372 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



the nature of a woman, that if she be too much wooed she 

 is the farther off.' But this last is but a remedy for those 

 whose tastes are corrupted : let men rather build upon that 

 foundation which is as a corner-stone of divinity and 

 philosophy, wherein they join close, namely that same 

 Primum quaerite. For divinity saith, Primum quaerite 

 regnum Dei, et ista omnia adjicientur vobis, and philosophy 

 saith, Primum quaerite bona animi, caetera aut aderunt aut 

 non oberunt. And although the human foundation hath 

 somewhat of the sand, as we see in M. Brutus when he 

 brake forth into that speech, 



Te colui, Virtus, ut rem; at tu nomen inane es; 



yet the divine foundation is upon the rock. But this may 

 serve for a taste of that knowledge which I noted as deficient. 

 Concerning Government, it is a part of knowledge 

 secret and retired, in both these respects in which things 

 are deemed secret ; for some things are secret because they 

 are hard to know, and some because they are not fit to 

 utter, We see all governments are obscure and invisible. 



Totamque infusa per artus 

 Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet. 



Such is the description of governments. We see the govern- 

 ment of God over the world is hidden, insomuch as it 

 seemeth to participate of much irregularity and confusion. 

 The government of the Soul in moving the Body is inward 

 and profound, and the passages thereof hardly to be 

 reduced to demonstration. Again, the wisdom of antiquity 

 (the shadows whereof are in the poets) in the description 

 of torments and pains, next unto the crime of rebellion 

 which was the Giants' offence, doth detest the offence of 

 futility, as in Sisyphus and Tantalus. But this was meant 

 of particulars : nevertheless even unto the general rules and 

 discourses of policy and government there is due a reverent 

 and reserved handling. 



But contrariwise in the governor toward the governed 

 all things ought, as far as the frailty of man permitteth, to 

 be manifest and revealed. For so it is expressed in the 



