THE SECOND BOOK 289 



a work or duty thereof. And if it be a work, we speak 

 not now of such parts of learning as the Imagination pro- 

 duceth, but of such sciences as handle and consider of the' 

 Imagination ; no more than we shall speak now of such 

 knowledges as Reason produceth, (for that extendeth to 

 all philosophy,) but of such knowledges as do handle and 

 inquire of the faculty of Reason : so as Poesy had his true 

 place. /As for the power of the Imagination in nature, 

 and the manner of fortifying the same, we have mentioned 

 it in the doctrine De Anima^ whereunto most fitly it 

 belongeth. And lastly, for Imaginative or Insinuative 

 Reason, which is the subject of Rhetoric, we think it best 

 to refer it to the Arts of Reason. So therefore we content 

 ourselves with the former division, that Human Phil- 

 osophy which respecteth the faculties of the mind of man 

 hath two parts, Rational and Moral. 



The part of Human Philosophy which is rational, is of 

 all knowledges, to the most wits, the least delightful ; and 

 seemeth but a net of subtlety and spinosity. For as it was 

 truly said, that knowledge is pabulum animi^ so in the 

 nature of men's appetite to this food, most men are of the 

 taste and stomach of the Israelites in the desert, that would 

 fain have returned ad ollas carnium, and were weary of 

 manna; which, though it were celestial, yet seemed less 

 nutritive and comfortable. So generally men taste well 

 knowledges that are drenched in flesh and blood, Civil 

 History, Morality, Policy, about the which men's affections, 

 praises, fortunes, do turn and are conversant; but this 

 same lumen siccum^ doth parch and offend most men's 

 watery and soft natures. But to speak truly of things as 

 they are in worth, Rational Knowledges are the keys of all 

 other arts ; for as Aristotle saith aptly and elegantly, 'That 

 the hand is the Instrument of Instruments, and the mind is 

 the Form of Forms ' : so these be truly said to be the Art 

 of Arts : neither do they only direct, but likewise confirm 

 and strengthen ; even as the habit of shooting doth not 

 only enable to shoot a nearer shoot, but also to draw a 

 stronger bow. 



The Arts Intellectual are four in number; divided 



