8 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



or decent, in the true return of their seasons : Also 

 he hath placed the world in man s heart, yet cannot 

 man find out the work which God worketh from the 

 beginning to the end : declaring not obscurely, that 

 God hath framed the mind of man as a mirror or glass, 

 capable of the image of the universal world, and joyful 

 to receive the impression thereof, as the eye joyeth to 

 receive light ; and not only delighted in beholding the 

 variety of things and vicissitude of times, but raised 

 also to find out and discern the ordinances and decrees, 

 which throughout all those changes are infallibly 

 observed. And although he doth insinuate that the 

 supreme or summary law of nature, which he calleth 

 The work which God worketh from the beginning to 

 the end, is not possible to be found out by man ; 

 yet that doth not derogate from the capacity of the 

 mind, but may be referred to the impediments, as of 

 shortness of life, ill conjunction of labours, ill tradition 

 of knowledge over from hand to hand, and many other 

 inconveniences, whereunto the condition of man is 

 subject. For that nothing parcel of the world is 

 denied to man s inquiry and invention, he doth in another 

 place rule over, when he saith, The spirit of man is 

 as the lamp of God, wherewith he searcheth the in 

 wardness of all secrets. If then such be the capacity 

 and receipt of the mind of man, it is manifest that there 

 is no danger at all in the proportion or quantity of 

 knowledge, how large soever, lest it should make it 

 swell or out-compass itself ; no, but it is merely the 

 quality of knowledge, which, be it in quantity more or 

 less, if it be taken without the true corrective thereof, 

 hath in it some nature of venom or malignity, and 

 some effects of that venom, which is ventosity or 

 swelling. This corrective spice, the mixture whereof 

 maketh knowledge so sovereign, is charity, which the 

 Apostle immediately addeth to the former clause : for 

 so he saith, Knowledge bloweth up, but charity 

 buildeth up ; not unlike unto that which he delivereth 

 in another place : * If I spake, saith he, with the 

 tongues of men and angels, and had not charity, it 



