THE FIRST BOOK. 5 



original temptation and sin, whereupon ensued the fall of 

 man ;j that knowledge hath in it somewhat of the serpent, 

 and therefore where it entereth into a man it makes him 

 swell ; scientia inflat : [knowledge puffeth up :} that Solomon 

 gives a censure, That there is no end of making books, and that 

 much reading is a weariness of the flesh ; and again in another 

 place, That in spacious knowledge there is much contristation, 

 and that he that increaseth knowledge increaseth anxiety ; that 

 Saint Paul gives a caveat, That we be not spoiled through vain 

 philosophy ; that experience demonstrates how learned men 10 

 have been arch -here tics, how^learned times have been inclined I 

 to atheism^ apfl hig w fl^ ffifflt*]' 1 jf 1im of second causes doth 1 

 derogate from our dependence upon God, who is the first 

 cause. 



To discover then the ignorance and error of this opinion, 

 and the misunderstanding in the grounds thereof, it may 

 well appear these men do not observe or consider that it 

 was not the pure knowledge of nature and universality, a 

 knowledge by the light whereof man did give names unto 

 other creatures in Paradise, as they were brought before 20 

 him, according unto their proprieties, which gave the occasion 

 to i he fall : but it was the proud knowledge of good and evil, 

 with an intent in man to give law unto himself, and to 

 depend no more upon God's commandments, which was the 

 form of the temptation. Neither is it any quantity of know 

 ledge, how great soever, that can make the mind of man to 

 swell ; for nothing can fill, much less extend the soul of man, 

 but God and the contemplation of God ; and therefore 

 Solomon, speaking of the two principal senses of inquisition, 

 the eye and the ear, afiirmeth that the eye is never satisfied 30 

 with seeing, nor the ear with hearing ; and if there be no 

 fulness, then is the continent greater than the content : so of 

 knowledge itself, and the mind of man, whereto the senses 

 are but reporters, he defineth likewise in these words, placed 

 after that calendar or ephemerides, which he niaketh of the 

 diversities of times and seasons for all actions and purposes ; 



