1 1 8 The Advancement of Learning 



of the soul or mind, the other that inquireth of the faculties 

 or functions thereof. Unto the first of these, the considera- 

 tions of the original of the soul, whether it be native or 

 adventive, and how far it is exempted from laws of matter, 

 and of the immortality thereof, and many other points, do 

 appertain : which have been not more laboriously inquired 

 than variously reported; so as the travail therein taken 

 seemeth to have been rather in a maze than in a way. But 

 although I am of opinion that this knowledge may be more 

 really and soundly inquired, even in nature, than it hath 

 been; yet I hold that in the end it must be bounded by 

 religion, or else it will be subject to deceit and delusion : for 

 as the substance of the soul in the creation was not ex- 

 tracted out of the mass of heaven and earth by the benedic- 

 tion of a producat but was immediately inspired from God : 

 so it is not possible that it should be (otherwise than by 

 accident) subject to the laws of heaven and earth, which are 

 the subject of philosophy; and therefore the true know- 

 ledge of the nature and state of the soul must come by the 

 same inspiration that gave the substance. Unto this part 

 of knowledge touching the soul there be two appendices; 

 which, as they have been handled, have rather vapoured 

 forth fables than kindled truth, Divination and Fascina- 

 tion. 

 2. Divination hath been anciently and fitly divided into 

 artificial and riatural; whereof artificial is, when the mind 

 maketh a prediction by argument, concluding upon signs 

 and tokens ; natural is when the mind hath a presention by 

 an internal power, without the inducement of a sign. 

 Artificial is of two sorts; either when the argument is 

 coupled with a derivation of causes, which is rational; or 

 when it is only grounded upon a coincidence of the effect, 

 which is experimental : whereof the latter for the most part 

 is superstitious; such as were the heathen observations 

 upon the inspection of sacrifices, the flights of birds, the 

 swarming of bees ; and such as was the Chaldean astrology, 

 and the like. For artificial divination, the several kinds 

 thereof are distributed amongst particular knowledges. 

 The astronomer hath his predictions, as of conjunctions, 

 aspects, eclipses, and the hke. The physician hath his 

 predictions of death, of recovery, of the accidents and issues 

 of diseases. The Politique hath his predictions; urbetn 



