THE SECOND BOOK 255 



conveniunt, a rule taken from the mathematics, but so 

 potent in logic as all syllogisms are built upon it ? Is not 

 the observation, Omnia mutantur^ nil interit, a contempla- 

 tion in philosophy thus, That the quantum of nature is 

 eternal? in natural theology thus, That it requireth the 

 same Omnipotence to make somewhat nothing, which at 

 the first made nothing somewhat ? according to the Scrip- 

 ture, Didici quod omnia opera quae fecit Deus perseverent in 

 perpetuum ; non possumus eis quicquam addere nee auferre. 

 Is not the ground, which Machiavel wisely and largely 

 discourseth concerning governments, that the way to 

 establish and preserve them is to reduce them ad principia^ 

 a rule in religion and nature as well as in civil adminis- 

 tration ? Was not the Persian Magic a reduction or 

 correspondence of the principles and architectures of 

 nature to the rules and policy of governments ? Is not 

 the precept of a musician, to fall from a discord or harsh 

 accord upon a concord or sweet accord, alike true in 

 affection ? Is not the trope of music, to avoid or slide 

 from the close or cadence, common with the trope of 

 rhetoric of deceiving expectation ? Is not the delight of 

 the quavering upon a stop in music the same with the 

 playing of light upon the water ? 



Splendet tremulo sub lumine pontus. 



Are not the organs of the senses of one kind with the 

 organs of reflexion, the eye with a glass, the ear with 

 a cave or strait determined and bounded ? Neither are 

 these only similitudes, as men of narrow observation may 

 conceive them to be, but the same footsteps of nature, 

 treading or printing upon several subjects or matters. 

 This science therefore (as I understand it) I may p^/ oso ^ a 

 justly report as deficient ; for I see sometimes the Prima, sive 



J r j \ -..'.. . de Fontibui 



profounder sort of wits, in handling some par- sdenti- 

 ticular argument, will now and then draw a arum ' 

 bucket of water out of this well for their present use ; but 

 the springhead thereof seemeth to me not to have been 

 visited, being of so excellent use both for the disclosing of 

 nature and the abridgment of art. 



