332 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



We will therefore conclude these georgics of the mind 

 with that remedy which of all others is the shortest, noblest, 

 and most effectual for forming the mind to virtue, and plac 

 ing it near a state of perfection; viz., that we choose and 

 propose to ourselves just and virtuous ends of our lives and 

 actions, yet such as we have in some degree the faculty of 

 obtaining. For if the ends of our actions are good and vir 

 tuous, and the resolutions of our mind for obtaining them 

 fixed and constant, the mind will directly mold and form 

 itself at once to all kinds of virtue. And this is certainly 

 an operation resembling the works of nature, while the 

 others above mentioned seem only manual. Thus the stat 

 uary finishes only that part of the figure upon which his 

 hand is employed, without meddling with the others at that 

 time, which are still but unfashioned marble; whereas na 

 ture, on the contrary, when she works upon a flower or an 

 animal, forms the rudiments of all the parts at once. 82 So 

 when virtues are acquired by habit, while we endeavor at 

 temperance, we make but little advances toward fortitude 

 or the other virtues; but when we are once entirely devoted 

 to just and honorable ends, whatever the virtue be which 

 those ends recommend and direct, we shall find ourselves 

 ready disposed, and possessed of some propensity to obtain 

 and express it. And this may be that state of mind which 

 Aristotle excellently describes, not as virtuous, but divine. 23 

 His words are these: &quot;We may contrast humanity with that 

 virtue which is above it, as being heroic and divine.&quot; And 

 a little further on: &quot;For as savage creatures are incapable 

 of vice or virtue, so is the Deity.&quot; For the divine state 

 is above virtue, which is only the absence of vice. So 

 Pliny proposes the virtue of Trajan, not as an imitation, but 



22 Harvey, who was Bacon s physician, and the most celebrated anatomist 

 of his day, contradicts this doctrine, affirming that nature operates like man by 

 production and elaboration of parts. Ed. 



23 &quot;Humanitati autem consentaneurn est opponere earn quse supra humani- 

 tatem est heroicam sive divinam virtutem&quot;; and a little after, &quot;Nam ut ferse 

 neque vitium ueque virtus est, hie neque Dei: sed hie quidem status altius 

 quiddam virtute est, Hie aliud quiddam a vitio. &quot; Nic. Ethics, vii. 1. Ed. 



