BACON ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING Book I SELBY 7 / THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. BOOK I. BACON THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING BOOK I. WITH NOTES F. G. SELBY, M.A., Oxon. LATE SCHOLAR OF WADHAM COLLEGE; PRINCIPAL AND PROFESSOR OF LOGIC AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY, DECCAN COLLEGE, POONA J FELLOW OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BOMBAY BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY CHESTNUT HIE; , MASS. fSJonbint MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1898 All rights reserved First Edition 1892. Reprinted 1893, 1898. ’£II C 13 Sf- b*. \ 181046 GLASGOW! PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. CONTENTS. PAGE The Advancement of Learning, 1 Notes, 68 Index to Notes. 146 THE FIRST BOOK OF FRANCIS BACON ; OF THE PROFICIENCE AND ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, DIVINE AND HUMAN. To the King. There were under the law, excellent King, both daily sacrifices and freewill offerings ; the one proceeding upon ordinary observance, the other upon a devout cheerfulness : in like manner there belongeth to kings from their servants both tribute of duty and presents of affection. In the former of these I hope I shall not live to be wanting, according to my most humble duty, and the good pleasure of your Majesty’s employments : for the latter, I thought it more respective to make choice of some oblation, which might rather refer to the propriety and excellency of your individual 10 person, than to the business of your crown and state. Wherefore, representing your Majesty many times unto my mind, and beholding you not with the inquisitive eye of presumption, to discover that which the Scripture telleth me is inscrutable, but with the observant eye of duty and admiration ; leaving aside the other parts of your virtue and fortune, I have been touched, yea, and possessed with ledge , as we forget our mortality : the second, That we make application of our knowledge , to give ourselves repose and contentment , and not distaste or repining : the third, That we do not presume hy the contemplation of nature to attain to 20 the mysteries of God . For as touching the first of these, Solomon doth excellently expound himself in another place of the same book, where he saith : I saw well that knowledge, recedeth as far from ignorance as light doth from darkness ; and that the wise marts eyes keep watch in his head , whereas the fool roundet h about in darkness : hut withal I learned , that the same mortality involveth them both. And for the second, certain it is, there is no vexation or anxiety of mind which resulteth from knowledge, otherwise than merely by acci- dent ; for all knowledge and wonder (which is the seed of 30 knowledge) is an impression of pleasure in itself : but when men fall to framing conclusions out of their knowledge, applying it to their particular, and ministering to themselves thereby weak fears or vast desires, there groweth that carefulness and trouble of mind which is spoken of : for then knowledge is no more Lumen siccum , [a dry light,] whereof From unit w /7Qt' at h 8 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. Heraclitus the profound said, Lumen siccum optima anima; [a dry light is the best soul ;] but it becometh lumen madidum , [a light wet^\ or maceratum [softened ] by steeping, being steeped and infused in the humours of the affections. And as for the third point, it deserveth to be a little stood upon, and not to be lightly passed over : for if any man shall think by view and inquiry into these sensible and material things to attain that light, whereby he may reveal unto himself the nature or will of God, then indeed is he spoiled 10 by vain philosophy : for the contemplation of God’s creatures and works produceth (having regard to the works and creatures themselves) knowledge, but having regard to God, no perfect knowledge, but wonder, which is broken know- ledge. And therefore it was most aptly said by one of Plato’s school, That the sense of man carrieth a resemblance with the sun , which , as we see , openeth and revealeth all the terrestrial globe ; but then again it obscureth and concealeth the stars and celestial globe : so doth the sense discover natural things , but it darkeneth and sliutteth up divine. [ And hence it 20 is true that it hath proceeded, that divers great learned men have been heretical, 1 whilst they have sought to fly up to the secrets of the Deityhby the waxen wings of the senses. And as for the conceit^that too much knowledge should incline a man to atheism, and that the ignorance of second causes should make a more devout dependence upon God, which is the first cause ; first, it is good to ask the question which Job^asked of his friends : Will you lie for God , as one man will do for another , to gratify him ? For certain it is that God worketh nothing in nature "but by second causes : 30 and if they would have it otherwise believed, it is mere imposture, as it were in favour towards God ; and nothing else but to offer to the author of truth the unclean sacrifice of a lie. But further, it is an assured truth, and a conclusion of experience, that a little or superficial knowledge, of phi}qsophv may incline the mind of man to atheism, but a farther proceeding therein doth bring the mind back S THE FIRST BOOK. 9 again to religion : for in the entrance of philosophy, when the second causes which are next unto the senses, do offer themselves to the mind of man, if it dwell and stay there it may induce some oblivion of the highest cause ; but when a man passeth on further, and seeth the dependence of causes, and the works of Providence ; then, according to the allegory of the poets, he will easily believe that the highest link of nature’s chain must needs be tied to the foot of Jupiter’s chair. To conclude, therefore, let no man upon a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think or maintain, that a man can search too far, or be too well studied in the book of God’s word, or in the book of God’s works, divinity or philosophy ; but rather let men endeavour an endless progress or proficience in both ; only let men beware that they apply both to charity, and not to swelling ; to use, and not to ostentation ; and again, that they do not unwisely mingle or confound these learnings together. TT 10 And as for the disgraces which learning receiveth from politicians, they be of this nature ; that learning doth 20 soften men’s minds, and makes them more unapt for the honour and exercise of arms ; that it doth mar and pervert men’s dispositions for matter of government and policy ; in making them too curious and irresolute by variety of reading ; or too peremptory or positive by strictness of rules and axioms ; or too immoderate and overweening by reason of the greatness of examples ; or too incompatible and differing from the times, by reason of the dissimilitude of examples ; or at least, that it doth divert men’s travails from action and business, and bringeth them to a love of 30 leisure and privateness ; and that it doth bring into states a relaxation of discipline, whilst every man is more ready to argue, than to obey and execute. Out of this conceit, Cato, surnamed the Censor, one of the wisest men indeed that ever lived, when Carneades the philosopher came in 10 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. embassage to Rome, and that the young men of Rome began to flock about him, being allured with the sweetness and majesty of his eloquence and learning, gave counsel in open senate, that they should give him his dispatch with all speed, lest he should infect and enchant the minds and affections of the youth, and at unawares bring in an alteration of the manners and customs of the state. Out of the same conceit, or humour, did Virgil, turning his pen to the advantage of his country, and the disadvantage 10 of his own profession, make a kind of separation between policy and government, and between arts and sciences, in the verses so much renowned, attributing and challenging the one to the Romans, and leaving and yielding the other to the Grecians : Tu regere imperio populos , Romane , memento , Hoe tibi erunt artes , etc.: [Be it thy task , 0 Roman , to rule over subject peoples.'] So likewise we see that Anytus, the accuser of Socrates, laid it as an article of charge and accusation against him, that he did, with the variety and power of his discourses and disputations, withdraw young 20 men from due reverence to the laws and customs of their country ; and that he did profess a dangerous and pernicious science, which was to make the worse matter seem the better, and to suppress truth by force of eloquence and speech. But these, and the like imputations, have rather a countenance of gravity, than any ground of justice : for experience doth warrant, that both in persons and in times, there hath been a meeting and concurrence in learning and arms, flourishing and excelling in the same men and the 30 same ages. For, as for men, there cannot be a better nor the like instance, as of that pair, Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar the Dictator ; whereof the one was Aristotle’s scholar in philosophy, and the other was Cicero’s rival in eloquence : or if any man had rather call for scholars that were great generals, than generals that were great scholars, let him take Epaminondas the Theban or Xenophon the THE FIRST BOOK. 11 Athenian ; whereof the one was the first that abated the power of Sparta, and the other was the first that made way to the overthrow of the monarchy of Persia. And this con- currence is yet more visible in times than in persons, by how much an age is a greater object than a man. For both in Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Grecia, and Rome, the same times that are most renowned for arms, are likewise most admired for learning ; so that the greatest authors and philosophers, and the greatest captains and governors have lived in the same ages. Neither can it otherwise be : for as, in man, the 10 ripeness of strength of the body and mind cometh much about an age, save that the strength of the body cometh somewhat the more early ; so in states, arms and learning, whereof the one corresponded to the body, the other to the soul of man, have a concurrence or near sequence in times. And for matter of policy and government, that learn- ing should rather hurt, than enable thereunto, is a thing very improbable : we see it is accounted an error to com- mit a natural body to empiric physicians which com- 20 monly have a few pleasing receipts whereupon they are confident and adventurous, but know neither the causes of diseases, nor the complexions of patients, nor peril of J accidents, nor the true method of cures : we see it is a like error to rely upon advocates or lawyers, which are only men of practice and not grounded in their books, who are many times easily surprised, when matter falleth out besides their experience, to the prejudice of the causes they handle : so, by like reason, it cannot be but a matter of doubtful conse- quence, if states be managed by empiric statesmen, not well 30 mingled with men grounded in learning. But contrariwise, it is almost without instance contradictory, that ever any government was disastrous that was in the hands of learned governors. For howsoever it hath been ordinary with politic men to extenuate and disable learned men by the names of pedants ; yet in the records of time it appeareth, in many 12 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. particulars, that the governments of princes in minority (notwithstanding the infinite disadvantage of that kind of state) have nevertheless excelled the government of princes of mature age, even for that reason which they seek to traduce, which is, that by that occasion the state hath been in the hands of 'pedants : for so was the state of Rome for the first five years, which are so much magnified, during the minority of Nero, in the hands of Seneca, a pedant l e: so it was again, for ten years’ space or more, during the minority ] 0 of Gordianus the younger, with great applause and contenta- tion in the hands of Misitheus a pedant : so was it before that, in the minority of Alexander Severus, in like happiness, in hands not much unlike, by reason of the rule of the women, who were aided by the teachers and preceptors. Nay, let a man look into the government of the Bishops of Rome, as by name, into the government of Pius Quintus, and Sextus Quintus, in our times, who were both at their entrance esteemed but as pedantical friars, and he shall find that such Popes do greater things, and proceed upon truer 20 principles of estate, than those which have ascended to the papacy from an education and breeding in affairs of estate and courts of princes ; for although men bred in learning are perhaps to seek in points of convenience and accommodating for the present, which the Italians call ragioni di stato , [: reasons of state ,] whereof the same Pius Quintus could not hear spoken with patience, terming them inventions against religion and the moral virtues ; yet on the other side, to recompense that, they are perfect in those same plain grounds of religion, justice, honour, and moral virtue, which 30 if they be well and watchfully pursued, there will be seldom use of those other, no more than of physic in a sound or well-dieted body. Neither can the experience of one man’s • life furnish examples and precedents for the events of one man’s life : for, as it happen eth sometimes that the grand- child, or other descendant, resembleth the ancestor more than the son ; so many times occurrences of present times THE FIRST BOOK. 13 may sort better with ancient examples, than with those of the latter or immediate times : and lastly, the wit of one man can no more countervail learning than one man's means can hold way with a common purse. And as for those particular seducements, or indisposi- tions of the mind for policy and government, which learning is pretended to insinuate ; if it be granted that any such thing be, it must be remembered withal, that learning ministereth in every of them greater strength of medicine or remedy, than it offereth cause of indisposition or infirmity ; 10 for if, by a secret operation, it make men perplexed and irresolute, on the other side, by plain precept it teacheth them when and upon what ground to resolve ; yea, and how to carry things in suspense, without prejudice, till they^ resolve ; if it make men positive and regular, it teacheth them what things are in their nature demonstrative, and what are conjectural ; and as well the use of distinctions and exceptions, as the latitude of principles and rules. If it mis- lead by disproportion, or dissimilitude of examples, it teacheth men the force of circumstances, the errors of comparisons, 20 and all the cautions of application ; so that in all these it doth rectify more effectually than it can pervert. And these medicines it conveyeth into men’s minds much more forcibly by the quickness and penetration of examples. For let a man look into the errors of Clement the Seventh, so lively described by Guicciardine, who served under him, or into the errors of Cicero, painted out by his own pencil in his Epistles to Atticus, and he will fly apace from being irresolute. Let him look into the errors of Phocion, and he will beware how he be obstinate or inflexible. Let him but read the fable of 30 Ixion, and it will hold him from being vaporous or imagina- tive. Let him look into the errors of Cato the second, and he will never be one of the Antipodes, to tread opposite to the present world. And for the conceit that learning should dispose men to leisure and privateness, and make men slothful ; it were a 14 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. strange thing if that, which accustom eth the mind to a perpetual motion and agitation, should induce slothfulness : whereas contrariwise it may be truly affirmed, that no kind of men love business for itself, but those that are learned ; for other persons love it for profit, as a hireling, that loves > the work for the wages ; or for honour, as because it beareth them up in the eyes of men, and refresheth their reputation, which otherwise would wear ; or because it putteth them in mind of their fortune, and giveth them occasion to pleasure 10 and displeasure ; or because it exerciseth some faculty wherein they take pride, and so entertaineth them in good humour and pleasing conceits toward themselves ; or because it advanceth any other their ends. So that, as it is said of untrue valours, that some men’s valours are in the eyes of them that look on ; so such men’s industries are in the eyes of others, or at least in regard of their own designments : only learned men love business, as an action according to nature, as agreeable to health of mind, as exercise is to health of body, taking pleasure in the action itself, and not in the 20 purchase : so that of all men they are the most indefatigable, if it be towards any business which can hold or detain their mind. And if any man be laborious in reading and study, and yet idle in business and action, it groweth from some weak- ness of body, or softness of spirit ; such as Seneca speaketh of : Quidam tarn sunt umbratiles , ut putent in turbido esse quicquid in luce est ; [Some men live so much in the shade , that whenever they are in the light they seem to be in trouble ;] and not of learning : well may it be, that such a point of a 30 man’s nature may make him give himself to learning, but it is not learning that breedeth any such point in his nature. And that learning should take up too much time or leisure : I answer ; the most active or busy man that hath been or can be, hath, no question, many vacant times of leisure, while he expecteth the tides and returns of business (except he be either tedious and of no despatch, or lightly THE FIRST BOOK. 15 and unworthily ambitious to meddle in things that may be better done by others :) and then the question is, but how those spaces and times of leisure shall be filled and spent ; whether in pleasures or in studies ; as was well answered by Demosthenes to his adversary HEschines, that was a man given to pleasure, and told him, That his orations did smell of the lamp : Indeed , said Demosthenes, there is great difference between the things that you and I do by lamp-light. So as no man need doubt that learning will expulse business, but rather it will keep and defend the possession of the mind 10 against idleness and pleasure, which otherwise at unawares may enter to the prejudice of both. Again, for that other conceit, that learning should undermine the reverence of laws and government, it is assuredly a mere depravation and calumny, without all shadow of truth. For to say, that a blind custom of obedi- ence should be a surer obligation than duty taught and under- stood ; it is to affirm, that a blind man may tread surer by a guide than a seeing man can by a light. And it is without all controversy, that learning doth make the minds 20 of men gentle, generous, maniable, and pliant to government ; whereas ignorance makes them churlish, thwart, and muti- nous : and the evidence of time doth clear this assertion, considering that the most barbarous, rude, and unlearned times have been most subject to tumults, seditions, and changes. And as to the judgment of Cato, the Censor, he was well punished for his blasphemy against learning, in the same kind wherein he offended ; for when he was past threescore years old, he was taken with an extreme desire 30 to go to school again, and to learn the Greek tongue, to the end to peruse the Greek authors ; which doth well demonstrate, that his former censure of the Grecian learning was rather an affected gravity, than according to the in- ward sense of his own opinion. And as for Virgil’s verses, though it pleased him to brave the world in taking to the 16 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. Romans the art of empire, and leaving to others the arts of subjects ; yet so much is manifest, that the Romans never ascended to that height of empire, till the time they had ascended to the height of other arts. For in the time of the two first Csesars, which had the art of government in greatest perfection, there lived the best poet, Virgilius Maro ; the best historiographer, Titus Livius ; the best antiquary, Marcus Varro ; and the best, or second orator, Marcus Cicero, that to the memory of man are known. 10 As for the accusation of Socrates, the time must be remem- bered when it was prosecuted ; which was under the Thirty Tyrants, the most base, bloody, and envious persons that have governed ; which revolution of state was no sooner over, but Socrates, whom they had made a person criminal, was made a person heroical, and his memory accumulate with honours divine and human ; and those discourses of his which were then termed corrupting of manners, were after acknowledged for sovereign medicines of the mind and manners, and so have been received ever since till 20 this day. Let this, therefore, serve for answer to politicians, which in their humorous severity, or in their feigned gravity, have presumed to throw imputations upon learning ; which redargut ion nevertheless (save that we know not whether our labours may extend to other ages) were not needful for the present, in regard of the love and reverence towards learning, which the example and countenance of two so learned princes. Queen Elizabeth and your Majesty, being as Castor and Pollux, lucida sidera , \bright stars ,] stars of excellent light and most benign influence, hath 30 wrought in all men of place and authority in our nation. C bap. Jtr. Now therefore we come to that third sort of discredit or diminution of credit, that groweth unto learning from learned men themselves, which commonly cleaveth fastest : it is either from their fortune ; or from their manners ; or from the nature of their studies. For the first, THE FIRST BOOK. 17 M. it is not in their power ; and the second is accidental : the third only is proper to be handled : but because we are not in hand with true measure, but with popular estimation and conceit, it is not amiss to speak somewhat of the two former. The derogations therefore which grow to learning from the fortune or condition of learned men, are either in respect of scarcity of means, or in respect of privateness of life, and meanness of employments. Concerning want, and that it is the case of learned men usually to begin with little, and not to grow rich so 10 fast as other men, by reason they convert not their labours chiefly to lucre and increase : it were good to leave the common place in commendation of poverty to some friar to handle, to whom much was attributed by Machiavel in this point ; when he said, That the kingdom of the clergy had been long before at an end , if the reputation and reverence towards the poverty of friars had not borne out the scandal of the superfluities and excesses of bishops and prelates. So a man might say that the felicity and delicacy of princes and great persons had long since turned to rudeness and barbarism, 20 if the poverty of learning had not kept up civility and honour of life : but without any such advantages, it is worthy the observation, what a reverent and honoured thing poverty of fortune was, for some ages, in the Roman state, which nevertheless was a state without paradoxes : for we see what Titus Livius saitli in his introduction : Coeterum aut me amor negotii suscepti fallit aut mdla unquam respublica nec major , nec sanctior , nec bonis exemplis ditior fuit ; nec in quam tarn serce avaritia luxuriaque immigra - verint ; nec ubi tantus ac tarn diu paupertati ac parsimonies 30 honos fuerit : [If I am not led aivay by love of the task which I have undertaken , there never was a state greater nor more religious , nor richer in good examples than Rome: nor one into which avarice and luxury were so long in making their way : nor one in which poverty and economy were held in such great and such long continued esteem. ] We see likewise, after 18 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. that the state of Rome was not itself, but did degenerate, how that person, that took upon him to be counsellor to Julius Caesar after his victory, where to begin his restoration of the state, maketh it of all points the most summary to take away the estimation of wealth : Verum hcec et omnia mala pariter cum honore pecuniae desinent: si neque magis- trate, neque alia vulgo cupienda venalia erunt : [ But these and all evils will disappear when wealth is no longer honoured , and when the magistracies and other objects of general 10 ambition are not procurable by money. ] To conclude this point, as it was truly said, that Rubor est virtutis color , [A blush is virtue's colour ,] though sometime it come from vice ; so it may be fitly said that Paupertas est virtutis fortuna , [. Poverty is virtues fortune ,] though sometime it may proceed from misgovernment and accident. Surely Solomon hath pronounced it both in censure, Qui festinat ad divitias non erit insons , \He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent ;] and in precept, Buy the truth , and sell it not ; and so of wisdom and knowledge ; judging that means 20 were to be spent upon learning, and not learning to be applied to means. And as for the privateness, or obscure- ness (as it may be in vulgar estimation accounted) of life of contemplative men ; it is a theme so common, to extol a private life not taxed with sensuality and sloth, in com- parison and to the disadvantage of a civil life, for safety, liberty, pleasure, and dignity, or at least freedom from indignity, as no man handleth it, but handleth it well : such a consonancy it hath to men’s conceits in the express- ing, and to men’s consents in the allowing. This only 30 I will add, that learned men forgotten in states, and not living in the eyes of men, are like the images of Cassius and Brutus in the funeral of Junia : of which not being represented, as many others were, Tacitus saith, Eo ipso prcefulgebant , quod non visebantur : [ They out- shone them all from the very fact that they were not to be THE FIRST BOOK. 19 And for meanness of employment, that which is most traduced to contempt is that the government of youth is commonly allotted to them ; which age, because it is the age of least authority, it is transferred to the disesteeming of those employments wherein youth is conversant, and which are conversant about youth. But how unjust this traducement is (if you will reduce things from popularity of opinion to measure of reason) may appear in that, we see men are more curious what they put into a new vessel, than into a vessel seasoned ; and what mould they lay 10 about a young plant, than about a plant corroborate ; so as the weakest terms and times of all things use to have the best applications and helps. And will you hearken to the Hebrew rabbins ? Your young men shall see visions , and your old men shall dream dreams ; say they youth is the worthier age, for that visions are nearer apparitions of God than dreams ? And let it be noted, that howsoever the condition of life of pedants hath been scorned upon theatres, as the ape of tyranny ; and that the modern looseness or negligence hath taken no due regard to the ?20 choice of schoolmasters and tutors ; yet the ancient wisdom of the best times, did always make a just complaint, that states were too busy with their laws, and too negligent in point of education : which excellent part of ancient dis- cipline hath been in some sort revived of late times by the colleges of the Jesuits ; of whom, although in regard of their superstition I may say, Quo meliores , eo deteriores , \The better they are the worse they are ;\ yet in regard of this, and some other points concerning human learning and moral matters, I may say, as Agesilaus said to his enemy 30 Pharnabazus, Tails quum sis , utinam noster esses , [ You are so good that I wish you were on our side.] And thus much touching the discredits drawn from the fortunes of learned men. As touching the manners of learned men, it is a thing personal and individual : and no doubt there be amongst 20 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. them, as in other professions, of all ^temperatures : but yet so as it is not without truth, which is said, that Abeunt studia in mores , studies have an influence an d operation up on the manners of those that are conversant in them. But upon an attentive and indifferent review, I for my part cannot find any disgrace to learning can proceed from the manners of learned men not inherent to them as they are learned ; except it be a fault (which was the supposed fault of Demosthenes, Cicero, Cato the second, 10 Seneca, and many more) that, because the times they read of are commonly better than the times they live in, and the duties taught better than the duties practised, they contend sometimes too far to bring things to perfection, and to reduce the corruption of manners to honesty of precepts or examples of too great height. And yet hereof they have caveats enough in their own walks. For Solon, when he was asked whether he had given his citizens the best laws, answered wisely, Tea , of such as they would receive: and Plato, finding that his own heart could not agree with 20 the corrupt manners of his country, refused to bear place or office ; saying, That a man's country was to be used as his parents were , that is, with humble persuasions, and not with contestations. And Caesar’s counsellor put in the same caveat, Non ad vetera instituta revocans quce jampridem corruptis moribus ludibrio sunt: [Do not attempt to restore things to the original institutions which , by the long corruption of manners, have fallen into contempt ;] -and Cicero noteth this error directly in Cato the second, when he writes to his friend Atticus, Cato optime sentit, sed nocet interdum rei- 30 publicce; loquitur enim tanquam in republica Platonis, non tanquam in fcece Romuli: [Cato's opinions are excellent, but sometimes do harm to the commomvealth : for he speaks as if he were living in Plato's republic, and not amid the dregs of the Roman populace .] And the same Cicero doth excuse and expound the philosophers for going too far, and being too exact in their prescripts, when he saith, Isti ipsi prceceptores THE FIRST BOOK. 21 virtutis et magistri , videntur fines ofilciorum paulo longius quam natura vellet protidisse , ut cum ad ultimum animo contendissemus , ibi tamen , ubi oportet , consisteremus : [ Those very teachers of virtue themselves seem to have fixed the standard of duty somewhat higher than nature can bear : in order that after stnving our utmost to attain to it, we might at any rate reach the proper standard:] and yet himself might have said, Monitis sum minor ipse meis, \I do not act up to my own precepts ;] for it was his own fault, though not in so extreme a degree. 10 Another fault likewise much of this kind hath been in- cident to learned men ; which is, that they have esteemed the preservation, good, and honour of their countries or masters before their own fortunes or safeties. For so saith Demosthenes unto the Athenians : If it please you to note it, my counsels unto you are not such whereby I should grow great amongst you, and you become little amongst the Grecians ; but they be of that nature, as they are sometimes not good for me to give, but are always good for you to follow. And so Seneca, after he had consecrated that quinquennium Neronis 20 [ those five years of Nerds reign ] to the eternal glory of learned governors, held on his honest and loyal course of good and free counsel, after his master grew extremely corrupt in his government. Neither can this point otherwise be ; for learning endueth men’s minds with a true sense of the frailty of their persons, the casualty of their fortunes, and the dignity of their soul and vocation : so that it is im- possible for them to esteem that any greatness of their own fortune can be a true or worthy end of their being and ordainment ; and therefore are desirous to give their account 30 to God, and so likewise to their masters under God (as kings and the states that they serve) in these words ; Ecce tibi lucrefeci, \Lo ! I have made profit for you,] and not Ecce mihi lucrefeci: [Lo ! I have made profit for myself:] whereas the corrupter sort of mere politicians, that have not their thoughts established by learning in the love and appre- 22 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. hension of duty, nor ever look abroad into universality, do refer all things to themselves, and thrust themselves into the centre of the world, as if all lines should meet in them and their fortunes ; never caring, in all tempests, what becomes of the ship of estates , so they may save themselves in the cockboat of their own fortune : whereas men that feel the weight of duty, and know the limits of self-love, use to make good their places and duties, though with peril ; and if they stand in seditious and violent alterations, it is rather the 10 reverence which many times both adverse parts do give to honesty, than any versatile advantage of their own carriage. But for this point of tender sense, and fast obligation of duty, which learning doth endue the mind withal, howsoever fortune may tax it, and many in the depth of their corrupt principles may despise it, yet it will receive an open allow- ance, and therefore needs the less disproof or excusation. f 7 Another fault incident commonly to learned men, which may be more probably defended than truly denied, is, that they fail sometimes in applying themselves to particular 20 persons : which want of exact application ariseth from two causes ; the one, because the largeness of their mind can hardly confine itself to dwell in the exquisite observation or examination of the nature and customs of one person : for it is a speech for a lover, and not for a wise man, Satis magnum alter alteri theatrum sumus : [ We are a sufficiently large theatre one for another. \ Nevertheless I shall yield, that he that cannot contract the sight of his mind, as well as disperse and dilate it, wanteth a great faculty. But there is a second cause, which is no inability, but a rejection upon choice and 30 judgment. For the honest and just bounds of observation by one person upon another, extend no further but to under- stand him sufficiently, whereby not to give him offence, or whereby to be able to give him faithful counsel, or whereby to stand upon reasonable guard and caution in respect of a man’s self : but to be speculative into another man, to the end to know how to work him, or wind him, or govern him, THE FIRST BOOK. 23 proceedeth from a heart that is double and cloven, and not entire and ingenuous ; which as in friendship it is want of integrity, so towards princes or superiors is want of duty. For the custom of the Levant, which is, that subjects do for- bear to gaze or fix their eyes upon princes, is in the outward ceremony barbarous, but the moral is good : for men ought not by cunning and bent observations to pierce and penetrate into the hearts of kings, which the Scripture hath declared to be inscrutable. Its There is yet another fault (with which I will conclude 10 this part) which is often noted in learned men, that they do many times fail to observe decency and discretion in their behaviour and carriage, and commit errors in small and ordinary points of action, so as the vulgar sort of capacities do make a judgment, of them i n greater matters by that which they find wanting in them in smaller. But this con- sequence doth oft deceive men, for which I do refer them over to that which was said by Themistocles, arrogantly and uncivilly being applied to himself out of his own mouth; but, being applied to the general state of this question, 20 pertinently and justly ; when, being invited to touch a lute, he said, He could not fiddle , but he could make a small town a great state. So, no doubt, many may be well seen in the passages of government and policy, which are to seek in little and punctual occasions. I refer them also to that which Plato said of his master Socrates, whom he compared to the gallipots of apothecaries, which on the outside had apes and owls and antiques, but contained within sovereign and precious liquors and confections; acknowledging that to an external report he was not without superficial levities and 30 deformities, but was inwardly replenished with excellent virtues and powers. And so much touching the point of manners of learned men. But in the mean time I have no purpose to give allow- ance to some conditions and courses base and unworthy, wherein divers professors of learning have wronged them- 24 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. selves, and gone too far ; such as were those trencher phil- osophers, which in the later age of the Roman state were usually in the houses of great persons, being little better than solemn parasites ; of which kind, Lucian maketh a merry description of the philosopher that the great lady took to ride with her in her coach, and would needs have him carry her little dog, which he doing officiously and yet uncomely, the page scoffed, and said, That he doubted , the philosopher of a Stoic would turn to be a Cynic. But above all the rest, the 10 gross and palpable flattery, whereunto many not unlearned have abased and abused their wits and pens, turning, as Du Bartas saith, Hecuba into Helena, and Faustina into Lucretia, hath most diminished the price and estimation of learning. Neither is the modern dedication of books and writings, as to patrons, to be commended, for that books, such as are worthy the name of books, ought to have no patrons but truth and reason. And the ancient custom was to dedicate 2C them only to private and equal friends, or to entitle the books with their names : or if to kings and great persons, it was to some such as the argument of the book was fit and proper for : but these and the like courses may deserve rather reprehension than defence. IT /tf Not that I can tax or condemn the morigeration or application of learned men to men in fortune. For the answer was good that Diogenes made to one that asked him in mockery, How it came to pass that philosophers were the followers of rich men , and not rich men of philosophers ? He answered soberly, and yet sharply, Because the one sort knew what they had need of and the other did not. And of the like "30 nature was the answer which Aristippus made, when having a petition to Dionysius, and no ear given to him, he fell down at his feet ; whereupon Dionysius stayed, and gave him the hearing, and granted it ; and afterward some person, tender on the behalf of philosophy, reproved Aristippus that he would offer the profession of philosophy such an indignity, as for a private suit to fall at a tyrant’s feet : but he THE FIRST BOOK. 25 answered, It was not his fault , but it was the fault of jg Dionysius , that had his ears in his feet. Neither was it ^ accounted weakness, but discretion in him that would not dispute his best with Adrianus Caesar ; excusing himself, That it was reason to yield to him that commanded thirty legions. These and the like applications, and stooping to points of necessity and convenience, cannot be disallowed ; for though they may have some outward baseness, yet in a judgment truly made they are to be accounted submissions to the occasion and not to the person. 10 Ch a.J»- ^ /. Now I proceed to those errors and vanities which have intervened amongst the studies themselves of the learned, which is that which is principal and proper to the present argument ; wherein my purpose is not to make a justification of the errors, but, by a censure and separation of the errors, to make a justification of that which is good and sound, and to deliver that from the aspersion of the other. For we see, that it is the manner of men to scandalize and deprave that which retaineth the state and virtue, by taking advantage upon that which is corrupt and degenerate : 20 as the heathens in the primitive church used to blemish and taint the Christians with the faults and corruptions of heretics. But nevertheless I have no meaning at this time to make any exact animadversion of the errors and impedi- ments in matters of learning, which are more secret and remote from vulgar opinion, but only to speak unto such as do fall under or near unto a popular observation. 2 . There be therefore chiefly three vanities in studies, whereby learning hath been most traduced. For those things we do esteem vain, which are either false or frivolous, 30 those which either have no truth, or no use : and those persons we esteem vain, which are either credulous or curious ; and curiosity is either in matter or words : so that in reason, as well as in experience, there fall out to be these three distempers, as I may term them, of learning ; the first, 26 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. fantastical learning ; the second, contentious learning ; and the last, delicate learning ; vain imaginations, vain alterca- tions, and vain affectations ; and with the last I will begin. Martin Luther, conducted no doubt by a higher providence, but in discourse of reason, finding what a province he had undertaken against the Bishop of Rome and the degenerate traditions of the Church, and finding his own solitude, being no ways aided by the opinions of his own time, was enforced to awake all antiquity, and to call former times to his succour, 10 to make a party against the present time. So that the ancient authors, both in divinity and in humanity, which had long time slept in libraries, began generally to be read and revolved. This by consequence did draw on a necessity of a more exquisite travail in the languages original, wherein those authors did write, for the better understanding of those authors, and the better advantage of pressing and applying their words. And thereof grew again a delight in their manner of style and phrase, and an admiration of that kind of writing ; which was much furthered and precipitated 20 by the enmity and opposition that the propounders of those primitive, but seeming new opinions, had against the School- men ; who were generally of the contrary part, and whose writings were altogether in a different style and form ; taking liberty to coin and frame new terms of art to express their own sense, and to avoid circuit of speech, without regard to the pureness, pleasantness, and, as I may call it, lawfulness of the phrase or word. And again, because the great labour that then was with the people (of whom the Pharisees were wont to say, Execrabilis ista turba quce non novit legem , [ That 30 wretched crowd that hioweth not the law ,] for the winning and persuading of them, there grew of necessity in chief price and request eloquence and variety of discourse, as the fittest and forciblest access into the capacity of the vulgar sort : so that these four causes concurring, the admiration of ancient authors, the hate of the Schoolmen, the exact study of languages, and the efficacy of preaching, did bring in an THE FIRST BOOK. 27 3 . affectionate study of eloquence and copia of speech, which then began to flourish. This grew speedily to an excess ; for men began to hunt more after words than matter ; more after the choiceness of the phrase, and the round and clean composition of the sentence, and the sweet falling of the clauses, and the varying and illustration of their works with tropes and figures, than after the weight of matter, worth of subject, soundness of argument, life of invention, or depth of judgment. Then grew the flowing and watery vein of Osorius, the Portugal bishop, to be in price. Then did 10 Sturmius spend such infinite and curious pains upon Cicero the Orator, and Hermogenes the Rhetorician, besides his own books of Periods, and Imitation, and the like. Then did Car of Cambridge, and Ascham. with their lectures and writings, almost deify Cicero ami~T?^ and allure all young men that were studious, unto that delicate and polished kind of learning. Then did Erasmus take occasion to make the'V scoffing echo : Decern annos consumpsi in legendo Cicerone ; [I have spent ten years in reading Cicero ;] and the echo answered i n Greek, "(W, A sine, [Thou donkey Then grew the learning 20 of the Schoolmen to be utterly despised as barbarous. In sum, the whole indication and bent of those times was rather^ towards copia than weight. Here, therefore, is the first distemper of learning, when men study words, and not matter ; whereof, though I have represented an example of late times, yet it hath been, and will be, Secundum majus et minus [in a greater or less degree ] in all time. And how is it possible but this should have an operation to discredit learning, even with vulgar capacities, when they see learned men’s works like the first letter of a 30 patent, or limned book ; which though it hath large flourishes, yet it is but a letter. It seems to me that Pygmalion’s frenzy is a good emblem or portraiture of this vanity : for words are but the images of matter ; and except they have life of reason and invention, to fall in love with them is all one as to fall in love with a picture. o 28 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. But yet, notwithstanding, it is a thing not hastily to be condemned, to clothe and adorn the obscurity even of philosophy itself, with sensible and plausible elocution ; for hereof we have great examples in Xenophon, Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch, and of Plato also in some degree; and hereof likewise there is great use : for surely, to the severe inquisition of truth, and the deep progress into philosophy, it is some hindrance ; because it is too early satisfactory to the mind of man, and quencheth the desire of further 10 search, before we come to a just period : but then if a man be to have any use of such knowledge in civil occasions, of conference, counsel, persuasion, discourse, or the like ; then shall he find it prepared to his hands in those authors which write in that manner. But the excess of this is so justly contemptible, that as Hercules, when he saw the image of Adonis, Venus’ minion, in a temple, said in disdain, Nil sacri es ; [You are no divinity ;] so there is none of Hercules’ followers in learning, that is, the more severe and laborious sort of inquirers into truth, but will despise those delicacies 20 and affectations, as indeed capable of no divineness. And thus much of the first disease or distemper of learning. The second, which followeth, is in nature worse than the former : for as substance of matter is better than beauty of words, so, contrariwise, vain matter is worse than vain words : wherein it seemeth the reprehension of Saint Paul was not only proper for those times, but prophetical for the times following ; and not only respective to divinity, but extensive to all knowledge : Devita prof anas vocum novitates , et oppositiones falsi nominis scientiaej [Avoid profane novel- 30 ties of terms , and oppositions of science falsely so called ]. For he assigneth two marks and badges of suspected and falsified science : the one, the novelty and strangeness of terms ; the other, the strictness of positions, which of neces- sity doth induce oppositions, and so questions and alterca- tions. Surely, like as many substances in nature, which are solid, do putrefy and corrupt into worms ; so it is the THE FIRST BOOK. 29 property of good and sound knowledge, to putrefy and dissolve into a number of subtle, idle, unwholesome, and, as I may term them, vermiculate questions, which have indeed a kind of quickness, and life of spirit, but no soundness of matter, or goodness of quality. This kind of degenerate learning did chiefly reign amongst the schoolmen : who having sharp and strong wits, and abundance of leisure, and small variety of reading, (but their wits being shut up in the cells of a few authors, chiefly Aristotle their dictator, as their persons were shut up in the cells of monasteries and 10 colleges,) and knowing little history, either of nature or time, did, out of no great quantity of matter, and infinite agitation of wit, spin out unto us those laborious webs of learning, which are extant in their books. For the wit and mind of man, if it work upon matter, which is the contem- plation of the creatures of God, worketh according to the stuff, and is limited thereby ; but if it work upon itself, as the spider worketh his web, then it is endless, and brings forth indeed cobwebs of learning, admirable for the fineness of thread and work, but of no substance or profit. 20 This same unprofitable subtilty or curiosity is of two sorts ; either in the subject itself that they handle, when it is a fruitless speculation or controversy, whereof there are no small number both in divinity and philosophy, or in the manner or method of handling of a knowledge, which amongst them was this ; upon every particular position or assertion to frame objections, and to those objections, solutions ; which solutions were for the most part not con- futations, but distinctions : whereas indeed the strength of all sciences is, as the strength of the old man’s faggot, in the 30 band. For the harmony of a science, supporting each part the other, is and ought to be the true and brief confutation and suppression of all the smaller sort of objections. But, on the other side, if you take out every axiom, as the sticks of the faggot , one by one, you may quarrel with t hem, and bend thenii and bre ak them at your pleasure ; so that, as 30 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. was said of Seneca, Verborum minutiis rerum frangit pondera ; \He breaks up the weight of the matter by his verbal subtleties ;] so a man may truly say of the schoolmen, Qucestionum minutiis , scientiarum frangunt soliditatem , \They break up the solidity and coherency of the sciences by the minuteness of their questions.'] For were it not better for a man in a fair room to set up one great light, or branching candlestick of lights, than to go about with a small watch- candle into every corner ? And such is their method, that rests not so much 10 upon evidence of truth proved by arguments, authorities, similitudes, examples, as upon particular confutations and solutions of every scruple, cavillation, and objection ; breed- ing for the most part one question, as fast as it solveth another ; even as in the former resemblance, when you carry the light into one corner, you darken the rest ; so that the fable and fiction of Scylla seemeth to be a lively image of this kind of philosophy or knowledge ; which was trans- formed into a comely virgin for the upper parts ; but then Candida succinctam latrantibus inguina monstris : \there were 20 barking monsters all about her loins :] so the generalities of the schoolmen are for a while good and proportionable ; but then, when you descend into their distinctions and decisions, instead of a fruitful womb, for the use and benefit of man’s life, they end in monstrous altercations and barking ques- tions. So as it is not possible but this quality of knowledge must fall under popular contempt, the people being apt to contemn truth upon occasion of controversies and alter- cations, and to think they are all out of their way which never meet : and when they see such digladiation about 30 subtilties, and matters of no use or moment, they easily fall upon that judgment of Dionysius of Syracuse, Verba ista sunt senum otiosorum: [ Those are the words of old men who have nothing to do.] Notwithstanding, certain it is that if those schoolmen, to their great thirst of truth and unwearied travail of wit, had joined variety and universality of reading and con tern- THE FIRST BOOK. 31 plation, they had proved excellent lights, to the great advancement of all learning and knowledge ; but as they are, they are great undertakers indeed, and fierce with dark keeping : but as in the inquiry of the divine truth, their pride inclined to leave the oracle of God’s word, and to vanish in the mixture of their own inventions ; so in the inquisition of nature, they ever left the oracle of God’s works, and adored the deceiving and deformed images which the unequal mirror of their own minds, or a few received authors or principles, did represent unto them. 10 And thus much for the second disease of learning. For the third vice or disease of learning, which con- cerneth deceit or untruth, it is of all the rest the foulest ; as that which doth destroy the essential form of knowledge, which is nothing but a representation of truth : for the truth of being and the truth of knowing are one, differing no more than the direct beam and the beam reflected. This vice therefore brancheth itself into two sorts ; delight in deceiving, and aptness to be deceived ; imposture and credulity ; which, although they appear to be of a diverse 20 nature, the one seeming to proceed of cunning, and the other of simplicity, yet certainly they do for the most part concur : for as the verse noteth, Percontatorem fugito , nam garrulus idem est , [Avoid inquisitive men , for they are babblers ,] an inquisitive man is a prattler, so, upon the like reason, a credulous man is a deceiver : as we see it in fame, that he that will easily believe rumours, will as easily augment rumours, and add somewhat to them of his own ; which Tacitus wisely noteth, when he saith Fingunt simul ere- 30 duntque : [ Those who are prone to invent are also prone to believe .*] so great an affinity hath fiction and belief. This facility of credit, and accepting or admitting things weakly authorized or warranted, is of two kinds, accord- ing to the subject: for it is either a belief of history . or, as the lawyers speak, matter of fact : or else of matter of 32 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. fc^ art and opinion. As to the former, we see the experience and inconvenience of this error in ecclesiastical history ; which hath too easily received and registered reports, and narrations of miracles wrought by martyrs, hermits, or monks of the desert, and other holy men, and their relics, shrines, chapels, and images : which though they had a passage for a time, by the ignorance of the people, the superstitious simplicity of some, and the politic toleration of others holding them but as divine poesies ; yet after a 10 period of time, when the mist began to clear up, they grew to be esteemed but as old wives’ fables, impostures of the clergy, illusions of spirits, and badges of Antichrist, to the great scandal and detriment of religion. So in natural history, we see there hath not been that choice and judgment used as ought to have been ; as may appear in the writings of Plinius, Cardanus, Albertus, and divers of the Arabians, being fraught with much fabulous matter, a great part not only untried, but notoriously untrue, to the great derogation of the credit of natural 20 philosophy with the grave and sober kind of wits : wherein the wisdom and integrity of Aristotle is worthy to be observed ; that, having made so diligent and exquisite a history of living creatures, hath mingled it sparingly with any vain or feigned matter : and yet, on the other side, hath cast all prodigious narrations, which he thought worthy the recording, into one book : excellently discerniog that matter of manifest truth, (such, whereupon observation and rule were to be built,) was not to be mingled or weak- ened with matter of doubtful credit ; and yet again, that 30 rarities and reports that seem incredible are not to be suppressed or denied to the memory of men. , And as for the facility of credit which is yielded to arts and opinions, it is likewise of two kinds ; either when too much belief is attributed to the arts themselves, or to , certain authors in any art. The sciences themselves, which have had better intelligence and confederacy with the THE FIRST BOOK. 33 imagination of man than with his reason, are three in number ; astrology, natural magic, and alchemy : of which sciences, nevertheless, the ends or pretences are noble. For astrology pretendeth to discover that correspondence or concatenation, which is between the superior globe and the inferior : natural magic pretendeth to call and reduce natural philosophy from variety of speculations to the magnitude of works : and alchemy pretendeth to make separation of all the unlike parts of bodies, which in mixtures of nature are incorporate. But the derivations 10 and prosecutions to these ends, both in the theories and in the practices, are full of error and vanity ; which the great professors themselves have sought to veil over and conceal by enigmatical writings, and referring themselves to auri- cular traditions and such other devices, to save the credit of impostures :/and yet surely to alchemy this right is due,j that it may be compared to the husbandman whereof iEsop makes the fable ; that, when he died, told his sons that lie had left unto them gold buried under ground in his vine- yard ; and they digged over all the ground, and gold they 20 found none ; but by reason of their stirring and digging the mould about the roots of their vines, they had a great vintage the year following/ so assuredly the search and stir’ to make gold hath brought to light a great number of good and fruitful inventions and experiments, as well for the disclosing of nature, as for the use of man’s life, i ff , And as for the overmuch credit that hath been given unto authors in sciences, in making them dictators, that their words should stand, and not consuls to give advice ; the damage is infinite that sciences have received thereby, as the principal cause that hath kept them low, at a stay without growth or advancement. For hence it hath come, that in arts mechanical the first deviser comes shortest, and time addeth and perfecteth ; but in sciences the first author goeth furthest, and time leeseth and corrupteth. So, we see, artillery, sailing, printing, and the c 30 34 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. like, were grossly managed at the first, and by time accom- modated and refined ; but contrariwise, the philosophies and sciences of Aristotle, Plato, Democritus, Hippocrates, Euclides, Archimedes, of most vigour at the first and by time degenerate and imbased ; whereof the reason is no other, but that in the former many wits and industries have contributed in one ; and in the latter many wits and industries have been spent about the wit of some one, whom many times they have rather depraved than illus- 10 trated. For as water will not ascend higher than the level of the first springhead from whence it descendeth, so knowledge derived from Aristotle, and exempted from liberty of examination, will not rise again higher than the knowledge of Aristotle. And therefore although the posi- tion be good, Oportet discentem credere , [ While we are learn - ing we should believe ,] yet it must be coupled with this, Oportet edoctum judicare ; \After we have learnt we should judge ;] for disciples do owe unto masters only a temporary belief, and a suspension of their own judgment until they be 20 fully instructed, and not an absolute resignation, or per- petual captivity : and therefore, to conclude this point, I will say no more, but so let great authors have their due, as time, which is the author of authors, be not deprived of his due, which is, further and further to discover truth. / 3 Thus have I gone over these three diseases of learning ; besides the which, there are some other rather peccant humours than formed diseases : which nevertheless are not so secret and intrinsic, but that they fall under a popular observation and traducement, and therefore are not to be 30 passed over. /. The first of these is the extreme affecting of two ex- tremities : the one antiquity, the other novelty ; wherein it seemeth the children of time do take after the nature and malice of the father. For as he devoureth his children, so one of them seeketh to devour and suppress the other ; THE FIRST BOOK. 35 while antiquity envieth there should be new additions, and novelty cannot be content to add, but it must deface : surely, the advice of the prophet is the true direction in this matter, State super vias antiquas , et videte qucenam sit via recta et bona , et ambulate in ea : [Stand upon the ancient paths and see which is the straight and good road , and walk in it.\ Antiquity deserveth that reverence, that men should make a stand thereupon, and discover what is the best way ; but when the discovery is well taken, then to make pro- gression. And to speak truly, Antiquitas sceculi juventus 10 mundi : [Old times were the youth of the world.] These times are the ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we account ancient ordine retrogrado , by a com- putation backward from ourselves. , Another error, induced by the former, is a distrust that any thing should be now to be found out, which the world should have missed and passed over so long time ; as if the same objection were to be made to time, that Lucian maketh to J upiter and other the heathen gods ; of which he wondereth that they begot so many children in 20 old time, and begot none in his time ; and asketh whether they were become septuagenary, or whether the law Papia , made against old men’s marriages, had restrained them. So it seemeth men doubt lest time is become past children and generation ; wherein, contrariwise, we see commonly the levity and inconstancy of men’s judgments, which, till a matter be done, wonder that it can be done ; and, as soon as it is done, wonder again that it was no sooner done : as we see in the expedition of Alexander into Asia, which at first was prejudged as a vast and impossible enterprise : 30 and yet afterwards it pleaseth Livy to make no more of it than this, Nil aliud quam bene ausus vana contemnere: [He simply ventured to despise idle fears:] and the same happened to Columbus in the western navigation. But in intellectual matters it is much more common ; as may be seen in most of the propositions of Euclid : which till they be demonstrate, 36 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. i V ' V W t 10 j| f K 20 j! ft 4 30 they seem strange to our assent ; but being demonstrate, our mind accept eth of them by a kind of relation (as the lawyers speak) as if we had known them before. Another error, that hath also some affinity with the former, is a conceit \hat of former opinions or sects, after variety and examination* the best hath still prevailed, and suppressed the rest ; so Ss a