188 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



neque virtus est, sic neque Dei : sed hie quidem status 

 altius quiddam virtute est, ille aliud quiddam a vitio. 

 And therefore we may see what celsitude of honour 

 Plinius Secundus attributeth to Trajan in his funeral 

 oration ; where he said, That men needed to make no 

 other prayers to the gods, but that they would continue 

 as good lords to them as Trajan had been ; as if he 

 had not been only an imitation of divine nature, but 

 a pattern of it. But these be heathen and profane 

 passages, having but a shadow of that divine state of 

 mind, which religion and the holy faith doth conduct 

 men unto, by imprinting upon their souls charity, which 

 is excellently called the bond of perfection, because it 

 comprehendeth and fasteneth all virtues together. And 

 as it is elegantly said by Menander of vain love, which 

 is but a false imitation of divine love, Amor melior 

 Sophista laevo ad humanam vitam, that love teacheth 

 a man to carry himself better than the sophist or pre 

 ceptor, which he calleth left-handed, because, with all 

 his rules and preceptions, he cannot form a man so 

 dexteriously, nor with that facility to prize himself and 

 govern himself, as love can do : so certainly, if a man s 

 mind be truly inflamed with charity, it doth work him 

 suddenly into greater perfection than all the doctrine 

 of morality can do, which is but a sophist in comparison 

 of the other. Nay further, as Xenophon observed truly, 

 that all other affections, though they raise the mind, 

 yet they do it by distorting and uncomeliness of ecstasies 

 or excesses ; but only love doth exalt the mind, and 

 nevertheless at the same instant doth settle and com 

 pose it : so in all other excellencies, though they ad 

 vance nature, yet they are subject to excess. Only 

 charity admitteth no excess. For so we see, aspiring 

 to be like God in power, the angels transgressed and 

 fell ; * Ascendam, et ero similis altissimo : by aspiring 

 to be like God in knowledge, man transgressed and 

 fell ; Eritis sicut Dii, scientes bonum et malum : 

 but by aspiring to a similitude of God in goodness or 

 love, neither man nor angel ever transgressed, or shall 

 transgress. For unto that imitation we are called : 





