CHAP. i.| fiKDS fO Sfi tftst Atfb l!6N6tfSAfetfc 291 



moral philosophy is, as we said before, the genuine hand 

 maid. 



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 

 placing 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 it the ends of our actions are good and 

 virtuous, and the resolutions of our mind for obtaining them 

 fixed and constant, the mind will directly mould and form 

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

 operation resembling the works of nature, whilst the others 

 above mentioned seem only manual. Thus the statuary 

 finishes only that part ol the figure upon which his hand is 

 mployed, without meddling with the others at that time, 

 which are still but unt ashioned marble; whereas nature, on 

 the contrary, when she works upon a flower or an animal, 

 forms the rudiments of all the parts at once.y So when 

 virtues are acquired by habit, whilst \ve endeavour at tem 

 perance, we make but little advances towards fortitude or 

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

 just and honourable 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 * 

 His words are these : &quot; We may contrast humanity wit! 

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

 And a little farther on : &quot; For as savage creatures are in 

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

 state is above virtue, which is only the absence of vice. S 

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



7 Harvey, who was Bacon s physician, and the most celebrated 

 anatomist oi his day, contradicts this doctrine, affirming that nature 

 operates like man by production and elaboration oi parts. Ed. 



1 &quot; Humanitati autem consentaneum est opponere earn quse supra 

 humanitatem est heroicam sive divinam virtutem ; &quot; and a little after, 

 &quot; Nam ut ferae neque vitium neque virtus est, hie neque Dei : sed hie qui 

 dein status altius quiddam virtute est, ille aliud quiddara a vj io.&quot; 

 Nic. Ethics, vii. 1. Ed 



