuous and faithful; in a fort as may be soonest believed, and not eafiliest examined. It is true, that in compendious Treatifes for practice, that form is not to be difallowed: but in the true handling of knowledge, men ought not to fall, either, on the one fide, into the Vein of Velleius the Epicurean: Nil tam metuens, quàm ne dubitare aliqua de re videretur: nor, on the other fide, into Socrates' ironical doubting of all things; but to propound things fincerely, with more or less affeveration, as they stand in a man's own judgment proved more or lefs.

Other Errors there are in the fcope that men propound to themselves, whereunto they bend their endeavours; for whereas the more constant and devoted kind of Profeffors of any science ought to propound to themselves to make some additions to their Science, they convert their labours to aspire to certain second prizes : as to be a profound Interpreter or Commentor, to be a sharp Champion or Defender, to be a methodical Compounder or Abridger, and fo the Patrimony of knowledge cometh to be fometimes improved, but feldom augmented.

But the greatest Error of all the reft is the miftaking or misplacing of the last or furtheft end of Knowledge for men have entered into a defire of Learning and Knowledge, sometimes upon a natural curiofity, and inquifitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight;

fometimes for ornament and reputation; and fometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and moft times for lucre and profeffion; and seldom fincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men: as if there were fought in knowledge a Couch, whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a tarrasse for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; or a Tower of State, for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a Fort or commanding ground, for ftrife and contention; or a Shop, for profit or fale; and not a rich Storehouse, for the glory of the Creator, and the relief of Man's eftate. But this is that which will indeed dignify and exalt knowledge, if contemplation and action may be more nearly and ftraitly conjoined and united together than they have been; a Conjunction like unto that of the two highest Planets, Saturn, the Planet of rest and contemplation, and Jupiter, the Planet of civil society and action: howbeit, I do not mean, when I speak of use and action, that end before-mentioned of the applying of knowledge to lucre and profeffion; for I am not ignorant how much that diverteth and interrupteth the profecution and advancement of knowledge, like unto the golden ball thrown before Atalanta, which while fhe goeth aside and stoopeth to take up, the race is hindered;

Declinat curfus, aurumque volubile tollit.

Neither is my meaning, as was spoken of So

crates, to call Philosophy down from heaven to converfe upon the earth; that is, to leave natural Philosophy afide, and to apply knowledge only to manners and policy. But as both heaven and earth do confpire and contribute to the use and benefit of man; fo the end ought to be, from both Philofophies to separate and reject vain fpeculations, and whatsoever is empty and void, and to preserve and augment whatsoever is solid and fruitful: that knowledge may not be, as a Curtefan, for pleasure and vanity only, or as a bond-woman, to acquire and gain to her Master's use; but as a Spouse, for generation, fruit, and comfort.

Thus have I described and opened, as by a kind of diffection, those peccant humours, (the principal of them,) which have not only given impediment to the proficience of Learning, but have given alfo occafion to the traducement thereof: wherein if I have been too plain, it must be remembered, Fidelia vulnera amantis, fed dolofa ofcula malignantis. This, I think, I have gained, that I ought to be the better believed in that which I shall say pertaining to commendation; because I have proceeded fo freely in that which concerneth cenfure. And yet I have no purpose to enter into a laudative of Learning, or to make a Hymn to the muses; (though I am of opinion that it is long fince their rites were duly celebrated :) but my intent is, without varnish or amplification, juftly to weigh the dignity of knowledge in the balance with other

things, and to take the true value thereof by teftimonies and arguments divine and human.

First, therefore, let us seek the dignity of knowledge in the Archetype or first platform, which is in the attributes and acts of GOD, as far as they are revealed to man, and may be observed with sobriety; wherein we may not seek it by the name of Learning; for all learning is knowledge acquired, and all knowledge in GOD is original: and therefore we must look for it by another name, that of wisdom or fapience, as the Scriptures call it.

It is fo then, that in the work of the Creation we see a double emanation of virtue from GOD; the one referring more properly to power, the other to wisdom; the one expreffed in making the subfiftence of the matter, and the other in difpofing the beauty of the form. This being supposed, it is to be observed, that for anything which appeareth in the History of the Creation, the confufed Mass and matter of Heaven and earth was made in a moment; and the order and difpofition of that Chaos or Mass was the Work of fix days; such a note of difference it pleased GOD to put upon the Works of power, and the works of Wisdom; wherewith concurreth, that in the former it is not fet down that GOD faid, Let there be Heaven and Earth, as it is fet down of the works following; but actually, that God made Heaven and Earth : the one carrying the style of a Manufacture, and the other of a Law, Decree, or Counsel.