(11) But the greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or
misplacing of the last or furthest end of knowledge. For men have
entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a
natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain
their minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and
reputation; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and
contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom
sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason to the
benefit and use of men: as if there were sought in knowledge a
couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a
terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a
fair prospect; or a tower of state, for a proud mind to raise itself
upon; or a fort or commanding ground, for strife and contention; or
a shop, for profit or sale; and not a rich storehouse for the glory
of the Creator and the relief of man's estate. But this is that
which will indeed dignify and exalt knowledge, if contemplation and
action may be more nearly and straitly conjoined and united together
than they have been: a conjunction like unto that of the two
highest planets, Saturn, the planet of rest and contemplation; and
Jupiter, the planet of civil society and action, howbeit, I do not
mean, when I speak of use and action, that end before-mentioned of
the applying of knowledge to lucre and profession; for I am not
ignorant how much that diverteth and interrupteth the prosecution
and advancement of knowledge, like unto the golden ball thrown
before Atalanta, which, while she goeth aside and stoopeth to take
up, the race is hindered,
"Declinat cursus, aurumque volubile tollit.
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