ever[1] these things are thus in men's depraved judgments and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense; the last was the light of reason; and his sabbath work ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit. First he breathed light upon the face of the matter or chaos; then he breathed light into the face of man; and still he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of his chosen. The poet that beautified the sect that was otherwise inferior to the rest,[2] saith yet excellently well: It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle and the adventures[3] thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of Truth, (a hill not to be commanded,[4] and where the air is always clear and serene,) and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below; so[5] always that this prospect[6] be with pity,
- ↑ Howsoever. Notwithstanding that, albeit. "And so will he do; for the man doth fear God, howsoever it seems not in him by some large jests he will make." Shakspere. Much Ado About Nothing, ii. 3.
- ↑ The poet is Titus Lucretius, born 99 or 98 B.C., died 55 B.C. The sect is the Epicureans. Bacon quotes the thought, not the exact language, of the beginning of the second book of Lucretius's De Rerum Natura. Compare the Advancement of Learning. I. viii. 5.
- ↑ Adventure. Chance, hap, luck, fortune.
- ↑ In military tactics a high hill commands a lower one near it.
- ↑ So. Provided, or on condition.
- ↑ Prospect is active in sense, and means overlooking, looking down upon.
