236 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [Bool; 



&quot;He hath conceived mischief, and shall bring forth a vain thing.&quot; 

 And although men should refrain themselves from injury and evil arts, 

 yet this incessant and Sabbathless pursuit of a man s fortune leaveth 

 not that tribute which we owe to Cod of our time : who, we see, 

 dcmandeth a tenth of our substance, and a seventh, which is more 

 strict, of our time : and it is to small purpose to have an erected face 

 towards heaven, and a perpetual grovelling spirit upon earth, eating 

 dust, as doth the serpent, &quot; Atque aftigit humo divinoj particulam 

 aura;.&quot; And if any man flatter himself that he will employ his for 

 tune well, though he should obtain it ill, as was said concerning 

 Augustus Cxsnr, and after of Septimus Severus, &quot; that cither they 

 should nevei have been born, or else they should never have died,&quot; 

 they did so much mischief in the pursuit and ascent of their greatness, 

 and so much good when they were established : yet these compensa 

 tions and satisfactions are good to be used, but never good to be pur 

 posed. And, lastly, it is not amiss for men in their race towards their 

 fortune, to cool themselves a little with that conceit which is elegantly 

 expressed by the emperor Charles the fifth, in his instructions &quot;to the 

 king his son, u that fortune hath somewhat of the nature of a woman, 

 that if she be too much wooed, she is the farther otT.&quot; But this last 

 is but a remedy for those whose tastes are corrupted : let men rather 

 build upon that foundation which is as a corner-stone of divinity and 

 philosophy, wherein they join close, namely, that same Primum 

 qntrntf. For divinity saith, &quot; Primum qucente regnum Dei, et ista 

 omnia adjicientur vobis :&quot; and philosophy saith, &quot;Primum qiuvrite 

 bonam amini caMera aut aderunt, aut non obcrunt. And although 

 the human foundation hath somewhat of the sands, as we see in M. 

 Brutus, when he brake forth into that speech, 



To colui, virtus, ut rcm : ast tu nomcn inane es : 



yet the divine foundation is upon the rock. But this may serve for a 

 taste of that knowledge which I noted as deficient. 



Concerning government, it is a part of knowledge, secret and 

 retired in both these respects, in which things are deemed secret ; for 

 some things are secret because they are hard to know, and some 

 because they are not fit to utter ; we see all governments arc obscure 

 and invisible. 



Totaniquc infusa per artus 

 Mens ngit.U niolom, et niagno so corpore miscet. 



Such is the description of governments : we see the government of 

 God over the world is hidden, insomuch as it secmeth to&quot; participate of 

 much irregularity and confusion : the government of the soul in mov 

 ing the body is inward and profound, and the passages thereof hardly 

 to be reduced to demonstration. Again, the wisdom of antiquity, the 

 shadows whereof are in the poets, in the description of torments and 

 pains, next unto the crime of rebellion, which was the giants offence, 

 doth detest the crime of futility, as in Sisyphus and Tantalus. But 

 this was meant of particulars ; nevertheless, even unto the general 



