living creature, she formeth rudiments of all the parts at 
one time. So in obtaining virtue by habit, while a man 
practiseth temperance, he doth not profit much to forti- 
tude, nor the like: but when he dedicateth and applieth 
—himself to good ends, look, what virtue soever the pur- 
suit and passage towards those ends doth commend unto 
him, he is invested of a precedent disposition to conform 
himself thereunto. Which state of mind Aristotle doth 
excellently express himself, that it ought not to be called 
\o —-virtuous, but divine: his words are these: Jmmanitatt 
autem consentaneum est opponere eam, que supra humanita- 
tem est, heroicam sive divinam viriulem: and a little after, 
Nam ut fere neque vitium neque virtus est, ste neque Det: 
sed hic quidem status altius quiddam virtute est, tlle aliud 
_quiddam a vitio. And therefore we may see what celsi- 
tude of honour Plinius Secundus attributeth to Trajan in 
his funeral oration; where he said, Zhat men needed to 
make no other prayers to the gods, but that they would con- 
tinue as good lords to them as Trajan had been; as if he 
had not been only an imitation of divine nature, but a 
pattern of it. But these be heathen and profane passages, 
having but a shadow of that divine state of mind, which 
religion and the holy faith doth conduct men unto, by 
imprinting upon their souls charity, which is excellently 
called the bond of perfection, because it comprehendeth 
and fasteneth all virtues together. And as it is elegantly 
said by Menander of vain love, which is but a false 
imitation of divine love, Amor melior Sophista levo ad 
humanam vitam, that love teacheth a man to carry himself 
better than the sophist or preceptor, which he calleth 
left-handed, because, with all his rules and preceptions, 
he cannot form a man so dexteriously, nor with that 
facility to prize himself and govern himself, as love can 
mY 4 
214 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXII 15. _ 
