II.] ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. MS 



those things are to be held possible, which may be done by some per 

 son, though not by every one ; and which may be done by many, 

 though not by any one ; and which may be done in succession of ages, 

 though not within the hour-glass of one man s life; and which may be 

 done by public designation, though not by private endeavour. 



But, notwithstanding, if any man will take to himself rather that ol 

 Solomon, &quot; Dicit piger, Leo est in via,&quot; than that of Virgil, &quot; Possunt 

 qu*a posse vidcntur : &quot; I shall be content that my labours be esteemed 

 but as the better sort of wishes ; for as it asketh some knowledge to 

 demand a question not impertinent, so it requircth some sense to make 

 a wish not absurd. 



THE parts of human learning have reference to the three parts ol 

 man s Understanding, which is the seat of learning : History to hi.- 

 Memory, Poesy to his Imagination, and Philosophy tD his Reason. 

 Divine learning receiveth the same distribution, for the spirit of man 

 is the same, though the revelation of oracle and sense be diverse : so 

 as theology consistcth also of history of the Church ; of parables, which 

 is divine poesy ; and of holy doctrine c: precept : for as for that part 

 which scemcth supernumerary, which is prophecy, it is but divine his 

 tory ; which hath that prerogative over human, as the narration may be 

 before the fact, as well as after. 



HISTORY is Natural \ Civil, Ecclesiastical, and Literary ; whereof 

 the three first I allow as extant, the fourth I denote as deficient. For 

 no man hath propounded to himself the general state of learning to be 

 described and represented from age to age, as many have done the 

 works of nature, and the state civil and ecclesiastical ; without which 

 the history of the world secmeth to me to be as the statue of Poly 

 phemus with his eye out, that part being wanting which doth most 

 show the spirit and life of the person : and yet I am not ignorant, that 

 in divers particular sciences, as of the jurisconsults, the mathemati 

 cians, the rhetoricians, the philosophers, there arc set down some small 

 memorials of the schools, authors, and books ; and so likewise some 

 barren relations touching t! c invention of arts or usages. 



Hut a just story of learning, containing the antiquities and originals 

 vvledgcs and their sects, their inventions, their traditions, their 

 divers administrations and managings, their flourishings, their oppo- 

 , decays, depressions, oblivions, removes, with the causes and 

 ns of them, and all other events concerning learning, through- 

 ages of the world, I may truly affirm to be wanting. 



The use and end of which work, I do not so much design for curio 

 sity, or satisfaction of those that arc lovers of learning, but chiefly for 

 a more serious and grave purpose, which is this in a few words, that 

 :t \vill make learned men wise in the use and administration of learn 

 ing. For it is not St. Augustine s nor St. Ambrose s works that will 

 make so wise a divine, as ecclesiastical history thoroughly read and 

 observed : and the same reason is of learning. 



HISTORY of Nature is of three sorts ; of nature in course, of nature 



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