And although
he doth insinuate that the supreme or summary law of Nature (which
he calleth "the work which God worketh from the beginning to the
end") is not possible to be found out by man, yet that doth not
derogate from the capacity of the mind; but may be referred to the
impediments, as of shortness of life, ill conjunction of labours,
ill tradition of knowledge over from hand to hand, and many other
inconveniences, whereunto the condition of man is subject. For that
nothing parcel of the world is denied to man's inquiry and
invention, he doth in another place rule over, when he saith, "The
spirit of man is as the lamp of God, wherewith He searcheth the
inwardness of all secrets." If, then, such be the capacity and
receipt of the mind of man, it is manifest that there is no danger
at all in the proportion or quantity of knowledge, how large soever,
lest it should make it swell or out-compass itself; no, but it is
merely the quality of knowledge, which, be it in quantity more or
less, if it be taken without the true corrective thereof, hath in it
some nature of venom or malignity, and some effects of that venom,
which is ventosity or swelling.
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