122 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [Hook 



a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a natural 

 curiosity, and inquisitive appetite ; sometimes to entertain their minds 

 with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; 

 and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction ; 

 and most times for lucre and profession ; and seldom sincerely to give 

 a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men : 

 as if there were sought in knowledge a couch, whereupon to rest a 

 searching and restless spirit ; or a terras, for a wandering and variable 

 mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect ; or a tower of stato, 

 for a proud mind to raise itself upon ; or a fort or commanding ground, 

 for strife and contention ; or a shop, for profit, or sale ; and not a 

 rich storehouse, for the glory of the Creator, and the relief of man s 

 estate. But this is that which will indeed dignify and exalt know 

 ledge, if contemplation and action may be more nearly and st.raitly 

 conjoined and united together than they have been ; a conjunction 

 like unto that of the two highest planets, Saturn, the planet of rest 

 and contemplation, and Jupiter, the planet of civil society and action. 

 Howbcit, I do not mean, when I speak of use and action, that end 

 before-mentioned of the applying of knowledge to lucre and profes 

 sion ; for I am not ignorant how much that divertcth and interruptcth 

 the prosecution and advancement of knowledge, like unto the golden 

 ball thrown before Atalanta, which while she gocth aside and stoopeth 

 to take up, the race is hindered ; 



Declinat cursus, aurumque volubilc tollit. 



Neither is my meaning, as was spoken of Socrates, to call 

 philosophy down from heaven to converse upon the earth : that is, 

 to leave natural philosophy aside, and to apply knowledge only to 

 manners and policy. But as both heaven and earth do conspire and 

 contribute to the use and benefit of man ; so the end ought to be, 

 from both philosophies to separate and reject vain speculations, and 

 whatsoever is empty and void, and to preserve and augment what 

 soever is solid and fruitful: that knowledge may not be, as a courtesan, 

 for pleasure and vanity only, or, as a bond-woman, to acquire and 

 gain to her master s use ; but, as a spouse, for generation, fruit, and 

 comfort. 



Thus have I described and opened, as by a kind of dissection, 

 those peccant humours, the principal of them, which have not only 

 given impediment to the proficicnce of learning, but have given also 

 occasion to the traducemc-rt thereof: wherein if 1 have been too plain, 

 it must IKJ remembered, &quot; Fidelia vulnera amantis, sed dolosa oscula 

 malignantis.&quot; 



This, I think, I have gained, that I ought to be the better believed 

 in that which I shall say pertaining to commendation ; because I have 

 proceeded so freely in that which concerneth censure. And yet I 

 have no purpose to enter into a laudative of learning, or to make a 

 hymn to the Muses, though I am of opinion that it is long since their 

 rites were duly celebrated but my intent is, without varnish or ampli 

 fication, justly to weigh the dignity of knowledge in the balance with 



