1 86 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XX. i. 



joined, without giving any precepts or directions for the 

 carriage of the hand and framing of the letters. So have 

 they made good and fair exemplars and copies, carrying 

 the draughts and portraitures of good, virtue, duty, felicity; 

 propounding them well described as the true objects and 

 scopes of man s will and desires. But how to attain 

 these excellent marks, and how to frame and subdue the 

 will of man to become true and conformable to these 

 pursuits, they pass it over altogether, or slightly and un- 

 profitably. For it is not the disputing, that moral virtues 

 are in the mind of man by habit and not by nature ; or 

 the distinguishing, that generous spirits are won by doc 

 trines and persuasions, and the vulgar sort by reward and 

 punishment ; and the like scattered glances and touches, 

 that can excuse the absence of this part. 



2. The reason of this omission I suppose to be that 

 hidden rock whereupon both this and many other barks 

 of knowledge have been cast away ; which is, that men 

 have despised to be conversant in ordinary and common 

 matters, the judicious direction whereof nevertheless is 

 the wisest doctrine (for life consisteth not in novelties 

 nor subtilities), but contrariwise they have compounded 

 sciences chiefly of a certain resplendent or lustrous mass 

 of matter, chosen to give glory either to the subtility of 

 disputations, or to the eloquence of discourses. But 

 Seneca giveth an excellent check to eloquence, Nocet 

 tilt s eloquentia, quibui non rerum cupiditatem facif, sed sm. 

 Doctrine should be such as should make men in love 

 with the lesson, and not with the teacher ; being directed 

 to the auditor s benefit, and not to the author s com 

 mendation. And therefore those are of the right kind 

 which may be concluded as Demosthenes concludes his 

 counsel, Qua si feceritis, non o atorem duntaxat in pr&amp;lt;z- 



