II.] ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 17? 



which nevertheless are confessed to receive their virtues from mine 

 rals ; and not so only, but discerned and distinguished from what 

 particular mineral they receive tincture, as sulphur, vitriol, steel, or the 

 like ; which nature, it it may be reduced to compositions of art, both 

 the variety of them will be increased, and the temper of them will 

 be more commanded. 



But lest I grow to be more particular than is agreeable, either to 

 my intention or to proportion ; 1 will conclude this part with the note 

 of one deficicnce more, which sccmeth to me of greatest consequence ; 

 which is, that the prescripts in use arc too compendious to attain their 

 end ; for to my understanding, it is a vain and flattering opinion to 

 think any medicine can be so sovereign, or so happy, as that the 

 receipt or use of it can work any great effect upon the body of man : it 

 were a strange speech, which spoken, or spoken oft, should reclaim a 

 man from a vice to which he were by nature subject ; it is order, 

 pursuit, sequence, and interchange of application, which is mighty in 

 nature : which although it require more exact knowledge in prescribing, 

 and more precise obedience in observing, yet is recompensed with the 

 magnitude of effects. And although a man would think by the daily 

 visitations of the physicians, that there were a pursuance in the cure ; 

 yet let a man look into their prescripts and ministrations, and he shall 

 find them but inconstancies, and every day s devices, without any 

 settled providence or project ; not that every scrupulous or superstitious 

 prescript is effectual, no more than every strait way is the way to 

 heaven, but the truth of the direction must precede severity ol 

 observance. 



For Cosmetic, it hath parts civil, and parts effeminate : for clean 

 ness of body was ever esteemed to proceed from a due reverence to 

 God, to society, and to ourselves. As for artificial decoration, it is 

 well worthy of the deficiences which it hath ; being neither fine enough 

 to deceive, nor handsome to use, nor wholesome to please. 



For Athletic, I take the subject of it largely, that is to say, for any 

 point of ability, whcrcunto the body of man may be brought, whethci 

 it be of activity, or of patience ; whereof activity hath two parts 

 strength and swiftness : and patience likewise hath two parts, hard 

 ness against wants and extremities, and indurance of pain and torment, 

 whereof we see the practices in tumblers, in savages, and in those that 

 suffer punishment : nay, if there be any other faculty which falls not 

 within any of the former divisions, as in those that dive, that obtain a 

 strange power of containing respiration, and the like, I refer it to this 

 part. Of these things the practices are known, but the philosophy that 

 conccrncth them is not much inquired ; the rather, I think, because 

 they are supposed to be obtained, cither by an aptness of nature, which 

 cannot &quot;be taught, or only by continual custom, which is soon pre 

 scribed ; which though it be not true, yet I forbear to note any 

 d( ii icnces, for the Olympian games arc down long since, and the 

 mediocrity of these things is for use ; as for the excellency of them, it 

 scrvcth for the most part but for mercenary ostentation. 



For arts of Pleasure sensual, the chief dcticicncc in them is of lawi 



