228 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 12. 



writing. And therefore lest it should seem to any that 

 Faberfor- it is not comprehensible by axiom, it is re- 

 tuncc,sivede quisite, as we did in the former, that we 

 ambitu vita. set d own some heads or passages of it. 



13. Wherein it may appear at the first a new and un 

 wonted argument to teach men how to raise and make 

 their fortune; a doctrine wherein every man perchance 

 will be ready to yield himself a disciple, till he see the 

 difficulty: for fortune layeth as heavy impositions as 

 virtue; and it is as hard and severe a thing to be a 

 true politique, as to be truly moral. But the handling 

 hereof concerneth learning greatly, both in honour and 

 in substance. In honour, because pragmatical men may 

 not go away with an opinion that learning is like a lark, 

 that can mount, and sing, and please herself, and nothing 

 else ; but may know that she holdeth as well of the hawk, 

 that can soar aloft, and can also descend and strike upon 

 the prey. In substance, because it is the perfect law of 

 inquiry of truth, that nothing be in the globe of matter, 

 which should not be likewise in the globe of crystal, or 

 form ; that is, that there be not any thing in being and 

 action, which should not be drawn and collected into con 

 templation and doctrine. Neither doth learning admire 

 or esteem of this architecture of fortune, otherwise than 

 as of an inferior work: for no man s fortune can be 

 an end worthy of his being; and many times the worthi 

 est men do abandon their fortune willingly for better 

 respects: but nevertheless fortune as an organ of virtue 

 and merit deserveth the consideration. 



14. First therefore the precept which I conceive to 

 be most summary towards the prevailing in fortune, is to 

 obtain that window which Momus did require : who see 

 ing in the frame of man s heart such angles and recesses. 



