1 62 The Advancement of Learning 



favoured by the assertion we last spoke of, that good of 

 advancement is greater than good of simple preserva- 

 tion; because every obtaining a desire hath a show of 

 advancement, as motion though in a circle has a show 

 of progression. 



5. But the second question, decided the true way, maketh 

 the former superfluous. For can it be doubted but that 

 there are some who take more pleasure in enjoying pleasures 

 than some other, and yet nevertheless are less troubled with 

 the loss or leaving of them ? so as this same, Non uti ut non 

 appetas, non appetere ut non metuas, sunt animi pusilli et 

 diffidentis. And it seemeth to me, that most of the doc- 

 trines of the philosophers are more fearful and cautionary 

 than the nature of things requireth. So have they in- 

 creased the fear of death in offering to cure it. For when 

 they would have a man's whole Ufe to be but a discipUne 

 or preparation to die, they must needs make men think 

 that it is a terrible enemy, against whom there is no end of 

 preparing. Better saith the poet: — 



Qui spatium vitae extremum inter munera ponat 

 Naturae.* 



So have they sought to make men's minds too uniform and 

 harmonical, by not breaking them sufficiently to contrary 

 motions: the reason whereof I suppose to be, because they 

 themselves were men dedicated to a private, free, and 

 unapplied course of Ufe. For as we see, upon the lute or 

 like instrument, a ground, though it be sweet and have 

 show of many changes, yet breaketh not the hand to such 

 strange and hard stops and passages as a set song or volun- 

 tary; much after the same manner was the diversity 

 between a philosophical and a civil Ufe. And therefore 

 men are to imitate the wisdom of jewellers; who, if there 

 be a grain, or a cloud, or an ice,^ which may be ground 

 forth without taking too much of the stone, they help it; 

 but if it should lessen and abate the stone too much, they 

 will not meddle with it : so ought men so to procure serenity 

 as they destroy not magnanimity. 

 6. Having therefore deduced the good of man which is 

 private and particular, as far as seemeth fit; we wiU now 



» Juv. Sat. X. 358. 



' " Nubecula aliqua aut glaciecula," De Augm. 



