206 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



valebis micantes Stellas Pleiadas, aut gyrum Arcturi poteris 

 dissipare ? where the fixing of the stars, ever standing at 

 equal distance, is with great elegancy noted. And in 

 another place, Qui facit Arcturum, et Oriona, et Hyadas, et 

 inieriora Ausiri ; where again he takes knowledge of the 

 depression of the southern pole, calling it the secrets of 

 the south, because the southern stars were in that climate 

 unseen. Matter of generation ; Annon sicut lac mulsisti 

 me, et sicut caseum coagulasti me ? etc. Matter of minerals ; 

 Habet arpentum venarum suarum principia : et auro locus est 



O L J. 



in quo conflatur, ferrum de terra tollitur, et lapis solutus calore 

 in aes vertitur : and so forwards in that chapter. 



So likewise in the person of Solomon the king, we see 

 the gift or endowment of wisdom and learning, both in 

 Solomon's petition and in God's assent thereunto, pre- 

 ferred before all other terrene and temporal felicity. By 

 virtue of which grant or donative of God, Solomon 

 became enabled not only to write those excellent parables 

 or aphorisms concerning divine and moral philosophy, but 

 also to compile a natural history of all verdure, from the 

 cedar upon the mountain to the moss upon the wall, 

 (which is but a rudiment between putrefaction and an 

 herb,) and also of all things that breathe or move. Nay, 

 the same Solomon the king, although he excelled in the 

 glory of treasure and magnificent buildings, of shipping 

 and navigation, of service and attendance, of fame and 

 renown, and the like, yet he maketh no claim to any of 

 those glories, but only to the glory of inquisition of truth ; 

 for so he saith expressly, ' The glory of God is to conceal 

 a thing, but the glory of the king is to find it out ' ; as if, 

 according to the innocent play of children, the Divine 

 Majesty took delight to hide his works, to the end to 

 have them found out ; and as if kings could not obtain a 

 greater honour than to be God's playfellows in that game, 

 considering the great commandment of wits and means, 

 whereby nothing needeth to be hidden from them. 



Neither did the dispensation of God vary in the times 

 after our Saviour came into the world; for our Saviour 

 himself did first shew his power to subdue ignorance, by 



