284 ADVANCEMENT OP LEAKNING. [bOOK VII. 



tinguish the tilings in our power, and those that are not : 

 for the one may be altered, whilst the other can only be 

 applied. Thus the farmer has no command over the nature 

 of the soil, or the seasons of the year ; nor the physician 

 over the constitution of the patient, or the variety of acci- 

 dents. In the cultivation of the mind, and the cure of its 

 diseases, there are three things to be considered ; viz., 1. the 

 different dispositions ; 2. the aifections ; and 3. the reme- 

 dies : answering in physic to the constitution, the distemper, 

 and the medicines. And of these three, only the last is in 

 our power. Yet we ought as carefully to inquire into the 

 things that are not in our power, as into those that are; 

 because a clear and exact knowledge thereof is to be made 

 the foundation of the doctrine of remedies, in order to their 

 more commodious and successful application. For clothes 

 cannot be made to fit, unless measure of the body be first 

 taken. 



The first article, therefore, of the culture of the mind, will 

 regard the different natures or dispositions of men. But 

 here we speak not of the vulgar propensities to virtues and 

 vices, or perturbations and passions, but of such as are more 

 internal and radical. And I cannot sometimes but wonder 

 that this particular should be so generally neglected by the 

 writers both of morality and politics; whereas it might 

 afford great light to both these sciences. In astrological tra- 

 ditions, the natures and dispositions of men are tolerably dis- 

 tinguished according to the influences of the planets ; whence 

 some are said to be by nature formed for contemplation, 

 others for politics, others for war, &c. So, likewise, among 

 the poets of all kinds, we everywhere find characters of 

 natures, though commonly drawn with excess, and exceeding 

 the limits of nature. And this subject of the difierent 

 characters of dispositions is one of those things wherein the 

 common discourse of men is wiser than books — a thing 

 which seldom happens. But much the best matter of all for 

 such a treatise may be derived from the more prudent his- 

 torians ; and not so well from elogies or panegyrics, which 

 are usually written soon after the death of an illustrious per- 

 son, but much rather from a whole body of history, as often 

 as such a person appears : for such an interwoven account 

 gives 9 better dcsci'iption than panegyric. And such ey- 



