3. The unlearned man knows not what it is to descend into himself or to call himself to account, or the pleasure of that suavissima vita indies sentire se fieri meliorem.

4. The mind of man doth wonderfully endeavour and extremely covet that it may not be pensile: but that it may light upon something fixed and immoveable, on which, as on a firmament, it may support itself in its swift motions and disquisitions. Aristotle endeavours to prove that in all motions of bodies there is some point quiescent: and very elegantly expounds the fable of Atlas, who stood fixed and bore up the heavens from falling, to be meant of the poles of the world whereupon the conversion is accomplished. In like manner, men do earnestly seek to have some Atlas or axis of their cogitations within themselves, which may, in some measure, moderate the fluctuations and wheelings of the understanding, fearing it may be the falling of their heaven.

5. The pleasure and delight of knowledge far sur

passeth all other in nature. We see in all other pleasures there is a satiety, and after they be used, their verdour departeth: which showeth well they be but deceits of pleasure, and not pleasures: and therefore we see that voluptuous men turn friars, and ambitious princes turn melancholy. But of knowledge there is no satiety, but satisfaction and appetite are perpetually interchangeable; and therefore appeareth to be good in itself simply without fallacy or accident. Neither is that pleasure of small efficacy and contentment in the mind of man, which the poet Lucretius describeth elegantly, suave mari magno turbantibus æquora ventis, &c. "It is " a view of delight," saith he, "to stand or walk 66 upon the shore, and to see a ship tost with tempest 66 upon the sea: a pleasure to stand in the window σε of a castle, and to see two battles join upon a

66

plain: but it is a pleasure incomparable for the "mind of man to be settled, landed, and fortified "in the certainty of truth, and from thence to de

a See note A at the end.

scry and behold the errors, perturbations, labours, "and wanderings up and down of other men." So always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling or pride. Certainly it is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.

6. God hath made all things beautiful or decent in the true return of their seasons; also he hath placed the world in man's heart: yet cannot man find out the work which God worketh from the beginning to the end, declaring, not obscurely, that God hath framed the mind of man as a mirror or glass, capable of the image of the universal world, and joyful to receive the impression thereof, as the eye joyeth to receive light, and not only delighted in beholding the variety of things, and vicissitudes of times, but raised how to find out and discover the ordinances and decrees which throughout all these changes are infallibly observed.

7. The discovery of the different properties of

creatures and the imposition of names was the occupation and pleasure of Adam in Paradise".

8. THE pleasures of speculation have been sometimes so great, so intense, and so engrossing all the powers of the soul, that there has been no room left for any other pleasure. It has so called together all the spirits to that one work, that there has been no supply to carry on the inferior operations of nature. Contemplation feels no hunger, nor is sensible of any thirst but of that after knowledge. How frequent and exalted a pleasure did David find from his meditation in the divine call! All the day long it was the theme of his thoughts: the affairs of state, the government of his kingdom, might indeed employ, but it was this only that refreshed his mind. How short of this are the delights of the epicure! how vastly disproportionate are the pleasures of the eating and of the thinking man! indeed as different as the silence of Archimedes in the study of a problem, and the stillness of a sow at her wash.

a Bacon from 1 to 8.

Nothing is comparable to the pleasure of an active and a prevailing thought: a thought prevailing over the difficulty and obscurity of the object, and refreshing the soul with new discoveries and images of things; and thereby extending the bounds of apprehension and enlarging the territories of

reason a

9. In Ascham's Schoolmaster he says, "Before I went into Germany I came to Broadgate in Leicestershire, to take my leave of the noble Lady Jane Grey, to whom I was exceeding much beholding. Her parents, the Duke and Dutchess, with all the household, gentlemen and gentlewomen, were hunting in the park. I found her in her chamber reading Phædon Platonis in Greek, and this with as much delight as some gentlemen would read a merry tale in Boccacio. After salutation and duty done, with some other talk, I asked her why she 'would lose such pastime in the park?' smiling she answered me, 'I wisse all their sport in the park

a South.