For unto that imitation we are called: Diligite
inimicos vestros, benefacite eis qui oderunt vos, et orate pro
persequentibus et calumniantibus vos, ut sitis filii Patris vestri
qui in coelis est, qui solem suum oriri facit super bonos et malos,
et pluit super justos et injustos. So in the first platform of the
divine nature itself, the heathen religion speaketh thus, Optimus
Maximus: and the sacred Scriptures thus, Miscericordia ejus super
omnia opera ejus.
(16) Wherefore I do conclude this part of moral knowledge,
concerning the culture and regiment of the mind; wherein if any man,
considering the arts thereof which I have enumerated, do judge that
my labour is but to collect into an art or science that which hath
been pretermitted by others, as matter of common sense and
experience, he judgeth well. But as Philocrates sported with
Demosthenes, "You may not marvel (Athenians) that Demosthenes and I
do differ; for he drinketh water, and I drink wine;" and like as we
read of an ancient parable of the two gates of sleep -
"Sunt geminae somni portae: quarum altera fertur
Cornea, qua veris facilis datur exitus umbris:
Altera candenti perfecta nitens elephanto,
Sed falsa ad coelum mittunt insomnia manes:"
so if we put on sobriety and attention, we shall find it a sure
maxim in knowledge, that the more pleasant liquor ("of wine") is the
more vaporous, and the braver gate ("of ivory") sendeth forth the
falser dreams.
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