And justly; for the merit
of the former is confined within the circle of an age or a nation,
and is like fruitful showers, which though they be profitable and
good, yet serve but for that season, and for a latitude of ground
where they fall; but the other is, indeed, like the benefits of
heaven, which are permanent and universal. The former again is
mixed with strife and perturbation, but the latter hath the true
character of Divine Presence, coming in aura leni, without noise or
agitation.
(2) Neither is certainly that other merit of learning, in repressing
the inconveniences which grow from man to man, much inferior to the
former, of relieving the necessities which arise from nature, which
merit was lively set forth by the ancients in that feigned relation
of Orpheus' theatre, where all beasts and birds assembled, and,
forgetting their several appetites--some of prey, some of game, some
of quarrel--stood all sociably together listening unto the airs and
accords of the harp, the sound whereof no sooner ceased, or was
drowned by some louder noise, but every beast returned to his own
nature; wherein is aptly described the nature and condition of men,
who are full of savage and unreclaimed desires, of profit, of lust,
of revenge; which as long as they give ear to precepts, to laws, to
religion, sweetly touched with eloquence and persuasion of books, of
sermons, of harangues, so long is society and peace maintained; but
if these instruments be silent, or that sedition and tumult make
them not audible, all things dissolve into anarchy and confusion.
Pages:
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92