iS6 OF THE COLOURS OF GOOD AND EVIL 



several dominions ; intending it was equivalent with them 

 all, and besides more compacted and united. 



There is also appertaining to this colour another point, 

 why breaking of a thing doth help it, not by way of adding 

 a shew of magnitude unto it, but a note of excellency and 

 rarity; whereof the forms are, ' Where shall you find such 

 a concurrence ? ' c Great but not complete ' ; for it seems a 

 less work of nature or fortune to make anything in his kind 

 greater than ordinary, than to make a strange composition. 



Yet if it be narrowly considered, this colour will be 

 reprehended or encountered by imputing to all excellencies 

 in compositions a kind of poverty, or at least a casualty or 

 jeopardy ; for from that which is excellent in greatness, 

 somewhat may be taken, or there may be decay, and yet 

 sufficiency left ; but from that which hath his price in 

 composition, if you take away anything, or any part do 

 fail, all is disgraced. 



VI 

 Cujus privatio bona, malum ; cujus privatio mala^ bonum. 



The forms to make it conceived, that that was evil 

 which is changed for the better, are, c He that is in hell 

 thinks there is no other heaven : Satis quercus ; acorns 

 were good till bread was found/ etc. And of the other 

 side, the forms to make it conceived that that was good 

 which was changed for the worse, are, ' Bona magis carendo 

 quam fruendo sentimus : Bona a tergo formosissima ; good 

 things never appear in their full beauty, till they turn their 

 back and be going away/ etc. 



The reprehension of this colour is, that the good or evil 

 which is removed, may be esteemed good or evil compara- 

 tively, and not positively or simply. So that if the priva- 

 tion be good, it follows not the former condition was evil, 

 but less good : for the flower or blossom is a positive 

 good, although the remove of it to give place to the fruit 

 be a comparative good. So in the tale of Aesop, when the 

 old fainting man in the heat of the day cast down his 

 burthen and called for death, and when Death came to 



