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faculty of reason : so as poesy had his true place. As 

 for the power of the imagination in nature, and the 

 manner of fortifying the same, we have mentioned it 

 in the doctrine De Anima, whereunto most fitly it 

 belongeth. And lastly, for imaginative or insinuative 

 reason, which is the subject of rhetoric, we think it 

 best to refer to the arts of reason. So therefore we 

 content ourselves with the former division, that human 

 philosophy, which respecteth the faculties of the mind 

 of man, hath two parts, rational and moral. 



2. The part of human philosophy which is rational, 

 is of all knowledges, to the most wits, the least delight- 

 ful, and seemeth but a net of subtility and spinosity. 

 For as it was truly said, that knowledge is 'pabvlum 

 animi ; so in the nature of men's appetite to this food, 

 most men are of the taste and stomach of the Israelites 

 in the desert, that would fain have returned ad olios 

 carnium, and were weary of manna ; which, though it 

 Were celestial, yet seemed less nutritive and comfort- 

 able. So generally men taste well knowledges that are 

 drenched in flesh and blood, civil history, morality, 

 policy, about the which men's affections, praises, 

 fortunes do turn and are conversant. But this same 

 lumen siccum doth parch and offend most men's watery 

 and soft natures. But to speak truly of things as they 

 are in worth, rational knowledges are the keys of all 

 other arts : for as Aristotle saith aptly and elegantly, 

 ' That the hand is the instrument of instruments, and 

 the mind is the form of forms ' ; so these be truly said 

 to be the art of arts. Neither do they only direct, but 

 likewise confirm and strengthen : even as the habit of 

 shooting doth not only enable to shoot a nearer shoot, 

 but also to draw a stronger bow. 



3. The arts intellectual are four in number ; divided 

 according to the ends whereunto they are referred : for 

 man's labour is to invent that which is sought or pro- 

 pounded ; or to judge that which is invented ; or to 

 retain that which is judged ; or to deliver over that 

 which is retained. So as the arts must be four : art 

 of inquiry or invention : art of examination or iudge- 



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