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THE SECOND BOOKE 309
discourse is overthrowne. The dispute hath no other
scope, and to enquire no other end hut the principles:
If this end stay not his course, he casteth himselfe into
an infinite irresolution. Non potest aliud alio magis
minusque comprehendi, quoniam omnium rerum ma est
definitio comprehendendi: ' One thing can neither more
nor lesse he comprehended than another, since of all
things there is one definition of comprehending. 1 Now
it is likely that if the soule knew any thing, shee first
knew her selfe : and if she knew any without and
besides her selfe, it must be her vaile and body before
any thing else. If even at this day the Gods of
Physicke are seene to wrangle about our Anatomie,
Mulciber in Troxam, pro Tioia stabat Apollo,¹
Apollo stood for Troy,
Vulcan Troy to destroy,
when shall we expect that they will be agreed ? We
are neerer unto our selves, then is whitenesse unto snow
or weight unto a stone. If man know not himselfe
how can hee know his functions and forces ? It is not
by fortune that some true notice doth not lodge with
us but by hazard. And forasmuch as by the same way,
fashion and conduct, errours are received into our
soule, she hath not wherewithall to distinguish them,
nor whereby to chuse the truth from falshood. The
Academikcs received some inclination of judgment
and found it over raw, to say, it was no more likely
snow should be white then blacke, and that wee should
be no more assured of the moving of a stone, which
goeth from our hand, then of that of the eighth Spheare.
And to avoid this difficultie and strangenesse, which in
truth cannot but hardly lodge in our imagination, howbeit
they establish that we were no way capable of
knowledge, and that truth is engulfed in the deepest
Abysses, where mans sight can no way enter; yet
avowed they some things to be more likely and possible
then others, and received this faculty in their judgement
1 OVID. Trist. 1. i. El ii. 5.