190 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. |_XX. 7. 



wished themselves anathematized and razed out of the 

 book of life, in an ecstasy of charity and infinite feeling 

 of communion. 



8. This being set down and strongly planted, doth 

 judge and determine most of the controversies wherein 

 moral philosophy is conversant. For first, it decideth the 

 question touching the preferment of the contemplative or 

 active life, and decideth it against Aristotle. For all the 

 reasons which he bringeth for the contemplative are pri 

 vate, and respecting the pleasure and dignity of a man s 

 self (in which respects no question the contemplative life 

 hath the pre-eminence), not much unlike to that com 

 parison, which Pythagoras made for the gracing and 

 magnifying of philosophy and contemplation : who being 

 asked what he was, answered, That if Hiero were ever at 

 the Olympian games, he knew the manner, that some came 

 to try their fortune for the prizes, and some came as mer 

 chants to utter their commodites, and some came to make 

 good cheer and meet their friends, and some came to look 

 on; and that he was one of them that came to look on. 

 But men must know, that in this theatre of man s life it is 

 reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on. Neither 

 could the like question ever have been received in the 

 church, notwithstanding their Pretiosa in oculis Domini 

 mors sanctorum ejus, by which place they would exalt 

 their civil death and regular professions, but upon this 

 defence, that the monastical life is not simple contem 

 plative, but performeth the duty either of incessant prayers 

 and supplications, which hath been truly esteemed as an 

 office in the church, or else of writing or taking instruc 

 tions for writing concerning the law of God, as Moses 

 did when he abode so long in the mount. And so 

 we see Henoch the seventh from Adam, who was the first 



