44 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [V. 12. 



ought to be the better believed in that which I shall say 

 pertaining to commendation ; because I have proceeded 

 so freely in that which concerneth censure. And yet I 

 have no purpose to enter into a laudative of learning, or 

 to make a hymn to the Muses (though I am of opinion 

 that it is long since their rites were duly celebrated), but 

 my intent is, without varnish or amplification justly to 

 weigh the dignity of knowledge in the balance with other 

 things, and to take the true value thereof by testimonies 

 and arguments divine and human. 



VI. i. girst therefore let us^seek the dignity of know,- 

 ledge Jn the arch-type or first platform, which is in the 

 attributes arid acts of God, ,a^ far as^hex^je-JCfiyealed to 

 man and may be observed witli sobriety ; wherein we may 

 U-^A r. Rr n^ nf ]paTning or alHearning is 



nowledge jicquiredjjind acknowledge^ God is original : 

 aftuTtherefore we joust Jook for iTby another name, that 

 of wisdom or sapience \ as the scriptures call it. 



2-. It is so then, that in the work of the^creation we see 

 a double emanation of virtue from God ; the one referring 

 more properly to^pas^er, the other to^kdojn ; the one 

 expressed in making the subsistence of the matter, and 

 the other in disposing the beauty of the form. This being 

 supposed, it is to be observed that for anything which 

 appeareth in the history of the creation, the confused mass 

 and matter of heaven and earth was made in a moment ; 

 and the order and disposition of that chaos or mass was 

 the work of six days ; such a note of difference it pleased 

 God to put upon the works of power, and the works of 

 wisdom; wherewith concurreth, that in the former it is 

 not set down that God said, Lei there be heaven and earth, 

 as it is set down of the works following ; but actually, that 

 God made heaven and earth : the one carrying the style 



