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BACON’S ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING -: EDITED BY G. W. KITCHIN, M.A.
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INTRODUCTION By G. W. KITCHIN, M.A.
Lorp Bacon has given us his own estimate of the value and position of the Advancement of Learning. ‘‘ This writing,” says he, ‘‘ seemeth to me, s? nunquam fallit imago, not much better than that noise or sound which musicians make while they are tuning theirinstruments; whichis nothing pleasant to hear, but yet is a cause why the music is sweeter after- wards: so have I been content to tune the instruments of the Muses, that they may play that have better hands.’? Wherein he errs in two opposite ways: for, on the one side,
(the book is nobler than the senseless jargon to which he
likens it; while, on the other; the musicians that have taken up the work have scarcely succeeded in playing harmoni- ously together. He seems not to be aware of the intrinsic _ worth of the thoughts expressed in every page, while he also seems to have imagined that a Millennium of Learning was about to begin, to which this book should be, as it were, the herald trumpet. Under so almost divine a sovereign as King James I. learning will surely be fostered and advanced.
’ Controversies in religion, he thinks, are all but worn out
(and this on the eve of the great Puritan struggles and suc- cesses !), and we shall have leisure to leave questions of faith for the discovery of the Laws of Nature. And yet, with all this, he does not discern the*value of mathematics, that branch of learning which was then making great advance, and was destined to work wonders. He scarcely cared to have an opinion on the ‘‘ Copernican Theory ”’ of Astronomy. He never mentions his famous countryman/Gilbert without a sneer, or at least a disparaging remark; though he was engaged on those discoveries in magnetism which have tended to enlarge in many ways the empire of man over Nature. He by no means emancipates himself thoroughly from the thraldom of the old scholastic systems. He regards Poetry as complete, requiring no farther develop- ment: and is not conscious that he is living with those who were above all others to be the pride of English Literature, vil
Vill Bacon and who should labour in broad fields of Poetry, which had never yet been touched by mortal hand. In these and other subjects the book is defective enough; yet, remem- bering all things, we must marvel at the extraordinary dth of knowledge and reading; the fertility of thought, and happiness of expression; the complete arrangement of subjects, and lucid order of the work, which show them- selves throughout. Nor did Bacon himself fail to see the importance of his pioneer-book—otherwise he would not have expanded it so fully as he has done in the Latin— translating it into that tongue that it might the more readily gain access to all lands, and be read by the learned in every place; and carefully expunging all passages which might be distasteful abroad, lest the Roman Church should be offended with the accidents, and so neglect the essence of his writings.
The frontispiece of the original edition of the Novum Organum expresses his feeling respecting the Advancement. Between two pillars, the pillars of Hercules, the ship of
_learning sails forth upon a tossed sea, bound for lands as yet unvisited, to bring thence goodly store of new and precious merchandise. Behind her lie all those well-known shores of knowledge, of which the Advancement gives the map and chart. They were, if we may so speak, those Mediterranean lands which were the heart of the fourth or Roman Empire —trodden by every foot of learned men: familiar even to children in knowledge. But beyond the straits is the great outer sea, and continents as yet unknown, to be explored by painful daring, and destined to increase the wealth of the world in a million ways. The old empire should give place to the new: just as the Mediterranean ceased to be all- important, when once the boldness of Bartholomew Diaz had shown an easier pathway to the wealth of India; and the inspired dreams of Columbus had been realised by the discovery of new continents across the main.
The Advancement of Learning was, therefore, the first -work in Bacon’s great series. That series he styled the “‘Instauratio Magna,”’ and under the first head of “ Parti- tiones Scientiarum ”’ he placed this book. It was to be a chart of the lands already discovered and known; so as to direct the attention of the adventurer without loss of time or labour to those parts which had not yet been explored. Then came the Novum Organum ; a ‘“‘ Method ”’ or instru-
Introduction ix
ment by means of which men should arrive at these novelties ——the ship, in fact, of his frontispiece, on board of which (to use his own motto),—
Multi pertransibunt, et augebitur scientia.
After that, the ‘‘ Instauratio’’ was to be composed of successive works, ending with a “‘ Philosophia secunda,”’ or complete system of knowledge. This, however, he felt must be left to posterity.
Whoever, therefore, desires to acquaint himself with Bacon’s philosophical works must begin with the Advance- ment, referring to the De Augmentis Scientiarum from time to time. Then, having thus become familiar with the style of the great thinker, he will be able to go on to that noble work, the Novum Organum ; wherein are contained the seeds of marvellous wisdom, of knowledge which has grown and flourished to this day; and has affected for ever the course and fortunes of learning.
In preparing this edition of the Advancement of Learning for the general reader, I have aimed at three things — a faithful text, full verification of quotations, and brevity and simplicity of notes.
As to the first of these matters, there was but little diffi- culty. The variations in the text are very few, and very unimportant. Wherever it was possible, I have followed the edition of 1605, leaving myself little scope for conjecture.
As to the next point, I had the work already done for me, to a great extent, both in the edition of Mr. Markby, and in the De Augmentis of the great Ellis and Spedding edition. I have been able here and there to supply missing references, and have carefully verified those already found for me.
But with respect to notes, it is unnecessary that I say more than that their aim is to be as unobtrusive as possible, and that I hope they may be useful.
Lastly, I subjoin a brief analysis of the work.
Learning, with proofs, divine and human, of its dignity, orre- sponds with De Augmentis, Bk. 1.)
Boox II. (On the main subject.) Commended to kings as nursing fathers. (De Augm. ii. pref.)
Learning is twofold—Divine and Human. Divine postponed. (De Augm. ii.)
HumAN LEARNING is threefold—I. History (which answers to the
Book I. (Pveliminary.) Briefly removes the prejudices a ea
x Bacon
Memory). II. Poesy (to Imagination). III. Philosophy (éo Reason).
I. History. 1. Natural. (a) Of Creatures. (b) Marvels. (c) Arts.
2. Civil. (a2) Memorials. (6) Antiquities. {c) Perfect History. i. Chronicles. a. Ancient. B. Modern. 11. Lives. iii. Narrations. iv. Annals. v. Cosmography.
3. Ecclesiastical. (a) Of the Church. (b) Of Prophecy. (c) Of Providence.
4. Literary, or appendices to History.
II. Poesy. (Herein is no deficiency.) 1. Narrative. 2. Representative. 3. Allusive or Parabolical.
III. Philosophy. (De Augm. iii.) 1. Divine (or Natural Theology, not=Divinity). Discussion of the Philosophia Prima.
2. Natural. Zt. Science.
(1) Physical (of material and efficient causes).
(2) Metaphysical (of formal and final causes), and under Metaphysical come Mathematics, pure and mixed.
u.. Pandence.
(1) Experimental.
(2) Philosophical.
(3) Magical.
3. Human. (De Augm. iv.) i. Segregate (t.e. of individual men) of (a) Body and (bd)
Mind, first considered in combination with respect to
(a) Discovery and (8) Impression, and then separately;
Introduction X1
(a) Body. (a) Medicine. (8) Cosmetic Art. (y) Athletics. (6) Sensual Arts. (5) Mind. (a) Its Nature (with two Appendices on Divina-
tion and Fascination). (8) Its Functions. (De Augm. v.)
A. Intellectual, whose Arts are four.
(i.) Of Invention.
(a) Of Arts (deficient). (8) Of Speech.
(ii.) Of Judgment, whose Methods are— (a) Of Direction (Analytics). (b) Of Caution (Elenches). (iii.) Of Custody. (a) By Writing. (6) By Memory. (a) Prenotion. (8) Emblem.
(iv.) Of Tradition. (De Augm. vi.) (a) Its organ—speech, or writing (grammar). (6) Its method (Logic). (c) Its illustration (Rhetoric). (With appendices.)
B. Moral. (De Augm. vii.)
(i.) Of the Nature of Good (omitting the summum bonum, as belonging to another life). (1) Private. (a) Active. (b) Passive.
(a) Conservative. (8) Perfective.
(2) Relative. (a) Of man as citizen. (6) Of man as social being.
(ii.) Of Moral Culture.
ii. Congregate. (De Augm. viii.) (a) In Conversation. (5) In Negotiation (with rules for self-advancement). (c) In Government (with notes on Laws).
X11 Bacon
In Conclusion. (De Augm. ix.) Theology—refers to man’s Reason and Will. Discussed as to— 1. The nature (or manner) of the Revelation. (a) Its Limits. (b) Its Sufficiency. (c) Its Acquisition.
2. The thing revealed. (a) Matter of Belief. (a) Faith. (8) Manners.
(Lb) Matter of Service. (a) Liturgy (8) Government.
The following list gives the chief editions of Bacon’s works:—
Essays, 1597 (2nd edition, 1598; 3rd edition, 1606; 5th edition, newly written, 1625); Advancement of Learning, 1605, 1629, 1633; De Sapientia Veterum, 1609, 1617, 1633, 1634; The Wisdome of the Ancients, done into English by Sir A. G. Knight, 1619, 1658; (The) New Atlantis, 1660; Novum Organum, 1620, 1645; Life of Henry VII., 1622, 1629; De Augmentis Scientiarum, 1623, 1635, 1645, expanded from the Advance- ment of Learning, translated in Latin under the supervision of Bacon; Apophthegmes, New and Old, 1624 [B.M. 1625]; Sylva Sylvarum, pub- lished after the author’s death by W. Rawley, 1627, 1635.
COLLECTED Works: Opera omnia que extant. Philosophica, Moralia Politica, Historica, 1665 Opera Omnia. Life of Francis Bacon, by Dr. Rawley. Edited by J. Blackbourne, 1730. Bacon’s works, with Life, Mallet’s, 1740 and 1753. Montagu’s, 17 vols., 1825-26. Works, originally collected and revised by R. Stephens and J. Locker, published after their deaths by T. Birch, 5 vols., 1765. Works, collected and edited by J. Spedding, R. L. Ellis and D. D. Heath, 14 vols., 1857-74.
ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING
THE FIRST BOOK To the King
THERE were under the law, excellent King, both daily Sacri- fices and free-will 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, accord- ing 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 indivi- dual 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 an extreme wonder at those your virtues and faculties, which the Philosophers call intellectual; the largeness of your capacity, the faithfulness of your memory, the swiftness of your apprehension, the penetration of your judgment, and the facility and order of your elocution: and I have often thought that of all the persons living that I have known, your Majesty were the best instance to make a man of Plato’s opinion,” that all knowledge is but remembrance, and that the mind of man by nature knoweth all things, and hath but her own native and original notions * (which by _ the strangeness and darkness of this tabernacle of the body APYOV. XXV. 3. * Phado, i. 72.
* The edition 1605 has motions, a word which misses the point— -editions 1629 and 1633 read notions.
2 Bacon
are sequestered) again revived and restored: such a light of nature I have observed in your Majesty, and such a readi- ness to take flame and blaze from the least occasion pre- sented, or the least spark of another’s knowledge delivered. And as the Scripture saith of the wisest king, That his heart was as the sands of the sea ;+ which though it be one of the largest bodies, yet it consisteth of the smallest and finest portions; so hath God given your Majesty a composition of understanding admirable, being able to compass and com- prehend the greatest matters, and nevertheless to touch and apprehend the least; whereas it should seem an impossi- bility in nature for the same instrument to make itself fit for great and small works. And for your gift of speech, I call to mind what Cornelius Tacitus saith of Augustus Cesar: Augusto profiuens, et que principem deceret, eloquentia fut.” For, if we note it well, speech that is uttered with labour and difficulty, or speech that favoureth of the affectation of art and precepts, or speech that is framed after the imitation of some pattern of eloquence, though never so excellent; all this hath somewhat servile, and holding of the subject. But your Majesty’s manner of speech is indeed prince-like, flowing as from a fountain, and yet streaming and branching itself into nature’s order, full of facility and felicity, imita- ing none, and inimitable by any. And as in your civil estate there appeareth to be an emulation and contention of your majesty’s virtue with your fortune; a virtuous disposi- tion with a fortunate regiment; a virtuous expectation (when time was) of your greater fortune, with a prosperous possession thereof in the due time; a virtuous observation of the laws of marriage, with most blessed and happy fruit of marriage; a virtuous and most Christian desire of peace, with a fortunate inclination in your neighbour princes there- unto: so likewise, in these intellectual matters, there seemeth to be no less contention between the excellency of your Majesty’s gifts of nature, and the universality and perfection * of your learning. For I am well assured that this which I shall say is no amplification at all, but a positive and measured truth; which is, that there hath not been since Christ’s time any King or temporal Monarch, which has been so learned in all literature and erudition, divine and 4x Kings lv. 29. Tac. Annal. xiii. 3. 8 Edition 1605 has profection.
Advancement of Learning 3
human. For let a man seriously and diligently revolve and peruse the succession of the emperors of Rome; of which Cesar the Dictator, who lived some years before Christ, and Marcus Antoninus were the best learned; and so descend, to the emperors of Grecia, or of the West; and then to the lines of France, Spain, England, Scotland, and the rest, and he shall find this judgment is truly made. For it seemeth much in a King, if, by the compendious extractions of other men’s wits and labours, he can take hold of any superficial ornaments and shows of learning; or if he countenance and prefer learning and learned men: but to drink indeed of the true fountains of learning, nay, to have such a fountain of learning in himself, in a King, and in a King born, is almost a miracle. And the more, because there is met in your Majesty a rare conjuction as well of divine and sacred literature, as of profane and human; so as your Majesty standeth invested of that triplicity, which in great venera- tion was ascribed to the ancient Hermes; the power and fortune of a king, the knowledge and illumination of a priest,
_and the learning and universality of a philosopher.’ is
propriety inherent? and individual attribute in your Majesty deserveth to be expressed not only in the fame and admiration of the present time, nor in the history or tradi- of the ages succeeding, but also in some solid work, fixed memorial, and immortal monument, bearing a character or signature both of the power of a King, and the difference and perfection of such a King.
Therefore I did conclude with myself, that I could not make unto your Majesty a better oblation than of some Treatise tending to that end, whereof the sum will consist of these two parts; the former, concerning the excell of Learning and Knowledge, and the_excellency of the ment and. true glory in the augme the latter, what the particular acts and works are, which have been embraced and undertaken for the Advancement of Learning; and again, what defects and undervalues I find in such particular acts: to the end, that though I can- not positively or affirmatively advise your Majesty, or
1 Marsilius Ficinus, Arg. ad Herm. Trism.—Et philosophus maxi- mus, et sacerdos maximus, et rex maximus.
* Propriety inherent ; the logical ‘‘ Proprium quod consequitur essentiam rei.’’
es 8)
4 Bacon
propound unto you framed particulars; yet I may excite your princely cogitations to visit the excellent treasure of your own mind, and thence to extract particulars for this purpose, agreeably to your magnanimity and wisdom.
In the entrance to the former of these, to clear the way, and as it were to make silence, to have the true_testimonies concerning the dignity of Leaming to be better heard, without the interruption of tacit objections, I think good to deliver it from the discredits and disgraces which it hath received; all from ignorance; but ignorance severally disguised, appearing sometimes in the zeal and jealousy of Divines; sometimes in the severity and arrogancy of Politiques; and sometimes in the errors and imperfections of learned men themselves.
(1 I hear the former sort say, that Knowledge is of those things which are to be accepted of with great limitation and caution; that the aspiring to overmuch knowledge was the original temptation and sin whereupon ensued the fall of man; that Knowledge hath in it somewhat of the serpent, and therefore where it entereth into a man it makes him swell; Scientia inflat ;1 that Salomon gives a censure, That there 1s no end of making books, and that much reading is weariness of the flesh ;* and again in another place, That in spacious knowledge there 1s much contristation, and that he that increaseth knowledge increaseth anxiety ;* that St. Paul gives a caveat, That we be not spotled through vain philosophy,* that experience been arch-heretics, how learned times have been inclined_to atheism, and how the contemplation of second causes derogate from our dependence upon God, who is the first cause.
To discover then the ignorance and error of this opinion, and the misunderstanding in the grounds therof, it may well appear these men do not observe or consider that it was the pure knowledge of nature and universality, a knowledge by the light whereof man did give names unto other crea- tures in paradise,® as they were brought before him, accord-
11 Cor. viii. 1. *Eccl. xii. 12. * Ecel. 1. 18; FCCIen, sae ® See Gen. ii. and iii.
Advancement of Learning 5
ing unto their proprieties, which gave the occasion to the fall: but it was the proud knowledge of good and evil, with an intent in man to give law unto himself, and to depend no more upon God’s commandments, which was the form of the temptation. Neither is it any quantity of knowledge, how great soever, that can make the mind of man to swell; for nothing can fill, much less extend the soul of man, but God and the contemplation of God; and therefore Salomon, speaking of the two principal senses of inquisition, the eye and the ear, affirmeth that the eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing ;1 and if there be no fulness, then is the continent greater than the content: so of know- ledge itself, and the mind of man, whereto the senses are but reporters, he defineth likewise in these words, placed after that Kalendar or Ephemerides, which he maketh of the diversities of times and seasons for all actions and purposes; and concludeth thus:{ God hath made all things beautiful, or decent, in the true return of their seasons: Also he hath placed the world in man’s heart, vet cannot man find out the work which God worketh from the beginning to the end :* declaring
not obscurely, that God hath framed the mind of man asa “
mirror or glass, capab]l the universal world, , and joyful to receive the impression thereof, as the eye
~
joyeth to receive light; and not only delighted in beholding «_.
the variety of things and vicissitude of times, but raised also to find out and discern the ordinances and decrees, which throughout all those changes are infallibly observed) And although he doth insinuate that the supreme or simmary law of nature, which he calleth the work which God worketh from the beginning to the end, is not possible to-be found-out- by man; yet that doth not derogate from the capacity of the mind, but may be referred to the impediments, as of shortness of life, 111 conjunction of labours, ill tradition of knowledge over from hand to hand, and many other incon- veniences, whereunto the condition of man is subject. For that nothing parcel of the world is denied to man’s inquiry and invention, he doth in another place rule over, when he saith, The spirit of man is as the lamp of God, wherewtth he searcheth the inwardness of all secrets.* If then such be the capacity and receipt of the mind of man, it is manifest that there is no danger at all in the proportion or quantity of
+ Eccl. i. 8. * Eccl. iii. 2. * Prov. x%. 2).
B 719
6 Bacon
‘ knowledge, how large soever, lest it should make it swell or
Heat Comipess itself; no, but itis merely the quality of know ledge, which, be it in quantity more or less, if it be taken without the true corrective thereof, hath in it some nature of venom or malignity, and some effects of that venom, which is ventosity or swelling. This corrective spice, the mixture whereof maketh Knowledge so sovereign, is Charity, which the Apostle immediately addeth to the former clause: for so he saith, Knowledge bloweth up, but Charity burldeth up, not unlike unto that which he delivereth in another place: If I spake, saith he, with the tongues of men_and angels, and had not charity, it were but as a tinkling cymbaL,;} not but that
_ it 1s an excellent thing to speak with the tongues of men and angels, but because, if it be severed from charity, and not referred to the good of men and mankind, it hath rather a sounding and unworthy glory, than a meriting and substan- tial virtue. And as for that censure of Salomon, concerning the excess of writing and reading books, and the anxiety of spirit which redoundeth from knowledge; and that admoni- tion of St. Paul, That we be not seduced by vain pepe: let those places be rightly understo
excellently set forth the true bounds and limitations, zhesdl by human knowledge is confined and circumscribed; and yet without any such contracting or coarctation, but that it may comprehend all the universal | nature of things; for ‘these limitations are three: the first, “That we do not so place our felicity in knowledge, as we forget our mortality: the secondaT hat we make application of our knowledge, to give ourselves repose and contentment, and not distaste or repining : the third3JZhat we do not presume by the contemplation of nature to attain to the mysteries of God. For as touching the first of these, Salomon 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 man’s eyes keep watch in his head, whereas the fool roundeth about in darkness : but 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 accident; for all knowledge and wonder (which is the seed of knowledge) is is an impression of pleasure in itself:
¥ Cor. Sit, %, * Eccl. ii. ¥3, 14.
Advancement of Learning 5
but when men fall to framing conclusions out of their know- ledge, 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, whereof Hera- clitus the profound ! said, Lumen siccum optima anima ; but it becometh Lumen madidum, or maceratum, being steeped _and infused in the humours of the affections.2_ 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
pain that heht. whereby he may reveal unto himself the Be re-or Will of Gad. then indeed is he spoiled 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 knowledge. 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 shutteth up divine. And hence it is true that it hath proceeded, that divers great learned men have been heretical, whilst they have sought to fly up to the secrets of the Deity by 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: Wall you lie for God, as one man will do for another, to gratify him?® For certain it is that God
1 0 oxorecvos. My raxvs ‘“Hpaxdelrov én’ éupardr eteo BiBdov- Tod ’deciou pdra To SvcBaros arpamirés* “Oppvn kal oxéros éoriv adduarerov, Ay 5€ ce wiorns Kisaydayn, pavepov ANapmpdrep’ jediov. Diog. Laert. ix.
* Avyn Enph ~uxh codwrary. A corruption of avy yuyh copwrdrn. (See note in Ellis and Spedding’s edition.) The phrase occurs in Stobeus, cf. Ritter, Hist. Philos. vol. i. Heraclitus.
* Philo Jud. de Somn.
“See Bacon’s Essays—On Atheism. ® Job xi. 9.
:
8 Bacon
worketh nothing in nature but by second causes: and if they would have it otherwise believed, it is mere imposture, as it were in favour towards God; and nothing else but to ffer to the Author of Truth the unclean sacrifice of a lie. ut farther, it is an assured truth, and a conclusion of dean that a little or-superficial knowledge of Philo- sopn hy may incline the mind of man to Atheism, but a pastes proces ing therein doth bring the mind back again ‘0 Re Aeon : for in the entrance of Philosophy, when the oad causes, which are next unto the senses, do offer them- selves to the mind of man, if it dwell and stay there it may induce some oblivion of the highest cause; but when a man asseth on farther, and seeth the dependence of causes, and the works of Providence; then, according to the allegory of e poets, he will easily believe that the highest link of nature’s chain must needs be tied to the foot of Jupiter’s hair.) ') To conclude therefore, let no man upon a weak uae 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 endeav- our 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. E22) And{as for the disgraces which Learning receiveth from Politig ues, they be of this nature; that Learning doth soften men’sminds, .and makes them moreunapt for thehonout and exercise of arms; nag doth mar an er ’s dispo- siti 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 great- ness of examples, or too incompatible and differing from the times by reason of the dissimilitude of examples; or at least, thatZit doth divert men’s travails from action and business, and bringeth them to a love of leisure and private-
ness; and thatyit doth bring into states a relaxation of discipline, whilst eyery 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, 1 tiom., fi. vins-t6: 2 See Pliny, Nat. Hist. vii. 31.
Advancement of Learning 9 | _ when Carneades the philosopher came in 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 con- ceit or humour did Virgil, turning his pen to the advantage of his country, and the disadvantage 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, He tibi erunt artes, etc.?
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 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.
I.) 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 same ages. For, as for men, there cannot be a better nor the like instance, as of that pair, Alexander the Great and Julius Cesar 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 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-
1 Plut. vit. Cat. *Virg, En. vi. 851. 3 Plato, Apol. Soc. i. 19, 24.
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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 ad- mired for learning, so that the greatest authors and philo- sophers, and the greatest captains and governors have lived in the same ages. Neither can it otherwise be: for as in man the ripeness of strength of the body and mind cometh much about an age, save that the strength of the body cometh the more early:} so in states Arms and Learning, whereof the one correspondeth to the body, the other to the soul of,man, have a concurrence or near sequence in times.
(2.)(And for matter of Policy and Government, that leatning should rather hurt, than enable thereunto, is a thing very improbable: we see it is accounted an error to commit a natural body to empiric physicians, which com- 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 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 consequence if states be managed by empiric Statesmen,
not well 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 Pedantes ; yet in the records of time it appeareth, in many particulars, that the governments of princes in minority (notwithstanding the infinite disadvan- tage 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 Pedantes ; for so was the
state of Rome for the first five years, which are so much
1 Cf. Aristotle, Rhet. ii. 14, 4, where he says that the body reaches perfection at the age of 35 (75), and the mind at 49 (7 <7). *See Plato, icp. Vv. 493,
Advancement of Learning 4
magnified, during the minority of Nero, in the hands of Seneca, a Pedanti ; so it was again, for ten years’ space or more, during the minority of Gordianus the younger, with great applause and contentation in the hands of Mistheus, a Pedanti : so was it before that, in the minority of Alex- ander 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 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, 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 if they be well and watch-
(SAAS SRE Se AE ee A Ae fully 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 hap- peneth sometimes that the grandchild, or other descend- ants, resembleth the ancestor more than the son; so many times occurrences of present times may sort better with
ancient examples than with those of the latter or immedia-
ate 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. ( 3) (And as for those particular seducements, or jndisposi-
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.
1 Edition 1605, prejudicial. The Latin has “ fraterculis verum
eer. : ~ ? “8 S(MAR UK ARLE We
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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 demonstra- tive, and what are conjectural, and as well the use of distinctions and exceptions, as the latitude of principles and rules. If it mislead by disproportion or dissimili- tude of examples, it teacheth men the force of circum- stances, the errors of comparisons, and all the cautions
of application; so that in all these it doth rectify more_
effectually t than it can ‘an_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 de- scribed 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 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.®
(4). And for the conceit that Learning should dispose men to leisure and privateness, and make men slothful; it were a strange thing if that which accustometh the mind to a er petual motion an whereas contrariwiselit 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 and displeasure; or because it exerciseth some faculty wherein they take pride, and so entertaineth them in good humour and pleasing conceits towards themselves; or because it advanceth any other their ends. So that, as
1 Guicciard. xvi. 5. 2 Pind. Pyth. il. 21, seq. * Cic. ad Ait. ii. 1.
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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
XeIcise j health of ing pleasure in the action — itself, and not in the purchase} for 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 weakness of body or softness-of spirit; such as Seneca speaketh of: Quidam tam sunt umbratiles, ut putent in turbido esse quicquid in luce est ;+ and not of Learning: well may it be that such a point of a 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 times and returns of busi- ness (except he be either tedious and of no dispatch, or lightly and unworthily ambitious to meddle in things that may be better done by others:) and then the question is, but how these 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 A‘schines, that was a man given to pleasure, and told him, That his orations did smell of the lamp : Indeed (said Demosthenes) there is a 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 against idleness and pleasure, which otherwise at unawares may enter to the prejudice of both.
(6) 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-
‘Seneca, Epist. 3, quoted from Pomponius, ‘‘ Quidam adeo in latebras refugerunt, ut” etc.
* Plutarch. Libanius, Vit. Demosth. (Edition Dindorf, p-. 6.) Told of Pytheas, not of Aéschines.
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ence should be a surer obligation than duty taught and understood, 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 ee doth make the minds of men gentle, generous, maniable,’ and pliant to govern- ment; whereas ignorance makes them churlish, thwart, and mutinous: and ihe evidence of time doth clear this asser-
tion, considering that the mgst_barbarous, rude, and_un- learned times have been most subject to tumults, seditions, ‘and cha: changes.
URES And as to the judgment of Cato the Censor, he was ll 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 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 inward sense-of_his own opinion. And as for Virgil's verses, though it pleased him to brave the world in taking to the Romans the art of empire, and leaving to others the art of subjects; Cet SO
much is manifest that the Remians never ascended toa
_height of empire, till the time they had of other arts. For in the time of the two first eee
which had the art of government in greatest perfection, there lived the best poet, Virgilius Maro; the best historio-| grapher, Titus Livius; the best antiquary, Marcus Varro;) and the best, or second orator, Marcus Cicero, that to the) memory of man are known) As for the accusation of! Socrates, the time must be remembered when it was prose- cuted; 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 hero- ical, and his memory accumulate with honours divine and yhuman; and those discourses of his which were then termed corrupting of manners, were after acknowled e- reign medicines of the mind and manners, and so have been received ever since till this day. Let this, therefore, serve
ne
1 The edition of 1605 reads amiable, that of 1633 mantable. The latter word answers best to the Latin, artes—teneros reddunt, sequaces, Cerveos.
Advancement of Learning 15
for answer to Politiques, which in their humorous severity, or in their feigned gravity, have presumed to throw imputa- tions upon Learning; which redargution 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,> stars of excellent light and most benign influence, hath WI t in all men of place and authority in our nation. 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 theix_manners; or from the nature of their studies. For the first, 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. I. (a) Concerning want, and that it is the case of learned men usually to begin with little, and not to grow rich so fasta
as other men_by reason they convert not their labours chiefly to lucre and increase: it were good to leave the com- mon 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, tf the reputation and reverence towards the poverty of friars had not borne out the scandal of the super- filmties 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, if
the poverty of Learning had not kept up civility and honour af life{ but without any such advantages, it is worthy the observation what a reverend and honoured thing poverty was for some ages in the Roman state, which nevertheless
1 Hor. Carnz. iii. 2. * Mach. Disc. sopra Tita. Liv. iii. 1., speaking of the Franciscan and Dominican orders.
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was a state without paradoxes. For we see what Titus Livius saith in his introduction: Ca@terum aut me amor - negotit susceptr fallit, aut nulla unquam respublica nec major, nec sanctior, nec bonis exemplis ditior fuit ; nec in quam tam sereé avaritia luxuriaque immigraverint ; nec ubt tantus ac tam diu paupertatt ac parsimonie honus fuerit.1 We see likewise, after that the state of Rome was not itself, but did degenerate, how that person that took upon him to be coun- sellor to Julius Cesar 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 hec, et omnia mala pariter cum honore pecunie desinent ; si neque magistratus, neque alia vulgo cupienda, venalia erunt.” To conclude this point, as it was truly said, that Ruborest- virtutts color, though sometime it come from vice; * so it may be fitly said that Paupertas est virtutis fortuna, though some- time it may proceed from misgovernment and accident. Surely Salomon hath pronounced it both in censure, Qui festinat ad divitias non erit insons ; * and in precept, Buy the tvuth, and sell 1t not, and so of wisdom and knowledge ,;° judging that means were to be spent upon Learning, and not Learning to be applied to means.
(0) And as for the privateness, or obscureness (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 comparison [with] and to the disadvantage of a civil life, for safety, liberty, plea- sure, 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 expressing, and to men’s consents in the allowing. This only 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 prefulgebant, quod non visebantur.®
(y){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
Livii Praf. 2 Epist. i. ad C. Cas. de Rep. ord. _ *® Diog. Cyn. ap. Lert. vi. 54. ‘ Prov. xxviii. 22. A PYOV. XXill, 23. Tac. Ann, ili. 76, ad fin.
”
Advancement of Learning 17
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 me
into a vessel seasoned; and what mould they lay 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 iet it be noted, that howsoever the condition? of life of Pedantes hath been scorned upon theatres, as the ape of tyranny; and that the modern loose- _ ness or negligence ha o the 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 discipline 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 detertores ; yet in regard of this, and some other points concerning human learning and moral matters, I may say, as Agesilaus said to his enemy Pharnabazus, Talis quum sis, utinam noster esses. And thus much touching the discredits drawn from the fortunes of learned men.
2. As touching the manners of learned men, it is a thing personal and individual: "and no doubt there be amongst them, as in other professions, of all temperatures: but yet so
as it is not without truth, which is said, that Abeunt studia
| mores,’ studies have an influence and operation upon the
manners of those that are conversant in them. (2) But upon an attentive and indifferent review, I for my part cannot find any disgrace to Learning can proceed
2 Joel ii. 28.
2 Edition 1629 and 1633 read “ say the.”
% Edition 1605 reads “‘ conditions . . . hath,’’ 1633 reads “ con- ditions . . . have.”’
* Conference of Agesilaus and Pharnabazus. Plut. Vit. Ages.
5 Ovid, Ep. xv. 83.
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from the manners of learned men not inherent? to them as they are learned; except it be a fault (which was the sup- posed fault of Demosthenes, Cicero, Cato the second, 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 some- times 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, Yea of such as they would receive :* and Plato, finding that his own heart could not agree with 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 1s, with humble persuasions, and not with contestations.? And Cesar’s counsellor put in the same caveat, Non ad vetera instituta revocans que jampridem corruptis moribus ludibrio sunt:* and Cicero noteth this error directly in Cato the second, when he writes to his friend Atticus; Cato optime sentit, sed nocet interdum reipublice ; loquitur enim tanquam in reipublicd Platonis, non tanquam in face Romuli.2 And the same Cicero doth excuse and expound the philosophers for going too far, and being too exact in their prescripts, when he saith, Jsti 1pst preceptores virtutis et magistri, viden- tur fines officiorum paulo longius quam natura vellet protulisse, ut cum ad ultimum animo contendissemus, 1b1 tamen, ubr oportet, consisteremus :® and yet himself might have said, Monitis sum minor tpse mets," for it was his own fault, though not in so extreme a degree.
(@) Another fault likewise much of this kind hath been incident 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 1t, my counsels unto you are not such whereby I should grow great
1De Augm. has nullum occurrit dedecus literis ex litteratorum morvibus, quatenus, sunt literati, adherens, which explains it. The not before inherent goes with cannot according to the rule of double negative, as it prevailed in early English writers.
* Plutarch, Vzt. Solon. * Plato, Epist. Z. in. $31.
4Sall. Epist. de Rep. ord. * Cic. ad Att. ii, 1.
*Cic. pro Mur. xxxi. 65. ? Ovid, A. Am. ii. 548.
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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.1 And so Seneca, after he had consecrated that Quinquennium Neronis? 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 impossible 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 to God, and so likewise to their masters under od (as kings and states that they serve) in these words; Ecce tibi lucrefeci, and not Ecce; mihi lucrefeci ;* whereas, the corrupter sort of mere Politiques, that have not their thoughts established by learning in the love and apprehen- sion of duty, nor never 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 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. (y) Another fault incident commonly to learned men, which may be more properly defended than truly denied, is,
that they fail sometimes in applying themselves to particu- lar persons: which want of exact application ariseth from
1 Demosth. Chers. 187, ad finem.
*The Quinguennitum Neronis refers to the first five years of Nero’s reign, during which he was under Seneca’s influence.
3 Matt. xxv. 20.
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two causes; the one, because the largeness of their mind can hardly confine itself to dwell in the exquisite observa- tion 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 altert theatrum sumus.1_ 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 inablity, but a rejection upon choice and judgment. For the honest and just bounds of observation by one person upon another, extend no farther but to understand 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, 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 forbear 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 she scripture hath declared to be inscrutable.*
(5) Chere is yet another fault (with which I will conclude 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 so as the vulgar sort of capacities do make a judgment of them _in greater matters by that which they Tint wanting in them in smaller. But this consequence doth often deceive men, for which I do refer them over to that which was said by Themistocles, arro- gantly and uncivilly being applied to himself out of his own mouth, but, being applied to the general state of this ques- tion, pertinently and justly when, being invited to touch a lute, he said, He could not fiddle, but he could make a small iown a great state.*) So, no doubt, many may be well seen in the passages of government and policy, which are to seek in
1A saying of Epicurus. Seneca, Epist. Mor. i. 7. 2 Herod. I. go. 8 PLOY. EX.’ 3 * Plutarch, Vit. Themist., ad init.
}
Advancement of Learning 21
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 deformities, but was inwardly replenished with excel- lent virtues and powers.1. And so much touching the point of manners of learned men.
But in the mean time I have no purpose to ¢1 owance to some conditions and courses base and erein
divers professors of learning have wronged themselves and gone too far; such as were those trencher philosophers which in the Jater 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 descrip- tion 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 Stotc would turn to be a Cynic.2 But above all the rest, the 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. Neit either_is_the_moral* dedication of books and
~ for that books, such as are worthy the name of books, ought to have no
patrons but t ason. And the ancient custom
was to dedicate 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.
Not that I can tax or condemn the morigeration or appli-
1 Plat. Conv. iii. 215, where the thought is present, though the exact similitude is wanting. * Lucian. de Merc. Cond. 33, 34.
x == >" 3 See Bethulian’s Rescue, bk. v. Lao
““ Tous ces esprits dont la voix flattereuse Change Hécube en Héléne, et Faustine en Lucréce.’ * Moral, here customary. C79
s aad
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cation 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 fol- lowers of rich men, and not rich men of philosophers ? He answered soberly, and yet sharply, Because the one sort knew what they had nzed of, and the other did not. And of the like 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 staid, 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 answered, Jt was not his fault, but it was the fault of Dionysius that had his ears in his feet.2, Neither was it accounted weakness, but discretion in him that would not dispute his best with Adrianus Cesar; excusing himself, That it was reason to yield to him that commanded thirty legions.3 These _and the like applications, and stooping to points-of-neces- __ sity 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. 3. 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 aigument; wherein my purpose is not to make a justifica- ion 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 degener- ate: 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
1Diog. Laert. Vit. Aristippi, ii. 69; the answer was given by Aristippus. * Ibid. ii. 79. | ’Spartianus, Vit. Adriant, § 15. The excuse was made by Favorinus. | 4Had Bacon been accustomed to use the then modern word #fs, — it is probable he would have used it here. As it is “‘ the state and © virtue ’’’ must mean its pure and right condition.
Advancement of Learning 23
meaning at this time to make any exact animadversion of the errors and impediments 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.
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, 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,
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.
(2) Martin Luther, conducted no doubt by a higher provi-| dence, 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 succours 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. Thus by conse-. quence 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 by the enmity
and opposition that the propounders of those primitive but seeming new opinions had against the schoolmen; 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 pure-
| ness, pleasantness, and, as I may call it, lawfulness of the
1 Discourse of reason ; a proper logical term. Cf. Sanderson, Ars Log. 11. i.
24 Bacon
phrase or word. And again, because the great labour that } then was with the people (of whom the Pharisees were wont to say, Execrablis ista turba, que non novit legem)? 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 affectionate study of eloquence and copie 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 Sturmius spend such infinite and curious pains upon Cicero the Orator, and Hermogenes the Rhetori- cian, 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 andDemos- thenes, and allure all young men that were studious, unto that delicate and polished kind of learning. Then did Erasmus take occasion to make the scoffing Echo: Decem annos consumpst in legendo Cicerone ; andthe Echo answered in Greek, “Ove, Asine.t Then grew the learning of the schoolmen to be utterly despised as barbarous. In sum, “the whole inclination and bent of those times was rather towards copie 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 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 patent, or limned book;
1 Editions 1629 and 1633 omit that; but because here=because of. 2 John vii. 10. 3 Bishop of Silves, died 1580. “ Collog. between Juvenis and Echo.
Advancement of Learning 25
which though it hath large flourishes, yet 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 inven- tion, to fall in love with them-is_all-one as to fail in love ~with a picture.
But yet notwithstanding it is a thing not hastily to be condemned, to clothe and adorn the obscurity even of Philo- sophy 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 like- wise there is great use: for surely, to the severe inquisition of truth and the deep progress into philosophy, it 1s some hindrance; because it is too early satisfactory to the mind of man, and quencheth the desire of further search, before we come to a just period. But then if aman 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 contemp- tible that as Hercules, when he saw the image of Adonis, Venus’ minion, in a temple, said in disdain, Nil sacri es ;? s0 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 and affectations, as indeed capable of no divineness. And thus much of the first disease or distemper of learning.
(8) 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 St. 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 profanas vocum novitates, et oppositiones falsi nominis scienti@.’ 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 necessity doth induce oppo- sitions, and so questions and altercations. Surely, like as
1 Ovid, Metam. x. 243. * Theocr, v. 2 (schol.) or Erasmi A dag. * ¥ Tim. Vi. 20,
26 Bacon
many substances in nature which are solid do putrify and corrupt into worms; so it is the property of good and sound knowledge to putrify 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.
is 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 colleges, and knowing little history, either of nature or time, did out of no great quantity of matter and infinite _agitation_of wit_spin_ouf_unto those aborious webs of learning which are extant in their books.* For the wit and mind of man, if it work upon matter, which is the contemplation 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)
This same unprofitable subtility 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 fagot, in the 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 fagot, one by one, you may quarrel with them,
and bend them, and break them at your pleasure: so that, as was said of Seneca, Verborum minuitis rerum frangit
1For his judgment—a harsh one—on the Schoolmen, see the Nov. Org. i. 71. 2 See Hallam, Hist. of Lit. vol. i. init. § 18-23.
Advancement of Learning 27
pondera ;} soa man may truly say of the schoolmen, Quas- tionum minutits scientiarum frangunt soliditatem. (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 abou with a small watch candle into every corner?). :
_ And such is their method, that rests not so much upon evidence of truth proved by arguments, authorities, similitudes, examples, as upon particular confutations and solutions of every scruple, cavilation, and objection; breeding for the most part one question as fast as it solveth another; even asin 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 forthe upper parts; but then
Canadda succinctam la—trantibus inguina monstris: ?
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 questions. 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 altercations, and to think they
are all out of their way which never meet; and when they see such digladiation about subtilties, and matters of no use or moment, they easily fall upon that judgment of Diony- sius of Syracuse, Verba ista sunt senum otiosorum.® 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- templation, 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, 1 Rerum pondera minutissimis sententiis fregit—Quint. de Inst.
Orat. x. i. 2 Virg. Ecl. vi. 75. * Diog. Laert. iii. 18 (Vit. Platonis).
“ 5
: f
28 Bacon
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. And thus much for the second disease of learning,
(y) For the third_vice or disease of learni hich eum
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; _de- light in deceiving, and aptness to be deceived; imposture and credulity; which, although they appear to be of a diverse 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,!
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 credunt- que ;* so great an affinity hath fiction and belief.
This facility of credit and accepting or admitting things weakly authorised or warranted, is of two kinds according to the subject: for it is either a belief of history (as? the lawyers speak, matter of fact); or else of matter of art and opinion. As to the former, we see the experience and in- convenience of this error in ecclesiastical history; which hath too easily received and registered reports and nar- rations 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 super- stitious simplicity of some, and the politic toleration of others holding them but as divine poesies; yet after a 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.
1 Hor. Ed. 1. xvii. 69. * ‘Tac. Hest. 51. 5 I have here followed the reading of edition 1605.
Advancement of Learning 29
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 un- true, to the great derogation of the credit of natural philo- sophy 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 sake,®? hath cast all prodigious narrations, which he thought worthy the record- ing, into one book: excellently discerning that matter of manifest truth (such whereupon observation and rule were to be built), was not to be mingled or weakened with matter of doubtful credit; and yet again, that 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 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 and prosecutions to these ends, both in the theories and in the practices, are full of error and vanity; which the great professors themselves
1Cardan—born in Pavia, 1501—wrote about 122 works on
Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy, Astrology, Medicine, Ethics, Music, etc.
* Albertus Magnus—born in Swabia, about 1198—the most learned man of his age.
* So in all the early editions; side has been suggested.
* Oavudoww ’Axotcuara—a treatise now generally thought not to be genuine.
30 Bacon
have sought to veil over and conceal by enigmatical writ- ings, and referring themselves to auricular traditions and such other devices, to save the credit of impostures: and yet surely to alchemy this right is due, that it may be com- pared to the husbandman whereof AZsop makes the fable; that, when he died, told his sons that he had left unto them gold buried under ground in his vineyard; and they digged over all the ground, and gold they 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 follow- ing: so assuredly the search and stir to make gold hath brought to light a great number of good and fruitful inven- tions and experiments, as well for the disclosing of nature as for the use of man’s life.
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 counsellors! 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 farthest, and time leeseth and corrupteth. So we see, artillery, sailing, printing, and the like, were grossly man- aged at the first, and by time accommodated 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 illustrated. Forfas water will not ascend iieie: 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 jalthough the position be good, Oportet discentem credere,?
1 Editions 1629 and 1633 have consuls. De Augm.: ‘‘ Dictatoria quadam potestate munivit ut edicant, non senatoria ut consulant.” Ellis suggests that Bacon wrote counsellrs. It clearly should be counsellors. 2 Arist. Soph. El. 2.
Advancement of Learning 31
yet it must be coupled with this, Oportet edoctum judtcare ,; for disciples do owe unto masters only a temporary belief and a suspension of their own judgment until they be fully instructed, and not an absolute resignation or perpetual 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.
4. Thus have I gone over these three diseases of learning ; besides the which there are some other rather peccant humours that 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
passed over.
(a) The first of these is the extreme affecting of two extremities; 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; _ 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 quanam fit via
recta et bona et ambulate in ea.' 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 progression. And to speak truly, | Antiquitas seculi juventus mund1.2, These times are the
ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we account ancient ordine retrogrado, by a computa- tion backward from ourselves.
(0) Another error induced by the former is a distrust that anything should be now to be found out, which the world should have missed and passed over so long time; as if the
fame objection were to be made to time, that Lucian maketh
_ to Jupiter and other the heathen gods; of which he won-
dereth that they. begot so many children in old time, and begot none in his time; and asketh whether they were be- come 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 ;
1 Jerem. vi. 16. 2 See Nov. Org. i. 84.
32 Bacon
wherein, contrariwise, we see commonly the levity and in- constancy 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; and yet afterwards it pleaseth Livy to make no more of it than this: Nil aliud quam bene ausus vana contemnere; 1 and the fame 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, they seem strange to our assent; but being demonstrate,
our mind accepteth of them by a kind of relation (as the |
lawyers speak), as if we had known them before. 3. Another error, that hath also some affinity with the
former, 1s a conceit that of former opinions or sects, after |
variety and examination, the best hath still prevailed and suppressed the rest; so as, if a man should begin the labour of a new search, he were but like to light somewhat formerly rejected, and by rejection brought into oblivion: as if the multitude, or the wisest for the multitude’s sake, were not ready to give passage rather to that which is popular and
superficial than to that which is substantial and profound; ©
for the truth is that time seemeth to be of the nature of a
river or stream, which carrieth down to us that which is — light and blown up, and sinketh and drowneth that which |
is weighty and solid. 4. Another error, of a diverse nature from all the former,
is the over early and peremptory reduction of ledge —
into arts and methods; from which time commonly sciences receive small or no augmentation. But as young men, when they knit and shape perfectly, do seldom grow to a further stature; so knowledge, while it is in aphorisms and observations, it is in growth: but when it once is compre- hended in exact methods, it may perchance be further polished and illustrate? and accommodated for use and practice; but it increaseth no more in bulk and substance.
5. Another error, which doth succeed that which we last mentioned, is that after the distribution of particular arts and sciences, men have abandoned universality, or philo- sophia prima ; which cannot but cease and stop all progres-
tL iy. 1X. 17. 2 So in edition 1605.
a ee ee
" Advancement of Learning 33
sion. For no perfect discovery can be made upon a flat or a level: neither is it possible to discover the more remote and deeper parts of any science, if you stand but upon the level of the same science, and ascend not to a higher science.
6. Another error hath proceeded from too great a rever- ence, and a kind of adoration of the mind and understanding of man; by means whereof men have withdrawn themselves too_much_ fro ature, and the observations of experience, and have tumbled up and down in their own reason and conceits. Upon these intellectual- ists, which are notwithstanding commonly taken for the most sublime and divine philosophers, Heraclitus gave a just censure, saying, Men sought truth in thew own little worlds, and not in the great and common world; for they dis- dain to spell, and so by degrees to read in the volume of
_God’s works: and contrariwise by continual meditation and
agitation of wit do urge and as it were invocate their own spirits to divine and give oracles unto them, whereby they are deservedly deluded. 7. Another error that hath some connection with this latter, is, that men_have used to infect their meditations, opinions, and doctrines, with some conceits which they have most admired, or some sciences which they have most
applied; and given all things else a tincture according to them. utterly untrue and unproper. So hath Plato intermingled his philosophy with theology, and Aristotle with logic; and the second school of Plato, Proclus and the rest, with the mathematics.? For these were the arts which had a kind of primogeniture with them severally. So have the alchym- ists made a philosophy out of a few experiments of the furnace; and Gilbertus,? our countryman, hath made a philosophy out of the observations of a lodestone. So Cicero, when reciting the several opinions of the nature of the soul he found a musician that held the soul was but a harmony, saith pleasantly, Hic ab arte sua non recessit, etc.* But of these conceits Aristotle speaketh seriously and wisely, when he saith, Qui respiciunt ad pauca de facilt pronunciant.®
1Sext. Empir. adv. Math. vii. 133.
* See Nov. Org. i. 63. 3 See Nov. Org. i. 64.
4 Tuscul. Disp. i. x. 20. He is speaking of Aristoxenus. Plato, in the Phedo, pp. 56 and 61, introduces the same analogy.
5 De Gener. et Corrupt. 1. 2.
34. Bacon
8. Another error is an_impatience of doubt and haste to assertion without due and mature suspension of judgment. ‘For the two ways of contemplation are not unlike the two ways of action commonly spoken of by the ancients; the one plain and smooth in the beginning, and in the end impassable; the other rough and troublesome in the entrance, but after a while fair and even. So it is in con- templation; if a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts ; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
eae
as may be soonest believed, and not easiliest examined. It is true, that in compendious treatises for practice that form is not to be disallowed: but in the true handling of know- ledge, men ought not to fall either on the one side into the vein of Velleius the Epicurean: Nil tam metuens, quam ne dubitare aliqua de ve videretur ;+ nor on the other side into Socrates his ironical doubting of all things;? but to pro- pound things sincerely with more or less asseveration, as they stand in a man’s own judgment proved more or less.
10. Other errors there are in the scope that men propound to themselves, whereunto they bend their endeavours; for whereas the more constant and devote® kind of professors of any science ought to propound to themselves to make some additions to their science, they convert their labours to aspire to certain second prizes: as to be a profound interpreter or commenter, to be a sharp champion or de- fender, to be a methodical compounder or abridger; and
so the patrimony of knowledge cometh to be sometimes
improved, but eerenpesee
11. But the greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge: for men have entered into a désire of learning and knowledge, | sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite;
sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight ; sometimes for ornament and reputation; and sometimes to
1Cic. De Nat. Deor. I. viii. 18.
2 His Eipdvera. See Plato, Apol. (p. 21), for the best instance of this. He there explains his superiority to consist in the knowledge of his own ignorance. 3 So edition 1605. |
Advancement of Learning 35
enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and most times for lucre and profession; and seldom sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men: asif there were sought in knowledge a couch where- upon to rest a searching and restless spirit ; or a tarrasse, for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with’ a fair prospect; or a tower of state, for a proud mind to raise j itself upon; or a fort or commanding ground, for strife and contention; or a shop, for profit or sale; and not a rich :
. storehouse, for the glory of the Creator and the relief of man’s estate. ut this is that which will indeed dignify and exalt knowledge, if contemplation and action may be more nearly and straitly conjoined and united together than they have been; a conjunction like unto that of the two highest planets, Saturn, the planet of rest and contem- | plation, and Jupiter, the planet of civil society and action) howbeit, I do not mean, when I speak of use and actiorf,: that end before-mentioned of the applying of knowledge
_ to lucre and profession; for I am not ignorant how much
- that diverteth and interrupteth the prosecution and advance-
ment of knowledge, like unto the golden ball thrown before
Atalanta, which while she goeth aside and stoopeth to take
up, the race is hindered ;
Declinat cursus, aurumque volubile tollit.+
12. Neither is my meaning, as was spoken of Socrates, to call philosophy down from heaven to converse upon the earth;? that is, to leave natural philosophy aside, and to apply knowledge only to manners and policy. But as both heaven and earth do conspire and contribute to the use and benefit of man; so the end ought to be, from both philo- sophies to_ separate and reject vain speculations, and what- soever is empty and void, and_to_preserve and augment whatsoever is solid and fruitful: that knowledge may not “be, as a curtesan, for pleasure and vanity only, or as a bond- woman, to acquire and gain to her master’s use; but as a spouse, for generation, fruit, and comfort.
Thus have I described and opened, as by a kind of dissec- tion, those peccant humours, (the principal of them,) which hath? not only given impediment to the proficience of
1 Ovid, Metam. x. 667. *Cic. Tusc. Disp. v. 4, 10. 3 In all editions hath. For in Bacon’s time the verb singular was
36 Bacon
learning, but have given also occasion to the traducement thereof: wherein if I have been too plain, it must be remem- bered, fidelia vulnera amantis, sed dolosa oscula malignantis.1 This, J think, I have gained, that I ought to be the better believed in that which I shall say pertaining to commenda- tion; because I have proceeded so freely in that which concerneth censure. And yet I have no purpose to enter into a laudative of learning, or to make a hymn to the Muses; (though I am of opinion that it is long since their rites were duly celebrated:) but my intent is, without varnish or amplification justly to weigh the dignity of knowledge in the balance with other things, and to take the true value thereof by testimonies and arguments divine and human.
II. 1. First therefore let us seek the dignity of knowledge in the archetype or first platform, which is in the attributes and_acts of God, as far as they are revealed to man and — wie ener ‘may_be observed with sobriety; wherein we may not seek it by the name of Learning; for all Learning is Knowledge — acquired, and all knowledge in God is original: and there- fore we must look for it by another name, that of Wisdom or Sapience, as the Scriptures call it.
It is so then, that in the wo creation we see a double emanation of Virtue from God; the one referring more properly to Power, the other to Wisdom; the one expressed in making the subsistence of the matter, and the other in disposing the beauty of the form. This being supposed, it is to be observed that for anything which appeareth in the history of the creation, the confused mass and matter of Heaven and Earth was made in a moment; ~ and the order and disposition of that chaos or mass was the work of six days; such a note of difference it pleased God to put upon the works of Power, and the works of Wis- dom; wherewith concurreth, that in the former it is not set down that God said, Let there be heaven and earth, as it is set down of the works following; but actually, that God made Heaven and Earth: the one carrying the style of a Manufacture, and the other of a Law, Decree, or Counsel.
To proceed to that which is next in order from God, to
very commonly used with more nominatives than one, and even with plural nouns, as here. _ Prov. XxVi. 6.
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Spirits;! we find, as far as credit is to be given to the celestial hierarchy of that supposed Dionysius the senator _ of Athens, the first place or degree is given to the angels of Love, which are termed Seraphim; the second to the angels of Light, which are termed Cherubim; and the third, and so following places, to Thrones, Principalities, and the rest, which are all angels of power and ministry; so as the angels of Knowledge and Illumination are placed before the angels of Office and Domination.?
To descend from Spirits and Intellectual Forms to Sensible and Material Forms; we read the first Form that was created was Light,? which hath a relation and correspond- ence in nature and corporal things to Knowledge in Spirits and incorporal things.
So in the distribution of days we see the day wherein God did rest and contemplate His own works, was blessed above all the days wherein He did effect, and accomplish them.‘
After the creation was finished, it is set down unto us that man was placed in the garden to work therein; which work, so appointed to him, could be no other than work of Contemplation; that is, when the end of work is but for exercise and experiment, not for necessity; for there being then no reluctation of the creature, nor sweat of the brow, man’s employment must of consequence have been matter of delight in the experiment, and not matter of labour for
the use. Again, the first_acts which man performed in Paradise consisted 0 of the two summary parts of knowledge ; the view_of creatures, and the imposition of names.® As
for the knowledge which induced the fall, it was, as was touched before, not the natural knowledge of creatures, but the moral knowledge of good and evil; wherein the supposi- tion was, that God’s commandments or prohibitions were not the originals of good and evil, but that they had other beginnings, which man aspired to know; to the end to make a total defection from God and to depend wholly upon himself.
To pass on: in the first event or occurrence after the fall of man, we see, (as the Scriptures have infinite mysteries, not
* Ch. Hooker, E. P. I. iv. 1, 2. 2 Dionys. De Ce@lesti Hievarch. cap. 7, 8, 9. This work is, as Bacon hints, spurious, though no other author is assigned. *Gen. i. 3. “ih 3s "ai 10; D 799
38 Bacon violating at all the truth of the story or letter,) an image of the two estates, the contemplative state and the_active state, figured in the two persons of Abel and Cain, and in the two simplest and most primitive trades of life; that of the shepherd, (who, by reason of his leisure, rest in a place, and living in view of heaven, is a lively image of a contem- plative life,) and that of the husbandman: ! where we see again the favour and election of God went to the shepherd, and _ not to the tiller of the ground. ; So in the age before the flood, the holy records within those few memorials which are there entered and registered have vouchsafed to mention and honour the name of the inventors and authors of music and works in metal.? In the age after the flood, the first great judgment of God upon the ambition of man was the.confusion of ton ;° whereby the_open trade and intercourse of learning and knowledge was chiefly imbarred. eee To descend to Moses the lawgiver, and God’s first pen: he is adorned by the Scripturés with this addition and commendation, That he was seen in all the learning of the Egyptians ; * which nation, we know, was one of the most ancient schools of the world: for so Plato brings in the Egyptian priest saying unto Solon: You Grecians are ever children ; you have no knowledge of antiquity, nor antiquity of knowledge Take a view of the ial law of Moses; you shall find, besides the prefiguration of Christ, the badge or difference of the people of God, the exercise and impres=~ sion of obedience, and other divine uses and fruits thereof, that some of the most learned Rabbins have travailed profitably and profoundly to observe,some of them a natural, — some of them a moral sense, or reduction of many of the ceremonies and ordinances. As in the law of the leprosy, where it is said, If the whiteness have overspread the flesh, the _ patient may pass abroad for clean ; but if there be any whole flesh remaining, he is to be shut up for unclean ,;* one of them noteth a principle of nature, that putrefaction 1s more con- tagious before maturity than after: and another noteth a position of moral philosophy, that men abandoned to vice — do not so much corrupt manners, as those that are half good
14sen. iv. 2. *1V. 2128. xt. * Act. Ap. vii. 22. ® Plat. Tim. in. 22. 8 Levit. xiii. 12-14.
Advancement of Learning 39
and half evil. Soin this and very many other places in that law, there is to be found, besides the theological sense, much aspersion of philosophy.
So likewise in that excellent book of_Jab, if it be revolved with diligence, it will be found pregnant and swelling with - natural philosophy; as, for example, cosmography, and the eoundiess of the world, Qut extendit aquilonem super vacuum, et appendit terram super nililum ; * wherein the pensileness of the earth, the pole of the north, and the finiteness or convexity of heaven are manifestly touched. So again, matter of astronomy; Spiritus ejus ornavit celos, et obstetri- cante manu ejus eductus est coluber tortuosus.2, And in another place; Nunqutd congungere valebis micantes stellas Pleiadas, aut gyrum Arcturt poterts disstpare?*® Where the fixing of the stars, ever standing at equal distance, is with great elegancy noted. And in another place, Qui facit Arcturum, et Oriona, et Hyadas, et intertora Ausint ;* where again he takes knowledge of the depression of the southern pole, calling it the secrets of the south, because the southern stars were in that climate unseen. Matter of generation; Annon sicut lac mulsisti me, et sicut caseum coagulastt me? etc.® Matter of minerals; Habet argentum venarum suarum principia : et auro locus est in quo conflatur, ferrum de terra tollitur, et lapis solutus calore in @s vertitur :® and so for- wards in that chapter.
So likewise in the person of Salomon the King, we see the gift or endowment_of wisdom and learning, both in Salo- mon’s petition and in God’s assent thereunto, preferred before all other terrene and temporal felicity.?. By virtue of which grant or donative of God Salomon became enabled not only to write those excellent Parables or Aphorisms concerning divine and moral philosophy; but also to com- pile a Natural History of all verdure, from the cedar upon the mountain to the moss upon the wall; (which is but a rudiment between putrefaction and a herb,)® and also of all things that breathe or move.? Nay, the same Salomon the King, although he excelled in the glory of treasure and magnificent buildings, of shipping and navigation, of service and attendance, of fame and renown, and the like, yet he
1 Job. xxvi. 7. *XSVi. 13: § XXXViii. 31.
7 ax. 9. *x. 10. * xxviii. I.
71 Kings iii. 5, seq. ® Nov. Org. ii. 30. ®1 Kings iv. 33.
o
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maketh no claim to any of those glories, but only to the glory of inquisition of truth; for so he saith expressly, The glory of God ts to conceal a thing, but the glory of the king is to find tt out ;* as if, according to the innocent play of children, the Divine Majesty took delight to hide His works, to the end to have them found out; and as if kings could not obtain a greater honour than to be God’s playfellows in that game; considering the great commandment of wits and means, whereby nothing needeth to be hidden from them.
Neither did the dispensation of God vary in the times after our Saviour came into the world; for our Saviour Himself did first show His power to subdue ignorance, by
_His conference with the priests_and_doctors of the law,” before He showed His power to subdue nature by His miracles. And the coming of the Holy Spirit was chiefly figured and expressed in thé similitude and gift of tongues,? which are but velicula sctentie.
His immediate working, and to abase all human wisdom or knowledge; yet, nevertheless, that counsel of His was no sooner performed, but in the next vicissitude and succession He did send His Divine Truth into the world waited on with other learnings, as with servants or handmaids; for so we see St. Paul, who was the only learned amongst the Apostles, had his pen most used in the Scriptures of the New Testa- ment.
So again, we find that many of the ancient Bishops and Fathers-of the Church were excellently read and studied in all the learning of the heathen; insomuch that the_edict of
the Emperor Julianus,? whereby it was interdicted unto _Christians to be admitted into schools, lectures, or exercises
of learning, was este and accounted a more pernicious engi ination against the Christian Faith, than
were all the sanguinary prosecutions of his predecessors;
neither could the emulation and jealousy of Gregory the first of that name, bishop of Rome,? ever obtain the opinion
1 Prov. xxv. 2. 2 Luke ii. 46. * Act. Ab. tits 4 Gibbon, vol. ii. c. 23, who quotes Ammian. xxv. 5. 5 Gibbon, vol. iv. c. 45. The story that St. Gregory destroyed
i Advancement of Learning 41
of piety or devotion; but contrariwise received the censure of humour, malignity, and pusillanimity, even amongst holy men; in that he designed to obliterate and extinguish the memory of heathen antiquity and authors. But contrari- wise, it was the Christian Church, which, amidst the inunda- tions of the Scythians on the one side from the north-west, and the Saracens from the east, did preserve in the sacred lap and bosom thereof the precious relics even of heathen learning, which otherwise had been extinguished as if no such thing had ever been.
And we see before our eyes, that in the age of ourselves
and our fathers, when i C 1 the Church of ~ ome to account for their ate manners and cere--
Monies, and sundry doctrines obnoxious and framed to Uphol hold the same abuses; at one and the same time it was
eee ee eae Providence that there should attend withal a renovation and new spring of-all ather knowledges, And on the other side we see the Jesuits, (who partly in themselves, and partly by the emulation and provocation of their example, have much quickened and strengthened the state of learning, )) we see, I say, what notable service
and repar to the Roman see. Wherefore, to conclude this part, let it be observed, that
there be two principal duties and services, besides ornament and illustration, which philosophy and human learning do_ ee The one, because they are an effectual inducement to the exaltation of the glory of God:
for as the Psalms and other Scriptures do often invite us to consider and magnify the great and wonderful works of God,! so if we should rest only in the contemplation of the exterior of them, as they first offer themselves to our senses, we should do a like injury unto the Majesty of God, as if we should judge or construe of the store of some excellent jeweller, by that only which is set out toward the street in his shop. The other, because they minister a singular hel
and preservative against unbelief and error: for our Saviour saith, You err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God ;* laying before us two books or volumes to study, if
the Palatine Library is now rejected; but as to his aversion to pro- fane letters there can be no doubt. Milman’s Latin Christianity, me. iii. Cc. 7.
1 Ps, xix. Civ. 3 Matt. xxii. 29.
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we will be secured from error; first, the Scriptures, reveal- ing the Will of God; and then the creatures expressing His Power ;* whereof the latter is a key unto the former: not only opening our understanding to conceive the true sense of the Scriptures, by the general notions of reason and rules of speech; but chiefly opening our belief, in drawing us into a due meditation of the omnipotency of God, which is chiefly signed and engraven upon His works. Thus much therefore for divine testimony and evidence concerning the true dignity and value of Learning.
ii. As for human proofs, it is so large a field, as in a dis- course of this nature and brevity it is fit rather to use choice of those things which we shall produce, than to embrace the variety of them. First, therefore, in the degrees of humaa honour amongst the heathen, it was the highest to obtain to a veneration and adoration as a God. This unto the Chris- tians is as the forbidden fruit. But we speak now separately of human testimony: according to which, that which the Grecians call apotheosis, and the Latins, relatio inter divos, was the supreme honour which man could attribute unto man: especially when it was given, not by a formal decree or act of state, as it was used among the Roman Emperors, but by an inward assent and belief. Which honour, being so high, had also a degree or middle term; for there were reckoned above human honours, honours? heroical and divine: in the attribution and distribution of which honours, we see antiquity made this difference: that whereas foundersand uniters of states and cities, law-givers, extirpers of tyrants, fathers of the people, and other eminent persons in civil merit, were honoured but with the titles of worthies or demi-gods; such as were Hercules, Theseus, Minos, Romulus, and the like: on the other side, such as were inventors and authors of new arts, endowments, and com- modities towards man’s life, were ever consecrated amongst the gods themselves; as were Ceres, Bacchus, Mercurius, Apollo, and others: and justly; for the merit of the former is confined within the circle of an age or a nation; and is like fruitful showers, which though they be profitable and good, yet serve but for that season, and for a latitude of ground where they fall; but the other is indeed like the benefits of heaven, which are permanent and universal.
1Ct. Nov. Org. 1. 89. 2 All the old editions read honour.
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The former, again, is mixed with strife and perturbation; but the latter hath the true character of Divine Presence, coming ! in aura leni, without noise or agitation.
Neither is certainly that other merit of learning, in re- pressing the inconveniences which grow from man to man, much inferior to the former, of relieving the necessities which arise from nature; which merit was lively set forth by the ancients in that feigned relation of Orpheus’ theatre, where all beasts and birds assembled; and, forgetting their several appetites, some of prey, some of game, some of quarrel, stood all sociably together listening to the airs and accords of the harp; the sound whereof no sooner ceased, or was drowned by some louder noise, but every beast returned to its own nature: wherein is aptly described the nature and condition of men, who are full of savage and unre- claimed desires of profit, of lust, of revenge; which as long as they give ear to precepts, to laws, to religion, sweetly touched with eloquence and persuasion of books, of sermons, of harangues, so long is society and peace maintained; but if these instruments be silent, or that sedition and tumult make them not audible, all things dissolve into anarchy and confusion.
But this appeareth more manifestly, when kings them- selves, or persons of authority under them, or other gover- nors in commonwealths with learning. For although he might be thought partial to his own profession, that said, Then should people and estates be happy, when either kings were philosophers, or philo- sophers kings ;* yet so much is verified by experience, that under learned princes and governors there have been ever the best times: for howsoever kings may have their imper- fections in their passions and customs; yet if they be illu- minate by learning, they have those notions of religion, policy, and morality, which do preserve them, and refrain them from all ruinous and peremptory errors and excesses; whispering evermore in their ears, when counsellors and servants stand mute and silent. And senators or coun- sellors likewise, which be learned, do proceed upon more safe and substantial principles, than counsellors which are
1 In the edition 1605 com— ends a line, and the remainder of the word has been omitted. The editions 1629 and 1633 read commonly. 2 Plat. Rep. v. 473.
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only men of experience: the one sort keeping dangers afar off, whereas the other discover them not till they come near hand, and then trust to the agility of their wit to ward or avoid them.
Which felicity of times under learned princes, (to keep still the law of brevity, by using the most eminent and selected examples,) doth best appear in the age which passed _from the death of Domitian the emperor until the reign of Commodus; comprehending a succession of six princes, all learned, or singular favourers and advancers of learning, which age for temporal respects, was the most happy and flourishing that ever the Roman empire, (which then was a model of the world,) enjoyed: a matter revealed and prefigured unto Domitian in a dream the night before he was slain; for he thought there was grown behind upon his shoulders a neck and head of gold: which came accord- ingly to pass in those golden times which succeeded: of which princes we will make some commemoration; wherein although the matter will be vulgar, and may be thought fitter for a declamation than agreeable to a treatise infolded as this is, yet because it is pertinent to the point in hand,
Neque semper arcum Tendit Apollo,?
and to name them only were too naked and cursory, I will not omit it altogether. The first was Nerva; the excellent temper of whose government is by a glance in Cornelius Tacitus touched to the life: Postqguam divus Nerva res olim insociabiles miscuisset, imperium et libertatem.2 And in token of his learning, the last act of his short reign left to memory, was a missive to his adopted son Trajan, proceed- ing upon some inward discontent at the ingratitude of the times, comprehended in a verse of Homer’s:
Telis, Phoebe, tuis lacrymas ulciscere nostras.*
Trajan, who succeeded, was for his person not learned: but if we will hearken to the speech of our Saviour, that saith, He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall have a prophet’s reward ;* he deserveth to be placed
4 Hor. Od. 1. 10, 19. * Agric. Vit. c. 3;
8 Ticeav Aavaol éua Sdxkpva goto. BédNeoow. Hom. Jl. a. 42. Dionis. Eptt. (Xiphilini), xii.
* Matt. x. 41.
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amongst the most learned princes: for there was not a greater admirer of learning, or benefactor of learning; a founder of famous libraries, a perpetual advancer of learned men to office, and a familiar converser with learned profes- sors and preceptors, who were noted to have then most credit in court. On the other side, how much Trajan’s virtue and government was admired and renowned, surely no testimony of grave and faithful history doth more lively set forth, than that legend tale of Gregorius Magnus, bishop of Rome, who was noted for the extreme envy he bore towards all heathen excellency: and yet he is reported, out of the love and estimation of Trajan’s moral virtues, to have made unto God passionate and fervent prayers for the delivery of his soul out of hell: 1 and to have obtained it, with a caveat that he should make no more such petitions. In this prince’s time also, the persecution against the Chris- tians received intermission, upon the certificate of Plinius Secundus, a man of excellent learning, and by Trajan advanced.’
Adrian, his successor, was the most curious man that lived, and the most universal inquirer; insomuch as it was noted for an error in his mind, that he desired to compre- hend all things, and not to reserve himself for the worthiest things: falling into the like humour that was long before noted in Philip of Macedon, who, when he would needs over-rule and put down an excellent musician in an argu- ment touching music, was well answered by him again, God forbid, sir, saith he, that your fortune should be so bad, as to know these things better than I.3 It pleased God like- wise to use the curiosity of this emperor as an inducement to the peace of His Church in those days. For having Christ in veneration, not as a God or Saviour, but as a wonder or novelty; and having His picture in his gallery, matched with Apollonius, with whom in his vain imagina- tion he thought he had some conformity; yet it served the turn to allay the bitter hatred of those times against the Christian name, so as the Church had peace during his time. And for his government civil, although he did not attain to that of Trajan’s glory of arms, or perfection of justice, yet
1 See Dante, Purgatorio, x., who seems to take it from the Life of Gregory, by John the Deacon. re Flin. Epsst. x. 97. 8 Plutarch, A pophth. 179.
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in deserving of the weal of the subject he did exceed him. For Trajan erected many famous monuments and buildings; insomuch as Constantine the Great in emulation was wont to call him Parietaria, wall-flower, because his name was upon so many walls: but his buildings and works were more of glory and triumph than use and necessity. But Adrian spent his whole reign, which was peaceable, in a perambulation or survey of the Roman empire; giving order and making assignation where he went, for re-edifying of cities, towns, and forts decayed; and for cutting of rivers and streams, and for making bridges and passages, and for policing + of cities and commonalties with new ordinances and constitutions, and granting new franchises and incor- porations; so that his whole time was a very restoration of all the lapses and decays of former times.
Antoninus Pius, who succeeded him, was a prince excel- lently learned; and had the patient and subtle wit of a schoolman; insomuch as in common speech, which leaves no virtue untaxed, he was called Cymini Sector,? a carver or divider of cummin, which is one of the least seeds; such a patience he had and settled spirit to enter into the least and most exact differences of causes; a fruit no doubt of the exceeding tranquillity and serenity of his mind; which being no ways charged or incumbered, either with fears, remorses, or scruples, but having been noted for a man of the purest goodness, without all fiction or affectation, that hath reigned or lived, made his mind continually present and entire. He likewise approached a degree nearer unto Christianity, and became, as Agrippa said unto St. Paul, half a Christian;* holding their religion and law in good opinion, and not only ceasing persecution, but giving way to the advancement of Christians.
There succeeded him the first Divi fratres, the two adop- tive brethren, Lucius Commodus Verus,* (son to A¢lius Verus, who delighted much in the softer kind of learning, and was wont to call the poet Martial his Virgil,>5) and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus; whereof the latter, who
1 Editions 1605 and 1629, pollicing, edition 1633, pollishing.
2Unum de istis puto qui cuminum secant. Julian, Ces. So Aristot. Eth. Nic. iv. 3, efs rv dtarplovrwy 76 kipivov, where, however, the phrase is used of the “‘ skinflint,” or niggard.
3 Acts xxvi. 28. * Better known as L. Aurelius Verus.
5 See his life by Spartianus.
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obscured his colleague and survived him long, was named the philosopher: who, as he excelled all the rest in learning, so he excelled them likewise in perfection of all royal virtues ; insomuch as Julianus the emperor, in his book entitled Cesares, being as a pasquil or satire to deride all his prede- cessors, feigned that they were all invited to a banquet of the gods, and Silenus the jester sat at the nether end of the table, and bestowed a scoff on every one as they came in; but when Marcus Philosophus came in, Silenus was gravelled, and out of countenance, not knowing where to carp at him; save at the last he gave a glance at his patience towards his wife. And the virtue of this prince, continued with that of his predecessor, made the name of Antoninus so sacred in the world, that though it were extremely dishonoured in Commodus, Caracalla, and Heliogabalus, who all bore the name, yet when Alexander Severus refused the name, because he was a stranger to the family, the senate with one acclamation said, Quomodo Augustus, sic et Antoninus. In such renown and veneration was the name of these two princes in those days, that they would have it as a perpetual addition in all the emperors’ style. In this emperor’s time also the Church for the most part was in peace; so as in this sequence of six princes we do see the blessed effects of learning in sovereignty, painted forth in the greatest table of the world.
But for a tablet, or picture of smaller volume, (not pre- suming to speak of your majesty that liveth,) in my judg-} ment the most excellent is that of Queen Elizabeth, yous immediate predecessor in this part of Britain; a princess that, if Plutarch were now alive to write lives! by parallels, would trouble him, I think, to find for her a parallel amongst women. This lady was endued with learning in her sex singular, and great? even amongst masculine princes; whether we speak of learning, of language, or of science, modern or ancient, Divinity or Humanity: and unto the very last year of her life she was accustomed to appoint set hours for reading, scarcely any young student in a univer- sity more daily, or more duly. As for her government, I assure myself I shall not exceed, if I do affirm that this part
; |
1 Edition 1605, lynes. * Editions 1629, 1633, rave. Edition 1605, grace, t.e. “‘ learning in her sex singular, and grace even amongst masculine princes.”
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of the island never had forty-five years of better times; and yet not through the calmness of the season, but through the wisdom of her regiment. For if there be considered of the one side, the truth of religion established; the constant peace and security; the good administration of justice; the temperate use of the prerogative, not slackened, nor much strained; the flourishing state of learning, sortable to so excellent a patroness; the convenient estate of wealth and means, both of Crown and subject; the habit of obedience, and the moderation of discontents: and there be considered on the other side the differences of religion; the troubles of neighbour countries; the ambition of Spain, and opposi- tion of Rome; and then, that she was solitary and of herself: these things, I say, considered, as I could not have chosen an instance so recent and so proper, so I suppose I could not have chosen one more remarkable or eminent to the purpose now in hand, which is concerning the conjunction of learn- ing in the prince with felicity in the people.
Neither hath learning an influence and operation only upon civil merit and moral virtue, and the arts or tempera- ture of peace and peaceable government; but likewise it hath no less power and efficacy in enablement towards martial and military virtue and prowess; as may be notably represented in the examples of Alexander the Great, and Cesar the dictator, mentioned before, but now in fit place to be resumed: of whose virtues and acts in war there needs no note or recital, having been the wonders of time in that kind: but of their affections towards learning, and perfec- — tions in learning, it is pertinent to say somewhat.
Alexander ! was bred and taught under Aristotle, the great philosopher, who dedicated divers of his books of philo- sophy unto him: he was attended with Callisthenes and divers other learned persons, that followed him in camp, throughout his journeys and conquests. What price and © estimation he had learning in doth notably appear in these three particulars: first, in the envy he used to express that he bore towards Achilles, in this, that he had so good a trumpet of his praises as Homer’s verses; secondly, in the judgment or solution he gave touching that precious cabinet of Darius, which was found among his jewels; whereof question was made what thing was worthy to be put into it;
1 These anecdotes of Alexander come from Plutarch, Vit. Alex.
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and he gave his opinion for Homer’s works: thirdly, in his letter to Aristotle, after he had set forth his books of nature, wherein he expostulated with him for publishing the secrets or mysteries of philosophy; and gave him to understand that himself esteemed it more to excel other men in learning and knowledge than in power and empire. And what use he had of learning doth appear, or rather shine, in all his speeches and answers, being full of science, and use of science, and that in all variety.
And herein again it may seem a thing scholastical, and somewhat idle, to recite things that every man knoweth; but yet, since the argument I handle leadeth me thereunto, I am glad that men shall perceive I am as willing to flatter, if they will so call it, an Alexander, or a Cesar, or an Anto- ninus, that are dead many hundred years since, as any that now liveth: for it is the displaying of the glory of learning in sovereignty that I propound to myself, and not an humour of declaiming in any man’s praises. Observe then the speech he used of Diogenes, and see if it tend not to the true state of one of the greatest questions of moral philo- sophy; whether the enjoying of outward things, or the contemning of them, be the greatest happiness: for when he saw Diogenes so perfectly contented with so little, he said to those that mocked at his condition, Were I not Alexander, I would wish to be Diogenes. But Seneca inverteth it, and saith ; Plus erat, quod hic nollet acctpere, quam quod tlle posset dare.' There were more things which Diogenes would have refused, than there were which Alexander could have given.
Observe again that speech which was usual with him, That he felt his mortality chiefly in two things, sleep and lust ; ? and see if it were not a speech extracted out of the depth of natural philosophy, and liker to have come out of the mouth of Aristotle or Democritus, than from Alexander.
See again that speech of humanity and poesy; when upon the bleeding of his wounds, he called unto him one of his flatterers, that was wont to ascribe to him divine honour, and said, Look, this ts very blood ; this is not such a liquor as Homer speaketh of, which ran from Venus’ hand, when it was pierced by Diomedes.*
1Sen. De Benef. v. 4. *Sen. Ep. Mor. vi. 7. *’Ixap, olds mép re péer uaxdpeoor Oeoior. Il. «. 340. Cf. Seneca, ad Luctl. $9.
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See likewise his readiness in reprehension of logic, in the speech he used to Cassander, upon a complaint that was made against his father Antipater: for when Alexander happened to say, Do you think these men would have come from so far to complain, except they had just cause of grief ? And Cassander answered, Yea, that was the matter, because they thought they should not be disproved. Said Alexander laughing: See the subtilties of Aristotle, to take a matter both ways, pro et contra, etc.
But note again how well he could use the same art, which he reprehended, to serve his own humour: when bearing a secret grudge to Callisthenes, because he was against the new ceremony of his adoration, feasting one night where the same Callisthenes was at the table, it was moved by some after supper, for entertainment sake, that Callisthenes, who was an eloquent man, might speak of some theme or purpose at his own choice; which Callisthenes did; choosing the praise of the Macedonian nation for his discourse, and per- forming the same with so good manner, as the hearers were much ravished: whereupon Alexander, nothing pleased, said, Jt was easy to be eloquent upon so good a subject. But, saith he, Turn your style, and let us hear what you can say against us: which Callisthenes presently undertook, and did with that sting and life, that Alexander interrupted him, and said, The goodness of the cause made him eloquent before, and despite made him eloquent then again.
Consider further, for tropes of rhetoric, that excellent use of a metaphor or translation, wherewith he taxed Antipater, who was an imperious and tyrannous governor: for when one of Antipater’s friends commended him to Alexander for his moderation, that he did not degenerate, as his other lieutenants did, into the Persian pride, in use of purple, but kept the ancient habit of Macedon, of black; Tywe, saith Alexander, but Antipater is all purple within.” Or that other, when Parmenio came to him in the plain of Arbela, and showed him the innumerable multitude of his enemies, especially as they appeared by the infinite number of lights, _ as it had been a new firmament of stars, and thereupon > advised him to assail them by night: whereupon he an- swered, That he would not steal the victory.
1 The Greek is \evxordpugos. 2 6rordppupos. Apop. Reg. et Imp.
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For matter of policy, weigh that significant distinction, so much in all ages embraced, that he made between his two friends, Hephestion and Craterus, when he said, That the one loved Alexander, and the other loved the king: describ- ing the principal difference of princes’ best servants, that some in affection love their person, and others in duty love their crown.
Weigh also that excellent taxation of an error, ordinary with counsellors of princes, that they counsel their masters according to the model of their own mind and fortune, and not of their masters’; when, upon Darius’ great offers, Parmenio had said, Surely I would accept these offers, were I as Alexander ; saith Alexander, So would I, were I as Parmenio.
Lastly, weigh that quick and acute reply, which he made when he gave so large gifts to his friends and servants, and was asked what he did reserve for himself, and he answered, Hope : weigh, I say, whether he had not cast up his account right, because hope must be the portion of all that resolve upon great enterprises. For this was Cesar’s portion when he went first into Gaul, his estate being then utterly over- thrown with largesses. And this was likewise the portion of that noble prince, howsoever transported with ambition, Henry Duke of Guise, of whom it was usually said, that he was the greatest usurer in France, because he had turned all his estate into obligations.
To conclude, therefore: as certain critics are used to say hyperbolically, That if all sciences were lost they might be found in Virgil! so certainly this may be said truly, there are the prints and footsteps of learning in those few speeches which are reported of this prince: the admiration of whom, when I consider him not as Alexander the Great, but as Aristotle’s scholar, hath carried me too far.
As for Julius Cesar, the excellency of his learning needeth not to be argued from his education, or his company, or his speeches; but in a further degree doth declare itself in his writings and works; whereof some are extant and perma- nent, and some unfortunately perished. For, first, we see there is left unto us that excellent history of his own wars, which he entitled only a Commentary, wherein all succeed- ing times have admired the solid weight of matter, and the real passages and lively images of actions and persons,
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expressed in the greatest propriety of words and perspicuity of narration that ever was; which that it was not the effect of a natural gift, but of learning and precept, is well wit- nessed by that work of his, entitled, De Analogia,’ being a grammatical philosophy, wherein he did labour to make this same Vox ad placitum to become Vox ad licitum, and to reduce custom of speech to congruity of speech; and took, as it were, the picture of words from the life of reason.
So we receive from him, as a monument both of his power and learning, the then reformed computation of the year; well expressing that he took it to be as great a glory to him- self to observe and know the law of the heavens, as to give law to men upon the earth.
So likewise in that book of his, Anti-Cato,? it may easily appear that he did aspire as well to victory of wit as victory of war: undertaking therein a conflict against the greatest champion with the pen that then lived, Cicero the Orator.
So again in his book of Apophthegms, which he collected, we see that he esteemed it more honour to make himself but a pair of tables to take the wise and pithy words of others, than to have every word of his own to be made an apophthegm or an oracle; as vain princes, by custom of flattery, pretend to do. And yet if I should enumerate divers of his speeches, as I did those of Alexander, they are truly such as Solomon noteth, when he saith, Verba sapien- tum tanquam aculer, et tanquam clavt in altum defixi:* whereof I will only recite three, not so delectable for elegancy, but admirable for vigour and efficacy.
As, first, it is reason he be thought a master of words, that could with one word appease a mutiny in his army, which was thus: The Romans, when their generals did speak to their army, did use the word muilztes, but when the magistrates spake to the people, they did use the word Quirites. The soldiers were in tumult, and seditiously prayed to be cashiered; not that they so meant, but by expostulation thereof to draw Cesar to other conditions; — wherein he being resolute not to give way, after some silence, | he began his speech, Ego, Quirites,> which did admit
1Cic. Brutus, 72. *Cic. ad. Ait. xii. 40, 41; Xili. 50.
*Cic. Epist. ad Div. ix. 16. * Feel, xi. 215 ®Suet. Jul. Cas. c. 70.
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them already cashiered; wherewith they were so surprised, crossed, and confused, as they would not suffer him to go on in his speech, but relinquished their demands, and made it their suit to be again called by the name of milites.
The second speech was thus: Cesar did extremely affect the name of king; and some were set on as he passed by in popular acclamation to salute him king: whereupon, find- ing the cry weak and poor, he put it off thus, in a kind of jest, as if they had mistaken his surname; Non Rex sum, sed Casar;1 a speech that if it be searched the life and fulness of it can scarce be expressed. For, first, it was a refusal of the name, but yet not serious: again, it did signify an infinite confidence and magnanimity, as if he presumed Cesar was the greater title; as by his worthiness it is come to pass till this day: but chiefly it was a speech of great allurement toward his own purpose; as if the state did strive with him but for a name, whereof mean families were vested; for Rex was a surname with the Romans, as well as King is with us.”
The last speech which J will mention, was used to Metellus, when Cesar after war declared did possess himself of the city of Rome; at which time entering into the inner treasury to take the money there accumulated, Metellus being tribune forbade him: whereto Cesar said, That if he did not desist, he would lay him dead 1n the place. And pre- sently taking himself up, he added, Adolescens, durius est mtht hoc dicere quam facere. Young man, it is harder for me to speak than to do 1t.2 A speech compounded of the greatest terror and greatest clemency that could proceed out of the mouth of man.*
But to return and conclude with him; it is evident, him- self knew well his own perfection in learning, and took it upon him; as appeared when, upon occasion that some spake what a strange resolution it was in Lucius Sylla to resign his dictature; he scoffing at him to his own advan- tage answered, That Sylla could not skill of letters, and there- fore knew not how to dictate.®
1Suet. Jul. Ces. c. 70. * Cf. Hor. Sat. I. vii. Plutarch, Jul. Ces. ‘To these might have well been added Czsar’s exhortation to the boatman, ‘‘ Thou carriest Cesar and his fortunes.”’ aSuet. Jul. Cas. c. 77. E 719
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And here it were fit to leave this point, touching the con- currence of military virtue and learning; (for what example would come with any grace after those two of Alexander and Czesar?) were it not in regard of the rareness of circum- stances that I find in one other particular, as that which did so suddenly pass from extreme scorn to extreme wonder; and it is of Xenophon the philosopher, who went from Socrates’ school into Asia, in the expedition of Cyrus the younger, against King Artaxerxes. This Xenophon at that time was very young, and never had seen the wars before; neither had any command in the army, but only followed the war as a voluntary, for the love and conversation of Proxenus his friend.1. He was present when Phalynus came in message from the great king to the Grecians, after that Cyrus was slain in the field, and they a handful of men left to themselves in the midst of the king’s territories, cut off from their country by many navigable rivers, and many hundred miles. The message imported, that they should deliver up their arms, and submit themselves to the king’s mercy. To which message before answer was made, divers of the army conferred familiarly with Phalynus, and amongst the rest Xenophon happened to say, Why, Phaly- nus, we have now but these two things left, our arms and our virtue ; and if we yield up our arms, how shall we make use of our virtue? Whereto Phalynus smiling on him, said, If I be not deceived, young gentleman, you are an Athenian : and, I believe vou study philosophy, and tt is pretty that you say: but you are much abused, if you think your virtue can withstand the king’s power.” Here was the scorn; the won- der followed: which was, that this young scholar or philo- sopher, after all the captains were murdered in parley by treason, conducted those ten thousand foot through the heart of all the king’s high countries from Babylon to Grecia in safety, in despite of all the king’s forces, to the astonish- ment of the world, and the encouragement of the Grecians in time succeeding to make invasion upon the kings of Persia: as was after purposed by Jason the Thessalian, attempted by Agesilaus the Spartan, and achieved by Alexander the Macedonian, all upon the ground of the act of that young scholar.
To proceed now from imperial and military virtue to moral
1 Xen. Anab. ii. ad fin. 2 Xen. Anab. il. 1, 12.
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and private virtue: first, it is an assured truth, which is contained in the verses:
Scilicet ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes, Emollit mores, nec sinit esse feros.! tak.
It taketh away the wildness and barbarism and fierceness y of men’s minds; but indeed the accent had need be upon jideliter : for a little superficial learning doth rather work “4 a contrary effect. It taketh away all levity, temerity, and insolency, by copious suggestion of all doubts and difficul- ties, and acquainting the mind to balance reasons on both sides, and to turn back the first offers and conceits of the mind, and to accept of nothing but examined and tried. It taketh away vain admiration of anything, which is the root of all weakness: for all things are admired either because they are new, or because they are great. For novelty, no man that wadeth in learning or contemplation thoroughly, but will find that printed in his heart Nil novt super terram.” Neither can any man marvel at the play of puppets, that goeth behind the curtain, and adviseth well ofthe motion. And for magnitude, as Alexander the Great, after that he was used to great armies, and the great con- quests of the spacious provinces in Asia, when he received letters out of Greece, of some fights and services there, which were commonly for a passage or a fort, or some walled town at the most, he said, Jt seemed to him that he was advertised of the Battle of the Frogs and the Mice, that the old tales went of.? So certainly, if a man meditate much upon the universal frame of nature, the earth with men upon it (the divineness of souls except,) will not seem much other than an ant-hill, whereas some ants carry corn, and some carry their young, and some go empty, and all to-and-fro a little heap of dust. It taketh away or mitigateth fear of death, or adverse fortune; which is one of the greatest impediments of virtue, and imperfections of manners. For if a man’s mind be deeply seasoned with the consideration of the mortality and corruptible nature of things, he will easily concur with Epictetus, who went forth one day and saw a woman weeping for her pitcher of earth that was
1 Ov. Ep. Pont, ii. ix. 47. > 0cl. 1, G,
*"Eocxev, & dvdpes, d7€ Aapetov quets évixGmev évradéa, éxet Tis €v’ Apxadla yeyovévat pvouaxla. Plut. Ages. c. 15.
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broken; and went forth the next day and saw a woman weeping for her son that was dead, and thereupon said: Hert vidi fragilem frangi, hodie vidi mortalem mori.. And therefore Virgil did excellently and profoundly couple the knowledge of causes and the conquest of all fears, together, as concomitantia :
Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, Quique metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari.*
It were too long to go over the particular remedies which learning doth minister to all the diseases of the mind; sometimes purging the ill-humours, sometimes opening the obstructions, sometimes helping digestion, sometimes increasing appetite, sometimes healing the wounds and exulcerations thereof, and the like; and, therefore, I will conclude with that which hath vationem totius, which 1s, that it disposeth the constitution of the mind not to be fixed or settled in the defects thereof, but still to be capable and susceptible of growth and reformation. For the un- learned man knows not what it is to descend into himself, or to call himself to account; nor the pleasure of that suavissima vita, indies sentire se fiert meliorem.® The good parts he hath he will learn to show to the full, and use them dexterously, but not much to increase them: the faults he hath he will learn how to hide and colour them, but not much to amend them: like an ill mower, that mows on still, and never whets his scythe: whereas with the learned man it fares otherwise, that he doth ever intermix the correction and amendment of his mind with the use and employment thereof. Nay, further, in general and in sum, certain it is that Veritas and Bonitas differ but as the seal and the print: for Truth prints Goodness; and they be the clouds of error which descend in the storms of passions and perturbations.
From moral virtue let us pass on to matter of power and commandment, and consider whether in right reason there be any comparable with that wherewith knowledge invest- eth and crowneth man’s nature. We see the dignity of the commandment is according to the dignity of the com-
1 There is no such tale in Epictetus, but see Simplicit in Epict. Comment. cap. 33. * Virg. Georg. il. 490. 3 Xen. Mem. i. 6.
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manded: to have commandment over beasts, as herdmen have, is a thing contemptible; to have commandment over children, as schoolmasters have, is a matter of small honour; to have commandment over galley-slaves is a disparage- ment rather than an honour. Neither is the command- ment of tyrants much better, over people which have put off the generosity of their minds: and therefore it was ever holden that honours in free monarchies and commonwealths had a sweetness more than in tyrannies; because the com- mandment extendeth more over the wills of men, and not only over their deeds and services. And therefore, when Virgil putteth himself forth to attribute to Augustus Cesar the best of human honours, he doth it in these words:
Victorque volentes Per populos dat jura, viamque affectat Olympo.!
But yet the commandment of knowledge is yet higher than the commandment over the will; for it is a command- ment over the reason, belief, and understanding of man, which is the highest part of the mind, and giveth law to the will itself. For there is no power on earth which setteth up a throne or chair of state in the spirits and souls of men, and in their cogitations, imaginations, opinions, and beliefs, but knowledge and learning. And therefore we see the detestable and extreme pleasure that arch-heretics, and false prophets, and impostors are transported with, when they once find in themselves that they have a superior- ity in the faith and conscience of men; so great as if they have once tasted of it, it is seldom seen that any torture or persecution can make them relinquish or abandon it. But as this is that which the author of the Revelation calleth the depth or profoundness of Satan:? so by argument of contraries, the just and lawful sovereignty over men’s understanding, by force*® of truth rightly interpreted, is that which approacheth nearest to the similitude of the Divine Rule.
As for fortune and advancement, the beneficence of learning is not so confined to give fortune only to states and commonwealths, as it doth not likewise give fortune to particular persons. For it was well noted long ago, that
1 Georg. iv. 561, 562. 2 Rev. ii. 24. * Edition 1605 reads face. ;
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Homer hath given more men their livings, than either Sylla, or Cesar, or Augustus ever did, notwithstanding their great largesses and donatives, and distributions of lands to so many legions. And no doubt it is hard to say, whether arms or learning have advanced greater numbers. And in © case of sovereignty we see, that if arms or descent have carried away the kingdom, yet learning hath carried the priesthood, which ever hath been in some competition with empire.!
Again, for the pleasure and delight of knowledge and learning, it far surpasseth all other in nature: for, shall the pleasures of the affections so exceed the senses, as much as the obtaining of desire or victory exceedeth a song or a dinner; and must not, of consequence, the pleasures of the intellect or understanding exceed the pleasures of the affections? We see in all other pleasures there is satiety, and after they be used, their verdure departeth; which showeth well they be but deceits of pleasure, and not pleasures: and that it was the novelty which pleased, and not the quality; and therefore we see that voluptuous men turn friars, and ambitious princes turn melancholy. But of knowledge there is no satiety, but satisfaction and appe- tite are perpetually interchangeable; and therefore appear- eth to be good in itself simply, without fallacy or accident. Neither is that pleasure of small efficacy and contentment to the mind of man which the poet Lucretius describeth elegantly,
Suave mari magno, turbantibus zquora ventis, etc.?
It 1s a view of delight, saith he, to stand or walk upon the shore side, and to see a ship tossed with tempest upon the sea ; or to be in a fortified tower, and to see two battles join upon a plain ,; but it is a pleasure incomparable, for the mind of man to be settled, landed, and fortified in the certainty of truth ; and from thence to descry and behold the errors, perturbations, labours, and wanderings up and down of other men.
Lastly, leaving the vulgar arguments, that by learning man excelleth man in that wherein man excelleth beasts; that by learning man ascendeth to the heavens and their motions, where in body he cannot come, and the like; let us conclude with the dignity and excellency of knowledge
1Cf. Herod. ii. 141, for the ascendency of the Priesthood in Egypt. 2 De Rer. Nat. ii. 1-10.
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and learning in that whereunto man’s nature doth most aspire, which is, immortality or continuance: for to this tendeth generation, and raising of houses and families; to this buildings, foundations, and monuments; to this tendeth the desire of memory, fame, and celebration, and in effect the strength of all other human desires. We see then how far the monuments of wit and learning are more durable than the monuments of power or of the hands. For have not the verses of Homer continued twenty-five hundred years, or more, without the loss of a syllable or letter; dur- ing which time, infinite palaces, temples, castles, cities, have been decayed and demolished? It is not possible to have the true pictures or statues of Cyrus, Alexander, Cesar; no, nor of the kings or great personages of much later years; for the originals cannot last, and the copies cannot but leese of the life and truth. But the images of men’s wits and knowledges remain in books, exempted from the wrong of time, and capable of perpetual renovation. Neither are they fitly to be called images, because they generate still, and cast their seeds in the minds of others, provoking and causing infinite actions and opinions in succeeding ages: so that, if the invention of the ship was thought so noble, which carrieth riches and commodities from place to place, and consociateth the most remote regions in participation of their fruits, how much more are letters to be magnified, which, as ships, pass through the vast seas of time, and make ages so distant to participate of the wisdom, illuminations, and inventions, the one of the other? Nay further, we see some of the philosophers which were least divine, and most immersed in the senses, and denied generally the immor- tality of the soul, yet came to this point, that whatsoever motions the spirit of man could act and perform without the organs of the body, they thought might remain after death, which were only those of the understanding, and not of the affection: so immortal and incorruptible a thing did knowledge seem unto them to be. { But we, that know by divine revelation that not only the understanding but the affections purified, not only the spirit but the body changed, shall be advanced to immortality, do disclaim in! these
1So all three editions. The Latin has Nos autem... concul- cantes hac rudimenta . . . novimus. Perhaps in should be omitted —‘‘ do disclaim these rudiments of the senses.”’
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rudiments of the senses.) But it must be remembered both in this last point, and so it may likewise be needful in other places, that in probation of the dignity of knowledge or learning, I did in the beginning separate divine testimony from human, which method I have pursued, and so handled them both apart.
Nevertheless, I do not pretend, and I know it will be impossible for me, by any pleading of mine, to reverse the judgment, either of AZsop’s Cock, that preferred the barley- corn before the gem; or of Midas, that being chosen judge between Apollo, president of the Muses, and Pan, god of the flocks, judged for plenty:! or of Paris, that judged for beauty and love against wisdom and power; nor of Agrip- pina, Occidat matrem, modo imperet, that preferred empire with conditions never so detestable;? or of Ulysses, Qui vetulam pretulit immortalitati,® being a figure of those which prefer custom and habit before all excellency; or of a num- ber of the like popular judgments. For these things con- tinue as they have been: but so will that also continue whereupon learning hath ever relied, and which faileth not: Justificata est sapientia a filits suis.4
Ov. Met. xi..153, seg. * Tacit. Annal. xiv. 9.
3 Cf. Cic. de Orat. i. 44, where it is Ithaca, not his old wife, that Ulysses is said to prefer to immortality.
* Matt. xi, 10:
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THE SECOND BOOK To the King
Ir might seem to have more convenience, though it come often otherwise to pass, excellent King, that those, which are fruitful in their generations, and have in themselves the foresight of immortality in their descendants, should like- wise be more careful of the good estate of future times, unto which they know they must transmit and commend over their dearest pledges. Queen Elizabeth was a sojourner in the world in respect of her unmarried life, and was a blessing to her own times; and yet so as the impression of her good government, besides her happy memory, is not without some effect which doth survive her. But to your Majesty, whom God hath already blessed with so much royal issue, worthy to continue and represent you for ever, and whose youthful and fruitful bed doth yet promise many of the like renovations; it is proper and agreeable to be con- versant not only in the transitory parts of good government, but in those acts also which are in their nature permanent and perpetual: amongst the which, if affection do not transport me, there is not any more worthy than the further endowment of the world with sound and fruitful knowledge. For why should a few received authors stand up like Her- cules’ columns,! beyond which there should be no sailing or discovering, since we have so bright and benign a star as your Majesty to conduct and prosper us? To return therefore where we left, it remaineth to consider of what kind those acts are which have been undertaken and per- formed by kings and others for the increase and advance- ment of learning: wherein I purpose to speak actively without digressing or dilating.
Let this ground therefore be laid, that all works are over- come by amplitude of reward, by soundness of direction,
1A favourite thought of Bacon’s, and expressed afterwards on the engraved title-page of the first edition of the Novum Organum, A.D. 1620.
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and by the conjunction of labours. The first multiplieth endeavour, the second preventeth error, and the third supplieth the frailty of man: but the principal of these is direction: for Claudus tn via antevertit cursorem extra viam ; and Salomon excellently setteth it down, Jf the ivon be not sharp, tt requireth more strength ; but wisdom is that which prevaileth ;) signifying that the invention or election of the mean is more effectual than any inforcement or accumula- tion of endeavours. This I am induced to speak, for that (not derogating from the noble intention of any that have been deservers towards the state of learning) I do observe, nevertheless, that their works and acts are rather matters of magnificence and memory, than of progression and pro- ficience; and tend rather to augment the mass of learning in the multitude of learned men, than to rectify or raise the sciences themselves.
The works or acts of merit towards learning are conver- sant about three objects: the places of learning, the books of learning, and the persons of the learned. For as water, whether it be the dew of heaven, or the springs of the earth, doth scatter and leese itself in the ground, except it be collected into some receptacle, where it may by union com- fort and sustain itself, (and for that cause the industry of man hath made and framed spring-heads, conduits, cisterns, and pools, which men have accustomed likewise to beautify and adorn with accomplishments of magnificence and state, as well as of use and necessity) so this excellent liquor of knowledge, whether it descend from divine inspiration, or spring from human sense, would soon perish and vanish to oblivion, if it were not preserved in books, traditions, con- ferences, and places appointed, as universities, colleges, and schools, for the receipt and comforting of the same.
The works which concern the seats and places of learning are four; foundations and buildings, endowments with revenues, endowments with franchises and privileges, insti- tutions and ordinances for government; all tending to quietness and privateness of life, and discharge of cares and troubles; much like the stations which Virgil prescribeth for the hiving of bees:
Principio sedes apibus statioque petenda, Quo neque fit ventis aditus, etc.? - Eccl, x. 10; *'Vitg. Georg: iv..3;
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The works touching books are two: first, libraries, which are as the shrines where all the relics of the ancient saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or imposture, are preserved and reposed: secondly, new editions of authors, with more correct impressions, more faithful trans- lations, more profitable glosses, more diligent annotations, and the like.
The works pertaining to the persons of learned men, besides the advancement and countenancing of them in general, are two: the reward and designation of readers in sciences already extant and invented; and the reward and designation of writers and inquirers concerning any parts of learning not sufficiently laboured and prosecuted.
These are summarily the works and acts, wherein the merits of many excellent princes and other worthy person- ages have been conversant. As for any particular com- memorations, I call to mind what Cicero said, when he gave general thanks; Dzfficile non aliquem, ingratum quenquam preterive.. Let us rather, according to the Scriptures,” look unto that part of the race which is before us than look back to that which is already attained.
First, therefore, amongst so many great foundations of coileges in Europe, I find it strange that they are all dedi- cated to professions, and none left free to arts and sciences at large. For if men judge that learning should be referred to action, they judge well; but in this they fall into the error described in the ancient fable,? in which the other parts of the body did suppose the stomach had been idle, because it neither performed the office of motion, as the limbs do, nor of sense, as the head doth; but yet, notwithstanding, it is the stomach that digesteth and distributeth to all the rest: so if any man think philosophy and universality to be idle studies, he doth not consider that all professions are from thence served and supplied. And this I take to bea great cause that hath hindered the progression of learning, because these fundamental knowledges have heen studied but in passage. For if you will have a tree bear more fruit than it hath used to do, it is not anything you can do to the
1Orvat. post Redit. in Sen. xii. 30, which in Bacon’s day was counted genuine. The actual passage is something stronger, for it has nefas instead of ingratum.
* Philip. iii. 13. * Liv. i 32.
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boughs, but it is the stirring of the earth and putting new mould about the roots that must work it. Neither is it to be forgotten, that this dedicating of foundations and dota- tions to professory learning hath not only had a malign aspect and influence upon the growth of sciences, but hath also been prejudicial to states and governments. For hence it proceedeth that princes find a solitude in regard of able men to serve them in causes of state, because there is no education collegiate which is free; where such as were so disposed might give themselves to histories, modern languages, books of policy and civil discourse, and other the like enablements unto service of estate.
And because Founders of Colleges do plant, and Founders of Lectures do water, it followeth well in order to speak of the defect which is in public lectures; namely, in the small- ness and meanness of the salary or reward which in most places is assigned unto them; whether they be lectures of arts, or of professions. For it is necessary to the progres- sion of sciences that Readers be of the most able and suffi- cient men; as those which are ordained for generating and propagating of sciences, and not for transitory use. This cannot be, except their condition and endowment be such as may content the ablest man to appropriate his whole Jabour and continue his whole age in that function and attendance; and therefore must have a proportion answer- able to that mediocrity or competency of advancement, which may be expected from a profession or the practice of a profession. So as, if you will have sciences flourish, you must observe David’s military law, which was, That those which staid with the carriage should have equal part with those which were in the action; else will the carriages be ill attended. So Readers in sciences are indeed the guardians of the stores and provisions of sciences, whence men in active courses are furnished, and therefore ought to have equal entertainment with them: otherwise if the fathers in sciences be of the weakest sort, or be ill-maintained,
Et patrum invalidi referent jejunia nati.?
Another defect I note, wherein I shall need some alche- mist to help me, who call upon men to sell their books, and to build furnaces; quitting and forsaking Minerva and the | Lt Sam. XXm. 22, 2 Virg. Georg. iil, 128.
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Muses as barren virgins, and relying upon Vulcan. But certain it is, that unto the deep, fruitful, and operative - study of many sciences, especially Natural Philosophy and Physic, books be not the only instrumentals; wherein also the beneficence of men hath not been altogether wanting: for we see spheres, globes, astrolabes, maps, and the like, have been provided as appurtenances to astronomy and cosmography, as well as books: we see likewise that some places instituted for physic have annexed the commodity of gardens for simples of all sorts, and do likewise command the use of dead bodies for anatomies. But these do respect but afew things. In general, there will hardly be any main proficience in the disclosing of nature, except there be some allowance for expenses about experiments; whether they be experiments appertaining to Vulcanus or Dedalus, furnace or engine, or any other kind: and therefore as secretaries and spials of princes and states bring in bills for intelligence, so you must allow the spials and intelligencers of nature to bring in their bills; or else you shall be ill advertised.
And if Alexander made such a liberal assignation to Aristotle of treasure ? for the allowance of hunters, fowlers, fishers, and the like, that he might compile a History of Nature, much better do they deserve it that travail in Arts of Nature.
Another defect which I note, is an intermission or neglect in those which are governors in universities, of consultation ; and in princes or superior persons, of visitation: to enter into account and consideration, whether the readings,
1 See Nov. Org. ii. 7: ‘“ Transeundum plane a Vulcano ad Miner- vam, si in animo sit veras corporum texturas et schematismos
. in lucem protrahere.”’
* Elian, Var. Hist. iv. 19, says that Philip held him, and Athenzus, ix. 398 f., states the amount said to have been allowed him by Alexander, 800 talents. But Bacon takes his statement here from Plin. Nat. Htst. viii. 17.
* The Latin has for “ travail in arts of Nature,” “ in labyrinthis artium viam stbt apertunt,’’—where Art is opposed to Nature. So that the phrase “‘ Arts of Nature ’’ must be modified to mean “‘ Arts concerned with Nature.’’ Or, possibly, there is some mistake in the reading. All the old editions have ¢travatles. If the reading is correct, the sense will be that they who lay down rules and general principles of Arts in things Natural are worthy of higher reward
than are they who only collect Histories, t.e. catalogues or registers of detached facts.
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exercises, and other customs appertaining unto learning, anciently begun, and since continued, be well instituted or no; and thereupon to ground an amendment or reformation in that which shall be found inconvenient. For it is one of your majesty’s own most wise and princely maxims, That im all usages and precedents, the tumes be considered wherein they first began ; which, tf they were weak or 1gnorant, it derogateth from the authority of the usage, and leaveth it for suspect. And therefore inasmuch as most of the usages and orders of the universities were derived from more obscure times, it is the more requisite they be re-examined. In this kind I will give an instance or two, for example sake, of things that are the most obvious and familiar. The one is a matter, which though it be ancient and general, yet I hold to be an error; which is, that scholars in universities come too soon and too unripe to logic and rhetoric arts fitter for graduates than children and novices: for these two, rightly taken, are the gravest of sciences, being the arts of arts; the one for judgment, the other for ornament: and they be the rules and directions how to set forth and dispose matter; and therefore for minds empty and un- fraught with matter, and which have not gathered that which Cicero calleth Sylva and Supellex,! stuff and variety, to begin with those arts (as if one should learn to weigh, or to measure, or to paint the wind), doth work but this effect, that the wisdom of those arts, which is great and universal, is almost made contemptible, and is degenerate into childish sophistry and ridiculous affectation. And further, the untimely learning of them hath drawn on, by consequence, the superficial and unprofitable teaching and writing of them, as fitteth indeed to the capacity of children. Another is a lack I find in the exercises used in the Univer- sities, which do make too great a divorce between invention and memory; for their speeches are either premeditate, In verbis conceptis, where nothing is left to invention, or merely extemporal, where little is left to memory: whereas in life and action there is least use of either of these, but rather of intermixtures of premeditation and invention, notes and memory; so as the exercise fitteth not the practice, nor the image the life; and it is ever a true rule in exercises, that they be framed as near as may be to the life of practice; 1 Sylva, de Orat. ili. 26 (103). Supellex, Orat. 24 (80).
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for otherwise they do pervert the motions and faculties of the mind, and not prepare them. The truth whereof is not obscure, when scholars come to the practices of professions, or other actions of civil life; which when they set into, this want is soon found by themselves, and sooner by others. But this part, touching the amendment of the institutions and orders of Universities, I will conclude with the clause of Ceesar’s letter to Oppius and Balbus, Hoc guemadmodum fiert possit, nonnulla miht in mentem veniunt, et multa reperiyt possunt; de ws rebus rogo vos ut cogitationem suscipiatis.1
Another defect which I note, ascendeth a little higher than the precedent: for as the proficience of learning con- sisteth much in the orders and institutions of Universities in the same states and kingdoms, so it would be yet more advanced, if there were more intelligence mutual between the Universities of Europe than now there is. We see there may be many orders and foundations, which though they be divided under several sovereignties and territories, yet they take themselves to have a kind of contract, fraternity, and correspondence one with the other; insomuch as they have provincials and generals. And surely, as nature createth brotherhood in families, and arts mechanical con- tract brotherhoods in commonalties, and the anointment of God superinduceth a brotherhood in kings and bishops; so in like manner there cannot but be a fraternity in learn- ing and illumination, relating to that paternity which is attributed to God, who is called the Father of illuminations or lights.?
The last defect which I will note is, that there hath not been, or very rarely been, any public designation of writers or inquirers concerning such parts of knowledge as may appear not to have been already sufficiently laboured or undertaken; unto which point it is an inducement to enter into a view and examination what parts of learning have been prosecuted, and what omitted: for the opinion of plenty is among the causes of want, and the great quantity of books maketh a show rather of superfluity than lack; which surcharge, nevertheless, is not to be remedied by making no more books, but by making more good books,
1 Cic. ad Ait. 1x. 7, C. *.James i, 17.
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which, as the serpent of Moses, might devour the serpents of the enchanters.?
The removing of all the defects formerly enumerated, except the last, and of the active part also of the last (which is the designation of writers), are opera basilica ; towards which the endeavours of a private man may be but as an image in a crossway, that may point at the way, but cannot go it: but the inducing part of the latter, which is the survey of learning, may be set forward by private travail. Wherefore I will now attempt to make a general and faithful perambulation of learning, with an inquiry what parts thereof lie fresh and waste, and not improved and converted by the industry of man; to the end that such a plot made and recorded to memory, may both minister light to any public designation, and also serve to excite voluntary endeavours: wherein, nevertheless, my purpose is at this time to note only omissions and deficiencies, and not to make any redargution of errors or incomplete prose- cutions; for it is one thing to set forth what ground lieth unmanured, and another thing to correct ill husbandry in that which is manured.
In the handling and undertaking of which work I am not ignorant what it is that I do now move and attempt, nor insensible of mine own weakness to sustain my purpose; but my hope is, that if my extreme love to learning carry me too far, I may obtain the excuse of affection; for that [¢ as not granted to man to love and to be wise. But I know well I can use no other liberty of judgment than I must leave to others; and I for my part shall be indifferently glad either to perform myself, or accept from another, that duty of humanity; Nam qui errantt comiter monstrat viam, etc. I do foresee likewise that of those things which I shall enter and register as deficiencies and omissions, many will con- ceive and censure that some of them are already done and extant; others to be but curiosities, and things of no great use; and others to be of too great difficulty, and almost impossibility to be compassed and effected. But for the two first, I refer myself to the particulars; for the last, touching impossibility, I take it those things are to be held
1 Exod. vii. 10. It was Aaron’s rod that became a serpent. ? Publ. Syr. Sentent. 166: Amare et sapere vix Deo conceditur. * Ennuis, quoted by Cic. de Off. i. 16 (5).
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possible which may be done by some person, though not by every one; and which may be done by many, though not by any one; and which may be done in the succession of ages, though not within the hour-glass of one man’s life; and which may be done by public designation, though not by private endeavour. But, notwithstanding, if any man will take to himself rather that of Salomon, Dicit piger, Leo est in via, than that of Virgil, Possunt quia posse videntur,? I shall be content that my labours be esteemed but as the better sort of wishes: for as it asketh some knowledge to demand a question not impertinent, so it required some sense to make a wish not absurd.
THE parts of human learning have reference to the three parts of man’s understanding, which is the seat of learning: history to his memory, poesy to his wmagination, and philo- sophy to his reason. Divine learning receiveth the same distribution; for the spirit of man is the same, though the revelation of oracle and sense be diverse: so as theology consisteth also of the history of the church; of parables, which is divine Poesy ;, and of holy doctrine or precept: for as for that part which seemeth supernumerary, which is prophecy, it is but Divine History; which hath that preroga- tive over human, as the narration may be before the fact as well as after.
History is natural, civil, ecclesiastical, and literary ; whereof the first three I allow as extant, the fourth I note as deficient. For no man hath propounded to himself the general state of learning to be described and represented from age to age, as many have done the works of nature, and the state civil and ecclesiastical; without which the history of the world seemeth to me to be as the statua of Polyphemus with his eye out; that part being wanting which doth most show the spirit and life of the person: and yet I am not ignorant that in divers particular sciences, as of the jurisconsults, the mathematicians, the rhetoricians, the philosophers, there are set down some small memorials of the schools, authors, and books; and so likewise some barren relations touching the invention of arts or usages.
1 Prov, xxii. 13. *Vitg, 42K. Vv. 231, F 799
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But a just story of learning, containing the antiquities and originals of knowledges and their sects, their inventions, their traditions, their diverse administrations and manag- ings, their flourishings, their oppositions, decays, depres- sions, oblivions, removes, with the causes and occasions of them, and all other events concerning learning, throughout the ages of the world, I may truly affirm to be wanting. The use and end of which work I do not so much design for curiosity or satisfaction of those that are the lovers of learning, but chiefly for a more serious and grave purpose; which is this in few words, that it will make learned men wise in the use and administration of learning. For it is not St. Augustine’s nor St. Ambrose’s works that will make so wise a divine, as ecclesiastical history, thoroughly read and observed; and the same reason is of learning.
History of nature is of three sorts; of nature in course, of nature erring or varying, and of nature altered or wrought; that is, history of creatures, history of marvels, and history of arts. The first of these, no doubt, is extant, and that in good perfection; the two latter are handled so weakly and unprofitably, as I am moved to note them as deficient. For I find no sufficient or competent collection of the works of nature which have a digression and deflection from the ordinary course of generations, productions, and motions; whether they be singularities of place and region, or the strange events of time and chance, or the effects of yet unknown properties, or the instances of exception to general kinds. It is true, I find a number of books of fabulous experiments and secrets, and frivolous impostures for pleasure and strangeness; but a substantial and severe collection of the heterochites or ivregulars of nature,’ well examined and described, I find not: especially not with due rejection of fables and popular errors: for as things now are, if an untruth in nature be once on foot, what by reason of the neglect of examination and countenance of antiquity, and what by reason of the use of the opinion in similitudes and ornaments of speech, it is never called down.
The use of this work, honoured with a precedent in Aris- tole,? is nothing less than to give contentment to the appe-
-1Cf. Nov. Org. i. 45, and ii. 28. These “‘ instances of exception to general kinds” he there terms instantie monodice, quas etiam
tvregulaves five heteroclitas appellare consuevimus. 2 De Miris Auscultationibus; (Oavudow dxovouara), See Pp. 30.
»
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tite of curious and vain wits, as the manner of Mirabilaries !
’ isto do; but for two reasons, both of great weight; the one
to correct the partiality of axioms and opinions, which are commonly framed only upon common and familiar ex- amples; the other because from the wonders of nature is the nearest intelligence and passage towards the wonders of art: for it is no more but by following, and as it were hounding nature in her wanderings, to be able to lead her afterwards to the same place again. Neither am I of opinion, in this history of marvels, that superstitious narrations of sorceries, witchcrafts, dreams, divinations, and the like, where there is an assurance and clear evidence of the fact, be altogether excluded. For it is not yet known in what cases and how far effects attributed to superstition do participate of natural causes: and therefore howsoever the practice of such things is to be condemned, yet from the speculation and consideration of them light may be taken, not only for the discerning of the offences, but for the further disclosing of nature. Neither ought a man to make scruple of entering into these things for inquisition of truth, as your majesty hath showed in your own example; who with the two clear eyes of religion and natural philosophy have looked deeply and wisely into these shadows, and yet proved yourself to be of the nature of the sun, which passeth through pollutions and itself remains as pure as before.” But this I hold fit, that these narrations, which have mixture with supersti- tion, be sorted by themselves, and not be mingled with the narrations which are merely and sincerely natural. But as for the narrations touching the prodigies and miracles of religions, they are either not true, or not natural; and there- fore impertinent for the story of nature.
For Mustory of nature wrought or mechanical, 1 find some collections made of agriculture, and likewise of manual arts; but commonly with a rejection of experiments familiar and vulgar. For it is esteemed a kind of dishonour unto learning to descend to inquiry or meditation upon matters mechanical, except they be such as may be thought secrets,
1 Mivabilaries. In De Augm. Sc. ii., he calls them ‘‘ Mirabilarii et prodigiastri.”’
* Cf. Nov. Org. i. 120. This thought is to be met with in Chaucer, Persone’s Tale : ‘‘ Certes, Holy Writ may not be defouled, no more than the sonne that shineth on the myxene.”’
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rarities, and special subtilities; which humour of vain and supercilious arrogancy is justly derided in Plato; where he brings in Hippias, a vaunting sophist, disputing with Socrates, a true and unfeigned inquisitor of truth; where the subject being touching beauty, Socrates, after his wandering manner of inductions, put first an example of a fair virgin, and then of a fair horse, and then of a fair pot well glazed, whereat Hippias was offended, and said, More than for courtesy’s sake, he did think much to dispute with any that did allege such base and sordid instances : whereunto Socrates answered, You have reason, and it becomes you well, being a man so trim in your vestments, etc., and so goeth on in an irony.' But the truth is, they be not the highest in- stances that give the securest information; as may be well expressed in the tale so common of the philosopher,? that while he gazed upwards to the stars fell into the water; for if he had looked down he might have seen the stars in the water, but looking aloft he could not see the water in the stars. So it cometh often to pass, that mean and small things discover great, better than great can discover the small: and therefore Aristotle noteth well, That the nature of everything is best seen tm tts smallest portions. And for that cause he inquireth the nature of a commonwealth, first in a family, and the simple conjugations of man and wife, parent and child, master and servant, which are in every cottage.2 Even so likewise the nature of this great city of the world, and the policy thereof, must be first sought in mean concordances and small portions. So we see how that secret of nature, of the turning of iron touched with the loadstone towards the north, was found out in needles of iron, not in bars of iron.
But if my judgment be of any weight, the use of Aistory mechanical is of all others the most radical and fundamental towards natural philosophy; such natural philosophy as shall not vanish in the fume of subtile, sublime, or delectable speculation, but such as shall be operative to the endow- ment and benefit of man’s life: for it will not only minister and suggest for the present many ingenious practices in all trades, by a connection and transferring of the observations
1 Plato, Hipp. Maz. iii. 288 and 291.
2 Thales. See Plat. Theat. i. 174. * Aristot. Poltt. I. iii. 1, and Phys. i.
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of one art to the use of another, when the experiences of several mysteries: shall fall under the consideration of one man’s mind; but further, it will give a more true and real illumination concerning causes and axioms than is hitherto attained. For like as a man’s disposition is never well known till he be crossed, nor Proteus ever changed shapes till he was straitened and held fast;1 so the passages and variations of nature cannot appear so fully in the liberty of nature, as in the trials and vexations of art.
For civil history, it is of three kinds; not unfitly to be compared with the three kinds of pictures or images: for of pictures or images, we see some are unfinished, some are perfect, and some are defaced. So of histories we may find three kinds, memortals, perfect histories, and antiquities; for memorials are history unfinished, or the first or rough draughts of history; and antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.
Memorials, or preparatory Iustory, are of two sorts; whereof the one may be termed commentaries, and the other registers. Commentaries are they which set down a continu- ance of the naked events and actions, without the motives or designs, the counsels, the speeches, the pretexts, the occasions and other passages of action: for this is the true nature of acommentary; though Cesar, in modesty mixed with greatness, did for his pleasure apply the name of a commentary to the best history of the world. Registers are collections of public acts, as decrees of council, judicial proceedings, declarations and letters of state, orations and the like, without a perfect continuance or contexture of the thread of the narration.
Antiquities, or remnants of history, are, as was said, Tanquam tabula naufragi ;* when industrious persons by an exact and scrupulous diligence and observation, out of monuments, names, words, proverbs, traditions, private records and evidences, fragments of stories, passages of books that concern not story,® and the like, do save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time.
In these kinds of unperfect histories I do assign no defici-
1 Virg. Georg. iv. 387, sqq.
2“* As was said; ’”’ referred to the last page. Cf. Nov. Org. i. 77.
3 Story here=history: “‘ librorum neutiquam historicorum.”’
7 4. Bacon
ence, for they are Tanquam imperfecte mista ; and therefore any deficience in them is but their nature. As for the cor- ruptions and moths of history, which are efitomes, the use of them deserveth to be banished, as all men of sound judg- ment have confessed; as those that have fretted and cor- roded the sound bodies of many excellent histories, and wrought them into base and unprofitable dregs.!
History, which may be called just and perfect history, is of three kinds, according to the object which it propoundeth or pretendeth to represent: for it either representeth a time, or a person, or an action. The first we call chronicles, the second dives, and the third narrations or relations. Of these, although. the first be the most complete and absolute kind of history, and hath most estimation and glory, yet the second excelleth it in profit and use, and the third in verity and sincerity. For history of times representeth the magni- tude of actions, and the public faces and deportments of persons, and passeth over in silence the smaller passages and motions of men and matters. But such being the workmanship of God, as He doth hang the greatest weight upon the smallest wires, Maxima & minimis suspendens, it comes therefore to pass, that such histories do rather set forth the pomp of business than the true and inward resorts thereof. But lives, if they be well written, propounding to themselves a person to represent in whom actions both greater and smaller, public and private, have a commixture, must of necessity contain a more true, native, and lively representation. So again marrations and relations of actions, as the war of Peloponnesus, the expedition of Cyrus Minor, the conspiracy of Catiline, cannot but be more purely and exactly true than histories of times, because they may choose an argument comprehensible within the notice and instructions of the writer: whereas he that undertaketh the story of a time, especially of any length, cannot but meet with many blanks and spaces which he must be forced to fill up out of his own wit and conjecture.
For the History of Times, I mean of Civil History, the providence of God hath made the distribution: for it hath pleased God to ordain and illustrate two exemplar states
1 As in the Epitomes written in the decline of Latin Literature. * Job xxvi. 7. “ Qui appendit terram super nihilum.”’
—— i
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of the world for arms, learning, moral virtue, policy, and laws; the state of Grecia, and the state of Rome; the histories whereof occupying the middle part of time, have more ancient to them, histories which may by one common name be termed the antiquities of the world: and after them histories which may be likewise called by the name of modern history.
Now to speak of the deficiencies. As to the Agathen antiquities of the world, it is in vain to note them for defici- ent: deficient they are no doubt, consisting most of fables and fragments; but the deficience cannot be holpen; for antiquity is like fame, Caput inter nubila condit,’ her head is muffled from our sight. For the history of the exemplar states, it is extant in good perfection. Not but I could wish there were a perfect course of history for Grecia from Theseus to Philopcemen (what time the affairs of Grecia were drowned and extinguished in the affairs of Rome); and for Rome from Romulus to Justinianus, who may be truly said to be Ulttmus Romanorum.? In which sequences of story the text of Thucydides and Xenophon in the one, and the texts of Livius, Polybius, Sallustius, Cesar, Appianus, Tacitus, Herodianus in the other, to be kept entire with- out any diminution at all, and only to be supplied and continued. But this is a matter of magnificence, rather to be commended than required: and we speak now of parts of learning supplemental and not of supererogation.
But for modern histories, whereof there are some few very worthy, but the greater part beneath mediocrity, (leaving the care of foreign stories to foreign states, because I will not be curiosus in aliena republica,?) I cannot fail to represent to your majesty the unworthiness of the history of England in the main continuance thereof, and the partiality and obli- quity of that of Scotland in the latest and largest author that I have seen: 4 supposing that it would be honour for your Majesty, and a work very memorable, if this island of Great Britain, as it is now joined in monarchy for the ages to come,
1 Virg. Zn. iv. 177.
*Said of Cassius, Tac. Ann. iv. 34: ‘“‘ Cremutius Cordus postu- latur, . . . quod C. Cassium Romanorum ultimum dixisset.” Cf. Plut. Brutus, 43. Suet. Tib. 61, who attributes it to both Brutus and Cassius.
2c, Off: 2, 34.
‘ Buchanan, for whom King James had no love.
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so were joined in one history for the times passed; after the manner of the Sacred History, which draweth down the story of the ten tribes, and of the two tribes, as twins, together. And if it shall seem that the greatness of this work may make it less exactly performed, there is an excel- lent period of a much smaller compass of time, as to the story of England; that is to say, from the uniting of the Roses to the uniting of the kingdoms; a portion of time, wherein, to my understanding, there hath been the rarest varieties that in like number of successions of any heredi- tary monarchy hath been known. For it beginneth with the mixed adoption of a crown by arms and title: an entry by battle, an establishment by marriage, and therefore times answerable, like waters after a tempest, full of work- ing and swelling, though without extremity of storm; but well passed through by the wisdom of the pilot, being one of the most sufficient kings of allthe number. Then follow- eth the reign of a king, whose actions, howsoever conducted, had much intermixture with the affairs of Europe, balancing and inclining them variably; in whose time also began that great alteration in the state ecclesiastical, an action which seldom cometh upon the stage. Then the reign of a minor: then an offer of a usurpation, though it was but as febris ephemera. Then the reign of a queen matched with a foreigner: then of a queen that lived solitary and un- married, and yet her government so masculine, that it had greater impression and operation upon the states abroad than it any ways received from thence. And now last, this most happy and glorious event, that this island of Britain, divided from all the world,! should be united in itself: and that oracle of rest, given to Aineas, antiquam exquirite matrem,? should now be performed and fulfilled upon the nations of England and Scotland, being now reunited in the ancient mother name of Britain, as a full period of all instability and peregrinations. So that as it cometh to pass in massive bodies, that they have certain trepidations and waverings before they fix and settle; so it seemeth that by the providence of God this monarchy, before it was to settle in your majesty and your generations, (in which I hope it is now established for ever,) had these prelusive changes and varieties. tVirg. Ect. 1, 97. ? Virg. En. iil. 96.
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For lives, I do find it strange that these times have so little esteemed the virtues of the times, as that the writing of lives should be no more frequent. For although there be not many sovereign princes or absolute commanders, and that states are most collected into monarchies, yet are there many worthy personages that deserve better than dispersed report or barren elogies. For herein the inven- tion of one of the late poets! is proper, and doth well enrich the ancient fiction: for he feigneth that at the end of the thread or web of every man’s life there was a little medal containing the person’s name, and that Time waited upon the shears; and as soon as the thread was cut, caught the medals, and carried them to the river of Lethe; and about the bank there were many birds flying up and down, that would get the medals and carry them in their beak a little while, and then let them fall into the river: only there were a few swans, which if they got a name, would carry it toa temple where it was consecrate. And although many men, more mortal in their affections than in their bodies, do esteem desire of name and memory but as a vanity and ventosity,
Animi nil magne laudis egentes; ?
which opinion cometh from that root, Non prius laudes contempsimus, quam laudanda facere desivimus :* yet that will not alter Salomon’s judgment, Memoria justi cum laudibus, at impiorum nomen putrescet : * the one flourisheth, the other either consumeth to present oblivion, or turneth to an ill odour. And therefore in that style or addition, which is and hath been long well received and brought in use, Felicis memoria, pie memoria, bone memoria, we do acknowledge that which Cicero saith, borrowing it from Demosthenes, that Bona fama propria possessio defunc- torum ,;® which possession I cannot but note that in our times it lieth much waste, and that therein there is a deficience.
1 Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, end of bk. 34, and opening of bk. 35. (See Ellis’ and Spedding’s edition of the De Augm. Sc.)
* Vitg. Zin. V¥.. 751.
3 Plin. Ep. iil. 21: ‘‘ Postquam desiimus facere laudanda, laudari quoque ineptum putamus.’”’ Were Bacon’s quotations usually from memory ? *PIOVv. X: 7:
5 Cic. Philip. ix.: ‘‘ Vita enim mortuorum in memoria vivorum est posita.”” From Dem. adv. Lept. 488, tv’ jv favres éxrijoavro evdoklav avtn kal TeNeuTnKOoLV avToIs awodobeln.
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For narrations and relations of particular actions, there were also to be wished a greater diligence therein; for there is no great action but hath some good pen which attends it. And because it is an ability not common to write a good history, as may well appear by the small number of them; yet if particularity of actions memorable were but tolerably reported as they pass, the compiling of a complete history of times mought be the better expected, when awriter should arise that were fit for it: for the collection of such relations mought be as a nursery garden, whereby to plant a fair and stately garden, when time should serve.
There is yet another portion of history which Cornelius Tacitus maketh, which is not to be forgotten, especially with that application which he accoupleth it withal, annals and journals; appropriating to the former matters of estate, and to the latter acts and accidents of a meaner nature. For giving but a touch of certain magnificent buildings, he addeth Cum ex dignitate popult Romani repertum sit, res illustres annalibus talia diurnis urbis actis mandarve.1 So as there is a kind of contemplative heraldry, as well as civil. And as nothing doth derogate from the dignity of a state more than confusion of degrees; so it doth not a little embase the authority of a history, to intermingle matters of triumph, or matters of ceremony, or matters of novelty, with matters of state. But the use of a journal hath not only been in the history of time, but likewise in the history of persons, and chiefly of actions; for princes in ancient time had, upon point of honour and policy both, journals kept of what passed day by day: for we see the chronicle which was read before Ahasuerus,? when he could not take rest, contained matter of affairs indeed, but such as had passed in his own time, and very lately before: but the journal of Alexander’s house expressed every small particu- larity, even concerning his person and court ;* and it is yet a use well received in enterprises memorable, as expeditions of war, navigations, and the like, to keep diaries of that which passeth continually.
I cannot likewise be ignorant of a form of writing which some wise and grave men have used, containing a scattered history of those actions which they have thought worthy of
1 Tac. Ann. xiii, 31. S Pisth, Vix 1; 3 See Plutarch, Sympos. 1. Qu. 6.
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memory, with politic discourse and observation thereupon: not incorporate into the history, but separately, and as the more principal in their intention; + which kind of ruminated history I think more fit to place amongst books of policy, whereof we shall hereafter speak, than amongst books of history: for it is the true office of history to represent the events themselves together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judgment. But mixtures are things irregular, whereof no man can define.
So also is there another kind of history manifoldly mixed, and that is history of cosmography : being compounded of natural history, in respect of the regions themselves; of history civil, in respect of the habitations, regiments, and manners of the people; and the mathematics, in respect of the climates and configurations towards the heavens: which part of learning of all others in this latter time hath obtained most proficience. For it may be truly affirmed to the honour of these times, and in a virtuous emulation with antiquity, that this great building of the world had never through-lights made in it, till the age of us and our fathers: for although they had knowledge of the Antipodes,
Nosque ubi primus equis Oriens afflavit anhelis, ' Illic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper: ?
yet that mought be by demonstration, and not in fact; and if by travel, it requireth the voyage but of half the globe. But to circle the earth, as the heavenly bodies do, was not done or enterprised till these latter times: and therefore these times may justly bear in their word, not only plus ultra,® in precedence of the ancient non ultra, and imitabile fulmen, in precedence of the ancient non imitabile fulmen,
Demens qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen; etc.‘
but likewise tmitabile celum; in respect of the many memorable voyages after the manner of heaven about the globe of the earth.
And this proficience in navigation and discoveries may
1 Such books as Machiavelli’s Discorst sopra Livia are here meant. * Virg. Georg. i. 250, 251.
3 Plus ultra was the motto of Charles V. (Ellis).
*Virg. Zn. vi. 590.
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plant also an expectation of the further proficience and augmentation of all sciences; because it may seem they are ordained by God to be coevals, that is, to meet in one age. For so the prophet Daniel, speaking of the latter times, foretelleth Plurimt pertransibunt, et multiplex erit screntia:} as if the openness and thorough passage of the world and the increase of knowledge were appointed to be in the same ages; as we see it is already performed in great part; the learning of these latter times not much giving place to the former two periods or returns of learning, the one of the Grecians, the other of the Romans.
History ecclesiastical receiveth the same divisions with history civil: but further, in the propriety thereof, may be divided into the history of the church, by a general name; history of prophecy ; and history of providence. The first describeth the times of the militant church, whether it be fluctuant, as the ark of Noah; or moveable, as the ark in the wilderness; or at rest, as the ark in the temple: that is, the state of the church in persecution, in remove, and in peace. This part I ought in no sort to note as deficient; only I would that the virtue and sincerity of it were accord- ing to the mass and quantity. But I am not now in hand with censures, but with omissions.
The second, which is history of prophecy, consisteth of two relatives, the prophecy, and the accomplishment; and therefore the nature of such a work ought to be, that every prophecy of the Scripture be sorted with the event fulfilling the same, throughout the ages of the world; both for better confirmation of faith, and for the better illumination of the Church touching those parts of prophecies which are yet unfulfilled: allowing nevertheless that latitude which is agreeable and familiar unto divine prophecies; being of the nature of their Author, with whom a thousand years are but as one day;? and therefore are not fulfilled punctually at once, but have springing and germinant accomplishment throughout many ages; though the height or fulness of them may refer to some one age. This is a work which I find deficient; but is to be done with wisdom, sobriety, and reverence, or not at all.
The third, which is /istory of providence, containeth that excellent correspondence which is between God’s revealed
1 Dan. xu. 4, 2 2 Peter iii. 8.
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will and His secret will: which though it be so obscure, as for the most part it is not legible to the natural man; no, nor many times to those that behold it from the Tabernacle ; yet at some times it pleaseth God, for our better establish- ment and the confuting of those which are as without God in the world, to write it in such text and capital letters, that as the prophet saith, He that runneth by may read 1t ,;* that is, mere sensual persons, which hasten by God’s judgments, and never bend or fix their cogitations upon them, are nevertheless in their passage and race urged to discern it. Such are the notable events and examples of God’s Judg- ments, chastisements, deliverances, and blessings: and this is a work which hath passed through the labour of many, and therefore I cannot present as omitted.
There are also other parts of learning which are appen- dices to Wistory: for all the exterior proceedings of man consist of words and deeds: whereof history doth properly receive and retain in memory the deeds: and if words, yet but as inducements and passages to deeds: so are there other books and writings, which are appropriate to the custody and receipt of words only; which likewise are of three sorts: ovations, letters, and brief speeches or sayings. Orations are pleadings, speeches of counsel, laudatives, invectives, apologies, reprehensions, orations of formality or ceremony, and the like. Letters.are according to all the variety of occasions, advertisements, advices, directions, propositions, petitions, commendatory, expostulatory, satisfactory, of compliment, of pleasure, of discourse, and all other passages of action. And such as are written from wise men, are of all the words of man, in my judgment, the best; for they are more natural than orations and public speeches, and more advised than conferences or present speeches. So again letters of affairs from such as manage
_ them, or are privy to them, are of all others the best instruc-
tions for history, and to a diligent reader the best histories in themselves. For Apophthegms, it is a great loss of that book of Czsar’s;? for as his history, and those few letters of his which we have, and those apophthegms which were of his own, excel all men’s else, so I suppose would his collec-
1 Hab. ii. 2, but misquoted. ‘‘ That he may run that readeth,” —1.e. may hasten to carry on the tidings. *'Vid. Cic. ad Fam. ix. 16.
q . 82 Bacon | tion of Apophthegms have done; for as for those which are © collected. by others, either I have no taste in such matters, © or else their choice hath not been happy. But upon these — three kinds of writings I do not insist, because I have no — deficiencies to propound concerning them. | Thus much therefore concerning history; which is that — ; part of learning which answereth to one of the cells, domi- | ,ciles, or offices of the mind of man: which is that of | ‘memory.
Poesy is a part of learning in measure of words for the most part restrained, but in all other points extremely licensed, and doth truly refer to the imagination; which, | ‘being not tied to the laws of matter, may at pleasure join © that which nature hath severed, and sever that which nature © hath joined; and so make unlawful matches and divorces — of things; Pictoribus atque poetis, etc.1 It is taken in two — senses in respect of words or matter; in the first sense it is but a character of style, and belongeth to arts of speech, and — is not pertinent for the present: in the latter it is, as hath | been said, one of the principal portions of learning, and is nothing else but fezgned history, which may be styled as well | in prose as in verse.
The use of this feigned history hath been to give some shadow of satisfaction to the mind of man in those points wherein the nature of things doth deny it, the world being in proportion inferior to the soul; by reason whereof there is, © agreeable to the spirit of man, a more ample greatness, a more exact goodness, and a more absolute variety, than can | be found in the nature of things. Therefore, because the © acts or events of true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the mind of man, Poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more heroical: because true history propound- eth the successes and issues of actions not so agreeable to the merits of virtue and vice, therefore poesy feigns them more just in retribution, and more according to revealed providence: because true history representeth actions and events more ordinary, and less interchanged, therefore poesy endueth them with more rareness, and more unex- — pected and alternative variations: so as it appeareth that — poesy serveth and conferreth to magnanimity, morality, | and to delectation. And therefore it was ever thought to —
1 Hor. Ep. ad Pis. 9. j
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have some participation of divineness, because it doth raise and erect the mind, by submitting the shows of things to the desires of the mind; whereas reason doth buckle and bow the mind into the nature of things. And we see, that by these insinuations and congruities with man’s nature and pleasure, joined also with the agreement and comfort it hath with music, it hath had access and estimation in rude times and barbarous regions, where other learning stood excluded.
The division of Poesy which is aptest in the propriety thereof (besides those divisions which are common unto it with history, as feigned chronicles, feigned lives, and the appendices of history, as feigned epistles, feigned orations, and the rest) is into poesy narrative, representative, and allusive. The Narrative is a mere imitation of history, with the excesses before remembered; choosing for subject commonly wars and love, rarely state, and sometimes pleasure or mirth. Representative is as a visible history; and is an image of actions as if they were present, as history is of actions in nature as they are (that is) past. Allusive or Parabolical is a Narrative applied only to express some special purpose or conceit. Which latter kind of paraboli- cal wisdom was much more in use in the ancient times, as by the fables of AZsop, and the brief sentences of the Seven, and the use of hieroglyphics may appear. And the cause was, for that it was then of necessity to express any point of reason which was more sharp or subtile than the vulgar in that manner, because men in those times wanted both variety of examples and subtility of conceit: and as hiero- glyphics were before letters, so parables were before argu- ments: and nevertheless now, and at all times, they do retain much life and vigour; because reason cannot be so sensible, nor examples so fit.
But there remaineth yet another use of Poesy Parabolical, opposite to that which we last mentioned: for that tendeth to demonstrate and illustrate that which is taught or de- - livered, and this other to retire and obscure it: that is, when the secrets and mysteries of religion, policy, or philosophy, _are involved in fables or parables. Of this in divine poesy _we see the use is authorized. In heathen poesy we see the exposition of fables doth fall out sometimes with great felicity; as in the fable that the giants being overthrown in
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their war against the gods, the Earth their mother in revenge thereof brought forth Fame:
Illam terra parens, ira irritata Deorum, Extremam, ut perhibent, Coeo Enceladoque sororem Progenuit: 3
expounded, that when princes and monarchs have sup- pressed actual and open rebels, then the malignity of the people, which is the mother of rebellion, doth bring forth © libels and slanders, and taxations of the states, which is of — the same kind with rebellion, but more feminine. So in the © fable, that the rest of the gods having conspired to bind — Jupiter, Pallas ? called Briareus with his hundred hands to | his aid: expounded, that monarchies need not fear any curbing of their absoluteness by mighty subjects, as long as by wisdom they keep the hearts of the people, who will be sure to come in on their side. So in the fable, that Achilles was brought up under Chiron the Centaur, who was — part a man and part a beast, expounded ingeniously but — corruptly by Machiavel,? that it belongeth to the education — and discipline of princes to know as well how to play the — part of the lion in violence, and the fox in guile, as of the — man in virtue and justice. Nevertheless, in many the like — encounters, I do rather think that the fable was first, and the exposition devised, than that the moral was first, and — thereupon the fable framed. For I find it was an ancient © vanity in Chrysippus, that troubled himself with great © contention to fasten the assertions of the Stoics upon the © fictions of the ancient poets; but yet that all the fables and fictions of the poets were but pleasure and not figure, I interpose no opinion. Surely of those poets which are now ~ extant, even Homer himself (notwithstanding he was made © a kind of Scripture by the latter schools of the Grecians), | yet I should without any difficulty pronounce that his fables — had no such inwardness in his own meaning; but what they might have upon a more original tradition, is not easy to | affirm; for he was not the inventor of many of them.? |
1 Virg. Zn. iv. 178-180.
2 Not Pallas, but Thetis, Hom. J/. A. 401, sqq.
3 Hom. JI. A. 8 31, and Machiav. Prince, c. 18.
‘In the Latin, in room of these examples, the fables of Pan, © Perseus, and Dionysus, are expounded to show respectively how i physical, political, and moral doctrines might be thence deduced. |
|
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In this third}! part of learning, which is poesy, I can report no deficience, For being as a plant that cometh of the lust of the earth, without a formal seed, it hath sprung up and spread abroad more than any other kind. But to ascribe unto it that which is due, for the expressing of affec- tions, passions, corruptions, and customs, we are beholding to poets more than to the philosophers’ works; and for wit and eloquence, not much less than to orators’ harangue. But it is not good to stay too long in the theatre. Let us now pass on to the judicial place or palace of the mind, which we are to approach and view with more reverence and attention.
The knowledge of man is as the waters, some descending from above, and some springing from beneath; the one informed by the light of nature, the other inspired by divine revelation. The light