122 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES 



1. 29. sapience, the Latin sapientia, wisdom. 



I. 30. we see, etc., Bacon wishes to show from the Jewish 

 account of the creation that God assigns to wisdom a preeminence 

 over power. He distinguishes the creation of matter, which was 

 at first formless (cf. Genesis i. 2, "and the earth" was without 

 form "), from the arrangement of the matter in the form of the 

 world as we ^now it ; and the preeminence of wisdom appears 

 from this, that the mere creation of matter, which was an act of 

 power, is clearly distinguished from the orderly distribution of 

 the matter in the form of the world as we know it, which was an 

 exercise of wisdom. The first 'carries the style of,' i.e., is 

 described as, a manufacture, the second as a law or decree. If 

 we look at the time which God allotted to the two, we shall find 

 that the act of power may, for anything that appears to the 

 contrary, have been performed in a moment, whereas six days 

 were assigned to the work of wisdom. With this passage cf. 

 Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity, Bk. 1. 3. 



The student must bear in mind that when it is said that matter 

 was formless, it is only meant that it had not assumed its present 

 orderly arrangement. 



1. 32. expressed, manifested. 



1. 33. subsistence, substance. 



1. 35. for anything which appeareth, sc. to the contrary. 



Page 41, 1. 4. note, mark. By ' God made heaven and earth ' is 

 meant, ' God created matter ' : by ' the works following ' Bacon 

 means the orderly distribution of the matter. He is alluding to 

 the form of words used in the Bible ' Let there be light,' ' Let 

 there be a firmament,' etc. 



1. 12. the celestial hierarchy, this work, in the genuineness of 

 which no one probably now believes, exercised great influence on 

 the medieval development of the doctrine of the nature and 

 faculties of angels. E. Dante, in his Paradiso, refers to the 

 book, and believes Dionysius to be the author of it. Dionysius 

 is said to have been converted by St. Paul, from whom he might 



place of ' that supposed 

 says in the Latin translation that the book is ' published in the 

 name of Dionysius,' i.e., is attributed to him. 



1. 18. ministry, the words ministry and office mean service and 

 duty. These angels are charged with the execution of God's 

 orders. The student will remember that in Milton the angels 

 are frequently addressed as 'thrones, dominations, virtues, 

 princedoms, powers.' The curious student will find information 

 on the scholastic views of the angels in Longfellow's notes to 

 Dante's Paradiso, c. 28. 



