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THE SECOND BOOK 273 



of sense but of no great depth ; and that of Fracastorius, 

 who though he pretended not to make any new philosophy, 

 yet did use the absoluteness of his own sense upon the 

 old ; and that of Gilbertus our countryman, who revived, 

 with some alterations and demonstrations, the opinions of 

 Xenophanes ; and any other worthy to be admitted. 



Thus have we now dealt with two of the three beams of 

 man's knowledge ; that is Radius Directus, which is referred 

 to nature, Radius Refractus, which is referred to God, and 

 cannot report truly because of the inequality of the medium. 

 There resteth Radius Reflexus whereby Man beholdeth and 

 contemplateth himself. 



We come therefore now to that knowledge whereunto 

 the ancient oracle directeth us, which is the knowledge of 

 ourselves ; which deserveth the more accurate handling, by 

 how much it toucheth us more nearly. This knowledge, 

 as it is the end and term of natural philosophy in the 

 . intention of man, so notwithstanding it is but a portion of 

 natural philosophy in the continent of nature. And 

 ; generally let this be a rule, that all partitions of knowledges 

 \ be accepted rather for lines and veins, than for sections 

 \ and separations ; and that the continuance and entireness 

 ) of knowledge be preserved. For the contrary hereof hath 

 ' made particular sciences to become barren, shallow, and 

 erroneous ; while they have not been nourished and main- 

 tained from the common fountain. So we see Cicero the 

 orator complained of Socrates and his school, that he was 

 the first that separated philosophy and rhetoric ; whereupon 

 rhetoric became an empty and verbal art. So we may see 

 that the opinion of Copernicus touching the rotation of the 

 earth, which astronomy itself cannot correct because it is 

 not repugnant to any of the phenomena, yet natural 

 philosophy may correct. So we see also that the science 

 of medicine, if it be destituted and forsaken by natural 

 philosophy, it is not much better than an empirical practice. 

 With this reservation therefore we proceed to Human 

 Philosophy or Humanity, which hath two parts : the one 

 considereth man segregate, or distributively ; the other 



