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rous pages equally well written occur, will, I have no doubt, confirm the assertion :

"It is an assured truth, and a conclusion of experience, that a little or superficial knowledge of philosophy may incline the minde of man to atheisme; but a farther proceeding therein doth bring the minde backe againe to religion: for in the entrance of philosophy, when the second causes, which are next unto the senses, doe offer themselves to the minde of man, if it dwell and stay there, it may induce some oblivion of the highest cause; but when a man passeth on farther, and seeth the dependance of causes, and the workes of providence, then, according to the allegory of the poets, hee will easily beleeve that the highest linke of nature's chayne must needs be tyed to the foot of Jupiter's chayre. To conclude, therefore, let no man upon a weake coneeite of sobriety, or an ill applyed moderation, thinke or maintaine, that a man can search too farre, or be too well studied in the Booke of God's word, or in the Booke of God's workes; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavour an endlesse progresse, or proficience in both: only let men beware that they apply both to charity, and not to swelling; to use, and not to ostentation; and againe, that they doe not un

wisely mingle, or confound these learnings toge. ther *."

Of the miscellaneous productions of Lord Bacon, the Essays, Civil and Moral, are beyond comparison the most valuable. No book contains a greater fund of useful knowledge, or displays a more intimate acquaintance with human life and manners. The style, however, is not pleasing; it is devoid of melody and simplicity, and the sentences are too short and antithetic. I insert a portion of his essay on studies as a spe

cimen.

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Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chiefe use for delight, is in privatenesse and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgement and disposition of businesse. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the generall counsels, and the plots, and marshalling of affaires, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies, is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgement wholly by their rules is the humour of a scholler. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that *Of the Advancement of Learning, p. 11, 12, 4to. 1633.

need proyning by study: and studies themselves, doe give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemne studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them: for they teach not their owne use; but that is a wisdome without them, and above them, won by observation. Reade not to contradict, and confute; nor to beleeve and take for granted; nor to finde talke and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some bookes are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some bookes are to be read only in parts; others to be read but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some bookes also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others: but that would be, onely in the lesse important arguments, and the meane sort of bookes; else distilled bookes, are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, hee had need have a great memory; if hee conferre little, hee had need have a present wit; and if he reade little, he had need have much cunning, to seeme to know that, hee doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematicks subtill; na

tural philosophy deepe; morall grave; logicke and rhetorick able to contend *."

One of the most entertaining and popular writers of the reign of James the First, was ROBERT BURTON, the author of the Anatomy of Melancholy, which was first published in 1617, in quarto, and afterwards underwent so many editions in folio, as to prove a capital estate to the bookseller. Burton was a man of great learning and ingenuity, and his style and manner had considerable influence on the literature of his age. His book is for the greater part a cento, and the quotations abound in almost every page. Where, however, his own language is suffered to appear, and especially on subjects interesting to himself, the style, for the period he wrote in, is uncommonly clear and brilliant. Dr. Johnson has declared, that the "Anatomy of Melancholy was the only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise;" and in another place he observes," it is, perhaps, overloaded with quotation. But there is a great spirit and great power in what Burton says, when he writes from his own mind +."

Many modern authors have had recourse to

* Essayes or Counsels, civill and morall, 4to. 1632, p. 292, 293, 294.

+ Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. ii. p. 116, 455.

the "Anatomy of Melancholy," as to a store, house of imagery and recondite literature; and very lately Sterne, generally esteemed one of our most original writers, has been copiously traced by Dr. Ferriar through the folio of Burton. As a specimen of the style of this very curious and amusing work, I have chosen an eulogium upon fishing; this, among other sports and exercises, Burton recommends as a cure for me lancholy.

"Fishing," says he, "is a kinde of hunting by water, bee it with nets, weeles, baites, angling, or otherwise, and yeelds all out as much pleasure to some men, as dogs, or hawkes; when they draw their fish upon the banke, saith Nic. Henselius Silesiographie, cap. 3. speaking of that extraordinary delight his countrymen tooke in fishing, and in making of pooles. James Dubravius that Moravian, in his booke de pisc. telleth, how travelling by the highway side in Silesia, he found a nobleman booted up to the groines, wading himselfe, pulling the nets, and labouring as much as any fisherman of them all; and when some belike objected to him the basenesse of his office, he excused himselfe, that if other men might hunt hares, why should not he hunt carpes? Many gentlemen in like sort with us will wade up to the armeholes, upon such occasions, and voluntarily un

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