152 A D VANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [Book 



themselves together with the counsels, and to leave the observations 

 and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man s 

 judgment; but mixtures arc things irregular, whereof no man can define. 

 So also is there another kind of history manifoldly mixed, and that 

 is History of Cosmography, being compounded of natural history, in 

 respect of the regions themselves ; of history civil, in respect of the 

 habitations, regiments, and manners of the people ; and the mathe 

 matics, in respect of the climates and configurations towards the 

 heavens : which part of learning of all others, in this later time, hath 

 obtained most proficience. For it may be truly affirmed to the honour 

 of these times, and in a virtuous emulation with antiquity, that this 

 great building of the world had never thorough lights made in it, till 

 the age of us and our fathers : for although they had knowledge of 

 the antipodes, 



Nosqtie ubi primus equis oriens afflavit annelid, 

 Illic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper : 



yet that might be by demonstration, and not in fact ; and if by travel, 

 it rcquireth the voyage but of half the globe. But to circle the earth, 

 as the heavenly bodies do, was not done or enterpriscd till these later 

 times: and therefore these times may justly bear in their word, not 

 only plus ultra in precedence of the ancient non it lira, and imitabiU 

 fulinen, in precedence of the ancient non imitabile fulmen. 



Demens qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen, etc. 



but likewise imitabile calum: in respect of the iv any memorable 

 voyages, after the manner of heaven, about the globe of the earth. 



And this proficience in navigation and discoveries may plant also 

 an expectation of the farther proficience and augmentation cf all 

 sciences ; because, it may seem, they are ordained by God to be 

 coevals, that is, to meet in one age. For so the prophet Daniel, 

 speaking of the latter times, foretellcth ; &quot; Plurimi pertransibunt, ct 

 multiplex erit scicntia ;&quot; as if the openness and thorough passage of the 

 world, and the increase of knowledge, were appointed to be in the sarue 

 ages, as we see it is already performed in great part ; the learning of 

 these latter times not much giving place to the former two periods or 

 returns of learning, the one of the Grecians, the other of the Romans. 



HISTORY ecclesiastical receiveth the same divisions with history 

 civil ; but farther, in the propriety thereof, may be divided into the 

 History of the Church, by a general name; History of Prophecy ; and 

 History of Providence. 



The first describeth the times of the militant Church, whether it bo 

 fluctuant, as the ark of Noah ; or moveable, as the ark in the 

 wilderness ; or at rest, as the ark in the temple ; that is, the state of th*5 

 Church in persecution, in remove, and in peace. This part I ought in 

 ho sort to note as deficient, only I would the virtue and sincerity of it 

 were according to the mass and quantity. But I am not now in hard 

 with censures, but with omissions. 



