XII. 2.] THE SECOND BOOK. 149 



civil history, morality, policy, about the which men s affec 

 tions, praises, fortunes do turn and are conversant. But 

 this same lumen siccum doth parch and offend most men s 

 watery and soft natures. But to speak truly of things as 

 they are in worth, rational knowledges are the keys of 

 all other arts : for as Aristotle saith aptly and elegantly, 

 That the hand is the instrument of instruments, and the mind 

 is the form of forms ; so these be truly said to be the art 

 of arts. Neither do they only direct, but likewise confirm 

 and strengthen : even as the habit of shooting doth not 

 only enable to shoot a nearer shoot, but also to draw 

 a stronger bow. 



3. The arts intellectual are four in number; divided 

 according to the ends whereunto they are referred: for 

 man s labour is to invent that which is sought or pro 

 pounded; or to judge that which is invented; or to 

 retain that which is judged; or to deliver over that 

 which is retained. So as the arts must be four : art^ 1 

 of inquiry or invention : art of examination or judge 

 ment : art of custody or memory : and art of elocution 

 or tradition. 



XIII. i. Invention is of two kinds much differing: the 

 one of arts and sciences, and the other of speech and 

 arguments. The former of these I do report deficient; 

 which seemeth to me to be such a deficience as if, in the 

 making of an inventory touching the state of a defunct, it 

 should be set down that there is no ready money. For 

 as money will fetch all other commodities, so this know 

 ledge is that which should purchase all the rest. And like 

 as the West Indies had never been discovered if the use 

 of the mariner s needle had not been first discovered, 

 though the one be vast regions, and the other a small 

 motion ; so it cannot be found strange if sciences be no \ 



