344 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



those ends doth commend unto him, he is invested of a 

 precedent disposition to conform himself thereunto ; which 

 state of mind Aristotle doth excellently express himself, 

 that it ought not to be called virtuous, but divine : his 

 words are these : Immanitati autem consentaneum est opponere 

 eam^ quae supra humanitatem est> heroicam sive divinam 

 virtutem : and a little after, Nam ut ferae neque vitium neque 

 virtus est, sic neque Dei: sed hie quidem status altius quiddam 

 virtute est, ille aliud quiddam a vitio. And therefore 

 we may see what celsitude of honour Plinius Secundus 

 attributeth to Trajan in his funeral oration, where he 

 said ' that men needed to make no other prayers to 

 the gods, but that they would continue as good lords to 

 them as Trajan had been ' ; as if he had not been only an 

 imitation of divine nature, but a pattern of it. But these 

 be heathen and profane passages, having but a shadow of 

 that divine state of mind which religion and the holy faith 

 doth conduct men unto, by imprinting upon their souls 

 Charity, which is excellently called the bond of Perfection, 

 because it comprehendeth and fasteneth all virtues together. 

 And as it is elegantly said by Menander of vain love, 

 which is but a false imitation of divine love, Amor 

 melior sophista laevo ad humanam vitam y that love teacheth 

 a man to carry himself better than the sophist or preceptor, 

 which he calleth left-handed, because with all his rules and 

 preceptions he cannot form a man so dexterously, nor with 

 that facility to prize himself and govern himself, as love 

 can do; so certainly if a man's mind be truly inflamed 

 with charity, it doth work him suddenly into greater 

 perfection than all the doctrine of morality can do, which 

 is but a sophist in comparison of the other. Nay further, 

 as Xenophon observed truly that all other affections, 

 though they raise the mind, yet they do it by distorting 

 and uncomeliness of ecstasies or excesses ; but only love 

 doth exalt the mind, and nevertheless at the same instant 

 doth settle and compose it; so in all other excellencies, 

 though they advance nature, yet they are subject to excess ; 

 only charity admitteth no excess : for so we see, aspiring 

 to be like God in power, the angels transgressed and 



