68 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VIII. i. 



provinces in Asia, when he received letters out of Greece, 

 of some fights and services there, which were commonly 

 for a passage, or a fort, or some walled town at the most, 

 he said, // seemed to him, that he was advertised of the 

 battles of the frogs and the mice, that the old tales went of. 

 So certainly, if a man meditate much upon the universal 

 frame of nature, the earth with men upon it (the divine- 

 ness of souls except) will not seem much other than an 

 ant-hill, whereas some ants carry corn, and some carry 

 their young, and some go empty, and all to and fro a little 

 heap of dust. It taketh away or miti^a\eth fear of death 

 or adverse fortune^ which *s one^af the .greatest impedi 

 ments ot virtue, and imperfections of manners. For if a 

 nrarfrmind be deeply seasoned with the consideration of 

 the mortality and corruptible nature of things, he will 

 easily concur with Epictetus, who went forth one day and 

 saw a woman weeping for her pitcher of earth that was 

 broken, and went forth the next day and saw a woman 

 weeping for her son that was dead, and thereupon said, 

 Heri vidi fragilem frangi, hodie vidi mortalem mori. 

 And therefore Virgil did excellently and profoundly couple 

 the knowledge of causes and the conquest of all fears 

 together, as concomitantia. 



Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, 

 Quique metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum 

 Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari. 



2. It were too long to go over the particular remedies 

 which learning doth minister to all the diseases of the 

 mind; sometimes purging the ill humours, sometimes 

 opening the obstructions, sometimes helping digestion, 

 sometimes increasing appetite, sometimes healing the 

 wounds and exulcerations thereof, and the like; and 

 therefore I will conclude with that which hath rationem 



