214 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXII. 15. 



living creature, she formeth rudiments of all the parts at 

 one time. So in obtaining virtue by habit, while a man 

 practiseth temperance, he doth not profit much to forti 

 tude, nor the like : but when he dedicateth and applieth 

 himself to good ends, look, what virtue soever the pur 

 suit and passage towards those ends doth commend unto 

 him, he is invested of a precedent disposition to conform 

 himself thereunto. Which state of mind Aristotle doth 

 excellently express himself, that it ought not to be called 

 virtuous, but divine : his words are these : Immanitati 

 autem consentaneum est opponere earn, qua supra humanita- 

 tem est, heroicam sive divinam virtutem : and a little after, 

 Nam ut fercR neque vitium neque virtus est, sic neque Dei : 

 sed hie quidcm status altius quiddam virtute est, ille aliua 

 quiddam a vitio. And therefore we may see what celsi- 

 tude of honour Plinius Secundus attributeth to Trajan in 

 his funeral oration; where he said, That men needed to 

 make no other prayers to the gods, but that they would con 

 tinue as good lords to them as Trajan had been; as if he 

 had not been only an imitation of divine nature, but a 

 pattern of it. But these be heathen and profane passages, 

 having but a shadow of that divine state of mind, which 

 religion and the holy faith doth conduct men unto, by 

 imprinting upon their souls charity, which is excellently 

 called the bond of perfection, because it comprehendeth 

 and fasteneth all virtues together. And as it is elegantly 

 said by Menander of vain love, which is but a false 

 imitation of divine love, Amor melior Sophista Icevo ad 

 humanam vitam, that love teacheth a man to carry himself 

 better than the sophist or preceptor, which he calleth 

 left-handed, because, with all his rules and preceptions, 

 he cannot form a man so dexteriously, nor with that 

 facility to prize himself and govern himself, as love can 



