THE SECOND BOOK 263 



part of Metaphysic which we now define of. Not but 

 that Physic doth make inquiry and take consideration of 

 the same natures : but how ? Only as to the Material and 

 Efficient Causes of them, and not as to the Forms. For 

 example ; if the cause of Whiteness in snow or froth be 

 enquired, and it be rendered thus, that the subtle 

 intermixture of air and water is the cause, it is well 

 rendered ; but nevertheless, is this the Form of Whiteness ? 

 No ; but it is the Efficient, which is ever but vehiculum 

 formae. This part of Metaphysic I do not find 

 laboured and performed; whereat I marvel not, 

 because I hold it not possible to be invented 7ipinu 

 by that course of invention which hath been Rerum - 

 used ; in regard that men (which is the root of all error) 

 have made too untimely a departure and too remote a 

 recess from particulars. 



But the use of this part of Metaphysic which I report as 

 deficient, is of the rest the most excellent in two respects ; 

 the one, because it is the duty and virtue of all knowledge 

 to abridge the infinity of individual experience as much 

 as the conception of truth will permit, and to remedy the 

 complaint of vita brevis, ars longa, which is performed by 

 uniting the notions and conceptions of sciences. For 

 knowledges are as pyramides, whereof history is the basis : 

 so of Natural Philosophy the basis is Natural History; 

 the stage next the base is Physic; the stage next the 

 vertical point is Metaphysic. As for the vertical point, 

 Opus quod operatur Deus a principio usque ad fnem, the 

 Summary Law of Nature, we know not whether man's 

 inquiry can attain unto it. But these three be the true 

 stages of knowledge ; and are to them that are depraved 

 no better than the giants' hills. 



Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam, 



Scilicet atque Ossae frondosum invohere Olympum : 



but to those which refer all things to the glory of God, 

 they are as the three acclamations, Sancte, sancte, sancte; 

 holy in the description or dilatation of his works, holy in 

 the connexion or concatenation of them, and holy in the 



