Caos ob 
5 
VII. 2.) THE SECOND BOOK. 113 
s 
Wherein nevertheless, it may be, he may at some men’s 
hands, that are of a bitter disposition, get a like title as 
his scholar did: 
Felix terrarum predo, non utile mundo 
Editus exemplum, &c. 
So, 
Felix doctrine predo, 
But to me on the other side that do desire as much as 
lieth in my pen to ground a sociable intercourse between 
antiquity and proficience, it seemeth best to keep way 
with antiquity usgue ad aras ; and therefore to retain the 
ancient terms, though I sometimes alter the uses and 
definitions, according to the moderate proceeding in civil 
government; where although there be some alteration, 
yet that holdeth which Tacitus wisely noteth, eadem ma- 
gistratuum vocabula. 
3. To return therefore to the use and acception of the 
term metaphysic, as I do now understand the word; it 
appeareth, by that which hath been already said, that i 
intend philosophia prima, summary philosophy and meta- 
physic, which heretofore have been confounded as one, 
to be two distinct things. For the one I have made as 
a parent or common ancestor to all knowledge; and the 
other I have now brought in as a branch or descendant 
of natural science. It appeareth likewise that I have 
assigned to summary philosophy the common principles 
and axioms which are promiscuous and indifferent to 
several sciences: I have assigned unto it likewise the 
inquiry touching the operation of the relative and ad- 
ventive characters of essences, as quantity, similitude, 
diversity, possibility, and the rest: with this distinction 
and provision ; that they be handled as they have efficacy 
in nature, and not logically. It appeareth likewise that 
I 
