CiiAi*. itt.\ fiifDd TO fifi ^ttst aKd itOiJdtmAfetA ^91 



moral philosophy is, as we said before, the genuine hand* 

 maid. 



We will therefore conclude these georgics of the mind 

 with that remedy which ot all others is the shortest, noblest, 

 and most effectual for iorming the mind to virtue, and 

 placing it near a state ot perfection ; viz., that we choose 

 and propose to ourselves just and virtuous ends of our lives 

 and actions, yet such as we have in some degree the faculty 

 of obtaining. For it the ends of our actions are good and 

 vii-tuous, and the resolutions of our mind for obtaining them 

 fixed and constant, the mind will directly mould and form 

 itself at once to all kinds of virtue. And this is certainly an 

 operation resembling the works of nature, whilst the othei's 

 above mentioned seem only manual. Thus the statuary 

 finishes only that part ot the figure upon which his hand is 

 employed, without meddling with the othei'S at that time, 

 which are still but unfashioned marble; whereas nature, on 

 the contrary, when she works upon a flower or an animal, 

 forms the iiuliments of all the parts at once.y So when 

 virtues are acquii^d by habit, whilst we endeavour at tem- 

 ])erance, we make but little advances towards fortitude or 

 the other virtues ; but when we are once entirely devoted to 

 just and honourable ends, whatever the virtue be whicli 

 those ends recommend and direct, we shall find ourselves 

 ready disposed, and possessed of some propensity to obtaia 

 and express it. And tliis may be ih^t state of mind which 

 Aristotle excellently describes, not as virtuous, but divine " 

 His words are these : — " We may contrast humanity witli 

 that virtue which is above it, as being heroic and divine." 

 And a little farther on : — " For as savage creatures are in • 

 capable of \'ice or vii-tue, so is the Deity." For the divine* 

 state is above virtue, which is only the absence of vice. S«* 

 Pliny proposes the virtue of Trajan, not as an imitation, bufc 



y Harvey, who was Bacon's physician, and the most celebrateil 

 anatomist oi his day, contradicts this doctrine, affirming that nature 

 operates like man by production and elaboration oi parts. £d. 



* " Humanitati autem consentaneura est opponere earn quae supra 

 huraanitatem est heroicam sive divinam virtutem ; " and a httle after, 

 " Nam ut ferae neque vitium neque virtus est, hie neque Dei : sed hie qui* 

 dem status altius quiddam virtute est, ille aliud q'liddam a vj io. — 

 Nic. £thic8, \iL 1. £d 



v2 



