248 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 46. 



hath somewhat of the nature of a woman, that if she be too 

 much wooed she is the farther off. But this last is but a 

 remedy for those whose tastes are corrupted : let men 

 rather build upon that foundation which is as a corner 

 stone of divinity and philosophy, wherein they join close, 

 namely that same Primum queer tie. For divinity saith, 

 Primum queer He regnum Dei, et ista omnia adjicientur vobis : 

 and philosophy saith, Primum qucsrite bona animi; ccetera 

 aut aderunt y aut non oberunt. And although the human 

 foundation hath somewhat of the sands, as we see in 

 M. Brutus, when he brake forth into that speech, 



Te colui (Virtus) ut rem ; ast tu nomen inane es ; 



yet the divine foundation is upon the rock. But this may 

 serve for a taste of that knowledge which I noted as 

 deficient. 



47. Concerning government, it is a part of knowledge 

 secret and retired in both these respects in which things 

 are deemed secret; for some things are secret because 

 they are hard to know, and some because they are not 

 fit to utter. We see all governments are obscure and 

 invisible : 



Totamque infusa per artus 

 Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet. 



Such is the description of governments. We see the 

 government of God over the world is hidden, insomuch 

 as it seemeth to participate of much irregularity and con 

 fusion. The government of the soul in moving the body 

 is inward and profound, and the passages thereof hardly 

 to be reduced to demonstration. Again, the wisdom of 

 antiquity (the shadows whereof are in the poets) in the 

 description of torments and pains, next unto the crime of 

 rebellion, which was the giants offence, doth detest the 

 offence of futility, as in Sisyphus and Tantalus. But this 



