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164: ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



ences into more general ones, that shall suit the matter of 

 all individuals. For the sciences are like pyramids, erected 

 upon the single basis of history and experience, and there 

 fore a history of nature is, 1, the basis of natural philoso 

 phy; and 2, the first stage from the basis is physics; and 3, 

 that nearest the vertex metaphysics; but 4, for the vertex 

 itself, &quot;the work which God worketh from the beginning 

 to the end,&quot; 20 or the summary law of nature, we doubt 

 whether human inquiry can reach it. But for the other 

 three, they are the true stages of the sciences, and are used 

 by those men who are inflated by their own knowledge, and 

 a daring insolence, as the three hills of the giants to invade 

 heaven. 



&quot;Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam 

 Scilicet, atque Ossse frondosum involvere Olympum.&quot; S1 



But to the humble and the meek they are the three accla 

 mations, Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus; for God is holy in the 

 multitude of his works, as well as in their order and union, 951 

 and therefore the speculation was excellent in Parmenides 

 and Plato, that all things by denned gradations ascend to 

 unity. 23 And as that science is the most excellent, which 

 least burdens the understanding by its multiplicity; this 

 property is found in metaphysics, as it contemplates those 



{simple forms of things, density, rarity, etc., which we call 

 forms of the first class; for though these are few, yet, by 

 their commensurations and co-ordinations, they constitute 

 all truth. 



The second thing that ennobles this part of metaphysics, 



\ relating to forms, is, that it releases the human power, and 



i leads it into an immense and open field of work; for physics 



direct us through narrow rugged paths, in imitation of the 



crooked ways of ordinary nature; but the ways of wisdom, 



which were anciently defined as &quot;rerum divinarum et huma- 



narum scientia,&quot; 24 are everywhere wide, and abounding in 



20 Eccles. iii. 1. 21 Yirgil, Georgics, i. 281. 22 Apocalypse, iv. 



23 See conclusion of the Dialogue entitled Parmenides. 



24 Plato s Phsedo; Cicero, Tuscul. Qusest. 4 Defin. 2. 



