J 18 ADVANCEMENT OV LEARXtN'G. [boOK IIL 



equally in politics ; for tiie preservation of states, as is well 

 observed by Macliiavel/ depends upon little more than 

 reforming and bringing them back to their ancient customs. 

 A putrid malady is more contagious in its early than in its 

 more matured stages, holds in natural as in moral philosophy ; 

 for wicked and desperately impious persons do not corrupt 

 society so much as they who blend with their vices a mix- 

 ture of virtue. What tends to preserve the eftects of the 

 greatest laws of nature, dis[)lays the strongest action, is a 

 rule in natural philoso])hy. For the first and universal 

 motion, that preserves the chain and contexture of natui'e 

 unbroken, and prevents a vacuum, as they call it, or empty 

 discontinuity in the world, controls the more particular law 

 which draws heavy bodies to the earth, and preserves the 

 region of gross and compacted natures. The same rule is 

 good in politics ; for those things which conduce to the con- 

 servation of the entire commonwealth, control and modify 

 those made for the welfare of particular members of a 

 government. The same principle may be observed in theo- 

 logy; for, among the virtues of this class, charity is the 

 most communicative, and excels all the rest. The force of 

 an agent is augmented by the antiperistatis of the counter 

 acting body,^ is a nile in civil states as in nature, for all fac 

 tion is vehemently moved and incensed at the rising of a 

 contrary faction. 



A discord ending immediately in a concord sets off the har- 

 mony. This is a rule in music that holds also true in morals. 

 A trembling sound in music gives the same pleasure to th« 

 ear, as the coi-uscation of water or the sparkling of a dia- 

 mond to the eye, — 



" splendet tremulo sub lumine pontu3." « 



The organs of the senses resemble the organs of reflectio;^ 

 as we see in optics and acoustics, where a concave glass re- 

 sembles the eye, and a sounding cavity the ear. And of 

 these axioms an infinite number might be collected ; and 

 thus the celebrated Persian magic was, in eflfect, no more 

 than a notation of the correspondence in the structure and 

 fibric of things natural and civil. Nor let any one under. 



• Discorso sopra la Prima Deca di Tito Livio, libro 3. ^ 



< Aristotle, Meteors, Problem 1, § 11. 9 <EneiJ, vii. 9. 



