ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 217 



whilst we begin, advance, rest, go back to recruit, approach, 

 obtain, etc. : whence it is truly said, " That life without pursuit 

 is a vague and languid thing " ; d and this holds true both of the 

 wise and unwise indifferently. So Solomon says, " Even a 

 brain-sick man seeks to satisfy his desire, and meddles in every- 

 thing."* And thus the most potent princes, who have all things 

 at command, yet sometimes choose to pursue low and empty 

 desires, which they prefer to the greatest affluence of sensual 

 pleasures : thus Nero delighted in the harp, Commodus in fenc- 

 ing, Antonius in racing, etc. So much more pleasing is it to 

 be active than in possession ! 



It must, however, be well observed, that active, individual 

 good differs entirely from the good of communion, notwith- 

 standing they may sometimes coincide ; for, although this in- 

 dividual active good often produces works of beneficence, 

 which is a virtue of communion, yet herein they differ, that 

 these works are performed by most men, not with a design to 

 assist or benefit others, but wholly for their own gratification 

 or honor, as plainly appears when active good falls upon any- 

 thing contrary to the good of communion ; for that gigantic 

 passion wherewith the great disturbers of the world are carried 

 away, as in the case of Sylla and others, who would render all 

 their friends happy and all their enemies miserable, and endea- 

 vor to make the world carry their image, which is really war- 

 ring against heaven this passion, I say, aspires to an active in- 

 dividual good, at least in appearance, though it be infinitely 

 different from the good of communion. 



We divide passive good into conservative and perfective ; for 

 everything has three kinds of appetite with regard to its own 

 individual good the first to preserve itself, the second to per- 

 fect itself, and the third to multiply and diffuse itself. The last 

 relates to active good, of which we have spoken already ; and 

 of the other two the perfective is the most excellent ; for it is a 

 less matter to preserve a thing in its state, and a greater to exalt 

 its nature. But throughout the universe are found some nobler 

 natures, to the dignity and excellence whereof inferior ones 

 aspire, as to their origins ; whence the poet said well of man- 

 kind, that " they have an ethereal vigor and a celestial origin " : 



" Igncus est ollis vigor ct ccelestis origo; " / 

 for the perfection of the human form consists in approaching 



