d of her children."

_SECOND BOOK_

The parts of human learning have reference to the three parts of man's
understanding--history to his memory, poetry to his imagination, and
philosophy to his reason. Divine learning receives the same
distribution, so that theology consisteth of history of the Church; of
parables, which are divine poetry; and of holy doctrine or precept. For
prophecy is but divine history, in which the narrative is before the
fact.

History is "natural," "civil," "ecclesiastical," and "literary ";
whereof the first three are extant, but the fourth is deficient. A true
history of learning throughout the ages is wanting. History of Nature is
of three sorts--of Nature in course, of Nature erring or varying, and of
Nature altered or worked; that is, history of creatures, history of
marvels, and history of arts. The first of these is extant in good
perfection; the two others are handled so weakly that I note them as
deficient. The history of arts is of great use towards natural
philosophy such as shall be operative to the benefit of man's life.
Civil history is of three kinds: "memorials," "perfect histories," and
"antiquities," comparable to unfinished, perfect and defaced pictures.
Just or perfect history represents a time, a person, or an action. The
first we call "chronicles"; the second, "lives"; and the third,
"narrations," or "relations."

Of modern histories the greater part are beneath mediocrity. Annals and
journals are a kind of history not to be forgotten; and there is also
ruminated history, wherein political discourse and observations are
mingled with the history of the events themselves. The history of
cosmography is compounded of natural history, civil history, and
mathematics. Ecclesiastical history receives the same divisions with
civil history, but may further be divided into history of the Church,
history of prophecy, and history of Providence. The first of these is
not deficient, only I would that the sincerity of it were proportionate
to its mass and quantity. The history of prophecy, sorting every
prophecy with the event fulfilling the same, is deficient; but the
history of Providence, and the notable examples of God's judgments and
deliverances have passed through the labour of many. Orations, letters,
and brief sayings, or apophthegms, are appendices to history. Thus much
concerning history, which answers to memory.

Poetry refers to the imagination. In respect of its word