6 The Advancement of Learning 



knowledge, how large soever, lest it should make it swell or 

 out-compass itself; no, but it is merely the quality of know- 

 ledge, which, be it in quantity more or less, if it be taken 

 without the true corrective thereof, hath in it some nature 

 of venom or malignity, and some effects of that venom, 

 which is ventosity or swelling. This corrective spice, the 

 mixture whereof maketh Knowledge so sovereign, is Charity, 

 which the Apostle immediately addeth to the former clause : 

 for so he saith. Knowledge Uoweth up, hut Charity huildeth up: 

 not unlike unto that which he delivereth in another place : 

 // / spake, saith he, with the tongues of men and angels, and 

 had not charity, it were hut as a tinkling cymbal ; ^ not but that 

 it is an excellent thing to speak with the tongues of men and 

 angels, but because, if it be severed from charity, and not 

 referred to the good of men and mankind, it hath rather a 

 sounding and unworthy glory, than a meriting and substan- 

 tial virtue. And as for that censure of Salomon, concerning 

 the excess of writing and reading books, and the anxiety of 

 spirit which redoundeth from knowledge ; and that admon i- 

 tion of St. Paulf That we he not seduced by vain p hilosophy ; 

 let those places be rightly understood, and they do indeed 

 excellently set forth the true bounds and limitations, where- 

 by human knowledge is confined and circumscribed; and 

 yet without any such contracting or coarctation, but that it 

 may comprehend all the universal nature of things; for 

 these limitations are three: the first, That we do not so place 

 cur felicity in knowledge, as we forget our mortality : the 

 second, That we make application of our knowledge, to give 

 ourselves repose and contentment, and not distaste or repining : 

 the third. That we do not presume by the contemplation of 

 nature to attain to the mysteries of God. For as touching the 

 first of these, Salomon doth excellently expound himself in 

 another place of the same book, where he saith ; * / saw well 

 that knowledge recedeth as far from ignorance as light doth 

 from darkness ; and that the wise man's eyes keep watch in his 

 head, whereas the fool roundeth about in darkness : but withal 

 I learned, that the same mortality involveth them both. And 

 for the second, certain it is, there is no vexation or anxiety 

 of mind which resulteth from knowledge otherwise than 

 merely by accident ; for all knowledge and wonder (which is 

 the seed of knowledge) is an impression of pleasure in itself : 

 * I Cor. xiii. i. • Eccl. ii. 13, 14. 



