1 1. 1 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 163 



lion, of an oak, of gold ; nay, of water, of air, is a vain pursuit : but to 

 inquire the forms of sense, of voluntary motion, of vegetation, of 

 colours, of gravity and levity, of density, of tenuity, of heat, of cold, and 

 all other natures and qu;i lilies, which, like an alphabet, arc not many, 

 and of which the essences, upheld by matter, of all creatures do 

 consist : to inquire, I say, the true forms of these, is that part of 

 metaphysic which we now define of. 



Not but that physic doth make inquiry, and take consideration of 

 the same natures : but how? Only as to the material and efficient 

 causes of them, and not as to the forms. For example ; if the cause of 

 whiteness in snow or froth be inquired, and it be rendered thus ; that 

 the subtile intermixture of air and water is the cause, it is well 

 rendered ; but nevertheless, is this the form of whiteness ? No ; but it 

 is the efficient, which is ever but vchiculiun forma. 



This part of metaphysic I do not find laboured and performed, 

 whereat I marvel not : because 1 hold it not possible to be invented 

 by that course of invention which hath been used, in regard that men, 

 which is the root of all error, have made too untimely a departure, and 

 too remote a recess from particulars. 



But the use of this part of metaphysic which I report as deficient, 

 is of the rest the most excellent in two respects : the one, because it is 

 the duty and virtue of all knowledge to abridge the infinity of indi 

 vidual experience, as much as the conception of truth will permit, and 

 to remedy the complaint of vita brcvis, ars longnj which is performed 

 by uniting the notions and conceptions of sciences : for knowledges 

 are as pyramids, whereof history is the basis. So of natural philo 

 sophy, the basis is natural history ; the stage next the basis is physic ; 

 the stage next the vertical point is metaphysic. As for the vertical 

 point, &quot; Opus quod opcratur Deus a principle usque ad fincm,&quot; the 

 summary law of nature, we know not whether man s inquiry can attain 

 unto it. But these three be the true stages of knowledge, and are to 

 them that, arc depraved no better than the giants hills. 



Ter sunt connti imponere Pelio Ossam 



Scilicet, atquc Ossic frondosum involverc Olympum. 



But to those which refer all things to the glory of God, they are as 

 the three acclamations, Sancte, sancte, sancte ; holy in the description, 

 or dilatation of his works ; holy in the connexion or concatenation of 

 them ; aijd holy in the union of them in a perpetual and uniform law. 



And therefore the speculation was excellent in Parmenidcs and 

 Plato, although but a speculation in them, that all things by scale did 

 ascend to unity. So then always that knowledge is worthiest, which 

 is charged with the least multiplicity ; which appcareth to be meta 

 physic, as that which considered! the simple forms or differences of 

 things, which arc few in number, and the degrees and co-ordinations 

 whereof make all this variety. 



The second respect which valueth and conimcndcth this part of 

 metaphysic is, that it doth enfranchise the power of man unto the 

 greatest liberty and possibility of works and ctfects. For physic 



