violently irritated by the "A discord ending imme

in Politics, since every faction is encroachment of a contrary faction. diately in a concord sets off the harmony," is a rule in Music. The same holds in Ethics and in the affections. The trope of Music, to glide gently from the close or cadence (as they call it) when you seem to be on the point of it, resembles the trope of Rhetoric, of deceiving expectation. The quavering upon a stop in music gives the same pleasure to the ear as the playing of light on water or a diamond gives to the eye;

splendet tremulo sub lumine pontus.'

"The organs of the senses resemble the organs of reflexions," is a rule in Perspective; for the eye is like to a glass, or to water; and it is the same in Acoustics, for the instrument of hearing is like an obstruction in a cavern. These few cases are enough by way of examples. But indeed the chief business of the Persian magic (so much celebrated) was to note the correspondences between the architectures and fabrics of things natural and things civil. Neither are all these which I have mentioned, and others of this kind, only similitudes (as men of narrow observation may perhaps conceive them to be), but plainly the same footsteps of nature treading or printing upon different subjects and matters. And it is a thing which has not as yet been carefully handled. You may perhaps find in the writings of the profounder sort of wits such axioms here and there sparingly inserted for the use of the argument they have in hand; but for any body of such axioms, which should tend primitively and summarily to the advancement of the sciences, no one has as yet collected one; though it is a thing of excellent use for displaying the unity of nature; which is supposed to be the true office of Primitive Philosophy.

There is also another part of this philosophy, which, if you look to the terms, is ancient, if to the thing which I mean, is new. It is an inquiry with regard to the Adventitious Conditions of Essences (which we may call Transcendentals), as Much, Little; Like, Unlike; Possible, Impossible; likewise Being and Not-Being, and the like. For since these do not properly come under Physic, and the logical discussion concerning them belongs rather to the laws of reasoning than to the existence of things, it is very proper that the consideration

Virg. Æn. vii. 9. : Beneath the trembling light glitters the sea.

of them (wherein there is no little dignity and profit) should not be altogether neglected, but should find at least some place in the divisions of the sciences. Nevertheless I mean that it should be handled in a way very different from the common. For example; no one who has treated of Much and Little has endeavoured to assign a reason why some things in nature are and can be so numerous and plentiful, others so few and scanty; for it certainly cannot be that in the nature of things there should be as much gold as iron; that roses should be as abundant as grass; and that there should be as great variety of the specific as of the non-specific. In like manner no one in handling Similitude and Diversity has sufficiently explained why betwixt different species there almost always lie certain individuals which partake of the nature of both; as moss between corruption and a plant; fishes that stick to rocks and cannot move away, between a plant and an animal; rats and mice, and some other things, between animals generated of putrefaction and of seed; bats, between birds and beasts; flyingfish (which are now well known), between birds and fishes; seals, between fishes and quadrupeds; and the like. Nor has any one inquired the reason why, seeing that likes delight in likes, iron does not attract iron, which the magnet does; nor why gold does not attract gold, though it does attract quicksilver. With regard to these and similar things in the discussion of Transcendentals there is a deep silence; for men have aimed rather at height of speech than at the subtleties of things. Wherefore I wish the real and solid inquiry, according to the laws of nature and not of language, concerning these Transcendentals or Adventitious Conditions of Essences, to have a place in Primitive or Summary Philosophy. And so much for Philosophia Prima (or Sapience), which I have with reason set down as deficient.

CHAP. II.

Of Natural Theology; and the Doctrine concerning Angels and Spirits, which is an Appendix of the same.

THIS science being therefore first placed as a common parent, like unto Berecynthia, who had so much heavenly issue,

Omnes cœlicolas, omnes supera alta tenentes,'

let us return to the former division of the three philosophies: Divine, Natural, and Human. For Natural Theology is also rightly called Divine Philosophy. It is defined as that knowledge, or rather rudiment of knowledge, concerning God, which may be obtained by the light of nature and the contemplation of his creatures; and it may be truly termed divine in respect of the object, and natural in respect of the light. The bounds of this knowledge, truly drawn, are that it suffices to refute and convince Atheism, and to give information as to the law of nature; but not to establish religion. And therefore there was never miracle wrought by God to convert an atheist; because the light of nature might have led him to confess a God; but miracles have been wrought to convert idolators and the superstitious, who acknowledged a deity but erred in his worship; because no light of nature extends to declare the will and worship of God. For as all works show forth the power and skill of the workman, and not his image; so it is of the works of God, which show the omnipotency and wisdom, but do not portray the image of the Maker. And therefore therein the Heathen opinion differs from the sacred truth; for they supposed the world to be the image of God, and man the image of the world; whereas the Scriptures never vouchsafe to attribute to the world such honour as anywhere to call it the image of God, but only the work of his hands; but man they directly term the image of God. Wherefore that God exists, that he governs the world, that he is supremely powerful, that he is wise and prescient, that he is good, that he is a rewarder, that he is an avenger, that he is an object of adoration - all this may be demonstrated from his works alone; and there are many other wonderful mysteries concerning his attributes, and much more touching his regulations and dispensations over the universe, which may likewise be reasonably elicited and manifested from the same; and this is an argument that has by some been excellently handled. But on the other side, out of the contemplation of nature and elements of human knowledge to induce any conclusion of reason or even any strong persuasion concerning the mysteries of faith, yea, or to inspect and sift them too curiously and search out

1 Virg. Æn. vii. 788.:

-

the manner of the mystery, is in my opinion not safe. "Give unto faith the things which are faith's." For the Heathen themselves concede as much, in that excellent and divine fable of the Golden Chain; namely, that men and Gods were not able to draw Jupiter down to the earth; but contrariwise, Jupiter was able to draw them up to heaven. And therefore it were a vain labour to attempt to adapt the heavenly mysteries of religion to our reason. Fitter will it be that we raise our own minds to the adorable throne of heavenly truth. In this part therefore of Natural Theology I am so far from noting any deficience, that I rather find an excess; to note which I have a little digressed, because of the extreme prejudice and peril which is thereby threatened both to religion and philosophy; as being that which will make at once an heretical religion and an imaginary and fabulous philosophy.

Otherwise it is of the nature of Angels and Spirits, which is neither inscrutable nor interdicted; unto which likewise, from the affinity it bears to the human soul, the passage is in great part opened. Certainly the Scripture says, "Let no man deceive you in sublime discourse, touching the worship of angels, pressing into that he knoweth not;" yet notwithstanding if you observe well that precept, you will find that there are two things only forbidden therein: adoration of them, such as is only due to God, and opinion fantastical of them; either to extol them further than appertains to the degree of a creature, or to extol a man's knowledge of them further than he has ground. But the sober inquiry about them, either ascending to the knowledge of their nature by the ladder of things corporeal, or beholding it in the soul of man as in a mirror, is nowise forbidden. So of unclean and fallen spirits, the conversing with them or the employment of them is prohibited; much more any worship or veneration towards them. But the contemplation and knowledge of their nature, power and illusions, not only from passages of Scripture, but from reason or experience, is not the least part of spiritual wisdom. So certainly says the Apostle, "We are not ignorant of his stratagems." And it is no more unlawful to inquire the nature of evil spirits in Natural Theology, than to inquire the force of poisons in Physics, or the nature of vice in Ethics. But this part of knowledge touching angels and spirits I cannot note as de

Coloss. ii. 4. and 18.

2 2 Corinth. ii. 11.

ficient, seeing many have occupied themselves in it. I may rather challenge no small part of it, in many of the writers thereof, as superstitious, fabulous, and fantastical.

CHAP. III.

The division of Natural Philosophy into Speculative and Operative; and that these two should be kept separate, both in the intention of the writer and in the body of the treatise.

It was

LEAVING therefore Natural Theology (to which I refer the inquiry concerning Spirits as an appendix), let us now proceed to the second part; namely, that concerning Nature and Natural Philosophy. It was well said by Democritus, "That the truth of nature lies hid in certain deep mines and caves.' not ill said by the alchemists, "That Vulcan is a second nature, and imitates that dexterously and compendiously which nature works circuitously and in length of time." Why therefore should we not divide Natural Philosophy into two parts, the mine and the furnace; and make two professions or occupations of natural philosophers, some to be miners and some to be smiths? And certainly though I may seem to say this in sport, yet I think a division of this kind most useful, when propounded in familiar and scholastical terms; namely, that the doctrine of Natural Philosophy be divided into the Inquisition of Causes, and the Production of Effects; Speculative and Operative. The one searching into the bowels of nature, the other shaping nature as on an anvil. And though I am well aware how close is the intercourse between causes and effects, so that the explanations of them must in a certain way be united and conjoined; yet because all true and fruitful Natural Philosophy has a double scale or ladder, ascendent and descendent, ascending from experiments to axioms, and descending from axioms to the invention of new experiments; therefore I judge it most requisite that these two parts, the Speculative and the Operative, be considered separately, both in the intention of the writer and in the body of the treatise.

'Diog. Lacrt. in Pyrrho. c. 72.