206 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [Book 



have somewhat secured and exempted from time, which are only 

 our deeds and works ; as it is said &quot; Opera eorum sequuntur cos.&quot; 

 The pre-eminence likewise of this active good is upheld by the affec 

 tion which is natural in man towards variety and proceeding, which 

 in the pleasures of the sense, which is the principal part of passive 

 good, can have no great latitude. &quot; Cogita quamdiu eadem feceris : 

 cibus, somnus, Indus; per hunc circulum curritur. Mori velle non tan- 

 turn fortis, aut miser, aut prudens, sed etiam fastidiosus potcst.&quot; But in 

 enterprises, pursuits, and purposes of life, there is much variety, where 

 of men are sensible with pleasure in their inceptions, progressions, 

 recoils, re-integrations, approaches and attainings, to their ends. So 

 as it was well said, &quot; Vita sine proposito languida et vaga est.&quot; Neither 

 hath this active good any identity with the good of society, though in 

 some case it hath an incidence into it : for although it do many times 

 bring forth acts of beneficence, yet it is with a respect private to a 

 man s own power, glory, amplification, continuance ; as appeareth 

 plainly, when it findeth a contrary subject. For thatgigantinc state of 

 mind which possesseth the troublers of the world, such as was Lucius 

 Sylla, and infinite other in smaller model, who would of all men happy 

 or unhappy as they were their friends or enemies, and would give form 

 to the world according to their own humours, which is the true theo- 

 machy, pretendeth, and aspireth to active good, though it recedeth 

 farthest from good of society, which we have -determined to be the 

 greater. 



To resume passive good, it receiveth a subdivision of conservative 

 and perfective. For let us take a brief review of that which we have 

 said ; we have spoken first of the good of society, the intention whereof 

 cmbraccth the form of human nature, whereof we are members and 

 portions, and not our own proper and individual form ; we have spoken 

 of active good, and supposed it as a part of private and particular 

 good. And rightly, for there is impressed upon all things a triple 

 desire or appetite proceeding from love to themselves ; one of preserv 

 ing and continuing their form ; another of advancing and perfecting 

 their form; and a third of multiplying and extending their form upon 

 other things ; whereof the multiplying or signature of it upon other 

 things, is that which we handled by the name of active good. So as 

 there remaineth the conserving of it, and perfecting or raising of it ; 

 which latter is the highest degree of passive good. For to preserve 

 in state is the less, to preserve with advancement is the greater. So 

 in man, 



Igncus est ollis vigor, et coclcstis origo. 



His approach or assumption to divine or angelical nature is the per 

 fection of his form ; the error or false imitation of which good, is that 

 which is the tempest of human life, while man, upon the instinct of an 

 advancement formal and essential, is carried to seek an advancement 

 local For as those which are sick, and find no remedy, do tumble up 

 and down and change place, as if by a remove local they could obtain 

 a remove internal so is it with men in ambition, when failing of the 



