176 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



stood and employed, so as only to mark out and distin 

 guish, not tear, separate, or make any solution of continuity 

 in their body; 8 the contrary practice having rendered par 

 ticular sciences barren, empty, and erroneous, while they 

 are not fed, supported, and kept right by their common 

 parent. Thus we find Cicero complaining of Socrates, that 

 he first disjoined philosophy from rhetoric, which is thence 

 become a frothy, talkative art. 4 And it is likewise evident, 

 that although the opinion of Copernicus about the earth s 

 rotation cannot be confuted by astronomical principles, be 

 cause it agrees with phenomena, yet it may easily be ex 

 ploded by natural philosophy. In like manner the art 

 of medicine, without the assistance of natural philosophy, 

 differs but little from empiricism. 



The doctrine of man divides itself into two parts, or into 

 human and civil philosophy, as it considers man separate, 

 or joined in society. Human philosophy consists in the 

 sciences that regard the body, and those that regard the 

 soul of man. But before we descend to a more particular 

 distribution, it is proper to make one general science of 

 the nature and state of man, which certainly deserves to 

 be freed from the rest, and reduced to a science by itself. 

 And this will consist of such things as are common both 

 to the body and the soul. It may, likewise, be divided into 

 two parts; viz., according to the individual nature of man, 

 and the connection of the soul and body. The former we 

 call the doctrine of the person of man, and the other the 

 doctrine of union. All which, being common and mixed 

 matters, cannot be separately referred to the sciences that 

 regard the body, nor to those that regard the soul. 



The doctrine of the human person principally consists in 

 two things: the consideration of the miseries of mankind, 

 and its prerogatives or excellencies. There are many writ 

 ings, both philosophical and theological, that elegantly and 

 copiously bewail the human miseries, and it is an agreeable 



8 Seneca s Epistles, 89. * De Oratore. 



