THE FIRST BOOK. 63 



thereof, and the like ; and, therefore, 1 will conclude with 

 that which hath rationem totius ; [the essence of the whole ;] 

 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 suavissima 

 vita, indies sentire se fieri' meliorem : [that most pleasant life, 

 feeling one's self grow better every day.~\ The good parts he 

 hath he will learn to show to the full, and use them 10 

 dexterously, but riot 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 [Truth] and Bonitas [Goodness] 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 20 

 and perturbations. 



From moral virtue let us pass on to matter of power and 

 commandment, and consider whether in right reason there be 

 any comparable with that wherewith knowledge investeth 

 and crowneth man's nature. We see the dignity of the com 

 mandment is according to the dignity of the commanded : to 

 have commandment over beasts, as herdmen have, is a thing ,. 

 contemptible ; to have commandment over children, as school- ** 

 masters have, is a matter of small honour ; to have command 

 ment over galley-slaves is a disparagement rather than an ,30 

 honour. Neither is the commandment of tyrants much 

 better, over people which have put off^the generosity of their 

 minds : and therefore it was ever holden that honours in free 

 monarchies and commonwealths had a sweetness more than 

 in tyrannies ; because the commandment extendeth more 

 over the wills of mep, and not only over their deeds and 



