VII. 2.] THE SECOND BOOK. 113 



Wherein nevertheless, it may be, he may at some men s 

 hands, that are of a bitter disposition, get a like title as 

 his scholar did : 



Felix terrarum praedo, non utilc mundo 

 Editus exemplum, &c. 



So, 



Felix doctrinae przdo. 



But to me on the other side that do desire as much as 

 lieth in my pen to ground a sociable intercourse between 

 antiquity and proficience, it seemeth best to keep way 

 with antiquity usque ad aras ; and therefore to retain the 

 ancient terms, though I sometimes alter the uses and 

 definitions, according to the moderate proceeding in civil 

 government; where although there be some alteration, 

 yet that holdeth which Tacitus wisely noteth, eadem ma- 

 gistratuum vocabula. 



3. To return therefore to the use and acception of the 

 term metaphysic, as I do now understand the word; it 

 appeareth, by that which hath been already said, that I 

 intend philosophia prt ma, summary philosophy and meta 

 physic, which heretofore have been confounded as one, 

 to be two distinct things. For the one I have made as 

 a parent or common ancestor to all knowledge ; and the 

 other I have now brought in as a branch or descendant 

 of natural science. It appeareth likewise that I have 

 assigned to summary philosophy the common principles 

 and axioms which are promiscuous and indifferent to 

 several sciences: I have assigned unto it likewise the 

 inquiry touching the operation of the relative and ad- 

 ventive characters of essences, as quantity, similitude, 

 diversity, possibility, and the rest: with this distinction 

 and provision ; that they be handled as they have efficacy 

 in nature, and not logically. It appeareth likewise that 



I 



