(13) For arts of pleasure sensual, the chief deficience in them is
of laws to repress them. For as it hath been well observed, that
the arts which flourish in times while virtue is in growth, are
military; and while virtue is in state, are liberal; and while
virtue is in declination, are voluptuary: so I doubt that this age
of the world is somewhat upon the descent of the wheel. With arts
voluptuary I couple practices joculary; for the deceiving of the
senses is one of the pleasures of the senses. As for games of
recreation, I hold them to belong to civil life and education. And
thus much of that particular human philosophy which concerns the
body, which is but the tabernacle of the mind.
XI. (1) For human knowledge which concerns the mind, it hath two
parts; the one that inquireth of the substance or nature of the soul
or mind, the other that inquireth of the faculties or functions
thereof. Unto the first of these, the considerations of the
original of the soul, whether it be native or adventive, and how far
it is exempted from laws of matter, and of the immortality thereof,
and many other points, do appertain: which have been not more
laboriously inquired than variously reported; so as the travail
therein taken seemeth to have been rather in a maze than in a way.
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