ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 383 



But if men were themselves, and not carried away with 

 the tempest of ambition, they would be so far from studying 

 these wicked arts, as rather to view them, not only in that 

 general map of the world, which shows all to be vanity and 

 vexation of spirit, 101 but also in that more particular one, 

 which represents a life separate from good actions as a 

 curse; that the more eminent this life, the greater the 

 curse; that the noblest reward of virtue is virtue itself; 

 that the extremest punishment of vice is vice itself; and 

 that as Virgil excellently observes, good actions are re 

 warded, as bad ones also are punished by the conscious 

 ness that attends them. 



&quot;Quse vobis, quae digna, viri, pro laudibus istis 

 Prsemia posse rear solvi ? Pulcherrima primum 

 Dii moresque dabunt vestri. &quot; 102 



And, indeed, while men are projecting and every way 

 racking their thoughts to provide and take care for their 

 fortunes, they ought, in the midst of all, to have an eye 

 to the Divine Providence, which frequently overturns and 

 brings to naught the machinations and deep devices of the 

 wicked, according to that of the Scripture, &quot;He has con 

 ceived iniquity, and shall bring forth vanity.&quot; 103 And 

 although men were not in this pursuit to practice injustice 

 and unlawful arts, yet a continual and restless search and 

 striving after fortune, takes up too much of their time, who 

 have nobler things to observe, and prevents them from 

 paying their tribute to Grod, who exacts from all men the 

 tenth part of their substance and the seventh of their time. 

 Even the heathens observed, that man was not made to keep 

 his mind always on the ground; and, like the serpent, eating 

 the dust 



&quot;Atque affigit humo divinae parti culam auras.&quot; ^ 



And again 



&quot;Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri 

 Jussit; et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.&quot; w5 



101 Eccles. i. 2-14. 102 ^Eneid, ix. 252. 



103 Psal. vii. 15, but in another sense. 104 Hor. Sat. ii. 79. 



106 Ovid. Metam. i. 85. 



