The Advancement of Learning
(46) But men, if they be in their own power, and do bear and sustain
themselves, and be not carried away with a whirlwind or tempest of
ambition, ought in the pursuit of their own fortune to set before their
eyes not only that general map of the world, “That all things are vanity
and vexation of spirit,” but many other more particular cards and
directions: chiefly that, that being without well-being is a curse, and
the greater being the greater curse; and that all virtue is most rewarded
and all wickedness most punished in itself: according as the poet saith
excellently:
“Quæ vobis, quæ digna, viri pro laudibus istis
Præmia posse rear solvi? pulcherrima primum
Dii _moresque_ dabunt vestri.”
And so of the contrary. And secondly they ought to look up to the
Eternal Providence and Divine Judgment, which often subverteth the wisdom
of evil plots and imaginations, according to that scripture, “He hath
conceived mischief, and shall bring forth a vain thing.” And although
men should refrain themselves from injury and evil arts, yet this
incessant and Sabbathless pursuit of a man’s fortune leaveth not tribute
which we owe to God of our time; who (we see) demandeth a tenth of our
substance, and a seventh, which is more strict, of our time: and it is to
small purpose to have an erected face towards heaven, and a perpetual
grovelling spirit upon earth, eating dust as doth the serpent, _Atque
affigit humo divinæ particulam auræ_. And if any man flatter himself
that he will employ his fortune well, though he should obtain it ill, as
was said concerning Augustus Cæsar, and after of Septimius Severus, “That
either they should never have been born, or else they should never have
died,” they did so much mischief in the pursuit and ascent of their
greatness, and so much good when they were established; yet these
compensations and satisfactions are good to be used, but never good to be
purposed. And lastly, it is not amiss for men, in their race towards
their fortune, to cool themselves a little with that conceit which is
elegantly expressed by the Emperor Charles V., in his instructions to the
king his son, “That fortune hath somewhat of the nature of a woman, that
if she he too much wooed she is the farther off.” But this last is but a
remedy for those whose tastes are corrupted: let men rather build upon
that foundation which is as a corner-stone of divinity and philosophy,
wherein they join close, namely that same _Primum quærite_. For divinity
saith, _Primum quærite regnum Dei_, _et ista omnia adjicientur vobis_:
and philosophy saith, _Primum quærite bona animi_; _cætera aut aderunt_,
_aut non oberunt_. And although the human foundation hath somewhat of
the sands, as we see in M. Brutus, when he broke forth into that speech,
“Te colui (Virtus) ut rem; ast tu nomen inane es;”
yet the divine foundation is upon the rock. But this may serve for a
taste of that knowledge which I noted as deficient.
(47) Concerning government, it is a part of knowledge secret and retired
in both these respects in which things are deemed secret; for some things
are secret because they are hard to know, and some because they are not
fit to utter. We see all governments are obscure and invisible:
“Totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.”
Such is the description of governments. We see the government of God
over the world is hidden, insomuch as it seemeth to participate of much
irregularity and confusion. The government of the soul in moving the
body is inward and profound, and the passages thereof hardly to be
reduced to demonstration. Again, the wisdom of antiquity (the shadows
whereof are in the poets) in the description of torments and pains, next
unto the crime of rebellion, which was the giants’ offence, doth detest
the offence of futility, as in Sisyphus and Tantalus. But this was meant
of particulars: nevertheless even unto the general rules and discourses
of policy and government there is due a reverent and reserved handling.
(48) But contrariwise in the governors towards the governed, all things
ought as far as the frailty of man permitteth to be manifest and
revealed. For so it is expressed in the Scriptures touching the
government of God, that this globe, which seemeth to us a dark and shady
body, is in the view of God as crystal: _Et in conspectu sedis tanquam
mare vitreum simile crystallo_. So unto princes and states, and
specially towards wise senates and councils, the natures and dispositions
of the people, their conditions and necessities, their factions and
combinations, their animosities and discontents, ought to be, in regard
of the variety of their intelligences, the wisdom of their observations,
and the height of their station where they keep sentinel, in great part
clear and transparent. Wherefore, considering that I write to a king
that is a master of this science, and is so well assisted, I think it
decent to pass over this part in silence, as willing to obtain the
certificate which one of the ancient philosophers aspired unto; who being
silent, when others contended to make demonstration of their abilities by
speech, desired it might be certified for his part, “That there was one
that knew how to hold his peace.”
(49) Notwithstanding, for the more public part of government, which is
laws, I think good to note only one deficiency; which is, that all those
which have written of laws have written either as philosophers or as
lawyers, and none as statesmen. As for the philosophers, they make
imaginary laws for imaginary commonwealths, and their discourses are as
the stars, which give little light because they are so high. For the
lawyers, they write according to the states where they live what is
received law, and not what ought to be law; for the wisdom of a law-maker
is one, and of a lawyer is another. For there are in nature certain
fountains of justice whence all civil laws are derived but as streams;
and like as waters do take tinctures and tastes from the soils through
which they run, so do civil laws vary according to the regions and
governments where they are planted, though they proceed from the same
fountains. Again, the wisdom of a law-maker consisteth not only in a
platform of justice, but in the application thereof; taking into
consideration by what means laws may be made certain, and what are the
causes and remedies of the doubtfulness and uncertainty of law; by what
means laws may be made apt and easy to be executed, and what are the
impediments and remedies in the execution of laws; what influence laws
touching private right of _meum_ and _tuum_ have into the public state,
and how they may be made apt and agreeable; how laws are to be penned and
delivered, whether in texts or in Acts, brief or large, with preambles or
without; how they are to be pruned and reformed from time to time, and
what is the best means to keep them from being too vast in volume, or too
full of multiplicity and crossness; how they are to be expounded, when
upon causes emergent and judicially discussed, and when upon responses
and conferences touching general points or questions; how they are to be
pressed, rigorously or tenderly; how they are to be mitigated by equity
and good conscience, and whether discretion and strict law are to be
mingled in the same courts, or kept apart in several courts; again, how
the practice, profession, and erudition of law is to be censured and
governed; and many other points touching the administration and (as I may
term it) animation of laws. Upon which I insist the less, because I
purpose (if God give me leave), having begun a work of this nature in
aphorisms, to propound it hereafter, noting it in the meantime for
deficient.
(50) And for your Majesty’s laws of England, I could say much of their
dignity, and somewhat of their defect; but they cannot but excel the
civil laws in fitness for the government, for the civil law was _nonhos
quæsitum munus in usus_; it was not made for the countries which it
governeth. Hereof I cease to speak because I will not intermingle matter
of action with matter of general learning.
XXIV. Thus have I concluded this portion of learning touching civil
knowledge; and with civil knowledge have concluded human philosophy; and
with human philosophy, philosophy in general. And being now at some
pause, looking back into that I have passed through, this writing seemeth
to me (_si nunquam fallit imago_), as far as a man can judge of his own
work, not much better than that noise or sound which musicians make while
they are in tuning their instruments, which is nothing pleasant to hear,
but yet is a cause why the music is sweeter afterwards. So have I been
content to tune the instruments of the Muses, that they may play that
have better hands. And surely, when I set before me the condition of
these times, in which learning hath made her third visitation or circuit
in all the qualities thereof; as the excellency and vivacity of the wits
of this age; the noble helps and lights which we have by the travails of
ancient writers; the art of printing, which communicateth books to men of
all fortunes; the openness of the world by navigation, which hath
disclosed multitudes of experiments, and a mass of natural history; the
leisure wherewith these times abound, not employing men so generally in
civil business, as the states of Græcia did, in respect of their
popularity, and the state of Rome, in respect of the greatness of their
monarchy; the present disposition of these times at this instant to
peace; the consumption of all that ever can be said in controversies of
religion, which have so much diverted men from other sciences; the
perfection of your Majesty’s learning, which as a phœnix may call whole
volleys of wits to follow you; and the inseparable propriety of time,
which is ever more and more to disclose truth; I cannot but be raised to
this persuasion, that this third period of time will far surpass that of
the Grecian and Roman learning; only if men will know their own strength
and their own weakness both; and take, one from the other, light of
invention, and not fire of contradiction; and esteem of the inquisition
of truth as of an enterprise, and not as of a quality or ornament; and
employ wit and magnificence to things of worth and excellency, and not to
things vulgar and of popular estimation. As for my labours, if any man
shall please himself or others in the reprehension of them, they shall
make that ancient and patient request, _Verbera_, _sed audi_: let men
reprehend them, so they observe and weigh them. For the appeal is lawful
(though it may be it shall not be needful) from the first cogitations of
men to their second, and from the nearer times to the times further off.
Now let us come to that learning, which both the former times were not so
blessed as to know, sacred and inspired divinity, the Sabbath and port of
all men’s labours and peregrinations.
XXV. (1) The prerogative of God extendeth as well to the reason as to the
will of man: so that as we are to obey His law, though we find a
reluctation in our will, so we are to believe His word, though we find a
reluctation in our reason. For if we believe only that which is
agreeable to our sense we give consent to the matter, and not to the
author; which is no more than we would do towards a suspected and
discredited witness; but that faith which was accounted to Abraham for
righteousness was of such a point as whereat Sarah laughed, who therein
was an image of natural reason.
(2) Howbeit (if we will truly consider of it) more worthy it is to
believe than to know as we now know. For in knowledge man’s mind
suffereth from sense: but in belief it suffereth from spirit, such one as