104 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



^dta brevis, ars longa ; which is performed by uniting 

 the notions and conceptions of sciences. For know- 

 ledges are as pyramides, whereof history is the basis. 

 So of natural philosophy, the basis is natural history ; 

 the stage next the basis is physic ; the stage next the 

 vertical point is metaphysic. As for the vertical 

 point, ' opus quod operatur Deus a principio usque 

 ad finem,' the summary law of nature, we know not 

 whether man's inquiry can attain unto it. But these 

 three be the true stages of knowledge, and are to them 

 that are depraved no better than the giants' hills : 



Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam, 



Scilicet, atque Ossae frondosum involvere Olympum. 



But to those which refer all things to the glory of 

 God, they are as the three acclamations, Sancte, sancte, 

 sancte/ holy in the description or dilatation of his 

 works ; holy in the connexion or concatenation of 

 them ; and holy in the union of them in a perpetual 

 and uniform law. And therefore the speculation was 

 excellent in Parmenides and Plato, although but a 

 speculation in them, that all things by scale did ascend 

 to imity. So then always that knowledge is worthiest 

 which is charged with least multiplicity, which ap- 

 peareth to be metaphysic ; as that which considereth 

 the simple forms or differences of things, which are 

 few in number, and the degrees and co-ordinations 

 whereof make all this variety. The second respect, 

 which valueth and commendeth this part of meta- 

 physic, is that it doth enfranchise the power of man 

 unto the greatest liberty and possibility of works and 

 effects. For physic carrieth men in narrow and re- 

 strained ways, subject to many accidents of impedi- 

 ments, imitating the ordinary flexuous courses of 

 nature. But ' latae undique sunt sapientibus viae ' : 

 to sapience (which was anciently defined to be ' rerum 

 divinarum et humanarum scientia ') there is ever choice 

 of means. For physical causes give light to new 

 invention in simili materia. But whosoever knoweth 

 any form, knoweth the utmost possibility of super- 



