268 ADVAKOEMENT OP LEARNING. [bOOX VII. 



will and desire ; but for obtaining these excellent and well- 

 described ends, or by vv^bat means the mind may be broko 

 and fashioned for obtaining them, they either touch this sub- 

 ject not at all or slightly.^ We may dispute as much as we 

 please, that moral virtues are in the human mind by habit, 

 not by nature; that generous spirits are led by reason, but 

 the herd by reward and punishment ; that the mind must be 

 set straight, like a crooked stick, by bending it the contrary 



I way, &c.^ But nothing oi this kind of glance-and-touch 



)|can in any way supply the want of the thing we are now in 



/ quest of. 



^ The cause of this neglect I take to be that latent rock 

 whereon so many of the sciences have split, viz., the aversion 

 that writers have to treat of trite and vulgar matters, which 

 are neither subtle enough for dispute nor eminent enough 

 lor ornament. It is not easy to see how great a misfortune 

 hath proceeded hence, — that men, through natural pride and 

 vain-glory, should choose such subjects and methods of treat- 

 Tsing them, as may rather show their own capacities, than be 

 of use to the reader. Seneca says excellently, " Eloquence is 

 hurtful to those it inspires with a desire of itself, and not of 

 things ;"*! for writings should make men in love with the 

 subject, and not with the writer. They, therefore, take the 

 just course who can say of their counsels as Demosthenes 

 did, — " If you put these things in execution, you shall not 

 only praise the orator for the present, but yourselves also 

 soon after, when your affairs are in a better posture." ^ As 

 for myself, excellent King, to speak the truth, I have fre- 

 quently neglected the glory of my order, name, and learning, 

 both in the works I now publish and those which I have 

 already designed to execute, in following out my direct pur- 

 ]wse of advancing the happiness of mankind ; so that I may 

 fairly say, though marked out by nature to be the architect 

 of philosophy and the sciences, I have submitted to become 

 a common workman and labourer, there being many mean 



^ For the History of Morality, consult Scheurlius's " Bibliographia 

 Moralis,"ed,1686; Placcius's " Epitome BibliothecseMoralis;" "Paschiua 

 de variis Moralia tradendi Modis Formisque," 1707 ; Barbeyrac's Prelaco 

 to his French translation oi Puffendort " De Jure Naturae et Gentium;'* 

 and " StoUii Introductio in Historiam Literariam," pp. 692 — 752. £<i. 



"" Arist. Ethics, ii. •* Epist. 100, towards the end. 



• Olynthias 25, towards the end. 



1 



