ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 231 



such as we have in some degree the faculty of obtaining. For 

 if the ends of our actions are good and virtuous, and the resolu- 

 tions of our mind for obtaining them fixed and constant, the 

 mind will directly mould and form itself at once to all kinds of 

 virtue. And this is certainly an operation resembling the 

 works of nature, whilst the others above mentioned seem only 

 manual. Thus the statuary finishes only that part of the figure 

 upon which his hand is employed, without meddling with the 

 others at that time, which are still but unfashioned marble ; 

 whereas nature, on the contrary, when she works upon a flower 

 or an animal, forms the rudiments of all the parts at once. So 

 when virtues are acquired by habit, whilst we endeavor at tem- 

 perance, we make but little advances towards fortitude or the 

 other virtues ; but when we are once entirely devoted to just 

 and honorable ends, whatever the virtue be which those ends 

 recommend and direct, we shall find ourselves ready disposed, 

 and possessed of some propensity to obtain and express it. 

 And this may be that state of mind which Aristotle excellently 

 describes, not as virtuous, but divine. His words are these : 

 " We may contrast humanity with that virtue which is above it, 

 as being heroic and divine." And a little farther on : " For 

 as savage creatures are incapable of vice or virtue, so is the 

 Deity." For the divine state is above virtue, which is only the 

 absence of vice. So Pliny proposes the virtue of Trajan, not as 

 an imitation, but as an example of the divine virtue, when he 

 says, " Men need make no other prayers to the gods than that 

 they would be but as good and propitious to morals as Trajan 

 was."' But this savors of the profane arrogance of the 

 heathens, who grasped at shadows larger than the life. The 

 Christian religion comes to the point, by impressing charity 

 upon the minds of men ; which is most appositely called the 

 bond of perfection," because it ties up and fastens all the virtues 

 together. And it was elegantly said by Menander of sensual 

 love, which is a bad imitation of the divine, that it was a better 

 tutor for human life than a left-handed sophist ; intimating that 

 the grace of carriage is better formed by love than by an awk- 

 ward preceptor, whom he calls left-handed, as he cannot by all 

 his operose rules and precepts, form a man so dexterously and 

 expeditiously, to value himself justly, and behave gracefully, 

 as love can do. So, without doubt, if the mind be possessed 

 with the fervor of true charity, he will rise to a higher degree of 



