Advancement of Learning 157 



magnifying of philosophy and contemplation: who being 

 asked what he was, answered, That if Hiero were ever at the 

 Olympian games, he knew the manner, that some came to try 

 their fortune for the prizes, and some came as merchants to 

 utter their commodities, and some came to make good cheer 

 and meet their friends, and some came to look on ; and that 

 he was one of them that came to look on. 1 But men must 

 know, that in this theatre of man s life it is reserved only 

 for God and angels to be lookers on : neither could the like 

 question ever have been received in the church (notwith 

 standing their Pretiosa in oculis Domini mors sanctorum 

 ejus, 2 by which place they would exalt their civil death and 

 regular professions,) but upon this defence, that the monasti- 

 cal life is not simply 3 contemplative, but performeth the 

 duty either of incessant prayers and supplications, which 

 hath been truly esteemed as an office in the church, or else 

 of writing or taking instructions for writing concerning the 

 law of God, as Moses did when he abode so long in the 

 mount. 4 And so we see Enoch the seventh from Adam, 

 who was the first contemplative, and walked with God, 

 yet did also endow the church with prophecy, which St. 

 Jude citeth. 5 But for contemplation which should be 

 finished in itself, without casting beams upon society, 

 assuredly divinity knoweth it not. 



It decideth also the controversies between Zeno and 

 Socrates, and their schools and successions, on the one side, 

 who placed felicity in virtue simply or attended, the actions 

 and exercises whereof do chiefly embrace and concern 

 society; and on the other side, the Cyrenaics and Epicur 

 eans, who placed it in pleasure, and made virtue, (as it is 

 used in some comedies of errors, wherein the mistress and 

 the maid change habits,) to be but as a servant, without 

 which pleasure cannot be served and attended, and the 

 reformed school of the Epicureans, which placed it in serenity 

 of mind and freedom from perturbation, (as if they would 

 have deposed Jupiter again, and restored Saturn and the 

 first age, when there was no summer nor winter, spring nor 

 autumn, but all after one air and season,) and Herillus, who 



1 Cic. Tusc. Quasi, v. 3, of Leo, tyrant of Phlius, not of Hiero. 



- Ps. cxvi. 15. 



3 Edition 1605, simple ; 1629, 1633, simply. 



* Ex. xxiv. 5 Jude 14. 



