IV. 



THE FIRST BOOK. 



in a temple, said in disdain, Nil sacri es ; so there is none 

 of Hercules followers in learning, that is, the more severe 

 and laborious sort of inquirers into truth, but will despise 

 those delicacies and affectations, as indeed capable of no 

 divineness. And thus much of the first disease or dis 

 temper of learning. 



5. The second which folio wcth is in nature worsejhan 

 the former : for as substance of matter is better than 

 beauty of words, so contrariwise vain matter is worse 

 than vain words : wherein it seemeth the reprehension of 

 Saint Paul was not only proper for those times, but pro 

 phetical for the times following ; and not only respective 

 to divinity, but extensive to all knowledge : Deviia pro- 

 fanas vocum novttates, et oppositions fahi nominis scienlia&amp;gt;. 

 For he assigneth two marks and badges of suspected 

 and falsified science : the one, the novelty and strange 

 ness of terms; the other, the strictness of positions, 

 which of necessity doth induce oppositions, and so ques 

 tions and altercations. Surely, like as many substances 

 in nature which are solid do putrify and corrupt 

 worms ; so it is the property of good and 



^^^_^ * &amp;lt; 



ledgeto putrify and dissolve into a number_of subtle. 



question 



unwholesome^and (as I may term them) vermicnlate 

 which have indeed a kind ofjc[uickp p ss and 



life^of spirit, but no soundness of matteror goodness of 

 &quot;quality. This kind of degenerate leaTning Hid IJhiefly 

 reign amongst the schoolmen : who having sharp and 

 strong wits, and abundance of leisure, and small variety 

 of reading, but their wits being shut up in the cells of a 

 few authors (chiefly Aristotle their dictator) as their per- u 

 sons were shut up in the cells of monasteries and col 

 leges, and knowing little history, either of nature or 

 time, did out of no great quantity of matter and infinite 



