62 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



Virgil did excellently and profoundly couple the know 

 ledge of causes and the conquests of all fears together, 

 as concomitantia. 



Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, 

 Quique metus oranes, et inexorabile fatum 

 Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari. 



2. It were too long to go over the particular remedies 

 which learning doth minister to all the diseases of the 

 mind ; sometimes purging the ill humours, sometimes 

 opening the obstructions, sometimes helping digestion, 

 sometimes increasing appetite, sometimes healing the 

 wounds and exulcerations thereof, and the like ; and 

 therefore I will conclude with that which hath rationem 

 totius ; which is, that it disposeth the constitution of 

 the mind not to be fixed or settled in the defects 

 thereof, but still to be capable and susceptible of growth 

 and reformation. For the unlearned man knows not 

 what it is to descend into himself, or to call himself 

 to account, nor the pleasure of that suavissima vita, 

 indies sentire se fieri meliorem. The good parts he hath 

 he will learn to show to the full, and use them dex 

 terously, but not much to increase them. The faults 

 he hath he will learn how to hide and colour them, but 

 not much to amend them ; like an ill mower, that 

 mows on still, and never whets his scythe. Whereas 

 with the learned man it fares otherwise, that he doth 

 ever intermix the correction and amendment of his 

 mind with the use and employment thereof. Nay 

 further, in general and in sum, certain it is that Veritas 

 and Bonitas differ but as the seal and the print : for 

 Truth prints Goodness, and they be the clouds of 

 error which descend in the storms of passions and 

 perturbations. 



3. From moral virtue let us pass on to matter of 

 power and commandment, and consider whether in 

 right season there be any comparable with that where 

 with knowledge investeth and crowneth man s nature. 

 We see the dignity of the commandment is according 

 to the dignity of the commanded : to have command- 



