r 

 i 



The Second Book 205 



race toward their fortune, to cool themselves a little with 

 that conceit which is elegantly expressed by the Emperor 

 Charles the Fifth, in his instructions to the king his son, 

 That fortune hath somewhat of the nature of a woman, that 

 if she be too much wooed, she is the farther off} But this last 

 is but a remedy for those whose tastes are corrupted: let 

 men rather build upon that foundation which is a corner- 

 stone of divinity and philosophy, wherein they join close, 

 namely, that same Primum qucerite. For divinity saith, 

 Primum qucerite regnum Dei, et ista omnia adjicientur 

 vobis : 2 and philosophy saith, Primum qucerite bona animi ; 

 ccetera aut aderunt, aut non oberunt. And although the 

 human foundation hath somewhat of the sands,^ as we 

 see in M. Brutus, when he brake forth into that speech, 



Te colui, Virtus, ut rem; at tu nomen inane es; * 



yet the divine foundation is upon the rock. But this may 

 serve for a taste of that knowledge which I noted as 

 deficient. 

 47. Concerning Government,^ it is a part of knowledge 

 secret and retired, in both these respects in which things 

 are deemed secret ; for some things are secret because they 

 are hard to know, and some because they are not fit to 

 utter. We see all governments are obscure and invisible: 



Totamque infusa per artus 

 Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.* 



Such is the description of governments. We see the 

 government of God over the world is hidden, inasmuch 

 as it seemeth to participate of much irregularity and con- 

 fusion : the government of the soul in moving the body is 

 inward and profound, and the passages thereof hardly to be 

 reduced to demonstration. Again, the wisdom of antiquity, 



^ See Ellis and Spedding on this in the De A ugm. bk. viii. 2. 

 » Matth. vi. 33. 



• So editions 1629, 1633; edition 1605 has same. 



• S> rXrifjLov dpexTj, X670S dp' ^crd'y iyCj 5i <re, 

 wj ipyov ijaKovv' S' &p' iSovXeves tjjxV' 



Dio. Cass, xlvii, 49. 

 •This upon Government is very differently given in the Latin; 

 the main subject is postponed; and two desiderata are discussed — 

 the question of Enlarging an Empire, and that of Universal Justice. 



• Virg. ^n. vi. 726. 



