eyes of the most beautifull, and makes them see therein their deformitie and rottennesse; and they acknowledge it.

O eloquent, just, and mightie Death! whom none could advise, thou hast perswaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised; thou hast drawne together all the farre stretched greatnesse all the pride, crueltie, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hic jacet.-(The Historie of the World.)

RICHARD HOOKER,

b. 1554, d. 1600.

They of whome God is alltogether vnapprehended, are but few in number, and for grosnes of wit such, that they hardly and scarcely seeme to hold the place of humane being. These we should iudge to be of all others most miserable, but that a wretcheder sort there are, on whome whereas nature hath bestowed riper capacitie, their euill disposition seriouslie goeth about therewith to apprehend God as being not God. Whereby it commeth to passe, that of these two sorts of men, both godlesse, the one hauing vtterly no knowledge of God, the other studie how to perswade themselues that there is no such thing to be knowne. The fountaine and wellspring of which impietie is a resolued purpose of minde to reape in this world what sensuall profit or pleasure soeuer the world yeeldeth, and not to be barred from any whatsoeuer meanes auaileable thereunto. And that this is the very radicall cause of their atheisme, no man I thinke will doubt which considereth what paines they take to destroy those principall spurres and motiues vnto all vertue, the creation of the world, the prouidence of God, the resurrection of the dead, the ioyes of the kingdome of heauen, and the endlesse paines of the wicked, yea aboue all things the authoritie of Scripture, because on these points it euermore beateth, and the soules immortalitie, which graunted, draweth easily after it the rest, as a voluntarie traine. Is it not wonderfull that base desires should so extinguish in men the sense of their owne excellencie, as to make them willing that their soules should be like to the soules of beasts, mortall and corruptible with their bodies? Till some admirable or vnusuall accident happen (as it hath in some) to worke the beginning of a better alteration in their mindes, disputation about the knowledge of God with such kinde of persons commonly preuaileth little. For how should the brightnes of wisedome shine, where the windowes of the soule are of very set purpose closed? True religion hath many things in it, the onely mention whereof gauleth and troubleth their mindes. Being therefore loath that inquirie into such matters should breede a perswasion in the ende contrarie vnto that they embrace, it is their endeuor to banish, as much as in them lyeth, quite and cleane from their cogitation whatsoeuer may sound that way. But it

commeth many times to passe (which is their torment) that the thing they shunne doth follow them; truth as it were euen obtruding itselfe into their knowledge, and not permitting them to be so ignorant as they woulde be. Whereupon, in as much as the nature of man is vnwilling to continue doing that wherein it shall alwayes condemne it selfe, they continuing still obstinate to followe the course which they haue begunne, are driuen to deuise all the shifts that wit can inuent for the smoothering of this light, all that may but with any the least showe of possibilitie, stay their mindes from thinking that true, which they hartely wish were false, but cannot thinke it so, without some scruple and feare of the contrarie.—(Of the Lawes of Ecclesiasticall Politie.)

FRANCIS BACON,

LORD VERULAM, VISCOUNT ST. ALBANS,

b. 1561, d. 1626

Thus haue I concluded this portion of learning touching civill knowledge, and with civil knowledge haue concluded humane philosophy, and with humane philosophy, philosophy in generall; and being now at some pause, looking backe into that I haue passed through, this writing seemeth to mee (si nunquam fallit imago) as far as a man can judge of his owne worke, not much better then that noise or sound which musitians make while they are tuning their instruments, which is nothing pleasant to heare, but yet is a cause why the musique is sweeter afterwards. So haue Í beene content to tune the instruments of the Muses, that they may play that haue better hands. And surely when I set before me the condition of these times, in which learning hath made her third visitation, or circuit, in all the qualities thereof; as the excellency and viuacity of the wits of this age; the noble helps and lights which we haue by the trauailes of ancient writers; the art of printing, which communicateth bookes to men of all fortunes; the opennes of the world by nauigation, which hath disclosed multitudes of experiments, and a masse of naturall history; the leasure wherewith these times abound, not imploying men so generally in civil bussinesse as the states of Græcia did, in respect of their popularity, and the state of Rome, in respect of the greatnesse of their monarchy; the present disposition of these times at this instant to peace; the consumption of all that ever can be said in controuersies of religion, which haue so much diuerted men from other sciences; the perfection of your Majesties learning, which as a Phoenix may call whole volies of wits to follow you; and the inseparable propriety of time, which is euer more and more to disclose truth; I cannot but be raised to this perswasion, that this third period of time will farre surpasse that of the Grecian and Romane learning: onely if men will know their owne strength, and their owne weaknesse both; and take, one from the other, light of invention, and not fire of contradiction, and

esteem of the inquisition of truth, as of an enterprise, and not as of a quality or ornament, and imploy wit and magnificence to things of worth and excellency, and not to things vulgar, and of popular estimation.-(Two bookes of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, divine and humane.)

BEN JONSON,

b. 1574, d. 1637.

For a man to write well, there are required three necessaries; to reade the best authors; observe the best speakers; and much exercise of his owne style. In style to consider what ought to be written; and after what manner; hee must first thinke, and excogitate his matter; then choose his words, and examine the weight of either; then take care in placing and ranking both matter and words, that the composition be comely; and to doe this with diligence and often. No matter how slow the style be at first, so it be labour'd and accurate; seeke the best, and be not glad of the forward conceipts, or first words, that offer themselves to us; but judge of what wee invent, and order what wee approve. Repeat often what wee have formerly written; which, beside that it helpes the consequence, and makes the juncture better, it quickens the heate of imagination, that often cooles in the time of setting downe, and gives it new strength, as if it grew lustier by the going back as wee see in the contention of leaping, they jumpe farthest, that fetch their race largest; or, as in throwing a dart or a iavelin, we force back our armes, to male our loose the stronger. Yet, if we have a faire gale of wind, I forbid not the steering out of our sayle, so the favour of the gale deceive us not. For all that wee invent doth please us in the conception or birth; else we would never set it downe. But the safest is to returne to our judgement, and handle over againe those things, the easinesse of which might make them justly suspected. So did the best writers in their beginnings; they impos'd upon themselves care and industry. They did nothing rashly. They obtain'd first to write well, and then custome made it easie, and a habit. By little and little, their matter shew'd it selfe to 'hem more plentifully; their words answer'd, their composition followed; and all, as in a well-order'd family, presented it selfe in the place. So that the summe of all is; ready writing makes not good writing; but good writing brings on ready writing; yet when wee thinke wee have got the faculty, it is even then good to resist it; as to give a horse a check sometimes with bit, which doth not so much stop his course, as stirre his mettle.(Discoveries.)

THOMAS HOBBES,

b. 1588, d. 1679.

The causes of dreams (if they be natural) are the actions of violence of the inward parts of a man upon his brain, by which

the passages of sense, by sleep benummed, are restored to their motion. The signs by which this appeareth to be so, are the differences of dreams (old men commonly dream oftener, and have their dreams more painful than young) proceeding from the different accidents of man's body; as dreams of lust, as dreams of anger, according as the heart, or other parts within, work more or less upon the brain, by more or less heat; so also the descents of different sorts of flegm maketh us a dream of different tastes of meats and drinks; and I believe there is a reciprocation of motion from the brain to the vital parts, and back from the vital parts to the brain; whereby not only imagination begetteth motion in those parts, but also motion in those parts begetteth imagination like to that by which it was begotten. If this be true, and that sad imaginations nourish the spleen, then we see also a cause, why a strong spleen reciprocally causeth fearful dreams, and why the effects of lasciviousness may in a dream produce the image of some person that had caused them. Another sign that dreams are caused by the action of the inward parts, is the disorder and casual consequence of one conception or image to another: for when we are waking, the antecedent thought or conception introduceth, and is cause of the consequent (as the water followeth a man's finger upon a dry and level table) but in dreams there is commonly no coherence (and when there is, it is by chance) which must needs proceed from this, that the brain in dreams is not restored to its motion in every part alike; whereby it cometh to pass, that our thoughts appear like the stars between the flying clouds, not in the order [in] which a man would chuse to observe them, but as the uncertain flight of broken clouds permits.-(Humane Nature; or the Fundamental Elements of Policy.)

WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH,

b. 1602, d. 1644.

Points of doctrine (as all other things) are as they are, and not as they are esteemed: neither can a necessarie point bee made unnecessarie by being so accounted, nor an unnecessarie point bee made necessarie by being overvalued. But as the ancient philosophers (whose different opinions about the soule of man you may read in Aristotle de Anima, and Cicero's Tusculan Questions) notwithstanding their divers opinions touching the nature of the soule, yet all of them had soules, and soules of the same nature or as those physitians who dispute whether the braine or heart be the principall part of man, yet all of them have braines and have hearts, and herein agree sufficiently; so likewise, though some Protestants esteeme that doctrine the soule of the church, which others doe not so highly value, yet this hinders not but that which is indeed the soule of the church may bee in both sorts of them; and though one account that a necessarie truth which others account

neither necessarie nor perhaps true, yet this notwithstanding, in those truths which are truly and really necessarie they may all agree. For no argument can be more sophistical than this; They differ in some points which they esteeme necessarie; therefore they differ in some that indeed and in truth are so.

Now as concerning the other inference, that they cannot agree what points are fundamentall: I have said and prov'd formerly that there is no such necessitie as you imagine or pretend, that men should certainly know what is, and what is not fundamentall. They that beleeve all things plainly delivered in Scripture, beleeve all things fundamentall, and are at sufficient unitie in matters of faith, though they cannot precisely and exactly distinguish between what is fundamentall and what is profitable; nay, though by errour they mistake some vaine, or perhaps some hurtfull opinions for necessarie and fundamentall truths. Besides, I have shewed above, that as Protestants do not agree (for you over-reach in saying they cannot) touching what points are fundamentall; so neither do you agree what points are defin'd and so to be accounted, and what are not; nay, nor concerning the subject in which God hath placed this pretended authoritie of defining; some of you setling it in the pope himself, though alone without a councell, others in a councell, though divided from the pope: others only in the conjunction of councell and pope; others not in this neither, but in the accep tation of the present church universall; lastly, others not attributing it to this neither, but only to the perpetuall succession of the church of all ages: of which divided company it is very evident and undeniable, that every former may be and are obliged to hold many things defin'd and therefore necessarie, which the latter, according to their owne grounds, have no obligation to doe, nay, cannot doe so upon any firme and sure and infallible foundation.—(The Religion of Protestants a safe Way to Salvation.)

SIR THOMAS BROWNE,

b. 1605, d. 1682.

As there were many reformers, so likewise many reformations; every country proceeding in a particular way and method, according as their national interest, together with their constitution and clime, inclined them; some angrily, and with extremity; others calmly, and with mediocrity, not rending but easily dividing the community, and leaving an honest possibility of a reconciliation; which though peaceable spirits do desire, and may conceive that revolution of time, and the mercies of God may affect, yet that judgment that shall consider the present antipathies between the two extreams, their contrarieties in condition affection, and opinion, may with the same hopes expect an union in the poles of heaven.

I could never divide my self from any man upon the difference of an opinion, or be angry with his judgment for not