The First Book 7 



but when men fall to framing conclusions out of their know- ^ 

 ledge, applying it to their particular, and ministering to\ 

 themselves thereby weak fears or vast desires, there groweth / 

 that carefulness and trouble of mind which is spoken of : for 

 then knowledge is no more Lumen siccum, whereof Hera- 

 clitus the profound ^ said, Lumen siccum optima anima ; but 

 it becometh Lumen madidum, or maceratum, being steeped 

 and infused in the humours of the affections.^ And as for 

 the third point, it deserveth to be a httle stood upon, and 

 not to be lightly passed over : for if any man shall think by 

 view and inquiry into these sensible and material things to 

 attain that light, whereby he may reveal unto himself the 

 Nature or Will of God, then indeed is he spoiled by vain 

 philosophy: for the contemplation of God's creatures and 

 works produceth (having regard to the works and creatures 

 themselves) knowledge, but having regard to God, no 

 perfect knowledge, but wonder, which is broken knowledge. 

 And therefore it was most aptly said by one of Plato's 

 school,^ That the sense of man carrieth a resemblance with the 

 sun, which, as we see, openeth and revealeth all the terrestrial 

 globe ; but then again it obscureth and concealeth the stars and / 

 celestial globe : so doth the sense discover natural things, but it ^ 

 darkeneth and shutteth up divine. And hence it is true that 

 it hath proceeded, that divers great learned men have been ^ 

 heretical, whilst they have sought to fly up to the secrets of ^ 

 the Deity by the waxen wings of the senses. And as for the 

 conceit that too much knowledge should incUne a man to " 

 Atheism,* and that the ignorance of second causes should^ 

 make a more devout dependence upon God, which is the 

 first cause ; first, it is good to ask the question which Job 

 asked of his friends: Will you lie for God, as one man will do 

 for another, to gratify him?^ For certain it is that God 



M^ rox«>J 'H/)o/cXe(TOU itr 6fJi4>a\bv etXeo jSfjSXor- 



Toy '(pealov fidXa roi Sva^aTOS irpairiTdi' 

 ''Op<pvrj Kal crxSroi iarlv dXdfxireTov, f)v d^ <re fujffTTjs 

 Eiaaydyr], ((>avcpov 'Kafirpdrep' ijeXlov. 



Diog. Laert. ix. 



• Airy^ ^Tjp^ 4'^xh ffo<p(jjTdTri. A corruption of aCrj ypvxh (ro^turrdrti. 

 (See note in Ellis and Spedding's edition.) The phrase occurs in 

 Stobaeus, cf. Ritter, Hist. Philos. vol. i. Heraclitus. 



• Philo Jud. de Somn. 



• See Bacon's Essays — On Atheism. • Job^xiii. 7. 



B719 



