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Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626

"The Advancement of Learning"

Neither is it any quantity of knowledge, how great
soever, that can make the mind of man to swell; for nothing can
fill, much less extend the soul of man, but God and the
contemplation of God; and, therefore, Solomon, speaking of the two
principal senses of inquisition, the eye and the ear, affirmeth that
the eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing;
and if there be no fulness, then is the continent greater than the
content: so of knowledge itself and the mind of man, whereto the
senses are but reporters, he defineth likewise in these words,
placed after that calendar or ephemerides which he maketh of the
diversities of times and seasons for all actions and purposes, and
concludeth thus: "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 vicissitude of times, but raised
also to find out and discern the ordinances and decrees which
throughout all those changes are infallibly observed.


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