8 Bacon 



worketh nothing in nature but by second causes: and if 

 they would have it otherwise believed, it is mere imposture, 

 as it were in favour towards God ; and nothing else but to 



ffer to the Author of Truth the unclean sacrifice of a lie. 



ut farther, it is an assured truth, and a conclusion of 

 experience, that a_little-Qr superficial knowledge^of_Philo r 

 sophy may incline the mind of man to Atheism, but a 

 HrtherprQceeding_therein doth bring the mincLbacJc again 

 :o~Relifinfc 



tojxeiigion : for in the entrance of Philosophy, when the 7 

 second causes, which are next unto the senses, do offer them- 

 \ selves to the mind of man, if it dwell and stay there it may 

 I induce some oblivion of the highest cause ; but when a man 

 jpasseth on farther, and seeth the dependence of causes, and 

 j v ne works of Providence ; then, according to the allegory of 

 ^^v^ie poets, he will easily believe that the highest link of 

 ^nature s chain must needs be tied to the foot of Jupiter s 

 VChair. 1 ^ To conclude therefore, let no man upon a weak 

 conceit of sobriety or an ill-applied moderation think or 

 maintain, that a man can search too far, or be too well 

 studied in the book of God s word, or in the book of God s 

 works ; divinity or philosophy : but rather let men endeav 

 our an endless progress or proficience in both ; only let men 

 beware that they apply both to charity, and not to swelling ; 

 to use, and not to ostentation; and again, that they do not 

 unwisely mingle or confound these learnings together. 

 (33 And(as for the disgraces which Learning receiveth from 

 Folitiques, they be of this nature ; that Le^rnirgjlothjoften 

 men s minds, andmakes them more unapt for the honour and 

 exercise of arnisTThab it doth marand pervert men s dispo 

 sitions.. foiLjnatter or government jincLpQlicy r in making 

 them too curious and irresolute by variety of reading, or too 

 peremptory or positive by strictness of rules and axioms, 

 or too immoderate and overweening by reason of the great 

 ness of examples, or too incompatible and differing from the 

 times by reason of the dissimilitude of examples; or at 

 least, thaffiitL-doth divert men s travails from action and 

 business, and bringeth them to a love_of. leisure and pnvate- 

 ness:_ and thatylit doffi bring into states a relaxation of 

 discipline, whilst every man is more ready to argue than 

 to~ODey~and execute^ Out of this conceit, Cato/ surnamed 

 the Censor, one of the wisest men indeed that ever lived, 

 1 Horn. //. viii. 19. 2 See Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. 31. 



