6 Bacon 



c knowledge, how large soever, lest it should make it swell or 

 ^out-compass itself ; no, but itj^merely the quality, of know 

 ledge^ which, be it in quantity more or less, if itT^Tfaken 

 without the true corrective thereof, hath in it some nature 

 of venom or malignity, and some effects of that venom, 

 which is ventosity or swelling. This corrective spice, the 

 mixture whereof maketh Knowledge so sovereign, is Charity, 

 which the Apostle immediately addeth to the former clause : 

 for so he saith, finowledge. blowethup, but Charity buildeth up; 

 not unlike unto that which he delivereth in another place : 

 /// spake, saith he. with the tongues of men and angels^and 

 ^hadnti charity^it were but as a tinkling cymbal ; * not hnTTHaf 

 it is an excellent thing to speak with the tongues of men and 

 angels, but because, if it be severed fr^m rharity, and not 

 referred to the good of men and mankind, it hath rather a 

 ounding and unworthy glory, than a meriting 



tial virtue. And as for that censure of Salomon, concerning 

 the excess of writing and reading books, and the anxiety of 

 spirit which redoundeth from knowledge ; and that admoni 

 tion of St. Paul, That we be not seduced by vain philosophy ; 

 let those places be rightly understood, and they Ho indeed 

 excellently seHorthjthejtrue bounds and limitatjon^jwiiexe- 

 by human knowledge is confined and circumscribed ; and 

 yet without any such contracting or coarctation, but that it 

 may comprehend all the universal nature of things; for 

 are three: the fiist, That we do not so place 



our felicity in knowledge, as we forget our mortality : the 

 ndJUZTwtf we make application of our knowledge, to give 

 ourselves repose and contentment, and not distaste or repining : 

 the thirdBJTwtf we do not presume by the contemplation of 

 lature to attain to the mysteries of God. For as touching the 

 first of these, Salomon doth excellently expound himself in 

 another place of the same book, where he saith : 2 I saw well 

 that knowledge recedeth as far from ignorance as light doth 

 from darkness ; and that the wise mans eyes keep watch in his 

 head, whereas the fool roundeth about in darkness : but withal 

 I learned, that the same mortality involveth them both. And 

 for the second, certain it is, there is no vexation or anxiety 

 of mind which resulteth from knowledge otherwise than 

 merely by accident ; for all .knowledge ancLwonder (which is 

 the seed of knowledge) is^an impressioruol pleasure in itself: 

 1 i Cor. xiii. I. * Eccl. ii. 13, 14. 



