As a man's disposition is never well known till he be crossed, nor Proteus ever changed shapes till he was straitened and held fast; so the passages and variations of nature cannot appear so fully in the liberty of nature, as in the trials and vexations of art. Division. Antiquities. 187 1. They are the remnant of history. 1 The arrangement of this part is altered in the Treatise De Augmentis. "See note (0) at the end of this Treatise. CIVIL HISTORY.. Memorials. 1. Memorials are preparations for history. 1. It is in general deficient. 188 ·· 2 It is considered not elevating to inquire into matters mechanical The truth is, they be not the highest instances that give the securest information; as may be well expressed in the tale so common of the philosopher, that while he gazed upwards to the stars fell into the water; for if he had looked down he might have seen the stars in the water, but looking aloft he could not see the water in the stars. So it cometh 3. often to pass, that mean and small things discover great, better than great can discover the small. Aristotle noteth well, "that the nature of every thing is best seen in its smallest portions." And for that cause he inquireth the nature of a commonwealth, first in a family, and the simple conjugations of man and wife, parent and child, master and servant, which are in every cottage. 1. Memorials. 2. Perfect Histories. 3. Antiquities. Of pictures or images, we see, some are unfinished, some are perfect, and some are defaced. 2. Epitomes should be abolished. They are as planks saved from the utiuge of time. Perfect History. Division and their relative merits 1. Chronicles. 2. Biography. 3. Relations. 189 They are as the moths of history that have fretted and corroded the sound bodies of many excellent histories. Biography. 2. It is to be lamented that biography is not more fre quent. 190 ..189 One of the poets feigned that at the end of the thread or web of every man's life there was a little medal containing the person's name, and that Time waited upon the shears; and as soon as the thread was cut, caught the medals, and carried them to the river of Lethe ; and about the bank there were many birds flying up and down, that would get the medals and carry them in their beak a little while, and then let them full into the river; only there were a few swans, which if they got a name, would carry it to a temple where it 'was consecrated. Impropriety of disregarding posthumous fame 190 Chronicles. 189 1. Chronicles excel for celebrity.. Relations. The turning of iron touched with the load-1. They excel in verity and sincerity stone towards the north, was found out in 2. It is to be lamented that there is not more diligence needles of iron, not in bars of iron. in relations... 3. Annals and journals. .. 189 190 The collection of such relations might be as a nursery garden, whereby to plant a fair and stately garden, when time should serve. 1915. Division of poesy. History of the Church. 1. It describes the state of the church in persecution, in remove, and in peace. The ark in the deluge: the ark in the wilderness and the ark in the temple. 2. It is more wanting in sincerity than in quantity. History of Prophecy. 1. It is the history of the prophecy and of the accomplishment. 2. Every prophecy should be sorted with the event. 3. It is deficient. ..191 History of Providence. 1. It is the history of the correspondence between God's revealed will and his secret will. 2. It is not deficient. Appendices to History. Pictoribus atque poetis, Quidlibet audendi, semper fuit æqua potestas. 4. Its use is to satisfy the mind in these points where nature does not satisfy it. It was ever thought to have some participation of divineness, because it doth raise and erect the mind, by submitting the shows of things to the desires of the mind; whereas reason doth buckle and bow the mind into the nature of things.' Poesy joined with music hath had access and estimation in rude times and barbarous regions, where other learning stood excluded. 1. Common-the same as in history. 2. Proper division. 1. Narrative or heroical. 2. Representative or dramatical. 3. Allusive or parabolical. Narrative Poesy. 1 Sir Philip Sidney says, poesy, the sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge, lifts the mind from the dungeon of the body to the enjoying its own divine essence. Parabolical Poesy. 1. It was never common in ancient times. 2. Its uses. 1. To elucidate truths. 2. To concert truths.2 3. Of the interpretation of mysteries, parabolical poesy. In poesy there is no deficience; for, being as a plant that cometh of the lust of the earth, without a formal seed, it hath sprung up and spread abroad more than any other kind: but to ascribe unto it that which is due, for the expressing of affections, passions, corruptions, and customs, we are beholding to poets more than to the philosopher's works; and for wit and eloquence, not much less than to orators' harangues. But it is not good to stay too long in the theatre. Let us now pass on to the judicial place or palace of the mind, which we are to approach and view with more reveence and attention. PRIMITIVE OR GENERAL PHILOSOPHY. It is a receptacle for all such profitable observa192 tions and axioms as fall not within the compass of any of the special parts of philosophy or sciences, but are more common and of a higher stage. Is not the precept of a musician, to fall from a discord or harsh accord upon a concord, or sweet accord, alike true in affection? Is not the trope of music, to avoid or slide from the close or cadence, common with the trope of rhetoric of deceiving expectation? Is not the delight of the quavering upon a stop in music the same with the playing of light upon the water? (6 Splendet tremulo sub lumine pontus." Because the distributions and partitions of knowledge are not like several lines that meet in one angle, and so touch but in a point; but are like branches of a tree, that meet in a stem, which hath a dimension and quantity of entireness and continuance, before it come to discontinue and break itself into arms and boughs; therefore it is good, before we enter into the former distribution, to erect and constitute one universal science, by the name of " Philosophia Prima," primitive or summary philosophy, as the main and common way, before we come where the ways part and divide themselves. This science is as a common parent, like unto Berecynthia, which had so much heavenly issue. 1. It is NATURAL RELIGION That knowledge or rudiment of knowledge concerning God, which may be obtained by the contemplation of his creatures. 2. The proper limits of this knowledge are that it sufficeth to convince atheism. 194 3. It is not safe from contemplations of nature to judge upon questions of faith 195 ·· Men and gods were not able to draw Jupiter down to the earth; but contrariwise, Jupiter was able to draw them up to heaven. 4. This is not deficient, but not restrained within proper limits. 5. Of angels. 1. Division. It is no more unlawful to inquire the nature of evil spirits, than to inquire the force of poisons in nature, or the nature of sin and vice in morality. 6. Inquiries respecting angels are not deficient. That knowledge is worthiest, which is charged with least multiplicity; which appeareth to be Metaphysic; as that which considereth the simple forms or differences of things, which are few in number, and the degrees and co-ordinations whereof make all this variety. 2. To enfranchise the power of man by facili- 1. Speculative or inquisition of causes. 198 2. Operative or production of effects.... 195 1. The inquiry of final causes is not deficient, but has If then, it be true that Democritus said, "That the truth of nature lieth hid in certain deep mines and caves:" and if it be true likewise that the alchymists do so much inculcate, that Vulcan is a second nature, and imitateth that dexterously and compendiously, which nature worketh by ambages and length of time, it were good to divide natural philosophy into the mine and the furnace; and to make two professions or occupations of natural philosophers, some to be pioneers and some smiths; some to dig, and some to refine and hammer. 2. Connection between cause and effect 195 1. Division. NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. SPECULATIVE NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 194 2. Plato discovered that forms were the true objects of knowledge. Plato beheld all things as from a cliff. ·· 2. By keeping a watchful and severe eye upon action 1. To abridge the infinity of individual ex- been misplaced. GARI LA ABARTONOCE PL 1. The investigating final causes in physics has intercepted the true inquiry of real physical causes. CA To say that the hairs of the eyelids are for a quickset and fence about the sight; or that the firmness of the skins and hides of living creatures is to defend them from the extremities of heat or cold; or that the bones are for the columns or beams, whereupon the frames of the bodies of living creatures are built; or that the leaves of trees are for protecting of the fruit; or that the clouds are for the watering of the earth; or that the solidness of the earth is for the station and mansion of living creatures, and the like, is well inquired and collected in Metaphysic; but in Physic they are impertinent. Nay, they are indeed but remoras and hinderances to stay and slug the ship from further sailing; and have brought this to pass, that the search of the physical causes hath been neglected, and passed in silence. 2. Of the errors in ancient philosophy from mixing formal and final causes.. 198 Not because those final causes are not true, and worthy to be inquired, being kept within their own province; but because their excursions into the limits of physical causes hath bred a vastness and solitude in that track. 2. There is no repugnance between formal and final 198 causes.. 3. These opinions confirm divine providence Mathematic. 1. Reason for classing it as a part of metaphysic. 2. From the nature of the mind to wander in gene ralities, mathematics have more laboured than any other form. 3. There is no difference in mathematics....... 198 4. Division of mathematics: 1st, pure; 2d, mixed. 198 Pure Mathematics. 1. It is that science which handles quantity deter minate, merely severed from axioms of natural philosophy, and is geometry or arithmetic. 199 N 2. Pure mathematics cure many intellectual defects. If the wit be too dull, they sharpen it; if too wandering, they fix it; if too inherent in the sense, they abstract it. So that as tennis is a game of no use in itself, but of great use in respect it maketh a quick eye and a body ready to put itself into all postures; so in the mathematics, that use which is collateral and intervenient is no less worthy than that which is principal and intended. Mixed Mathematics.. 199 1. Its subject is some axioms or points of natural philosophy, and considers quantity determined, as auxiliary and incident to them, as perspective, music, architecture, &c. 2. They will increase as nature is more disclosed. 1. Division of doubts. 1. Particular. 2. Total. 2. Particular doubts. “Radius directus," which is referred to nature, "Radius refractus," which is referred to God; and cannot report truly because of the inequality of the medium: there resteth "Radius reflexus," whereby man beholdeth and contemplateth himself. HUMAN PHILOSOPHY, OR THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN1.. 201 1. The knowledge of men deserves more accurate investigation, because it touches us more nearly. 2. The knowledge of man is to man the end of all knowledge: but of nature herself a portion only. All partitions of knowledge should be accepted rather for lines and veins, than for sections and separations; that the continuance and entireness of knowledge be preserved. 3. Division of human philosophy. 1. Man as an individual. 2. Man as a member of society. 1. Division. Of a Calendar of Popular Errors. Cieneral doubts, or those differences of opinions, touching the principles of nature which have caused the diversities of sects. 200 Thus have we now dealt with two of the three beams of man's knowledge; that is 1. Uses of registering doubts. 2. Of the evil of continuing doubts. MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 1. The undivided state of man. Discovery. 199 1. The art of ascertaining the state of the mind from the 2d. A calendar of discoveries which may lead to other inventions..... 199 The invention of the mariner's needle, which giveth the direction, is of no less benefit for 1. The discovery of the mind from the appearance of navigation than the invention of the sails, which give the motion. Physiognomy... 201 2. 3 Conclusion of natural philosophy, speculative and 1. Discovery. 2. Impression. 2. The divided state of man. operative. clinations of the mind: the motions its present dispositions. The voice of nature will consent, whether 3. The lineaments of the body disclose the general inthe voice of man do or not. And as Alexander Borgia was wont to say of the expedition of the French for Naples, that they came with chalk in their hands to mark up their lodgings, and not with weapons to fight: so I like better that entry of truth which cometh peaceably, with chalk to mark up those minds which are capable to lodge and harbour it, than that which cometh with pugnacity and 1. It is the science of the relative action of the body A number of subtle persons, whose eyes do dwell upon the faces and fashions of men, do well know the advantage of this observation, as being most part of their ability. Impression. contention. and mind upon each other. Of Doubts. the body. Aristotle has laboured physiognomy as far as relates to the countenance at rest; but not when in motion. 1. This has been inquired as a part of medicine. 2. The doctrine that the body acts upon the mind does not derogate from the soul's dignity. The infant in the mother's womb is com patible with the mother and yet separable, and the most absolute monarch is sometimes led by his servants and yet without subjection. The action of the mind on the body. 1. Physicians have ever considered "acciden- It cannot be concluded that because there be pestilent airs, able suddenly to kill a man in 1 See note (P) at the end of this Treatise 1. The variety in the composition of man's 5. Diseases may be subdued. If we will excite and awake our observation, we shall see in familiar instances what a predominant faculty the subtilty of spirit hath over the variety of matter or form. 6. Medicine has been more laboured than advanced. 7. Deficiencies of medicine. 4. A neglect to mitigate the pains of death. 5. A neglect of acknowledged medicines 204 Health. Strength....... 205 1. Man's body is of all things most susceptible of remedy, but this remedy most susceptible of error. 1. It means any ability of body to which the body of 2. No body is so variously compounded as the body of man. man may be brought. 2. Division. 2. Artificial decoration is neither fine enough to deceive, nor handsome to please, nor wholesome to use.1 Their The poets did well to conjoin music and 1. Hardness against want. 1. 2. The variety in the composition of man's General receptacle for acts of great bodily endu2. The philosophy of athletics is not much investigated. rance. 3. The mediocrity of athletics is for use; the excess for ostentation. The lawyer is judged by the virtue of his pleading, and not by the issue of the cause. The master of the ship is judged by the directing his course aright, and not by the fortune of the voyage. But the physician, and perhaps the politician, hath no particular acts demonstrative of his ability, but is judged most by the event. 3. The quack is often prized before the regular physi cian. 4. Physicians often prefer other pursuits to their own professions. You shall have of them antiquities, poets, humanists, statesmen, merchants, divines, and in every of these better seen than in their profession; and no doubt upon this ground, that they find that mediocrity and excellency in their art maketh no difference in profit or reputation towards their fortune; for the weakness of patients, and sweetness of life, and nature of hope, maketh men depend upon physicians with all their defects. 1. Activity. 1. Strength. 2. Swiftness. 2. Patience. Pleasure.... chief deficience is in laws to repress them. It hath been well observed, that the arts which flourish in times while virtue is in growth, are military; and while virtue is in state, are liberal; and while virtue is in declination, are voluptuary.2 205 In the Treatise De Augmentis, this passage is thus altered: Adulterate decoration by painting and cerusse, is well worthy of the imperfections which attend it; being neither fine enough to deceive, nor handsome to please, nor wholesome to use. We read of Jezabel that she painted her face: but there is no such report of Esther or Judith. "In Bacon's Essay on Vicissitude of Things, he says, In the youth of a state, arms do flourish; in the middle age of a state, learning; and then both of them together for a time: in the declining age of a state, mechanical arts and merchandise. Q. 1. Is this observation founded on fact? Q. 2. Supposing it to be founded on fact; what are the causes ?-Does commerce lower the character? Is the service of mammon at variance with the service of God? 1. Want of medical reports. 3. Hasty conclusions that diseases are in- Sylla and the triumvirs never proscribed supposed to flow from each other? Q. 3. Supposing the mechanical arts and merchandise hitherto to have accompanied the decline of states, may they not both be traced to excess of civilization, instead of being Q. 4. Supposing the opinion to be founded on fact; wit! not the evil now be prevented by the art of printing? |