THE SECOND BOOK. 137 



as Demosthenes concludes his counsel, Quce si feceritis, non 

 oratorem dumtaxat in prcesentia laudabitis, scd vosmetipsos etiam 

 non ita multo post statu rerum vestraram mcliore. 



(3) Neither needed men of so excellent parts to have de 

 spaired of a fortune, which the poet Virgil promised himself, 

 and indeed obtained, who got as much glory of eloquence, wit, 

 and learning in the expressing of the observations of husbandry, 

 as of the heroical acts of JEneas : 



&quot;Nee sum animi dubius, yerbis ea vincere magnum 

 Quam sit, et angustis his addere rebus honorem.&quot; 



And surely, if the purpose be in good earnest, not to write at 

 leisure that which men. may read at leisure, but really to in 

 struct and suborn action and active life, these Georgics of the 

 mind, concerning the husbandry and tillage thereof, are no 

 less worthy than the heroical descriptions of virtue, duty, and 

 felicity. Wherefore the main and primitive division of moral 

 knowledge seemeth to be into the exemplar or platform of 

 good, and the regiment or culture of the mind : the one de 

 scribing the nature of good, the other prescribing rules how to 

 subdue, apply, and accommodate the will of man thereunto. 



(4) The doctrine touching the platform or nature of good 

 considereth it either simple or compared ; either the kinds of 

 good, or the degrees of good ; in the latter whereof those 

 infinite disputations which were touching the supreme degree 

 thereof, which they term felicity, beatitude, or the highest 

 good, the doctrines concerning which were as the heathen 

 divinity, are by the Christian faith discharged. And as 

 Aristotle saith, &quot;That young men may be happy, but not 

 otherwise but by hope ; so we must all acknowledge out 

 minority, and embrace the felicity which is by hope of the 

 future world. 



(5) Freed therefore and delivered from this doctrine of the 

 philosopher s heaven, whereby they feigned a higher elevation 

 of man s nature than was (for we see in what height of stylo 

 Seneca writeth, Vere magnum, habere frayilitatem hominia, 

 securitatem Dei), we may with more sobriety and truth receive 

 the rest of their inquiries and labours. Wherein for the nature, 

 of good positive or simple, they have set it down excellently 

 in describing the forms of virtue and duty, with their situationa 

 and postures ; in distributing them into their kinds, parts, 

 provinces, actions, and administrations, and the like : nay 

 further, they have commended them to man s nature and 

 spirit with great quickness of argument and beauty t 



F/ 84 



