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BACON

ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

Oxford University Press

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Humphrey Milford Publisher to the UNIVERSITY

BACON

The

Advancement of Learning

EDITED BY

WILLIAM ALDIS WRIGHT, M.A.

HON. D.C.L. AND LL.D.

FELLOW AND VICE-MASTER OK TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

Fifth Edition

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OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

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Printed in England
At the OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

By John Johnson
Printer to the University

Impression of 1926
First edition, 1868

Ill

P R E F A C E.

FRANCIS BACON was born on the 22nd of January, 1560-1,
at York House in the Strand, the residence of his father
Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. Sixty
years later, Ben Jonson sang of him as

England s high Chancellor ; the destined heir.
In his soft cradle, to his father s chair.

His mother, Anne Cooke, whose eldest sister was married to
Lord Burleigh, was his father s second wife, and had borne
him two children. Anthony, the friend and correspondent of
Essex, was two years older than Francis. Of their childhood
nothing is known. In April, 1573, when Francis was little
more than twelve years old, the two brothers were entered
as fellow-commoners at Trinity College, Cambridge, and ma
triculated between the loth and i3th of June in the same year.
They were placed under the care of Dr. Whitgift, Master of the
College, who found this distinguished position not inconsistent
with holding the Deanery of Lincoln, a Canonry at Ely, and the
Rectory of Teversham ; having, however, previously resigned
the Regius Professorship of Divinity. From an account-book
which he kept, and which was published by the late Dr. Mait-
land in the British Magazine (vols. xxxii. xxxiii), we glean
the meagre facts of Francis Bacon s University career. We
learn, for instance, that during the period of his residence in
College, from April 5, 1573, to Christmas 1575, the Master s
parental care supplied him with so many pairs of shoes, a bow
and quiver of arrows, that there was oil bought for his neck,
and certain money paid to the * potigarie \\hen he was sick,
and for meat probably as he was recovering, that he had a

V\ PREFACE.

desk put up in his study, that his stockings were dyed at
a cost of izd., that his laundress s bill from Midsummer to
Michaelmas was 3 shillings, that his hose were mended, his
windows glazed, two dozen silk points, a pair of pantofles and
pumps bought for him, and a dozen new buttons set on his
doublet. Some books the brothers brought with them from
London. With others they were furnished by the Master, as
Livy, Cicero, Demosthenes Olynthiacs, Homer s Iliad, Csesar,
Aristotle, Plato, Xenophon, Sallust, and Hermogenes. There
is an interval in the accounts from the latter part of August,
1574) to the 2ist of March following; during which time the
plague raged in Cambridge, and the members of the Uni
versity were dispersed. The only record of Bacon s residence
at Trinity is a reminiscence of his own preserved in the Sylva
Sylvarum (cent. ii. 151), which shows that at this early period
he had begun to observe natural phenomena. * I remember,
he says, in Trinity College in Cambridge, there was an upper
chamber, which being thought weak in the roof of it, was
supported by a pillar of iron, of the bigness of one s arm, in
the midst of the chamber ; which if you had struck, it would
make a little flat noise in the room where it was struck, but it
would make a great bomb in the chamber beneath. We may
possibly have here a description of the rooms occupied by the
two brothers, but if so they must have been in the buildings
of King s Hall, removed by Dr. Nevill in constructing the pre
sent Old Court. No tradition of their whereabouts remains.
If we add to these fragments an anecdote related by Dr. Raw-
ley, his chaplain and earliest biographer, we are in possession
of all that is known of Francis Bacon up to the time that he
completed his fifteenth year. Rawley s story introduces us to
a child of singular gravity and adroitness, the future Chan
cellor and courtier. The Queen delighted much then to
confer with him, and to prove him with questions ; unto
whom he delivered himself with that gravity and maturity
above his years, that Her Majesty would often term him
" The young Lord Keeper." Being asked by the Queen how
old he was, he answered with much discretion, being then

PREFACE. Vli

but a boy, "That he was two years younger than Her Ma
jesty s happy reign ;" with which answer the Queen was much
taken. Another anecdote from the same source, of which
more than enough has been made, belongs to this period.
* Whilst he was commorant in the University, about sixteen
years of age (as his lordship hath been pleased to impart unto
myself), he first fell into the dislike of the philosophy of
Aristotle ; not for the worthlessncss of the author, to whom
he would ever ascribe all high attributes, but for the unfruit-
f illness of the way; being a philosophy (as his lordship used to
say) only strong for disputations and contentions, but barren
of the production of works for the benefit of the life of man ;1
in which mind he continued to his dying day.

The story which has been told above of the iron pillar in
the chamber at Trinity shows that Bacon s attention had
been very early directed to the observation of sounds, and
lends a probability to the supposition that it may have been
at this time that he tried the experiment recorded in the
Sylva Sylvarum (cent. ii. 140). There is in St. James s Fields
a conduit of brick, unto which joineth a low vault ; and at the
end of that a round house of stone ; and in the brick conduit
there is a window; and in the round-house a slit or rift of
some little breadth ; if you cry out in the rift, it will make a
fearful roaring at the window. In all this there is a certain
ring of boyishness. To this time also belongs the story of the
conjuror (Sylva, cent. x. 946), who must have exhibited his
tricks at Sir Nicholas Bacon s house before Francis left
England.

But his father had in view for him a public career as states
man or diplomatist, and after he had spent nearly three years
over his books at Cambridge, sent him to France to read men.
On the 25th of September, 1576, we learn from Burghley s
diary, Sir Amyas Paulet landed at Calliss going to be Amb.
at France in Place of Dr. Dale. It was not till the February
following that he succeeded to the post. Bacon apparently
joined him after his arrival in Paris, for on Nov. 21, 1576, he
was admitted of the grand company at Gray s Inn, having

Vlii PREFACE.

entered the Society on the 27th of June previous. He was sub
sequently entrusted with some message or advertisement to
the Queen ; which having performed with great approbation,
he returned back into France again, with intention to continue
for some years there. (Rawley.) Here we find him still keen
in his observation of natural phenomena, sounds as before
occupying a great share of his attention. Let him describe
what he heard in his own words written nearly fifty years
later. For echoes upon echoes, there is a rare instance thereof
in a place which I will now exactly describe. It is some three
or four miles from Paris, near a town called Pont-Charenton ;
and some bird-bolt shot or more from the river of Seine.
The room is a chapel or small church. The walls all stand
ing, both at the sides and at the ends. Two rows of pillars,
after the manner of aisles of churches, also standing ; the roof
all open, not so much as any embowment near any of the walls
left. There was against every pillar a stack of billets above a
man s height ; which the watermen that bring wood down the
Seine in stacks, and not in boats, laid there (as it seemeth) for
their ease. Speaking at the one end, I did hear it return the
voice thirteen several times : and I have heard of others, that
it would return sixteen times : for I was there about three of
the clock in the afternoon ; and it is best (as all other echoes

are) in the evening I remember well, that when I went to

the echo at Pont-Charenton, there was an old Parisian, who
took it to be the work of spirits, and of good spirits. For
(said he) call Satan, and the echo will not deliver back the
devil s name ; but will say, *va fen ; which is as much in French
as apage or avoid. And thereby I did hap to find that an
echo would not return S, being but a hissing and an interior
sound. (Sylva Sylvarum, cent. iii. 249, 251.) Another story
which he tells of himself belongs to this period of his life. * I
had, from my childhood, a wart upon one of my fingers : after
wards, when I was about sixteen years old, being then at Paris,
there grew upon both my hands a number of warts (at the
least an hundred) in a month s space. The English ambassador s
lady, who was a woman far from superstition, told me one day,

PREFACE. IX

she would help me away with my warts : whereupon she got
a piece of lard, with the skin on, and rubbed the warts all
over with the fat side ; and amongst the rest, that wart which
I had had from my childhood : then she nailed the piece of
lard, with the fat towards the sun, upon a post of her chamber
window, which was to the south. The success was, that
within five weeks space all the warts went quite away : and
that wart which I had so long endured, for company. (Sylva
Sylvarum, cent. x. 997.) The questions of sounds and mys
terious sympathies did not, however, occupy the whole of his
active mind. It was while at Paris learning diplomacy that
he invented the cypher which he describes at the end of the
sixth book of the De Augmentis, and here too he probably
saw that strange visionary, Guillaume Postell, in his retreat
at the monastery of St. Martin des Champs. In the summer
of 1577, the French Court was at Poitiers. Sir Amias Paulet,
with Bacon probably in his suite, remained there from the end
of July to the latter end of October. That Bacon was at
Poitiers at some time during his residence in France we
know from his own account of a conversation with a cynical
young Frenchman, perhaps a student, who afterwards became
a man of considerable distinction. (Hist. Vitae et Mortis,
Works, ii. 211.) There is no evidence however that he him
self studied at the University there.

But now an event occurred which changed the whole cur
rent of his life. On the 2oth of February, 1578-95 Sir Nicholas
Bacon died, after an illness of only a few days. His death, by
a strange coincidence, was foreshadowed by a dream, which
his son upon after reflection appears to have regarded almost
as a sign of the coming disaster. I myself remember, he
says, that being in Paris, and my father dying in London,
two or three days before my father s death I had a dream,
which I told to divers English gentlemen, that my father s
house in the country was plastered all over with black mortar.
(Sylva, cent. x. 986.) A month later, on the 2oth of March,
! 578-9, Bacon left Paris, bearing with him a despatch and
commendations from Sir Amias Paulet to the Queen. His

X PREFACE.

father, according to Rawley, had accumulated a considerable
sum of money for the purpose of purchasing an estate for his
youngest son, but his sudden death prevented its accomplish
ment, and Francis was left with only a fifth part of his father s
personal property. Diplomacy was now abandoned as a career,
his prospects of a studious leisure became more distant than
ever, and for one who would willingly have lived only to study,
there was nothing left but to study how to live a . Soon after
his return to England he appears to have entered upon a
course of law at Gray s Inn, and on the 27th of June, 1582,
we find him admitted as an utter barrister. The next year
he is seen abroad in the city in his barrister s dress, and pro
mises to do well. Meanwhile he has made a beginning of
the great work on which his fame was to rest, the first sketch
of which he called, as he told Father Fulgentio forty years
later, by the ambitious title of Temporis Partus Maxhnus.

In 1584 Bacon appeared upon a new stage, which he never
left for thirty years and upwards, and on which some of his
greatest triumphs were achieved. On the 23rd of November
he took his seat in the House of Commons as member for
Melcombe Regis, in Dorsetshire. In D Ewes s Journal (p. 337),
his name appears on the Committee appointed on the pth of
December to consider the * Bill for redress of Disorders in
Common Informers. In the next Parliament, which met
Oct. 29, 1586, he sat for Taunton, and on the 4th of No
vember made a speech on the great cause of Mary, Queen
of Scots, but no report of it has been preserved. With other
members of both Houses he attended (Nov. 12) upon the

Of his personal appearance at this time we can form an idea from
the interesting picture painted by Hilliard in 1578, with the significant
motto, showing that his intellectual pre-eminence was already becoming
conspicuous, Si tabula daretur digna, animum mallem. The artist is he
of whom Donne says :

A hand or eye

By Hilliard drawn, is worth a history
By a worse painter made.

PREFACE. XI

Queen, to present a petition for the speedy execution of Mary.
In the previous February he had been admitted to the high
table at Gray s Inn, and in due course became a bencher.
Beyond the fact that he was on the Committees appointed
for conference touching a loan or benevolence to be offered
to Her Majesty, and of the Bill for Attainder, and that he was
one of those sent up to confer with the Lords about the Bill
for continuance of Statutes, we hear no more of Bacon during
the present Parliament. The next finds him member for
Liverpool, busy on frequent committees, and reporting their
proceedings to the House. The Marprelate controversy was
now at its height, and Bacon delivered his judgement, full of
wisdom and moderation, on the points in dispute, in a paper
which remained unprinted during his lifetime, called An
Advertisement touching the Controversies of the Church of
England. It contains the germs of his essay Of Unity in
Religion.

In 1589 he received his first piece of preferment in the
form of the reversion of an office, which however did not fall
in for nearly twenty years. Under the date of Oct. in this year
we find the entry in Burghley s printed diary, A Graunt of
the Office of Clerk of the Counsell in the Starr Chamber to
Francis Bacon. The office was worth i6oo/. or 2ooo/. a year,
and was executed by deputy, but Bacon had to exercise the
patience of hope till July 16, 1608 ; and meanwhile, as he said
himself, it was like another man s ground buttalling upon his
house, which might mend his prospect, but it did not fill his
barn. (Rawley.) He was a poor man in purse for many years
to come, toiling in a profession in which his heart was not ;
but, as he writes to Burghley, with as vast contemplative ends
as he had moderate civil ends, for he had taken all knowledge
to be his province. His highest ambition at this time was to
be put in an office which should place him above the reach of
want and leave him leisure to prosecute his intellectual con
quests. This was the career he longed for at thirty-one, and
it is important to bear it in mind as helping in some degree to
vindicate his motives in later life.

x ii PREFACE.

In February, 1591-2, his brother Anthony came to live in
Gray s Inn, and from the motherly solicitude of Lady Bacon
for her eldest son s religious welfare, we learn that Francis
was negligent in the use of family prayers, and was not to be
held up as a pattern to his brother, or resorted to for counsel
in such matters.

To the autumn of 1592 Mr. Spedding with great probability
assigns the speeches in praise of Knowledge and of the Queen,
which were apparently written for some Court device, perhaps
that contrived by the Earl of Essex for the Queen s day. In
close connexion with the latter of these is the treatise entitled
Certain observations upon a libel published this present year,
1592, which Bacon wrote in reply to the Responsio ad edictum
Regince Anglice of Father Parsons.

In the Parliament which met on February 19, 1592-3, Bacon,
who had hitherto been returned only by boroughs, now sat as
member for Middlesex. It was in the course of this session
that, according to Macaulay, he indulged in a burst of patriot
ism, which cost him a long and bitter remorse, and which he
never ventured to repeat. In this sounding sentence there is
hardly a word of truth. What really happened may be briefly
told. On the 26th of February Bacon, with Sir Robert Cecil
and other leading members of the House, moved that a com
mittee of supply be appointed to provide against the dangers
with which the country was threatened both by Rome and
Spain, and other confederates of the Holy League. A few
fragments of his speech in support of the motion have been
preserved, and he himself was one of the committee appointed.
Another committee was formed by the Lords, the two com
mittees consulted together, and the result of their conference
was communicated to the House of Commons by Sir Robert
Cecil. The Lords demanded at least a treble subsidy, payable
in three years by two instalments each year; Bacon spoke
next, and yielded to the subsidy, but misliked that this House
should join with the Upper House in the granting of it.
(D Ewes, Journal of the House of Commons, p. 483.) His
opposition was solely in defence of the privilege of the House

PREFACE.

Xlll

of Commons, and to preserve this he moved, that now they
might proceed herein by themselves apart from their Lord
ships. After considerable discussion the question was ultim
ately put to the House, that no such conference should be
had with the Lords, and was carried by a majority of 217 to
128. The point of privilege was yielded, and a motion of Sir
Walter Ralegh s for a general conference with the Lords
carried unanimously. As the result of this, the original pro
position was so far modified that four years instead of three
were to be allowed for the payment of the subsidies. Bacon
assented to three subsidies, but not to the payment under six
years, but he was outvoted and made no further difficulty.
Such was the solitary act of patriotism of which Macaulay
says Bacon was guilty. And even for this, he adds, he made
the most abject apologies. Two letters of Bacon s on this
subject have been preserved, one to Lord Burghley, the other
probably, as Mr. Spedding conjectures, to Essex. The tone
of both is that of manly justification of his conduct ; in neither
is there one syllable of apology or regret for what he had
done. He is evidently surprised at being misunderstood. The
Queen was angry at his speeches, ar.d Bacon expresses his
grief that she should retain an hard conceit of them. What
follows is very instructive. It mought please her sacred
Majesty to think what my end should be in those speeches,
if it were not duty, and duty alone. I am not so simple but 1
know the common beaten way to please. And whereas popul
arity hath been objected, I muse what care I should take to
please many, that taketh a course of life to deal with few.

At this juncture the Attorney-Generalship was vacant, and
whatever chance Bacon might have had, through the influence
of Essex, of being appointed to the post, was entirely nullified
by the Queen s displeasure. For himself he was not anxious
for the honour, but he assured Elizabeth, in a letter which was
intended to appease her, that he was ready to do that for her
service which he would not do for his own gain. My mind,
he says, turneth upon other wheels than those of proht. Had
it not been for this chance, however, he would probably have

Xiv PREFACE.

relieved himself from the embarrassment of his debts by selling
the reversion of his property and purchasing an annuity, and
would then have abandoned a profession for which he had no
love, and lived the life of a student. But he was kept in sus
pense during the summer of 1593, and the delay decided his
future career.

In March, 1593-4, he drew up a report, not printed in his
lifetime, of the detestable treason, intended by Dr. Roderigo
Lopez, a physician attending upon the person of the Queen s
Majesty, which had been traced out with great skill by Essex.
The latter meanwhile was urging Bacon s claims upon the
Queen with a pertinacity and petulance which rather injured
than furthered his cause. Heartsick with hope deferred,

Bacon writes to his friend, < I will, by God s assistance

retire myself with a couple of men to Cambridge, and there
spend my life in my studies and contemplations, without look
ing back. On the loth of April Coke s patent as Attorney-
General was made out and delivered. By this appointment
the Solicitorship became vacant, and Essex renewed his im
portunities with the Queen, who disparaged Bacon in his legal
capacity as one who was not deep, but rather showed to the
utmost of his knowledge, while she admitted he had a great
wit and an excellent gift of speech, and much other good
learning. On the ayth of July, 1594, being detained by illness
at Huntingdon on his way north, he paid a visit to Cambridge,
and received the honorary degree of Master of Arts. The
Queen was still relentless, but had given way so far as to
employ him on the isth of June in the examination of two
persons in the Tower, who were implicated in a conspiracy.
In August and September he is again at work upon business
of the same kind. Still the long hoped-for promotion did not
come. In the Christmas vacation of this year he amused him
self with beginning his Promus of Formularies and Elegan
cies, and in writing speeches for an entertainment at Gray s
Inn. The suspense of more than a year and half was brought
to an end by the appointment of Serjeant Fleming to the
Solicitorship on the sth of November, 1595. Essex was mor-

PREFACE. XV

tified at the ill success of his suit, the failure of which had
perhaps in some measure been due to his own want of judge
ment in pressing it. Lady Bacon said truly, * though the Earl
showed great affection, he marred all with violent courses.
But he generously resolved that his friend should not be alto
gether a loser by his friendship. The relation between them
at this juncture is excellently expressed by Mr. Spedding.
* In the account between him and Bacon the obligation was
not all on one side. Bacon owed him much for his friendship,
trust, and eager endeavours to serve him. He owed Bacon
much, not only for affection and zeal, but for time and pains
gratuitously spent in his affairs. These he had done his best
to requite in the best way namely by advancing him in his
profession ; but having failed, he (not unnaturally) desired to
make him some reparation. You shall not deny, said Essex,
to accept a piece of land which I will bestow upon you.
Bacon declined, but the Earl insisted, and what followed
must be told in Bacon s own words, because it shows in what
light he viewed the respective duties of citizenship and friend
ship, and how fixed a principle it was with him that, like
Pericles, he could only be a friend usque ad aras, so far, that
is, as was consistent with higher obligations. After in vain
endeavouring to persuade Essex not to imitate the Duke of
Guise and turn his estate into obligations, he said, My Lord,
I see I must be your homager and hold land of your gift : but
do you know the manner of doing homage in law ? Always it
is with a saving of his faith to the King and his other lords :
and therefore, my Lord (said I), I can be no more yours
than I was, and it must be with the ancient savings. It looks
as if Bacon already foresaw that the impetuous rashness of
Essex might at some time place him in such a position that
the lower duty would have to give way before the higher.
How strongly he felt this is shown by the closing sentence ot
a letter to the Earl, which is very properly assigned to this
period of his life, and carries with it a warning sound. I
reckon myself as a common (not popular, but common) ; and as
much as is lawful to be enclosed of a common, so much your

xvi PREFACE.

Lordship shall be sure to have. Five years later he reiterated
in the same tone, < I humbly pray you to believe that I aspire
to the conscience and commendation first of bonus civis, which
with us is a good and true servant to the Queen, and next of
bonus vir, that is, an honest man. But of this anon. The
result of the present negotiation was that Essex presented
Bacon with a piece of land, which he afterwards sold to Rey
nold Nicholas for i8oo/.

At what precise time Bacon was appointed by the Queen
one of her counsel learned in the law, is not quite certain. It
has been supposed that the appointment was made as early as
the beginning of 1592, and he is certainly described by this
title in a lease of sixty acres of land in Zelwood Forest, Somer
setshire, which was granted him by the Crown, July 14, i59 6 -
From the fact that he is not so described in the grant of the
reversion of the lease of Twickenham Park, dated Nov. 17,
1595, it would seem that he had been made Queen s counsel
in the interval. Meanwhile he consoled himself for his pro
fessional disappointments by increased devotion to his favourite
studies, and early in 1597 published, in a small volume, the first
instalment of his Essays, which had been written some time
before, and were already circulated in manuscript. From an
expression in the dedication to his brother Anthony, he evid
ently regarded the publication as premature. I doe nowe,
he says, Mike some that have an orcharde ill neighbored,
that gather their fruit before it is ripe, to prevent stealing.
The same volume contained the Colours of Good and Evil, and
the Meditationes Sacra. Traces of his hand are also to be
found in the * Advice to the Earl of Rutland on his Travels,
and to * Sir Fulke Greville on his Studies, which appear in the
name of Essex, and belong to the beginning of 1596.

On the soth of April, 1596, the Mastership of the Rolls
became vacant by the death of Lord Keeper Puckering, and
the promotion of Egerton to his place. For this post Bacon
was again a candidate, Essex as before supported his claim, and
with the same result, suspense and ultimate disappointment.
Burghley s influence was exerted with no better success. He

PREFACE. xvil

had endeavoured to procure the Solicitorship for his nephew,
and, failing that, the place of the Wards; probably, as
Mr. Spedding conjectures, the office of Attorney of the
Wards. But all came to nothing, as did another suit of a
more private nature, which Bacon contemplated if he did not
prosecute, and in which Essex again stood his friend. It is
not certain that he ever actually proposed for the hand of
Lady Hatton, the young and wealthy widow of Sir William
Hatton, and granddaughter of Burghley. From an expression
in one of his letters to Essex it is probable that he saw no
opportunity of urging his suit with success, and on the yth of
November, 1598, the lady became the wife of his determined
enemy, Sir Edward Coke.

It was during the autumn of 1597 that an estrangement
took place between Bacon and Essex. Warnings on the one
side, which were unheeded on the other, * bred in process of
time, says Bacon in his Apology, a discontinuance of private-
ness .... between his Lordship and myself; so as I was
not called nor advised with, for some year and half before his
Lordship s going into Ireland, as in former time. After the
brilliant success of the Cadiz expedition, Bacon wrote a letter
of advice to the Earl touching his conduct; a letter full of the
soundest wisdom, showing the clear apprehension which the
writer had of the weak points of Essex s character. The
difference between the policy he recommended and the
course which Essex adopted cannot be more strikingly put
than in Bacon s own words in his Apology : I ever set this
down, that the only course to be held with the Queen, was by
obsequiousness and observance . . . My Lord on the other
hand had a settled opinion that the Queen could be brought
to nothing but by a kind of necessity and authority.* How
true this was no man knew better by experience than Bacon
himself, who ever in season and out of season gave him the
counsel of a wise and then a prophetical friend. (Sir H.
Wotton.) But it was all in vain. Essex s nature was too
impatient to follow a course which involved so much self-
restraint. He went his own way, and in a few brief years

b

XV111 PREFACE.

followed the partial failure of the Island voyage, the total
failure of the Irish expedition, his hasty return, the Queen s
displeasure, and then the final catastrophe.

But we must go back for a while to see in what matters
Bacon was occupied. In 1595 the question of Star-Chamber
Fees was undergoing investigation, and in consequence, cer
tain fees hitherto claimed by the Clerk had been restrained
by the Lord Keeper. Bacon, who was immediately interested,
addressed a paper to Egerton on the subject in July 1597.
His estate at this time, as he confesses in another letter, was
weak and indebted, a condition which he attributed in part
to the slender provision made for him by his father, and
greatly also to the plan of his own life, in which he rather
referred and aspired to virtue than to gain. Want was steal
ing upon him. But he was not disheartened. There were
three means of preventing it : his practice, in which he was
conscious of not playing his best; the prospect of a place
under government ; and the reversion of the clerkship of the
Star-Chamber. The last of these he proposed to give up to
the Lord Keeper s son, if Egerton would obtain the Master
ship of the Rolls for him ; but once more he failed, and the
office was not filled up till the next reign.

The ninth Parliament of Elizabeth met on the 24th of
October, 1597, and Bacon sat as member for Ipswich. His
first speech was on a motion which he brought forward
against depopulation of towns and houses of husbandry, and
for the maintenance of husbandry and tillage, a question
which in after years possessed his mind, and was discussed in
his Essay Of the true Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates/
first published in 1612, and again in his History of Henry VII.
in 1622. An examination of D Ewes s Journal of the House
of Commons shows that his name is to be found on com
mittees for the consideration of every question of import
ance during this session, and that though the Queen had not
yet forgiven his conduct on a former occasion, his position in
the House was as high as ever.

But if his reputation was increasing his debts were in-

PREFACE. XIX

creasing too, and in September 1598 he was arrested on his
way from the Tower, where he had been engaged in the in
vestigation of a plot for the murder of the Queen. He com
plained of the indignity thus offered him to Sir Robert Cecil
and the Lord Keeper Egerton, but how he was relieved from
it we have no information. A history of the conspiracy from
his pen appeared in the following year.

In the spring of 1599 Essex set out on his disastrous exped
ition to Ireland. Bacon had already so far renewed his
intercourse with the Earl as to write him two letters of
advice. A third Cassandra-like note of warning was sounded
just before his departure, containing two maxims which Essex
was only too apt to forget, that merit is worthier than
fame, and * that obedience is better than sacrifice. He
landed in Dublin on the isth of April, and on the 28th of
September he startled the Queen at Nonsuch, by rushing
travel-stained into her chamber while she was dressing, her
hair about her face, as a letter-writer of the time tells us.
And what had he done meanwhile ? Practically, as Mr. Sped-
ding puts it, * whatever might be said in justification of this
or that item of the account, the totals must stand thus :
Expended, 300,0007. and ten or twelve thousand men : re
ceived, a suspension of hostilities for six weeks, with promise
of a fortnight s notice before recommencing them, and a
verbal communication from Tyrone of the conditions upon
which he was willing to make peace. Between ten and
eleven o clock the same night he was ordered to keep his
room. His first plan of bringing over with him a part of
the army to enable him to make conditions with the govern
ment, had been abandoned by the advice of his stepfather
Blount, and his friend Southampton. But he took with him
a strong body-guard of trusty men, who might have secured
him against any commitment. On the ist of October he
was placed in the custody of the Lord Keeper at York
House. Bacon, who at this time had constant access to the
Queen, was charged by popular rumour with irritating her
against Essex. According to the ordinary charities of
b 2

XX PREFACE.

Court, he says with quiet irony, it was given out that I
was one of them that incensed the Queen against my Lord
of Essex. To Elizabeth s plan of having * somewhat pub
lished in the Star-Chamber, for the satisfaction of the world
touching my Lord of Essex his restraint, Bacon was firmly
opposed, and his opposition gave her great offence. She
charged him with being absent from the Star-Chamber when
the declaration was made on the 29th of November. That
he was absent we have his own evidence to prove, and he
pleaded indisposition as the cause. An unjust suspicion fell
upon him of having given the Queen an opinion in the cause
of Essex in opposition to that of the Lord Chief Justice and
the Attorney-General. His life was even threatened ; but he
had * the privy coat of a good conscience, and felt that these
falsehoods would recoil upon their authors. Essex still re
mained in the custody of the Lord Keeper, and for some
months not a word passed between the Queen and Bacon
about him. But neither of them at this time knew the depth
of Essex s guilt. They knew nothing of his first design of
landing in England with two or three thousand men, to make
good his position till he could gain support. They knew
nothing of the treasonable intention with which Montjoy
succeeded to Essex s command in Ireland; an intention
which had no less a scope than with half his army to join the
King of Scots in an armed demonstration to support his
right to the succession, the party headed by Essex in England
working to the same end. James was too timid or too wary
to listen to such a proposal, and the plot was for the time
abandoned. Before it was revived Montjoy had come to his
senses, and then utterly rejected it as a thing which he could
no way think honest.

In the meantime Essex was released from custody and
allowed to retire to his own house, still however remaining
under surveillance. Towards the end of the Easter term the
Queen admitted to Bacon that the former proceeding in the
Star-Chamber had done no good, but rather kindled factious
bruits (as she termed them) than quenched them. She now

PREFACE. XXI

proposed to proceed by public information against Essex.
But for this, Bacon urged, it was far too late ; at which the
Queen was offended. At the beginning of the next term the
subject was again discussed between them, Bacon as before
dissuading any public process. The Queen finally resolved
that the matter should be heard before a commission at York
House. Her counsel had their parts assigned to them. At
first it was doubtful whether Bacon, in consideration of his
relations with Essex, and the way in which he had consist
ently pleaded his cause, would be allowed any share in the
proceedings. He begged to be excused, but held himself
ready to obey the Queen s commands, thinking that by so
far yielding to her he might be in a better position to serve
Essex. Up to this time it must be remembered he knew
nothing of the Earl s treasonous designs, and regarded his
quarrel with the Queen as a storm which would soon blow
over. In the distribution to the counsel of their several
parts, Bacon was allotted one which seemed insignificant, and
was given him as least calculated to do harm to Essex. The
Privy Council with their assessors met at York House on the
5th of June. Essex was acquitted of disloyalty, but censured
for contempt and disobedience in neglecting his instructions
and deserting his command. Bacon, by the Queen s order,
drew up a narrative of what had passed, in which he touched
upon Essex s faults with so tender a hand, that Elizabeth was
moved and said, she perceived old love would not easily be
forgotten. Bacon with great adroitness took advantage of
the expression. Whereunto I answered suddenly, that I
hoped she meant that by herself. In a short time Essex was
released from the slight restraint which had been placed upon
him, but forbidden to come to the Court. His fate was again
in his own hands.

So far it was proved that Bacon s policy was the true one,
and that by keeping on good terms with the Queen he could
better serve Essex than by placing himself in opposition to
her. His principles however remained the same as before.
For my Lord of Essex, he writes to Lord Henry Howard,

XXli PREFACE.

I am not servile to him, having regard to my superior duty.
I have been much bound unto him. And on the other side, I
have spent more time and more thoughts about his well
doing than ever I did about mine own. Still he had no
suspicion of the dangerous secrets of which Essex was con
scious. His counsel was as ever patience, and for a time the
Earl, to the outer world at least, seemed heedful of his advice.
To his intimates he presented another aspect. In my laste
discourse, says Sir John Harington, he uttered strange
wordes, borderynge on suche strange desygns that made me
hastene forthe, and leave his presence; thank heaven I am
safe at home, and if I go in suche troubles againe, I deserve
the gallowes for a meddlynge foole : His speeches of the Queene
becomethe no man who hathe mens sana in corpore sano
(Nugae Antiquae, ii. 225, ed. 1779.) His patent for the
monopoly of sweet wines was to expire at Michaelmas, and
he petitioned for a renewal of the lease. His petition was
refused and his patience at an end. From this time the
Queen, who evidently was better informed than Bacon as to
what Essex had really done, and supposed that Bacon knew
as much as herself, was so angry at his importunity for his
friend that she would no longer see him. For three months
this estrangement lasted. It was not till after New Year s
Day, 1600-1, that Bacon was admitted to her presence, and
then boldly and with some passion spoke his mind. Madam,
I see you withdraw your favour from me, and now that I have
lost many friends for your sake, I shall leese you too ....
A great many love me not, because they think I have been
against my Lord of Essex ; and you love me not, because you
know I have been for him : yet will I never repent me, that
I have dealt in simplicity of heart towards you both, without
respect of cautions to myself, and therefore vivus vidensque
pereo. The Queen was moved by the earnestness of his
protestations, and spoke kindly to him as of old ; but of Essex
never a word. Henceforth Bacon determined to meddle no
more in the matter, and never saw the Queen again till the
Earl had put himself beyond the reach of intercession. He

PREFACE. XX111

now devoted his energies to his own affairs, which were still
embarrassed, and to the business of his profession, in which
he was gradually but surely rising. On the 24th of October,
1600, he had been made Double Reader at Gray s Inn, and
had his lectures for the Lent term to prepare on the Statute
of Uses.

Up to the 8th of February, 1600-1, it is abundantly evident
that Bacon had done his utmost to restore Essex to the
Queen s favour. His efforts were vain, but they were made,
and were made, moreover, not only at the risk but with the
result of bringing the Queen s displeasure upon himself. And
now came the crisis in which his worst forebodings were
more than realised. Essex, left to his own devices and the
company and counsel of men who used him as an instrument
for their own ends, plunged deeper and deeper in guilt. As
long ago as the previous August he had again sounded
Montjoy on the subject of an armed demonstration in con
junction with the King of Scotland. But Montjoy turned
a deaf ear. Still there were hopes from James. Meanwhile
the secret which had hitherto been confined to a few was
in danger of being divulged. The discontented spirits of all
parties were encouraged to rally round Essex, though without
knowing the full extent of the conspiracy they were intended
to support. Before Christmas, Essex had determined to se
cure his access to the Queen in such sort as might not be
resisted. By the end of January the plot had assumed a defin
ite form. He was resolved not to hazard any more com
mandments and restraints/ On the 3rd of February the
plan for attacking the Court was made and the parts assigned
to the conspirators. Sir Christopher Blount was to seize the
utter gate, Sir Charles Davers the presence, and Sir John
Davies the hall and water-gate. The guard being over
powered and the Queen s person secured, the Earl and his
company were to enter from the Mews, and make their own
terms. Cecil, Ralegh, and Cobham were to be removed.
They had no intention of injuring the Queen ; but, as Blount
confessed on the scaffold, they were prepared, rather than

XXIV PREFACE.

fail in their ends, to have even drawn blood from herself.
The gatherings at Essex House had attracted the attention
of the Court, and on Saturday the 7th of February Essex was
summoned before the Privy Council. He refused to go ; and
in the evening, fearing that the Lords knew more than they
did, proposed to make the attack. But the guards were
doubled at Whitehall, and next morning Charing Cross and
Westminster were barricaded. There was nothing now left
but to raise the City. At ten o clock on Sunday morning,
the Lord Keeper, the Earl of Worcester, Sir William Knollys,
and the Lord Chief Justice repaired to Essex House. Essex s
men had been running hither and thither all night to summon
his friends, and by this time wellnigh three hundred were
assembled. The arrival of the Lord Keeper precipitated
their action. Essex cried out that he should be murdered
in his bed, that his enemies had forged his name, and that
he was armed in self-defence. The Lord Keeper promised
that he should have justice done, but it was now too late.
Essex left him and his companions prisoners, and rushed out
with some two hundred followers on foot, crying hysterically
that plots were laid against his life, and that the country was
sold to the Spaniard. Not a man stirred in his defence. The
conspirators marched through the City as far as Fenchurch
Street to the house of Sheriff Smith, and there Essex showed
signs that his nerve had forsaken him. Making their way
back to Ludgate Hill, they found the street closed against
them. A fight ensued, in which one or two were slain on
either side, Essex was shot through the hat, Blount wounded
and taken prisoner. The Earl, with some fifty followers, es
caped by water to Essex House, and by ten o clock in the
evening surrendered. And so ended this miserable and fatal
impatience. But there was evidently a mystery which the
Court had not penetrated, and to unravel it Bacon with others
of her Majesty s counsel was employed. They soon dis
covered the true nature of the plot. Judgement followed
swiftly upon the offenders. On the ipth of February Essex
and Southampton were arraigned. The evidence against

PREFACE. XXV

them was overwhelming. Bacon took his place among the
counsel. The office he had to perform was none of his
seeking: it was laid upon him with the rest of his fellows.
The time had come when he was obliged to choose between
his Queen and one to whom he had tried his utmost to be
a friend. Essex s defence was, as before, that his life was in
danger, that he took up arms for his own protection, and
that the kingdom was betrayed to Spain. Bacon spoke twice,
on both occasions recalling the attention of the Court to the
true nature of the case, and showing that the private quarrel
which had been alleged was a mere pretext. The defence
broke down on all points, and the two Earls were condemned.
Even those who blame Bacon for taking any part in the trial
have nothing to urge against the manner in which he acquit
ted himself. Birch (Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth,
ii. 499) says, Mr. Francis Bacon s behaviour towards the Earl
at his trial was perhaps less exceptionable than his submitting
to any share in it. Essex himself uttered no word of re
proach. He was too conscious that Bacon had stood by him
in evil report and in good report, and how wise all his counsels
had been. After a careful review of this strange eventful
history, the whole course of which must have been inexpress
ibly painful to Bacon, it is difficult to see how, as a good
citizen, whose first duty was to his country, he could have
acted otherwise. His contemporaries passed no censure upon
him. Essex, who laid the blame of his own treason upon
his personal enemies, did not reckon Bacon among them.
And these things being so, we may confidently expect at the
hands of posterity a verdict not only of not proven, but of
not guilty.

So much misapprehension has existed as to the real nature
of the offence of Essex, and of Bacon s share in his trial and
condemnation, that it has been necessary to discuss it some
what in detail. With the Earl s execution, however, Bacon s
part in the transaction did not terminate. Though the evid
ence was crushing and irresistible, the conduct of the trial had
been slovenly, and the impression left by it confused. It was

XXVl" PREFACE.

desirable that an authoritative statement should be drawn up,
setting forth with all clearness the real nature of the offence,
and the evidence on which judgement had been pronounced,
and the task of drawing up such a statement was entrusted
to the skilful pen of Bacon. The result was A Declaration of
the Practises and Treasons attempted and committed by Robert
late Earle of Essex and bis Complices, against her Maiestie and
her Kingdoms, fyc., which was published in 1601. His in
structions as to the writing were very precise, and after
a first draft had been made, it was submitted to certain
principal counsellors, who made almost a new writing, so
that Bacon himself gave only words and form of style, and
in this he nothing extenuated or set aught down in malice.
The principal offenders being punished, he exerted himself
to save the inferior actors, and with such good success that
six out of nine were stayed from being attainted.

In the course of the spring of 1601 he lost his brother
Anthony, to whom he had always been greatly attached.
His circumstances were by this somewhat improved, and with
the i2oo/. which he received from the fine of Catesby, one
of the accomplices of Essex, he was enabled to get rid of
some obligations which had pressed heavily upon him.

In the last Parliament of Elizabeth, which met on the 27th
of October, 1601, Bacon was returned both by Ipswich and
St. Alban s, a conspicuous proof that his conduct in the Essex
conspiracy had not brought upon him the censure of the
country. His voice, as of old, was heard, and his pen was still
busy, on all important questions.

With the death of Elizabeth on the 24th of March, 1602-3,
and the accession of James, no great change took place in
Bacon s prospects. He was still allowed to continue one of
the learned counsel. On the 3rd of July he writes to Cecil
that he is forced to sell the skirts of his living in Hertford
shire to preserve the body, thereby leaving himself free from
debt and with a little money in hand, 3007. land per annum,
with a fair house, and the ground well timbered. He wishes
to be made a knight because of some disgrace which had

PREFACE. XXV11

been passed upon him, and because there were three new
knights in his mess at Gray s Inn. The most important
reason for seeking this honour he keeps to the last because
I have found out an alderman s daughter, an handsome
maiden, to my liking. But he desired especially that the
honour should be conferred as a real distinction, and that he
might not be merely gregarious in a troop. On the 23rd
of July he gained his wish, but in the company of three
hundred others. His ambition for professional advancement
was quenched under the new sovereign. In the letter to Cecil
which has already been referred to, he says, My ambition
now I shall only put upon my pen, whereby I shall be able
to maintain memory and merit of the times succeeding.
James, if not wise, was undoubtedly learned, and in his
advent to the throne Bacon saw hopes of at last realizing
his magnificent dreams of the regeneration of learning and
the extension of the kingdom of man. And it may be that
during this year (1603) he wrote the first book of The
Proficiencc and Advancement of Learning. His other literary
productions of this period are A Brief Discourse touching the
Happy Union of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland, and
Certain Considerations touching the better Pacification and Edific
ation of the Church of England. The latter of these may be
regarded as the sequel to a tract on the same subject which
he had written in 1589. It was partly printed in 1604, but
not published, and was evidently composed with direct refer
ence to the subjects discussed at the Hampton Court con
ference. His Apology for his conduct in the Essex trial,
which was addressed to Montjoy, now Earl of Devonshire,
belongs to the same year.

The first Parliament of the new reign met on the i9th of
March, 1603-4, and Bacon was again returned both by
Ipswich and St. Alban s, still taking the same prominent part
in the proceedings of the House. His office as one of the
learned counsel was confirmed to him by patent on the i8th
of August, coupled with the grant of a pension of 6o/. a year
for life. His vacation was employed in drawing up Certain

XXVlil PREFACE.

Articles or Considerations touching the Union of the Kingdoms of
England and Scotland, in view of the Commission appointed
to meet in October for the discussion of the question. A
draft of a proposed proclamation touching his Majesty s style
was also prepared at the same time, but not used. Just as
the Commission had commenced its sittings, the Solicitorship
became vacant ; but Bacon was again passed over, and Dode-
ridge appointed.

Still his professional occupations allowed him less leisure
than ever, and when on the 24th of December the next
meeting of Parliament was postponed till October, 1605,
Bacon foresaw that, if he intended to finish his work on the
Advancement of Learning, he must make good use of the
interval. Mr. Spedding has pointed out that the first book
was printed in all probability before the second was ready
for the press, and that the second book shows marks of haste
both in printing and composition. The entries in the books
of the Stationers* Company b indicate that his first intention
was to have issued the work both in Latin and English.
Under the date of Aug. 19, 1605, we find, * Mr. Richard
Ockould. Entred for his Copies vnder the handes of the B :
of London & Mr. Feild warden, The firste parte of the Twoo
bookes of S r Frauncis Bacon, Of the proficience & advauncem 1
of Learninge divine and Humane to be printed bothe in
Englishe & Lattin. xij d . And again, Sept. 19 :< Mr. Ockold.
Entred for his copie vnder the handes of my Lo. Bysshoop of
London, and the wardens. A booke aswell in Latyn as in
Englishe called The second book of frauncis Bacon, of the
proficience and Advauncement of learninge Divine and
humane. xij d . We might almost infer from these two en
tries that Bacon in the course of the summer had resolved
to issue the first book separately, either from inability to
finish the second, or for some other reason, and that he
afterwards changed his mind and printed the second very

b For an opportunity of consulting these I am indebted to the kind
ness of Mr. Greenhill.

PREFACE. XXIX

hastily. Dr. Pluyfer, Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cam
bridge, who had expressed the good liking he had conceived
of the book, was applied to by Bacon to translate it into
Latin, but the specimen of his version was too ornate for
Bacon s taste, and it was never completed. The two parts,
in English only, were published together in quarto some time
about the end of October, and then not by Richard Ockould
but by Henry Tomes, with the following title : * The Twoo
Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the proficience and aduaunce-
ment of Learning, diuine and humane. To the King. At
London, Printed for Eenrie Tomes, and are to be sould at his
shop at Graies Inne Gate in Holborne. 1605. In a letter from
Chamberlain to Carleton on the ;th of November, the appear
ance of Sir Francis Bacon s new work on Learning is duly
chronicled . Any attention it might otherwise have attracted
was no doubt greatly diminished by the event which then
filled men s minds, the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. In
the investigations which followed this discovery, Bacon was
only slightly concerned. A prospect of a vacancy occurs in
the Solicitorship in March, 1606-7, and Bacon urges Cecil to
press his claims. But he had again to wait.

In the hurry and business of this session, the gossip of
Carleton gives us a glimpse of Bacon, the statesman and
philosopher, in a new aspect. On the nth of May, 1606,
he writes to Chamberlain, Sir Francis Bacon was married
yesterday to his young wench in Maribone Chapel. He was
clad from top to toe in purple, and hath made himself and his
wife such store of fine raiments of cloth of silver and gold
that it draws deep into her portion. The dinner was kept at
his father-in-law Sir John Packington s lodging over against

c In the present edition the text has been taken from that of 1605,
corrected where necessary by the Errata and by the subsequent editions
of 1629 and 1633. The spelling has been modernized throughout. In
tracing the quotations I have been materially assisted by Wats trans
lation of the De Augmentis, and the recent editions of the Advancement
by Mr. Markby and Mr. Kitchin.

XXX PREFACE.

the Savoy, where his chief guests were the three knights,
Cope, Hicks, and Beeston; and upon this conceit (as he said
himself) that since he could not have my L. of Salisbury in
person, which he wished, he would have him at least in his
representative body. Alice Barnham, who thus became the
wife of Francis Bacon, was no doubt the same handsome
maiden whom he mentioned three years before to his cousin
Cecil. She was the daughter of Benedict Barnham, a London
merchant, whose widow took for her second husband Sir John
Packington, a knight of Worcestershire. Lady Bacon brought
with her a fortune of 22o/. a year, which was settled upon
herself, with an additional soo/. a year from her husband,
a fact which at once disproves Lord Campbell s charge that
the match was a mercenary one. But how much of romance
or even sentiment there was in it we have no means of know
ing. Bacon was now in his forty-sixth year, and his language
three months later breathes not so much the tone of ecstasy
as of tranquil satisfaction. I thank God I have not taken a
thorn out of my foot to put it into my side. No letter of
their correspondence has been preserved, and from this time
we hear nothing more of the lady which could tell us whether
her influence over her husband was great or small. The
gossip of fifteen years later credited her with a forward
tongue, and from a sentence in Bacon s will we learn
that she had given him grievous cause of offence. She
survived him many years, and married her gentleman
usher.

The subject of the Union with Scotland and the Natural
isation of the Scotch was still the prominent one before the
House. On the former question we have a fragment of Bacon s
speech delivered on 25th Nov., 1606. On the latter he replied
to Nicholas Fuller, iyth Feb., 1606-7. He spoke against the
motion for the Union of Laws on the 28th of March, and on
the 1 7th of June he reported to the House the speeches of
Salisbury and Northampton at the conference concerning the
petition of the merchants upon the Spanish grievances. The
reward which he had so well earned came at last. Doderidge

PREFACE. XXXI

was made King s Serjeant, and Bacon became Solicitor General
in his stead on the 25th of June, 1607.

He had now no longer to fear that want would either steal
upon him as a wayfaring man or assault him as an armed man,
and in the greater tranquillity of mind which resulted he gave
himself up to the developement of his plan for enlarging the
borders of human knowledge. The Great Instauration seems
now to have taken a definite form, and as a means of clearing
the way for its reception he wrote the treatise called Cogitata
et Visa, which must have been the product of the latter half
of the year 1607. His professional work of the same period
is represented by A view of the differences in question
betwixt the King s Bench and the Council in the Marches,
and by two proclamations, the one touching the Marches, the
other concerning Jurors.

The next year (1608) is marked by the falling in of the
clerkship of the Star-Chamber, by the death of William Mill
on the 1 6th of July. Bacon had waited patiently for it nearly
twenty years. In the summer vacation, and possibly during
the unwilling leisure caused by an outbreak of the plague, he
wrote his treatise Infehcem memorlam Elizabethae, and towards
the end of the year his discourse on the Plantation in Ireland,
which will even now be read with interest. Letters to his
friend Toby Matthew show that during the following year
(1609) the Instauration was not laid aside. My Instauration
I reserve for our conference ; it sleeps not. He sent him a
leaf or two of the Preface, carrying some figure of the whole
work. Shortly after he forwarded another portion, which
may have been the Redargulio Philosophiarum. In the course
of this year, also, he wrote and submitted to the judgement of
the same friend, a little work of his recreation, as he calls it,
the treatise De Sapientia Veterum^ on the interpretation of the
ancient fables of Greece and Rome. The Cogitata et Visa had
undergone revision and elaboration at the same time, and a
copy was sent in MS. to Bishop Andre wes, who had been
translated from Ghichester to Ely.

The session of 1609-10 was occupied with disputes between

XXX11 PREFACE.

the King and the Commons, on the subject of the King s
debts. Bacon spoke in favour of supply, and in defence of the
King s right of imposition. Towards the end of August this
year his mother died, and to the summer vacation Mr. Sped-
ding refers The beginning of the History of Great Britain.
What were his occupations in 161 1 we have no certain inform
ation. Perhaps he amused himself with elaborating his
Essays, of which he published a much enlarged edition in the
following year. His letter to the King touching Button s
Estate, a report on the scarcity of silver at the Mint, and a
charge on opening the Court of the Verge, show that his pro
fessional duties were not neglected. Salisbury s death in 1612
left an opening for the appointment of a Secretary of State,
and Bacon offered his services to the King. The office was
not filled up immediately, and soon after the Mastership of
the Wards, vacant from the same cause, was given to Sir
George Carey, though popular rumour assigned it to Bacon, who
had drawn up a frame of declaration and instructions for the
new Master. In the trial of Lord Sanquhar for murder (June
27, 1612), Bacon appeared in his capacity of Solicitor General
as counsel for the prosecution. Three days later he made
a speech before the Council and Judges, on the refusal of the
Countess of Shrewsbury to be examined for aiding the Lady
Arabella Stewart in her attempt to escape.

The proposed marriage of the Princess Elizabeth to the
Elector Palatine in 1612, gave Bacon additional employment
in drawing up Instructions to the Commissioners for collect
ing the Aid which was levied on the occasion. Probably
towards the end of November he published the second edition
of his Essays. It was his intention to have dedicated them to
Prince Henry ; but the Prince s unexpected death on the 6th
of November prevented him from carrying this intention into
effect, and the Essays were addressed to Sir John Constable,
who had married Lady Bacon s sister. They must have ap
peared in the interval between the death of the Prince and
the i yth of December, when they are referred to in one of
Chamberlain s letters.

PREFACE. XXX111

The marriage of the Princess, which had been postponed
in consequence of her brother s death, took place on the i4th
ot February, 1612-13, and a masque was given as an enter
tainment in honour of the event by the gentlemen of Gray s
Inn and the Inner Temple. Bacon was the contriver of the
device, which represented the marriage of the Thames and
the Rhine. It was a work to which he was not new, and his
Essay Of Masques and Triumphs shows that he took interest
in it.

The Mastership of the Wards had again been vacant by the
death of Sir George Carey, isth November, 1612, and Sir
Francis Bacon certainly expecting the place, had put most of
his men into new cloaks. Afterward when Sir Walter Cope
carried the place, one said merrily that Sir Walter was Master
of the Wards and Sir Francis Bacon of the Liveries. (Rawley.)
As before, he might say sic nos non nobis. But the promotion
for which he had almost served an apprenticeship was not
long in coming. The death of Sir Thomas Fleming, Chief
Justice of the King s Bench, on the yth of August, 1613,
brought about a change. Sir Edward Coke, who had hitherto
been Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, became Chief
Justice of England and a Privy Councillor; Hobart was put in
his place, and Bacon succeeded Hobart as Attorney General
on the 26th of October. For effecting this change, though
Bacon himself attributed it to the King, the Court favourite,
Somerset, wished to appropriate some credit, and it was ap
parently with the view of releasing himself from the implied
obligation, that Bacon took the whole charge of preparing a
masque, which was given by Gray s Inn in honour of the
marriage of Somerset to the divorced Countess of Essex.

The first professional work in which he was engaged after
his appointment, was the delivery of a charge in the Star-
Chamber concerning duels, on the 26th January, 1613-4. But
there were two cases with which his name has been associated,
and upon the telling of which much of the impression in
modern times with regard to his character depends. These
were the cases of St. John and Peacham. The charge against

c

XXXiv PREFACE.

him with regard to the former, is that he employed the laws,
which he was engaged in reducing and re-compiling, to the
vilest purposes of tyranny, by appearing as counsel for the
prosecution of Oliver St. John, who maintained that the King
had no right to levy benevolences. As Bacon acted in this
matter in a purely official capacity, it is scarcely necessary to
inquire whether the charge against St. John was justified
or not, and whether his conduct was so manly and constitu
tional as Macaulay represents it. The circumstances were
these. In June, 1614, the Parliament, to which Bacon had
been returned by three constituencies, Cambridge University,
Ipswich, and St. Alban s, was dissolved without voting any
supplies. As a means of meeting the King s wants, it was
proposed that a voluntary contribution should be raised, to
which all who would should give as they were disposed. No
compulsion was to be employed and no tax levied, but it was
to be a benevolence in the strict sense of the word. On the
i ith of October, Oliver St. John, a gentleman of Maryborough
(not the St. John of the Long Parliament), addressed a letter
to the Mayor of that town, denouncing this kind of benevol
ence as contrary to law, reason, and religion, and charging
the King with a violation of his coronation oath. For this he
was tried on the isth of April, 1615, in the Star-Chamber.
The judges were unanimous, Coke leading the way, in sup
porting the legality of the benevolence, and St. John was
condemned to a fine of sooo/., and to be imprisoned during
the King s pleasure. In this Bacon acted simply by the direc
tion of the Council, and even if he recommended the prose
cution, of which there is no evidence, he would have been
fortified by the unanimous opinion of the judges.

Peacham s case was of a different nature, and the charge
against Bacon founded upon it is even more serious. There
were difficulties both of fact and law to be met, and Bacon,
according to Macaulay, was employed to settle the question
of law by tampering with the judges, and the question of fact
by torturing the prisoner. Edmund Peacham, a Somerset
shire clergyman, having brought libellous accusations against

PREFACE. XXXV

his diocesan, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, was sent up to
Lambeth to be tried before the High Commission, and sen
tenced to be deprived of his orders on the igth of December,
1614. Before the sentence his house was searched, and a
finished sermon was discovered, the contents of which were
decided by the Council to be of a treasonable nature. It was
thought, moreover, to indicate a state of disaffection in the
part of the country to which Peacham belonged, and as he
refused to criminate any accomplices, the Council resolved
that he should be put to the torture. In this there is no
evidence that Bacon had any hand whatever, further than that
he, as Attorney General, was one of the Commission appointed
by the Council to attend the examination of the prisoner.
It is clear that by the common law the use of torture for
extracting evidence was regarded as illegal, but it is equally
clear that it was employed by the Council for discovery, and
not for evidence ; that is, not to make a prisoner criminate
himself, but to get from him other information which it was
desirable to obtain. Bad as we may think this to be, it is not
Bacon who was to blame for it. There is proof in his own
letters that he engaged in the proceeding with reluctance,
and that the step was taken against his advice. How far he
can be justified against the other charge, of tampering with
the judges, depends upon a clear knowledge of what his inter
ference really amounted to, and this is not easy to arrive at.
As the torture had utterly failed to extort from Peacham any
proof of the existence of a conspiracy, it became a question
whether he himself could be proceeded against for treason.
On this point of law the King was anxious to obtain the
opinion ot the judges of the King s Bench. It is not denied
that the Crown had a right to consult the judges on points of
this kind, but it does not appear to have been the custom to
consult them separately, as was done in this case. There was
no question with regard to Peacham s authorship of the
sermon, which was in his handwriting. The points for the
judges consideration were, first, whether the sermon, had it
been published, would have supported an indictment for

C 2

XXXVI PREFACE.

treason ; and secondly, whether it was possible to establish a
treasonable charge on the mere fact of composition. The
idea of consulting the judges separately originated with the
King. Whether he thought by this means to get a more
genuine opinion from the others when they were not influenced
by the presence and authority of Coke, or what was his
motive, we have no means of knowing. That Bacon had
anything to do with suggesting such a course, there is no
evidence to show. What he did was to carry out the King s
instructions, and to lay the case before the Lord Chief Justice
for his opinion. Coke s opposition was not exerted against
the consultation of the judges, but against their being con
sulted separately. None of the judges of the King s Bench
had to try the case, and therefore it is hard to see with what
truth Bacon s conduct can be described as tampering with
the judges in order to procure a capital conviction. Peacharn
was ultimately tried at the assizes at Taunton, on the 7th of
August, 1615, and convicted of high treason, but the capital
sentence was never carried into effect, because, as the report
of his trial says of his offence, * many of the judges were of
opinion that it was not treason. That his case excited any
indignation in the country, is a simple invention of Lord
Campbell s.

On the 24th and 25th of May, 1616, Bacon took part as
Attorney General in the trial of the Earl and Countess of
Somerset for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. With
the prosecution of the inferior agents in this mysterious crime
he had nothing to do. During the early part of this year the
health of the Lord Chancellor (Ellesmere) had been giving
way, and Bacon was a suitor to the King for the office which
seemed likely to be vacant. On the 9th of June he became a
Privy Councillor, an appointment upon which he was formally
congratulated by the University of Cambridge, which he
represented in Parliament d . He had held the office of

* He now gave up his practice, though he retained his office of At
torney General, and employed his first leisure in addressing to the King a
proposition for the compiling and amendment of the laws of England.

PREFACE. XXXV11

University Counsel since the icth of November, 1613, and had
been retained in the same capacity by Trinity College during
the years 1614-16. It was not known till the srd of March,
1616-7, that the Lord Chancellor resigned the Great Seal,
which on the 7th of the same month was delivered by the
King into the hands of Bacon. Our new Lord-Keeper, says
Chamberlain, goes with great state, having a world of follow
ers put upon him, though he had more than enough before.
On the first day of Term (May 7) he rode in pomp to West
minster, with a train of two hundred gallants, and delivered
his inaugural speech in Chancery, in which he published the
charge which the King gave him when he received the Seal,
and the rules he had laid down for his own conduct. Such
was his marvellous energy in his new office, that in the
course of a month he had cleared off all arrears, and on the
8th of June he reports to Buckingham that there is not one
cause unheard. A week after his appointment the King took
his departure for Scotland, leaving Bacon at the head of the
Council to manage affairs in his absence. In the same year
we find him using his influence with the King to dissuade him
from the Spanish match, and with Buckingham to prevent the
marriage of his brother, Sir John Villiers, with the daughter
of Sir Edward Coke. The issue of both showed that his
counsel was wise, but the King and Buckingham alike re
sented his interference. Coke s animosity was of course not
lessened by it. But for the present the career of Bacon s
prosperity was unchecked. On the 4th of January, 1617-8, he
became Lord Chancellor, and on the nth of July in the same
year he was created Baron Verulam. In his inaugural speech
as Lord-Keeper, he had announced his intention of reserving
the depth of the three long vacations for the studies, arts,
and sciences, to which in his own nature he was most in
clined. How well he had employed these moments of retire
ment from the business of his ollice became evident when, in
October, 1620, he presented the King with the great work of
his life, the Novum Organum, the object of which, he says,
is to * enlarge the bounds of reason, and to endow man s estate

xxxviii PREFACE.

with new value. He confesses that it is a fragment, and yet
not written in haste, for he has been about it near thirty
years. But he feels that his own life is hastening to its close,
and he wishes that a portion of his work at least should be
saved. The end was now very near. On the ayth ot
January, 1620-1, he became Viscount St. Alban. His for
tune, which for nearly four years had borne him smoothly
on, now raised him to his greatest height, as if to make
the final catastrophe more dramatic and appalling. Parlia
ment met on the 3oth. The Chancellor, in addressing
the new Speaker, gave expression to a sentiment which,
read in the light ot subsequent events, seems prophetic,
It is certain that the best governments, yea, and the
best of men, are like the best precious stones, wherein every
flaw or icicle or grain are seen and noted more than in
those that are generally foul and corrupted. Coke, who had
not been in the House for many years, was returned as
member for Liskeard. On the 5th of February he moved for a
Committee to inquire into public grievances. A Committee
was appointed to report concerning the Courts of Justice.
Bacon, unsuspecting any malice, acted like a man who was
certainly not conscious of any great delinquency. On the
1 7th of February Sir E. Sackville reported to the House that
the Chancellor willingly consented that any man might speak
anything freely concerning his Court. On the i5th of March
Sir Robert Phillips laid before the Lower House the report
of the Committee on Courts of Justice. It came like a
thunderclap. The Lord Chancellor was accused of corrup
tion in the exercise of his functions, and two instances were
given as proofs. On the ipth the Lords received a message
from the Commons requesting a conference concerning abuses
in certain eminent persons. Bacon was absent through ill
ness. He sat in the House of Lords for the last time on
Saturday, the iyth of March. Next day, Sir James Ley,
Lord Chief Justice, was empowered by the King s commis
sion to act as his substitute. On the Monday the con
ference for which the Lower House applied was granted,

PREFACE. XXXIX

and on the 2oth the Lord Treasurer reported to the
Lords that the Lord Chancellor was accused of bribery
and corruption, and that the charge was supported by two
cases alleged. Bacon, sick to death as he thought himself,
and tortured by his hereditary malady, felt that his enemies
had closed upon him. He knew of the courses that had
been taken for hunting out complaints against him, and
begged only a fair hearing, that he might give them an
ingenuous answer. He wrote to Buckingham: I know I
have clean hands and a clean heart, and I hope a clean house
for friends or servants. But Job himself, or whosoever was
the justest judge, by such hunting for matters against him, as
hath been used against me, may for a time seem foul, espe
cially in a time when greatness is the mark, and accusation
the game. And again, to the same : I praise God for it,
I never took penny for any benefice or ecclesiastical living ;
I never took penny for releasing anything I stopped at the
Seal ; I never took penny for any commission, or things of
that nature ; I never shared with any servant for any second
or inferior profit. To the King he said: For the bri
beries and gifts wherewith I am charged, when the books
of hearts shall be opened, I hope I shall not be found to have
the troubled fountain of a corrupt heart, in a depraved habit
of taking rewards to prevent justice ; howsoever I may be frail,
and partake of the abuses of the times. We must take into
account these protestations when we come to consider his
subsequent confession. The Houses adjourned on the 27th
of March till the lyth of April. The day before they met,
Bacon had an interview with the King. On the following
day the Lord Treasurer reported to the Lords that the
Chancellor desired two things of his Majesty : i. That where
his answers should be fair and clear to those things objected
against him, his Lordship might stand upon his innocency.
2. Where his answers should not be so fair and clear, there
his Lordship might be admitted to the extenuation of the
charge ; and where the proofs were full and undeniable, his
Lordship would ingenuously confess them, and put himself

xl PREFACE.

upon the mercy of the Lords. A few days later (April 22),
Bacon, who had ascertained privately the particulars of the
charge, wrote to the Lords: I find matter sufficient and
full, both to move me to desert my defence, and to move
your Lordships to condemn and censure me. Why he thus
avoided the trial is a mystery which has never yet been
solved. He wished to resign the Seal, urging as a motive
for clemency, Neither will your Lordships forget, that there
are vitia temporis as well as *vitia hominis ; and the beginning
of reformation hath the contrary power to the pool of
Bethesda ; for that had strength to cure him only that was
first cast in, and this hath strength to hurt him only that is
first cast in ; and, for my part, I wish it may stay there and
go no farther. His confession was regarded as insufficient,
and it was ordered that the articles of the charge, now in
creased in number to twenty-three, should be laid before
him. On the soth of April his full confession, with the
answers to the articles in detail, was read before the Lords.
* I do plainly and ingenuously confess, he says, that I am
guilty of corruption, and do renounce all defence. As after
the severe self-examination which he underwent, he did not
find himself blameless, it would be doing an ill service to his
memory to excuse him. But, in confessing himself guilty of
corruption, we must have regard to his own language. That
Bacon took bribes for the perversion of justice no one has
ventured to assert. Not one of the thousands of decrees
which he made as Chancellor was ever set aside. None of
his judgements were reversed. Even those who first charged
him with accepting money admitted that he decided against
them. What his own opinions were concerning judicial
bribery we know from many passages in his writings, and
it would argue him a hypocrite of the deepest dye. to suppose
that he openly practised what he as openly denounced.
In his speech in the Common Pleas (May 3, 1617) to Justice
Hutton, he admonishes him : That your hands, and the
hands of your hands (I mean those about you) be clean,
and uncorrupt from gifts, from meddling in titles, and from

PREFACE. xli

serving of turns, be they of great ones or small ones. In
his Essay Of Great Place/ first published in 1612, and re
issued in 1625, he says: For corruption: Do not only bind
thine own hands, or thy servants hands, from taking, but
bind the hands of suitors also from offering. In confessing
himself guilty of corruption, therefore, does he admit that
the whole practice of his life had been a falsification of his
principles ? Let us see. Of the twenty-two cases of bribery
with which he was charged, and which we may safely assume
were all that the malice of his enemies could discover against
him, there are but four in which he allows that he had in
any way received presents before the causes were ended ;
and even in these, though technically the presents were made
pendente lite, there is no hint that they affected his decision.
During the four years of his Chancellorship he had made
orders and decrees to the number of two thousand a year,
as he himself wrote to the Lords, and of the charges
brought against him there was scarcely one that was not two
years old. The witnesses to some of the most important
were Churchill, a registrar of the Court of Chancery, who
had been discharged for fraud; and Hastings, who contra
dicted himself so much that his testimony is worthless. But
we are more concerned with Bacon s confession of guilt than
with the evidence by which the charge was supported. In a
paper of memoranda which he drew up at the time, and
which has been printed by Mr. Montagu (Bacon s Works> xvi.
p* i. p. cccxlv), he writes: There be three degrees or cases,
as I conceive, of gifts or rewards given to a judge. The first
is of bargain, contract, or promise of reward, pendente lite.
And of this my heart tells me I am innocent ; that I had no
bribe or reward in my eye or thought when I pronounced
any sentence or order. The second is a neglect in the
judge to inform himself whether the cause be fully at an
end, or no, what time he receives the gift ; but takes it upon
the credit of the party that all is done, or otherwise omits
to inquire. And the third is, when it is received sine fraude,
after the cause ended; which it seems, by the opinions of

xlii PREFACE.

the civilians, is no offence. In another draft he adds this
comment: For the first, I take myself to be as innocent
as any born on St. Innocents day in my heart. For the
second, I doubt in some particulars I may be faulty. And
for the last, I conceived it to be no fault/

Such is Bacon s own interpretation of his confession, and
we are bound to accept it, for it is borne out by twenty-two
of the articles of the charge. To the twenty-third article,
that he had given way to great exactions by his servants, ( he
confessed it to be a great fault that he had looked no better
to his servants. With this confession, we may leave his
name and memory, as he left it in his will, to men s charit
able speeches, and to foreign nations, and the next ages.
The verdict can hardly be other than that he pronounced
himself: I was the justest judge that was in England these
fifty years ; but it was the justest censure in Parliament that
was these two hundred years. This censure, pronounced on
the 3rd of May by the Lords, was that he should pay a fine of
4o,ooo/. and be imprisoned in the Tower during the King s
pleasure ; that he should thenceforth be incapable of holding
any office in the State, or of sitting in Parliament ; and that he
should not come within the verge of the Court. He had
resigned the Seal to the King on the ist of May. It had
been decided by a majority of two that his titles were not to
be taken from him. But the sentence of imprisonment was
partially carried out, evidently to his great astonishment. On
the 3ist of May he was taken to the Tower, and instantly
wrote a passionate letter to Buckingham, Good my Lord,
procure the warrant for my discharge this day. The order
must have been given at once. On the 4th of June he wrote to
thank the King and Buckingham for his release. On the ;th e he
dated a letter to the Prince of Wales from Sir John Vaughan s
house at Parson s Green, whither he had been allowed to
retire. On the pth, Chamberlain writes to Carleton that the

e The date usually given to this letter, June i. is obviously mcorrect.
Mr. Spedding informs me that it should be June 7.

PREFACE. xliii

Lord Chancellor had obtained leave to go to his own home,
and is talked of as President of the Council. On the 23rd, he
reports that the Chancellor has removed from Fulham to his
house at Gorhambury. Here he remained till the end of the
year. From his retirement he writes to Buckingham (Sep
tember 5), I am much fallen in love with a private life ; but
yet I shall so spend my time as shall not decay my abilities
for use. The occupation of his enforced leisure was the
History of Henry VII, which was completed in manuscript
by October. The fine inflicted by the sentence in Parliament
was released by the King s warrant on the 2ist of September,
but was assigned to trustees, that Bacon might be protected
from the importunity of his creditors. He had nothing now
but the pension of i2oo/. a year which the King had recently
given him, and his own private fortune. On being made Lord
Keeper he had resigned not only the lucrative post of At-
tornoy General, but the clerkship of the Star-Chamber. By
his fall he had lost 6ooo/. a year. A pardon was issued under
the Privy Seal on the iyth of October, but it appears to have
been stayed by the new Lord-Keeper. The prohibition which
prevented him from coming within twelve miles of the Court
was relaxed in the following March, and he was allowed to
approach as near as Highgate. Buckingham was annoyed at
his refusal to give up York House, and opposed his return to
London. In the course of the year, however, the restriction
was removed, and he took up his residence at Bedford House,
his own mansion meanwhile having been surrendered. The
publication of the History of Henry the Seventh in the
spring, and the translation into Latin of the Advancement
of Learning, kept him fully employed. In the latter work he
is said to have been assisted by George Herbert. Writing to
Bishop Andrewes the dedication to his Dialogue touching a
Holy War, which was also the work of this year, he says :
1 And again, for that my book of Advancement of Learning
may be some preparation, or key, for the better opening of
the Installation; because it exhibits a mixture of new con
ceits and old; whereas the Instauration gives the new un-

PREFACE.

mixed, otherwise than with some little aspersion of the old
for taste s sake ; I have thought good to procure a translation
of that book into the general language, not without great and
ample additions and enrichment thereof, especially in the
second book, which handleth the Partition of Sciences; in
such sort, as I hold it may serve in lieu of the first part of the
Instauration, and acquit my promise in that part.

The provostship of Eton fell vacant in April 1623, and
Bacon sought the appointment as a. retreat to a place of
study so near London, but without success. The Advance
ment of Learning in its Latin form was issued this year under
the title of De Augmetftu Scientiarum, in nine books, the first
closely corresponding with the English. The last two or
three years of his life were occupied with dictating his Sylva
Sylvarum, putting the last touches to his Essays, which were
published in their final form in March 1625, and superintend
ing their translation into Latin with other works to be entitled
Opera Moralia. The Apophthegms were the occupation of a
morning. It does not appear that the sentence of Parliament
was ever entirely revoked. The name of Lord St. Alban s, it
is true, is among those of the Peers summoned to the first
Parliament of Charles, but for some reason he did not take
his seat in the House. On New Year s Day, 1625-6, he
wrote to Sir Humphry May : * The present occasion doth
invite me to desire that his grace (i. e. Buckingham) would
procure me a pardon of the King of the whole sentence. My
writ for Parliament I have now had twice before the time,
and that without any express restraint not to use it. His
health, long feeble, would not have allowed him to attend, but
he could have appointed a proxy. At length came death, the
friend, whom for five years he had looked steadily in the face,
and released him from all his troubles. A cold, caught in the
process of an experiment to test the preserving qualities of
snow, terminated in a gentle fever, and after lingering a week
he passed quietly away in the early morning of Easter-day,
April 9, 1626. He died at the Earl of Arundel s house a.t
Highgate, and was buried in the church of St. Michael, at

PREFA CE. xlv

St. Alban s. His chaplain, Dr. Rawley, ends the life which
he wrote of his old master with words which form a fitting
conclusion to every life of him : But howsoever his body
was mortal, yet no doubt his memory and works will live, and
will in all probability last as long as the world lasteth. And
with this anticipation we leave Francis Bacon to the judge
ment of all time.

W. A. W.

This Second Edition has been revised and corrected
throughout, and some additions have been made to the
Notes and Glossary.

W. A. W.

April, 1873.

CALENDAR
OF THE LIFE AND WORKS

OF

FRANCIS BACONS

1560-1. Jan. 22. Born at York

House.
I 573- April 5. Went up to Trinity

College, Cambridge.
June 10. Matriculated.
1576. June 27. Entered at Gray s

Inn.
Nov. 21. Admitted of the

grand company of that

society.
Went to Paris with Sir Amias

Paulet.

1578-9. Feb. 22. Death of his fa
ther, Sir Nicholas Bacon.
1582. June 27. Admitted as utter

barrister.
About this time wrote Temporis

Par his Maximus.
1584. Nov. 23. Sat in parliament as

member for Melcombe Regis.
1586. Oct. 29. Member for Taunton.

1588. Lent term. Elected Reader at

Gray s Inn.
Nov. Member for Liverpool.

1589. Oct. 29. Reversion of the

Clerkship of the Star-Cham-
ber granted to him.

1589. An Advertisement touching the
Controversies of the Church
of England (1640).

Nov. 17. Discourses in praise
of Knowledge and of the
Queen (1734).

Observations on a Libel (1657).
-3. Feb. 19. Sat as member for

Middlesex.

-4. Jan. 25. First appearance
as a pieader in court.

A true Report of Dr. Lopez hh
Treason (1657).

July 27. Made M.A. at Cam
bridge.

Nov. 17. Contributions to the
Device presented by Essex
to the Queen : printed by
Mr. Spedding (1861).
-6. Formularies and Elegancies
(1859).

Made Queen s Counsel Extra
ordinary.

First edition of the Essays.
Colours of Good and Evil.
Meditationes Sacrce.
Maxims of the Law (1630).

J 593-
1594-

1595-
595
1597-

* In the list of his Works I have not included his speeches in Parliament 01
nis arguments in law. The date of composition when it could be ascertained
is given ; the date of publication, when different from that of composition, is
included within parentheses. Probable dates are indicated by a dagger -^
Those pieces of which the date is altogether uncertain are placed at the end.

CALENDAR OF LIFE AND WORKS.

xlvii

1597. Oct. 24. Sat as member for

Ipswich.
1600. Oct. 24. Double Reader at

Gray s Inn.
1600-1. Feb. 19. Trial of Essex and

Southampton.
1 60 1. A Declaration of the Practises

and Treasons attempted and

committed by Robert late

Earl of Essex, &c., drawn

up by Bacon.
w Oct. 27. Returned to parlia

ment as member for Ipswich

and St. Alban s.

1602. Letter to Cecil with Consider

ations touching the Queen s
service in Ireland (1648).
1602-3. Mar. 24. Death of Elizabeth.

1603. July 23. Bacon knighted by

James I.
A Brief Discourse touching the

Happy Union of the King

doms of England and Scot

land.
fl6o3. Valerius Terminus of the Inter

pretation of Nature (1734).
,, De Interpretation Natur< Pro-

cemium (1653).
1603-4. Mar. 19. Returned again by

Ipswich and St. Alban s.
1 604 . Certain Considerations touching

the better Pacification and

Edification of the Church of

England (1640).
Apology in certain imputations

concerning the late Earl of

Essex.
Aug. 1 8. Appointed King s

Counsel.
Certain Articles or Consider

ations touching the Union of

the Kingdoms of England

and Scotland (1657).
1605. Advancement of Learning.
+ 1605. Cogitationes de Natura Rerum

1606. May 10. Francis Bacon mar
ried Alice Barnhain.

fl6o6. Partis Instaurationis Secundct
Delinealio et Argumentum

(1653).

1607. June 25. Made Solicitor Gen

eral.

Cogitata et Visa (1653).
1 1 60 7. Filum Labyrinthi ( 1 734).

1608. Inquisitio Legitima de Motu

,, Calor et Frigus (1734).

Historia Soni et A uditus (1658).

In felicem memoriam Eliza

beths (1658).
A fragment Of the true great

ness of Britain (1734).
July 16. The Clerkship of

the Star-Chamber falls to

him.
fl6o8. Temporis Partus Masculus

(1653).

Aphorhmi et Consilia (1653).
1608-9. Jan. I. Discourse of the

Plantation in Ireland

(1657).

1609. De Sapientia Veterum.

1610. Death of his mother, Lady

Anne Bacon.
The beginning of the History of

Great Britain (1657).
1611-12. Advice to the King, touch
ing Sutton s Estate (1648).

1612. Second edition of the Essays.
fl6l2. Descriptio Globi Intellectualis

(1653).
Thema Casli (1653).

1613. Oct. 26. Appointed Attorney

General.

1614. Returned to parliament by

Ipswich, St. Alban s, and
Cambridge University.
1616. June 9. Made a Privy Coun

cillor.

Proposition to His Majesty
touching the Compiling and
Amendment of the Laws of
England.

fi6i6. De Fluxu et Refluxu Marls
(1653).

xlviii

CALENDAR OF LIFE AND WORKS.

ti6i6.

1616-
1617-

1618.
1620.

1620
1621
1621

-6.

1622.

1623.

De Principiis atque Origlnibus

(1653)-

7. Mar. 7. Made Lord Keeper.

8. Jan. 4. Made Lord Chan
cellor.

July 9. Created Baron Veru-
lam.

Oct. Novum Organum pub
lished with Parasceve ad
Historiam Naturalem et Ex-
perimentalem.

I. Jan. 27. Created Viscount
St. Alban.

May 3. Sentenced by the
House of Lords.
In this interval were com
posed Abecedarium Naturae,
(lost except a fragment pub
lished by Tenison, 1679) ;
Inquisitio de Magnete (1658);
Topica inquisitionis de luce
et lumine (1653); Sylva
Sylvarum (1627); Offer of
a Digest to be made of the
Laws of England (1629).

History of Henry VII; Historia
Naturalis et Experimental ;
Advertisement touching an
Holy War (1629).

De Augmentis Scientiarum libri
ix; Historia Vita et Mortis;
History of the reign of Henry
VIII (1629).

1624. Considerations touching a War

with Spain (1629).
New Atlantis (1627).
Magnolia Natura (1627).
Dec. Apophthegms.
Translation of the Psalms.

1625. Third edition of the Essays.

1626. Apr. 9. Bacon died at High-

gate.

Of the following works the date of
composition is doubtful :

Phenomena Universi (1653); Scala
Intellectiis-i.no. Prodromi (1653);
Cogitationes de Scientia Humana
(1653) ; De Interpretation Natura
Sent entice xii (1653) ; Short Notes
for Civil Conversation ( 1 648) ;
Confession of Faith (1641); Prayers
(1648, 1679) ; Imago Chilis Julii
CcEsaris (1658); Imago Civil is
Augusti Caisaris (1658) ; Addi
tions to Camdens Annales (1717)
In Henricum Principem Wallice.
Elogium (1763); Physiological
and Medical Remains (1679).
Between 1596 arid 1604 Bacon
wrote the Letter and Discourse to
Sir Henry Savill, touching Helps
for the Intellectual Powers (1657) ;
and, after July 1608, Redargutio
Pkilosophiarum (1653).

BOO*

Dedication to the King (13). The treatise in two parts

I . The zeal and jealousy of div

II. The severity anil arrogancy

(A) Discredits of Learning
(i v), arising from

III. The errors and iniperfectio

1. their fortunes (iii. i 3^ ;

2. their manners iii. 410) ;

I 3, the nature of their stuclie

(B) Dignity of Learning
(vi viii), shown by

I Divine testimony (vi) in

II Human proofs (vii, viii)
from the

ANALYSIS.

: I. OF THE EXCELLENCY OF LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE

1. The excellency of learning and knowledge.

2. What has been done for the advancement of learning, with the defects of the same.

iff (! 2, 3).

>f politicians (ii. 19),

is of learned men, from

(iv. v)

(i. Fantastical learning (Iv. 8 12).
f Errors and vanities In the studies themselves (iv, i i2K 2. Contentious learning (iv. 57).

(3. Delicate learning (iv. 24).

f i. Affectation of antiquity and novelty (v. i). f

2. Distrust of new discoveries (v. 2). y /

3. Conceit that the best opinions prevail (v. ?). v

4. Premature reduction of knowledge to arts and methods (v. 4),

5. Neglect of universality or philosophic prinia (v. 5).

6. Too great reverence for the intellect (v. 6).

7. Mixture of knowledge with men s inclinations (v. 7).

8. Impatience of doubt (v. 8).

9. Dogmatic delivery of knowledge (v. 9).

Peccant humours (v. 112), whic!

10. Aim which men propound to themselves (v. 10).
n. Mistaking of the end of knowledge (v. n).

e work of creation (2).
Spirits (3).
Jght (4).
The Sabbath (5).
The contemplative life of Adam (6), and Abel (7).

The leIrni t nTof f Mo t s S er(9). Job(io), Solomon ( n ), Christ (12), the Apostles (13). the Fathers (14). the Jesuits (15).

Supreme honours paid to inventors of arts (vli. i).

Influence of learning upon

The intercourse of man and man (vii. 2).

, . f In peace; e.g. the Roman Emperors (vii. 48), Q- Elizabeth (yi

ites under learned princes j , n ar (y | L Jff. eg Alexa nder (vii. 11-21). Caesar (VIL 22-29).

Sin

Private virtue (viii. i, 2).

Power over the minds of men (vni. 3).

Fortune and advancement (viii. 4).

Pleasure (viii. 5 ).

Immortality (vni. 6 .

1.9).

Xenophon (vii. 30).

[ To face Page i. ]

THH

FIRST BOOK OF FRANCIS BACON;

OF THE PROFICIENCE AND

ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING,

DIVINE AND HUMAN.

To the King.

Ie T HERE were under the law, excellent King, both
-*- daily sacrifices and freewill offerings; the one
proceeding upon ordinary observance, the other upon a
devout cheerfulness: in like manner there belongeth to
kings from their servants both tribute of duty and presents
of affection. In the former of these I hope I shall not live
to be wanting, according to my most humble duty, and
the good pleasure of your Majesty s employments : for the
latter, I thought it more respective to make choice of
some oblation, which might rather refer to the propriety
and excellency of your individual person, than to the
business of your crown and state.

2. 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

B

2 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [2.

and faculties, which the Philosophers call intellectual ;
the largeness of your capacity, the faithfulness of your
memory, the swiftness of your apprehension, the pene
tration of your judgement, 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
are sequestered) again revived and restored : such a light
of nature I have observed in your Majesty, and such a
readiness to take flame and blaze from the least occasion
presented, or the least spark of another s knowledge de
livered. 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 comprehend the greatest matters,
and nevertheless to touch and apprehend the least ;
whereas it should seem an impossibility 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 Coesar: Augusto
profluens, et qua principem deceret, eloquentia fuit. For if
we note it well, speech that is uttered with labour and
difficulty, or speech that savoureth of the affectation of
art and precepts, or speech that is framed after the imita
tion of some pattern of eloquence, though never so ex
cellent; all this hath somewhat servile, and holding of
the subject. But your Majesty s manner of speech is

3 1 THE FIRST BOOK. 3

indeed prince-like, flowing as from a fountain, and yet
streaming and branching itself into nature s order, full of
facility and felicity, imitating none, and inimitable by any.
And as in your civil estate there appeareth to be an emul
ation and contention of your Majesty s virtue with your
fortune ; a virtuous disposition 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 thereunto : so likewise in these
intellectual matters, there seemeth to be no less con
tention between the excellency of your Majesty s gifts of
nature and the universality and perfection of your learn
ing. 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 hath been so learned in
all literature and erudition, divine and human. For let a
man seriously and diligently revolve and peruse the suc
cession of the emperors of Rome, of which Caesar 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 judgement is truly made. For it
seemeth much in a king, if, by the compendious ex
tractions 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 learn
ing, nay, to have such a fountain of learning in himself,

B 2

4 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [2.

in a king, and in a king born, is almost a miracle. And
the more, because there is met in your Majesty a rare
conjunction, as well of divine and sacred literature, as of
profane and human ; so as your Majesty standeth in
vested of that triplicity, which in great veneration 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. This
propriety inherent and individual attribute in your Majesty
deserveth to be expressed not only in the fame and ad
miration of the present time, nor in the history or tradition
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 differ
ence and perfection of such a king.

3. 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
excellency of learning and knowledge, and the excel
lency of the merit and true glory in the augmentation and
propagation thereof: the latter, what the particular acts
and works are, which have been embraced and under
taken for the advancement of learning ; and again, what
defects and undervalues I find in such particular acts : to
the end that though I cannot positively or affirmatively
advise your Majesty, or propound unto you framed par
ticulars, yet I may excite your princely cogitations to
visit the excellent treasure of your own mind, and thence
to extract particulars for this purpose, agreeable to your
magnanimity and wisdom.

I. i.] THE FIRST BOOK. 5

I. i. TN 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 learning to
be better heard, without the interruption of tacit objec
tions ; I think good to deliver it from the discredits and
disgraces which it hath received, all fromjgaoxance ; but
ignorance severally disguised; appearing sometimes in
the zeal and jealousy ofd Divines ; sometimes in the severity
and arrogancy ofj)olitiques ; and sometimes in the errors
and imperfections of learned men themselves.

2. I hear the former sort say, that knowledge is of -
those things which are to be accepted of with great limita
tion and caution : that the aspiring to overmuch know
ledge was the originaMernptation and sin whereupon
ensued the fall of man : that knowledge hath in it some
what of the serpent, and therefore where it entereth into

a man it makes him swell; Scientia inflat : that Salomon
gives a censure, That there is no end of making books, and
that much reading is weariness of the flesh ; and again in
another place, That in spacious knowledge there is much
contristation, and that he that increaseth knowledge increaseth
anxiety : that Saint Paul gives a caveat, That we be not
spoiled through vain philosophy : that experience demon
strates how learned men have been arch-heretics, how
learned times have been inclined to atheism, and how the
contemplation of second causes doth derogate from our
dependence upon God, who is the first cause.

3. To discover then the ignorance and error of this
opinion, and the misunderstanding in the grounds thereof,
it may well appear these men do not observe or consider
that it was not the pure knowledge of nature and uni- _
versality, a knowledge by the light whereof man did give
names unto other creatures in Paradise, as they were

6 0^ THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [l. 3.

brought before him, according unto their proprieties, which
gave the occasion to the fall : but it was the proud know
ledge of good and evil, with an intent in man to give law
unto himself, and to depend no more upon God s com
mandments, 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, afnrmeth that the eye is never satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear with hearing ; and if there be no fulness, then
is the continent greater than the content : so of knowledge
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 pur
poses; and concludeth thus: God hath made all things
beautiful, or decent r , in the true return of their seasons : Also
he hath placed the world in man s heart, yet 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 as a mirror or glass, capable of the image of
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 ordin
ances and decrees, which throughout all those changes
are infallibly observed, And although he doth insinuate
that the supreme or summary 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

I. 3.] THE FIRST BOOK.

be referred to the impediments, as of shortness of life, ill
conjunction of labours, ill tradition of knowledge over
from hand to hand, and many other inconveniences,
whereunto the condition of man is subject. For that /T"\
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, where-\ j /
with he searcheth the imvardness of all secrets. If then\J/
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 knowledge, how large soever, lest it should
make it swell or out-compass itself; no, but it is merely
the quality_of knowledge, 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 cor
rective spice^tke-HUxture whereof maketh knowledge so
sovereign, ns charitw^ which the Apostle immediately /
addeth to m^rTTfrner clause : for so he saith, Knowledge
bloweth up, but charity buildeth 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 is 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
substantial 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 admonition of Saint Paul, That we be not seduced
by vain philosophy ; let those places be rightly understood,
and they do indeed excellently set forth the true bounds

OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [1.3.

and limitations, whereby human knowledge is confined
and circumscribed ; and yet without any such contracting
or coarctation, but that it may comprehend all the uni
versal nature of things ; for these limitations are three :
the first, That we do not so place our felicity in knowledge,
trs we forget our mortality: the second, That we make
application of our knowledge, to give ourselves repose and
contentment, and not distaste or repining: the third, That
we do not presume 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 : / saw well that
knowledge recedeth as far from ignorance as light doth from
darkness ; and that the wise mans eyes keep watch in his
head, whereas the fool roundeth about in darkness : but
withal I learned, that the same mortality involve th them both.
And for the second, certain it is, there is no vexation or
anxiety of mind which resulteth from knowledge other
wise than merely by accident; for all knowledge and
wonder (which is the seed of knowledge) is an impression
of pleasure in itself: but when men fall to framing con
clusions out of their knowledge, applying it to their par
ticular, 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 Heraclitus the profound
said, Lumen siccum optima anima ; but it becometh Lumen
madidum, or maceratum, being steeped and infused in the
humours of the affections. And as for the third point, it
deserve th to be a little stood upon, and not to be lightly
{passed over : for if any man shall think by view arid
1 inquiry into these sensible and material things to attain
that light, whereby he may reveal unto himself the nature

I. 3.] THE FIRST BOOK.

or will of God, then indeed is he spoiled by vain
sophy: for the contemplation of God s creatures and
works produceth (having regard to the works and crea- j
tures themselves) knowledge, but having regard to God, |
no perfect knowledge, but wonder, which is broken know J
ledge. And therefore it was most aptly said by one of
Plato s school, That the sense of man carrieth a resem
blance with the sun, which (as we see) openeth and revealeth
all the terrestrial globe ; but then again it obscureth and
concealelh 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^tffs t, it is good to ask the question which Job
>eked of his friends : Will you lie for God, as one man will
do for another, to gratify him ? For certain it is that God
worketh nothing in nature but by second causes: and
if they would have it otherwise believed, it is mere im
posture, as it were in favour towards God ; and nothing
else but to offer to the author of truth the unclean
sacrifice of a lie. But further, it is an assured truth, and
a conclusion of experience, that, a, little or superficial
knowledge of phi^^p^y rrpy-Jnrlinn thr miiu^of man to
athdsnL but a jurtheL-SIQceedinfi therein doth bring
mind back again to religion. For in the entrance of
philosophy, when the second causes, which are next unto
the senses, do offer themselves to the mind of man, if it
dwell and stay there it may induce some oblivion of the

OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [l. 5.

highest cause ; but when a man passeth on further, and
seeth the dependence of causes, and the works of Pro-
/ vidence, then, according to the allegory of the poets, he
y will easily- believe that the highest link of nature s chain
f must needs be tied to the foot of Jupiter s chair. To
conclude therefore, let no man upon a weak conceit of
sobriety or an ill-applied moderation think or maintain,
that a man can search too far, or be too well studied in
the book of God s word, or in the book of God s works,
divinity or philosophy ; but rather let men endeavour an
endless progress or proficience in both; only let men
beware that they apply both to charity, and not to
swelling ; to use, and not to ostentation ; and again,
that they do not unwisely mingle or confound these
learnings together.

II. i. And as for the disgrai^&-As4Trek-4earning .xe^

be of this nature; that
learning doth soften men s r

\s

learning doth soften men s minds, and makes them
more unapt for the honour and exercise of arms ; that it

doth mar and pervert men s dispositions for matter of
government and policy, in making them too curious and
irresolute by variety of reading, or too peremptory or
Positive by strictness of rules and axioms, or too im-
[moderate and overweening by reason of the greatness
ipf examples, or too incompatible and differing from the
ftimes by reason of the dissimilitude of examples ; or at
least, that it doth divert men s travails from action and
business, and bringeth them to a love of leisure and
: privateness ; and that it doth bring into states a relaxa
tion of discipline, whilst every man is more ready to
argue than to obey and execute. Out of this conceit,
Cato, surnamed the Censor, one of the wisest men
indeed that ever lived, when Carneades the philosopher

II. i.] THE FIRST BOOK.

came in embassage to Rome, and that the
of Rome began to flock about him, being allured with
the sweetness and majesty of his eloquence and learn
ing, gave counsel in open senate that they should give
him his dispatch with all speed, lest he should infect
and enchant the minds and affections of the youth; and
at unawares bring in an alteration of the manners and
customs of the state. Out of the same conceit or
humour did Virgil, turning his pen to the advantage of
his country, and the disadvantage of his own profession,
make a kind of separation between policy and govern
ment, 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,
HCB tibierunt artes, &c. 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 per
nicious science, which was, to make the worse matter
seem the better, and to suppress truth by force of elo
quence and speech.

2. 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
1 times there hath been a meeting and concurrence in J ^ /
I learning and arms, flourishing and excelling in the same J
J 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 Juli^_Csesaj^he Dictator ; whereofme^one- "
was Aristotle s schokrin philosophy, and the other was

OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [ll. 2.

ro 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
othef was the first that made way to the overthrow of the
monarchy of Persia. And this concurrence is yet more
visible in times than in persons, by how much an age
is [a] greater object than a man. For both in Egypt,
Assyria, Persia, Grecia, and Rome, the same times that
are most renowned for arms, are likewise most admired
for learning; so that the greatest authors and philosophers
and the greatest captains and governors have lived in- the
same ages. Neither can it otherwise be : for as in man
the ripeness^oi^ strength of the body and mind cometh
much about an age, save that the strength of the body
cometh somewhat the more early, so in states, arms and
learning, whereof the one correspondeth to the body, the
other to the soul of man, have a concurrence or near
sequence in times.

3. And for matter of policy and government, that
learning 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
commonly 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

n.,.]

THE FIRST BOOK.

matter of doubtful consequence if states be manag
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 politique 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 disadvantage of that kind of state) have never
theless 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
pedanles: forso was the state of Rome for the first five^
year s, whicrTare so much magnified, during the minority
of NcTcrffl-tfo^iiili^f- Se^ so it was again,

for ten years space or more, during the minority of Gor-
dianus the younger, with great applause and contentation
in the hands of Misitheus a pedanti : so was it before that,
in the minority of Alexander Severus, in like happiness, in
hands not much unlike, by reason of the rule of the
women, who were aided by the teachers and preceptors.
Nay, let a man look into the government of the bishops^
of^JieUL 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 greatcrthings, and proceed
upon truer principles of estate, than those wnich have"
ascended to the papacy from an education and breeding
state and courts of princes ; for although
learning are perhaps to seek in points of
convenience and accommodating for the present, which
the Italians call ragioni di stalo, whereof the same Pius

OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [ll. 3.

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 watchfully
pursued, there will be seldom use of those other, no more
than of physic in a sound or well-dieted body. Neither
^ can the experience of one man s life furnish examples and
precedents for the events of one man s life. For as it
happeneth sometimes that the grandchild, or other de
scendant, 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 later or
immediate times : and lastly, the wit of one man can no
more countervail learning than one man s means can hold
way with a common purse.

4. And as for those particular seducements or indis
positions 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 indis
position or infirmity. For if by a secret operation it make
men perplexed and irresolute, on the other side by plain
precept it teacheth them when and upon what ground to
resolve ; yea, and how to carry things in suspense without
prejudice, till they resolve. If it make men positive and
regular, it teacheth them what things are in their nature
demonstrative, and what are conjectural, and as well the
use of distinctions and exceptions, as the latitude of
principles and rules. ZI^L mislead by disproportji
dissimilitude of examples, it teacheth men the fjqcse-ef
rors ul cOinpafisons, and all the

II. 4 .] THE FIRST BOOK.

[cautions of ji^lication : so that in all these it^
Imore effectually than it can pervert. And these medicines
n t conveyetTTinto men s millers much more forcibly by the
quickness and penetration of examples. For let a man
look into the errors of Clement the seventh, so lively
described by Guicciardine, who served under him, or into
the errors of Cicero, painted out by his own pencil in his
Epistles to Atticus, and he will fly apace from being
irresolute. Let him look into the errors of Phocion, and
he will beware how he be obstinate or inflexible. Let
him but read the fable of Ixion, and it will hold him
from being vaporous or imaginative. 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.

5. And for the conceit that learning should dispose I
men to leisure and privateness, and make men slothful ;
it were a strange thing if that which accustometh the mind
to a perpetual motion and agitation should induce sloth-
fulness: whereas contrariwise it may be truly affirmed,
that no kind of men love business for itself but those that
are learned; for other persons love it for profit, as an
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 toward themselves; or because it
advanceth any other their ends. So that as it is said
of untrue valours, that some men s valours are in the
eyes of them that look on ; so such men s industries
are in the eyes of others, or at least in regard of their

OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [ll. 5.

designments: only learned men love business as
an action according to nature, as agreeable to health of
mind as exercise is to health of body, taking pleasure in
the action itself, and not in the purchase : so that of all
men they are the most indefatigable, if it be towards any
business which can hold or detain their mind.

6. 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 tarn 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.

7. And that learning should take up too much time or
leisure ; I answer, the most active or busy man that hath
been or can be, hath (no question) many vacant times of
leisure, while he expecteth the tides and returns of 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 those spaces and times of leisure shall be filled
and spent; whether in pleasures or in studies; as was
well answered by Demosthenes to his adversary ^Eschines,
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

I do by lamp-light. So as no man need doubt that learning
ijwill 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.

8. Again, for that other conceit that learning should

II. 8.] THE FIRST BOOK.

assuredly a mere depravation and calumny, without
shadow of truth. For to say that a blind custom of
obedience 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 learning doth make
the minds of men gentle, generous, maniable, and pliant
to government ; whereas ignorance makes them churlish,
thwart, and mutinous: and the evidence of time doth
clear this assertion, considering that the most barbarous,
rude, and unlearned times have been most subject to
tumults, seditions, and changes.

9. And as to the judgement of Cato the Censor, he
was well punished for his blasphemy against learning, in
the same kind wherein he offended ; for when he was
past threescore years old, he was taken with an extreme
desire 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 arts of subjects ; yet so much is
manifest that the Romans never ascended to that height
of empire, till the time they had ascended to the height of
other arts. For in the time of the two first Caesars, 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

c

iS OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [ll. 9.

of Socrates, the time must be remembered when it was
prosecuted ; which was under the Thirty Tyrants, the
most base, bloody, and envious persons that have go
verned ; which revolution of state was no sooner over,
but Socrates, whom they had made a person criminal,
was made a person heroical, and his memory accumulate
with honours divine and human ; and those discourses of
his which were then termed corrupting of manners, were
after acknowledged for sovereign medicines of the mind
and manners, and so have been received ever since till
this day. Let this therefore serve for answer to
politiques, which in their humorous severity, or in their
feigned gravity, have presumed to throw imputations
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 wrought in all men of place and authority
in our nation.

III. i. Now therefore we come to that third sort of
discredit or diminution of credit that groweth unto

I learning from learned men themselves, which com
monly cleaveth fastest : it is either from their fortune,
or from their 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

III. i.] THE FIRST BOOK.

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.

2. Concerning want, and that it is the case of learne^l
men usually to begin with little, and not to grow rich so
fast as other men, by reason they convert not their labours
chiefly to lucre and increase, it were good to leave the
common place in commendation of poverty to some friar
to handle, to whom much was attributed by Machiavel in
this point; when he said,7%a/ the kingdom of the clergy had
been long before at an end, if the reputation and reverence
towards the poverty of friars had not borne out the scandal
of the superfluities and excesses of bishops and prelates. So
a man might say that the felicity and delicacy of princes
had long since tnrnpri to rudeness
and barb^

but without any such advan-
fges, it is worthy the observation what

jionoured thing poverty of fortune was for some ages in i
\ the Roman state, which nevertheless was a state without
yparaTimwer FoT"we see what Titus Livius saith in his
introduction : Cceierum aut me amor negotii suscepti fallit
aut nulla unquam respublica nee major, nee sanctior, nee
bonis exemplis dilior fuit ; nee in quam tarn serce, avaritia
luxuriaque immigraverint ; nee ubi tantus ac tarn diu pau
per tati ac parsimonies honos fuerit. We see likewise, after
that the state of Rome was not itself, but did degenerate,
how that person that took upon him to be counsellor to
Julius Caesar after his victory where to begin his restora
tion of the state, maketh it of all points the most sum
mary to take away the estimation of wealth : Verum hcec
el omnia mala pariter cum honor e pecunice desinent; si neque
magistrates, neque alia vulgo cupienda, venalia erunt. To

c 2

20 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, [ill. 2.

conclude this point, as it was truly said, that Rubor est
virtutis color, though sometime it come from vice ; so it
may be fitly said that Paupertas est virtutis for tuna, though
sometimes it may proceed from misgovernment and ac
cident. Surely Salomon hath pronounced it both in
censure, Qut festinat ad divitias non erit insons ; and in
precept; Buy the truth, and sell it not ; and so of wisdom
and knowledge ; judging that means were to be spent
upon learning, and not learning to be applied to means.
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 and to the
disadvantage of a civil life, for safety, liberty, pleasure,
and dignity, or at least freedom from indignity, as no
man handleth it but handleth it well ; such a consonancy
it hath to men s conceits in the 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 prcefulgebant, quod non
visebantur.

3. And for meanness of employment, that which is
most traduced to contempt is that the government of
youth is commonly allotted to them ; which age, because
it is the age of least authority, it is transferred to the
disesteeming of those employments wherein youth is con
versant, and which are conversant about youth. But how
unjust this traducement is (if you will. reduce things from
popularity of opinion to measure of WaserT)irray appear
in that we see men are more curious what they put into a
new vessel than into a vessel seasoned ; and what mould

III. 3.] THE FIRST BOOK. 21

they lay about a young plant than about a plant cor
roborate ; 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 me?i
shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams ; say
they youth is the worthier age, for that visions are nearer
apparitions of God than dreams ? And let it be noted,
that howsoever the condition of life o& pedantes hath been
scorned upon theatres, as the ape of tyranny; and that
the modern looseness or negligence hath taken no due
regard to 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, al
though in regard of their superstition I may say, Quo
meh ores, eo deter ior es ; yet in regard to this, and some
other points concerning human learning and moral mat
ters, I may say, as Agesilaus said to his enemy Pharna-
bazus, Talis quum sis, utinam nosier esses. And thus
much touching the discredits drawn from the fortunes of
learned men.

4. 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 tempera
tures : but yet so as it is not without truth which is said,
that Aleunt studia in mores, studies have an influence and
operation upon the manners of those that are conversant
in them.

5. But upon an attentive and indifferent review, I for
my part cannot find any disgrace to learning can pro
ceed from the manners of learned men ; not inherent

22 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, [ill. 5

to them as they are learned ; except it be a fault (which
was the supposed 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 sometimes too far to bring things to per
fection, 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 is,
with humble persuasions, and not with contestations. And
Caesar s counsellor put in the same caveat, Non ad vetera
instituta revocans qua 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 reipublicce ; loquitur enim tanquam
in republic d Platonis, non tanquam in face Romuli. And
the same Cicero doth excuse and expound the philo
sophers for going too far and being too exact in their
prescripts, when he saith, Isti ipsi prceceptores virtutis et
magistri videntur fines officiorum paulo longius quam natura
v el let protulisse, ut cum ad uUimum animo contendissemus, ibi
tamen, ubi oportet, consisteremus : and yet himself might
have said, Monitis sum minor ipse meis ; for it was his
own fault, though not in so extreme a degree.

6. Another fault likewise much of this kind hath been
incident to learned men ; which is, that they have es
teemed the preservation, good, and honour of their

III. 6.] THE FIRST BOOK. 1$

countries or masters before their own fortunes or safeties.
For so saith Demosthenes unto the Athenians ; If it
please you to note it, my counsels unto you are not such
whereby I should grow great amongst you, and you become
little amongst the Grecians ; but they be of that nature, as
they are sometimes not good for me to give, but are always
good for you to follow. And so Seneca, after he had con
secrated 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 other
wise 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 thei
being and ordainment ; and therefore are desirous to give
their account to God, and so likewise to their masters
under God (as kings and the states that they serve) in these
words ; Ecce libi lucrefeci, and not Ecce mihi lucrefeci :
whereas the corrupter sort of mere politiques^Jlhat have
not their thoughts established by learning in the love and
apprehension of duty, nor never look abroad into univers
ality, do refer all things to themselves, and thrust them
selves 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 for
tune : 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,

24 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, [ill. 6.

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
allowance, and therefore needs the less disproof or ex-
cusation.

7. Another fault incident commonly to learned men,
which may be more probably defended than truly denied,
is, that they fail sometimes in applying themselves to
particular persons : which want of exact application
ariseth from two causes ; the one, because the largeness
of their mind can hardly confine itself to dwell in the
exquisite observation or examination of the nature and
customs of one person : for it is a speech for a lover, and
not for a wise man, Satis magnum alter alteri theatrum
sumus. Nevertheless I shall yield, that he that cannot
contract the sight of his mind as well as disperse and
dilate it, wanteth a great faculty. But there is a second
cause, which is no inability, but a rejection upon choice
and judgement. For the honest and just bounds of ob
servation by one person upon another, extend no further
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

Hi. 7.] THE FIRST BOOK. 1*5

barbarous, but the moral is good : for men ought not by
cunning and bent observations to pierce and penetrate
into the hearts of kings, which the scripture hath de
clared to be inscrutable.

8. There is yet another fault (with which I will con
clude this part) which is often noted in learned men, that
they do many times fail to observe decency and discre
tion in their behaviour and carriage, and commit errors
in small and ordinary points of action, so as the vulgar
sort of capacities do make a judgement of them in greater
matters by that which they find wanting in them in
smaller. But this consequence doth oft deceive men,
for which I do refer them over to that which was said by
Themistocles, arrogantly and uncivilly being applied to
himself out of his own mouth, but, being applied to the
general state of this question, pertinently and justly;
when being invited to touch a lute he said He could
not fiddle, but he could make a small town a great slate.
So no doubt many may be well seen in the passages of
government and policy, which are to seek in little and
punctual occasions. I refer them also to that which
Plato said of his master Socrates, whom he compared
to the gallipots of apothecaries, which on the outside had
apes and owls and antiques but contained within so
vereign and precious liquors and confections ; acknow
ledging that to an external report he was not without
superficial levities and deformities, but was inwardly re
plenished with excellent virtues and powers. And so
much touching the point of manners of learned men.

9. But in the mean time I have no purpose to give
allowance to some conditions and courses base and
unworthy, wherein divers professors of learning have
wronged themselves and gone too far ; such as were

26 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, [ill. 9.

those trencher philosophers which in the later age of
the Roman state were usually in the houses of great
persons, being little better than solemn parasites ; of
which kind, Lucian maketh a merry description of the
philosopher that the great lady took to ride with her in
her coach, and would needs have him carry her little
dog, which he doing officiously and yet uncomely, the
page scoffed and said, That he doubted the philosopher
of a Stoic would turn to be a Cynic. But above all the
rest, the gross and palpable flattery, whereunto many
not unlearned have abased and abused their wits and
pens, turning (as Du Bartas saith) Hecuba into Helena,
and Faustina into Lucretia, hath most diminished the
price and estimation of learning. Neither is the modern
dedication of books and writings, as to patrons, to be
commended : for that books (such as are worthy the name
of books) ought to have no patrons but truth and reason.
And the ancient custom was to dedicate 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 pro
per for : but these and the like courses may deserve
rather reprehension than defence.

10. Not that I can tax or condemn the morigeration
or application of learned men to men in fortune. For
the answer was good that Diogenes made to one that
asked him in mockery, How it came to pass that philo
sophers were the followers of rich men, and not rich men
of philosophers ? He answered soberly, and yet sharply,
Because the one sort knew what they had need of, and the
other did not. And of the like nature was the answer
which Aristippus made, when having a petition to Dio-
nysius, and no ear given to him, he fell down at his feet ;

III. 10.] THE FIRST BOOK. I 27 J

whereupon Dionysius stayed and gave him the hearing,
and granted it; and afterward some person, tender on
the behalf of philosophy, reproved Aristippus that he
would offer the profession of philosophy such an indig
nity as for a private suit to fall at a tyrant s feet : but he
answered, // was not his fault, but it was the fault of
Dionysius, that had his ears in his feet. Neither was it
accounted weakness but discretion in him that would not
dispute his best with Adrianus Caesar ; excusing himself,
That it was reason to yield to him that commanded thirty
legions. These and the like applications and stooping to
points of necessity and convenience cannot be disallow-]
ed; for though they may have some outward baseness/
yet in a judgement truly made they are to be accounted
submissions to the occasion and not to the person.

IV. i. Now I proceed to those errors and vanities
which have intervened amongst the studies themselves
of the learned, which is that which is principal and
proper to the present argument ; wherein my purpose is
not to make a justification of the errors, but by a censure
and separation of the errors to make a justification of
that which is good and sound, and to deliver that from
the aspersion of the other. For we see that it is the
manner of men to scandalize and deprave that which
retaineth the state and virtue, by taking advantage upon
that which is corrupt and degenerate : as the heathens
in the primitive church used to blemish and taint the
Christians with the faults and corruptions of heretics.
But nevertheless I have no meaning at this time to make
any exact animadversion of the errors and 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.

OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [iV. 2.

2. There be therefore chiefly jthree vanities in studies^
whereby learning hath been most traduced. For those
things we do esteem vain, which are either false or fri
volous, 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 distemp.^r g - (as ^1^ may term them) of
learn inghjj the TirstfTantastical Jb^arningj the
tentious. learning ; and the lj^ delicate learning; vain
imaginations, vain altercations, and vain affectations ; and
with the last I will begin. Martin Luther, conducted (no
doubt) by an higher providence, but in discourse of rea
son, 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 suc
cours to make a party against the present time : so that
the ancient authors, both in divinity and in humanity,
which had long time slept in libraries, began generally-
to be read and revolved. .This by consequence did draw
on a necessity of a more exquisite travail in the lan
guages 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

IV. 2.] THE FIRST BOOK.

liberty to coin and frame new terms of art to express
their own sense, and to avoid circuit of speech, without
regard to the pureness. pleasantness, and (as I may call
it) lawfulness of the phrase or word. And again, because
the great labour then was with the people (of whom the
Pharisees were wont to say, Exccrabilis ista lurba, quce
non novit legeni], for the winning and persuading of them,
there grew of necessity in chief price and request elo
quence and variety of discourse, as the fittest and forci-
blest access into the capacity of the vulgar sort : so that
these four causes concurring, the admiration of ancient
a uthors. the hate of the schoolmen, the exact stu dy"o^
languages, and the efficacy of preaching, did brin^ in an
affectionate study of eloquence andj:opje_of speech, which
then began to flourish. This grew speedily to an excess ;
for men began to hunt more after ^vvorcis 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.afterjhe _w_eight_
of mattefTwbfth "of subject, soundness of argument, life
of invention, or depth of judgement. 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 Hermo-
genes the Rhetorician, besides his own books of Periods
and Imitation, and the like. Then did Car of Cam
bridge and Ascham with their lectures and writings
almost deify Cicero and Demosthenes, and allure .all
young men that were studious unto that delicate and
polished kind of learning. Then did Erasmus take oc
casion to make the scoffing echo, Decent annos consumpsi
in legendo Cicerone , and the echo answered in Greek

OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [iV. 2.

Asme. 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

\vhen_men stndjTworcTs and not matter ; whereof, though
I have represented an example ot late times, yet it hath
been and will be secundum ma/us 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 ; which though it hath large flou
rishes, yet it is but a letter ? It seems to me that Pygma
lion s frenzy is a good emblem or portraiture of this
vanity : for words are but the images of matter ; and
except they have life of reason and invention, to fall in
Jove with them is all one as to fall in love with a picture.

4. gut_^et notwithstanding it isa thingngt^feasjily to
be condernaed, to j:JQthe ajidjujorjp^^^

.jikilo ni il iy il re If \\ith sensjblgLand plausible elocution.
For hereof we have great examples in Xenophon,"Cicero^
Seneca, Plutarch, and of Plato also in some degree ; ai\d
hereof .likewise there is great use : for surely, to the
severe- inquisition of -truth and the deep progress into
philosophy, it is some hindrance ; because it is too early
satisfactory to the mind of man, and quencheth the de
sire of further search, before we come to a just period.
But. then if a man be to have any use of such knowledge
in civil occasions, of conference, counsel, persuasion, dis
course, or the like, then shall he find it prepared to his
hands in those authors which write in that manner. But ^
the excess of this is so justly contemptible, that as Her-
"culespwnen he sa^ the image ot AdornsT^enus minion,

IV.

THE FIRST BOOK.

in a temple, said in disdain, Nil sacri es ; so there is none
of Hercules followers in learning, that is, the more severe
and laborious sort of inquirers into truth, but will despise
those delicacies and affectations, as indeed capable of no
divineness. And thus much of the first disease or dis
temper of learning.

5. The second which folio wcth is in nature worsejhan
the former : for as substance of matter is better than
beauty of words, so contrariwise vain matter is worse
than vain words : wherein it seemeth the reprehension of
Saint Paul was not only proper for those times, but pro
phetical for the times following ; and not only respective
to divinity, but extensive to all knowledge : Deviia pro-
fanas vocum novttates, et oppositions fahi nominis scienlia>.
For he assigneth two marks and badges of suspected
and falsified science : the one, the novelty and strange
ness of terms; the other, the strictness of positions,
which of necessity doth induce oppositions, and so ques
tions and altercations. Surely, like as many substances
in nature which are solid do putrify and corrupt
worms ; so it is the property of good and

^^^_^ * <

ledgeto putrify and dissolve into a number_of subtle.

question

unwholesome^and (as I may term them) vermicnlate
which have indeed a kind ofjc[uickp p ss and

life^of spirit, but no soundness of matteror goodness of
"quality. This kind of degenerate leaTning Hid IJhiefly
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 per- u
sons were shut up in the cells of monasteries and col
leges, and knowing little history, either of nature or
time, did out of no great quantity of matter and infinite

OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [iV. 5-

ftation of wit spin out unto us those laborious webs of
learning which are extant in their books. For the wit
and mind of man, if it work upon matter, which is the
contemplation of the creatures of God, worketh accord
ing 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
substance or profit.

This same unprofitable subtility or curiosity is of
sorts ; either in the subject itself that they handle,
\ wheTiTis a fruitless speculation or controversy (whereof
\there are no small number both in divinity and philo
sophy), or Jn the mariner 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 confutations, but distinctions : whereas
indeed the strength of all sciences is, as the strength of
the old man s faggot, in the bond. For the harmony of a
science, supporting each part the other, is and ought to
be the true and brief confutation and suppression of all
the smaller sort of objections. But, on the other side, if
you take out every axiom, as the sticks of the faggot, one
by one, you may quarrel with them and bend them and
break them at your pleasure : so that as was said of
Seneca, Verborum minutiis rerum frangit pondera, so a
man may truly say of the schoolmen, Qu&stionum minutiis
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 about with
a small watch candle into every corner? And such is
their method; that rests__noL^SQ_much uponevidenceQf_

IV. 6.] THE FIRST BOOK. 33

truth proved by arguments, authorities, similitudes, ex-
amplesT^TTrpori particular confutations and solutions of
every scruple, cavillation, and_objection ; breeding for the
most part one question as fast as it solveth another ; even
as in the former resemblance, when you carry the light
into one corner, you darken the rest ; so that the fable
and fiction of Scylla seemeth to be a lively image of this
kind of philosophy or knowledge ; which was trans
formed into a comely virgin for the upper parts ; but
then Candida succinctam lalrantibus inguina monsiris : 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 alter
cations, and to think they are all out of their way which
never meet; and when they see such digladiation about
subtilties, and matter of no use or moment, they easily
fall upon that judgement of Dionysius of Syracusa. Verba
ista sunt senum otiosorum.

7. Notwithstanding, certain it is that if those school
men to their great thirst of truth and unwearied travail
of wit had joined variety and universality of reading
and contemplation, 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 le^ave 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

D

v.

OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [TV. ?.

oracle of God s works, and adored the deceiving and
deformed images which the unequal mirror of their own
minds, or a few received authors or principles, did re
present unto them. And thus much for the second
disease of learning.

8. For the third vice ^y di gpaj y of learning, which
concerneth deceit or untruth, it is of all the rest the
foulest ; as that which doth destroy the essential form

wledge, which is nothing but a representation of
ruth : ;for the truth of being and the truth of knowing
are one, xliffering no more than the direct beam and the
beam reflected. Xh^vjpetherefore brancheth itself into
two sorts ; delight in decetviiTg^ and "aptne^^Q^J^fi-de-
ceiyed ^Jjgposture 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 jhat will easily believe rumours, wiljjis easily augment
i^mey^and add solnewhat to them of his own ; which"
Tacitus wisely noteth, when he saith, Fingunt simul cre-
duntque : so great an affinity hath fiction and belief.

9. TJais facility of - edit and accepting or admitting
things weakly authorized or warranted, i^of two kinds
according to the subject : for it is either a jSlkf of __
history, or, as the lawyers speak, matter of fact ; j^JLglse
of^jnatter of art and opinion. As to the former, we
see the experience and inconvenience of this error in
ecclesiastical history ; which hath too easily received and
registered reports and narrations of miracles wrought by

IV. 9 ] THE FIRST BOOK. 35

martyrs, hermits, or monks of the desert, and other holy
men, and their relics, shrines, chapels, and images:
which though they had a passage for a time by the
ignorance of the people, the superstitious simplicity of
some, and the politic toleration of others, holding them
but as divine poesies ; yet after a 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.

i o. So in natural history, we see there hath not been
that choice and judgement used as ought to have been ;
as may appear in the writings of Plinius, Cardanus,
Albertus, and divers of the Arabians, being fraught with
much fabulous matter, a great part not only untried,
but notoriously untrue, to the great derogation of the
credit of natural philosophy with the grave and sober
kind of wits : N wherein the wisdom and integrity of
Aristotle is worthy to be observed ; that, having made j
so diligent and exquisite a history of living creatures,
hath mingled it sparingly with any vain or .feigned
matter : and. yet on the other side hath c^jst all pro
digious narrations, which he thought worthy the record- jj
ing, into one book : excellently discerning that matter /
of manifest ^ruth, such whereupon observation and rule/f
was to be built, was not to be mingled or weakenedjj
with matter of doubtful credit; and yet again, that^/
rarities and reports that seem uncredible are not to be
suppressed or denied to the memory of men.

ii. 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,

D 2

t

36 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [iV. n.

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 have
sought to veil over and conceal by enigmatical writings,
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
compared to the husbandman whereof ^Esop 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 following : so assuredly
the search and stir to make gold hath brought to light a
great number of good and fruitful inventions and ex
periments, as well for the disclosing of nature as for the
use of man s life.

12. And as for the overmuch credit that hath been
given unto authors in sciences, in making them dictators,
that their words should stand, and not consuls to give
advice ; the damage is infinite that sciences have received

IV. 12.] THE FIRST BOOK.

thereby, as the principal cause that hath kept theirl
at a stay without growth or advancement. For hence
it hath comen, that in arts mechanical the first deviser
comes shortest, and time addeth and perfecteth ; but in
sciences the first author goeth furthest, and time leeseth
and corrupteth. So we see, artillery, sailing, printing, and
the like, were grossly managed at the first, and by time
accommodated and refined : but contrariwise, the philo
sophies 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 de
praved than illustrated. For as water will not ascend"" 1
higher than the level of the first springhead from whence
it descendeth, so knowledge derived from Aristotle, and
exempted from liberty of examination, will not rise again
higher than the knowledge of Aristotle. And therefore
although the position be good, Oportet discentem credere,
yet it must be coupled with this, Oportet edoctumjudicare;
for disciples do owe unto masters only a temporary belief
and a suspension of their own judgement till they
fully instructed, and not an absolute resignation or per
Ipetual 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. Thus have I gone over these three
diseases of learning; besides the which there are some
other rather peccant humours than formed diseases,
which nevertheless are not so secret and intrinsic but

lief /
be /

)er ; /

mt r

38 JOF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [IV. 12.

it they fall under a popular observation and traduce-
ment, and therefore are not to be passed over.

V. i. 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 mas antiquas,
/et videte quanam sit via recta et bona et ambulate in ea.
Antiquity deserveth that reverence, that men should make
i I I a stand thereupon and discover what is the best way ;
*,but when the discovery is well taken, then to make pro
gression. And to speak truly, Antiquitas s&culi juventus
lundi. These times are the ancient times, when the
is ancient, and not those which we account ancient
^rdine relrogrado, by a computation backward from our-
ilves.

2. 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 same objection were to be made to time,
that Lucian maketh to Jupiter and other the heathen
gods ; of which he wondereth that they begot so many
children in old time, and begot none in his time; and
asketh whether they were become septuagenary, or
whether the law Papia, made against old men s mar
riages, had restrained them. So it seemeth men doubt
lest time is become past children and generation;
wherein contrariwise we see commonly the levity and
unconstancy of men s judgements, which till a matter

V. 2l ] THE FIRST BOOK. 39

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. And the same happened to Columbus in the
western navigation. But in intellectual matters it is
much more common ; as may be seen in most of the
propositions of Euclid ; which till they be demonstrate,
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
formerTis a conceit that of former opinions or sects after
variety and examination the best hath still prevailed and
sjjre^sed_ihe_jst ; so as if a man should begin the
labour of a new search, he were but like to light upon
somewhat formerly rejected, and by rejection brought into
oblivion : as if the multitude, or the wisest for the mult
itude 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
sir.keth and drowneth that which is weighty and solid.

4. Another errQr. of a diverse nature from all the
former, is the over-early and peremptory reduction of
knowledge into arts and methods ; from which time
commonly sciences Twelve yihall 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

-

t 40 /OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, [v. 4.

when it once is comprehended in exact methods, it may
perchance be further polished and illustrate and accom
modated for use and practice ; but it increaseth no more
in bulfcvand substance.

5. Another error which doth succeed that which we
last-iwentioned, Ts^that after the distribution of particular
arts and sciences, men have abandoned universality, or
philosophia prima : wliicrTTrdiiiiuL bur*cease and stop all
progression. 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. Ajiothp 1 *- fc rrrtr hath proceeded from too great a
eyerence, and a kind of adoration of the mind and

nderstanding of man ; by means whereof, men have
witfcirawn themselves_tpo muj:hJjamUJie^ontemplation
QJTnature, and the observations of experience, and have
tumbled up and down in their own reason and conceits.
Upon these intellectualists, which are notwithstanding (
commonly taken for the most sublime and divine philo
sophers, Heraclitus gave a just censure, saying, Men
sought truth in their own little worlds, and not in the great
and common world ; for they disdain" 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 connexion 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

V. 7.] THE FIRST BOOK. 41

most applied ; and given all things else a tincture accord
ing 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 alchemists made a philosophy out of a few
experiments of the furnace; and Gilbertus our country
man hath made a philosophy out of the observations of a
loadstone. 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, sailh pleasantly, Hie ab arte
sua non recessif, &c. But of these conceits Aristotle speak -
eth seriously and wisely when he saith, Qui respidunt
ad pauca de facili pronunciant.

8. t Another error is an impatience of doubt, and Jiaste
to assertion without due and mature suspension of judge
ment. 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 trouble
some in the entrance, but after a while fair and even : so >

it is in contemplatjon ; if a man will begin with certain- * /
^ties, he shall end iif donate ; but if he will be content to /
begin with doubts, he ~s hall end in certainties.

9. Another error is in the manner of the tradition and
delivery of knbwkd^e", U lllcli- is ior the most part magis-
tral and peremptory, and not ingenuous and faithful ;
in a sort as may be soonest believed, and not easiliest
examined. ""It is li ue"ThatTin compendious treatises for
practice~that form is not to be disallowed : but in the
true handling of knowledge, men ought not to fall either
on the one side into the vein of Velleius the Epicurean,

OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, [v. 9.

Nil tarn metuens, quam ne dubitare aliqua de re videretur;
nor on the other side into Socrates his ironical doubting
of all things ; but to propound things sincerely with more
or less asseveration, as they stand in a man s own judge
ment proved more or less.

10. Other errors there are in the scope that men
propound to themselves, whereunto they bend their en
deavours ; 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 defender, to be a methodical com-
pounder or abridger, and so the patrimony of knowledge
cometh to be sometimes improved, but seldom aug
mented.

11. But the greatest error^of all the j-gst is^ the mis-
tajdng or^n^placin g ofthe^Tast or furthest end of know
ledge. For men have entered into a desire of learning

\ ImcfTnowledge, sometimes upon a^aturaLcuriosity and
inquisitive appetite : sometimes tOk^gntertain their jninds
with variety and delight ; sometimes for^ornament and
I \ reputation and sometimes to ^enable them to victory of
\ wit and contjarh rtinn and jnost t%ies for lucre and
\ profession ; and seldom sincerely to giveatrue_

^ -_ i ^. _^ - ^ **^^ *

gf thejTgjttof reason, to the benenTand use of men : as
if there were sought in knowledge a couch \vhereupon to
rest a searching and restless spirit ; or a terrace for a
wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with
a fair prospect ; or a tower ot state for a proud mind to
raise 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

V. ii.] THE FIRST BOOK.

relief of man s estate. But this is that which will incfeed
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
{hat ot the two highest planets, Saturn, the planet of rest
and contemplation, and Jupiter, th^ planet nf

and action. Howbeit, Tdo not mean, when I speak of use
ancf action, that end before-mentioned of the applying of
knowledge to lucre and profession ; for I am not ignorant
how much that diverteth and interrupted! the prosecution
and advancement 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.

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. Butjis-
both heaven and earth do conspire and contribute to the
use and benefit of man; so the end ought to be, from
both philosophies to separate and reject vain speculations,
and whatsoever is empty and void, and to preserve and
augmeiiMvhatsoever is solid and fruitful : that knowledge
may not be as a courtesan, for pleasure and vanity only,
or as a bond-woman, to acquire and gain to her master s
use ; butjis a spouse, for generation, fruit, and comforL

12. Thus have I described and opened, as by a kind
of dissection, those peccant humours (the principal of
them) which have not only given impediment to the
proficience of learning, but have given also occasion to
the traducement thereof: wherein if I have been too plain,
it must be remembered, fidelia vulnera amantis, sed dolosa
oscula tnalignanlis. This I think I have gained, that I

44 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [V. 12.

ought to be the better believed in that which I shall say
pertaining to commendation ; 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.

VI. i. girst therefore let us^seek the dignity of know,-
ledge Jn the arch-type or first platform, which is in the
attributes arid acts of God, ,a^ far as^hex^je-JCfiyealed to
man and may be observed witli sobriety ; wherein we may
U-^A r. Rr n^ nf ]paTning or alHearning is

nowledge jicquiredjjind acknowledge^ God is original :
aftuTtherefore we joust Jook for iTby another name, that
of wisdom or sapience \ as the scriptures call it.

2-. It is so then, that in the work of the^creation we see
a double emanation of virtue from God ; the one referring
more properly to^pas^er, the other to^kdojn ; 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
wisdom; wherewith concurreth, that in the former it is
not set down that God said, Lei 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

VI. 2.] THE FIRST BOOK. 45

of a manufacture, and the other of a law, decree, or
counsel.

3. To proceed to that which is next in order, from God
to ^spirits ; we find, as far as credit is to be given to the
celestTaTtrterarchy 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.

4. To descend from spirits and intellectual forms to
sensible and material forms, we read the first form that

was creaeclwas~ fight, which hath a relation and cor
respondence in nature and corporal things to knowledge
in spirits and incorporal things.

5. 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.

6. After the creation was finished, it is set down unto
as 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 of the two summary
parts of knowledge; the view of creatures, and the im-
position of names. As for the knowledge which induced

46 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, [VI. 6.

the fall, it was, as was touched before, not the natural
knowledge of creatures, but the moral knowledge of good
and evil ; wherein the supposition was, that God s com
mandments 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.

7. To pass on : in the first event or occurrence after
the fall of man, we see (as the scriptures have infinite
mysteries, not violating at all the truth of the story or
letter) an image of the two estates, t.hg_ ^on tern relative

jstate_ and the active state,_figured in the two persons
of ^\bel and Cain, and in the two simplest and most
primitive~~!ra3es" 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 contemplative 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.

8. 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, trie first great judge-

""Trmntnof-God upon the ambition of man was the confu-
^ion^oftongues ; whereby the open trade and intercourse
of learning and knowledge was chiefly imbarred.

9. To descend to Moyses the lawgiver, and God s first
pen : he is adorned by the scriptures 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

VI. 9-] THE FIRST BOOK. 47

ever children ; you have no knowledge of antiquity, nor
antiquity of knowledge. Take a view of the ceremonial
law of Moyses ; you shall find, besides the prefiguration
of Christ, the badge or difference of the people of God,
the exercise and impression 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 or
dinances. 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 is more
contagious 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 and half evil. So in this and very many other
places in that law, there is to be found, besides the theo
logical sense, .rnuch aspersion of philosophy.

10. So likewise in thaPexcenent book of Jnb 3 if it be
revolved with diligence, it will be found pregnant and
swelling with. nalmaL-pliilosojihy ; as for example, ^cos-
mographjvrid_ th_e _iou4fts&-uf the world, Qui extendit
aquilonem super vacuum, et appendit terram super nihilum ;
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 calos, et obstetricante manu ejus eductus est Coluber
tortuosus. And in another place, Nunquid conjungere
valebis micantes Stellas Pleiadas, aut gyrum Arcturi poteris
dissipare ? Where the fixing of the stars, ever standing
at equal distance, is with great elegancy noted. And in

48 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, [vi. 10.

another place, Quifacit Arcturum, et Oriona, et Hyadas, et
interior a Ausiri ; 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 coagulasti me ? &c. Matter of minerals ;
Habet argentum venarum suarum principia : et auro locus
est in quo conflatur , ferrum de terra tollitur, et lapis solutus
calore in as vertittir : and so forwards in that chapter.
ii. ^r\ Jjkewise in the person of Salomon thgjaftgpwe
gift or endowment of wisdom^a^tTTearning^ both
in ^a]f>mnn]gTwirTtiM*^ 1ind *"

preferred before atl^gmer 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 compile 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 an
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 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 is to conceal a
thing, but the glory of the king is to find it out ; as if, accord
ing 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 ; con
sidering the great commandment of wits and means,
whereby nothing needeth to be hidden from them.

VI. 12.] THE FIRST BOOK. 49

12. 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 the similitude and gift of
tongues, which are but vehicula scientix.

13. So in the election of those instruments, \vhich_jt
pleased God to use for the plantation of the faith, not
withstanding that at the first he did employ persons
altogether unlearned, otherwise than by inspiration, more
evidently to declare 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 Saint Paul, who was only
learned amongst the Apostles, had his pen most used in
the scriptures of the New Testament.

1 4. 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 esteemed and ac
counted a more pernicious engine and machination
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 of piety or de
votion; but contrariwise received the censure of humour,
malignity and pusillanimity, even amongst holy men ; in

A

5O j OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VI. 14.

he designed to obliterate and extinguish the memory
of heathen antiquity and authors. But contrariwise it was
the Christian church, which, amidst the inundations 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 learn
ing, which otherwise had been extinguished as if no such
thing hadever been.

15. And we see before our eyes, that in the age ot
ourselves and our fathers, when it pleased God to call
the Church of Rome to account for their degenerate
manners and ceremonies, and sundry doctrines obnoxious
and framed to uphold the same abuses ; at one and the
same time it was ordained by the Divine Providence, that
there should attend withal a renovation and new spring
of all other 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 reparation they have done
to the Roman see.

1 6. 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 perforn^ to faith and religion. The one,
because they are an effectual inducement to the exalt
ation 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

VI. 16.] THE FIRST BOOK.

that only which is set out toward the street in his sHop.
The other, because they minister a singular help 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 we will be secured from error; first the scriptures,
revealing the will of God, and then the creatures ex
pressing 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 omni-
potency of God, which is chiefly signed and engraven
upon his works. Thu^ rnj^ch therefore for divine testi
mony and evidence concerning the true dignity and value

VII. i. As for bnmnTv rm-iof^ it is so large a field, as
in a discourse 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, ^irst therefore, in the
degrees of human honour amongst theheathen, it was
the highest to obtain to a veneration and adoration as a
God. This unto the Christians is as the forbidden fruit.
But we speak now separately of human testimony: ac
cording to which, -that which the Grecians call apotheosis,
and the Latins relatio inter divos, was the supreme honour
which man could attribute unto man: specially 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
E 2

52 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VII. i.

antiquitymade this difference: that whereas founders
and uniters of states and cities, lawgivers, 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
commodities towards man s life, were ever consecrated
amongst the gods themselves : as was Ceres, Bacchus/
MeFcurius, 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. The former again is mixed with strife
and perturbation ; but the latter hath the true character of
Divine Presence, coming in aura lent, without noise or
agitation.

2. 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 unto 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 his own nature: wherein is aptly de
scribed the nature and condition of men, who are full of
savage and unreclaimed desires, of profit, of lust, of re
venge ; which as long as they give ear to precepts, to laws,

VII. 2.] THE FIRST BOOK. 53

to religion, sweetly touched with eloquence arid 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.

3. But this appeareth more manifestly, when kings
themselves, or persons of authority under them, or other
governors in commonwealths and popular estates, are en
dued 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
philosophers 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
imperfections in their passions and customs; yet ijhe^be_
illuminate by learning, they have those notions of religion,
policy. ancT morality, which do preserve them and refrain
tfiem iromall ruinous and peremptory errors and ex
cesses; wnTspering evermore in their ears, when coun
sellors and servants stand mute and silent. And senators
or counsellors likewise, which be learned, do proceed upon
more safe and substantial principles, than counsellors
which are 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.

4. 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 Domitianus 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

54 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VII. 4.

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 a head of gold: which
came accordingly to pass in those golden times which
succeeded : of which princes we will make some com
memoration ; 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 : Postquam divus Nerva res
oh m insodabiles miscuisset, imperium et libertatem. And in
token of his learning, the last act of his short reign left
to memory was a missive to his adopted son Trajan, pro
ceeding upon some inward discontent at the ingratitude of
the times, comprehended in a verse of Homer s :

Telis, Phoebe, tuis lacrymas ulciscere nostras.

5. Trajan, who succeeded, was for his person not
learned: but if we will hearken to the speech of our
Saviour, that saith, He that receive th a prophet in the name
of a prophet shall have a prophet s reward, he deserveth to
be placed 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 ad
vancer of learned men to office, and a familiar converser
with learned professors 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

VII. 5-] THE FIRST BOOK. 55

history doth more lively set forth, than that legend tale
of Gregorius Magnus, bishop of Rome, who was noted
for the extreme envy he bare towards all heathen excel
lency : and yet he is reported, out of the love and estim
ation of Trajan s moral virtues, to have made unto God
passionate and fervent prayers for the delivery of his soul
out of hell : and to have obtained it, with a caveat that
he should make no more such petitions. In this prince s
time also the persecutions against the Christians received
intermission, upon the certificate of Plinius Secundus, a
man of excellent learning and by Trajan advanced.

6. 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
comprehend 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 argument 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 /.
It pleased God likewise to use the curiosity of this em
peror 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 imagination 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 in glory of arms or perfection of justice, yet
in deserving of the weal of the subject he did exceed

56 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VII.6.

him. For Trajan erected many famous monuments and
buildings ; insomuch as Constantine the Great in emul
ation was wont to call him Parietarta, 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 com
monalties with new ordinances and constitutions, and
granting new franchises and incorporations ; so that his
whole time was a very restoration of all the lapses and
decays of former times.

7. Antoninus Pius, who succeeded him, was a prince
excellently 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 a divider of cummin seed, 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
S. 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.

VII. 8.] THE FIRST BOOK. 57

8. There succeeded him the first Divi fratres, the two
adoptive brethren, Lucius Commodus Verus, son to ^Elius
Verus, who delighted much in the softer kind of learning,
and was wont to call the poet Martial his Virgil ; and
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus; whereof the latter, who ob
scured 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 intituled Ccesares, being as a pasquil or satire to
deride all his predecessors, 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 Philo-
sophus came in, Silenus was gravelled and out of coun
tenance, 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 bare
che 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 had 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.

9. But for a tablet or picture of smaller volume (not
presuming to speak of your Majesty that liveth), in my

58 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [ VII. 9.

judgement the most excellent is that of Queen Elizabeth,
your immediate predecessor in this part of Britain; a prince
that, if Plutarch were now alive to write lives by paral
lels, would trouble him I think to find for her a parallel
amongst women. This lady was endued with learning
in her sex singular, and rare 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 accustomed to ap
point set hours for reading, scarcely any young student
in an university more daily or more duly. As for her
government, I assure myself, I shall not exceed, if I do
affirm that this part 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 op
position 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 con
cerning the conjunction of learning in the prince with
felicity in the people.

10. Neither hath learning an influence and operation

v ". <.] THE FIRST BOOK. ( 59 ~~7

only upon civil merit and moral virtue, and the arts or t
temperature 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 U8es~aTTne~dictator, mentioned before, ^Buf
now m n t 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 perfections in learning, it is per
tinent to say somewhat.

ii. Alexander was bred and taught under Aristotle
the great philosopher, who dedicated divers of his books
of philosophy unto him : he was attended with Callis-
thenes and divers other learned persons, that followed
him in camp, throughout his journeys and conquests.
What price and estimation he had learning in doth not
ably appear in these three particulars : first, in the envy
he used to express that he bare towards Achilles, in this,
that he had so good a trumpet of his praises as Homer s
verses : secondly, in the judgement 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 ; 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 expostul-
ateth 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.

60 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VII. 12.

12. And herein again it may seem a thing scholastical,
and somewhat idle, to recite things that every man know-
eth ; 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 Caesar, or an Antoninus, that are dead many hundred
years since, as any that now liveth : for it is the display
ing of the glory of learning in sovereignty that I pro
pound 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 philosophy ; 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 / not Alexander, I would
wish to be Diogenes. But Seneca inverteth it, and saith;
Plus erat, quod hie nollet accipere, quam quod ille posset
dare. There were more things which Diogenes would have
refused, than those were which Alexander could have given
or enjoyed.

13. 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 comen
out of the mouth of Aristotle or Democntus, than from
Alexander.

14. 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 zs very blood ; this is
not such a liquor as Homer speaketh of, which ran from
Venus hand, when it was pierced by Diomedes.

VII. is] THE FIRST BOOK. 6l

15. 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 happed 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: Seethe subtilties of Aristotle, to
take a matter both ways, pro et contra, &c.

1 6. 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, feast
ing one night where the same Callisthenes was at the
table, it was moved by some after supper, for entertain
ment 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 performing
the same with so good manner as the hearers were much
ravished : whereupon Alexander, nothing pleased, said, //
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.

17. Consider further, for tropes of rhetoric, that ex
cellent use of a metaphor or translation, wherewith he
taxed Antipater, who was an imperious and tyrannous
governor : for when one of Antipater s friends com
mended him to Alexander for his moderation, that he
did not degenerate, as his other lieutenants did, into the

6<2 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VII. 17.

Persian pride, in use of purple, but kept the ancient habit
of Macedon, of black; True (saith Alexander), but Anti-
pater 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, specially 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 answered, That he
would not steal the victory.

1 8. For matter of policy, weigh that significant dis
tinction, so much in all ages embraced, that he made
between his two friends Hephaestion and Craterus, when
he said, That the one loved Alexander -, and the other loved
the king : describing the principal difference of princes
best servants, that some in affection love their person,
and other in duty love their crown.

19. 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 / would
accept these offers, were las Alexander ; saith Alexander,
So would I were I as Parmenio.

20. 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 aright, because hope must be the
portion of all that resolve upon great enterprises. For
this was Csesar s portion when he went first into Gaul,
his estate being then utterly overthrown with largesses.
And this was likewise the portion of that noble prince,
howsoever transported with ambition, Henry Duke of

VII. 20.] THE FIRST BOOK. 63

Guise, of whom it was usually said, that he was the
greatest usurer in France, because he had turned all his
estate into obligations.

21. To conclude therefore: as certain critics are used
to say hyperbolically, Thai 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.

22. As for Julius Caesar, 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 permanent, and some unfortunately
perished. For first, we see there is left unto us that
excellent history of his own wars, which he intituled only
a Commentary, wherein all succeeding times have admired
the solid weight of matter, and the real passages and
lively images of actions and persons, 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 witnessed
by that work of his intituled De Analogi a, being a gram
matical philosophy, wherein he did labour to make this
same Vox ad placitum to become Vox ad liciium, and to
reduce custom of speech to congruity of speech; and
took as it were the pictures of words from the life of
reason.

23. 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

64 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VII. 23.

great a glory to himself to observe and know the law of
the heavens, as to give law to men upon the earth.

24. So likewise in that book of his, AnJi-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.

25. 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 Salomon noteth, when
he saith, Verba sapienlum tanquam aculei, et tanquam clavi
in altum defixi: whereof I will only recite three, not so de
lectable for elegancy, but admirable for vigour and efficacy.

26. 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 Milites, 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 Caesar to
other conditions; wherein he being resolute not to give
way, after some silence, he began his speech, Ego Quirites,
which did admit 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 Millies.

VII. 27.] THE FIRST BOOK. 65

27. The second speech was thus: Caesar did extremely
affect the name of king; and some were set on as he
passed by, in popular acclamation to salute him king.
Whereupon, finding the cry weak and poor, he put it off
thus, in a kind of jest, as if they had mistaken his sur
name ; Non Rex sum, sed Ccesar ; a speech, that if it be
searched, the life and fulness of it can scarce be ex
pressed. 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 Caesar was the
greater title; as by his worthiness it is come to pass
till this day. But chiefly it was a speech of great allure
ment 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.

28. The last speech which I will mention was used to
Metellus : when Csesar, after war declared, did possess
himself of the city of Rome ; at which time entering into
the inner treasury to take the money there accumulate,
Metellus being tribune forbade him. Whereto Caesar
said, That if he did not desist, he would lay him dead in
the place. And presently taking himself up, he added,
Young man, it is harder for me to speak it than to do it ;
Adolescent, durius est mi hi hoc dicer e quam facere. A
speech compounded of the greatest terror and greatest
clemency that could proceed out of the moutty of
man.

29. But to return and conclude with him, it is evident
himself 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

K

66 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VII. 29.

own advantage, answered, That Sylla could not skill of
letters, and therefore kneiv not how to dictate.

30. And here it were fit to leave this point, touching
the concurrence of military virtue and learning (for what
example should come with any grace after those two of
Alexander and Caesar?), were it not in regard of the rare
ness of circumstance, 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. He was
present when Falinus 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 Falinus ; and amongst the rest
Xenophon happened to say, Why, Falinus, we have noiv
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 Falinus smiling on him said, If I be not deceived,
young gentleman, you are an Athenian : and I believe you
study philosophy, and it 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 wonder followed :
which was, that this young scholar, or philosopher, after

vn. 30.] THE FIRST BOOK.

all the captains were murdered in parley by treason, con
ducted 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 times 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.

VIII. i. To proceed now from imperil and military
virtue to moral and pri"at virhip; first, it is an assured
truth, which is contained in the verses,

Scilicet ingenuas didicisse jideljter artes
Emollit mores, nee sinit esse feros.

It iaketh away the wildness and barbarism pnH forr.pness
of men s minds ; but indeed the accent had need be upon
fiddlier : for a little superficial learning doth rather wmk
a contrary elfect. It taketh away all levity, temerity, and
insolency, by copious suggestion of all doubts and diffi
culties, 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 no tiling 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 con
templation throughly, but will find that printed in his
heart, Nil novi super terfam. Neither can any man
marvel ^t the play of puppets, that goeth behind the
curtain, and adviseth well of the motion. And for mag
nitude, as Alexander the Great, after that he was used to
great armies, and the great conquests of the spacious
F 2

68 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VIII. i.

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, // seemed to him, that he was advertised of the
battles 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 divine-
ness 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 miti^a\eth fear of death
or adverse fortune^ which *s one^af the .greatest impedi
ments ot virtue, and imperfections of manners. For if a
nrarfrmind 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
broken, and went forth the next day and saw a woman
weeping for her son that was dead, and thereupon said,
Heri 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.

2. 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 rationem

f "}

Vin. 2.] THE FIRST BOOK. 69 /

totius; which is, that it disposeth the constitution oTthe \
mind not to be fixed or settled in the detects thereof, but
still to be capable and susceptible of growth and reform-
a tjon 1 for the unlearned man knows not what it is to
descend into himself, or to call himself to account, nor
trie pleasure ot that suavissima vita, indies sentire se fieri
meliorem. The good parts he hath hewill learn to show
to the full, and use them dexteroUsTy, bujjjotjnuch_to
increase them. "The^faultslie hath he wiUleanT how to
hide and colour them, but not much to amend them ; 4ike
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 amend
ment of his mind with the use and employment thereof.
Nay further, in general and in sum, certain it is that
Veritas and Boniias 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 per
turbations.

3. 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 know
ledge investeth and crowneth man s nature. We see the
dignity of the commandment is according to the dignity
of the commanded : to have commandment over beasts,
as herdmen have, is a thing contemptible : to have com
mandment over children, as schoolmasters have, is a
matter of small honour: to have commandment over
galley-slaves is a disparagement rather than an honour.
Neither is the commandment 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

70 j OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VIII. 3.

> ^rr

than in tyrannies, because the commandment 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 Coesar 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 com
mandment 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 estate 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 trans
ported with, when they once find in themselves that they
have a superiority 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 sove
reignty over men s understanding, by force of truth rightly
interpreted, is that which approacheth nearest to the simil
itude of the divine rule.

4. As for fortune and advancement, the beneficence of
Teaming 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 Homer hath given more men their livings, than either
Sylla, or Crcsar, or Augustus ever did, notwithstanding

VIII. 4-] THE FIRST BOOK. Jl

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.

5. 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 plea
sure of the sense, 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 understand
ing exceed the pleasures of the affections ? -We see in aH

other pleasures there is satiety, and after they be usecL
their verdnrp H^parreth ; \vhkb-showeth well thev_b_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 kno\yledge
there is no satiety, but satisfaction and appetite are per
petually intcrchangeabje ; and therefore afipearetrrTo be
good in itself simply, without fallacy or accident. Nei-
TrTef~Ts~that pleasure oFlirriall efficacy and contentment
to the mind of man, which the poet Lucretius describeth
elegantly,

Suave mari niagno, turbantibus aequora ventis, &c.

It is 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 toiver, and to see two battles join
upon a plain. jg///jj? is a pleasure incomparable* for thf
mind of man to be settled, landed, and fortified in the cer
tainty of truth ; and from thence to descry and behold the

72 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VIII. 5.

errors, perturbations, labours, and wanderings up and down
of other men.

6. Lastly, leaving the vulgar arguments, that by learn
ing 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 and learning in that whereunto man s jia-
faren!ol:H"~most aspire, which is hnmortality or continu
ance ; tor to this tendeth generation, and raising of houses
"and families ; to this tend 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
Jforner continued twenty -five hundred years, or more,
withouT the loss of a syllable or letter ; during which time
infinite palaces, temples, castles, cities, have been decayed
and demolished ? It is not possible to have the true pic
tures or statuaes of Cyrus, Alexander, Csesar, 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
JX of time and capable of perpetual renovation. Neither
are they fitly to be called images, becausej:hey generate
still, and cast their seeds in the minds of others, pro-
^voking ana causing infinite actions and opinionsjn suc-
ceeding ages. So that if the invention of the ship was
UhoughT 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

VIII. 6.] THE FIRST BOOK. 73

are letters to be magnified, which as ships pass through
the vast seas of time, and make ages so distant to par
ticipate of the wisdom, illuminations, and inventions, the
one of the other ? Nay further, we see some of the phi
losophers which were least divine, and most immersed in
the senses, and denied generally the immortality 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 rudiments of the senses. But it must be re
membered, both in this last point, and so it may like
wise be needful in other places, that in probation of
the dignity of knowledge or learning, I did in the be
ginning separate divine testimony from human, which
method I have pursued, and so handled them both
apart.

7. Nevertheless I do not pretend, and I know it will
be impossible for me, by any pleading of mine, to reverse
the judgement, either of ^Esop 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; or of Agrippina, occidat matrem, modo im-
peret, that preferred empire with any condition never so
detestable ; or of Ulysses, qui vetulam pratulit immort-
alitati, being a figure of those which prefer custom and

74 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VIII. 7.

habit before all excellency ; or of a number of the like
popular judgements. For these things must continue as
they have been: but so will that also continue where
upon learning hath ever relied, and which faileth not:
Justificata est sapientia a flit s suis.

BOOK II- OF WHAT HAS BEEN

f Acts of me

Dedication to the King (1-15) defining -j

Defects of

I. History (i. 2 Hi. 5)

(A) Human learning

(i xxiii)
divided into

Ci

Narrati

III. Philosophy (v xxiii)

(B) Divine learning
(xxiv, xxv) has
two parts

(Of b
Of s

f The matter reve

The nature of the revelatio
(Use and limits of reason

Conclusion.

ANALYSIS.

)ONE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING HUMAN AND DIVINE, WITH THE DEFECTS OF THE SAME.

it towards learning (37) as regards

( i. Places o
< 2. Books o
I 3. The per

i. Places of learning (4).
of learning (5).
srson of the learned (6).

1. All dedicated to professions and none to sciences at large (8).

2. Smallness of reward for lecturers (9).
laces of learning (8-14) 3- Want of apparatus for experiments (10.11).

. , .

4. Neglect of consultation in governors and of visitation in princes (12).

5. Want of mutual intercourse between the Universities of Europe 13)-

6. Want of public appointment of writers or inquirers into the less known branches of knowledge (14).

( Of creatures.
ral(i. 3 K Of marvels (i. 3,4).
(Of arts (i. 5,6).

r Memorials (ii. 2) (Chronicles.

fii i) J "erf 6 ? 1 histories (ii. 4, 5) ; <> Lives.

their deficiencies (ii. 6 9) (Narrations.
[ Antiquities (ii. 3)

( History of the Church (iii. i).
esiastical < Of prophecy (iii. 2).
(Of Providence (iii. 3).

rary (defective).

pendices to history, orations, letters, sayings (iii. 4).

tative.
Divine, i. e.

natural theology (vi. i. 2).

.. I Science { Metaphysics (viL 3, 57), including mathematics (viii. i, 2).

( Experimental.

L Prudence (viii. 3) < Philosophical.
( Magical.

Body

Human (ix xxiil)

( Medicine (x. c 10).
I Cosmetic (x. ii).
") Athletics (x. 12).
(Sen

osmetic (x. n).
iletics (x. 12).
sual arts (x. 13).

JSkSWS** 1 nn,, Tr . ,-3,, r . -jy {SHUT

Mind < F acu ] t j e s "(xii xxti) -I ^ Tradition (xvix

Conjugal

Conversation (xxiii. 3).

ii. 4-45).
ii. 46^-49)-

,. -Mch

vice, including (Liturgy (xxv. 22).

& (Government (xxv 23).

(Limits (xxv. 8).
its < Sufficiency (xxv. 8, 9).

(Acquisition (xxv. 10 18).
religion, xxv. i-^j).

[To fare Page ^e > .}

THE

SECOND BOOK OF FRANCIS BACON;

OF THE PROFICIENCE OR

ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING,

DIVINE AND HUMAN.

To the King.

i. TT 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 descend
ants, should likewise be more careful of the good estate
of future times, unto which they know they must transmit
and commend over their dearest pledges. Queen Eliza
beth was a sojourner in the world in respect of her un
married 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 the like renovations, it is
proper and agreeable to be conversant 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

76 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [i.

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 Hercules
columns, beyond which there should be no sailing or dis
covering, 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.

2. Let this ground therefore be laid, that all works are
overcommen by amplitude of reward, by soundness of
direction, 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 in via antevertil cursorem
extra viam ; and Salomon excellently setteth it down,
If the iron be not sharp, it requireth more strength; but
wisdom z s that which prevaileth ; signifying that the
invention or election of the mean is more effectual than
any inforcement or accumulation 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 proficience, and
tend rather to augment the mass of learning in the mult
itude of learned men, than to rectify or raise the sciences
themselves.

3. The works or acts of merit towards learning are
conversant about three objects; the places of learning,
the books of learning, and the persons of the learned.

3.] THE SECOND ROOK. 77

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 comfort 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 accom
plishments 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,
conferences, and places appointed, as universities, col
leges, and schools, for the receipt and comforting of
the same.

4. The works which concern the seats and places of
learning are four; foundations and buildings, endowments
with revenues, endowments with franchises and privileges,
institutions 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 :

Principle sedes apibus statioque petencla,
Quo neque sit ventis aditus, &c.

5. The works touching books are two : first, libraries
which are as the shrines where all the relics of the an
cient saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion
or imposture, are preserved and reposed ; secondly, new
editions of authors, with more correct impressions
faithful translations, more profitable glosses, more diligen
annotations, and the like.

6. The works pertaining to the persons of learned men
(besides the advancement and countenancing of them in

, more
liligent^ J

78 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [6.

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.

7. These are summarily the works and acts, wherein
the merits of many excellent princes and other worthy
personages have been conversant. As for any particular
commemorations, I call to mind what Cicero said, when
he gave general thanks ; Difficile non aliquem, ingratum
quenquam prcelerire. 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.

8. First therefore, amongst so many great foundations
of colleges in Europe, I find strange that they are all
dedicated 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 mo
tion, 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 phi
losophy and universality to be idle studies, he doth not
consider that all professions are from thence served and
supplied. And this I take to be a great cause that hath
hindered the progression of learning, because these
fundamental knowledges have been studied but in pas
sage. 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
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

8.] THE SECOND BOOK. 79

and dotations 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 estate,
because there is no education collegiate which is free ;
where such as were so disposed mought give themselves
to histories, modern languages, books of policy and civil
discourse, and other the like enablements unto service
of estate.

9. 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 smallness and meanness of the salary or reward iX
which in most places is assigned unto them; whether
they be lectures of arts, or of professions. For it is
necessary to the progression of sciences that readers be
of the most able and sufficient men ; as those which are
ordained for generating and propagating of sciences, and
not for transitory use. This cannot be, except their con
dition and endowment be such as may content the ablest
man to appropriate his whole labour and continue his
whole age in that function and attendance ; and therefore
must have a proportion answerable 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 siaid
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

80 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [9.

entertainment with them ; otherwise if the fathers in
sciences be of the weakest sort or be ill maintained,

Et patrum invalid! referent jejunia nati.

10. Another defect I note, wherein I shall need some
alchemist to help me, who call upon men to sell their
books, and to build furnaces; quitting and forsaking
Minerva and the Muses as barren virgins, and relying
upon Vulcan. But certain it is, that unto the deep,
fruitful, and operative study of many sciences, specially
natural philosophy and physic, books be not only the
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
a few things. In general, there will hardly be any main
proficience in the disclosing of nature, except there be
some allowance for expenses about experiments ; whe
ther they be experiments appertaining to Vulcanus or
Daedalus, 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.

11. And if Alexander made such a liberal assignation to
Aristotle of treasure for the allowance of hunters, fowlers,
fishers, and the like, that he mought compile an history
of nature, much better do they deserve it that travail in
arts of nature.

12. Another defect which I note, is an intermission or

12. "I THE SECOND BOOK. 8l

neglect, in those which are governors in universities,
of consultation, and in princes or superior persons, of
visitation : to enter into account and consideration, whe
ther the readings, exercises, and other customs apper
taining unto learning, anciently begun and since conti
nued, 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 in all usages
and precedents, the times be considered wherein they first
began ; which if they were weak or ignorant, 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 judgement,
the other for ornament. And they be the rules and
directions how to set forth and dispose matter : and
therefore for minds empty and unfraught with matter,
and which have not gathered that which Cicero calleth
sylra 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

Q

82 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [12.

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 universities,
which do make too great a divorce between invention
and memory. For their speeches are either premeditate,
in verbis concepts, 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 ; 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 Caesar s
letter to Oppius and Balbus, Hoc quemadmodum fieri
possit, nonnulla mihi in mentem veniunt, et multa reperiri
possunt : de its rebus rogo vos ut cogitationem suscipiatis.

13. Another defect which I note, ascendeth a little
higher than the precedent. For as the proficience of
learning consisteth 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 intel
ligence mutual between the universities of Europe than
now there is. We see there be many orders and found
ations, which though they be divided under several
sovereignties and territories, yet they take themselves to

I3-] THE SECOND BOOK. 83

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 contract brotherhoods
in communalties, and the anointment of God super-
induceth a brotherhood in kings and bishops, so in
like manner there cannot but be a fraternity in learning
and illumination, relating to that paternity which is attri
buted to God, who is called the Father of illuminations
or lights.

14. 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 amongst 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, which, as the serpent of Moses,
mought devour the serpents of the enchanters.

15. The removing of all the defects formerly enu
merate, 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

G 2

84 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [15.

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 deficiences, and not to
make any redargution of errors or incomplete prosecu
tions. 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 pur
pose. But my hope is, that if my extreme love to learning
carry me too far, I may obtain the excuse of affection ;
for that // is not granted to man to love and to be wise.
But I know well I can use no other liberty of judgement
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 erranti comiter
monstrat viam, &c. I do foresee likewise that of those
things which I shall enter and register as deficiences and
omissions, many will conceive 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 com
passed 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 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 succession of ages, though
not within the hourglass of one man s life; and which

IS-] THE SECOND LOOK. 85

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 de
mand a question not impertinent, so it requireth some
sense to make a wish not absurd.

I. i HTHE 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 imagination, and philosophy 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
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 prerogative over
human, as the narration may be before the fact as well
as after.

2. History is natural, civil, ecclesiastical, and literary;
whereof the three first I allow as extant, the . . .

fit^toria

fourth I note as deficient. For no man hath Literarum.
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

86 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [l. 2.

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. But a just story of learning, containing
the antiquities and originals of knowledges and their sects,
their inventions, their traditions, their diverse administra
tions and managings, their flourishings, their oppositions,
decays, depressions, 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 Saint Augustine s
nor Saint Ambrose works that will make so wise a divine,
as ecclesiastical history, throughly read and observed,
and the same reason is of learning.

3. 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 mar
vels, 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

Histaria n te them as deficient - For I find no suffi-
Naturae :ient OT com petent collection of the works of
Errand*. naturc which have a digression and deflexion
from the ordinary course of generations, pro
ductions, and motions; whether they be singularities
of place and region, or the strange events of time and
chance, or the effects of yet unknown proprieties, or the

1. 3-] THE SECOND BOOK. 87

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 strange
ness; but a substantial and severe collection of the
heteroclites or irregulars of nature, well examined and
described, I find not : specially 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.

4. The use of this work, honoured with a precedent
in Aristotle, is nothing less than to give contentment to
the appetite of curious and vain wits, as the manner of
Mirabilaries is to 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 com
mon and familiar examples ; 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 wander
ings, to be able to lead her afterwards to the same place
again. Neither am I of opinion, in this history of mar
vels, 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 specu
lation 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

88 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [1.4.

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 philo
sophy 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 superstition, be sorted by them
selves, and not to be mingled with the narrations which
are merely and sincerely natural. But as for the nar
rations touching the prodigies and miracles of religions,
they are either not true, or not natural; and therefore
impertinent for the story of nature.

5. For history of nature wrought or mechanical, I
find some collections made of agriculture,
Histona anc j likewise of manual arts ; but commonly
tca 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, rarities, and special subtilties ; 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 induc
tions, 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 an-
swereth, You have reason, and it becomes you well, being a
man so trim in your vestiments, &c., and so goeth on in an

I. 5 .] THE SECOND BOOK. #9

irony. But the truth is, they be not the highest instances
that give the securest information ; as may be well ex
pressed 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 in his smallest portions.
And for that cause he inquireth the nature of a common
wealth, first in a family, and the simple conjugations of
man and wife, parent and child, master and servant, which
are in every cottage. 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.

6. But if my judgement be of any weight, the use of
history 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 endowment 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 connexion
and transferring of the observations 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

90 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [l. 6.

he be crossed, nor Proteus ever changed shapes till he
was straitened and held fast ; so the passages and vari
ations of nature cannot appear so fully in the liberty of
nature as in the trials and vexations of art.

II. i. For civil history, it is of three kinds; not un
fitly 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, memorials, perfect
histories, and antiquities ; for memorials are history un
finished, or the first or rough draughts of history ; and
antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of his
tory which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.

2. Memorials, or preparatory history, are of two sorts ;
whereof the one may be termed commentaries, and the
other registers. Commentaries are they which set down
a continuance 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 a commentary (though Csesar,
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 estate, orations and the like, without a perfect
continuance or contexture of the thread of the narration.

3. Antiquities, or remnants of history, are, as was said,
tanquam tabula naufragii : 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.

II. 4.] THE SECOND BOOK. 91

4. In these kinds of imperfect histories I do assign
no deficience, for they are tanquam imperfecte mista ; and
therefore any deficience in them is but their nature.
As for the corruptions and moths of history, which are
epitomes, the use of them deserveth to be banished, as
all men of sound judgement have confessed, as those
that have fretted and corroded the sound bodies of many
excellent histories, and wrought them into base and
unprofitable dregs.

5. History, which may be called just and perfect his
tory, is of three kinds, according to the object which
it propoundeth, or pretendeth to represent : for it either
represented a time, or a person, or an action. The first
we call chronicles, the second lives, and the third narra
tions 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 magnitude 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 e minimi s 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 commix
ture, must of necessity contain a more true, native, and
lively representation. So again narrations and relations
of actions, as the war of Peloponnesus, the expedition of
Cyrus Minor, the conspiracy of Catiline, cannot but be

92 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [ll. 5.

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, specially 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.

6. 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 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.

7. Now to speak of the deficiences. As to the hea
then antiquities of the world, it is in vain to note them
for deficient. 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
condil, her head is muffled from our sight. For the his
tory 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 drowned "and extinguished
in the affairs of Rome), and for Rome from Romulus
to Justinianus, who may be truly said to be ultimas
Romanorum. In which sequences of story the text of
Thucydides and Xenophon in the one, and the texts
of Livius, Polybius, Sallustius, C^sar, Appianus, Tacitus,
Herodianus in the other, to be kept entire without any

U. ;.] THE SECOND BOOK. 93

diminution at all, and only to be supplied and continued.
But this is matter of magnificence, rather to be com
mended than required: and we speak now of parts of
learning supplemental and not of supererogation.

8. 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, be
cause I will not be curiosus in aliena republica y I cannot
fail to represent to your Majesty the unworthiness of the
history of England in the main continuance thereof, and
the partiality and obliquity of that of Scotland in the
latest and largest author that I have seen : supposing that
it would be honour for your Majesty, and a work very
memorable, if this island of Great Brittany, as it is now
joined in monarchy for the ages to come, 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 excellent 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 hereditary
monarchy hath been known. For it beginneth with the
mixed adeption 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
working 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 all the number.
Then followeth the reign of a king, whose actions, howso-

94 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [ll. 8.

ever 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 eccle
siastical, an action which seldom cometh upon the stage.
Then the reign of a minor : then an offer of an usurpation
(though it was but zsfebris ephemera). Then the reign of
a queen matched with a foreigner : then of a queen that
lived solitary and unmarried, and yet her government so
masculine, as 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 Brittany, divided from all the
world, should be united in itself: and that oracle of rest
given to ^Eneas, 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 Brittany, 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 pro
vidence 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), it had these prelusive changes
and varieties.

9. For lives, I do find strange that these times have so
little esteemed the virtues of the times, as that the writings
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 invention of one of the late poets is proper, and
doth well enrich the ancient fiction. For he feigneth

II. Q.] THE SECOND BOOK. 95

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 to a
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 magnae laudis egentes ;

which opinion cometh from that root, Non prius laudes
contempsi?nus, quarn laudanda facer e desivimus : yet that
will not alter Salomon s judgement, 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 memories, pice memories, bonce memories, we
do acknowledge that which Cicero saith, borrowing it
from Demosthenes, that bona fama propria posscssio de-
functorum ; which possession I cannot but note that in
our times it lieth much waste, and that therein there is a
deficience.

10. 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 com
mon to write a good history, as may well appear by the
small number of them; yet if particularity of actions

96 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING [ll. 10.

memorable were but tolerably reported as they pass, the
compiling of a complete history of times mought be the
better expected, when a writer 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.

ii. There is yet another partition of history which
Cornelius Tacitus maketh, which is not to be forgotten,
specially 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 mag
nificent buildings, he addeth, Cum ex dignitale populi Ro-
mani repertum sit, res illustres annalibus, talia diurnis urbis
actis mandare. 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 de
grees, so it doth not a little imbase the authority of an
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, 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 particularity,
even concerning his person and court; and it is yet
an use well received in enterprises memorable, as expe
ditions of war, navigations, and the like, to keep diaries
of that which passeth continually.

U. 12.] THE SECOND BOOK. 97

12. I cannot likewise be ignorant of a form of writing
which some grave and wise men have used, containing a
scattered history of those actions which they have thought
worthy of memory, with politic discourse and observation
thereupon: not incorporate into the history, but separ
ately, and as the more principal in their intention ; which
kind of ruminated history I thing more fit to place amongst
books of policy, whereof we shall hereafter speak, than
amongst bookfe of history. For it is the true office of his
tory 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 judge
ment. But mixtures are things irregular, whereof no man
can define.

13. So also is there another kind of history manifoldly
mixed, and that is history of cosmography : being com
pounded 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 mathe
matics, in respect of the climates and configurations to
wards 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 nor enterprised till these later times : and

H

98 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [ll. 13.

therefore these times may justly bear in their word, not
only plus ultra, in precedence of the ancient non ultra,
and imi labile fulmen, in precedence of the ancient non
imitabile fulmen,

Demens qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen, &c.
but likewise imitabile ccelum ; in respect of the many
memorable voyages after the manner of heaven about
the globe of the earth.

14. And this proficience in navigation and discoveries
may 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, Plurimi pertransibunt, et multiplex
erit scientia : as if the openness and through-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 later times not much
giving place to the former two periods or returns of learn
ing, the one of the Grecians, the other of the Romans.

III. i. History ecclesiastical receiveth the same divi
sions 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 milit
ant 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 the virtue
and sincerity of it were according to the mass and
quantity. But I am not now in hand with censures, but
with omissions.

HI. 2 .] THE SECOND BOOK. 99

2. 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 the better confirmation of faith, and for the better
illumination of the Church touching those parts of pro
phecies 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 there
fore are not fulfilled punctually at once, but have

springing and germinant accomplishment

. Htstona

throughout many ages ; though the height a

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.

3. The third, which is history of providence, con-
taineth that excellent correspondence which is between
God s revealed 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 establishment and the con
futing 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 it ; that is,
mere sensual persons, which hasten by God s judge
ments, 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 judgements, chastisements, deliverances, and

H 2

100 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, [ill. 3

blessings : and this is a work which hath passed through
the labour of many, and therefore I cannot present as
omitted.

4. There are also other parts of learning which are
appendices to history. 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 ; orations, 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 oc
casions, advertisements, advices, directions, propositions,
petitions, commendatory, expostulatory, satisfactory, of
compliment, of pleasure, of discourse, and all other pas
sages of action. And such as are written from wise men
are of all the words of man, in my judgement, 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 instructions for history, and to a diligent reader the
best histories in themselves. For apophthegms, it is a
great loss of that book of Caesar s ; for as his history, and
those few letters of his which we have, and those apo
phthegms which were of his own, excel all men s else, so I
suppose would his collection 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

III. 4 .] THE SECOND BOOK. IOI

I do not insist, because I have no deficiences to propound
concerning them.

5. Thus much therefore concerning history, which is
that part of learning which answereth to one of the cells,
domiciles, or offices of the mind of man ; which is that
of the memory.

IV. i. Poesy is a part of learning in measure of words
for the most part restrained, but in all other points ex
tremely licensed, and doth truly refer to the imagination ;
which, being not tied to the laws of matter, may at plea
sure join that which nature hath severed, and sever that
which nature hath joined ; and so make unlawful matches
and divorces of things ; Picioribus atque poetis, &c. It
is taken in two senses in respect of words or matter.
In the first sense it is but a character of style, and be-
longeth 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
feigned history, which may be styled as well in prose as
in verse.

2. 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 propouncleth the successes
and issues of actions not so agreeable to the merits of
virtue and vice, therefore poesy feigns them more just in

102 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [iV. 2.

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 unexpected 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 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 unto 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
consort it hath with music, it hath had access and estim
ation in rude times and barbarous regions, where other
learning stood excluded.

3. The division of poesy which is aptest in the pro
priety 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, represent
ative, 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 narration applied
only to express some special purpose or conceit. Which
latter kind of parabolical wisdom was much more in use
in the ancient times, as by the fables of ^Esop, and the
brief sentences of the seven, and the use of hieroglyphics
may appear. And the cause was, for that it was then of

tV. 3 .] THE SECOND BOOK. 103

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
subtilty of conceit. And as hieroglyphics were before
letters, so parables were before arguments : and never
theless now and at all times they do retain much life
and vigour, because reason cannot be so sensible, nor
examples so fit.

4. But there remaineth yet another use of poesy para
bolical, opposite to that which we last mentioned : for
that tendeth to demonstrate and illustrate that which is
taught or delivered, 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 authorised. 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 their war against the gods,
the earth their mother in revenge thereof brought forth
Fame :

Illam terra parens, ira irritata Deorum,

Extremam, ut perhibent, Cceo Enceladoque sororem

Progenuit.

Expounded that when princes and monarchs have sup
pressed actual and open rebels, then the malignity of
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 sub
jects, as long as by wisdom they keep the hearts of the

104 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [iV. 4.

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. Never
theless, 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 scrip
ture by the later 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.

5. 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 affections, 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
harangues. But it is not good to stay too long in the
theatre. Let us now pass on to the judicial place or palace

IV. S-] THE SECOND BOOK. 105

of the mind, which we are to approach and view with
more reverence and attention.

V. i. The knowledge of man is as the waters, some
descending from above, and some springing from be
neath ; the one informed by the light of nature, the other
inspired by divine revelation. The light of nature con-
sisteth in the notions of the mind and the reports of the
senses : for as for knowledge which man receiveth by
teaching, it is cumulative and not original ; as in a water
that besides his own spring-head is fed with other springs
and streams. So then, according to these two differing
illuminations or originals, knowledge is first of all divided
into divinity and philosophy.

2. In philosophy, the contemplations of man do either
penetrate unto God, or are circumferred to nature, or are
reflected or reverted upon himself. Out of which several
inquiries there do arise three knowledges; divine philo
sophy, natural philosophy, and human philosophy or
humanity. For all things are marked and stamped with
this triple character, of the power of God, the difference
of nature, and the use of man. But because the distribu
tions and partitions of knowledge are not like several
lines that meet in one angle, and so touch but in a point;
but are like branches of a tree, that meet in a stem, which
hath a dimension and quantity of entireness and con
tinuance, before it come to discontinue and break itself
into arms and boughs : therefore it is good, before we
enter into the former distribution, to erect and constitute
one universal science, by the name of philosophia prima,
primitive or summary philosophy, as the main and com
mon way, before we come where the ways part and divide
themselves; which science whether I should report as
deficient or no, I stand doubtful. For I find a certain

106 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [V. 2.

rhapsody of natural theology, and of divers parts of logic;
and of that part of natural philosophy which concerneth
the principles, and of that other part of natural philo
sophy which concerneth the soul or spirit; all these
strangely commixed and confused ; but being examined,
it seemeth to me rather a depredation of other sciences,
advanced and exalted unto some height of terms, than
anything solid or substantive of itself. Nevertheless I
cannot be ignorant of the distinction which is current,
that the same things are handled but in several respects.
As for example, that logic considereth of many things as
they are in notion, and this philosophy as they are in
nature; the one in appearance, the other in existence;
but I find this difference better made than pursued. For
if they had considered quantity, similitude, diversity, and
the rest of those extern characters of things, as philo
sophers, and in nature, their inquiries must of force have
been of a far other kind than they are. For doth any
of them, in handling quantity, speak of the force of union,
how and how far it multiplieth virtue? Doth any give
the reason, why some things in nature are so common,
and in so great mass, and others so rare, and in so small
quantity? Doth any, in handling similitude and divers
ity, assign the cause why iron should not move to iron,
which is more like, but move to the load-stone, which is
less like ? Why in all diversities of things there should
be certain participles in nature, which are almost am
biguous to which kind they should be referred? But
there is a mere and deep silence touching the nature and
operation of those common adjuncts of things, as in
nature : and only a resuming and repeating of the force
and use of them in speech or argument. Therefore,
because in a writing of this nature I avoid all subtility,

V. 2.1 THE SECOND BOOK.

I0 7

my meaning touching this original or universal philo
sophy is thus, in a plain and gross description by nega
tive : That it be a receptacle for all such profitable observ
ations and axioms as fall not within the compass of any
of the special parts of philosophy or sciences, but are more
common and of a higher stage.

3. Now that there are many of that kind need not be
doubted. For example : is not the rule, Si inaqualibus
(Equalia addas, omnia erunt incequalia, an axiom as well of
justice as of the mathematics? and is there not a true
coincidence between commutative and distributive justice,
and arithmetical and geometrical proportion? Is not
that other rule, Qua in eodem tertio conveniunt, et inter se
conveniunt, a rule taken from the mathematics, but so
potent in logic as all syllogisms are built upon it? Is
not the observation, Omnia mutantur, nil inlerit, a con
templation in philosophy thus, that the quantum of nature
is eternal ? in natural theology thus, that it requireth the
same omnipotency to make somewhat nothing, which at
the first made nothing somewhat ? according to the scrip
ture, Didici quod omnia opera, qua fecit Deus, perseverent
in perpetuum ; non possumus eis quicquam addere nee au-
ferre. Is not the ground, which Machiavel wisely and""
largely discourseth concerning governments, that the way
to establish and preserve them, is to reduce them ad
principia, a rule in religion and nature, as well as in civil
administration ? Was not the Persian magic a reduction^
or correspondence of the principles and architectures of
nature to the rules and policy of governments ? Is not
the precept of a musician, to fall from a discord or harsh
accord upon a concord or sweet accord, alike true in
affection ? Is not the trope of music, to avoid or slide
from the close or cadence, common with the trope of

IO8 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [V. 3.

rhetoric of deceiving expectation ? Is not the delight of
the quavering upon a stop in music the same with the
playing of light upon the water ?

Splendet tremulo sub lumine pontus.

Are not the organs of the senses of one kind with the
organs of reflection, the eye with a glass, the ear with a
cave or strait, determined and bounded? Neither are
these only similitudes, as men of narrow observation may
conceive them to be, but the same footsteps of nature,
treading or printing upon several subjects or matters.
This science therefore (as I understand it) I may justly
report as deficient : for I see sometimes the profounder
sort of wits, in handling some particular
Philosophic ar g um ent, will now and then draw a bucket

prima. sive c r . .

de fontibus water out of this well for their present

scientiarnm. use : but tne spring-head thereof seemeth to
me not to have been visited; being of so
excellent use both for the disclosing of nature and the
abridgement of art.

VI. i. This science being therefore first placed as a
common parent like unto Berecynthia, which had so
much heavenly issue, omnes ccelicolas, omnes supera alta
tenentes ; we may return to the former distribution of the
three philosophies, divine, natural, and human. And as
concerning divine philosophy or natural theology, it is
that knowledge or rudiment of knowledge concerning
God, which may be obtained by the contemplation of
his creatures; which knowledge may be truly termed
divine in respect of the object, and natural in respect of
the light. The bounds of this knowledge are, that it
sufiiceth to convince atheism, but not to inform religion :
and therefore there was never miracle wrought by God
to convert an atheist, because the light of nature might

VI. I.] THE SECOND BOOK. 109

have led him to confess a God : but miracles have been
wrought to convert idolaters and the superstitious, be
cause no light of nature extendeth to declare the will and
true worship of God. For as all works do show forth ^)
the power and skill of the workman, and not his image,
so it is of the works of God, which do show the omni- I
potency and wisdom of the maker, but not his image.
And therefore therein the heathen opinion differeth from
the sacred truth ; for they supposed the world to be the
image of God, and man to be an extract or compendious
image of the world ; but the scriptures never vouchsafe
to attribute to the world that honour, as to be the image
of God, but only the work of his hands ; neither do they
speak of any other image of God, but man. Wherefore
by the contemplation of nature to induce and enforce
the acknowledgement of God, and to demonstrate his
power, providence, and goodness, is an excellent argu
ment, and hath been excellently handled by divers. But
on the other side, out of the contemplation of nature, or
ground of human knowledges, to induce any verity or
persuasion concerning the points of faith, is in my judge
ment not safe: Da fidei qua fidei sun/. For the heathen
themselves conclude as much in that excellent and divine
fable of the golden chain : That men and gods were not
able to draw Jupiter down to the earth ; but contrariwise
Jupiter was able to draw them up to heaven. So as we
ought not to attempt to draw down or to submit the
mysteries of God to our reason ; but contrariwise to raise
and advance our reason to the divine truth. So as in
this part of knowledge, touching divine philosophy, I am
so far from noting any deficience, as I rather note an
excess : whereunto I have digressed because of the ex^~i
treme prejudice which both religion and philosophy hath

110 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VI. i.

received and may receive by being commixed together;
as that which undoubtedly will make an heretical religion,
and an imaginary and fabulous philosophy.

2. Otherwise it is of the nature of angels and spirits,
which is an appendix of theology, both divine and natural,
and is neither inscrutable nor interdicted. For although
the scripture saith, Let no man deceive you in sublime dis
course touching the worship of angels, pressing into that he
knoweth not, &c. t yet notwithstanding if you observe well
that precept, it may appear thereby that there be two
things only forbidden, adoration of them, and opinion
fantastical of them, either to extol them further than
appertaineth to the degree of a creature, or to extol a
man s knowledge of them further than he hath ground.
But the sober and grounded inquiry, which may arise out
of the passages of holy scriptures, or out of the grada
tions of nature, is not restrained. So of degenerate and
revolted spirits, the conversing with them or the employ
ment of them is prohibited, much more any veneration
towards them ; but the contemplation or science of their
nature, their power, their illusions, either by scripture or
reason, is a part of spiritual wisdom. For so the apostle
saith, We are not ignorant of his stratagems. And it is no
more unlawful to inquire the nature of evil spirits, than to
inquire the force of poisons in nature, or the nature of
sin and vice in morality. But this part touching angels
and spirits I cannot note as deficient, for many have
occupied themselves in it ; I may rather challenge it, in
many of the writers thereof, as fabulous and fantastical.
VII. i. Leaving therefore divine philosophy or natural

! /theology (not divinity or inspired theology, which we re
serve for the last of all as the haven and sabbath of all
//man s contemplations) we will now proceed to natural

J

VII. i.] THE SECOND BOOK. Ill

philosophy. If then it be true that Democritus said,
that tht truth of nature lieth hid in certain deep mines and
caves ; and ir it be true likewise that the alchemists do so
much inculcate, that Vulcan is a second nature, and im-
itateth that dextercmsly and compendiously which nature
worketh by ambages and length of time ; it were good to
divide natural philosophy into the mine and the furnace,
and to make two profess ; ons or occupations of natural
philosophers, some to be pioneers and some smiths ;
some to dig, and some to refine and hammer. And surely
I do best allow of a division of that kind, though in more
familiar and scholastical terms ; namely, that these be the
two parts of natural philosophy, the inquisition of causes,
and the production of effects ; speculative, and operative ;
natural science, and natural prudence. For as in civil
matters there is a wisdom of discourse, and a wisdom of
direction; so is it in natural. And here I will make a
request, that for the latter (or at least for a part thereof)
I may revive and reintegrate the misapplied and abused
name of natural magic; which in the true sense is but
natural wisdom, or natural prudence ; taken according to
the ancient acception, purged from vanity and super
stition. Now although it be true, and I know it well,
that there is an intercourse between causes and effects,
so as both these knowledges, speculative and operative, 1
have a great connexion between themselves ; yet because
all true and fruitful natural philosophy hath a double
scale or ladder, ascendent and descendent, ascending
from experiments to the invention of causes, and de
scending from causes to the invention of new experi
ments ; therefore I judge it most requisite that these two
parts be severally considered and handled.

2. Natural science or theory is divided into physic and

112 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, [VII. 2.

metaphysic : wherein I desire it may be conceived that I
use the word metaphysic in a differing sense from that
that is received. And in like manner, I doubt not but
it will easily appear to men of judgement, that in this
and other particulars, wheresoever my conception and
notion may differ from the ancient, yet I am studious to
keep the ancient terms. For hoping well to deliver
myself from mistaking, by the order and perspicuous
expressing of that I do propound; I am otherwise
zealous and affectionate to recede as little from antiquity,
either in terms or opinions, as may stand with truth and
the proficience of knowledge. And herein I cannot a
little marvel at the philosopher Aristotle, that did proceed
in such a spirit of difference and contradiction towards
all antiquity : undertaking not only to frame new words
of science at pleasure, but to confound and extinguish all
ancient wisdom : insomuch as he never nameth or men-
tioneth an ancient author or opinion, but to confute and
reprove ; wherein for glory, and drawing followers and
disciples, he took the right course. For certainly there
cometh to pass, and hath place in human truth, that
which was noted and pronounced in the highest truth :
Vent in nomine fiatn s, nee recipitis me ; si quis venerit in
nomine suo ewn recipietis. But in this divine aphorism
(considering to whom it was applied, namely to anti
christ, the highest deceiver) we may discern well that
the coming in a man s own name, without regard of
antiquity or paternity, is no good sign of truth, although
it be joined with the fortune and success of an eum
recipietis. But for this excellent person Aristotle, I will
think of him that he learned that humour of his scholar,
with whom it seemeth he did emulate ; the one to con
quer all opinions, as the other to conquer all nations.

VII. 2.] THE SECOND BOOK. 113

Wherein nevertheless, it may be, he may at some men s
hands, that are of a bitter disposition, get a like title as
his scholar did :

Felix terrarum praedo, non utilc mundo
Editus exemplum, &c.

So,

Felix doctrinae przdo.

But to me on the other side that do desire as much as
lieth in my pen to ground a sociable intercourse between
antiquity and proficience, it seemeth best to keep way
with antiquity usque ad aras ; and therefore to retain the
ancient terms, though I sometimes alter the uses and
definitions, according to the moderate proceeding in civil
government; where although there be some alteration,
yet that holdeth which Tacitus wisely noteth, eadem ma-
gistratuum vocabula.

3. To return therefore to the use and acception of the
term metaphysic, as I do now understand the word; it
appeareth, by that which hath been already said, that I
intend philosophia prt ma, summary philosophy and meta
physic, which heretofore have been confounded as one,
to be two distinct things. For the one I have made as
a parent or common ancestor to all knowledge ; and the
other I have now brought in as a branch or descendant
of natural science. It appeareth likewise that I have
assigned to summary philosophy the common principles
and axioms which are promiscuous and indifferent to
several sciences: I have assigned unto it likewise the
inquiry touching the operation of the relative and ad-
ventive characters of essences, as quantity, similitude,
diversity, possibility, and the rest: with this distinction
and provision ; that they be handled as they have efficacy
in nature, and not logically. It appeareth likewise that

I

114 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, [vil. 3.

natural theology, which heretofore hath been handled
confusedly with metaphysic, I have inclosed and bounded
by itself. It is therefore now a question what is left
remaining for metaphysic; wherein I may without pre
judice preserve thus much of the conceit of antiquity,
that physic should contemplate that which is inherent in
matter, and therefore transitory ; and metaphysic that
which is abstracted and fixed. And again, that physic
should handle that which supposeth in nature only a
being and moving ; and metaphysic should handle that
which supposeth further in nature a reason, understand
ing, and platform. But the difference, perspicuously ex
pressed, is most familiar and sensible. For as we divided
natural philosophy in general into the inquiry of causes,
and productions of effects : so that part which concerneth
the inquiry of causes we do subdivide according to the
received and sound division of causes. The one part,
which is physic, inquireth and handleth the material and
efficient causes; and the other, which is metaphysic.
handleth the formal and final causes.

4. Physic (taking it according to the derivation, and
not according to our idiom for medicine) is situate in a
middle term or distance between natural history and
metaphysic. For natural history describeth the variety
of things; physic the causes, but variable or respective
causes ; and metaphysic the fixed and constant causes.

Limus ut hie durescit, et haec ut cera liquescit,
Uno eodemque igni.

Fire is the cause of induration, but respective to clay ;
fire is the cause of colliquation, but respective to wax.
But fire is no constant cause either of induration or colli
quation : so then the physical causes are but the efficient
and the matter. Physic hath three parts, whereof two

VII. 4-] THE SECOND BOOK. 115

respect nature united or collected, the third contemplateth
nature diffused or distributed. Nature is collected either
into one entire total, or else into the same principles or
seeds. So as the first doctrine is touching the contexture
or configuration of things, as de mundo, de universitate
rerum. The second is the doctrine concerning the prin
ciples or originals of things. The third is the doctrine
concerning all variety and particularity of things ; whether
it be of the differing substances, or their differing qualities
and natures ; whereof there needeth no enumeration, this
part being but as a gloss or paraphrase that attendeth
upon the text of natural history. Of these three I
cannot report any as deficient. In what truth or per
fection they are handled, I make not now any judge
ment; but they are parts of knowledge not deserted by
the labour of man. ^>^? * ^^

5. For metaphysic, we have assigned unto it the in
quiry of formal and final causes; which assignation, as
to the former of them, may seem to be nugatory, and
void, because of the received and inveterate opinion,
that the inquisition of man is not competent to find out
essential forms or true differences : of which opinion we
will take this hold, that the invention of forms is of all
other parts of knowledge the worthiest to be sought, if it-
be possible to be found. As for the possibility, they are
ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can
see nothing but sea. But it is manifest that Plato, in his
opinion of ideas, as one that had a wit of elevation
situate as upon a cliff, did descry that forms were the
true object of knowledge ; but lost the real fruit of his
opinion, by considering of forms as absolutely abstracted
from matter, and not confined and determined by matter ;
and so turning his opinion upon theology, wherewith all

I 2

Jl6 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VII. 5.

his natural philosophy is infected. But if any man shall
keep a continual watchful and severe eye upon action,
operation, and the use of knowledge, he may advise and
take notice what are the forms, the disclosures whereof
are fruitful and important to the state of man. For as
to the forms of substances (man only except, of whom it
is said, Formavit hommern de limo terra, et spiravit in
faciem ejus spiraculum vita, and not as of all other crea
tures, Producant aquce, producat terra], the forms of sub
stances I say (as they are now by compounding and
transplanting multiplied) are so perplexed, as they are not
to be inquired ; no more than it were either possible or
to purpose to seek in gross the forms of those sounds
which make words, which by composition and trans
position of letters are infinite. But on the other side
to inquire the form of those sounds or voices which make
simple letters is easily comprehensible ; and being known
induceth and manifesteth the forms of all words, which
consist and are compounded of them. In the same man
ner to inquire the form of a lion, of an oak, of gold ; nay,
of water, of air, is a vain pursuit : but to inquire the forms
of sense, of voluntary motion, of vegetation, of colours,
of gravity and levity, of density, of tenuity, of heat, of
cold, and all other natures and qualities, which, like an
alphabet, are not many, and of which the essences (up
held by matter) of all creatures do consist ; to inquire, I
say, the true forms of these, is that part of metaphysic
which we now define of. Not but that physic doth make
inquiry and take consideration of the same natures : but
how? Only as to the material and efficient causes of
them, and not as to the forms. For example, if the
cause of whiteness in snow or froth be inquired, and it
be rendered thus, that the subtile intermixture of air and

VII. 5.] THE SECOND BOOK. 1 17

water is the cause, it is well rendered ; but nevertheless
is this the form of whiteness ? No ; but it is the efficient,
which is ever but vehiculum forma. This
part of metaphysic I do not find laboured

_. . , stve de for-

and performed : whereat I marvel not : be- ^ et ^ ni _
cause I hold it not possible to be invented ^ us rcrum ,
by that course of invention which hath been
used ; in regard that men (which is the root of all error)
have made too untimely a departure and too remote a
recess from particulars.

6. But the use of this part of metaphysic, which I re
port as deficient, is of the rest the most excellent in two
respects : the one, because it is the duty and virtue of all
knowledge to abridge the infinity of individual experience,
as much as the conception of truth will permit, and to
remedy the complaint of vita brevis, ars longa ; which is
performed by uniting the notions and conceptions of
sciences. For knowledges are as pyramides, whereof
history is the basis. So of natural philosophy, the basis is
natural history ; the stage next the basis is physic ; the
stage next the vertical point is metaphysic. As for the
vertical point, opus quod operatur Deus a principio usque ad
fnem, the summary law of nature, we know not whether
man s inquiry can attain unto it. But these three be the
true stages of knowledge, and are to them that are de
praved no better than the giants hills :

Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam,

Scilicet, atque Ossae fronclosum involvere Olympum.

But to those which refer all things to the glory of God,
they are as the three acclamations, Sanc/e, sancte, sancte /
holy in the description or dilatation of his works; holy
in the connexion or concatenation of them ; and holy in

Il8 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VII. 6.

the union of them in a perpetual and uniform law. And
therefore the speculation was excellent in Parmenides and
Plato, although but a speculation in them, that all things
by scale did ascend to unity. So then always that know
ledge is worthiest which is charged with least multiplicity,
which appeareth to be metaphysic; as that which con-
sidereth the simple forms or differences of things, which
are few in number, and the degrees and co-ordinations
whereof make all this variety. The second respect, which
valueth and commendeth this part of metaphysic, is that
it doth enfranchise the power of man unto the greatest
liberty and possibility of works and effects. For physic
carrieth men in narrow and restrained ways, subject to
many accidents of impediments, imitating the ordinary
flexuous courses of nature. But lata undique sunt sapienti-
lus VICE: to sapience (which was anciently defined to be
rerum divinarum et humanarum scientid) there is ever
choice of means. For physical causes give light to new
invention in simili mater ia. But whosoever knoweth any
form, knoweth the utmost possibility of superinducing that
nature upon any variety of matter ; and so is less re
strained in operation, either to the basis of the matter,
or the condition of the efficient ; which kind of knowledge
Salomon likewise, though in a more divine sense, elegantly
describeth; non arctabuntur gressus tui, et currens non
habebis offendiculum. The ways of sapience are not much
liable either to particularity or chance.

7. The second part of metaphysic is the inquiry of
final causes, which I am moved to report not as omitted
but as misplaced. And yet if it were but a fault in order,
I would not speak of it : for order is matter of illustration,
but pertaineth not to the substance of sciences. But this
misplacing hath caused a deficience, or at least a great

VII. 7 .] THE SECOND BOOK.

improficience in the sciences themselves. For the hand
ling of final causes, mixed with the rest in physical in
quiries, hath intercepted the severe and diligent inquiry
of all real and physical causes, and given men the occa
sion to stay upon these satisfactory and specious causes,
to the great arrest and prejudice of further discovery.
For this I find done not only by Plato, who ever anchor-
eth upon that shore, but by Aristotle, Galen, and others
which do usually likewise fall upon these flats of discours
ing causes. For to say that the hairs of the eye-lids are for
a quickset and fence about the sight ; or that the firmness of
the skins and hides of living creatures is to defend them from
the extremities of heat or cold ; or that the bones are for the
columns or beams, whereupon the frames of the bodies of living
creatures are built: or that the leaves of trees are for pro
tecting of the fruit ; or that the clouds are for watering of
the earth ; or that the solidness of the earth is for the station
and mansion of living creatures, and the like, is well in
quired and collected in metaphysic, but in physic they
are impertinent. Nay, they are indeed but remoraes and
hindrances to stay and slug the ship from further sailing ;
and have brought this to pass, that the search of the
physical causes hath been neglected and passed in silence.
And therefore the natural philosophy of Democritus and
some others, who did not suppose a mind or reason in
the frame of things, but attributed the form thereof able
to maintain itself to infinite essays or proofs of nature,
which they term fortune, seemeth to me (as far as I can
judge by the recital and fragments which remain unto us)
in particularities of physical causes more real and better
inquired than that of Aristotle and Plato ; whereof both
intermingled final causes, the one as a part of theology,
and the other as a part of logic, which were the favourite

120 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VII. 7.

studies respectively of both those persons. Not because
those final causes are not true, and worthy to be inquired,
being kept within their own province; but because their
excursions into the limits of physical causes hath bred a
vastness and solitude in that tract. For otherwise, keep
ing their precincts and borders, men are extremely de
ceived if they think there is an enmity or repugnancy at
all between them. For the cause rendered, that the hairs
about the eye-lids are for the safeguard of the sight, doth
not impugn the cause rendered, that pilosity is incident to
orifices of moisture ; muscosi fontes, &c. Nor the cause
rendered, that the firmness of hides is for the armour of the
body against extremities of heat or cold, doth not impugn
the cause rendered, that contraction of pores is incident to
the outwardest parts, in regard of their adjacence to foreign
or unlike bodies : and so of the rest : both causes being
true and compatible, the one declaring an intention, the
other a consequence only. Neither doth this call in ques
tion, or derogate from divine providence, but highly con
firm and exalt it. For as in civil actions he is the greater
and deeper politique, that can make other men the instru
ments of his will and ends, and yet never acquaint them
with his purpose, so as they shall do it and yet not know
what they do, than he that imparteth his meaning to those
he employeth ; so is the wisdom of God more admirable,
when nature intendeth one thing, and providence draweth
forth another, than if he had communicated to particular
creatures and motions the characters and impressions of
his providence. And thus much for metaphysic: the
latter part whereof I allow as extant, but wish it confined
to his proper place.

VIII. i. Nevertheless there remaineth yet another
part of natural philosophy, which is commonly made a

VIII. I.]

THE SECOND BOOK.

121

principal part, and holdeth rank with physic special and
metaphysic, which is mathematic ; but I think it more
agreeable to the nature of things, and to the light of order,
to place it as a branch of metaphysic. For the subject of
it being quantity, not quantity indefinite, which is but a
relative, and belongeth to philosophia prima (as hath been
said), but quantity determined or proportionable, it appear-
eth to be one of the essential forms of things, as that that
is causative in nature of a number of effects ; insomuch as
we see in the schools both of Democritus and of Pytha
goras, that the one did ascribe figure to the first seeds of
things, and the other did suppose numbers to be the
principles and originals of things. And it is true also that
of all other forms (as we understand forms) it is the most
abstracted and separable from matter, and therefore most
proper to metaphysic ; which hath likewise been the cause
why it hath been better laboured and inquired than any
of the other forms, which are more immersed into matter.
For it being the nature of the mind of man (to the extreme
prejudice of knowledge) to delight in the spacious liberty
of generalities, as in a champain region, and not in the
inclosures of particularity, ihs mathematics of all other
knowledge were the goodliest fields to satisfy that appetite.
But for the placing of this science, it is not much ma
terial : only we have endeavoured in these our partitions
to observe a kind of perspective, that one part may cast
light upon another.

2. The mathematics are either pure or mixed. To the
pure mathematics are those sciences belonging which handle
quantity determinate, merely severed from any axioms of
natural philosophy; and these are two, geometry and
arithmetic ; the one handling quantity continued, and the
other dissevered. Mixed hath for subject some axioms

122 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VIII. 2.

or parts of natural philosophy, and considereth quantity
determined, as it is auxiliary and incident unto them.
For many parts of nature can neither be invented with
sufficient subtilty, nor demonstrated with sufficient per
spicuity, nor accommodated unto use with sufficient dex
terity, without the aid and intervening of the mathematics ;
of which sort are perspective, music, astronomy, cosmo
graphy, architecture, enginery, and divers others. In the
mathematics I can report no deficience, except it be that
men do not sufficiently understand the excellent use of the
pure mathematics, in that they do remedy and cure many
defects in the wit and faculties intellectual. For if the
wit be too dull, they sharpen it ; if too wandering, they
fix it ; if too inherent in the sense, they abstract it. So
that as tennis is a game of no use in itself, but of great
use in respect it maketh a quick eye and a body ready to
put itself into all postures; so in the mathematics, that
use which is collateral and intervenient is no less worthy
than that which is principal and intended. And as for the
mixed mathematics, I may only make this prediction,
that there cannot fail to be more kinds of them, as nature
grows further disclosed. Thus much of natural science,
or the part of nature speculative.

3. For natural prudence, or the part operative of na
tural philosophy, we will divide it into three parts, experi
mental, philosophical, and magical: which three parts
active have a correspondence and analogy with the three
parts speculative, natural history, physic, and metaphysic.
For many operations have been invented, sometime by
a casual incidence and occurrence, sometimes by a pur
posed experiment : and of those which have been found
by an intentional experiment, some have been found out
by varying or extending the same experiment, some by

VIII. 3.]

THE SECOND BOOK.

123

transferring and compounding divers experiments the one
into the other, which kind of invention an empiric may
manage. Again by the knowledge of physical causes
there cannot fail to follow many indications and designa
tions of new particulars, if men in their speculation will
keep one eye upon use and practice. But these are but
coastings along the shore premendo littus iniquum : for
it seemeth to me there can hardly be discovered any
radical or fundamental alterations and innovations in
nature, either by the fortune and essays of experiments,
or by the light and direction of physical causes. If
therefore we have reported metaphysic defi- ^
cient, it must follow that we do the like of Magia M ve
natural magic, which hath relation thereunto. Physica
For as for the natural magic whereof now Operativa
there is mention in books, containing certain ma J r
credulous and superstitious conceits and observations of
sympathies and antipathies, and hidden proprieties, and
some frivolous experiments, strange rather by disguise-
mcnt than in themselves, it is as far differing in truth of
nature from such a knowledge as we require, as the story
of King Arthur of Britain, or Hugh of Bourdeaux, differs
from Caesar s Commentaries in truth of story. For it is
manifest that Caesar did greater things de vero than those
imaginary heroes were feigned to do. But he did them
not in that fabulous manner. Of this kind of learning
the fable of Ixion was a figure, who designed to enjoy
Juno, the goddess of power; and instead of her had
copulation with a cloud, of which mixture were begotten
centaurs and chimeras. So whosoever shall entertain
high and vaporous imaginations, instead of a laborious
and sober inquiry of truth, shall beget hopes and beliefs
of strange and impossible shapes. And therefore we may

124 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VIII. 3.

note in these sciences which hold so much of imagination
and belief, as this degenerate natural magic, alchemy,
astrology, and the like, that in their propositions the de
scription of the means is ever more monstrous than the
pretence or end. For it is a thing more probable, that
he that knoweth well the natures of weight, of colour, of
pliant and fragile in respect of the hammer, of volatile and
fixed in respect of the fire, and the rest, may superinduce
upon some metal the nature and form of gold by such
mechanique as longeth to the production of the natures
afore rehearsed, than that some grains of the medicine
projected should in a few moments of time turn a sea
of quicksilver or other material into gold. So it is more
probable that he that knoweth the nature of arefaction,
the nature of assimilation of nourishment to the thing
nourished, the manner of increase and clearing of spirits,
the manner of the depredations which spirits make upon
the humours and solid parts, shall by ambages of diets,
bathings, anointings, medicines, motions, and the like,
prolong life, or restore some degree of youth or vivacity,
than that it can be done with the use of a few drops or
scruples of a liquor or receipt. To conclude therefore,
the true natural magic, which is that great liberty and
latitude of operation which dependeth upon the know
ledge of forms, I may report deficient, as the relative
thereof is. To which part, if we be serious and incline
not to vanities and plausible discourse, besides the deriv
ing and deducing the operations themselves from meta-
physic, there are pertinent two points of much purpose,
Inventarinm the one by way of preparation, the other by
opum hum- way of caution. The first is, that there be
anarum. mac j e a kalendar, resembling an inventory of
the estate of man, containing all the inventions (being

VIII. 3-] THE SECOND ROOK. 125

the works or fruits of nature or art) which are now
extant, and whereof man is already possessed ; out of
which doth naturally result a note, what things are yet
held impossible, or not invented: which kalendar will
be the more artificial and serviceable, if to every reputed
impossibility you add what thing is extant which cometh
the nearest in degree to that impossibility; to the end
that by these optatives and potentials man s inquiry may
be the more awake in deducing direction of works from
the speculation of causes. And secondly, that those ex
periments be not only esteemed which have an immediate
and present use, but those principally which are of most
universal consequence for invention of other experiments,
and those which give most light to the invention of causes.
For the invention of the mariner s needle, which giveth
the direction, is of no less benefit for navigation than the
invention of the sails which give the motion.

4. Thus have I passed through natural philosophy
and the deficiences thereof; wherein if I have differed
from the ancient and received doctrines, and thereby
shall move contradiction, for my part, as I affect not
to dissent, so I purpose not to contend. If it be
truth,

Non canimus surdis, respondent omnia sylvz ;

the voice of nature will consent, whether the voice of
man do or no. And as Alexander Borgia was wont to
say of the expedition of the French for Naples, that
they came with chalk in their hands to mark up their
lodgings, and not with weapons to fight ; so I like better
that entry of truth which cometh peaceably with chalk
to mark up those minds which are capable to lodge
and harbour it, than that which cometh with pugnacity
and contention.

\l6 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VIII. 5.

5. But there remaineth a division of natural philosophy
according to the report of the inquiry, and nothing con
cerning the matter or subject : and that is positive and
considerative ; when the inquiry reporteth either an asser
tion or a doubt. These doubts or non liquels are of two
sorts, particular and total. For the first, we see a good
example thereof in Aristotle s Problems, which deserved
to have had a better continuance; but so nevertheless
as there is one point whereof warning is to be given and
taken. The registering of doubts hath two excellent
uses : the one, that it saveth philosophy from errors and
falsehoods ; when that which is not fully appearing is not
collected into assertion, whereby error might draw error,
but reserved in doubt : the other, that the entry of doubts
are as so many suckers or sponges to draw use of know
ledge ; insomuch as that which, if doubts had not pre
ceded, a man should never have advised, but passed it
over without note, by the suggestion and solicitation of
doubts is made to be attended and applied. But both
these commodities do scarcely countervail an inconveni
ence, which will intrude itself if it be not debarred ; which
is, that when a doubt is once received, men labour rather
how to keep it a doubt still, than how to solve it ; and
accordingly bend their wits. Of this we see the familiar
example in lawyers and scholars, both which, if they have
once admitted a doubt, it goeth ever after authorised for
a doubt. But that use of wit and knowledge is to be
allowed, which laboureth to make doubtful things certain,
and not those which labour to make certain things doubt
ful. Therefore these kalendars of doubts I commend
as excellent things ; so that there be this caution used,
that when they be throughly sifted and brought to resolu
tion, they be from thenceforth omitted, decarded, and not

VIII. 5-] THE SECOND BOOK.

continued to cherish and encourage men in doubting.
To which kalendar of doubts or problems, I
advise be annexed another kalendar, as much

Problema-

or more material, which is a kalendar of tum - n na _

popular errors : I mean chiefly in natural tnra.

history, such as pass in speech and conceit, Catalog

and are nevertheless apparently detected and f al * ttat " n

convicted of untruth ; that man s knowledge grc

in htstoria

be not weakened nor imbased by such dross na/urce<
and vanity. As for the doubts or non liquets
general or in total, I understand those differences of
opinions touching the principles of nature, and the funda
mental points of the same, which have caused the diversity
of sects, schools, and philosophies, as that of Empedocles,
Pythagoras, Democritus, Parmenides, and the rest. For
although Aristotle, as though he had been of the race of
the Ottomans, thought he could not reign except the
first thing he did he killed all his brethren ; yet to those
that seek truth and not magistrality, it cannot but seem
a matter of great profit, to see before them the several
opinions touching the foundations of nature. Not for any
exact truth that can be expected in those theories ; for as
the same phenomena in astronomy are satisfied by the
received astronomy of the diurnal motion, and the proper
motions of the planets, with their eccentrics and epicycles,
and likewise by the theory of Copernicus, who supposed
the earth to move, and the calculations are indifferently
agreeable to both, so the ordinary face and view of expe
rience is many times satisfied by several theories and
philosophies; whereas to find the real truth requireth
another manner of severity and attention. For as Aris
totle saith, that children at the first will call every wo
man mother, but afterward they come to distinguish

128 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [VIII. 5.

according to truth ; so experience, if it be in childhood,

will call every philosophy mother, but when it cometh

to ripeness it will discern the true mother. So as in

the mean time it is good to see the several

De antiquis

philosophies. g!sses and opinions upon nature, whereof
it may be every one in some one point hath
seen clearer than his fellows, therefore I wish some col
lection to be made painfully and understandingly de
antiquis philosophy s, out of all the possible light which
remaineth to us of them : which kind of work I find
deficient. But here I must give warning, that it be done
distinctly and severedly ; the philosophies of every one
throughout by themselves, and not by titles packed and
faggoted up together, as hath been done by Plutarch.
For it is the harmony of a philosophy in itself whic,h
giveth it light and credence; whereas if it be singled
and broken, it will seem more foreign and dissonant.
For as when I read in Tacitus the actions of Nero or
Claudius, with circumstances of times, inducements, and
occasions, I find them not so strange ; but when I read
them in Suetonius Tranquillus, gathered into titles and
bundles and not in order of time, they seem more mon
strous and incredible : so is it of any philosophy reported
entire, and dismembered by articles. Neither do I ex
clude opinions of latter times to be likewise represented
in this kalendar of sects of philosophy, as that of Theo-
phrastus Paracelsus, eloquently reduced into an harmony
by the pen of Severinus the Dane ; and that of Tilesius,
and his scholar Donius, being as a pastoral philosophy,
full of sense, but of no great depth ; and that of Fracas-
torius, who, though he pretended not to make any new
philosophy, yet did use the absoluteness of his own sense
upon the old ; and that of Gilbertus our countryman, who

VIII. 5-J THE SECOND BOOK. 129

revived, with some alterations and demonstrations, the
opinions of Xenophanes; and any other worthy to be
admitted.

6. Thus have we now dealt with two of the three
beams of man s knowledge ; that is radius direc/us, which
is referred to nature, radius refradus, which is referred to
God, and cannot report truly because of the inequality of
the medium. There resteth radius reflexus, whereby man
beholdeth and contemplateth himself.

IX. i. We come therefore now to that knowledge
whereunto the ancient oracle directeth us, which is the
knowledge of ourselves; which deserveth the more ac
curate handling, by how much it toucheth us more nearly.
This knowledge, as it is the end and term of natural phi
losophy in the intention of man, so notwithstanding it is
but a portion of natural philosophy in the continent of
nature. And generally let this be a rule, that all partitions
of knowledges be accepted rather for lines and veins than
for sections and separations; and that the continuance
and entireness of knowledge be preserved. For the
contrary hereof hath made particular sciences to become
barren, shallow, and erroneous, while they have not been
nourished and maintained from the common fountain.
So we see Cicero the orator complained of Socrates and
his school, that he was the first that separated philosophy
and rhetoric ; whereupon rhetoric became an empty and
verbal art. So we may see that the opinion of Copernicus
touching the rotation of the earth, which astronomy itself
cannot correct, because it is not repugnant to any of the
phainomena, yet natural philosophy may correct. So we
see also that the science of medicine if it be destituted
and forsaken by natural philosophy, it is not much better
than an empirical practice. With this reservation therefore

I

130 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [iX. i.

we proceed to human philosophy or humanity, which
hath two parts: the one considereth man segregate or
distributively ; the other congregate, or in society. So as
human philosophy is either simple and particular, or con
jugate and civil. Humanity particular consisteth of the
same parts whereof man consisteth; that is, of know
ledges which respect the body, and of knowledges that
respect the mind. But before we distribute so far, it is
good to constitute. For I do take the consideration in
general, and at large, of human nature to be fit to be
emancipate and made a knowledge by itself: not so much
in regard of those delightful and elegant discourses which
have been made of the dignity of man, of his miseries, of
his state and life, and the like adjuncts of his common
and undivided nature ; but chiefly in regard of the know
ledge concerning the sympathies and concordances be
tween the mind and body, which being mixed cannot be
properly assigned to the sciences of either.

2. This knowledge hath two branches : for as all
leagues and amities consist of mutual intelligence and
mutual offices, so this league of mind and body hath
these two parts ; how the one discloseth the other, and
how the one worketh upon the other; discovery and
impression. The former of these hath begotten two
arts, both of prediction or prenotion ; whereof the one
is honoured with the inquiry of Aristotle, and the other
of Hippocrates. And although they have of later time
been used to be coupled with superstitious and fantastical
arts, yet being purged and restored to their true state,
they have both of them a solid ground in nature, and a
profitable use in life. The first is physiognomy, which
discovereth the disposition of the mind by the lineaments
of the body. The second is the exposition of natural

IX. 2.] THE SECOND BOOK. I$l

dreams, which discovereth the state of the body by the
imaginations of the mind. In the former of these I note
a deficience. For Aristotle hath very ingeni- Pars Physio .
ously and diligently handled the factures of gnomice,
the body, but not the gestures of the body, </ gestu she
which are no less comprehensible by art, and motu cor "
of greater use and advantage. For the linea- ^ om *
ments of the body do disclose the disposition and inclina
tion of the mind in general ; but the motions of the coun
tenance and parts do not only so, but do further disclose
the present humour and state of the mind and will. For
as your majesty saith most aptly and elegantly, As the
tongue speaketh to the ear so the gesture speaketh to the eye.
And therefore a number of subtile persons, whose eyes
do dwell upon the faces and fashions of men, do well
know the advantage of this observation, as being most
part of their ability; neither can it be denied, but that
it is a great discovery of dissimulations, and a great direc
tion in business.

3. The latter branch, touching impression, hath not
been collected into art, but hath been handled dispers-
edly; and it hath the same relation or antistrophe that
the former hath. For the consideration is double : either,
how and how far the humours and affects of the body do
alter or work upon the mind ; or again, how and how far
the passions or apprehensions of the mind do alter or
work upon the body. The former of these hath been
inquired and considered as a part and appendix of medi
cine, but much more as a part of religion or superstition.
For the physician prescribeth cures of the mind in phren-
sies and melancholy passions; and pretendeth also to
exhibit medicines to exhilarate the mind, to confirm the
courage, to clarify the wits, to corroborate the memory,

K 2

132 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, f IX. 3.

and the like : but the scruples and superstitions of diet
and other regiment of the body in the sect of the Pytha
goreans, in the heresy of the Manichees, and in the law
of Mahomet, do exceed. So likewise the ordinances in
the ceremonial law, interdicting the eating of the blood
and the fat, distinguishing between beasts clean and
unclean for meat, are many and strict. Nay the faith
itself being clear and serene from all clouds of ceremony,
yet retaineth the use of fastings, abstinences, and other
macerations and humiliations of the body, as things real,
and not figurative. The root and life of all which pre
scripts is (besides the ceremony) the consideration of that
dependency which the affections of the mind are submit
ted unto upon the state and disposition of the body. And
if any man of weak judgement do conceive that this suffer
ing of the mind from the body doth either question the
immortality, or derogate from the sovereignty of the soul,
he may be taught in easy instances, that the infant in the
mother s womb is compatible with the mother and yet
separable ; and the most absolute monarch is sometimes
led by his servants and yet without subjection. As for
the reciprocal knowledge, which is the operation of the
conceits and passions of the mind upon the body, we see
all wise physicians, in the prescriptions of their regiments
to their patients, do ever consider accidentia animi as of
great force to further or hinder remedies or recoveries :
and more specially it is an inquiry of great depth and
worth concerning imagination, how and how far it altereth
the body proper of the imaginant. For although it hath
a manifest power to hurt, it followeth not it hath the same
degree of power to help. No more than a man can con
clude, that because there be pestilent airs, able suddenly to
kill a man in health, therefore there should be sovereign

IX. 3.] THE SECOND BOOK. 133

airs, able suddenly to cure a man in sickness. But the
inquisition of this part is of great use, though it needeth,
as Socrates said, a Delian diver, being difficult and pro
found. But unto all this knowledge de communi vinculo,
of the concordances between the mind and the body,
that part of inquiry is most necessary, which considereth
of the seats and domiciles which the several faculties of
the mind do take and occupate in the organs of the body;
which knowledge hath been attempted, and is contro
verted, and deserveth to be much better inquired. For
the opinion of Plato, who placed the understanding in
the brain, animosity (which he did unfitly call anger,
having a greater mixture with pride) in the heart, and
concupiscence or sensuality in the liver, deserveth not to
be despised ; but much less to be allowed. So then we
have constituted (as in our own wish and advice) the
inquiry touching human nature entire, as a just portion
of knowledge to be handled apart.

X. i. The knowledge that concerneth man s body is
divided as the good of man s body is divided, unto which
it referreth. The good of man s body is of four kinds, \
health, beauty, strength and pleasure : so the knowledges
are medicine, or art of cure : art of decoration, which is
called cosmetic ; art of activity, which is called athletic ;
and art voluptuary, which Tacitus truly calleth eruditus
luxus. This subject of man s body is of all other things
in nature most susceptible of remedy; but then that
remedy is most susceptible of error. For the same sub-
tility of the subject doth cause large possibility and easy
failing ; and therefore the inquiry ought to be the more
exact.

2. To speak therefore of medicine, and to resume
that we have said, ascending a little higher : the ancient

134 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [X. 2.

opinion that man was microcosmus, an abstract or model
of the world, hath been fantastically strained by Paracelsus
and the alchemists, as if there were to be found in man s
body certain correspondences and parallels/ which should
have respect to all varieties of things, as stars, planets,
minerals, which are extant in the great world. But thus
much is evidently true, that of all substances which nature
hath produced, man s body is the most extremely com
pounded. For we see herbs and plants are nourished
by earth and water; beasts for the most part by herbs
and fruits ; man by the flesh of beasts, birds, fishes, herbs,
grains, fruits, water, and the manifold alterations, dress
ings and preparations of these several bodies, before they
come to be his food and aliment. Add hereunto that
beasts have a more simple order of life, and less change
of affections to work upon their bodies ; whereas man in
his mansion, sleep, exercise, passions, hath infinite varia
tions : and it cannot be denied but that the body of man
of all other things is of the most compounded mass. The
soul on the other side is the simplest of substances, as is
well expressed :

Purumque reliquit
/Ethereum sensum atque aurai simplicis ignem.

So that it is no marvel though the soul so placed enjoy
no rest, if that principle be true, that Motus rerum est
rapidus extra locum, placidus in loco. But to the purpose :
this variable composition of man s body hath made it as
an instrument easy to distemper ; and therefore the poets
did well to conjoin music and medicine in Apollo, be
cause the office of medicine is but to tune this curious
harp of man s body and to reduce it to harmony. So
then the subject being so variable, hath made the art
by consequent more conjectural; and the art being

X. 2.] THE SECOND BOOK. 135

conjectural hath made so much the more place to be left
for imposture. For almost all other arts and sciences
are judged by acts or masterpieces, as I may term them,
and not by the successes and events. The lawyer is
judged by the virtue of his pleading, and not by the issue
of the cause. The master in the ship is judged by the
directing his course aright, and not by the fortune of the
voyage. But the physician, and perhaps the politique,
hath no particular acts demonstrative of his ability, but
is judged most by the event; which is ever but as it is
taken : for who can tell, if a patient die or recover, or if a
state be preserved or ruined, whether it be art or accident?
And therefore many times the impostor is prized, and
the man of virtue taxed. Nay, we see [the] weakness
and credulity of men is such, as they will often prefer a
mountebank or witch before a learned physician. And
therefore the poets were clear-sighted in discerning this
extreme folly, when they made ^Esculapius and Circe bro
ther and sister, both children of the sun, as in the verses,

Ipse repertorem medicinae talis et artis

Fulmine Phoebigenam Stygias detrusit ad undas:

And again,

Dives inaccessos ubi Solis filia lucos, &c.

For in all times, in the opinion of the multitude, witches
and old women and impostors have had a competition
with physicians. And what followeth? Even this, that
physicians say to themselves, as Salomon expresseth it
upon an higher occasion, If it befal to me as befalkth to
the fools, why should I labour to be more wise ? And there
fore I cannot much blame physicians, that they use
commonly to intend some other art or practice, which
they fancy, more than their profession. For you shall
have of them antiquaries, poets, humanists, statesmen,

336 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [X. 2.

merchants, divines, and in every of these better seen than
in their profession ; and no doubt upon this ground, that
they find that mediocrity and excellency in their art
maketh no difference in profit or reputation towards their
fortune; for the weakness of patients, and sweetness
of life, and nature of hope, maketh men depend upon
physicians with all their defects. But nevertheless these
things which we have spoken of are courses begotten
between a little occasion, and a great deal of sloth and
default ; for if we will excite and awake our observation,
we shall see in familiar instances what a predominant
faculty the subtilty of spirit hath over the variety of
matter or form. Nothing more variable than faces and
countenances : yet men can bear in memory the infinite
distinctions of them ; nay, a painter with a few shells of
colours, and the benefit of his eye, and habit of his
imagination, can imitate them all that ever have been,
are, or may be, if they were brought before him. No
thing more variable than voices; yet men can likewise
discern them personally: nay, you shall have a buffon
or panfomtmus, will express as many as he pleaseth.
Nothing more variable than the differing sounds of words;
yet men have found the way to reduce them tq a few
simple letters. So that it is not the insufficiency or in
capacity of man s mind, but it is the remote standing or
placing thereof, that breedeth these mazes and incom
prehensions. For as the sense afar off is full of mistaking,
but is exact at hand, so is it of the understanding : the
remedy whereof is, not to quicken or strengthen the
organ, but to go nearer to the object ; and therefore there
is .no doubt but if the physicians will learn and use the
true approaches and avenues of nature, they may assume
as much as the poet saith :

X. 2.] THE SECOND BOOK. Itf

Et quoniam variant morbi, variabimus artcs;
Mille mali species, mille salutis erunt.

Which that they should do, the nobleness of their art
doth deserve ; well shadowed by the poets, in that they
made ^Esculapius to be the son of [the] sun, the one being
the fountain of life, the other as the second stream : but
infinitely more honoured by the example of our Saviour,
who made the body of man the object of his miracles, as
the soul was the object of his doctrine. For we read not
that ever he vouchsafed to do any miracle about honour
or money (except that one for giving tribute to Caesar),
but only about the preserving, sustaining, and healing
the body of man.

3. Medicine is a science which hath been (as we have
said) more professed than laboured, and yet more la
boured than advanced; the labour having been, in my
judgement, rather in circle than in progression. For I
find much iteration, but small addition. It considereth
causes of diseases, with the occasions or impulsions ; the
diseases themselves, with the accidents; and the cures,
with the preservations. The deficiences which I think
good to note, being a few of many, and those such as
are of a more open and manifest nature, I will enumerate
and not place.

4. The first is the discontinuance of the ancient and
serious diligence of Hippocrates, which used

to set down a narrative of the special cases Narrationes

. . . , medicinales.

of his patients, and how they proceeded, and

how they were judged by recovery or death. Therefore
having an example proper in the father of the art, I shall
not reed to allege an example foreign, of the wisdom
of the lawyers, who are careful to report new cases and
decisions, for the direction of future judgements. This

138 Of THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [X. 4.

continuance of medicinal history I find deficient ; which
I understand neither to be so infinite as to extend to
every common case, nor so reserved as to admit
none but wonders : for many things are new in the
manner, which are not new in the kind; and if men
will intend to observe, they shall find much worthy to
observe.

5. In the inquiry which is made by anatomy, I find
much deficience : for they inquire of the

Anatomia

comparata P arts anc * their substances, figures, and col
locations ; but they inquire not of the diver
sities of the parts, the secrecies of the passages, and the
seats or nestling of the humours, nor much of the foot
steps and impressions of diseases. The reason of which
omission I suppose to be, because the first inquiry may
be satisfied in the view of one or a few anatomies : but
the latter, being comparative and casual, must arise from
the view of many. And as to the diversity of parts, there
is no doubt but the facture or framing of the inward parts
is as full of difference as the outward, and in that is the
cause continent of many diseases ; which not being ob
served, they quarrel many times with the humours, which
are not in fault ; the fault being in the very frame and
mechanique of the part, which cannot be removed by
medicine alterative, but must be accommodate and pal
liate by diets and medicines familiar. And for the pas
sages and pores, it is true which was anciently noted,
that the more subtile of them appear not in anatomies,
because they are shut and latent in dead bodies, though
they be open and manifest in live : which being supposed,
though the inhumanity of anatomia vivorum was by Celsus
justly reproved, yet in regard of the great use of this
observation, the inquiry needed not by him so slightly

X. 5 .] THE SECOND BOOK. 139

to have been relinquished altogether, or referred to the
casual practices of surgery ; but mought have been well
diverted upon the dissection of beasts alive, which not
withstanding the dissimilitude of their parts may suffi
ciently satisfy this inquiry. And for the humours, they
are commonly passed over in anatomies as purgaments ;
whereas it is most necessary to observe, what cavities,
nests, and receptacles the humours do find in the parts,
with the differing kind of the humour so lodged and
received. And as for the footsteps of diseases, and their
devastations of the inward parts, impostumations, exul-
cerations, discontinuations, putrefactions, consumptions,
contractions, extensions, convulsions, dislocations, ob
structions, repletions, together with all preternatural sub
stances, as stones, carnosities, excrescences, worms and
the like; they ought to have been exactly observed by
multitude of anatomies, and the contribution of men s
several experiences, and carefully set down both histo
rically according to the appearances, and artificially with
a reference to the diseases and symptoms which resulted
from them, in case where the anatomy is of a defunct
patient ; whereas now upon opening of bodies they are
passed over slightly and in silence.

6. In the inquiry of diseases, they do abandon the
cures of many, some as in their nature in- inquMtio
curable, and others as passed the period of ulterior de
cure ; so that Sylla and the Triumvirs never morbis in-
proscribed so many men to die, as they do by sanabilibus.
their ignorant edicts : whereof numbers do escape with
less difficulty than they did in the Roman proscriptions.
Therefore I will not doubt to note as a deficience, that
they inquire not the perfect cures of many diseases, or
extremities of diseases ; but pronouncing them incurable

140 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [X. 6.

do enact a law of neglect, and exempt ignorance from
discredit.

7. Nay further, I esteem it the office of a physician
not only to restore health, but to mitigate pain and
dolors ; and not only when such mitigation may conduce

to recovery, but when it may serve to make

De Euthan- . . n

. a fair and easy passage, ror it is no small
as/a extert-
ore felicity which Augustus Caesar was wont to

wish to himself, that same Euthanasia; and
which was specially noted in the death of Antoninus Pius,
whose death was after the fashion and semblance of a
kindly and pleasant sleep. So it is written of Epicurus,
that after his disease was judged desperate, he drowned
his stomach and senses with a large draught and in-
gurgitation of wine ; whereupon the epigram was made,
Hinc Slygias ebrius hausit aquas ; he was not sober
enough to taste any bitterness of the Stygian water. But
the physicians contrariwise do make a kind of scruple
and religion to stay with the patient after the disease is
deplored ; whereas in my judgement they ought both to
inquire the skill, and to give the attendances, for the facil
itating and assuaging of the pains and agonies of death.

8. In the consideration of the cures of diseases, I find

a deficience in the receipts of propriety, re-
Medtcin<B t h e particular cures of diseases : for

e the physicians have frustrated the fruit of
tradition and experience by their magistral-
ities, in adding and taking out and changing quid pro
quo in their receipts, at their pleasures ; commanding so
over the medicine, as the medicine cannot command
over the disease. For except it be treacle and mithri-
daium, and of late diascordium, and a few more, they tie
themselves to no receipts severely and religiously. For as

X. 8.] THE SECOND BOOK. 14!

to the confections of sale which are in the shops, they
are for readiness and not for propriety. For they are
upon general intentions of purging, opening, comforting,
altering, and not much appropriate to particular diseases.
And this is the cause why empirics and old women are
more happy many times in their cures than learned phy
sicians, because they are more religious in holding their
medicines. Therefore here is the deficience which I find,
that physicians have not, partly out of their own practice,
partly out of the constant probations reported in books,
and partly out of the traditions of empirics, set down and
delivered over certain experimental medicines for the cure
of particular diseases, besides their own conjectural and
magistral descriptions. For as they were the men of the
best composition in the state of Rome, which either being
consuls inclined to the people, or being tribunes inclined
to the senate ; so in the matter we now handle, they be
the best physicians, which being learned incline to the
traditions of experience, or being empirics incline to the
methods of learning.

9. In preparation of medicines I do find strange,
specially considering how mineral medicines i m i ta tio
have been extolled, and that they are safer nature in
for the outward than inward parts, that no balneis, et
man hath sought to make an imitation by art a< ? uis medi ~
of natural baths and medicinable fountains :
which nevertheless are confessed to receive their virtues
from minerals : and not so only, but discerned and dis
tinguished from what particular mineral they receive tinc
ture, as sulphur, vitriol, steel, or the like : which nature,
if it may be reduced to compositions of art, both the
variety of them will be increased, and the temper of them
will be more commanded.

142 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [X. 10.

10. But lest I grow to be more particular than is agree-
Filum me- able eitner to m 7 intention or to proportion,
didnale, she I will conclude this part with the note of one
de vidbns deficience more, which seemeth to me of

greatest consequence ; which is, that the pre
scripts in use are too compendious to attain
their end : for, to my understanding, it is a vain and flat
tering opinion to think any medicine can be so sovereign
or so happy, as that the receipt or use of it can work any
great effect upon the body of man. It were a strange
speech which spoken, or spoken oft, should reclaim a
man from a vice to which he were by nature subject. It
is order, pursuit, sequence, and interchange of applica
tion, which is mighty in nature; which although it re
quire more exact knowledge in prescribing, and more
precise obedience in observing, yet is recompensed with
the magnitude of effects. And although a man would
think, by the daily visitations of the physicians, that there
were a pursuance in the cure : yet let a man look into
their prescripts and ministrations, and he shall find them
but inconstancies and every day s devices, without any
settled providence or project. Not that every scrupulous
or superstitious prescript is effectual, no more than every
straight way is the way to heaven ; but the truth of the
direction must precede severity of observance.

11. For cosmetic, it hath parts civil, and parts effemin
ate : for cleanness of body was ever esteemed to pro
ceed from a due reverence to God, to society, and to
ourselves. As for artificial decoration, it is well worthy
of the deficiences which it hath; being neither fine
enough to deceive, nor handsome to use, nor wholesome
to please.

12. For athletic, I take the subject of it largely, that

X. 12.] THE SECOND BOOK. 143

is to say, for any point of ability whereunto the body of
man may be brought, whether it be of activity, or of
patience ; whereof activity hath two parts, strength and
swiftness ; and patience likewise hath two parts, hardness
against wants and extremities, and endurance of pain or
torment; whereof we see the practices in tumblers, in
savages, and in those that suffer punishment. Nay, if
there be any other faculty which falls not within any of
the former divisions, as in those that dive, that obtain a
strange power of containing respiration, and the like, I
refer it to this part. Of these things the practices are
known, but the philosophy which concerneth them is not
much inquired ; the rather, I think, because they are sup
posed to be obtained, either by an aptness of nature,
which cannot be taught, or only by continual custom,
which is soon prescribed : which though it be not true,
yet I forbear to note any deficiences : for the Olympian
games are down long since, and the mediocrity of these
things is for use ; as for the excellency of them it serveth
for the most part but for mercenary ostentation.

13. For arts of pleasure sensual, the chief deficience in
them is of laws to repress them. For as it hath been
well observed, that the arts which flourish in times while
virtue is in growth, are military ; and while virtue is in
state, are liberal ; and while virtue is in declination, are
voluptuary : so I doubt that this age of the world is some
what upon the descent of the wheel. With arts voluptuary
I couple practices joculary; for the deceiving of the
senses is one of the pleasures of the senses. As for
games of recreation, I hold them to belong to civil life
and education. And thus much of that particular human
philosophy which concerns the body, which is but the
tabernacle of the mind.

144 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XI. i.

XI. i. For human knowledge which concerns the
mind, it hath two parts; the one that inquireth of the
substance or nature of the soul or mind, the other that
inquireth of the faculties or functions thereof. Unto the
first of these, the considerations of the original of the
soul, whether it be native or adventive, and how far it
is exempted from laws of matter, and of the immortality
thereof, and many other points, do appertain : which
have been not more laboriously inquired than variously
reported ; so as the travail therein taken seemeth to have
been rather in a maze than in a way. But although I am
of opinion that this knowledge may be more really and
soundly inquired, even in nature, than it hath been ; yet
I hold that in the end it must be bounded by religion, or
else it will be subject to deceit and delusion. For as the
substance of the soul in the creation was not extracted
out of the mass of heaven and earth by the benediction
of a producat, but was immediately inspired from God, so
it is not possible that it should be (otherwise than by
accident) subject to the laws of heaven and earth, which
are the subject of philosophy; and therefore the true
knowledge of the nature and state of the soul must come
by the same inspiration that gave the substance. Unto
this part of knowledge touching the soul there be two
appendices ; which, as they have been handled, have
rather vapoured forth fables than kindled truth; divin
ation and fascination.

2. Divination hath been anciently and fitly divided
into artificial and natural ; whereof artificial is, when the
mind maketh a prediction by argument, concluding upon
signs and tokens ; natural is, when the mind hath a pre-
sention by an internal power, without the inducement
of a sign. Artificial is of two sorts; either when the

XI. 2.] THE SECOND BOOK. 145

argument is coupled with a derivation of causes, which is
rational ; or when it is only grounded upon a coincidence
of the effect, which is experimental : whereof the latter
for the most part is superstitious ; such as were the hea
then observations upon the inspection of sacrifices, the
flights of birds, the swarming of bees ; and such as was
the Chaldean astrology, and the like. For artificial divin
ation, the several kinds thereof are distributed amongst
particular knowledges. The astronomer hath his predic
tions, as of conjunctions, aspects, eclipses, and the like.
The physician hath his predictions, of death, of recovery,
of the accidents and issues of diseases. The politique
hath his predictions ; urbem venalem, et cito perituram,
si emplorem invenerit I which stayed not long to be per
formed, in Sylla first, and after in Caesar. So as these
predictions are now impertinent, and to be referred over.
But the divination which springeth from the internal
nature of the soul, is that which we now speak of; which
hath been made to be of two sorts, primitive and by
influxion. Primitive is grounded upon the supposition,
that the mind, when it is withdrawn and collected into
itself, and not diffused into the organs of the body, hath
some extent and latitude of prenotion ; which therefore
appeareth most in sleep, in ecstasies, and near death, and
more rarely in waking apprehensions ; and is induced and
furthered by those abstinences and observances which
make the mind most to consist in itself. By influxion, is
grounded upon the conceit that the mind, as a mirror or
glass, should take illumination from the foreknowledge of
God and spirits : unto which the same regiment doth like
wise conduce. For the retiring of the mind within itself
is the state which is most susceptible of divine influxions ;
save that it is accompanied in this case with a fervency

L

146 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XI. 2.

and elevation (which the ancients noted by fury), and not
with a repose and quiet, as it is in the other.

3. Fascination is the power and act of imagination
intensive upon other bodies than the body of the imagin-
ant, for of that we spake in the proper place. Wherein
the school of Paracelsus, and the disciples of pretended
natural magic have been so intemperate, as they have
exalted the power of the imagination to be much one
with the power of miracle-working faith. Others, that
draw nearer to probability, calling to their view the secret
passages of things, and specially of the contagion that
passeth from body to body, do conceive it should like
wise be agreeable to nature, that there should be some
transmissions and operations from spirit to spirit without
the mediation of the senses ; whence the conceits have
grown (now almost made civil) of the mastering spirit,
and the force of confidence and the like. Incident unto
this is the inquiry how to raise and fortify the imagin
ation : for if the imagination fortified have power, then
it is material to know how to fortify and exalt it. And
herein comes in crookedly and dangerously a palliation
of a great part of ceremonial magic. For it may be
pretended that ceremonies, characters, and charms do
work, not by any tacit or sacramental contract with evil
spirits, but serve only to strengthen the imagination of him
that useth it ; as images are said by the Roman church
to fix the cogitations and raise the devotions of them that
pray before them. But for mine own judgement, if it
be admitted that imagination hath power, and that cere
monies fortify imagination, and that they be used sin
cerely and intentionally for that purpose; yet I should
hold them unlawful, as opposing to that first edict which
God gave unto man, /;/ sudore vultus comedes panem luum.

XI. 3.] THE SECOND BOOK. 147

For they propound those noble effects, which God hath
set forth unto man to be bought at the price of labour, to
be attained by a few easy and slothful observances. De-
ficiences in these knowledges I will report none, other
than the general deficience, that it is not known how
much of them is verity, and how much vanity.

XII. i. The knowledge which respecteth the faculties
of the mind of man is of two kinds ; the one respecting
his understanding and reason, and the other his^jwlir
appetite, arfli affection; whereof the former produce^
positioner ^cfee^lSe^Tatter action or execution. It is
true that the imagination is an agent or nuncius, in both
provinces, both the judicial and the ministerial. For
sense sendeth over to imagination before reason have
judged: and reason sendeth over to imagination before
the decree can be acted. For imagination ever precedeth
voluntary motion. Saving that this Janus of imagination
hath differing faces : for the face towards reason hath the
print of truth, but the face towards action hath the print
of good ; which nevertheless are faces,

Quales decet esse sororum.

Neither is the imagination simply and only a messenger ; j
but is invested with, or at least wise usurpeth no small
authority in itself, besides the duty of the message. For
it was well said by Aristotle, That the mind hath over the
body that commandment, which the lord hath over a bond-\
man; but that reason hath over the imagination that com
mandment which a magistrate hath over a free citizen ; who
may come also to rule in his turn. For we see that, in
matters of faith and religion, we raise our imagination
above our reason ; which is the cause why religion sought
ever access to the mind by similitudes, types, parables,
visions, dreams. And again, in all persuasions that are
L 2

148 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XII. i.

wrought by eloquence, and other impressions of like
nature, which do paint and disguise the true appearance
of things, the chief recommendation unto reason is from
the imagination. Nevertheless, because I find not any
science that doth properly or fitly pertain to the imagin
ation, I see no cause to alter the former division. For
as for poesy, it is rather a pleasure or play of imagination,
than a work or duty thereof. And if it be a work, we
speak not now of such parts of learning as the imagin
ation produceth, but of such sciences as handle and con
sider of the imagination. No more than we shall speak
now of such knowledges as reason produceth (for that
extendeth to all philosophy), but of such knowledges as
do handle and inquire of the faculty of reason : so as
poesy had his true place. As for the power of the
imagination in nature, and the manner of fortifying the
same, we have mentioned it in the doctrine De Anima,
whereunto most fitly it belongeth. And lastly, for imagin
ative or insinuative reason, which is the subject of rhetoric,
we think it best to refer it to the arts of reason. So there
fore we content ourselves with the former division, that
human philosophy, which respecteth the faculties of the
mind of man, hath two parts, rational and moral.

2. The part of human philosophy which is rational, is
of all knowledges, to the most wits, the least delightful,
and seemeth but a net of subtility and spinosity. For as
it was truly said, that knowledge is pabulum animi ; so in
the nature of men s appetite to this food, most men are
of the taste and stomach of the Israelites in the desert,
that would fain have returned ad olios carnium, and were
weary of manna ; which, though it were celestial, yet
seemed less nutritive and comfortable. So generally men
taste well knowledges that are drenched in flesh and blood,

XII. 2.] THE SECOND BOOK. 149

civil history, morality, policy, about the which men s affec
tions, praises, fortunes do turn and are conversant. But
this same lumen siccum doth parch and offend most men s
watery and soft natures. But to speak truly of things as
they are in worth, rational knowledges are the keys of
all other arts : for as Aristotle saith aptly and elegantly,
That the hand is the instrument of instruments, and the mind
is the form of forms ; so these be truly said to be the art
of arts. Neither do they only direct, but likewise confirm
and strengthen : even as the habit of shooting doth not
only enable to shoot a nearer shoot, but also to draw
a stronger bow.

3. The arts intellectual are four in number; divided
according to the ends whereunto they are referred: for
man s labour is to invent that which is sought or pro
pounded; or to judge that which is invented; or to
retain that which is judged; or to deliver over that
which is retained. So as the arts must be four : art^ 1
of inquiry or invention : art of examination or judge
ment : art of custody or memory : and art of elocution
or tradition.

XIII. i. Invention is of two kinds much differing: the
one of arts and sciences, and the other of speech and
arguments. The former of these I do report deficient;
which seemeth to me to be such a deficience as if, in the
making of an inventory touching the state of a defunct, it
should be set down that there is no ready money. For
as money will fetch all other commodities, so this know
ledge is that which should purchase all the rest. And like
as the West Indies had never been discovered if the use
of the mariner s needle had not been first discovered,
though the one be vast regions, and the other a small
motion ; so it cannot be found strange if sciences be no \

150 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XIII. i.

further discovered, if the art itself of invention and dis
covery hath been passed over.

2. That this part of knowledge is wanting, to my
judgement standeth plainly confessed; for first, logic
doth not pretend to invent sciences, or the axioms of
sciences, but passeth it over with a cuique in sua arte
credendum. And Celsus acknowledgeth it gravely, speak
ing of the empirical and dogmatical sects of physicians,
That medicines and cures were first found out, and then after
the reasons and causes were discoursed ; and not the causes
first found out, and by light from them the medicines and
cures discovered. And Plato in his Theaetetus noteth well,
That particulars are infinite, and the higher generalities give
no sufficient direction : and that the pith of all sciences, which
maketh the artsman differ from the inexpert, is in the middle
propositions, which in every particular knowledge are taken
from tradition and experience. And therefore we see, that
they which discourse of the inventions and originals of
things refer them rather to chance than to art, and rather
to beasts, birds, fishes, serpents, than to men.

Dictamnum genetrix Cretaea carpit ab Ida,
Puberibus caulem foliis et flore comantem
Purpureo; non ilia feris incognita capris
Gramina, cum tergo volucres haesere sagittae.

So that it was no marvel (the manner of antiquity being
to consecrate inventors) that the Egyptians had so few
human idols in their temples, but almost all brute :

Omnigenumque Deum monstra, et latrator Anubis,
Contra Neptunum, et Venerem, contraque Minervam, &c.

And if you like better the tradition of the Grecians, and
ascribe the first inventions to men, yet you will rather
believe that Prometheus first stroke the flints, and mar
velled at the spark, than that when he first stroke the

XIII. 2.] THE SECOND BOOK. 1$1

flints he expected the spark : and therefore we see the
West Indian Prometheus had no intelligence with the
European, because of the rareness with them of flint,
that gave the first occasion. So as it should seem, that
hitherto men are rather beholden to a wild goat for sur
gery, or to a nightingale for music, or to the ibis for some
part of physic, or to the pot- lid that flew open for artillery,
or generally to chance or anything else than to logic for
the invention of arts and sciences. Neither is the form
of invention which Virgil describeth much other :

Ut varias usus meditando extunderet artes
Paulatim.

For if you observe the words well, it is no other method
than that which brute beasts are capable of, and do put
in ure ; which is a perpetual intending or practising some
one thing, urged and imposed by an absolute necessity
of conservation of being. For so Cicero saith very truly,
Usus uni rei deditus et naiuram et artem scepe vincit. And
therefore if it be said of men,

Labor omnia vincit
Improbus, et duris urgens in rebus egestas,

it is likewise said of beasts, Quis psittaco docuit suum
xmpe? Who taught the raven in a drowth to throw
pebbles into an hollow tree, where she spied water, that
the water might rise so as she might come to it ? Who
taught the bee to sail through such a vast sea of air, and
to find the way from a field in flower a great way off to
her hive? Who taught the ant to bite every grain of
corn that she burieth in her hill, lest it should take root
and grow? Add then the word extundere, which im-
porteth the extreme difficulty, and the word paulatim,
which importeth the extreme slowness, and we are where

OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XIII. 2.

we were, even amongst the Egyptians gods ; there being
little left to the faculty of reason, and nothing to the duty
of art, for matter of invention.

3. Secondly, the induction which the logicians speak
of, and which seemeth familiar with Plato, whereby the
principles of sciences may be pretended to be invented,
and so the middle propositions by derivation from the
principles; their form of induction, I say, is utterly
vicious and incompetent : wherein their error is the
fouler, because it is the duty of art to perfect and exalt
nature ; but they contrariwise have wronged, abused, and
traduced nature. For he that shall attentively observe
how the mind doth gather this excellent dew of know
ledge, like unto that which the poet speaketh of, Aerei
mellis cczlestia dona, distilling and contriving it out of
particulars natural and artificial, as the flowers of the
field and garden, shall find that the mind of herself by
nature doth manage and act an induction much better
than they describe it. For to conclude upon an enumer
ation of particulars, without instance contradictory, is
no conclusion, but a conjecture ; for who can assure
(in many subjects) upon those particulars which appear
of a side, that there are not other on the contrary side
which appear not? As if Samuel should have rested
upon those sons of Issay which were brought before
him, and failed of David which was in the field. And
this form (to say truth) is so gross, as it had not been
possible for wits so subtile as have managed these things
to have offered it to the world, but that they hasted to
their theories and dogmaticals, and were imperious and
scornful toward particulars ; which their manner was to
use but as lie fores and viator es, for sergeants and whi friers,
ad summovendam turbam, to make way and make room for

XIII. 3.] THE SECOND BOOK. 153

their opinions, rather than in their true use and service.
Certainly it is a thing may touch a man with a religious
wonder, to see how the footsteps of seducement are the
very same in divine and human truth: for as in divine
truth man cannot endure to become as a child; so in
human, they reputed the attending the inductions (whereof
we speak) as if it were a second infancy or childhood.

4. Thirdly, allow some principles or axioms were rightly
induced, yet nevertheless certain it is that middle propos- \
itions cannot be deduced from them in subject of nature
by syllogism, that is, by touch and reduction of them to
principles in a middle term. It is true that in sciences
popular, as moralities, laws, and the like, yea, and divinity
(because it pleaseth God to apply himself to the capacity of
the simplest), that form may have use ; and in natural phi
losophy likewise, by way of argument or satisfactory reason,
Qua assensum parit, open s effczta est : but the subtilty of
nature and operations will not be enchained in those bonds.
For arguments consist of propositions, and propositions of
words, and words are but the current tokens or marks
of popular notions of things ; which notions, if they be
grossly and variably collected out of particulars, it is not
the laborious examination either of consequences or argu
ments, or of the truth of propositions, that can ever cor
rect that error, being (as the physicians speak) in the first
digestion. And therefore it was not without cause, that so
many excellent philosophers became Sceptics and Aca
demics, and denied any certainty of knowledge or com
prehension ; and held opinion that the knowledge of man
extended only to appearances and probabilities. It is true
that in Socrates it was supposed to be but a form of irony,
Scienliam dissimulando simulavit : for he used to disable
his knowledge, to the end to enhance his knowledge : like

154 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XIII. 4.

the humour of Tiberius in his beginnings, that would
reign, but would not acknowledge so much. And in the
later Academy, which Cicero embraced, this opinion also
of acatalepsia (I doubt) was not held sincerely : for that
all those which excelled in copie of speech seem to have
chosen that sect, as that which was fittest to give glory to
their eloquence and variable discourses ; being rather like
progresses of pleasure, than journeys to an end. But
assuredly many scattered in both Academies did hold it
in subtilty and integrity. But here was their chief error ;
they charged the deceit upon the senses; which in my
judgement (notwithstanding all their cavillations) are very
sufficient to certify and report truth, though not always
immediately, yet by comparison, by help of instrument,
and by producing and urging such things as are too
subtile for the sense to some effect comprehensible by
the sense, and other like assistance. But they ought to
have charged the deceit upon the weakness of the intel
lectual powers, and upon the manner of collecting and
concluding upon the reports of the senses. This I speak,
not to disable the mind of man, but to stir it up to seek
help : for no man, be he never so cunning or practised,
can make a straight line or perfect circle by steadiness of
hand, which may be easily done by help of a ruler or
compass.

5. This part of invention, concerning the invention of
Experientia sciences, I purpose (if God give me leave)
literata, and hereafter to propound, having digested it into
interpretatio two p ar t s whereof the one I term experien-
natnra, ^ m era ^ an( j t h e other interpretatio natures:

the former being but a degree and rudiment of the latter.
But I will not dwell too long, nor speak too great upon a
promise.

XIII. 6.] THE SECOND BOOK. 155

6. The invention of speech or argument is not properly
an invention : for to invent is to discover that we know
not, and not to recover or resummon that which we
already know : and the use of this invention is no other
but, out of the knowledge whereof our mind is already
possessed, to draw forth or call before us that which may
be pertinent to the purpose which we take into our con
sideration. So as to speak truly, it is no invention, but a
remembrance or suggestion, with an application ; which
is the cause why the schools do place it after judgement,
as subsequent and not precedent. Nevertheless, because
we do account it a chase as well of deer in an inclosed
park as in a forest at large, and that it hath already
obtained the name, let it be called invention : so as it
be perceived and discerned, that the scope and end of
this invention is readiness and present use of our know
ledge, and not addition or amplification thereof.

7. To procure this ready use of knowledge there are
two courses, preparation and suggestion. The former of
these seemeth scarcely a part of knowledge, consisting
rather of diligence than of any artificial erudition. And
herein Aristotle wittily, but hurtfully, doth deride the
Sophists near his time, saying, They did as if one that
professed the art of shoe-making should not teach how to
make up a shoe, but only exhibit in a readiness a number of
shoes of all fashions and sizes. But yet a man might reply,
that if a shoemaker should have no shoes in his shop,
but only work as he is bespoken, he should be weakly
customed. But our Saviour, speaking of divine know
ledge, saith, That the kingdom of heaven is like a good house
holder, that bringeth forth both new and old store : and we
see the ancient writers of rhetoric do give it in precept,
that pleaders should have the places, whereof they have

156 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XIII. 7.

most continual use, ready handled in all the variety that
may be ; as that, to speak for the literal interpretation of
the law against equity, and contrary ; and to speak fcr
presumptions and inferences against testimony, and con
trary. And Cicero himself, being broken unto it by great
experience, delivereth it plainly, that whatsoever a man
shall have occasion to speak of (if he will take the pains),
he may have it in effect premeditate and handled in
thesi. So that when he cometh to a particular he shall
have nothing to do, but to put to names, and times, and
places, and such other circumstances of individuals. We
see likewise the exact diligence of Demosthenes; who,
in regard of the great force that the entrance and access
into causes hath to make a good impression, had ready
framed a number of prefaces for orations and speeches.
All which authorities and precedents may overweigh
Aristotle s opinion, that would have us change a rich
wardrobe for a pair of shears.

8. But the nature of the collection of this provision or
preparatory store, though it be common both to logic and
rhetoric, yet having made an entry of it here, where it
came first to be spoken of, I think fit to refer over the
further handling of it to rhetoric.

9. The other part of invention, which I term sugges
tion, doth assign and direct us to certain marks, or places,
which may excite our mind to return and produce such
knowledge as it hath formerly collected, to the end we
may make use thereof. Neither is this use (truly taken)
only to furnish argument to dispute probably with others,
but likewise to minister unto our judgement to conclude
aright within ourselves. Neither may these places serve
only to apprompt our invention, but also to direct our
inquiry. For a faculty of wise interrogating is half a

XIII. 9-] THE SECOND BOOK. 157

knowledge. For as Plato saith, Whosoever seeketh, knowcth
that which he seekethfor in a general notion : else how shall
he know it when he hath found it? And therefore the larger
your anticipation is, the more direct and compendious is
your search. But the same places which will help us
what to produce of that which we know already, will also
help us, if a man of experience were before us, what ques
tions to ask ; or, if we have books and authors to instruct
us, what points to search and revolve; so as I cannot
report that this part of invention, which is that which the
schools call topics, is deficient.

10. Nevertheless, topics are of two sorts, general and
special. The general we have spoken to; but the par
ticular hath been touched by some, but rejected generally
as inartificial and variable. But leaving the humour which ~l
hath reigned too much in the schools (which is, to be
vainly subtile in a few things which are within their com
mand, and to reject the rest), I do receive particular
topics, that is, places or directions of invention and \
inquiry in every particular knowledge, as things of great
use, being mixtures of logic with the matter of sciences. J
For in these it holdeth, ars inveniendi adolescit cum inventis;
for as in going of a way, we do not only gain that part of
the way which is passed, but we gain the better sight of
that part of the way which remaineth : so every degree of
proceeding in a science giveth a light to that which fol-
loweth ; which light if we strengthen by drawing it forth
into questions or places of inquiry, we do greatly advance
our pursuit.

XIV. i. Now we pass unto the arts of judgement,
which handle the natures of proofs and demonstrations ;
which as to induction hath a coincidence with invention.
For in all inductions, whether in good or vicious form, the

158 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XIV. i.

same action of the mind which inventeth, judgeth; all
one as in the sense. But otherwise it is in proof by syl
logism ; for the proof being not immediate, but by mean,
the invention of the mean is one thing, and the judge
ment of the consequence is another; the one exciting
only, the other examining. Therefore, for the real and
exact form of judgement, we refer ourselves to that which
we have spoken of interpretation of nature.

2. For the other judgement by syllogism, as it is a
thing most agreeable to the mind of man, so it hath been
vehemently and excellently laboured. For the nature of
man doth extremely covet to have somewhat in his under
standing fixed and unmoveable, and as a rest and support
of the mind. And therefore as Aristotle endeavoureth to
prove, that in all motion there is some point quiescent ;
and as he elegantly expoundeth the ancient fable of Atlas
(that stood fixed, and bare up the heaven from falling) to
be meant of the poles or axle-tree of heaven, whereupon
the conversion is accomplished r so assuredly men have a
desire to have an Atlas or axle-tree within to keep them
from fluctuation, which is like to a perpetual peril of
falling. Therefore men did hasten to set down some
principles about which the variety of their disputations
might turn.

3. So then this art of judgement is but the reduction of
propositions to principles in a middle term. The prin
ciples to be agreed by all and exempted from argument ;
the middle term to be elected at the liberty of every man s
invention ; the reduction to be of two kinds, direct and
inverted; the one when the proposition is reduced to
the principle, which they term a probation ostensive ; the
other, when the contradictory of the proposition is re
duced to the contradictory of the principle, which is

XIV. 3-] THE SECOND BOOK. 159

that which they call per incommodum, or pressing an ab
surdity; the number of middle terms to be as the pro
position standeth degrees more or less removed from
the principle.

4. But this art hath two several methods of doctrine,
the one by way of direction, the other by way of caution ;
the former frameth and setteth down a true form of con
sequence, by the variations and deflections from which
errors and inconsequences may be exactly judged. To
ward the composition and structure of which form, it is
incident to handle the parts thereof, which are propos
itions, and the parts of propositions, which are simple
words. And this is that part of logic which is compre
hended in the Analytics.

5. The second method of doctrine was introduced for
expedite use and assurance sake; discovering the more
subtile forms of sophisms and illaqueations with their
redargutions, which is that which is termed clenches. For
although in the more gross sorts of fallacies it happeneth
(as Seneca maketh the comparison well) as in juggling
feats, which, though we know not how they are done,
yet we know well it is not as it seemeth to be ; yet the
more subtile sort of them doth not only put a man besides
his answer, but doth many times abuse his judgement.

6. This part concerning elenches is excellently handled
by Aristotle in precept, but more excellently by Plato in
example ; not only in the persons of the Sophists, but even
in Socrates himself, who, professing to affirm nothing,
but to infirm that which was affirmed by another, hath
exactly expressed all the forms of objection, fallace, and
redargution. And although we have said that the use of
this doctrine is for redargution, yet it is manifest the de
generate and corrupt use is for caption and contradiction,

l6o OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XIV. 6.

which passeth for a great faculty, and no doubt is of
very great advantage : though the difference be good
which was made between orators and sophisters, that the
one is as the greyhound, which hath his advantage in the
race, and the other as the hare, which hath her advantage in
the turn, so as it is the advantage of the weaker creature.

7. But yet further, this doctrine of clenches hath a more
ample latitude and extent than is perceived ; namely, unto
divers parts of knowledge ; whereof some are laboured
and other omitted. For first, I conceive (though it may
seem at first somewhat strange) that that part which is
variably referred, sometimes to logic, sometimes to m eta-
physic, touching the common adjuncts of essences, is but
an elenche. For the great sophism of all sophisms being
equivocation or ambiguity of words and phrase, specially
of such words as are most general and intervene in every
inquiry, it seemeth to me that the true and fruitful use
(leaving vain subtilities and speculations) of the inquiry of
majority, minority, priority, posteriority, identity, diversity,
possibility, act, totality, parts, existence, privation, and the
like, are but wise cautions against ambiguities of speech.
So again the distribution of things into certain tribes,
which we call categories or predicaments, are but cau
tions against the confusion of definitions and divisions.

8. Secondly, there is a seducement that worketh by
the strength of the impression, and not by the subtilty
of the illaqueation ; not so much perplexing the reason,
as overruling it by power of the imagination. But this
part I think more proper to handle when I shall speak
of rhetoric.

9. But lastly, there is yet a much more important and
profound kind of fallacies in the mind of man, which I
find not observed or inquired at all, and think good to

XIV. 9 .] THE SECOND BOOK. l6l

place here, as that which of all others appertained most
to rectify judgement: the force whereof is such, as it
doth not dazzle or snare the understanding in some par
ticulars, but doth more generally and inwardly infect and
corrupt the state thereof. For the mind of man is far [
from the nature of a clear and equal glass, wherein the \
beams of things should reflect according to their true
incidence; nay, it is rather like an enchanted glass, full
of superstition and imposture, if it be not delivered and
reduced. For this purpose, let us consider the false ap
pearances that are imposed upon us by the general nature
of the mind, beholding them in an example or two ; as
first, in that instance which is the root of all superstition,
namely, that to the nature of the mind of all men it is
consonant for the affirmative or active to affect more than
the negative or privative. So that a few times hitting or
presence, countervails oft-times failing or absence ; as was
well answered by Diagoras to him that showed him in
Neptune s temple the great number of pictures of such as
had scaped shipwreck, and had paid their vows to Nep
tune, saying, Advise now, you that think it folly to invocate
Neptune in tempest. Yea, but (saith Diagoras) where are
they painted that are drowned? Let us behold it in another
instance, namely, that the spirit of man, being of an equal ~
and uniform substance, doth usually suppose and feign in
nature a greater equality and uniformity than is in truth.
Hence it cometh, that the mathematicians cannot satisfy
themselves except they reduce the motions of the celestial
bodies to perfect circles, rejecting spiral lines, and labour
ing to be discharged of eccentrics. Hence it cometh, that
whereas there are many things in nature, as it were
monodica, sui juris ; yet the cogitations of man do feign
unto them relatives, parallels, and conjugates, whereas no

M

1 62 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XIV. 9.

such thing is ; as they have feigned an element of fire, to
keep square with earth, water, and air, and the like. Nay,
it is not credible, till it be opened, what a number of
fictions and fantasies the similitude of human actions and
arts, together with the making of man communis mensura,
have brought into natural philosophy; not much better
than the heresy of the Anthropomorphites, bred in the
cells of gross and solitary monks, and the opinion of Epi
curus, answerable to the same in heathenism, who sup
posed the gods to be of human shape. And therefore
Velleius the Epicurean needed not to have asked, why
God should have adorned the heavens with stars, as if he
had been an cedilzs, one that should have set forth some
magnificent shows or plays. For if that great work-
master had been of an human disposition, he would have
cast the stars into some pleasant and beautiful works and
orders, like the frets in the roofs of houses ; whereas one
can scarce find a posture in square, or triangle, or straight
line, amongst such an infinite number; so differing an
harmony there is between the spirit of man and the spirit
of nature.

10. Let us consider again the false appearances im
posed upon us by every man s own individual nature
and custom, in that feigned supposition that Plato maketh
of the cave : for certainly if a child were continued in a
grot or cave under the earth until maturity of age, and
came suddenly abroad, he would have strange and absurd
imaginations. So in like manner, although our persons
live in the view of heaven, yet our spirits are included in
the caves of our own complexions and customs, which
minister unto us infinite errors and vain opinions, if
they be not recalled to examination. But hereof we
have given many examples in one of the errors, or

XIV. to.] THE SECOND BOOK. 163

peccant humours, which we ran briefly over in our first
book.

n. And lastly, let us consider the false appearances
that are imposed upon us by words, which are framed
and applied according to the conceit and capacities of
the vulgar sort: and although we think we govern our
words, and prescribe it well loquendum ut vulgus senti-
endum ut sapientes ; yet certain it is that words, as a
Tartar s bow, do shoot back upon the understanding of
the wisest, and mightily entangle and pervert the judge
ment. So as it is almost necessary, in all controversies and
disputations, to imitate the wisdom of the mathematicians,
in setting down in the very beginning the definitions
of our words and terms, that others may know how
we accept and understand them, and whether they con
cur with us or no. For it cometh to pass, for want
of this, that we are sure to end there where we ought to
have begun, which is, in questions and differences about
words. To conclude therefore, it must be confessed that
it is not possible to divorce ourselves from these fallacies \
and false appearances, because they are inseparable from
our nature and condition of life ; so yet nevertheless the

caution of them (for all clenches as was said.

Elenchi
are but cautions) doth extremely import the magn i s t ve

true conduct of human judgement. The de idolis ani-

particular clenches or cautions against these mi bumani

three false appearances, I find altogether nal s et

deficient. adventitiis.

12. There remaineth one part of judgement of great
excellency, which to mine understanding is so slightly
touched, as I may report that also deficient; which is the
application of the differing kinds of proofs to the differing
kinds of subjects. For there being but four kinds of
M 2

164 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XIV. 12.

demonstrations, that is, by the immediate consent of the
mind or sense, by induction, by syllogism, and by con-
gruity, which is that which Aristotle calleth demonstration
in orb or circle, and not a notiorilus, every of these hath
certain subjects in the matter of sciences, in which re
spectively they have chiefest use; and certain others,
from which respectively they ought to be excluded ; and
the rigour and curiosity in requiring the more severe
proofs in some things, and chiefly the facility in con
tenting ourselves with the more remiss proofs in others,
hath been amongst the greatest causes of
De analogic* detriment and hindrance to knowledge. The

demonstra- r .

tionum distributions and assignations of demonstra

tions, according to the analogy of sciences,
I note as deficient.

XV. i. The custody or retaining of knowledge is either
in writing or memory; whereof writing hath two parts,
the nature of the character, and the order of the entry.
For the art of characters, or other visible notes of words
or things, it hath nearest conjugation with grammar ; and
therefore I refer it to the due place. For the disposition
and collocation of that knowledge which we preserve in
writing, it consisteth in a good digest of common-places ;
wherein I am not ignorant of the prejudice imputed to
the use of common-place books, as causing a retardation
of reading, and some sloth or relaxation of memory.
But because it is but a counterfeit thing in knowledges
to be forward and pregnant, except a man be deep and
full, I hold the entry of common-places to be a matter of
great use and essence in studying, as that which assur-
eth copie of invention, and contracteth judgement to a
strength. But this is true, that of the methods of common
places that I have seen, there is none of any sufficient

XV. i.] THE SECOND BOOK. 165

worth : all of them carrying merely the face of a school,"^)
and not of a world ; and referring to vulgar matters and
pedantical divisions, without all life or respect to action.

2. For the other principal part of the custody of know
ledge, which is memory, I find that faculty in my judge- ^
ment weakly inquired of. An art there is extant of it ;
but it seemeth to me that there are better precepts than
that art, and better practices of that art than those re
ceived. It is certain the art (as it is) may be raised to
points of ostentation prodigious : but in use (as it is now
managed) it is barren, not burdensome, nor dangerous to
natural memory, as is imagined, but barren, that is, not
dexterous to be applied to the serious use of business
and occasions. And therefore I make no more estima
tion of repeating a great number of names or words
upon once hearing, or the pouring forth of a number of
verses or rhymes ex tempore, or the making of a satirical
simile of everything, or the turning of everything to a
jest, or the falsifying or contradicting of everything by
cavil, or the like (whereof in the faculties of the mind
there is great copie, and such as by device and practice
may be exalted to an extreme degree of wonder), than

I do of the tricks of tumblers, funambuloes, baladines ;
the one being the same in the mind that the other is in
the body, matters of strangeness without worthiness.

3. This art of memory is but built upon two intentions ;
the one prenotion, the other emblem. Prenotion dis-
chargeth the indefinite seeking of that we would re
member, and directeth us to seek in a narrow compass,
that is, somewhat that hath congruity with our place of
memory. Emblem reduceth conceits intellectual to images
sensible, which strike the memory more ; out of which
axioms may be drawn much better practique than that

1 66 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XV. 3.

in use ; and besides which axioms, there are divers moe
touching help of memory, not inferior to them. But I did
in the beginning distinguish, not to report those things
deficient, which are but only ill managed.

XVI. i. There remaineth the fourth kind of rational
knowledge, which is transitive, concerning the expressing
or transferring our knowledge to others; which I will
term by the general name of tradition or delivery. Tra
dition hath three parts ; the first concerning the organ of
tradition ; the second concerning the method of tradition ;
and the third concerning the illustration of tradition.

2. For the organ of tradition, it is either speech or
writing : for Aristotle saith well, Words are the images of
cogitations, and letters are the images of words. But yet
it is not of necessity that cogitations be expressed by
the medium of words. For whatsoever is capable of
sufficient differences, and those perceptible by the sense,
is in nature competent to express cogitations. And there
fore we see in the commerce of barbarous people, that
understand not one another s language, and in the prac
tice of divers that are dumb and deaf, that men s minds
are expressed in gestures, though not exactly, yet to
serve the turn. And we understand further, that it is
the use of China, and the kingdoms of the High Levant,
to write in characters real, which express neither letters
nor words in gross, but things or notions ; insomuch as
countries and provinces, which understand not one an
other s language, can nevertheless read one another s
writings, because the characters are accepted more gener
ally than the languages do extend; and therefore they
have a vast multitude of characters, as many (I suppose)
as radical words.

3. These notes of cogitations are of two sorts ; the one

XVI. 3.] THE SECOND BOOK. 167

when the note hath some similitude or congruity with the
notion : the other ad placilum, having force only by con
tract or acceptation. Of the former sort are hieroglyphics
and gestures. For as to hieroglyphics (things of ancient
use, and embraced chiefly by the Egyptians, one of the
most ancient nations), they are but as continued impreses
and emblems. And as for gestures, they are as transitory
hieroglyphics, and are to hieroglyphics as words spoken
are to words written, in that they abide not; but they
have evermore, as well as the other, an affinity with the
things signified. As Periander, being consulted with how
to preserve a tyranny newly usurped, bid the messengei
attend and report what he saw him do; and went into
his garden and topped all the highest flowers : signifying,
that it consisted in the cutting off and keeping low of the
nobility and grandees. Ad placitum, are the characters
real before mentioned, and words : although some have
been willing by curious inquiry, or rather by apt feigning,
to have derived Imposition of names from reason and
intendment; a speculation elegant, and, by reason it
searcheth into antiquity, reverent; but sparingly mixed

with truth, and of small fruit. This por-

r ... . . De notis

tion of knowledge, touching the notes of

rerum.
things, and cogitations in general, I find not

inquired, but deficient. And although it may seem of no
great use, considering that words and writings by letters
do far excel all the other ways ; yet because this part con-
cerneth as it were the mint of knowledge (for words are
the tokens current and accepted for conceits, as moneys
are for values, and that it is fit men be not ignorant that
moneys may be of another kind than gold and silver),
I thought good to propound it to better inquiry.

4. Concerning speech and words, the consideration of

1 68 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XVI. 4.

them hath produced the science of grammar. For man
still striveth to reintegrate himself in those benedictions,
from which by his fault he hath been deprived ; and as
he hath striven against the first general curse by the in
vention of all other arts, so hath he sought to come forth
of the second general curse (which was the confusion of
tongues) by the art of grammar ; whereof the use in a
mother tongue is small, in a foreign tongue more ; but
most in such foreign tongues as have ceased to be vulgar
tongues, and are turned only to learned tongues. The
duty of it is of two natures : the one popular, which is for
the speedy and perfect attaining languages, as well for
intercourse of speech as for understanding of authors;
the other philosophical, examining the power and nature
of Words, as they are the footsteps and prints of reason :
which kind of analogy between words and reason is
handled sparstm, brokenly though not entirely; and there
fore I cannot report it deficient, though I think it very
worthy to be reduced into a science by itself.

5. Unto grammar also belongeth, as an appendix, the
consideration of the accidents of words ; which are mea
sure, sound, and elevation or accent, and the sweetness
and harshness of them ; whence hath issued some curious
observations in rhetoric, but chiefly poesy, as we consider
it, in respect of the verse and not of the argument.
Wherein though men in learned tongues do tie themselves
to the ancient measures, yet in modern languages it
seemeth to me as free to make new measures of verses
as of dances : for a dance is a measured pace, as a verse
is a measured speech. In these things the sense is better
judge than the art ;

Coenae fercula nostrae
Mallem convivis quam placuisse cocis.

XVI. S-] THE SECOND BOOK. 169

And of the servile expressing antiquity in an unlike and
an unfit subject, it is well said, Quod tempore anliqmim
uidelur, id incongruitate est maxime novum.

6. For ciphers, they are commonly in letters, or alpha
bets, but may be in words. The kinds of ciphers (besides
the simple ciphers, with changes, and intermixtures of
nulls and non-significants) are many, according to the
nature or rule of the infolding, wheel-ciphers, key-ciphers,
doubles, &c. But the virtues of them, whereby they are
to be preferred, are three ; that they be not laborious to
write and read; that they be impossible to decipher;
and, in some cases, that they be without suspicion. The
highest degree whereof is to write omnia per omnia ; which
is undoubtedly possible, with a proportion quintuple at
most of the writing infolding to the writing infolded, and
no other restraint whatsoever. This art of ciphering hath
for relative an art of deciphering, by supposition unpro
fitable, but, as things are, of great use. For suppose that
ciphers were well managed, there be multitudes of them
which exclude the decipherer. But in regard of the raw
ness and unskilfulness of the hands through which they
pass, the greatest matters are many times carried in the
weakest ciphers.

7. In the enumeration of these private and retired arts,
it may be thought I seek to make a great muster-roll of
sciences, naming them for show and ostentation, and to
little other purpose. But let those which are skilful in
them judge whether I bring them in only for appearance,
or whether in that which I speak of them (though in few
words) there be not some seed of proficience. And this
must be remembered, that as there be many of great
account in their countries and provinces, which, when they
come up to the seat of the estate, are but of mean rank

170 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XVI. 7.

and scarcely regarded ; so these arts, being here placed
with the principal and supreme sciences, seem petty
things ; yet to such as have chosen them to spend their
labours and studies in them, they seem great matters.

XVII. i. For the method of tradition, I see it hath
moved a controversy in our time. But as in civil busi
ness, if there be a meeting, and men fall at words, there
is commonly an end of the matter for that time, and no
proceeding at all ; so in learning, where there is much
controversy, there is many times little inquiry. For this
part of knowledge of method seemeth to me so weakly
inquired as I shall report it deficient.

2. Method hath been placed and that not amiss, in
logic, as a part of judgement. For as the doctrine of
syllogisms comprehendeth the rules of judgement upon
that which is invented, so the doctrine of method con-
taineth the rules of judgement upon that which is to be
delivered ; for judgement precedeth delivery, as it follow-
eth invention. Neither is the method or the nature of
the tradition material only to the use of knowledge, but
likewise to the progression of knowledge : for since the
labour and life of one man cannot attain to perfection of
knowledge, the wisdom of the tradition is that which in
spired the felicity of continuance and proceeding. And
therefore the most real diversity of method is of method
referred to use, and method referred to progression :
whereof the one may be termed magistral, and the other
of probation.

3. The latter whereof seemeth to be via deserta et inter-
clusa. For as knowledges are now delivered, there is a
kind of contract of error between the deliverer and the
receiver. For he that delivereth knowledge, desireth to
deliver it in such form as may be best believed, and not

XVII. 3.] THE SECOND BOOK. 171

as may be best examined ; and he that receiveth know
ledge, desireth rather present satisfaction, than expectant
inquiry ; and so rather not to doubt, than not to err :
glory making the author not to lay open his weakness,
and sloth making the disciple not to know his strength.

4. But knowledge that is delivered as a thread to be
spun on, ought to be delivered and intimated, if it were
possible, in the same method wherein it was invented : and
so is it possible of knowledge induced. But in this same
anticipated and prevented knowledge, no man knoweth
how he came to the knowledge which he hath obtained.
But yet nevertheless, secundum majus et minus, a man may
revisit and descend unto the foundations of his know
ledge and consent ; and so transplant it into another, as
it grew in his own mind. For it is in knowledges as it
is in plants : if you mean to use the plant, it is no matter
for the roots ; but if you mean to remove it to grow, then
it is more assured to rest upon roots than slips : so the
delivery of knowledges (as it is now used) is as of fair
bodies of trees without the roots ; good for the carpenter,
but not for the planter. But if you will have sciences
grow, it is less matter for the shaft or body of the tree, so
you look well to the taking up of the roots. 2)e metbodo
Of which kind of delivery the method of the sincera, sive
mathematics, in that subject, hath some adfilios
shadow : but generally I see it neither put scien iarum -
in ure nor put in inquisition, and therefore note it for
deficient.

5. Another diversity of method there is, which hath
some affinity with the former, used in some cases by
the discretion of the ancients, but disgraced since by
the impostures of many vain persons, who have made it
as a false light for their counterfeit merchandises; and

172 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING [XVII. 5.

that is, enigmatical and disclosed. The pretence whereof
is, to remove the vulgar capacities from being admitted
to the secrets of knowledges, and to reserve them to
selected auditors, or wits of such sharpness as can pierce
the veil.

6. Another diversity of method, whereof the conse
quence is great, is the delivery of knowledge in aphor
isms, or in methods ; wherein we may observe that it
hath been too much taken into custom, out of a few
axioms or observations upon any subject, to make a
solemn and formal art, filling it with some discourses,
and illustrating it with examples, and digesting it into
a sensible method. But the writing in aphorisms hath
many excellent virtues, whereto the writing in method
doth not approach.

7. For first, it trieth the writer, whether he be superficial
or solid : for aphorisms, except they should be ridiculous,
cannot be made but of the pith and heart of sciences;
for discourse of illustration is cut off ; recitals of exam
ples are cut off; discourse of connexion and order is
cut off; descriptions of practice are cut off. So there
remaineth nothing to fill the aphorisms but some good
quantity of observation : and therefore no man can suffice,
nor in reason will attempt, to write aphorisms, but he that
is sound and grounded. But in methods,

Tantum series juncturaque pollet,
Tantum de medio sumptis accedit honoris,

as a man shall make a great show of an art, which, if it
were disjointed, would come to little. Secondly, methods
are more fit to win consent or belief, but less fit to
point to action ; for they carry a kind of demonstration
in orb or circle, one part illuminating another, and there
fore satisfy. But particulars being dispersed do best

XVII.;.] THE SECOND LOOK. 173

agree with dispersed directions. And lastly, aphorisms,
representing a knowledge broken, do invite men to in
quire further ; whereas methods, carrying the show of
a total, do secure men, as if they were at furthest.

8. Another diversity of method, which is likewise of
great weight, is the handling of knowledge by assertions
and their proofs, or by questions and their deter
minations. The latter kind whereof, if it be immoderately
followed, is as prejudicial to the proceeding of learning,
as it is to the proceeding of an army to go about to
besiege every little fort or hold. For if the field be kept,
and the sum of the enterprise pursued, those smaller
things will come in of themselves : indeed a man would
not leave some important piece enemy at his back. In
like manner, the use of confutation in the delivery of
sciences ought to be very sparing; and to serve to re
move strong preoccupations and prejudgements, and not
to minister and excite disputations and doubts.

9. Another diversity of methods is, according to the
subject or matter which is handled. For there is a great
difference in delivery of the mathematics, which are the
most abstracted of knowledges, and policy, which is the
most immersed. And howsoever contention hath been
moved, touching an uniformity of method in multiformity
of matter, yet we see how that opinion, besides the weak
ness of it, hath been of ill desert towards learning, as
that which taketh the way to reduce learning to cer
tain empty and barren generalities; being but the very
husks and shells of sciences, all the kernel being forced
out and expulsed with, the torture and press of the method.
And therefore as 1 did allow well of particular topics for
invention, so I do allow likewise of particular methods of
tradition.

174 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XVII. 10.

10. Another diversity of judgement in the delivery and
teaching of knowledge is, according unto the light and
presuppositions of that which is delivered. For that know
ledge which is new, and foreign from opinions received,
is to be delivered in another form than that that is agree
able and familiar ; and therefore Aristotle, when he thinks
to tax Democritus, doth in truth commend him, where he
saith, If we shall indeed dispute, and not follow after simili
tudes, &c. For those whose conceits are seated in popular
opinions, need only but to prove or dispute ; but those
whose conceits are beyond popular opinions, have a
double labour; the one to make themselves conceived,
and the other to prove and demonstrate. So that it is
of necessity with them to have recourse to similitudes and
translations to express themselves. And therefore in the
infancy of learning, and in rude times, when those con
ceits which are now trivial were then new, the world was
full of parables and similitudes ; for else would men either
have passed over without mark, or else rejected for para
doxes that which was offered, before they had understood
or judged. So in divine learning, we see how frequent
parables and tropes are : for it is a rule, that whatsoever
science is not consonant to presuppositions, must pray in
aid of similitudes.

n. There be also other diversities of methods vulgar
and received : as that of resolution or analysis, of con
stitution or systasis, of concealment or cryptic &c., which
I do allow well of, though I have stood upon those which
Deprnden- are least handled and observed. All which
tia tradi- I have remembered to this purpose, because
ttonis. i would erect and constitute one general in

quiry (which seems to me deficient) touching the wisdom
of tradition.

XVII.I2.] THE SECOND BOOK. 175

12. But unto this part of knowledge, concerning method,
doth further belong not only the architecture of the whole
frame of a work, but also the several beams and columns
thereof: not as to their stuff, but as to their quantity and
figure. And therefore method considereth not only the
disposition of the argument or subject, but likewise the
propositions : not as to their truth or matter, but as to
their limitation and manner. For herein Ramus merited
better a great deal in reviving the good rules of proposi
tions, Ka06\ov npuTov, Kara iravros &c., than he did in intro
ducing the canker of epitomes; and yet (as it is the
condition of human things that, according to the ancient
fables, the most precious things have the most pernicious
keepers] it was so, that the attempt of the one made him
fall upon the other. For he had need be well conducted
that should design to make axioms convertible, if he
make them not withal circular, and non-promovent, or
incurring into themselves; but yet the intention was
excellent.

13. The other considerations of method, concerning
propositions, are chiefly touching the utmost proposi
tions, which limit the dimensions of sciences : for every
knowledge may be fitly said, besides the profundity
(which is the truth and substance of it, that makes it
solid), to have a longitude and a latitude ; accounting
the latitude towards other sciences, and the longitude
towards action ; that is, from the greatest generality to
the most particular precept. The one giveth rule how
far one knowledge ought to intermeddle within the pro
vince of another, which is the rule they call KaOavro ; the
other giveth rule unto what degree of particularity a
knowledge should descend : which latter I find passed
over in silence, being in my judgement the more material.

170 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XVll. 15,

For certainly there must be somewhat left to practice ;
but how much is worthy the inquiry. We see remote
and superficial generalities do but offer knowledge to
scorn of practical men; and are no more aiding to
practice, than an Ortelius universal map is to direct the
way between London and York. The better sort of
rules have been not unfitly compared to glasses of steel
unpolished, where you may see the images of things,
but first they must be filed : so the rules will help, if they
De produc- be laboured and polished by practice. But
Hone axio- how crystalline they may be made at the
niattim. nrS |- ? anc j h ow f ar forth they may be polished
aforehand is the question; the inquiry whereof seemeth
to me deficient.

14. There hath been also laboured and put in prac
tice a method, which is not a lawful method, but a
method of imposture ; which is, to deliver knowledges in
such manner, as men may speedily come to make a show
of learning who have it not. Such was the travail of
Raymundus Lullius, in making that art which bears his
name : not unlike to some books of typocosmy, which
have been made since; being nothing but a mass of
words of all arts, to give men countenance, that those
which use the terms might be thought to understand the
art; which collections are much like a flipper s or broker s
shop, that hath ends of everything, but nothing of worth.

XVIII. i. Now we descend to that part which con-
cerneth the illustration of tradition, comprehended in that
science which we call rhetoric, or art of eloquence ; a
science excellent, and excellently well laboured. For
although in true value it is inferior to wisdom, as it is
said by God to Moses, when he disabled himself for
want of this faculty, Aaron shall be thy speaker, and thou

XVI11. i.] THE SECOND BOOK. 177

shall be to him as God ; yet with people it is the more
mighty : for so Salomon saith, Sapiens corde appcllabitur
prudens, sed dulcis eloquio major a reperiet ; signifying that
profoundness of wisdom will help a man to a name or
admiration, but that it is eloquence that prevaileth in an
active life. And as to the labouring of it, the emulation
of Aristotle with the rhetoricians of his time, and the
experience of Cicero, hath made them in their works of
rhetorics exceed themselves. Again, the excellency of
examples of eloquence in the orations of Demosthenes
and Cicero, added to the perfection of the precepts of
eloquence, hath doubled the progression in this art ; and
therefore the deficiences which I shall note will rather be
in some collections, which may as handmaids attend the
art, than in the rules or use of the art itself.

2. Notwithstanding, to stir the earth a little about the
roots of this science, as we have done of the rest ; the
duty and office of rhetoric is to apply reason to imagina
tion for the better moving of the will. For we see reason
is disturbed in the administration thereof by three means ;
by illaqueation or sophism, which pertains to logic ; by
imagination or impression, which pertains to rhetoric; and
by passion or affection, which pertains to morality. And
as in negotiation with others, men are wrought by cun
ning, by importunity, and by vehemency; so in this
negotiation within ourselves, men are undermined by in
consequences, solicited and importuned by impressions
or observations, and transported by passions. Neither is
the nature of man so unfortunately built, as that those
powers and arts should have force to disturb reason, and
not to establish and advance it. For the end of logic is to
teach a form of argument to secure reason, and not to en
trap it. The end of morality is to procure the affections to

N

178 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XVIII.2.

obey reason, and not to invade it. The end of rhetoric is to
fill the imagination to second reason, and not to oppress it:
for these abuses of arts come in but ex obliquo, for caution.

3. And therefore it was great injustice in Plato, though
springing out of a just hatred to the rhetoricians of his
time, to esteem of rhetoric but as a voluptuary art, re
sembling it to cookery, that did mar wholesome meats,
and help unwholesome by variety of sauces to the plea
sure of the taste. For we see that speech is much more
conversant in adorning that which is good, than in
colouring that which is evil; for there is no man but
speaketh more honestly than he can do or think : and
it was excellently noted by Thucydides in Cleon, that
because he used to hold on the bad side in causes of
estate, therefore he was ever inveighing against elo
quence and good speech ; knowing that no man can
speak fair of courses sordid and base. And therefore
as Plato said elegantly, That virtue, if she could be seen,
would move great love and affection ; so seeing that she
cannot be showed to the sense by corporal shape, the
next degree is to show her to the imagination in lively
representation : for to show her to reason only in sub-
tility of argument was a thing ever derided in Chrysip-
pus and many of the Stoics, who thought to thrust
virtue upon men by sharp disputations and conclusions,
which have no sympathy with the will of man.

4. Again, if the affections in themselves were pliant and
obedient to reason, it were true there should be no great
use of persuasions and insinuations to the will, more than
of naked proposition and proofs ; but in regard of the
continual mutinies and seditions of the affections,

Video meliora, proboque,
Deteriora sequor,

XVI If. 4.] THE SECOND BOOK. 179

reason would become captive and servile, if eloquence
of persuasions did not practise and win the imagination
from the affections part, and contract a confederacy be
tween the reason and imagination against the affections ;
for the affections themselves carry ever an appetite to
good, as reason doth. The difference is, that the affection
beholdeth merely the present ; reason beholdeth the future
and sum of time. And therefore the present filling the
imagination more, reason is commonly vanquished ; but
after that force of eloquence and persuasion hath made
things future and remote appear as present, then upon
the revolt of the imagination reason prevaileth.

5. We conclude therefore that rhetoric can be no
more charged with the colouring of the worse part, than
logic with sophistry, or morality with vice. For we know
the doctrines of contraries are the same, though the use
be opposite. It appeareth also that logic differeth from
rhetoric, not only as the fist from the palm, the one close,
the other at large; but much more in this, that logic
handleth reason exact and in truth, and rhetoric handleth
it as it is planted in popular opinions and manners. And
therefore Aristotle doth wisely place rhetoric as between
logic on the one side, and moral or civil knowledge on
the other, as participating of both : for the proofs and
demonstrations of logic are toward all men indifferent
and the same ; but the proofs and persuasions of rhetoric
ought to differ according to the auditors :

Orpheus in sylvis, inter delphinas Arion.

Which application, in perfection of idea, ought to extend
so far, that if a man should speak of the same thing to
several persons, he should speak to them all respectively
and several ways: though this politic part of eloquence
N 2

l8o OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XVIII. 5.

in private speech it is easy for the greatest orators to
want: whilst, by the observing their well-

Deprndentia ^^ forms Qf ^ ^

sermonts

privati. blll ty of application: and therefore it shall

not be amiss to recommend this to better
inquiry, not being curious whether we place it here, or in
that part which concerneth policy.

6. Now therefore will I descend to the deficiences,
Colores boni which (as I said) are but attendances : and
et mail, first, I do not find the wisdom and diligence
simplids et o f Aristotle well pursued, who began to make
comparati. a co n ec tion of the popular signs and colours
of good and evil, both simple and comparative, which are
as the sophisms of rhetoric (as I touched before). For
example :

Sopkisma.
Quod laudatur, bonum: quod vituperatur, malum.

Redargutio.
Laudat venales qui vult extrudere merces.

Malum est, malum est (inquit emptor) ; sed cum recesserit,
turn gloriabitur ! The defects in the labour of Aristotle
are three : one, that there be but a few of many ; another,
that their clenches are not annexed ; and the third, that
he conceived but a part of the use of them : for their use
is not only in probation, but much more in impression.
For many forms are equal in signification which are dif
fering in impression ; as the difference is great in the
piercing of that which is sharp and that which is flat,
though the strength of the percussion be the same. For
there is no man but will be a little more raised by hearing
it said, Your enemies will be glad of this,

Hoc Ithacus velit, et magno mercentur Atridz,

than by hearing it said only, This is evil for you.

XVIII. ;.] THE SECOND BOOK. l8l

7. Secondly, I do resume also that which I mentioned
before, touching provision or preparatory store for the
furniture of speech and readiness of invention, which ap-
peareth to be of two sorts ; the one in resemblance to a
shop of pieces unmade up, the other to a shop of things
ready made up ; both to be applied to that which is fre
quent and most in request. The former of these I will
call antitheta, and the latter formula.

8. Antiiheta are theses argued pro et contra ; wherein
men may be more large and laborious : but

/. , Antitheta

(in such as are able to do it) to avoid prolixity
of entry, I wish the seeds of the several argu
ments to be cast up into some brief and acute sentences,
not to be cited, but to be as skeins or bottoms of thread,
to be unwinded at large when they come to be used;
supplying authorities and examples by reference.

Pro verbis legis.

Non est interpretation sed divinatio, quae recedit a litcra :
Cum receditur a litera, judex transit in legislatorem.

Pro sententia legis.
Ex omnibus verbis est eliciendus sensus qui interpretatur singula.

9. Formula are but decent and apt passages or con
veyances of speech, which may serve indifferently for
differing subjects ; as of preface, conclusion, digression,
transition, excusation, &c. For as in buildings there is
great pleasure and use in the well casting of the stair
cases, entries, doors, windows, and the like ; so in speech,
the conveyances and passages are of special ornament
and effect.

A conclusion in a deliberative.

So may we redeem the faults passed, and prevent the inconveniences
future.

XIX. i. There remain two appendices touching the

182 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XIX. i.

tradition of knowledge, the one critical, the other pedant-
ical. For all knowledge is either delivered by teachers,
or attained by men s proper endeavours: and therefore
as the principal part of tradition of knowledge concerneth
chiefly writing of books, so the relative part thereof con
cerneth reading of books ; whereunto appertain incidently
these considerations. The first is concerning the true
correction and edition of authors ; wherein nevertheless
rash diligence hath done great prejudice. For these
critics have often presumed that that which they under
stand not is false set down: as the priest that, where
he found it written of S. Paul Demissus est per sportam,
mended his book, and made it Demissus est per portam ;
because sporta was an hard word, and out of his reading :
and surely their errors, though they be not so palpable
and ridiculous, yet are of the same kind. And therefore,
as it hath been wisely noted, the most corrected copies
are commonly the least correct.

The second is concerning the exposition and explic
ation of authors, which resteth in annotations and com
mentaries : wherein it is over usual to blanch the obscure
places and discourse upon the plain.

The third is concerning the times, which in many cases
give great light to true interpretations.

The fourth is concerning some brief censure and judge
ment of the authors ; that men thereby may make some
election unto themselves what books to read.

And the fifth is concerning the syntax and disposition
of studies ; that men may know in what order or pursuit
to read.

2. For pedantical knowledge, it containeth that differ
ence of tradition which is proper for youth ; whereunto
appertain divers considerations of great fruit.

XIX. 2.] THE SECOND BOOK. 183

As first, the timing and seasoning of knowledges ; as
with what to initiate them, and from what for a time to
refrain them.

Secondly, the consideration where to begin with the
easiest, and so proceed to the more difficult ; and in what
courses to press the more difficult, and then to turn them
to the more easy : for it is one method to practise swim
ming with bladders, and another to practise dancing with
heavy shoes.

A third is the application of learning according unto
the propriety of the wits ; for there is no defect in the
faculties intellectual, but seemeth to have a proper cure
contained in some studies : as, for example, if a child be
bird-witted, that is, hath not the faculty of attention, the
mathematics giveth a remedy thereunto ; for in them, if
the wit be caught away but a moment, one is new to
begin. And as sciences have a propriety towards faculties
for cure and help, so faculties or powers have a sympathy
towards sciences for excellency or speedy profiting : and
therefore it is an inquiry of great wisdom, what kinds of
wits and natures are most apt and proper for what sciences.

Fourthly, the ordering of exercises is matter of great
consequence to hurt or help : for, as is well observed by
Cicero, men in exercising their faculties, if they be not
well advised, do exercise their faults and get ill habits as
well as good ; so as there is a great judgement to be had
in the continuance and intermission of exercises. It were
too long to particularise a number of other considerations
of this nature, things but of mean appearance, but of
singular efficacy. For as the wronging or cherishing of
seeds or young plants is that that is most important
to their thriving, and as it was noted that the first six
kings being in truth as tutors of the state of Rome in the

184 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XIX. 2.

infancy thereof was the principal cause of the immense
greatness of that state which followed, so the culture
and manurance of minds in youth hath such a forcible
(though unseen) operation, as hardly any length of time
or contention of labour can countervail it afterwards.
And it is not amiss to observe also how small and mean
faculties gotten by education, yet when they fall into great
men or great matters, do work great and important
effects : whereof we see a notable example in Tacitus
of two stage players, Percennius and Vibulenus, who by
their faculty of playing put the Pannonian armies into
an extreme tumult and combustion. For there arising a
mutiny amongst them upon the death of Augustus Czesar,
Blaesus the lieutenant had committed some of the mutin-
ers, which were suddenly rescued; whereupon Vibulenus
got to be heard speak, which he did in this manner:
These poor innocent wretches appointed to cruel death, you
have restored to behold the light; but who shall restore my
brother to me, or life unto my brother, that was sent hither
in message from the legions of Germany, to treat of the
common cause ? and he hath murdered him this last night
by some of his fencers and ruffians, that he hath about him
for his executioners upon soldiers. Answer, Blasus, what
is done with his body t> The mortalest enemies do not deny
burial. When I have performed my last duties to the corpse
with kisses, with tears, command me to be slain besides him ;
so that these my fellows, for our good meaning and our true
hearts to the legions, may have leave to bury us. With which
speech he put the army into an infinite fury and uproar :
whereas truth was he had no brother, neither was there
any such matter; but he played it merely as if he had
been upon the stage.

3. But to return : we are now come to a period of

XIX. 3.] THE SECOND BOOK. 185

rational knowledges ; wherein if I have made the divi
sions other than those that are received, yet would I not
be thought to disallow all those divisions which I do not
use. For there is a double necessity imposed upon me
of altering the divisions. The one, because it differeth
in end and purpose, to sort together those things which
are next in nature, and those things which are next in
use. For if a secretary of estate should sort his papers,
it is like in his study or general cabinet he would sort
together things of a nature, as treaties, instructions, &c.
But in his boxes or particular cabinet he would sort
together those that he were like to use together, though
of several natures. So in this general cabinet of know
ledge it was necessary for me to follow the divisions of
the nature of things ; whereas if myself had been to
handle any particular knowledge, I would have respected
the divisions fittest for use. The other, because the
bringing in of the deficiences did by consequence alter
the partitions of the rest. For let the knowledge extant
(for demonstration sake) be fifteen. Let the knowledge
with the deficiences be twenty; the parts of fifteen are
not the parts of twenty ; for the parts of fifteen are three
and five ; the parts of twenty are two, four, five, and ten.
So as these things are without contradiction, and could
not otherwise be.

XX. i. "V\/E proceed now to that knowledge which

considereth of the appetite and will of
man: whereof Salomon saith, Ante omnia.fili, cuslodi cor
tuum ; nam inde procedunt ac Hones vita. In the handling
of this science, those which have written seem to me to
have done as if a man, that professed to teach to write,
did only exhibit fair copies of alphabets and letters

1 86 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XX. i.

joined, without giving any precepts or directions for the
carriage of the hand and framing of the letters. So have
they made good and fair exemplars and copies, carrying
the draughts and portraitures of good, virtue, duty, felicity;
propounding them well described as the true objects and
scopes of man s will and desires. But how to attain
these excellent marks, and how to frame and subdue the
will of man to become true and conformable to these
pursuits, they pass it over altogether, or slightly and un-
profitably. For it is not the disputing, that moral virtues
are in the mind of man by habit and not by nature ; or
the distinguishing, that generous spirits are won by doc
trines and persuasions, and the vulgar sort by reward and
punishment ; and the like scattered glances and touches,
that can excuse the absence of this part.

2. The reason of this omission I suppose to be that
hidden rock whereupon both this and many other barks
of knowledge have been cast away ; which is, that men
have despised to be conversant in ordinary and common
matters, the judicious direction whereof nevertheless is
the wisest doctrine (for life consisteth not in novelties
nor subtilities), but contrariwise they have compounded
sciences chiefly of a certain resplendent or lustrous mass
of matter, chosen to give glory either to the subtility of
disputations, or to the eloquence of discourses. But
Seneca giveth an excellent check to eloquence, Nocet
tilt s eloquentia, quibui non rerum cupiditatem facif, sed sm.
Doctrine should be such as should make men in love
with the lesson, and not with the teacher ; being directed
to the auditor s benefit, and not to the author s com
mendation. And therefore those are of the right kind
which may be concluded as Demosthenes concludes his
counsel, Qua si feceritis, non o atorem duntaxat in pr<z-

XX. 2.] THE SECOND BOOK. 187

sentia laudabitis, sed vosmetipsos etiam non ita multo post
statu rerum vestraram meliore.

3. Neither needed men of so excellent parts to have
despaired of a fortune, which the poet Virgil promised
himself, and indeed obtained, who got as much glory of
eloquence, wit, and learning in the expressing of the
observations of husbandry, as of the heroical acts of
^Eneas :

Nee sum animi dubius, verbis ca vincere magnum
Quam sit, et angustis his addere rebus honorem.

And surely, if the purpose be in good earnest, not to
write at leisure that which men may read at leisure, but
really to instruct and suborn action and active life, these
Georgics of the mind, concerning the husbandry and
tillage thereof, are no less worthy than the heroical de
scriptions of virtue, duty, and felicity. Wherefore the
main and primitive division of moral knowledge seemeth
to be into the exemplar or platform of good, and the
regiment or culture of the mind : the one describing the
nature of good, the other prescribing rules how to subdue,
apply, and accommodate the will of man thereunto.

4. The doctrine touching the platform or nature of
good considereth it either simple or compared; either
the kinds of good, or the degrees of good ; in the latter
whereof those infinite disputations which were touching
the supreme degree thereof, which they term felicity,
beatitude, or the highest good, the doctrines concerning
which were as the heathen divinity, are by the Christian
faith discharged. And as Aristotle saith, That young men
may be happy, but not otherwise but by hope ; so we must
all acknowledge our minority, and embrace the felicity
which is by hope of the future world.

Freed therefore and delivered from this doctrine of

1 88 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XX. 5.

the philosopher s heaven, whereby they feigned an higher
elevation of man s nature than was (for we see in what
height of style Seneca writeth, Vere magnum, haberefra-
gilitatem hominis, securitatem Dei), we may with more
sobriety and truth receive the rest of their inquiries and
labours. Wherein for the nature of good positive or
simple, they have set it down excellently in describing
the forms of virtue and duty, with their situations and
postures ; in distributing them into their kinds, parts,
provinces, actions, and administrations, and the like : nay
further, they have commended them to man s nature and
spirit with great quickness of argument and beauty of
persuasions; yea, and fortified and entrenched them (as
much as discourse can do) against corrupt and popular
opinions. Again, for the degrees and comparative nature
of good, they have also excellently handled it in their
triplicity of good, in the comparisons between a contem
plative and an active life, in the distinction between virtue
with reluctation and virtue secured, in their encounters
between honesty and profit, in their balancing of virtue
with virtue, and the like ; so as this part deserveth to be
reported for excellently laboured.

6. Notwithstanding, if before they had comen to the
popular and received notions of virtue and vice, pleasure
and pain, and the rest, they had stayed a little longer
upon the inquiry concerning the roots of good and evil,
and the strings of those roots, they had given, in my
opinion, a great light to that which followed ; and spe
cially if they had consulted with nature, they had made
their do ctrines less prolix and more profound: which
being by them in part omitted and in part handled with
much confusion, we will endeavour to resume and open
in a more clear manner.

XX. ;.] THE SECOND BOOK. 189

7. There is formed in every thing a double nature of
good : the one, as every thing is a total or substantive in
itself; the other, as it is a part or member of a greater
body : whereof the latter is in degree the greater and
the worthier, because it tendeth to the conservation of a
more general form. Therefore we see the iron in par
ticular sympathy moveth to the loadstone ; but yet if it
exceed a certain quantity, it forsaketh the affection to the
loadstone, and like a good patriot moveth to the earth,
which is the region and country of massy bodies : so may
we go forward, and see that water and massy bodies
move to the centre of the earth ; but rather than to suffer
a divulsion in the continuance of nature, they will move
upwards from the centre of the earth, forsaking their duty
to the earth in regard of their duty to the world. This
double nature of good, and the comparative thereof, is
much more engraven upon man, if he degenerate not :
unto whom the conservation of duty to the public ought
to be much more precious than the conservation of life
and being : according to that memorable speech of Pom-
peius Magnus, when being in commission of purveyance
for a famine at Rome, and being dissuaded with great
vehemency and instance by his friends about him, that
he should not hazard himself to sea in an extremity of
weather, he said only to them, Necesse est ut earn, non ut
vivam. But it may be truly affirmed that there was never
any philosophy, religion, or other discipline, which did
so plainly and highly exalt the good which is commun
icative, and depress the good which is private and par
ticular, as the Holy Faith ; well declaring that it was the
same God that gave the Christian law to men, who gave
those laws of nature to inanimate creatures that we spake
of before ; for we read that the elected saints of God have

190 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. |_XX. 7.

wished themselves anathematized and razed out of the
book of life, in an ecstasy of charity and infinite feeling
of communion.

8. This being set down and strongly planted, doth
judge and determine most of the controversies wherein
moral philosophy is conversant. For first, it decideth the
question touching the preferment of the contemplative or
active life, and decideth it against Aristotle. For all the
reasons which he bringeth for the contemplative are pri
vate, and respecting the pleasure and dignity of a man s
self (in which respects no question the contemplative life
hath the pre-eminence), not much unlike to that com
parison, which Pythagoras made for the gracing and
magnifying of philosophy and contemplation : who being
asked what he was, answered, That if Hiero were ever at
the Olympian games, he knew the manner, that some came
to try their fortune for the prizes, and some came as mer
chants to utter their commodites, and some came to make
good cheer and meet their friends, and some came to look
on; and that he was one of them that came to look on.
But men must know, that in this theatre of man s life it is
reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on. Neither
could the like question ever have been received in the
church, notwithstanding their Pretiosa in oculis Domini
mors sanctorum ejus, by which place they would exalt
their civil death and regular professions, but upon this
defence, that the monastical life is not simple contem
plative, but performeth the duty either of incessant prayers
and supplications, which hath been truly esteemed as an
office in the church, or else of writing or taking instruc
tions for writing concerning the law of God, as Moses
did when he abode so long in the mount. And so
we see Henoch the seventh from Adam, who was the first

XX. 8.] THE SECOND BOOK. 191

contemplative and walked with God, yet did also endow
the church with prophecy, which Saint Jude citeth. But
for contemplation which should be finished in itself, with
out casting beams upon society, assuredly divinity knoweth
it not.

9. It decideth also the controversies between Zeno and
Socrates, and their schools and successions, on the one
side, who placed felicity in virtue simply or attended, the
actions and exercises whereof do chiefly embrace and
concern society ; and on the other side, the Cyrenaics and
Epicureans, who placed it in pleasure, and made virtue
(as it is used in some comedies of errors, wherein the
mistress and the maid change habits) to be but as a
servant, without which pleasure cannot be served and
attended; and the reformed school of the Epicureans,
which placed it in serenity of mind and freedom from
perturbation; as if they would have deposed Jupiter
again, and restored Saturn and the first age, when there
was no summer nor winter, spring nor autumn, but all
after one air and season ; and Herillus, which placed
felicity in extinguishment of the disputes of the mind,
making no fixed nature of good and evil, esteeming things
according to the clearness of the desires, or the reluct-
ation; which opinion was revived in the heresy of the
Anabaptists, measuring things according to the motions
of the spirit, and the constancy or wavering of belief: all
which are manifest to tend to private repose and con
tentment, and not to point of society.

10. It censureth also the philosophy of Epictetus, which
presupposeth that felicity must be placed in those things
which are in our power, lest we be liable to fortune and
disturbance : as if it were not a thing much more happy
to fail in good and virtuous ends for the public, than to

192 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XX. 10.

obtain all that we can wish to ourselves in our proper
fortune ; as Consalvo said to his soldiers, showing them
Naples, and protesting he had rather die one foot for
wards, than to have his life secured for long by one foot
of retreat. Whereunto the wisdom of that heavenly leader
hath signed, who hath affirmed that a good conscience is a
continual feast ; showing plainly that the conscience of
good intentions, howsoever succeeding, is a more con
tinual joy to nature, than all the provision which can be
made for security and repose.

11. It censureth likewise that abuse of philosophy,
which grew general about the time of Epictetus, in con
verting it into an occupation or profession; as if the
purpose had been, not to resist and extinguish perturb
ations, but to fly and avoid the causes of them, and to
shape a particular kind and course of life to that end;
introducing such an health of mind, as was that health of
body of which Aristotle speaketh of Herodicus, who did
nothing all his life long but intend his health : whereas if
men refer themselves to duties of society, as that health
of body is best, which is ablest to endure all alterations
and extremities ; so likewise that health of mind is most
proper, which can go through the greatest temptations
and perturbations. So as Diogenes opinion is to be
accepted, who commended not them which abstained,
but them which sustained, and could refrain their mind
in prczcipitio, and could give unto the mind (as is used in
horsemanship) the shortest stop or turn.

12. Lastly, it censureth the tenderness and want of
application in some of the most ancient and reverend
philosophers and philosophical men, that did retire too
easily from civil business, for avoiding of indignities and
perturbations : whereas the resolution of men truly moral

XX. 12.] THE SECOND BOOK. 193

ought to be such as the same Consalvo said the honour
of a soldier should be, e teld crassiore, and not so fine as
that every thing should catch in it and endanger it.

XXI. i. To resume private or particular good, it
falleth into the division of good active and passive : for
this difference of good (not unlike to that which amongst
the Romans was expressed in the familiar or household
terms of promus and condus) is formed also in all things,
and is best disclosed in the two several appetites in crea
tures; the one to preserve or continue themselves, and
the other to dilate or multiply themselves; whereof the
latter seemeth to be the worthier: for in nature the
heavens, which are the more worthy, are the agent ; and
the earth, which is the less worthy, is the patient. In the
pleasures of living creatures, that of generation is greater
than that of food. In divine doctrine, beatius est dare
quam accipere. And in life, there is no man s spirit so
soft, but esteemeth the effecting of somewhat that he hath
fixed in his desire, more than sensuality ; which priority
of the active good, is much upheld by the consideration
of our estate to be mortal and exposed to fortune. For
if we mought have a perpetuity and certainty in our plea
sures, the state of them would advance their price. But
when we see it is but magni cEstimamus mori tardius, and
ne glorieris de crastino, nescis partum diet, it maketh us to
desire to have somewhat secured and exempted from
time, which are only our deeds and works : as it is said,
Opera eorum sequuntur eos. The preeminence likewise of
this active good is upheld by the affection which is natural
in man towards variety and proceeding ; which in the
pleasures of the sense, which is the principal part of
passive good, can have no great latitude. Cogita quam-
diu eadem fcceris; cibus, somnus, Indus; per hunc circulum

194 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXI. i.

curritur; mori velle non tanlumfortis, aut miser, autprudens,
sed etiam fastidiosus potest. But in enterprises, pursuits,
and purposes of life, there is much variety; whereof men
are sensible with pleasure in their inceptions, progres
sions, recoils, reintegrations, approaches and attainings
to their ends. So as it was well said, Vita sine proposito
languida et vaga est. Neither hath this active good any
identity with the good of society, though in some case it
hath an incidence into it. For although it do many times
bring forth acts of beneficence, yet it is with a respect
private to a man s own power, glory, amplification, con
tinuance ; as appeareth plainly, when it fmdeth a contrary
subject. For that gigantine state of mind which pos-
sesseth the troublers of the world, such as was Lucius
Sylla and infinite other in smaller model, who would
have all men happy or unhappy as they were their friends
or enemies, and would give form to the world, according
to their own humours (which is the true theomachy),
pretendeth and aspireth to active good, though it recedeth
furthest from good of society, which we have determined
to be the greater.

2. To resume passive good, it receiveth a subdivision of
conservative and perfective. For let us take a brief review
of that which we have said : we have spoken first of the
good of society, the intention whereof embraceth the
form of human nature, whereof we are members and
portions, and not our own proper and individual form :
we have spoken of active good, and supposed it as a
part of private and particular good. And rightly, for there
is impressed upon all things a triple desire or appetite
proceeding from love to themselves ; one of preserving
and continuing their form; another of advancing and
perfecting their form; and a third of multiplying and

XXI. 2.] THE SECOND BOOK. 195

extending their form upon other things: whereof the
multiplying, or signature of it upon other things, is that
which we handled by the name of active good. So as
there remaineth the conserving of it, and perfecting or
raising of it; which latter is the highest degree of
passive good. For to preserve in state is the less,
to preserve with advancement is the greater. So in
man,

Igneus est ollis vigor, et caelestis origo.

His approach or assumption to divine or angelical na
ture is the perfection of his form; the error or false
imitation of which good is that which is the tempest of
human life ; while man, upon the instinct of an advance
ment formal and essential, is carried to seek an ad
vancement local. For as those which are sick, and find
no remedy, do tumble up and down and change place,
as if by a remove local they could obtain a remove in
ternal; so is it with men in ambition, when failing of
the mean to exalt their nature, they are in a perpetual
estuation to exalt their place. So then passive good is,
as was said, either conservative or perfective.

3. To resume the good of conservation or comfort,
which consisteth in the fruition of that which is agree
able to our natures; it seemeth to be the most pure
and natural of pleasures, but yet the softest and the
lowest. And this also receiveth a difference, which hath
neither been well judged of, nor well inquired: for the
good of fruition or contentment is placed either in the
sincereness of the fruition, or in the quickness and
vigour of it; the one superinduced by equality, the
other by vicissitude ; the one having less mixture of evil,
the other more impression of good. Whether of these is
the greater good is a question controverted ; but whether
o 2

196 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXI. 3.

man s nature may not be capable of both, is a question
not inquired.

4. The former question being debated between Socrates
and a sophist, Socrates placing felicity in an equal and
constant peace of mind, and the sophist in much de
siring and much enjoying, they fell from argument to ill
words : the sophist saying that Socrates felicity was the
felicity of a block or stone ; and Socrates saying that
the sophist s felicity was the felicity of one that had the
itch, who did nothing but itch and scratch. And both
these opinions do not want their supports. For the
opinion of Socrates is much upheld by the general con
sent even of the Epicures themselves, that virtue bear-
eth a great part in felicity; and if so, certain it is, that
virtue hath more use in clearing perturbations than
in compassing desires. The sophist s opinion is much
favoured by the assertion we last spake of, that good of
advancement is greater than good of simple preservation ;
because every obtaining a desire hath a show of advance
ment, as motion though in a circle hath a show of pro
gression.

5. But the second question, decided the true way,
maketh the former superfluous. For can it be doubted,
but that there are some who take more pleasure in en
joying pleasures than some other, and yet, nevertheless,
are less troubled with the loss or leaving of them ? So
as this same, Non uti ut non appetas, non appetere ut non
meiuas, sunt animi pusilli et diffidentis. And it seemeth
to me, that most of the doctrines of the philosophers are
more fearful and cautionary than the nature of things
requireth. So have they increased the fear of death in
offering to cure it. For when they would have a man s
whole life to be but a discipline or preparation to die,

I

XXI. 5-J THE SECOND BOOK. 197

they must needs make men think that it is a terrible
enemy, against whom there is no end of preparing.
Better saith the poet :

Qui finem vitae extremum inter munera ponat
Naturae.

So have they sought to make men s minds too uniform
and harmonical, by not breaking them sufficiently to con
trary motions : the reason whereof I suppose to be, be
cause they themselves were men dedicated to a private,
free, and unapplied course of life. For as we see, upon
the lute or like instrument, a ground, though it be sweet
and have show of many changes, yet breaketh not the
hand to such strange and hard stops and passages, as
a set song or voluntary; much after the same manner
was the diversity between a philosophical and a civil
life. And therefore men are to imitate the wisdom of
jewellers ; who, if there be a grain, or a cloud, or an ice
which may be ground forth without taking too much of
the stone, they help it ; but if it should lessen and abate
the stone too much, they will not meddle with it: so
ought men so to procure serenity as they destroy not
magnanimity.

6. Having therefore deduced the good of man which
is private and particular, as far as seemeth fit, we will
now return to that good of man which respecteth and
beholdeth society, which we may term duty ; because the
term of duty is more proper to a mind well framed and
disposed towards others, as the term of virtue is applied
to a mind well formed and composed in itself: though ,
neither can a man understand virtue without some re
lation to society, nor duty without an inward disposition.
This part may seem at first to pertain to science civil
and politic: but not if it be well observed. For it

198 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXI. 6.

concerneth the regiment and government of every man
over himself, and not over others. And as in architecture
the direction of framing the posts, beams, and other parts
of building, is not the same with the manner of joining
them and erecting the building; and in mechanicals,
the direction how to frame an instrument or engine, is
not the same with the manner of setting it on work and
employing it ; and yet nevertheless in expressing of the
one you incidently express the aptness towards the other ;
so the doctrine of conjugation of men in society differeth
from that of their conformity thereunto.

7. This part of duty is subdivided into two parts:
the common duty of every man, as a man or member
of a state; the other, the respective or special duty of
every man, in his profession, vocation, and place. The
first of these is extant and well laboured, as hath been
said. The second likewise I may report rather dispersed
than deficient; which manner of dispersed writing in
this kind of argument I acknowledge to be best. For
who can take upon him to write of the proper duty,
virtue, challenge, and right of every several vocation, pro
fession, and place ? For although sometimes a looker on
may see more than a gamester, and there be a proverb
more arrogant than sound, That the vale best discovered
the hill; yet there is small doubt but that men can write
best and most really and materially in their own profes
sions ; and that the writing of speculative men of active
matter for the most part doth seem to men of experience,
as Phormio s argument of the wars seemed to Hannibal,
to be but dreams and dotage. Only there is one vice
which accompanieth them that write in their own pro
fessions, that they magnify them in excess. But gener
ally it were to be wished (as that which would make

XXI. 7.] THE SECOND BOOK. 199

learning indeed solid and fruitful) that active men would
or could become writers.

8. In which kind I cannot but mention, honoris causa,
your Majesty s excellent book touching the duty of a king:
a work richly compounded of divinity, morality, and policy,
with great aspersion of all other arts ; and being in mine
opinion one of the most sound and healthful writings that
I have read; not distempered in the heat of invention,
nor in the coldness of negligence ; not sick of dizzi
ness, as those are who leese themselves in their order,
nor of convulsions, as those which cramp in matters
impertinent; not savouring of perfumes and paintings,
as those do who seek to please the reader more than
nature beareth; and chiefly well disposed in the spirits
thereof, being agreeable to truth and apt for action;
and far removed from that natural infirmity, whereunto
I noted those that write in their own professions to be
subject, which is, that they exalt it above measure. For
your Majesty hath truly described, not a king of Assyria
or Persia in their extern glory, but a Moses or a David,
pastors of their people. Neither can I ever leese out
of my remembrance what I heard your Majesty in the
same sacred spirit of government deliver in a great
cause of judicature, which was, That kings ruled by their
laws, as God did by the laws of nature ; and ought as
rarely to put in use their supreme prerogative, as God doth
his power of working miracles. And yet notwithstanding,
in your book of a free monarchy, you do well give men
to understand, that you know the plenitude of the power
and right of a king, as well as the circle of his office and
duty. Thus have I presumed to allege this excellent
writing of your Majesty, as a prime or eminent example
of tractates concerning special and respective duties:

200 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXI. 8.

wherein I should have said as much, if it had been written
a thousand years since. Neither am I moved with certain
courtly decencies, which esteem it flattery to praise in
presence. No, it is flattery to praise in absence ; that is,
when either the virtue is absent, or the occasion is ab
sent; and so the praise is not natural, but forced, either in
truth or in time. But let Cicero be read in his oration
pro Marcello, which is nothing but an excellent table of
Caesar s virtue, and made to his face ; besides the example
of many other excellent persons, wiser a great deal than
such observers; and we will never doubt, upon a full
occasion, to give just praises to present or absent.

9. But to return : there belongeth further to the hand
ling of this part, touching the duties of professions and
vocations, a relative or opposite, touching the frauds,
cautels, impostures, and vices of every profession, which
hath been likewise handled : but how ? rather in a satire
and cynically, than seriously and wisely: for men have
rather sought by wit to deride and traduce much of that
which is good in professions, than with judgement to
discover and sever that which is corrupt. For, as Salomon
saith, he that cometh to seek after knowledge with a
mind to scorn and censure, shall be sure to find matter
for his humour, but no matter for his instruction : Qutz-
De cautelis ren ^ derisori scientiam ipsa se abscondit; sed
ei malts studioso fit obviam. But the managing of

artibus. this argument with integrity and truth, which

I note as deficient, seemeth to me to be one of the best
fortifications for honesty and virtue that can be planted.
For, as the fable goeth of the basilisk, that if he see you
first, you die for it ; but if you see him first, he dieth : so is
it with deceits and evil arts ; which, if they be first espied
they leese their life ; but if they prevent, they endanger. So

XXI. 9-] THE SECOND BOOK. 2OI

that we are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that ,
write what men do, and not what they ought to do. For
it is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with the
columbine innocency, except men know exactly all the
conditions of the serpent; his baseness and going upon
his belly, his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting,
and the rest ; that is, all forms and natures of evil. For
without this, virtue lieth open and unfenced. Nay, an
honest man can do no good upon those that are wicked,
to reclaim them, without the help of the knowledge of
evil. For men of corrupted minds presuppose that
honesty groweth out of simplicity of manners, and be
lieving of preachers, schoolmasters, and men s exterior
language. So as, except you can make them perceive
that you know the utmost reaches of their own corrupt
opinions, they despise all morality. Non recipit slultus
verba prudentice, nisi ea dixeris qua versantur in corde ejus.

10. Unto this part, touching respective duty, doth also
appertain the duties between husband and wife, parent
and child, master and servant. So likewise the laws of
friendship and gratitude, the civil bond of companies,
colleges, and politic bodies, of neighbourhood, and all
other proportionate duties; not as they are parts of
government and society, but as to the framing of the
mind of particular persons.

11. The knowledge concerning good respecting society
doth handle it also, not simply alone, but comparatively;
whereunto belongeth the weighing of duties between per
son and person, case and case, particular and public. As
we see in the proceeding of Lucius Brutus against his
own sons, which was so much extolled; yet what was
said?

Infelix, utcunque ferent ea fata minores.

202 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXI. n.

So the case was doubtful, and had opinion on both sides.
Again, we see when M. Brutus and Cassius invited to
a supper certain whose opinions they meant to feel,
whether they were fit to be made their associates, and
cast forth the question touching the killing of a tyrant
being an usurper, they were divided in opinion; some
holding that servitude was the extreme of evils, and others
that tyranny was better than a civil war : and a number of
the like cases there are of comparative duty. Amongst
which that of all others is the most frequent, where the
question is of a great deal of good to ensue of a small
injustice. Which Jason of Thessalia determined against
the truth: Aliqua sunt injuste facienda, ut multa juste fieri
tossint. But the reply is good, Auctorem pr&sentis jus-
titicB habes, sponsor em futures non hales. Men must pursue
things which are just in present, and leave the future to
the divine Providence. So then we pass on from this
general part touching the exemplar and description of
good.

XXII. i. Now therefore that we have spoken of this
fruit of life, it remaineth to speak of the hus-
Decnltura bandry that belongeth thereunto : without
ammi. ... ,

which part the former seemeth to be no better
than a fair image, or statua, which is beautiful to contem
plate, but is without life and motion ; whereunto Aristotle
himself subscribeth in these words : Necesse est scilicet de
virtute dicere, et quid sit, ei ex quibus gtgnatur. Inutile
enim fere fuerit virtutem quidem nosse, acquirenda autem ejus
modos et mas ignorare. Non enim de virtute tantum, qua
specie sit, queer endum est, sed et quomodo sui copiam faciat:
utrumque enim volumus, et rem ipsam nosse, et ejus compotes
fieri: hoc autem ex voto non succedet, nisi sciamus et ex qui
bus et quomodo. In such full words and with such iteration

XXII. i.] THE SECOND BOOK. 203

doth he inculcate this part. So saith Cicero in great com
mendation of Cato the second, that he had applied himself
to philosophy, Non ita disputandi causa, sed ita Vivendi.
And although the neglect of our times, wherein few men
do hold any consultations touching the reformation of
their life (as Seneca excellently saith, De partibus vita
quisque deliberat, de summa nemo), may make this part
seem superfluous ; yet I must conclude with that aphor
ism of Hippocrates, Qui gravi morbo correpti do/ores non
sentiunt, us metis agrotat. They need medicine, not only
to assuage the disease, but to awake the sense. And if
it be said, that the cure of men s minds belongeth to
sacred divinity, it is most true : but yet moral philosophy
may be preferred unto her as a wise servant and humble
handmaid. For as the Psalm saith, That the eyes of the
handmaid look perpetually towards the mistress, and yet no
doubt many things are left to the discretion of the hand
maid, to discern of the mistress will; so ought moral
philosophy to give a constant attention to the doctrines
of divinity, and yet so as it may yield of herself (within
due limits) many sound and profitable directions.

2. This part therefore, because of the excellency thereof,
I cannot but find exceeding strange that it is not reduced
to written inquiry: the rather, Because it consisteth of
much matter, wherein both speech and action is often
conversant ; and such wherein the common talk of men
(which is rare, but yet cometh sometimes to pass) is
wiser than their books. It is reasonable therefore that
we propound it in the more particularity, both for the
worthiness, and because we may acquit ourselves for
reporting it deficient; which seemeth almost incredible,
and is otherwise conceived and presupposed by those them
selves that have written. We will therefore enumerate

204 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXII. 2.

some heads or points thereof, that it may appear the
better what it is, and whether it be extant.

3. First therefore in this, as in all things which are
practical, we ought to cast up our account, what is in
our power, and what not ; for the one may be dealt with
by way of alteration, but the other by way of application
only. The husbandman cannot command, neither the
nature of the earth, nor the seasons of the weather ; no
more can the physician the constitution of the patient, nor
the variety of accidents. So in the culture and cure of
the mind of man, two things are without our command;
points of nature, and points of fortune. For to the basis
of the one, and the conditions of the other, our work is
limited and tied. In these things therefore it is left unto
us to proceed by application :

Vincenda est omnis fortuna ferendo:

and so likewise,

Vincenda est omnis Natura ferendo.

But when that we speak of suffering, we do not speak of
a dull and neglected suffering, but of a wise and indus
trious suffering, which draweth and contriveth use and ad
vantage out of that which seemeth adverse and contrary;
which is that properly which we call accommodating
or applying. Now the wisdom of application resteth
principally in the exact and distinct knowledge of the
precedent state or disposition, unto which we do apply :
for we cannot fit a garment, except we first take mea
sure of the body.

4. So then the first article of this knowledge is, to set
down sound and true distributions and descriptions of the

. several characters and tempers of men s natures and dis
positions; specially having regard to those differences
which are most radical in being the fountains and causes

XXII. 4.] THE SECOND BOOK.

of the rest, or most frequent in concurrence or com
mixture ; wherein it is not the handling of a few of them in
passage, the better to describe the mediocrities of virtues,
that can satisfy this intention. For if it deserve to be
considered, that there are minds which are proportioned
to great matters, and others to small (which Aristotle
handleth or ought to have handled by the name of
magnanimity), doth it not deserve as well to be con
sidered, that there are minds proportioned to intend many
matters, and others to few? So that some can divide
themselves : others can perchance do exactly well, but it
must be but in few things at once : and so there cometh
to be a narrowness of mind, as well as a pusillanimity.
And again, that some minds are proportioned to that
which may be dispatched at once, or within a short
return of time ; others to that which begins afar off, and
is to be won with length of pursuit :

Jam turn tenditque fovetque.

So that there may be fitly said to be a longanimity, which
is commonly also ascribed to God as a magnanimity. So
further deserved it to be considered by Aristotle, That
there is a disposition in conversation (supposing it in things
which do in no sort touch or concern a man s self) to soothe
and please; and a disposition contrary to contradict and
cross: and deserveth it not much better to be considered,
Thai there is a disposition, not in conversation or talk, but
in matter of more serious nature (and supposing it still in
things merely indifferent), to take pleasure in the good of
another: and a disposition contrariwise, to take distaste at
the good of another? which is that properly which we call
good nature or ill nature, benignity or malignity: and
therefore I cannot sufficiently marvel that this part of
knowledge, touching the several characters of natures

206 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXII. 4.

and dispositions, should be omitted both in morality and
policy; considering it is of so great ministry and sup-
peditation to them both. A man shall find in the trad
itions of astrology some pretty and apt divisions of men s
natures, according to the predominances of the planets;
lovers of quiet, lovers of action, lovers of victory, lovers
of honour, lovers of pleasure, lovers of arts, lovers of
change, and so forth. A man shall find in the wisest sort
of these relations which the Italians make touching con
claves, the natures of the several cardinals handsomely
and lively painted forth. A man shall meet with in
every day s conference the denominations of sensitive,
dry, formal, real, humorous, certain, huomo di prima im-
presswne, huomo di ultima impressions, and the like : and
yet nevertheless this kind of observations wandereth in
words, but is not fixed in inquiry. For the distinctions
are found (many of them), but we conclude no precepts
upon them : wherein our fault is the greater ; because
both history, poesy, and daily experience are as goodly
fields where these observations grow ; whereof we make
a few posies to hold in our hands, but no man bringeth
them to the confectionary, that receipts mought be made
of them for use of life.

5. Of much like kind are those impressions of nature,
which are imposed upon the mind by the sex, by the age,
by the region, by health and sickness, by beauty and
deformity, and the like, which are inherent and not
extern; and again, those which are caused by extern
fortune; as sovereignty, nobility, obscure birth, riches,
want, magistracy, privateness, prosperity, adversity, con
stant fortune, variable fortune, rising per saltum, per
gradus, and the like. And therefore we see that Plautus
maketh it a wonder to see an old man beneficent.

XXII. 5.] THE SECOND BOOK. 207

bcnigniias hujus ut adolescentuli est. Saint Paul concludeth
that severity of discipline was to be used to the Cretans,
increpa eos dure, upon the disposition of their country,
Cretenses semper mendaces, males bestice, venires pigri.
Sallust noteth that it is usual with kings to desire con
tradictories : Sed phrumque regies voluntates, ut vehementes
sunt> sic mobiles, s&pcque ipsce sibi adversce. Tacitus ob-
serveth how rarely raising of the fortune mendeth the
disposition : solus Vespasianus mutatus in melius. Pin-
dams maketh an observation, that great and sudden
fortune for the most part defeateth men qui magnamfeli-
citatem concoquere non possunt. So the Psalm showeth it
is more easy to keep a measure in the enjoying of for
tune, than in the increase of fortune : Divitia si affluant,
nolite cor apponere. These observations and the like I
deny not but are touched a little by Aristotle as in
passage in his Rhetorics, and are handled in some
scattered discourses : but they were never incorporate
into moral philosophy, to which they do essentially apper
tain ; as the knowledge of the diversity of grounds and
moulds doth to agriculture, and the knowledge of the
diversity of complexions and constitutions doth to the
physician; except we mean to follow the indiscretion
of empirics, which minister the same medicines to all
patients.

6. Another article of this knowledge is the inquiry
touching the affections ; for as in medicining of the body,
it is in order first to know the divers complexions and
constitutions; secondly, the diseases; and lastly, the
cures : so in medicining of the mind, after knowledge of
the divers characters of men s natures, it followeth in
order to know the diseases and infirmities of the mind,
which are no other than the perturbations and distempers

208 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXII. 6.

of the affections. For as the ancient politiques in
popular estates were wont to compare the people to the
sea, and the orators to the winds; because as the sea
would of itself be calm and quiet, if the winds did not
move and trouble it; so the people would be peaceable
and tractable, if the seditious orators did not set them in
working and agitation : so it may be fitly said, that the
mind in the nature thereof would be temperate and
stayed, if the affections, as winds, did not put it into tumult
and perturbation. And here again I find strange, as
before, that Aristotle should have written divers volumes
of Ethics, and never handled the affections, which is the
principal subject thereof; and yet in his Rhetorics, where
they are considered but collaterally and in a second
degree (as they may be moved by speech), he findeth
place for them, and handleth them well for the quantity ;
but where their true place is, he pretermitteth them. For
it is not his disputations about pleasure and pain that can
satisfy this inquiry, no more than he that should generally
handle the nature of light can be said to handle the nature
of colours; for pleasure and pain are to the particular
affections, as light is to particular colours. Better tra
vails, I suppose, had the Stoics taken in this argument, as
far as I can gather by that which we have at second hand.
But yet it is like it was after their manner, rather in
subtilty of definitions (which in a subject of this nature
are but curiosities), than in active and ample descriptions
and observations. So likewise I find some particular
writings of an elegant nature, touching some of the af
fections ; as of anger, of comfort upon adverse accidents,
of tenderness of countenance, and other. But the poets
and writers of histories are the best doctors of this know
ledge ; where we may find painted forth with great life,

XXII. 6.] THE SECOND BOOK. 209

how affections are kindled and incited ; and how pacified
and refrained ; and how again contained from act and
further degree; how they disclose themselves; how they
work ; how they vary ; how they gather and fortify ; how
they are enwrapped one within another; and how they
do fight and encounter one with another ; and other the
like particularities. Amongst the which this last is of
special use in moral and civil matters; how, I say, to set
affection against affection, and to master one by another ;
even as we use to hunt beast with beast, and fly bird
with bird, which otherwise percase we could not so easily
recover : upon which foundation is erected that excellent
use of prcBmium and pcena, whereby civil states consist :
employing the predominant affections of fear and hope,
for the suppressing and bridling the rest. For as in the
government of states it is sometimes necessary to bridle
one faction with another, so it is in the government
within.

7. Now come we to those points which are within our
own command, and have force and operation upon the
mind, to affect the will and appetite, and to alter man
ners: wherein they ought to have handled custom,
exercise, habit, education, example, imitation, emulation,
company, friends, praise, reproof, exhortation, fame, laws,
books, studies : these as they have determinate use in
moralities, from these the mind suffereth; and of these
are such receipts and regiments compounded and de
scribed, as may serve to recover or preserve the health
and good estate of the mind, as far as pertaineth to
human medicine : of which number we will insist upon
some one or two, as an example of the rest, because it
were too long to prosecute all; and therefore we do
resume custom and habit to speak of.

p

210 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXII. 8.

8. The opinion of Aristotle seemeth to me a negligent
opinion, that of those things which consist by nature,
nothing can be changed by custom ; using for example,
that if a stone be thrown ten thousand times up, it will
not learn to ascend ; and that by often seeing or hearing,
we do not learn to see or hear the better. For though
this principle be true in things wherein nature is per
emptory (the reason whereof we cannot now stand to
discuss), yet it is otherwise in things wherein nature
admitteth a latitude. For he mought see that a strait
glove will come more easily on with use; and that a
wand will by use bend otherwise than it grew ; and that
by use of the voice we speak louder and stronger ; and
that by use of enduring heat or cold, we endure it the
better, and the like : which latter sort have a nearer re
semblance unto that subject of manners he handleth,
than those instances which he allegeth. But allowing
his conclusion, that virtues and vices consist in habit, he
ought so much the more to have taught the manner of
superinducing that habit: for there be many precepts
of the wise ordering the exercises of the mind, as there
is of ordering the exercises of the body ; whereof we will
recite a few.

9. The first shall be, that we beware we take not at
the first, either too high a strain, or too weak: for if
too high, in a diffident nature you discourage, in a con
fident nature you breed an opinion of facility, and so a
sloth ; and in all natures you breed a further expectation
than can hold out, and so an insatisfaction in the end : if
too weak, of the other side, you may not look to perform
and overcome any great task.

10. Another precept is, to practise all things chiefly at
two several times, the one when the mind is best dis-

XXII.

THE SECOND BOOK.

211

posed, the other when it is worst disposed ; that by the
one you may gain a great step, by the other you may
work out the knots and stonds of the mind, and make
the middle times the more easy and pleasant.

11. Another precept is, that which Aristotle men-
tioneth by the way, which is to bear ever towards the
contrary extreme of that whereunto we are by nature
inclined ; like unto the rowing against the stream, or
making a wand straight by bending him contrary to his
natural crookedness.

12. Another precept is, that the mind is brought to
anything better, and with more sweetness and happiness,
if that whereunto you pretend be not first in the intention,
but tanquam aliud agenda, because of the natural hatred of
the mind against necessity and constraint. Many other
axioms there are touching the managing of exercise and
custom; which being so conducted, doth prove indeed
another nature; but being governed by chance, doth
commonly prove but an ape of nature, and bringeth forth
that which is lame and counterfeit.

13. So if we should handle books and studies, and
what influence and operation they have upon manners,
are there not divers precepts of great caution and direc
tion appertaining thereunto ? Did not one of the fathers
in great indignation call poesy vinum d&monum, because
it increaseth temptations, perturbations, and vain opinions?
Is not the opinion of Aristotle worthy to be regarded,
wherein he saith, That young men are no fit auditors of
moral philosophy, because they are not settled from the
boiling heat of their affections, nor attempered with time
and experience ? And doth it not hereof come, that those
excellent books and discourses of the ancient writers
(whereby they have persuaded unto virtue most effectually,

P 2

212 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXII. 13.

by representing her in state and majesty, and popular
opinions against virtue in their parasites coats fit to be
scorned and derided), are of so little effect towards honesty
of life, because they are not read and revolved by men in
their mature and settled years, but confined almost to
boys and beginners ? But is it not true also, that much
less young men are fit auditors of matters of policy,
till they have been throughly seasoned in religion and
morality; lest their judgements be corrupted, and made
apt to think that there are no true differences of things,
but according to utility and fortune, as the verse de
scribes it, Prosper urn et felix scelus virtus vocatur; and
again, Ilk crucem prelium seder is tulit, hie diadema : which
the poets do speak satirically, and in indignation on
virtue s behalf; but books of policy do speak it seriously
and positively; for so it pleaseth Machiavel to say, Thai
if CcBsar had been overthrown, he would have been more
odious than ever was Catiline; as if there had been no
difference, but in fortune, between a very fury of lust and
blood, and the most excellent spirit (his ambition reserved)
of the world? Again, is there not a caution likewise to
be given of the doctrines of moralities themselves (some
kinds of them), lest they make men too precise, arrogant,
incompatible ; as Cicero saith of Cato, In Marco Catone
hcBc bona qua videmus divina et egregia, ipsius scitote esse
propria; qua nonnunquam requirimus, ea sunt omnia non
a natura, sed a magktro? Many other axioms and advices
there are touching those proprieties and effects, which
studies do infuse and instil into manners. And so like
wise is there touching the use of all those other points,
of company, fame, laws, and the rest, which we recited in
the beginning in the doctrine of morality.

14. But there is a kind of culture of the mind that

XXTI. 14.] THE SECOND BOOK. 213

seemeth yet more accurate and elaborate than the rest,
and is built upon this ground ; that the minds of all men
are at some times in a state more perfect, and at other
times in a state more depraved. The purpose therefore
of this practice is to fix and cherish the good hours of
the mind, and to obliterate and take forth the evil. The
fixing of the good hath been practised by two means,
vows or constant resolutions, and observances or ex
ercises ; which are not to be regarded so much in
themselves, as because they keep the mind in continual
obedience. The obliteration of the evil hath been prac
tised by two means, some kind of redemption or expiation
of that which is past, and an inception or account de novo
for the time to come. But this part seemeth sacred and
religious, and justly; for all good moral philosophy (as
was said) is but an handmaid to religion.

15. Wherefore we will conclude with that last point,
which is of all other means the most compendious and
summary, and again, the most noble and effectual to the
reducing of the mind unto virtue and good estate ; which
is, the electing and propounding unto a man s self good
and virtuous ends of his life, such as may be in a reason
able sort within his compass to attain. For if these two
things be supposed, that a man set before him honest
and good ends, and again, that he be resolute, constant,
and true unto them; it will follow that he shall mould
himself into all virtue at once. And this is indeed like
the work of nature ; whereas the other course is like the
work of the hand. For as when a carver makes an
image, he shapes only that part whereupon he worketh ;
as if he be upon the face, that part which shall be the
body is but a rude stone still, till such times as he comes
to it. But contrariwise when nature makes a flower or

214 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXII. 15.

living creature, she formeth rudiments of all the parts at
one time. So in obtaining virtue by habit, while a man
practiseth temperance, he doth not profit much to forti
tude, nor the like : but when he dedicateth and applieth
himself to good ends, look, what virtue soever the pur
suit and passage towards those ends doth commend unto
him, he is invested of a precedent disposition to conform
himself thereunto. Which state of mind Aristotle doth
excellently express himself, that it ought not to be called
virtuous, but divine : his words are these : Immanitati
autem consentaneum est opponere earn, qua supra humanita-
tem est, heroicam sive divinam virtutem : and a little after,
Nam ut fercR neque vitium neque virtus est, sic neque Dei :
sed hie quidcm status altius quiddam virtute est, ille aliua
quiddam a vitio. And therefore we may see what celsi-
tude of honour Plinius Secundus attributeth to Trajan in
his funeral oration; where he said, That men needed to
make no other prayers to the gods, but that they would con
tinue as good lords to them as Trajan had been; as if he
had not been only an imitation of divine nature, but a
pattern of it. But these be heathen and profane passages,
having but a shadow of that divine state of mind, which
religion and the holy faith doth conduct men unto, by
imprinting upon their souls charity, which is excellently
called the bond of perfection, because it comprehendeth
and fasteneth all virtues together. And as it is elegantly
said by Menander of vain love, which is but a false
imitation of divine love, Amor melior Sophista Icevo ad
humanam vitam, that love teacheth a man to carry himself
better than the sophist or preceptor, which he calleth
left-handed, because, with all his rules and preceptions,
he cannot form a man so dexteriously, nor with that
facility to prize himself and govern himself, as love can

XXII. i5.] THE SECOND BOOK. 21$

do : so certainly, if a man s mind be truly inflamed with
charity, it doth work him suddenly into greater perfection
than all the doctrine of morality can do, which is but a
sophist in comparison of the other. Nay further, as
Xenophon observed truly, that all other affections, though
they raise the mind, yet they do it by distorting and
uncomeliness of ecstasies or excesses ; but only love doth
exalt the mind, and nevertheless at the same instant doth
settle and compose it : so in all other excellencies, though
they advance nature, yet they are subject to excess. Only
charity admitteth no excess. For so we see, aspiring to
be like God in power, the angels transgressed and fell ;
Ascendam, et ero similis altissimo : by aspiring to be like
God in knowledge, man transgressed and fell; Eritis
sicut Dii t sciences bonum et malum : but by aspiring to a
similitude of God in goodness or love, neither man nor
angel ever transgressed, or shall transgress. For unto
that imitation we are called: Diligite inimicos vestros,
benefacite eis qui oderunt vos, et orate pro persequenlibus et
calumnianiibus vos, ut silis filii Patris vestri qui in coelis
esf, qui solem smim oriri facit super bonos et males, et pluit
super justos et injustos. So in the first platform of the
divine nature itself, the heathen religion speaketh thus,
Optimus Maximus: and the sacred scriptures thus, Miser i-
cordia ejus super omnia opera ejus.

1 6. Wherefore I do conclude this part of moral know
ledge, concerning the culture and regiment of the mind ;
wherein if any man, considering the parts thereof which
I have enumerated, do judge that my labour is but
to collect into an art or science that which hath been
pretermitted by others, as matter of common sense and
experience, he judgeth well. But as Philocrates sported
with Demosthenes, You may not marvel (Athenians) that

2l6 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXII. 16.

Demosthenes and / do differ ; for he drinketh water ; and I
drink wine; and like as we read of an ancient parable of
the two gates of sleep,

Sunt geminse somni portae: quarum altera fertur
Cornea, qua veris facilis datur exitus umbris :
Altera candenti perfecta nitens elephanto,
Sed falsa ad ccelum mittunt insomnia manes:

so if we put on sobriety and attention, we shall find it a
sure maxim in knowledge, that the more pleasant liquor
(of wine) is the more vaporous, and the braver gate (of
ivory) sendeth forth the falser dreams.

17. But we have now concluded that general part of
human philosophy, which contemplateth man segregate,
and as he consisteth of body and spirit. Wherein we may
further note, that there seemeth to be a relation or con
formity between the good of the mind and the good of
the body. For as we divided the good of the body into
health, beauty, strength, and pleasure; so the good of
the mind, inquired in rational and moral knowledges,
tendeth to this, to make the mind sound, and without
perturbation; beautiful, and graced with decency; and
strong and agile for all duties of life. These three, as in
the body, so in the mind, seldom meet, and commonly
sever. For it is easy to observe, that many have strength
of wit and courage, but have neither health from per
turbations, nor any beauty or decency in their doings:
some again have an elegancy and fineness of carriage,
which have neither soundness of honesty, nor substance
of sufficiency : and some again have honest and reformed
minds, that can neither become themselves nor manage
business : and sometimes two of them meet, and rarely
all three. As for pleasure, we have likewise determined
that the mind ought not to be reduced to stupid, but to

XXII. i;.] THE SECOND BOOK. 21 J

retain pleasure ; confined rather in the subject of it, than
in the strength and vigour of it.

XXIII. i. /^IVIL knowledge is conversant about a
subject which of all others is most
immersed in matter, and hardliest reduced to axiom.
Nevertheless, as Cato the Censor said, That the Romans
were like sheep, for that a man were better drive a flock of
them, than one of them; for in a flock, if you could get but
some few go right, the rest would follow : so in that respect
moral philosophy is more difficile than policy. Again,
moral philosophy propoundeth to itself the framing of
internal goodness ; but civil knowledge requireth only an
external goodness ; for that as to society sufficeth. And -
therefore it cometh oft to pass that there be evil times
in good governments : for so we find in the holy story,
when the kings were good, yet it is added, Sed adhuc
populus non direxerat cor suum ad Dominum Deum patrum
suorum. Again, states, as great engines, move slowly,
and are not so soon put out of frame : for as in Egypt
the seven good years sustained the seven bad, so govern
ments for a time well grounded, do bear out errors fol
lowing ; but the resolution of particular persons is more
suddenly subverted. These respects do somewhat qualify
the extreme difficulty of civil knowledge.

2. This knowledge hath three parts, according to
the three summary actions of society; which are con
versation, negotiation, and government. For man seeketh
in society comfort, use, and protection : and they be three
wisdoms of divers natures, which do often sever : wisdom
of the behaviour, wisdom of business, and wisdom of
state.

3. The wisdom of conversation ought not to be over

21 8 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIIl. 3.

much affected, but much less despised; for it hath not
only an honour in itself, but an influence also into busi
ness and government. The poet saith, Nee vultu destrue
verba tuo : a man may destroy the force of his words
with his countenance : so may he of his deeds, saith
Cicero, recommending to his brother affability and easy
access; Nil interest habere ostium apertum, vultum clausum;
it is nothing won to admit men with an open door, and
to receive them with a shut and reserved countenance.
So we see Atticus, before the first interview between
Csesar and Cicero, the war depending, did seriously
advise Cicero touching the composing and ordering of
his countenance and gesture. And if the government of
the countenance be of such effect, much more is that
of the speech, and other carriage appertaining to con
versation ; the true model whereof seemeth to me well ex
pressed by Livy, thought not meant for this purpose : Ne
aut arrogans vtdear, aut obnoxtus; quorum alter um est
alienee liber tatis obliti, alterum suce : the sum of behaviour
is to retain a man s own dignity, without intruding upon
the liberty of others. On the other side, if behaviour
and outward carriage be intended too much, first it may
pass into affectation, and then Quid deformius quam
scenam in vitam transferre, to act a man s life? But
although it proceed not to that extreme, yet it consumeth
time, and employeth the mind too much. And therefore
as we use to advise young students from company
keeping, by saying, Amid fur es temporis: so certainly the
intending of the discretion of behaviour is a great thief
of meditation. Again, such as are accomplished in that
form of urbanity please themselves in it, and seldom
aspire to higher virtue ; whereas those that have defect in
it do seek comeliness by reputation ; for where reputation

XXI 11. .s.J THE SECOND BOOK. 219

is, almost everything becometh ; but where that is
not, it must be supplied by puntos and compliments.
Again, there is no greater impediment of action than an
over-curious observance of decency, and the guide of
decency, which is time and season. For as Salomon
saith, Qui respicit ad ventos, non seminal; d qui respicit
ad nubes, non metet: a man must make his opportunity,
as oft as find it. To conclude, behaviour seemeth to me
as a garment of the mind, and to have the conditions of
a garment. For it ought to be made in fashion; it
ought not to be too curious ; it ought to be shaped so as
to set forth any good making of the mind and hide any
deformity; and above all, it ought not to be too strait or
restrained for exercise or motion. But this part of civil
knowledge hath been elegantly handled, and therefore I
cannot report it for deficient.

4. The wisdom touching negotiation or business hath
not been hitherto collected into writing, to De negotiis
the great derogation of learning, and the gerendis.
professors of learning. For from this root springeth
chiefly that note or opinion, which by us is expressed in
adage to this effect, that there is no great concurrence
between learning and wisdom. For of the three wisdoms
which we have set down to pertain to civil life, for wisdom
of behaviour, it is by learned men for the most part de
spised, as an inferior to virtue and an enemy to meditation;
for wisdom of government, they acquit themselves well
when they are called to it, but that happeneth to few;
but for the wisdom of business, wherein man s life is most
conversant, there be no books of it, except some few
scattered advertisements, that have no proportion to the
magnitude of this subject. For if books were written of
this as the other, I doubt not but learned men with mean

220 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 4.

experience, would far excel men of long experience with
out learning, and outshoot them in their own bow.

5. Neither needeth it at all to be doubted, that this
knowledge should be so variable as it falleth not under
precept; for it is much less infinite than science of govern
ment, which we see is laboured and in some part re
duced. Of this wisdom it seemeth some of the ancient
Romans in the saddest and wisest times were professors ;
for Cicero reporteth, that it was then in use for senators
that had name and opinion for general wise men, as
Coruncanius, Curius, Laelius, and many others, to walk
at certain hours in the Place, and to give audience to
those that would use their advice ; and that the particular
citizens would resort unto them, and consult with them of
the marriage of a daughter, or of the employing of a son,
or of a purchase or bargain, or of an accusation, and
every other occasion incident to man s life. So as there
is a wisdom of counsel and advice even in private causes,
arising out of an universal insight into the affairs of the
world ; which is used indeed upon particular cases pro
pounded, but is gathered by general observation of cases
of like nature. For so we see in the book which Q. Cicero
writeth to his brother, De pelitione consulatus (being the
only book of business that I know written by the ancients),
although it concerned a particular action then on foot,
yet the substance thereof consisteth of many wise and
politic axioms, which contain not a temporary, but a
perpetual direction in the case of popular elections. But
chiefly we may see in those aphorisms which have place
amongst divine writings, composed by Salomon the king,
of whom the scriptures testify that his heart was as the
sands of the sea, encompassing the world and all worldly
matters, we see, I say, not a few profound and excellent

.XXIII. 5 .] THE SECOND BOOK. 221

cautions, precepts, positions, extending to much variety
of occasions ; whereupon we will stay a while, offering to
consideration some number of examples.

6. Sed et cunctis sermonibus qui dicuntur ne accommodes
aurem tuam, ne forte audias servum luum maledicentem libi.
Here is commended the provident stay of inquiry of that
which we would be loth to find : as it was judged great
wisdom in Pompeius Magnus that he burned Sertorius
papers unperused.

Vir sapiens, si cum stulto conlenderit, sive trasca/ur,
sive rtdeaf, non inveniet requiem. Here is described the
great disadvantage which a wise man hath in undertaking
a lighter person than himself; which is such an engage
ment as, whether a man turn the matter to jest, or turn it
to heat, or howsoever he change copy, he can no ways
quit himself well of it.

Qui delicate a pueritia nutrit servum suum, postea sentiel
cum contumacem. Here is signified, that if a man begin
too high a pitch in his favours, it doth commonly end in
unkindness and unthankfulness.

Vidisti virum velocem in opere suo ? cor am regibus stabit,
nee erit inter ignobiles. Here is observed, that of all virtues
for rising to honour, quickness of despatch is the best;
for superiors many times love not to have those they
employ too deep or too sufficient, but ready and diligent.

Vidi cunctos viventes qui ambulant sub sole, cum adoles-
cente secundo qui consurgit pro eo. Here is expressed that
which was noted by Sylla first, and after him by Tiberius;
Plures adorant solem orientem quam occidentem vel men-
dianum.

Si spiritus potestatem halentis ascenderit super te, locum
tuum ne dimiseris ; quia curalio faciet cessare peccata
maxima. Here caution is given, that upon displeasure,

222 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 6.

retiring is of all courses the unfittest ; for a man leaveth
things at worst, and depriveth himself of means to make
them better.

Erat civitas parva, et pauci in ea mri: venit contra earn
rex magnus, et vallavit earn, instruxitque munitiones per
gyrum, et perfecta est obsidio ; inventusque esl in ea vir
pauper et sapiens, et liber av it earn per sapientiam suam; et
nullus deinceps recordatus est hominis illius pauperis. Here
the corruption of states is set forth, that esteem not virtue
or merit longer than they have use of it.

Mollis responsio frangit iram. Here is noted that
silence or rough answer exasperateth ; but an answer
present and temperate pacifieth.

Iter pigrorum quasi sepes spinarum. Here is lively
represented how laborious sloth proveth in the end : for
when things are deferred till the last instant, and nothing
prepared beforehand, every step findeth a brier or im
pediment, which catcheth or stoppeth.

Melior est finis oraiionis quam principium. Here is
taxed the vanity of formal speakers, that study more about
prefaces and inducements, than upon the conclusions and
issues of speech.

Qui cognoscit in judicio faciem, non benefacit; iste et pro
buccella panis deseret veritatem. Here is noted, that a
judge were better be a briber than a respecter of per
sons ; for a corrupt judge offendeth not so lightly as a
facile.

Vir pauper calumnians pauper es similis est imbri vehem-
enti, in quo paratur fames. Here is expressed the ex
tremity of necessitous extortions, figured in the ancient
fable of the full and the hungry horseleech.

Fons turbatus pede, et vena corrupta, est Justus cadens
coram impio. Here is noted, that one judicial and

XXIII. 6.] THE SECOND BOOK. 223

exemplar iniquity in the face of the world doth trouble
the fountains of justice more than many particular injuries
passed over by connivance.

Qui subtrahit aliquid a patre et a ma/re, et dicit hoc non
esse pecca/um, pariiceps est homicidii. Here is noted, that
whereas men in wronging their best friends use to ex
tenuate their fault, as if they mought presume or be bold
upon them, it doth contrariwise indeed aggravate their
fault, and turneth it from injury to impiety.

Noli esse amicus homini iracundo, nee ambulato cum
homine furioso. Here caution is given, that in the election
of our friends we do principally avoid those which are
impatient, as those that will espouse us to many factions
and quarrels.

Qui coniurbat domum suam, possidebit ventum. Here
is noted, that in domestical separations and breaches men
do promise to themselves quieting of their mind and con
tentment ; but still they are deceived of their expectation,
and it turneth to wind.

Filius sapiens l&tificat patrem: filius vero slultus mcestitia
est matri sues. Here is distinguished, that fathers have
most comfort of the good proof of their sons; but
mothers have most discomfort of their ill proof, because
women have little discerning of virtue, but of fortune.

Qui celat delictum, queer it amiciiiam; sed qui alter o ser-
mone repetit, separ at federates. Here caution is given, that
reconcilement is better managed by an amnesty, and
passing over that which is past, than by apologies and
excusations.

In omni opere bono erit abundantia ; ubi autem verba
sunl plun ma, ibi frequenter egesias. Here is noted, that
words and discourse aboundeth most where there is
idleness and want.

224 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 6.

Primus in sua causa Justus ; sed venit alter a pars, et
inquire! in eum. Here is observed, that in all causes
the first tale possesseth much; in sort, that the pre
judice thereby wrought will be hardly removed, except
some abuse or falsity in the information be detected.

Verba bilinguis quasi simplicia, et ipsa perveniunt ad
interiora ventris. Here is distinguished, that flattery
and insinuation, which seemeth set and artificial, sink-
eth not far ; but that entereth deep which hath show of
nature, liberty, and simplicity.

Qui erudit derisorem, ipse sibi injuriam facit ; et qui
arguit impium, sibi maculam general. Here caution is
given how we tender reprehension to arrogant and scorn
ful natures, whose manner is to esteem it for contumely,
and accordingly to return it.

Da sapienti occasionem, et addetur ei sapientia. Here is
distinguished the wisdom brought into habit, and that
which is but verbal and swimming only in conceit ; for
the one upon the occasion presented is quickened and
redoubled, the other is amazed and confused.

Quomodo in aquis resplendent vultus prospicientium, sic
cor da hominum manifesta sunt prudentibus. Here the mind
of a wise man is compared to a glass, wherein the images
of all diversity of natures and customs are represented ;
from which representation proceedeth that application,

Qui sapit, innumeris moribus aptus erit.

7. Thus have I stayed somewhat longer upon these
sentences politic of Salomon than is agreeable to the
proportion of an example; led with a desire to give
authority to this part of knowledge, which I noted as
deficient, by so excellent a precedent; and have also
attended them with brief observations, such as to my
understanding offer no violence to the sense, though I

XXIII. 7-] THE SECOND BOOK.

know they may be applied to a more divine use: but
it is allowed, even in divinity, that some interpretations,
yea, and some writings, have more of the eagle than
others; but taking them as instructions for life, they
mought have received large discourse, if I would have
broken them and illustrated them by deducements and
examples.

8. Neither was this in use only with the Hebrews, but
it is generally to be found in the wisdom of the more
ancient times; that as men found out any observation
that they thought was good for life, they would gather
it and express it in parable or aphorism or fable. But
for fables, they were vicegerents and supplies where
examples failed: now that the times abound with his
tory, the aim is better when the mark is alive. And
therefore the form of writing which of all others is fittest
for this variable argument of negotiation and occasions
is that which Machiavel chose wisely and aptly for govern
ment ; namely, discourse upon histories or examples. For
knowledge drawn freshly and in our view out of particu
lars, knoweth the way best to particulars again. And it
hath much greater life for practice when the discourse
attendeth upon the example, than when the example
attendeth upon the discourse. For this is no point of
order, as it seemeth at first, but of substance. For
when the example is the ground, being set down in an
history at large, it is set down with all circumstances,
which may sometimes control the discourse thereupon
made, and sometimes supply it, as a very pattern for
action ; whereas the examples alleged for the discourse s
sake are cited succinctly, and without particularity, and
carry a servile aspect towards the discourse which they
are brought in to make good.

Q

226 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 9.

9. But this difference is not amiss to be remembered,
that as history of times is the best ground for discourse
of government, such as Machiavel handleth, so histories
of lives is the most proper for discourse of business,
because it is more conversant in private actions. Nay,
there is a ground of discourse for this purpose fitter
than them both, which is discourse upon letters, such
as are wise and weighty, as many are of Cicero ad
Atticum, and others. For letters have a great and more
particular representation of business than either chronicles
or lives. Thus have we spoken both of the matter and
form of this part of civil knowledge, touching negotiation,
which we note to be deficient.

10. But yet there is another part of this part, which
differeth as much from that whereof we have spoken
as sapere and sibi sapere, the one moving as it were to
the circumference, the other to the centre. For there
is a wisdom of counsel, and again there is a wisdom
of pressing a man s own fortune; and they do some
times meet, and often sever. For many are wise in
their own ways that are weak for government or coun
sels; like ants, which is a wise creature for itself, but
very hurtful for the garden. This wisdom the Romans
did take much knowledge of: Nam pol sapiens (saith the
comical poet) fingit foriunam sibi; and it grew to an
adage, Faber quisque fortunes, proprice; and Livy attri
buted it to Cato the first, In hoc vtro tanta vis animi
et ingenii merat, ut quocunque loco natus esset sibi ipse

foriunam facturus videretur.

11. This conceit or position, if it be too much declared
and professed, hath been thought a thing impolitic and
unlucky, as was observed in Timotheus the Athenian,
who, having done many great services to the estate in

XXIII. ii.] THE SECOND BOOK. 227

his government, and giving an account thereof to the
people as the manner was, did conclude every particu
lar with this clause, And in this fortune had no part.
And it came so to pass, that he never prospered in any
thing he took in hand afterward. For this is too high and
too arrogant, savouring of that which Ezekiel saith of
Pharaoh, Dia s, Fluvius est metis el ego fed memet ipsum :
or of that which another prophet speaketh, that men offer
sacrifices to their nets and snares; and that which the
poet expresseth,

Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro,
Nunc adsint!

For these confidences were ever unhallowed, and un
blessed: and therefore those that were great politiques
indeed ever ascribed their successes to their felicity, and
not to their skill or virtue. For so Sylla surnamed him
self Felix, not Magnus. So Caesar said to the master of
the ship, Casarem portas etfortunam ejus.

12. But yet nevertheless these positions, Faber quis-
que for tuna SUCK: Sapiens dominabitur astris : Invia virtuli
nulla est via, and the like, being taken and used as spurs
to industry, and not as stirrups to insolency, rather for
resolution than for the presumption or outward de
claration, have been ever thought sound and good; and
are no question imprinted in the greatest minds, who
are so sensible of this opinion, as they can scarce con
tain it within. As we see in Augustus Caesar (who was
rather diverse from his uncle than inferior in virtue), how
when he died he desired his friends about him to give
him a plaudite, as if he were conscient to himself that he
had played his part well upon the stage. This part of
knowledge we do report also as deficient : not but that it
is practised too much, but it hath not been reduced to
Q 2

228 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 12.

writing. And therefore lest it should seem to any that
Faberfor- it is not comprehensible by axiom, it is re-
tuncc,sivede quisite, as we did in the former, that we
ambitu vita. set d own some heads or passages of it.

13. Wherein it may appear at the first a new and un
wonted argument to teach men how to raise and make
their fortune; a doctrine wherein every man perchance
will be ready to yield himself a disciple, till he see the
difficulty: for fortune layeth as heavy impositions as
virtue; and it is as hard and severe a thing to be a
true politique, as to be truly moral. But the handling
hereof concerneth learning greatly, both in honour and
in substance. In honour, because pragmatical men may
not go away with an opinion that learning is like a lark,
that can mount, and sing, and please herself, and nothing
else ; but may know that she holdeth as well of the hawk,
that can soar aloft, and can also descend and strike upon
the prey. In substance, because it is the perfect law of
inquiry of truth, that nothing be in the globe of matter,
which should not be likewise in the globe of crystal, or
form ; that is, that there be not any thing in being and
action, which should not be drawn and collected into con
templation and doctrine. Neither doth learning admire
or esteem of this architecture of fortune, otherwise than
as of an inferior work: for no man s fortune can be
an end worthy of his being; and many times the worthi
est men do abandon their fortune willingly for better
respects: but nevertheless fortune as an organ of virtue
and merit deserveth the consideration.

14. First therefore the precept which I conceive to
be most summary towards the prevailing in fortune, is to
obtain that window which Momus did require : who see
ing in the frame of man s heart such angles and recesses.

XXIII. 14-] THE SECOND BOOK. 229

found fault there was not a window to look into them ;
that is, to procure good informations of particulars
touching persons, their natures, their desires and ends,
their customs and fashions, their helps and advantages,
and whereby they chiefly stand: so again their weak
nesses and disadvantages, and where they lie most
open and obnoxious; their friends, factions, depend
ences; and again their opposites, enviers, competitors,
their moods and times, Sola viri molles adilus et tempora
nor as; their principles, rules, and observations, and the
like : and this not only of persons, but of actions ; what
are on foot from time to time, and how they are con
ducted, favoured, opposed, and how they import, and the
like. For the knowledge of present actions is not only
material in itself, but without it also the knowledge of
persons is very erroneous: for men change with the
actions ; and whiles they are in pursuit they are one, and
when they return to their nature they are another. These
informations of particulars, touching persons and actions,
are as the minor propositions in every active syllogism ;
for no excellency of observations (which are as the major
propositions) can suffice to ground a conclusion, if there
be error and mistaking in the minors.

15. That this knowledge is possible, Salomon is our
surety, who saith, Consilium in corde viri ianquam aqua
profunda; sed vir prudens exhauriet illud. And although
the knowledge itself falleth not under precept, because it
is of individuals, yet the instructions for the obtaining of

it may.

1 6. We will begin therefore with this precept, accord
ing to the ancient opinion, that the sinews of wisdom
are slowness of belief and distrust; that more trust be
given to countenances and deeds than to words ; and in

230 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 16.

words rather to sudden passages and surprised words
than to set and purposed words. Neither let that be
feared which is said, Fronti nulla fides, which is meant of
a general outward behaviour, and not of the private and
subtile motions and labours of the countenance and
gesture; which, as Q. Cicero elegantly saith, is A mm
janua, the gale of the mind. None more close than
Tiberius, and yet Tacitus saith of Callus, Etenim vultu
offensionem conjectaverat. So again, noting the differing
character and manner of his commending Germanicus
and Drusus in the senate, he saith, touching his fashion
wherein he carried his speech of Germanicus, thus;
Magis in speciem adornatis verbis, quam ut penitus sentire
credereiur : but of Drusus thus ; Paucioribus sed intentior,
et fida oratione : and in another place, speaking of his
character of speech, when he did any thing that was
gracious and popular, he saith, that in other things he
was velut eluctantium verborum; but then again, solutim
loquelatur quando subveniret. So that there is no such
artificer of dissimulation, nor no such commanded coun
tenance (pultus jussus), that can sever from a feigned
tale some of these fashions, either a more slight and
careless fashion, or more set and formal, or more tedious
and wandering, or coming from a man more drily and
hardly.

17. Neither are deeds such assured pledges, as that
they may be trusted without a judicious consideration of
their magnitude and nature : Fraus sibi in parvis fidem
prastruit ut majore emolumento fallal; and the Italian
thinketh himself upon the point to be bought and sold,
when he is better used than he was wont to be without
manifest cause. For small favours, they do but lull men
asleep, both as to caution and as to industry ; and are, as

XXIII. 17.] THE SECOND BOOK. 231

Demosthenes calleth them, Alimenta socordice. So again
we see how false the nature of some deeds are, in that
particular which Mutianus practised upon Antonius Pri
mus, upon that hollow and unfaithful reconcilement which
was made between them ; whereupon Mutianus advanced
many of the friends of Antonius, Simul amicis ejus pr&-
feduras et iribunalus largiiur: wherein, under pretence to
strengthen him, he did desolate him, and won from him
his dependences.

1 8. As for words, though they be like waters to phy
sicians, full of flattery and uncertainty, yet they are not to
be despised, specially with the advantage of passion and
affection. For so we see Tiberius, upon a stinging and
incensing speech of Agrippina, came a step forth of his
dissimulation, when he said, You are hurt because you do
not reign; of which Tacitus saith, Audita hac raram
occulti pectoris vocem elicuere ; correptamque Grceco versu
admonuit, ideo l&di quia non regnaret. And therefore the
poet doth elegantly call passions tortures, that urge men
to confess their secrets :

Vino tortus et ira.

And experience showeth, there are few men so true to
themselves and so settled, but that, sometimes upon heat,
sometimes upon bravery, sometimes upon kindness, some
times upon trouble of mind and weakness, they open
themselves ; specially if they be put to it with a counter-
dissimulation, according to the proverb of Spain, Di men-
tira.y sacaras verdad: Tell a lie and find a truth.

19. As for the knowing of men which is at second
hand from reports ; men s weaknesses and faults are best
known from their enemies, their virtues and abilities from
their friends, their customs and times from their servants,
their conceits and opinions from their familiar friends,

232 Of THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 19.

with whom they discourse most. General fame is light,
and the opinions conceived by superiors or equals are
deceitful; for to such men are more masked: Verior
fama e domestids emanat.

20. But the soundest disclosing and expounding of
men is by their natures and ends, wherein the weakest
sort of men are best interpreted by their natures, and the
wisest by their ends. For it was both pleasantly and
wisely said (though I think very untruly) by a nuncio
of the pope, returning from a certain nation where he
served as lidger; whose opinion being asked touching
the appointment of one to go in his place, he wished
that in any case they did not send one that was too wise ;
because no very wise man would ever imagine what they
in that country were like to do. And certainly it is an
error frequent for men to shoot over, and to suppose
deeper ends, and more compass reaches than are: the
Italian proverb being elegant, and for the most part true :

Di danari, di senno, e di fede,
C e ne manco che non credi:

There is commonly less money, less wisdom, and less
good faith than men do account upon.

21. But princes, upon a far other reason, are best
interpreted by their natures, and private persons by their
ends. For princes being at the top of human desires,
they have for the most part no particular ends whereto
they aspire, by distance from which a man mought take
measure and scale of the rest of their actions and desires ;
which is one of the causes that maketh their hearts more
inscrutable. Neither is it sufficient to inform ourselves
in men s ends and natures of the variety of them only,
but also of the predominancy, what humour reigneth

XXIII. 21.] THE SECOND BOOK. 333

most, and what end is principally sought. For so we
see, when Tigellinus saw himself outstripped by Petronius
Turpilianus in Nero s humours of pleasures, me/us ejus
rimatur, he wrought upon Nero s fears, whereby he brake
the other s neck.

22. But to all this part of inquiry the most com
pendious way resteth in three things : the first, to have
general acquaintance and inwardness with those which
have general acquaintance and look most into the world ;
and specially according to the diversity of business, and
the diversity of persons, to have privacy and conversation
with some one friend at least which is perfect and well
intelligenced in every several kind. The second is to
keep a good mediocrity in liberty of speech and secrecy ;
in most things liberty: secrecy where it importeth; for
liberty of speech inviteth and provoketh liberty to be
used again, and so bringeth much to a man s knowledge ;
and secrecy on the other side induceth trust and inward
ness. The last is the reducing of a man s self to this
watchful and serene habit, as to make account and
purpose, in every conference and action, as well to
observe as to act. For as Epictetus would have a phi
losopher in every particular action to say to himself, Et
hoc volo, et etiam insliiutum servare ; so a politic man in
everything should say to himself, Et hoc volo, ac etiam
aliquid addiscerc. I have stayed the longer upon this
precept of obtaining good information, because it is a
main part by itself, which answereth to all the rest. But,
above all things, caution must be taken that men have
a good stay and hold of themselves, and that this much
knowing do not draw on much meddling ; for nothing is
more unfortunate than light and rash intermeddling in
many matters. So that this variety of knowledge tendeth

234 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 22.

in conclusion but only to this, to make a better and freer
choice of those actions which may concern us, and
to conduct them with the less error and the more
dexterity.

23. The second precept concerning this knowledge is,
for men to take good information touching their own
person, and well to understand themselves : knowing
that, as S. James saith, though men look oft in a glass,
yet they do suddenly forget themselves; wherein as
the divine glass is the word of God, so the politic glass
is the state of the world, or times wherein we live, in the
which we are to behold ourselves.

24. For men ought to take an unpartial view of their
own abilities and virtues ; and again of their wants and
impediments ; accounting these with the most, and those
other with the least ; and from this view and examination
to frame the considerations following.

25. First, to consider how the constitution of their
nature sorteth with the general state of the times ; which
if they find agreeable and fit, then in all things to give
themselves more scope and liberty; but if diifering and
dissonant, then in the whole course of their life to be
more close retired, and reserved : as we see in Tiberius,
who was never seen at a play, and came not into the
Senate in twelve of his last years; whereas Augustus
Caesar lived ever in men s eyes, which Tacitus observeth,
alia Tiberio morum via.

26. Secondly, to consider how their nature sorteth with
professions and courses of life, and accordingly to make
election, if they be free; and, if engaged, to make the
departure at the first opportunity : as we see was done
by Duke Valentine, that was designed by his father to a
sacerdotal profession, but quitted it soon after in regard

XXIII. 26.] THE SECOND BOOK.

of his parts and inclination; being such, nevertheless,
as a man cannot tell well whether they were worse for
a prince or for a priest.

27. Thirdly, to consider how they sort with those whom
they are like to have competitors and concurrents; and to
take that course wherein there is most solitude, and them
selves like to be most eminent: as Csesar Julius did, who
at first was an orator or pleader; but when he saw the
excellency of Cicero, Hortensius, Catulus, and others,
for eloquence, and saw there was no man of reputation
for the wars but Pompeius, upon whom the state was
forced to rely, he forsook his course begun toward a
civil and popular greatness, and transferred his designs
to a martial greatness.

28. Fourthly, in the choice of their friends and de
pendences, to proceed according to the composition of
their own nature: as we may see in Coesar, all whose
friends and followers were men active and effectual, but
not solemn, or of reputation.

29. Fifthly, to take special heed how they guide them
selves by examples, in thinking they can do as they see
others do; whereas perhaps their natures and carriages
are far differing. In which error it seemeth Pompey was,
of whom Cicero saith, that he was wont often to say,
Sylla potuit, ego non poterot Wherein he was much
abused, the natures and proceedings of himself and his
example being the unlikest in the world; the one being
fierce, violent, and pressing the fact; the other solemn,
and full of majesty and circumstance, and therefore the
less effectual.

But this precept touching the politic knowledge of our
selves hath many other branches; whereupon we cannot
insist.

OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 30.

30. Next to the well understanding and discerning of
a man s self, there followeth the well opening and re
vealing a man s self; wherein we see nothing more
usual than for the more able man to make the less
show. For there is a great advantage in the well set
ting forth of a man s virtues, fortunes, merits; and
again, in the artificial covering of a man s weaknesses,
defects, disgraces; staying upon the one, sliding from
the other ; cherishing the one by circumstances, gracing
the other by exposition, and the like. Wherein we see
what Tacitus saith of Mutianus, who was the greatest
politique of his time, Omnium qua dixerat feceratque arte
quadam ostentator : which requireth indeed some art, lest
it turn tedious and arrogant ; but yet so, as ostentation
(though it be to the first degree of vanity) seemeth to me
rather a vice in manners than in policy : for as it is said*
Audacter calumniare, semper aliquid h&ret : so, except it
be in a ridiculous degree of deformity, Audacter te vendita,
semper aliquid hceret. For it will stick with the more
ignorant and inferior sort of men, though men of wisdom
and rank do smile at it and despise it ; and yet the
authority won with many doth countervail the disdain
of a few. But if it be carried with decency and govern
ment, as with a natural, pleasant, and ingenious fashion ;
or at times when it is mixed with some peril and unsafety
(as in military persons) ; or at times when others are most
envied ; or with easy and careless passage to it and from
it, without dwelling too long, or being too serious; or
with an equal freedom of taxing a man s self, as well
as gracing himself; or by occasion of repelling or put
ting down others injury or insolency; it doth greatly
add to reputation: and surely not a few solid natures,
that want this ventosity and cannot sail in the height

XXIII. 3 o.] THE SECOND BOOK. 237

of the winds, are not without some prejudice and disad
vantage by their moderation.

31. But for these flourishes and enhancements of virtue,
as they are not perchance unnecessary, so it is at least
necessary that virtue be not disvalued and imbased under
the just price ; which is done in three manners : by of
fering and obtruding a man s self; wherein men think he
is rewarded, when he is accepted; by doing too much,
which will not give that which is well done leave to settle,
and in the end induceth satiety ; and by finding too soon
the fruit of a man s virtue, in commendation, applause,
honour, favour ; wherein if a man be pleased with a little,
let him hear what is truly said; Cave ne insuetus rebus
majoribus videaris, si hac te res parva sicuti ??iagna delectat.

32. But the covering of defects is of no less importance
than the valuing of good parts ; which may be done like
wise in three manners, by caution, by colour, and by con
fidence. Caution is when men do ingeniously and dis
creetly avoid to be put into those things for which they
are not proper: whereas contrariwise bold and unquiet
spirits will thrust themselves into matters without differ
ence, and so publish and proclaim all their wants. Colour
is when men make a way for themselves to have a con
struction made of their faults or wants, as proceeding
from a better cause or intended for some other purpose.
For of the one it is well said,

Saepe latet vitiuni proximitate boni,

and therefore whatsoever want a man hath, he must see
that he pretend the virtue that shadoweth it; as if he
be dull, he must affect gravity; if a coward, mildness;
and so the rest. For the second, a man must frame some
probable cause why he should not do his best, and why
he should dissemble his abilities; and for that purpose

238 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 32.

must use to dissemble those abilities which are notorious
in him, to give colour that his true wants are but in
dustries and dissimulations. For confidence, it is the last
but the surest remedy ; namely, to depress and seem to
despise whatsoever a man cannot attain ; observing the
good principle of the merchants, who endeavour to raise
the price of their own commodities, and to beat down the
price of others. But there is a confidence that passeth
this other; which is to face out a man s own defects,
in seeming to conceive that he is best in those things
wherein he is failing ; and, to help that again, to seem on
the other side that he hath least opinion of himself in
those things wherein he is best : like as we shall see it
commonly in poets, that if they show their verses, and you
except to any, they will say That that line cost them more
labour than any of the rest; and presently will seem to
disable and suspect rather some other line, which they
know well enough to be the best in the number. But above
all, in this righting and helping of a man s self in his own
carriage, he must take heed he show not himself dis
mantled and exposed to scorn and injury, by too much
dulceness, goodness, and facility of nature; but show
some sparkles of liberty, spirit, and edge. Which kind
of fortified carriage, with a ready rescussing of a man s
self from scorns, is sometimes of necessity imposed upon
men by somewhat in their person or fortune ; but it ever
succeedeth with good felicity.

33. Another precept of this knowledge is by all possible
endeavour to frame the mind to be pliant and obedient
to occasion; for nothing hindereth men s fortunes so
much as this : Idem manebat, neque idem decebat, men are
where they were, when occasions turn: and therefore
to Cato, whom Livy maketh such an architect of fortune,

XXIII. 33.] THE SECOND BOOK. 339

he addeth that he had versatile ingenium. And thereof
it cometh that these grave solemn wits, which must be
like themselves and cannot make departures, have more
dignity than felicity. But in some it is nature to be
somewhat viscous and inwrapped, and not easy to turn.
In some it is a conceit that is almost a nature, which is,
that men can hardly make themselves believe that they
ought to change their course, when they have found good
by it in former experience. For Machiavel noted wisely,
how Fabius Maximus would have been temporizing still,
according to his old bias, when the nature of the war
was altered and required hot pursuit. In some other
it is want of point and penetration in their judgement,
that they do not discern when things have a period, but
come in too late after the occasion; as Demosthenes
compareth the people of Athens to country fellows, when
they play in a fence school, that if they have a blow, then
they remove their weapon to that ward, and not before.
In some other it is a lothness to leese labours passed, and
a conceit that they can bring about occasions to their ply ;
and yet in the end, when they see no other remedy, then
they come to it with disadvantage ; as Tarquinius, that
gave for the third part of Sibylla s books the treble price,
when he mought at first have had all three for the simple.
But from whatsoever root or cause this restiveness of
mind proceedeth, it is a thing most prejudicial; and
nothing is more politic than to make the wheels of our
mind concentric and voluble with the wheels of fortune.

34. Another precept of this knowledge, which hath
some affinity with that we last spake of, but with differ
ence, is that which is well expressed, Fatis accede deisque,
that men do not only turn with the occasions, but also
run with the occasions, and not strain their credit or

340 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 34.

strength to over-hard or extreme points; but choose in
their actions that which is most passable: for this will
preserve men from foil, not occupy them too much about
one matter, win opinion of moderation, please the most,
and make a show of a perpetual felicity in all they under
take ; which cannot but mightily increase reputation.

35. Another part of this knowledge seemeth to have
some repugnancy with the former two, but not as I
understand it ; and it is that which Demosthenes uttereth
in high terms ; Et quemadmodum receptum est, ut exercitum
ducat imperator, sic et a cordatis viris res ipsce ducendce ;
ut qua ipsis videntur, ea gerantur, et non ipsi eventus per-
sequi coganiur. For if we observe we shall find two
differing kinds of sufficiency in managing of business:
some can make use of occasions aptly and dexterously,
but plot little ; some can urge and pursue their own plots
well, but cannot accommodate nor take in; either of
which is very unperfect without the other.

36. Another part of this knowledge is the observing a
good mediocrity in the declaring, or not declaring a man s
self: for although depth of secrecy, and making way
(qualis est via navis in mari, which the French calleth
sourdes mentis, when men set things in work without
opening themselves at all), be sometimes both prosperous
and admirable ; yet many times dissimulatio error es parit,
qui dissimulatorem ipsum illaqueant. And therefore we
see the greatest politiques have in a natural and free
manner professed their desires, rather than been reserved
and disguised in them. For so we see that Lucius Sylla
made a kind of profession, that he wished all men happy or
unhappy , as they stood his friends or enemies. So Caesar,
when he went first into Gaul, made no scruple to profess
That he had rather be first in a village than second at Rome*

XXIII. 36.] THE SECOND BOOK. 341

So again, as soon as he had begun the war, we see what
Cicero saith of him, Alter (meaning of Caesar) nan recusat,
sed quodammodo postulat, ut (ut esf) sic appelktur tyrannus.
So we may see in a letter of Cicero to Atticus, that
Augustus Caesar, in his very entrance into affairs, when
he was a darling of the senate, yet in his harangues to
the people would swear, Ita parentis honores consequi liceat
(which was no less than the tyranny), save that, to help
it, he would stretch forth his hand towards a statua of
Caesar s that was erected in the place : and men laughed,
and wondered, and said, Is it possible ? or, Did you ever
hear the like ? and yet thought he meant no hurt ; he did
it so handsomely and ingenuously. And all these were
prosperous: whereas Pompey, who tended to the same
ends, but in a more dark and dissembling manner, as
Tacitus saith of him, Occultior non metior, wherein Sal-
lust concurreth, Ore probo, ammo inverecundo, made it his
design, by infinite secret engines, to cast the state into
an absolute anarchy and confusion, that the state mought
cast itself into his arms for necessity and protection, and
so the sovereign power be put upon him, and he never
seen in it : and when he had brought it (as he thought)
to that point, when he was chosen consul alone, as never
any was, yet he could make no great matter of it, because
men understood him not ; but was fain in the end to go
the beaten track of getting arms into his hands, by colour
of the doubt of Caesar s designs : so tedious, casual, and
unfortunate are these deep dissimulations: whereof it
seemeth Tacitus made this judgement, that they were
a cunning of an inferior form in regard of true policy;
attributing the one to Augustus, the other to Tiberius;
where, speaking of Livia, he saith, Et cum artibus mariti
simulations filii bene composita : for surely the continual

R

243 O-F THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 36.

habit of dissimulation is but a weak and sluggish cunning,
and not greatly politic.

37. Another precept of this architecture of fortune is
to accustom our minds to judge of the proportion or
value of things, as they conduce and are material to our
particular ends: and that to do substantially, and not
superficially. For we shall find the logical part (as I may
term it) of some men s minds good, but the mathematical
part erroneous; that is, they can well judge of conse
quences, but not of proportions and comparison, pre
ferring things of show and sense before things of sub
stance and effect. So some fall in love with access to
princes, others with popular fame and applause, sup
posing they are things of great purchase, when in many
cases they are but matters of envy, peril, and impediment.
So some measure things according to the labour and
difficulty or assiduity which are spent about them; and
think, if they be ever moving, that they must needs
advance and proceed; as Csesar saith in a despising
manner of Cato the second, when he describeth how
laborious and indefatigable he was to no great purpose,
H&c omnia magno studio agebat. So in most things men
are ready to abuse themselves in thinking the greatest
means to be best, when it should be the fittest.

38. As for the true marshalling of men s pursuits
towards their fortune, as they are more or less material,
I hold them to stand thus. First the amendment of their
own minds. For the remove of the impediments of the
mind will sooner clear the passages of fortune, than the
obtaining fortune will remove the impediments of the
mind. In the second place I set down wealth and
means ; which I know most men would have placed first,
because of the general use which it beareth towards all

XXIII. 38.] THE SECOND BOOK. 243

variety of occasions. But that opinion I may condemn
with like reason as Machiavel doth that other, that
moneys were the sinews of the wars; whereas (saith he)
the true sinews of the wars are the sinews of men s arms,
that is, a valiant, populous, and military nation : and he
voucheth aptly the authority of Solon, who, when Crcesus
showed him his treasury of gold, said to him, that if
another came that had better iron, he would be master
of his gold. In like manner it may be truly affirmed,
that it is not moneys that are the sinews of fortune, but
it is the sinews and steel of men s minds, wit, courage, l
audacity, resolution, temper, industry, and the like. In
the third place I set down reputation, because of the
peremptory tides and currents it hath ; which, if they be
not taken in their due time, are seldom recovered, it
being extreme hard to play an after game of reputation.
And lastly I place honour, which is more easily won by
any of the other three, much more by all, than any of
them can be purchased by honour. To conclude this pre
cept, as there is order and priority in matter, so is there
in time, the preposterous placing whereof is one of the
commonest errors : while men fly to their ends when they
should intend their beginnings, and do not take things in
order of time as they come on, but marshal them accord
ing to greatness and not according to instance; not
observing the good precept, Quod nunc instat agamus.

39. Another precept of this knowledge is not to em
brace any matters which do occupy too great a quantity
of time, but to have that sounding in a man s ears, Sed
fugit interea fugit irreparabile iempus : and that is the
cause why those which take their course of rising by pro
fessions of burden, as lawyers, orators, painful divines,
and the like, are not commonly so politic for their own
R 2

244 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 39.

fortune, otherwise than in their ordinary way, because
they want time to learn particulars, to wait occasions, and
to devise plots.

40. Another precept of this knowledge is to imitate
nature which doth nothing in vain ; which surely a man
may do if he do well interlace his business, and bend not
his mind too much upon that which he principally in-
tendeth. For a man ought in every particular action
so to carry the motions of his mind, and so to have
one thing under another, as if he cannot have that he
seeketh in the best degree, yet to have it in a second, or
so in a third ; and if he can have no part of that which
he purposed, yet to turn the use of it to somewhat else ;
and if he cannot make anything of it for the present, yet
to make it as a seed of somewhat in time to come ; and
if he can contrive no effect or substance from it, yet to
win some good opinion by it, or the like. So that he
should exact an account of himself of every action, to
reap somewhat, and not to stand amazed and confused
if he fail of that he chiefly meant : for nothing is more
impolitic than to mind actions wholly one by one. For
he that doth so leeseth infinite occasions which intervene,
and are many times more proper and propitious for some
what that he shall need afterwards, than for that which he
urgeth for the present; and therefore men must be per
fect in that rule, Hcec oportet facer e, et ilia non omittere.

41. Another precept of this knowledge is, not to engage
a man s self peremptorily in any thing, though it seem
not liable to accident ; but ever to have a window to fly
out at, or a way to retire : following the wisdom in the
ancient fable of the two frogs, which consulted when their
plash was dry whither they should go ; and the one moved
to go down into a pit, because it was not likely the water

XXIII. 4 i.] THE SECOND BOOK. 245

would dry there ; but the other answered, True, but if it
do, how shall we get out again ?

42. Another precept of this knowledge is that ancient
precept of Bias, construed not to any point of perfidious-
ness, but only to caution and moderation, Et ama tan-
quam immicus fulurus et odi tanquam amalurus. For it
utterly betrayeth all utility for men to embark themselves
too far into unfortunate friendships, troublesome spleens",
and childish and humorous envies or emulations.

43. But I continue this beyond the measure of an
example; led, because I would not have such know
ledges, which I note as deficient, to be thought things
imaginative or in the air, or an observation or two much
made of, but things of bulk and mass, whereof an end is
hardlier made than a beginning. It must be likewise con
ceived, that in these points which I mention and set down,
they are far from complete tractates of them, but only as
small pieces for patterns. And lastly, no man I suppose
will think that I mean fortunes are not obtained without
all this ado ; for I know they come tumbling into some
men s laps ; and a number obtain good fortunes by dili
gence in a plain way, little intermeddling, and keeping
themselves from gross errors.

44. But as Cicero, when he setteth down an idea of a
perfect orator, doth not mean that every pleader should
be such; and so likewise, when a prince or a courtier
hath been described by such as have handled those sub
jects, the mould hath used to be made according to the
perfection of the art, and not according to common prac
tice: so I understand it, that it ought to be done in the
description of a politic man, I mean politic for his own
fortune.

45. But it must be remembered all this while, that the

346 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 45.

precepts which we have set down are of that kind which
may be counted and called Bonce Artes. As for evil arts,
if a man would set down for himself that principle of
Machiavel, That a man seek not to attain virtue itself, but
the appearance only thereof ; because the credit of virtue is
a help, but the use of it is cumber : or that other of his
principles, That he presuppose, that men are not fitly to be
wrought otherwise but by fear; and therefore that he seek
to have every man obnoxious, low, and in strait, which
the Italians call seminar spine, to sow thorns: or that
other principle, contained in the verse which Cicero citeth,
Cadant amid, dummodo inimici intercidant, as the triumvirs,
which sold every one to other the lives of their friends
for the deaths of their enemies : or that other protestation
of L. Catilina, to set on fire and trouble states, to the end
to fish in droumy waters, and to unwrap their fortunes,
Ego si quid in fortunis meis excitatum sit incendium, id
non aqua sed ruma resiinguam : or that other principle
of Lysander, That children are to be deceived with comfits,
and men with oaths : and the like evil and corrupt posi
tions, whereof (as in all things) there are more in number
than of the good : certainly with these dispensations from
the laws of charity and integrity, the pressing of a man s
fortune may be more hasty and compendious. But it is
in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the
foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

46. But men, if they be in their own power, and do
bear and sustain themselves, and be not carried away
with a whirlwind or tempest of ambition, ought in the
pursuit of their own fortune to set before their eyes not
only that general map of the world, That all things are
vanity and vexation of spirit, but many other more par
ticular cards and directions: chiefly that, that being

XXIII. 46.] THE SECOND BOOK. 247

without well-being is a curse, and the greater being the
greater curse; and that all virtue is most rewarded, and
all wickedness most punished in itself: according as the
poet saith excellently:

Qnac vobis, quae digna, viri, pro laudibus istis
Praemia posse rear solvi ? pulcherrima primum
Dii moresque dabunt vcstri.

And so of the contrary. And secondly they ought to
look up to the eternal providence and divine judgement,
which often subverteth the wisdom of evil plots and
imaginations, according to that scripture, He hath con"
ceived mischief, and shall bring forth a vain thing. And
although men should refrain themselves from injury and
evil arts, yet this incessant and Sabbathless pursuit of
a man s fortune leaveth not tribute which we owe to
God of our time; who (we see) demandeth a tenth of
our substance, and a seventh, which is more strict, of
our time : and it is to small purpose to have an erected
face towards heaven, and a perpetual groveling spirit
upon earth, eating dust as doth the serpent, Atque affigit
humo divines, particulam aura. And if any man flatter
himself that he will employ his fortune well, though he
should obtain it ill, as was said concerning Augustus
Csesar, and after of Septimius Severus, That either they
should never have been born, or else they should never have
died, they did so much mischief in the pursuit and ascent
of their greatness, and so much good when they were
established; yet these compensations and satisfactions
are good to be used, but never good to be purposed.
And lastly, it is not amiss for men in their race toward
their fortune, to cool themselves a little with that conceit
which is elegantly expressed by the Emperor Charles the
Fifth, in his instructions to the king his son, That fortune

248 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 46.

hath somewhat of the nature of a woman, that if she be too
much wooed she is the farther off. But this last is but a
remedy for those whose tastes are corrupted : let men
rather build upon that foundation which is as a corner
stone of divinity and philosophy, wherein they join close,
namely that same Primum queer tie. For divinity saith,
Primum queer He regnum Dei, et ista omnia adjicientur vobis :
and philosophy saith, Primum qucsrite bona animi; ccetera
aut aderunt y aut non oberunt. And although the human
foundation hath somewhat of the sands, as we see in
M. Brutus, when he brake forth into that speech,

Te colui (Virtus) ut rem ; ast tu nomen inane es ;

yet the divine foundation is upon the rock. But this may
serve for a taste of that knowledge which I noted as
deficient.

47. Concerning government, it is a part of knowledge
secret and retired in both these respects in which things
are deemed secret; for some things are secret because
they are hard to know, and some because they are not
fit to utter. We see all governments are obscure and
invisible :

Totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.

Such is the description of governments. We see the
government of God over the world is hidden, insomuch
as it seemeth to participate of much irregularity and con
fusion. The government of the soul in moving the body
is inward and profound, and the passages thereof hardly
to be reduced to demonstration. Again, the wisdom of
antiquity (the shadows whereof are in the poets) in the
description of torments and pains, next unto the crime of
rebellion, which was the giants offence, doth detest the
offence of futility, as in Sisyphus and Tantalus. But this

XXIII. 47-] THE SECOND BOOK. 249

was meant of particulars: nevertheless even unto the
general rules and discourses of policy and government
there is due a reverent and reserved handling.

48. But contrariwise in the governors towards the
governed, all things ought as far as the frailty of man
permitteth to be manifest and revealed. For so it is
expressed in the scriptures touching the government of
God, that this globe, which seemcth to us a dark and
shady body, is in the view of God as crystal : Et in con-
spectu sedis lanquam mare vitreum simile crystallo. So
unto princes and states, and specially towards wise senates
and councils, the natures and dispositions of the people,
their conditions and necessities, their factions and com
binations, their animosities and discontents, ought to be,
in regard of the variety of their intelligences, the wisdom
of their observations, and the height of their station where
they keep sentinel, in great part clear and transparent.
Wherefore, considering that I write to a king that is a
master of this science, and is so well assisted, I think it
decent to pass over this part in silence, as willing to
obtain trie certificate which one of the ancient philo
sophers aspired unto; who being silent, when others
contended to make demonstration of their abilities by
speech, desired it mought be certified for his part, That
there was one that knew how to hold his peace.

49. Notwithstanding, for the more public part of
government, which is laws, I think good to note only one
deficience ; which is, that all those which have written of
laws, have written either as philosophers or as lawyers,
and none as statesmen. As for the philosophers, they
make imaginary laws for imaginary commonwealths, and
their discourses are as the stars, which give little light
because they are so high. For the lawyers, they write

250 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIII. 49.

according to the states where they live what is received
law, and not what ought to be law: for the wisdom of a
lawmaker is one, and of a lawyer is another. For there
are in nature certain fountains of justice, whence all civil
laws are derived but as streams : and like as waters do
take tinctures and tastes from the soils through which
they run, so do civil laws vary according to the regions
and governments where they are planted, though they
proceed from the same fountains. Again, the wisdom of
a lawmaker consisteth not only in a platform of justice,
but in the application thereof; taking into consideration
by what means laws may be made certain, and what are
the causes and remedies of the doubtfulness and incer-
tainty of law; by what means laws may be made apt and
easy to be executed, and what are the impediments and
remedies in the execution of laws; what influence laws
touching private right of meum and tuum have into the
public state, and how they may be made apt and agree
able ; how laws are to be penned and delivered, whether
in texts or in acts, brief or large, with preambles, or with
out ; how they are to be pruned and reformed from time
to time, and what is the best means to keep them from
being too vast in volumes, or too full of multiplicity and
crossness; how they are to be expounded, when upon
causes emergent and judicially discussed, and when upon
responses and conferences touching general points or
questions; how they are to be pressed, rigorously or
tenderly; how they are to be mitigated by equity and
good conscience, and whether discretion and strict law
are to be mingled in the same courts, or kept apart in
several courts; again, how the practice, profession, and
erudition of law is to be censured and governed; and
many other points touching the administration, and (as I

XXIII. 49.] THE SECOND BOOK. 251

may term it) animation of laws. Upon which I insist the
less, because I purpose (if God give me De pruden-
leave), having begun a work of this nature in tia legislat-
aphorisms, to propound it hereafter, noting or/a X de
it in the mean time for deficient. /ontibus juris.

50. And for your Majesty s laws of England, I could
say much of their dignity, and somewhat of their defect ;
but they cannot but excel the civil laws in fitness for the
government : for the civil law was non hos qu&situm munus
in usus ; it was not made for the countries which it
governeth. Hereof I cease to speak, because I will not
intermingle matter of action with matter of general
learning.

XXIV. ^THUS have I concluded this portion of
learning touching civil knowledge ; and
with civil knowledge have concluded human philosophy;
and with human philosophy, philosophy in general. And
being now at some pause, looking back into that I have
passed through, this writing seemeth to me (si minquam
fallit imago), as far as a man can judge of his own work,
not much better than that noise or sound which musicians
make while they are in tuning their instruments : which
is nothing pleasant to hear, but yet is a cause why the
music is sweeter afterwards. So have I been content to
tune the instruments of the Muses, that they may play
that have better hands. And surely, when I set before
me the condition of these times, in which learning hath
made her third visitation or circuit in all the qualities
thereof; as the excellency and vivacity of the wits of this
age ; the noble helps and lights which we have by the
travails of ancient writers ; the art of printing, which com-
municaleth books to men of all fortunes; the openness

OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXIV.

of the world by navigation, which hath disclosed multi
tudes of experiments, and a mass of natural history ; the
leisure wherewith these times abound, not employing men
so generally in civil business, as the states of Grecia did,
in respect of their popularity, and the state of Rome, in
respect of the greatness of their monarchy; the present
disposition of these times at this instant to peace; the
consumption of all that ever can be said in controversies
of religion, which have so much diverted men from other
sciences ; the perfection of your Majesty s learning, which
as a phoenix may call whole vollies of wits to follow you ;
and the inseparable propriety of time, which is ever more
and more to disclose truth ; I cannot but be raised to this
persuasion that this third period of time will far surpass
that of the Grecian and Roman learning : only if men will
know their own strength, and their own weakness both ;
and take, one from the other, light of invention, and not
fire of contradiction ; and esteem of the inquisition of
truth as of an enterprise, and not as of a quality or orna
ment; and employ wit and magnificence to things of
worth and excellency, and not to things vulgar and of
^popular estimation. As for my labours, if any man shall
please himself or others in the reprehension of them, they
shall make that ancient and patient request, Verbera, sed
audi; let men reprehend them, so they observe and
weigh them. For the appeal is lawful (though it may be
it shall not be needful) from the first cogitations of men
to their second, and from the nearer times to the times
further off. Now let us come to that learning, which both
the former times were not so blessed as to know, sacred
and inspired divinity, the Sabbath and port of all men s
labours and peregrinations.

XXV. i.] THE SECOND ROOK. 253

XXV. i. H^HE prerogative of God extendeth as we

to the reason as to the will

:h as well
of man ;

so that as we are to obey his law, though we find a re-
luctation in our will, so we are to believe his word, though
we find a reluctation in our reason. For if we believe
only that which is agreeable to our sense, we give consent
to the matter, and not to the author ; which is no more
than we would do towards a suspected and discredited
witness ; but that faith which was accounted to Abraham

--* J

for righteousness was of such a point as whereat Sarah
laughed, who therein was an image of natural reason.

2. Howbeit (if we will truly consider of it) more worthy
it is to believe than to know as we now know. For in
knowledge man s mind suffereth from sense ; but in belief
it suffereth from spirit, such one as it holdeth for more
authorised than itself, and so suffereth from the worthier
agent. Otherwise it is of the state of man glorified ; for
then faith shall cease, and we shall know as we are
known.

3. Wherefore we conclude that sacred theology (which
in our idiom we call divinity) is grounded only upon the
word and oracle of God, and not upon the light of nature:
for it is written, Cceli enarrant gloriam Dei; but it is not
written, Cecil enarrant voluntale7n Dei: but of that it is
said, Ad legem el testimonium : si non fecerint secundum
verbum istud <L c. This holdeth not only in those points
of faith which concern the great mysteries of the Deity,
of the creation, of the redemption, but likewise those
which concern the law moral truly interpreted: Love

your enemies : do good to them that hate you : Be like to your
heavenly Father , that suffereth his rain to fall upon the just
and unjust. To this it ought to be applauded, Nee vox
hominem sonat: it is a voice beyond the light of nature.

254 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXV. 3.

So we see the heathen poets, when they fall upon a
libertine passion, do still expostulate with laws and moral
ities, as if they were opposite and malignant to nature ;
Et quod natura remittit> invida jura negant. So said
Dendamis the Indian unto Alexander s messengers, that
he had heard somewhat of Pythagoras, and some other
of the wise men of Grecia, and that he held them for
excellent men : but that they had a fault, which was that
they had in too great reverence and veneration a thing
they called law and manners. So it must be confessed,
that a great part of the law moral is of that perfec
tion, whereunto the light of nature cannot aspire : how
then is it that man is said to have, by the light and law
of nature, some notions and conceits of virtue and vice,
justice and wrong, good and evil? Thus, because the
light of nature is used in two several senses ; the one,
that which springeth from reason, sense, induction, argu
ment, according to the laws of heaven and earth; the
other, that which is imprinted upon the spirit of man by
an inward instinct, according to the law of conscience,
which is a sparkle of the purity of his first estate; in
which latter sense only he is participant of some light
and discerning touching the perfection of the moral law :
but how ? sufficient to check the vice, but not to inform
the duty. So then the doctrine of religion, as well moral
as mystical, is not to be attained but by inspiration and
revelation from God.

4. The use notwithstanding of reason in spiritual things,
and the latitude thereof, is very great and general : for it
is not for nothing that the apostle calleth religion our
reasonable service of God; insomuch as the very cere
monies and figures of the old law were full of reason and
signification, much more than the ceremonies of idolatry

XXV. 4 .] THE SECOND BOOK. 255

and magic, that are full of non-significants and surd cha
racters. But most specially the Christian faith, as in all
things so in this, deserveth to be highly magnified ; hold
ing and preserving the golden mediocrity in this point
between the law of the heathen and the law of Mahumet,
which have embraced the two extremes. For the religion
of the heathen had no constant belief or confession, but
left all to the liberty of argument ; and the religion of
Mahumet on the other side interdicteth argument alto
gether: the one having the veiy^-foce of error, and the
other of imposture : wherea^he^ Faitp doth both admit
and reject disputation with difference.

5. The use of human reason in religion is of two sorts :
the former, in the conception and apprehension of the
mysteries of God to us revealed; the other, in the in
ferring and deriving of doctrine and direction thereupon.,/
The former extendeth to the mysteries themselves ; but
how ? by way of illustration, and not by way of argument
The latter consisteth indeed of probation and argument.
In the former we see God vouchsafeth to descend to our
capacity, in the expressing of his mysteries in sort as may
be sensible unto us; and doth grift his revelations and
holy doctrine upon the notions of our reason, and applieth
his inspirations to open our understanding, as the form of
the key to the ward of the lock. For the latter, there is
allowed us an use of reason and argument, secondary and
respective, although not original and absolute. For after
the articles and principles of religion are placed and ex
empted from examination of reason, it is then permitted
unto us to make derivations and inferences from and
according to the analogy of them, for our better direction.
In nature this holdeth not; for both the principles are
examinable by induction, though not by a medium or

256 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXV. 5.

syllogism; and besides, those principles or first positions
have no discordance with that reason which draweth down
and deduceth the inferior positions. But yet it holdeth
not in religion alone, but in many knowledges, both of
greater and smaller nature, namely, wherein there are not
only posita but placita; for in such there can be no use
of absolute reason. We see it familiarly in games of wit,
as chess, or the like. The draughts and first laws of the
game are positive, but how ? merely ad placitum, and not
examinable by reason ; but then how to direct our play
thereupon with best advantage to win the game, is arti
ficial and rational. So in human laws there be many
grounds and maxims which are placita juris, positive upon
authority, and not upon reason, and therefore not to be
disputed : but what is most just, not absolutely but rela
tively, and according to those maxims, that affordeth a
long field of disputation. Such therefore is that second
ary reason, which hath place in divinity, which is grounded
upon the placets of God.

6. Here therefore I note this deficience, that there hath
Deusu legit- not been, to my understanding, sufficiently
imo rationis inquired and handled the true limits and use
Humana in o f reason in spiritual things, as a kind of
divine dialectic : which for that it is not done,
it seemeth to me a thing usual, by pretext of true con
ceiving that which is revealed, to search and mine into
that which is not revealed ; and by pretext of enucleating
inferences and contradictories, to examine that which is
positive. The one sort falling into the error of Nicodemus,
demanding to have things made more sensible than it
pleaseth God to reveal them, Quomodo possit homo nasci
cum sit senex ? The other sort into the error of the dis
ciples, which were scandalized at a show of contradiction,

XXV. 6.] THE SECOND BOOK. 257

Quid est hoc quod didt nobis ? Modictim, einon videbitis me;
et iterum, modicum, et videbitis me, &c.

7. Upon this I have insisted the more, in regard of
the great and blessed use thereof; for this point well
laboured and defined of would in my judgement be an
opiate to stay and bridle not only the vanity of curious
speculations, wherewith the schools labour, but the fury
of controversies, wherewith the church laboureth. For it
cannot but open men s eyes, to see that many contro
versies do merely pertain to that which is either not re
vealed or positive; and that many others do grow upon
weak and obscure inferences or derivations : which latter
sort, if men would revive the blessed style of that great
doctor of the Gentiles, would be carried thus, ego, non
domrnus; and again, secundum consilium meum, in opinions
and counsels, and not in positions and oppositions.
But men are now over-ready to usurp the style, non ego,
sed dominus ; and not so only, but to bind it with the
thunder and denunciation of curses and anathemas, to the
terror of those which have not sufficiently learned out of
Salomon, that The causeless curse shall not come.

8. Divinity hath two principal parts; the matter in
formed or revealed, and the nature of the information
or revelation : and with the latter we will begin, because
it hath most coherence with that which we have now last
handled. The nature of the information consisteth of
three branches ; the limits of the information, the suffici
ency of the information, and the acquiring or obtaining
the information. Unto the limits of the information be
long these considerations ; how far forth particular per
sons continue to be inspired ; how far forth the Church is
inspired; and how far forth reason may be used: the
last point whereof I have noted as deficient. Unto the

s

358 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXV. 8.

sufficiency of the information belong two considerations;
what points of religion are fundamental, and what perfec
tive, being matter of further building and perfection upon
one and the same foundation ; and again, how the grada
tions of light according to the dispensation of times are
material to the sufficiency of belief.

9. Here again I may rather give it in advice than note
Degradibus it as deficient, that the points fundamental,
unitatis in and the points of further perfection only,
civitate Dei. OU ght to be with piety and wisdom distin
guished: a subject tending to much like end as that I
noted before ; for as that other were likely to abate the
number of controversies, so this is like to abate the
heat of many of them. We see Moses when he saw the
Israelite and the Egyptian fight, he did not say, Why strive
you? but drew his sword and slew the Egyptian: but
when he saw the two Israelites fight, he said, You are
brethren, why strive you? If the point of doctrine be an
Egyptian, it must be slain by the sword of the spirit, and
not reconciled; but if it be an Israelite, though in the
wrong, then, Why strive you ? We see of the fundamental
points, our Saviour penneth the league thus, He that is
not with us is against us ; but of points not fundamental,
thus, He that is not against us is with us. So we see the
coat of our Saviour was entire without seam, and so is
the doctrine of the scriptures in itself; but the garment
of the church was of divers colours and yet not divided.
We see the chaff may and ought to be severed from the
corn in the ear, but the tares may not be pulled up from
the corn in the field. So as it is a thing of great use well
to define what, and of what latitude those points are, which
do make men merely aliens and disincorporate from the
Church of God.

XXV. io.] THE SECOND BOOK. 259

10. For the obtaining of the information, it resteth upon
the true and sound interpretation of the scriptures, which
are the fountains of the water of life. The interpretations
of the scriptures are of two sorts ; methodical, and solute
or at large. For this divine water, which excelleth so
much that of Jacob s well, is drawn forth much in the
same kind as natural water useth to be out of wells and
fountains ; either it is first forced up into a cistern, and
from thence fetched and derived for use; or else it is
drawn and received in buckets and vessels immediately
where it springeth. The former sort whereof, though
it seem to be the more ready, yet in my judgement is
more subject to corrupt. This is that method which
hath exhibited unto us the scholastical divinity; where
by divinity hath been reduced into an art, as into a
cistern, and the streams of doctrine or positions fetched
and derived from thence.

1 1 . In this men have sought three things, a summary
brevity, a compacted strength, and a complete perfection ;
whereof the two first they fail to find, and the last they
ought not to seek. For as to brevity, we see in all sum
mary methods, while men purpose to abridge, they give
cause to dilate. For the sum or abridgement by con
traction becometh obscure; the obscurity requireth ex
position, and the exposition is deduced into large com
mentaries, or into common places and titles, which grow
to be more vast than the original writings, whence the
sum was at first extracted. So we see the volumes of the
schoolmen are greater much than the first writings of the
fathers, whence the Master of the Sentences made his
sum or collection. So in like manner the volumes of the
modern doctors of the civil law exceed those of the an
cient jurisconsults, of which Tribonian compiled the digest

s 2

260 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXV. u.

So as this course of sums and commentaries is that which
doth infallibly make the body of sciences more immense
in quantity, and more base in substance.

12. And for strength, it is true that knowledges reduced
into exact methods have a show of strength, in that each
part seemeth to support and sustain the other; but this
is more satisfactory than substantial : like unto buildings
which stand by architecture and compaction, which are
more subject to ruin than those that are built more
strong in their several parts, though less compacted. But
it is plain that the more you recede from your grounds,
the weaker do you conclude : and as in nature, the more
you remove yourself from particulars^ the greater peril of
error you do incur : so much more in divinity, the more
you recede from the scriptures by inferences and conse
quences, the more weak and dilute are your positions.

13. And as for perfection or completeness in divinity,
it is not to be sought ; which makes this course of arti
ficial divinity the more suspect. For he that will reduce
a knowledge into an art, will make it round and uniform :
but in divinity many things must be left abrupt, and con
cluded with this: O altiludo sapientia et scienticB Dei!
quam incomprehensibilia sunt udicia efus, et non investiga-
bi les vice ejus. So again the apostle saith, Ex parte sci-
mus ; and to have the form of a total, where there is but
matter for a part, cannot be without supplies by sup
position and presumption. And therefore I. conclude, that
the true use of these sums and methods hath place in
institutions or introductions preparatory unto knowledge :
but in them, or by deducement from them, to handle the
main body and substance of a knowledge, is in all sciences
prejudicial, and in divinity dangerous.

14. As to the interpretation of the scriptures solute

XXV. i 4 .] THE SECOND BOOK. 361

and at large, there have been divers kinds introduced
and devised; some of them rather curious and unsafe
than sober and warranted. Notwithstanding, thus much
must be confessed, that the scriptures, being given by
inspiration and not by human reason, do differ from all
other books in the author: which by consequence doth
draw on some difference to be used by the expositor.
For the inditer of them did know four things which no
man attains to know; which are, the mysteries of the
kingdom of glory, the perfection of the laws of nature,
the secrets of the heart of man, and the future succession
of all ages. For as to the first it is said, He that presseth
into the light, shall be oppressed of the glory. And again,
No man shall see my face and live. To the second, When
he prepared the heavens 1 was present, when by law and
compass he inclosed the deep. To the third, Neither was it
needful that any should bear witness to him of man, for he
knew well what was in man. And to the last, From the
beginning are known to the Lord all his works.

15. From the former two of these have been drawn
certain senses and expositions of scriptures, which had
need be contained within the bounds of sobriety; the
one anagogical, and the other philosophical. But as to
the former, man is not to prevent his time: Vidtmus
nunc per speculum in cBmgmale, tune autem facie ad faciem :
wherein nevertheless there seemeth to be a liberty granted,
as far forth as the polishing of this glass, or some moder
ate explication of this aenigma. But to press too far
into it, cannot but cause a dissolution and overthrow
of the spirit of man. For in the body there are three
degrees of that we receive into it, aliment, medicine,
and poison : whereof aliment is that which the nature of
man can perfectly alter and overcome ; medicine is that

262 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXV. 15.

which is partly converted by nature, and partly converteth
nature ; and poison is that which worketh wholly upon
nature, without that, that nature can in any part work
upon it. So in the mind, whatsoever knowledge reason
cannot at all work upon and convert is a mere intoxica
tion, and endangereth a dissolution of the mind and
understanding.

1 6. But for the latter, it hath been extremely set on
foot of late time by the school of Paracelsus, and some
others, that have pretended to find the truth of all natural
philosophy in the scriptures ; scandalizing and traducing
all other philosophy as heathenish and profane. But there
is no such enmity between God s word and his works;
neither do they give honour to the scriptures, as they
suppose, but much imbase them. For to seek heaven
and earth in the word of God, whereof it is said, Heaven
and earth shall pass, but my word shall not pass, is to seek
temporary things amongst eternal : and as to seek divi
nity in philosophy is to seek the living amongst the dead,
so to seek philosophy in divinity is to seek the dead
amongst the living : neither are the pots or lavers, whose
place was in the outward part of the temple, to be sought
in the holiest place of all, where the ark of the testimony
was seated. And again, the scope or purpose of the spirit
of God is not to express matters of nature in the scrip
tures, otherwise than in passage, and for application to
man s capacity and to matters moral or divine. And it
is a true rule, Auctoris aliud agentis parva aucioriias. For
it were a strange conclusion, if a man should use a simili
tude for ornament or illustration sake, borrowed from
nature or history according to vulgar conceit, as of a
basilisk, an unicorn, a centaur, a Briareus, an hydra, or
the like, that therefore he must needs be thought to affirm

XXV. 1 6.] THE SECOND BOOK. 263

the matter thereof positively to be true. To conclude
therefore these two interpretations, the one by reduction
or aenigmatical, the other philosophical or physical, which
have been received and pursued in imitation of the rab
bins and cabalists, are to be confined with a noli altum
sapere, sed time.

17. But the two latter points, known to God and un
known to man, touching the secrets of the heart and the
successions of time, doth make a just and sound difference
between the manner of the exposition of the scriptures
and all other books. For it is an excellent observation
which hath been made upon the answers of our Saviour
Christ to many of the questions which were propounded
to him, how that they are impertinent to the state of the
question demanded; the reason whereof is, because not
being like man, which knows man s thoughts by his words,
but knowing man s thoughts immediately, he never an
swered their words, but their thoughts. Much in the like
manner it is with the scriptures, which being written to
the thoughts of men, and to the succession of all ages,
with a foresight of all heresies, contradictions, differing
estates of the church, yea and particularly of the elect,
are not to be interpreted only according to the latitude
of the proper sense of the place, and respectively towards
that present occasion whereupon the words were uttered,
or in precise congruity or contexture with -the words
before or after, or in contemplation of the principal scope
of the place ; but have in themselves, not only totally or
collectively, but distributively in clauses and words, in
finite springs and streams of doctrine to water the church
in every part. And therefore as the literal sense is, as it
were, the main stream or river ; so the moral sense chiefly,
and sometimes the allegorical or typical, are they whereof

264 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXV. 17.

the church hath most use: not that I wish men to be
bold in allegories, or indulgent or light in allusions;
but that I do much condemn that interpretation of the
scripture which is only after the manner as men use to
interpret a profane book.

1 8. In this part touching the exposition of the
scriptures, I can report no deficience ; but by way of
remembrance this I will add. In perusing books of
divinity, I find many books of controversies, and many of
commonplaces and treatises, a mass of positive divinity, as
it is made an art : a number of sermons and lectures, and
many prolix commentaries upon the scriptures, with har
monies and concordances. But that form of writing in
divinity which in my judgement is of all others most rich
and precious, is positive divinity, collected upon particular
texts of scriptures in brief observations ; not dilated into
commonplaces, not chasing after controversies, not re
duced into method of art ; a thing abounding in sermons,
which will vanish, but defective in books which will re
main, and a thing wherein this age excelleth. For I am
persuaded, and I may speak it with an absit invidia verbo,
and no ways in derogation of antiquity, but as in a good
emulation between the vine and the olive, that if the
choice and best of those observations upon texts of
scriptures, which have been made dispersedly in sermons
within this your Majesty s island of Brittany by the space

. of these forty years and more (leaving out the

scriptura- largeness of exhortations and applications

rum in doc- thereupon) had been set down in a con-

trinas posit- tinuance, it had been the best work in di-

ivas. vinity which had been written since the
Apostles times.

19. The matter informed by divinity is of two kinds;

XXV. I9-] THE SECOND BOOK. 265

matter of belief and truth of opinion, and matter of ser
vice and adoration ; which is also judged and directed by
the former : the one being as the internal soul of religion,
and the other as the external body thereof. And there
fore the heathen religion was not only a worship of idols,
but the whole religion was an idol in itself; for it had no
soul, that is, no certainty of belief or confession: as a
man may well think, considering the chief doctors of their
church were the poets : and the reason was, because the
heathen gods were no jealous gods, but were glad to
be admitted into part, as they had reason. Neither did
they respect the pureness of heart, so they mought have
external honour and rites.

20. But out of these two do result and issue four main
branches of divinity; faith, manners, liturgy, and govern
ment. Faith containeth the doctrine of the nature of
God, of the attributes of God, and of the works of God.
The nature of God consisteth of three persons in unity of
Godhead. The attributes of God are either common to
the Deity, or respective to the persons. The works of
God summary are two, that of the creation and that of
the redemption ; and both these works, as in total they
appertain to the unity of the Godhead, so in their parts
they refer to the three persons: that of the creation, in
the mass of the matter, to the Father ; in the disposition
of the form, to the Son; and in the continuance and
conservation of the being, to the Holy Spirit. So that
of the redemption, in the election and counsel, to the
Father ; in the whole act and consummation, to the Son ;
and in the application, to the Holy Spirit; for by the
Holy Ghost was Christ conceived in flesh, and by the
Holy Ghost are the elect regenerate in spirit. This work
likewise we consider either effectually, in the elect; or

266 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [XXV. 20.

privately, in the reprobate; or according to appearance,
in the visible church.

21. For manners, the doctrine thereof is contained in
the law, which discloseth sin. The law itself is divided,
according to the edition thereof, into the law of nature,
the law moral, and the law positive ; and according to the
style, into negative and affirmative, prohibitions and com
mandments. Sin, in the matter and subject thereof, is
divided according to the commandments; in the form
thereof, it referreth to the three persons in Deity : sins of
infirmity against the Father, whose more special attribute
is power ; sins of ignorance against the Son, whose attri
bute is wisdom; and sins of malice against the Holy
Ghost, whose attribute is grace or love. In the motions
of it, it either moveth to the right hand or to the left ;
either to blind devotion, or to profane and libertine trans
gression ; either in imposing restraint where God granteth
liberty, or in taking liberty where God imposeth restraint.
In the degrees and progress of it, it divideth itself into
thought, word, or act. And in this part I commend much
the deducing of the law of God to cases of conscience ; for
that I take indeed to be a breaking, and not exhibiting
whole of the bread of life. But that which quickeneth
both these doctrines of faith and manners, is the elevation
and consent of the heart ; whereunto appertain books of
exhortation, holy meditation, Christian resolution, and
the like.

22. For the liturgy or service, it consisteth of the re
ciprocal acts between God and man ; which, on the part
of God, are the preaching of the word, and the sacra
ments, which are seals to the covenant, or as the visible
word ; and on the part of man, invocation of the name
of God; and under the law, sacrifices; which were as

XXV. 22.] THE SECOND BOOK. 267

visible prayers or confessions: but now the adoration
being in spiritu et veriiate, there remaineth only viluli
labiorum; although the use of holy vows of thankful
ness and retribution may be accounted also as sealed
petitions.

23. And for the government of the church, it con-
sisteth of the patrimony of the church, the franchises of
the church, and the offices and jurisdictions of the church,
and the laws of the church directing the whole ; all which
have two considerations, the one in themselves, the other
how they stand compatible and agreeable to the civil
estate.

24. This matter of divinity is handled either in form
of instruction of truth, or in form of confutation of false
hood. The declinations from religion, besides the priva
tive, which is atheism and the branches thereof, are three ;
heresies, idolatry, and witchcraft : heresies, when we serve
the true God with a false worship; idolatry, when we wor
ship false gods, supposing them to be true ; and witch
craft, when we adore false gods, knowing them to be
wicked and false. For so your Majesty doth excellently
well observe, that witchcraft is the height of idolatry.
And yet we see though these be true degrees, Samuel
teacheth us that they are all of a nature, when there is
once a receding from the word of God; for so he saith,
Quasi peccalum ariolandi est repugnare, el quasi scelus idolo-
latricc nolle acquiescere.

25. These things I have passed over so briefly because
I can report no deficience concerning them : for I can
find no space or ground that lieth vacant and unsown in
the matter of divinity : so diligent have men been, either
in sowing of good seed, or in sowing of tares.

$68 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

T HUS have I made as it were a small globe of the
- intellectual world, as truly and faithfully as I could
discover; with a note and description of those parts
which seem to me not constantly occupate, or not well
converted by the labour of man. In which, if I have in
any point receded from that which is commonly received,
it hath been with a purpose of proceeding in rneh us, and
not in aliud; a mind of amendment and proficience, and
not of change and difference. For I could not be true
and constant to the argument I handle, if I were not
willing to go beyond others; but yet not more willing
than to have others go beyond me again: which may
the better appear by this, that I have propounded my
opinions naked and unarmed, not seeking to preoccupate
the liberty of men s judgements by confutations. For in
anything which is well set down, I am in good hope, that
if the first reading move an objection, the second reading
will make an answer. And in those things wherein I
have erred, I am sure I have not prejudiced the right by
litigious arguments; which certainly have this contrary
effect and operation, that they add authority to error, and
destroy the authority of that which is well invented. For
question is an honour and preferment to falsehood, as on
the other side it is a repulse to truth. But the errors I
claim and challenge to myself as mine own. The good, if
any be, is due ianquam adeps sacrificii, to be incensed to
the honour, first of the Divine Majesty, and next of your
Majesty, to whom on earth I am most bounden.

NOTES.

BOOK I.

P. i. [i] See Lev. xxii. 18; Num. xxviii. a, 3. [3] upon ordinary
observance : ex rituali cultu. [7, 8] according . . . employments : Omitted
in Lat. [14-17] and ... admiration : Omitted in Lat. [15] Prov.
xxv. 3.

P. 2. [8] Plato, Phaedo, i. 72; Meno, ii. 81 ; Comp. Theset. i. 166,
191 ; Arist. de Memor. 2 ; Anal. Pr. ii. 21 ; Cicero, Tusc. Disp. i. 24.
57. [10] notions: motions in ed. 1605, but corrected in the Errata
to that edition. [17] i Kings iv. 29. [17, 18] For the construction
see note on p. 20, 1. 26. [23] should used for would. [26] Tac.
Ann. xiii. 3. Augusta prompta ac profluens quceque deceret principem
eloquentia fuit. [32, 33] all this . . . subject : Lat. ne&cio quid servile
olet, nee sui juris est.

P- 3- [15] perfection: profection in ed. 1605; corrected in Errata.
[20-27] Lat. Percurrat qui voluerit imperatorum et regum seriem, et juxta
mecum sentiet, omitting the particular dynasties.

P. 4. [6] Hermes: Hermes Trismegistus, fabled to be an Egyptian
priest, philosopher, and king. The author of the works ascribed to
him was probably a Neoplatonist of the second or third century.
Ficinus (Argum. in Merc. Tris. Pimandr.) says, Trismegistum vero
termaximum nuncuparunt, quoniam et philosophus maximus, et sacerdos
maximus, et rex maximus extitit. [19] the former: the Lat. adds qua
levior est, neque (amen ullo modo prcetermittenda. In his letter to Toby
Matthew, Bacon speaks of the first part of the Advancement but as
a page to the latter. [22] the latter: Lat. posterior vero pars (quod
caput rei est).

P. 5. [7] ignorance severally disguised : Lat. ignorantia non sub uno
schemate. [17] i Cor. viii. i. [18] Eccl. xii. 12. [20] Eccl. i. 18.
[22] Col. ii. 8. [25] Among the causes of atheism Bacon enumerates.
4 lastly, learned times, specially with peace, and prosperity : for troubles
and adversities doe more bow mens mindes to religion. Ess. xvi.
p. 66. [32] Mr. Ellis gives the following note on the corresponding
passage in the De Augmentis : This reference to the imposition of
names in Paradise in illustration of natural knowledge, is common in the
writings of the schoolmen. Thus S. Thomas Aquinas in discussing

NOTES.

the question " utrum primus homo habuerit scientiam omnem," after
stating objections alleged against the affirmative opinion, thus com
mences his refutation of them. " Sed contra est quod ipse imposuit
nomina animalibus, ut dicitur Gen. 2. Nomina autem debent naturis
rerum congruere ; Ergo Adam scivit naturas omnium animalium, et pari
ratione habuit omnium aliorum scientiam. " Comp. also the treatise
Of the Interpretation of Nature (Works, iii. 219, ed. Spedding and
Ellis) : For behold it was not that pure light of natural knowledge,
whereby man in paradise was able to give unto every living creature
a name according to his propriety, which gave occasion to the fall;
but it was an aspiring desire to attain to that part of moral knowledge
which defineth of good and evil, whereby to dispute God s command
ments and not to depend upon the revelation of his will, which was the
original temptation. [33] Gen. ii. 19, 20.

P. 6. [n] Eccl. i. 8. [13 &c.j Comp. Of the Interpretation of
Nature, p. 220. [18, 31] Eccl. iii. n.

p. 7 . [6] he doth in another place rule over: Lat. satis dare alibi
docet. [7] Prov. xx. 27. [12 &c.] Comp. Of the Interpretation of
Nature (Works, vol. iii. p. 222). [19] i Cor. viii. i. [2 1] i Cor. xiii. i.
[31] Col. ii. 8.

P. 8. [12] Eccl. ii. 13, 14. [15] roundeth about: Lat. oberral. [20]
Comp. Plato, Theset. i. p. 155 d; Arist. Metaph. i. 2. Hesiod (Theog.
780) makes Iris the daughter of Thaumas. [26] Heraclitus the pro
found: Lat. Heraclitus tile obscurus. [27] avyfi rjpr) fvxn oo^tarar^
Kardi TOV HpaK\eiTov ZoiKev. Plut. De Esu Carnium, i. 6. 4. Schow
conjectured that 0677) T;PT) ipvxb aoQcardTr) was a corruption of OUT?
ifn>x% ao^cararr) : frpfi having been in the first instance a gloss upon
avr) and afterwards adopted into the text ; a change which necessitated
the further alteration of avij to av-ffj to make sense. Stobseus, ed.
Gaisford, v. 1 20. The proverb is again quoted by Bacon, Ess. xxvi. p.
112: Heraclitus saith well, in one of his oenigmaes ; Dry light is ever
the best. And certaine it is, that the light, that a man receiveth, by
counsell from another, is drier, and purer, then that which com-
meth from his owne understanding, and iudgement; which is ever
infused and drenched in his affections and customes. Comp. Apoph.
268; Adv. of Learning, p. 149, 1. 3. [31] P- 9- L 11 ! Compare the
corresponding passage Of the Interpretation of Nature, p. 218.

P- 9- [5. 6 ] broken knowledge : contemplation broken off, or losing
itself. Of the Interpretation of Nature, p. 218. [6] one of Plato s
school: Philo Judseus, De Somniis, p. 577 E. (ed. Turnebus, Franc.
1691). [7] Comp. Apoph. 1 20. [14] A reference to the fable of
Icarus. [15 &c.] Comp. Of the Interpretation of Nature, p. 219.
[20] Job xiii. 7, 9. [26 &c.] Comp. Ess. xvi. p. 64: It is true, that
a little philosophy inclineth mans minde to Atheisme; but depth in

BOOK I.

271

philosophy, bringeth mens mindes about to Religion: for while the
minde of man, looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes
rest in them, and goe no further: but when it beholdeth, the chaine
of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs flie to providence,
and del tie.

P. 10. [5] Horn. II. viii. 19. Comp. also p. 109, 1. 24. Plato,
Theoet. i. 1530. [25] too incompatible and differing: Lat. nimis
extravagantia. [31] Plutarch, Cato, 22 ; Pliny, N. H. vii. 31.

P. ii. [15] Virgil, .En. vi. 852. [16] Plato, Apol. Socr. i. 19,
24 &c. Xenophon, Mem. i. i. i. [28] Comp. Ess. Iviii. pp. 237,
238 : In the youth of a state, armes doe flourish : in the middle age
of a state, learning; and then both of them together for a time:
in the declining age of a state, mechanicall arts and merchandize.

P. 12. [9] a greater: So ed. 1640; a is omitted in edd. 1605, 1629,
lf >33- [i4- 20 ] Comp. Ess. Iviii. pp. 237, 238, quoted above. [16]
about an age : i. e. about the same age. According to Aristotle (Rhet.
ii. 14. 4) the body is strongest from thirty to thirty-five, the mind
at forty-nine. [25] a few pleasing receipts : Lat. pauca qucedam medica-
menta qua Hits videntur panchresta. [27] the complexions of patients:
Lat. agrotorum habitus. [28] peril of accidents: Lat. symptomatum
pericula. See p. 137, 1. 20.

P. 13. [i 6] Suetonius, Nero, 7; Tac. An. xiii. [17] Gordianus III.
(238-244) married the daughter of Misitheus, of whom Gibbon (c. vii.)
says, The life of Misitheus had been spent in the profession of letters,
not of arms ; yet such was the versatile genius of that great man, that,
when he was appointed Praetorian prefect, he discharged the military
duties of his place with vigour and ability. Capitolinus, Gordian. Tert.
c. 23. The name Misitheus is supposed to be corrupted from Temesitheus
or Timesitheus. [20] Alexander Severus succeeded after the murder of
his cousin Elagabalus, March 10, 222. But as Alexander was a modest
and dutiful youth of only seventeen years of age, the reins of govern
ment were in the hands of two women, of his mother Mamoea, and of
Mnesa his grandmother. After the death of the latter, who survived but
a short time the elevation of Alexander, Mamoea remained the sole-regent
of her son and of the empire. Gibbon, c. vi. [24] Pius V. (Michele
Ghislieri) was a Dominican and had been Grand Inquisitor. He was
Pope from 1565 to 1572. The victory over the Turks off Lepanto was
won in his time. See Bacon, Adv. touching an Holy War (vii. p. 19).
Sixtus V. (Felice Peretti) was appointed by Pius V. vicar-general of the
Franciscans, and afterwards promoted to the College of Cardinals as
Cardinal Montalto. He succeeded Gregory XIII. in 1585, and reigned
till 1590. Gibbon (c. 70) says of him, The genius of Sixtus the Fifth
burst from the gloom of a Franciscan cloister. See Ranke, Hist, of
the Popes, trans. Foster, Books iii. and iv. [26] pedantical : So all the

NOTES.

copies of ed. 1605 which I have seen. Mr. Markby quotes prejudicial as
the reading of others. [33] ragioni di stato : reasons of state, political
considerations.

P. 14. [i] Catena, Vita di Pio V. p. 31 (ed. 1586), reports a saying of
the Pope, something to this effect, with reference to the maxim of Louis
XI. of France, Chi non sk simulare non sa regnare. See also
Gabutius, Vita Pii V. lib. vi. c. 7 (Acta Sanctorum, 5 Maii, ed. 1866),
and lib. ii. c. 3. [9] Lat. ad regendos eventus vitce etiam in uno homine.
Perhaps the reading of the English should be for the events even of
one man s life. [27] positive and regular: Lat. pertinaces et difficile*.
[30] latitude : Lat. constantiam.

P. i-5- [5] Guicciardini, Hist. xvi. 5. [8] Cic. ad Att. xvi. 7. [9]
Phocion: see his life by Plutarch, [n] Pindar, Pyth. ii. 21 &c.
Bacon interprets the fable of Ixion in the present work, p. 123. [13]
Cicero, Ep. ad Att. ii. i.

P. 1 6. [2] according to nature: natura consentaneis. [4] and not in
the purchase: i.e. not in that which is acquired by it. [10] Seneca,
Ep. i. 3. Qnidam adeo in latebras refugere, ut putent in turbido esse,
quicquid in luce /, from Pomponius. [24] Plutarch, Demosth. viii. 2,
where the story is told of Pytheas, not ^Eschines. Comp. Apoph. 114.
[32] of both : The Latin adds et negotiorum et liter arum.

P. 1 7. [4] duty taught and understood : officium oculatum. [8] mani-
able: Some copies of ed. 1605 read amiable. [10, n] Lat. quod ex
historia clarissime patet. [14] Plutarch, Cato, ii. 6. Cic. Acad. Qusest
ii. 2. 5 ; De Senect. i. 3.

P. 18. [2] The Thirty Tyrants: After the battle of ^Egospotami
(Sept. B.C. 405), which virtually terminated the Peloponnesian War,
a committee of thirty was appointed for the government of Athens,
with Critias and Theramenes among the chief. Their rule lasted
only eight months (B c. 404-403) and was put an end to by Thrasy-
bulus. [9] for sovereign medicines: i.e. to be sovereign medicines.
[20] Hor. Od. i. 3. 2. [21] influence: A word derived from the old
astrology. See Eng. vers. of Job xxxviii. 31.

P. 19. [8] Lat. Fralribus mendicantibus (pace eorum dixerim). [8, 8]
to some friar ... to whom : Compare for the construction, Book ii.
10. p. 80, 11. 4, 5. [10] Machiavelli, Disc, sopra Liv. iii. i. Quoted
for a different purpose in the tract On the Controversies of the Church
(Bacon s Life and Letters, ed. Spedding, i. 80). [31] Epist. i. ad C.
Csesarem, De Republica Ordinanda, ascribed to Sallust.

P. 20. [i] A saying attributed to Diogenes the Cynic. See Diog.
Laert. vi. 54. [6] Prov. xxviii. 22. [7] Prov. xxiii. 23. [13] For
the construction in comparison of see Judg. viii. 2, 3. [22] Tac.
Ann. iii. 76 : Sed prcefulgebant Cassius atque Brutus, eo ipso quod effigies
eorum non visebantur. [25] traduced to contempt : i. e. contemptuously

BOOK I. 273

paraded. [26, -27] Which age, because it is the age of least authority,
it is transferred &c. : Observe the looseness of construction in the
unnecessary repetition of the pronoun it: the words which age being
placed foremost in the sentence without any government as a kind of
nominativus pendens. Other examples occur in the course of this book,
pp. 2, 11. 17, 18; 39, 11. 10, n, 32, 33; 48, 11. 20-24. Comp. the
Authorized Version of John xiii. 3, 4 ; Jesus knowing . . . he riseth &c.

P. 21. [4] Joel. ii. 28. Comp. Ess. xlii. p. 175 : A certaine rabbiue.
upon the text ; Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall
dreame dreames ; inferreth, that young men are admitted nearer to God
then old; because vision is a clearer revelation, then a dreame. The
rabbine is Abrabanel. [6] they: Some copies of ed. 1605 read the.
[8] condition ... hath : In ed. 1605 the reading is conditions ... hath ;
in ed. 1633, conditions . . . have. [9] Comp. Florio s Montaigne, p. 60,
ed. 1603 : I have in my youth oftentimes beene vexed, to see a Pedant
brought in, in most of Italian Comedies, for a vice or sporte-maker.
[16-21] The whole clause is modified in the De Augmentis to avoid
giving offence to the Roman Catholics. It there stands as follows:
quorum cum intueor industriam solertiamque tarn in doctrina excolenda
quam in moribus informandis, illud occurrit Agesilai de Pharnabazo &c.
[17] A saying of Diogenes. See Diog. Laert. vi. 46. Comp. Apoph.
266. [21] Plutarch, Ages. xii. 5. [28] Ovid, Epist. xv. 83. Quoted
again in Ess. 1. p. 205. [28-30] Lat. atque literas, nisi incident in
ingenia admodum depravata, corrigere prorsus naturam et mutare in melius.
[33] not inherent : The negative is superfluous, or something has been
omitted. The Latin has nullum occurrit dedecus lileris ex literatorum
moribus, quatenus sunt literati, adhcerens, where inherent is taken as
referring to disgrace, and not to manners, as Mr. Spedding explains
it : not [I mean, from such manners as are] inherent &c.

P. 22. [n] Plutarch, Solon, 15; Bacon, Apoph. 93. [14] Plato,
Epist. vii. p. 331. Mr. Ellis suggested that Bacon probably took it
from Cicero, Epist. Fam. i. 9. 18. [17] Epist. i. ad Caes. De Republica
Ordinanda. [20] Cic. ad Att. ii. I. 8: optima animo utens et summajide,
nocet inter dum reipublicce. Dicit enim tanquam in Platonis iro\iTtiq, non
tanquam in Romuli face, sententiam. [23] doth excuse and expound:
Lat. molli interpretation excusat. [25] Cic. pro Muraena, 31 : Ettnim
isti ipsi mihi videntur vestri prceceptores et virtutis magistri fines officiorum
&c. [29] Ovid, Ars Amat. ii. 548.

P. 23. [2] Demosthenes, De Cherson. p. 106. [8] quinquennium
Neronis: See Aurelius Victor, De Caesar, v. 2. [10] The Latin adds,
magno suo periculo, ac po&tremo pracipitio. [13] the casualty of their
fortunes: Lat. instabilitatis fortune. [20] Matt. xxv. 20. [21 &c.]
Compare with this Essay xxiii. Of wisdome for a man s selfe. [23]
nor never: Observe the double negative. [25] lines: Some copies of ed.

T

Z74 NOTES.

1605 read times. [27] estates : Perhaps we should read estate; Lat. de
reipublicce navi. [31] stand : i. e. stand firm, keep their position ; Lat.
incolumes permaneant.

P. 24. [3, 4] howsoever fortune may tax it : Lat. utcunque e<z quando-
que afortuna mulctentur. [10] Lat. quod non facile se applicant et accom-
modent. [16] Ascribed to Epicurus by Seneca, Ep. i. 7. n. Quoted
again in Ess. x. p. 36 : It is a poore saying of Epicurus ; Satis magnum
alter alteri theatrum sumus : as if man, made for the contemplation of
heaven, and all noble obiects, should doe nothing, but kneele before a
little idoll, and make himself subiect, though not of the mouth (as beasts
are) yet of the eye ; which was given him for higher purposes. [Ib.]
not: Omitted in some copies of ed. 1605. [18] Lat. aciem animi, instar
oculi. [19] Lat. Secunda vero causa est probitas morum et simplicitas.
[27] Lat. ut ilium inflectas, verses, et ad libitum circumagas. [31] the
custom of the Levant : Lat. mos Orientis. Comp. Her. i. 99.

P. 25. [3] Prov. xxv. 3. [14] Plutarch, Them. ii. 4; Cimon, ix. i.
Quoted again in Ess. xxix. p. 118: The speech of Themistocles the
Athenian, which was haughtie and arrogant, in taking so much to
himselfe, had been a grave and wise observation and censure, applied at
large to others. Desired at a feast to touch a lute, he said ; He could
not fiddle, but yet he could make a small towne, a great citty. [20] Lat.
quibus tamen in communi vita et quotidianis reculis nihil imperitius. [22]
Comp. Apoph. 196; Plato, Symp. Hi. p. 215; Xen. Symp. v. 7.
Socrates is compared not to the gallipots of apothecaries but to the
images of Silenus, of which Rabelais (Gargantua, prol.) says, Silenes
estoyent jadiz petites boytes, telles que voyons de present es bouticques
des apothecaires ; painctes au dessus de figures joyeuses et frivoles.
Mr. Spedding, with great probability, conjectures that Bacon may have
had this passage in his mind. [24] Lat. qu<z exterius inducebantur simiis,
ululis, satyrisque.

P. 26. [3] solemn parasites : Lat. barbatos parasitos. [4] Lucian, De
Mercede Conductis, 33, 34. [6] Lat. catulum suum Melitceum. [12] Du
Bartas, Second Jour de la Semaine :

4 Tous ces doctes esprits dont la voix flatteresse,
Change Hccube en Helene, et Faustine en Lucresse,
Qui d un nain, d un batard, d un archerot sans yeux,
Font, non un dieutelet, ains le maistre des dieux, &c.
See also Judith, bk. v. [14] modern: The ed. of 1605 has morall, which
is corrected in the Errata to moderne, the reading of edd. 1629, 1633.
[Ib.] dedication: ed. 1605 has dedications. It is curious that the
translator in the De Augmentis followed the uncorrected copy : neque
vero nimis laudo morem ilium receptum libros patronis nuncupandi. [26]
Aristippus, not Diogenes. See Diog. Laert. Aristip. ii. 69. Comp.
Apoph. 161.

BOOK I. 275

P. 27. [5] Diog. Laert. Aristip. ii. 79; Apoph. 86. [10] Spaitianus
(Vita Hadriani, 15) tells this story of Favorinus. Apoph. 160. [24]
Lat. etiam ea qua impolluta et in stain suo manserunt. [25] the state : the
article was not unfrequently employed where we should now use a
possessive pronoun. See Glossary.

P. 28. [6] The Latin adds, qnando nlmirum aut in rebus inanibus opera
insumitur, ant circa verborum delicias nimium insudatur. [10] Lat.
doctrina fucata et tnollis. [12-31] The whole of this passage is much
abridged in the Latin, apparently to avoid offending the Roman
Catholics. See p. 21, 11. 16-21, note. In the De Augmentis the
following is substituted : Intemperies ista, in luxurie quadam oralionis sita
(licet olim per vices in pretio habita fuerit), circa Lutheri tempora miris modis
invaluit. In causa praecipue fuit, quod fervor et ejficacia concionum tune
temporis ad populum demulcendum et alliciendum maxime vigebat ; ilia antem
populare genus orationis poscebant. Accedebat odium et contemptus Hits
temporibus ortus erga scholasticos, &c.

P. 29. [4-15] And again . . . flourish: Omitted in the Latin. [5]
then : that then in ed. 1605, corrected in Errata. [6] John vii. 49. [23]
Osorius, bishop of Sylves in Algarve, died 1580; wrote De Rebus
Gestis Emanuelis, 1574. On his redundant style see Ascham, The
Scholemaster, pp. no, 129-131, ed. Mayor. [24] Sturmius : Joannes
Sturmius, born at Sleida, October i, 1507, died March 3, 1589, was
called the German Cicero. He was professor at Paris and Strasburg,
and wrote In Partitiones Oratorias Ciceronis Dialogi Quatuor, Scholia
in Hermogenem, De Imitatione Oratoria Libri Tres, and De Periodis
Liber, to all of which Bacon refers, besides many other works. [27]
Car of Cambridge: Nicholas Carr (1523-1568) succeeded Sir John
Cheke as Regius Professor of Greek in 1547. He obtained a great
reputation by his translations into Latin of the Olynthiacs and Philip
pics of Demosthenes, Plato s Dialogue on the Laws, and the Oration of
/Eschines against Ctesiphon. Besides these he wrote prefaces to the
Symposium and other dialogues of Plato, as well as to Eschines,
Theocritus, Sophocles, and some orations of Demosthenes. [28] Ascham :
Roger Ascham (1515-1568), in his Scholemaster, is constantly sounding
the praises of Cicero, whom he calls his master. [32] Erasmus, Colloq.
Decent jam annos <ztatem trivi in Cicerone. Echo. ovf.

P. 30. [5] is: Omitted in ed. 1605. [8] secnndnm majus et minus: i.e.
to a greater or less degree. Seep. 171,!. 12. [13] Pygmalion: Ovid,
Metam. x. 243. [32] The Scholiast on Theocr. v. 21 attributes this
story of Hercules to Cleander kv Sfvripcv TWV napoip-icav. Bacon inserted
it in his Promus, fol. 16 a. [33] minion : migmon, ed. 1605.

P. 31. [5] In the De Augmentis another kind of style is mentioned as
somewhat more healthy than the last-mentioned, though not altogether
free from vanity. The whole object of this is that the words should be

T 2

376 NOTES.

pointed, the sentences concise, and the composition rather twisted than
flowing. Instances are found largely in Seneca, less in Tacitus and
Plinius Secundus. [13] Lat. neque theologiam tantum, sed etiatn omnes
scientias respicere videtur. [Ib.] I Tim. vi. 20. Quoted again in Ess. iii.
p. ii. [17] the strictness of positions : Lat. rigor dogmatum. [26] p.
32 [9] This kind . . . profit : The original of this passage is to be found
in Bacon s Cogit. de Sci. Hum. Frag. i. cog. 10 (Works, iii. 187).

P. 32. [7] cobwebs: ed. 1605, copwebs, the older form of spelling. In
Old English, atter cop (A. S. dttor coppa) is a spider. [20] See
JEsop, Fab. 52. Vis unita fortior : Bacon, Colours of Good and Evil,
p. 255, ed. W. A. Wright. [27] Quintil. x. I : Si rerum pondera
minutissimis sententiis non fregissef, consensn potius eruditorum quam
puerorum amore comprobaretur. Quoted again in Ess. xxvi. p. 105.

P. 33. [10] Virg. Eel. vi. 75. Bacon makes use of the same figure in
his book Of the Interpretation of Nature (Works, iii. 232, ed. Spedding).
[22] ot A.0701 ffov fepovTiuai. Diog. Laert. Plato, iii. 18. Quoted again
in Nov. Org. i. 71. [29] p. 34. [4] but as they are ... unto them :
Omitted in the Latin, for the same reason as before. For the original
form see Of the Interp. of Nat. p. 224. [30] fierce with dark keeping :
that is, as Mr. Ellis explains it, fierce with being kept in the dark, like
animals. He quotes from Bacon s Cogitationes de Scientia Humana,
1st frag. cog. 10 (Works, iii. 187) : ferocitatetn autem et confidentiam earn
qua illos qui pauca sequi solet (ut animalia in tenebris educatd)
acqnisivissent,

P. 34. [8] the essential form : Lat. ipsam naturam animamqne. [19]
Hor. Epist. i. 18. 69. [24] Tac. Ann. v. 10 ; comp. Hist. i. 51. [25]
hath for have : a loose construction, not uncommon in Bacon. See
p. 35, 1. 26 : Such whereupon observation and rule was to be built.
Also p. 109, 1. 33, and Ps. xiv. 7, Pr. Bk. Destruction and unhappiness
is in their ways. [29] or, as : or is omitted in ed. 1605, but inserted
in Errata and in edd. 1629, 1633.

P. 35. [3-10] which though . . . religion: Omitted in the Latin as
before, pp. 21, 28, 33. [3] had a passage for a time: The ed. 1605
reads, had a passage for time. Perhaps it should be, had passage for
a time, that is, were current for a time. [13] Plinius: Plinius
secundtis of Verona; a man of great Eloquence, and industry inde
fatigable, as may appear by his writings, especially those now extant,
and which are never like to perish, but even with learning it self; that
is, his natural History. He was the greatest Collector or Rhapso-
dist of the Latines, and as Suetonius observeth, he collected this piece
out of two thousand Latine and Greek Authors. Now, what is very
strange, there is scarce a popular error passant in our dayes, which
is not either directly expressed, or diductively contained in this work.
Sir T. Brown, Vulgar Errors, book i. chap. 8, p. 33 (ed. 1658). [Ib.]

BOOK 1. 377

Cardanus . We had almost forgot Jeronimus Cardanus, that famous
physician of Milan, a great enquirer of truth, but too greedy a receiver
of it. He hath left many excellent discourses, Medical, Natural, and
Astrological; the most suspicious are those two he wrote by admonition
in a dream, that is, De subtilitate et varietate rerum Ibid. p. 36. [14]
Albertus : Albertus Bishop of Ratisbone ; for his great learning and
latitude of knowledge sirnamed Magnus. Besides Divinity, he hath
written many Tracts in Philosophy ; what we are chiefly to receive with
caution, are his natural tractates, more especially those of Minerals,
Vegetables and animals, which are indeed chiefly Collections out of
Aristotle, jElian, and Pliny, and respectively contain many of our popular
Errors. Ibid. p. 35. [22] side: The edd. of 1605, 1629, 1633, read
sake. The book De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus, to which Bacon
refers, is not Aristotle s. See p. 87. [26] was for were. See p. 34,
1. 25, note.

P. 36. [l] Lat. qua plus habent ex phantasia et fide quam ex ratione et
demonstrationibus. [12] the derivations and prosecutions to these ends:
That is, the subsidiary channels leading to these ends and the modes in
which they have been followed. The Latin has, via atque rationes qua
diicere pulantur ad hos fines. [19] ./Esop, Fab. 33; comp. Nov. Org. i.
85. [32] consuls: counsels in ed. 1605, corrected to consulh in Errata.
Mr. Spedding conjectured that Bacon probably wrote counsell rt , and his
conjecture is adopted by Mr. Kitchin. The Latin has, dictatoria quadam
potesfate munivit ut edicant, non senatoria ut consulant, which again looks
as if the translator had the uncorrected copy before him.

P. 37. [2-20] For hence . . . Aristotle : The original form of this
passage is seen in the book Of the Interpretation of Nature (Works, iii.
226, 227). [3] deviser: device* (Interpretation of Nature). [6]
artillery, sailing, printing: painting, artillery, sailing* (Interpretation of
Nature). [i6--jo] For as ... Aristotle : For knowledge is like a water
that will never rise again higher than the level from which it fell ; and
therefore to go beyond Aristotle by the light of Aristotle is to think that
a borrowed light can increase the original light from which it is taken
(Interpretation of Nature). [21] Aristot. Soph. El. i. 2. [28-30] Lat.
ut authori authorum et veritatis parenti, Tempori, non derogetur. [32]
peccant humours : Lat. vitiosi humores.

P. 38. [6] Alluding to the old fable of Kronos. [n] Jer. vi. 16;
quoted again in Ess. xxiv. p. 100. [16] Comp. Nov. Org. i. 84 : Mundi
enim senium et grandcevitas pro antiquitate vere habenda sunt; qua
tetnporibus nostris tribui debent, non juniori <ztati mundi, qualis aptid
antiques fuit. Ilia, enim (Etas, respectu nostri antiqua et major, resf ectu
mundi ipsius nova et minor fuit. The observation is quoted by Fuller in
his chapter on The true Church Antiquary (Holy State, ii. 6). [25]
Not Lucian but Seneca. See Lactantius, Ue Falsa Keligione, i. 16.

NOTES.

p. 39 . [6] Liv. ix. 17 ; quoted again in Nov. Org. i. 97, and Of the
True Greatness of Britain (Works, vii. 50). Comp. Of the Interpretation
of Nature, p. 224, for the original of this passage. [10, n] which till
they be demonstrate, they seem &c.: Observe the looseness of
construction and the unnecessary repetition of the pronoun. Comp. 11.
3 2 > 33- L 1 ^] h a th st ^ prevailed : Lat. semper obtinuisse. [23-26] Comp.
Nov. Org. i. 71 ; Of the Interpretation of Nature (Works, iii. 227). In
Essay liii. p. 2 1 3 Bacon uses the same figure in speaking of Fame :

Certainly, Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swolne,
and drownes things waighty and solide. [32, 33] So knowledge, while
it is in aphorisms and observations, it is in growth : Another instance of
the same construction as has been noticed before, p. 20, 11. 26, 27; p.
39, 11. 10, ii. See p. 48, 11. 20-24 ; p. 129, 1. 32.

P. 40. [2] illustrate: ed. 1633 has illustrated. [8] philosophic* prima:
See p. 105, 1. 29 ; p. 113, 1. 20. [22] HeracKtus: In Sextus Empiricus,
Adv. Logicos, i. 133- [5->9] for the y deluded: The original
form of this passage is to be found in the treatise Of the Interpretation of
Nature, p. 224.

P. 41. [3] See Nov. Org. i. 63, 96. [8] Gilbertus : William Gilbert of
Colchester (1540-1603), Fellow of St. John s Coll. Cambridge, and
physician to Elizabeth and James I, wrote De Magnete, magneticisque
corporibus, et de magno magnete tellure; Physiologia nova &c. 1600.

His work, says Dr. Whewell (Hist, of Ind. Sc. book xii. ch. i),
contains all the fundamental facts of the science, so fully examined
indeed, that even at this day we have little to add to them. Comp. with
the whole of this passage Nov. Org. i. 54, 64. [12] Cicero, Tusc. Disp.
i. 10. 20, Hie ab artificio suo non recessit, speaking of Aristoxenus. [14]
Aristot. De Gener. et Corrup. i. 2, quoted again in the treatise^ Of the
Interpretation of Nature, p. 231. [18] The same comparison is made
use of in the last-mentioned treatise, p. 250. [19] the two ways of
action commonly spoken of by the ancients : Bacon probably refers to
Xenophon (Memorabilia, ii. i. 20), who quotes Hesiod, Works and Days,
287-292, and introduces Prodicus s fable of the choice of Hercules.

P. 42. [i] Cicero, De Nat. Deor. i. 8. 18. Comp. Nov. Org. i. 67.
[2] Socrates: See p. 153, 1. 31. [8] devote: So ed. 1605. Ed. 1633
has devoute. [17] Comp. S. Bernard, Serm. 36 in Cant. [28] terrace:
ed. 1605 tarrasse.

P. 43- [5 6 1 Comp. Macrob. in Somn. Scip. i. 12. [7-14] Comp. Of
the Interpretation of Nature, p. 222 : And knowledge that tendeth to
profit or profession or glory is but as the golden ball thrown before Ata-
lanta, which while she goetli aside and stoopeth to take up she hindereth
the race. [14] Ovid, Metam. x. 667. [16] Cicero, Tusc. Disp. v. 4. 10.
[23-26] Comp. Of the Interpretation of Nature, p. 222. [29] have:
hath in edd. 1605, 1629, 1633. [32] Prov. xxvii. 6.

BOOK I.

P. 44. [12] arch-type: Arch-tipe in eel. 1605; Arch-type edd. 1629,
1633. [Ib.] first platform: exemplari. Comp. Ess. xlix. p. 194: So I
have made a platforme of a princely garden, partly by precept, partly by
drawing, not a modell, but some generall lines of it. [18] Comp. Prov.
viii. 22-31. [33] Gen. i. i.

P. 45. [4] Hooker, Eccl. Pol. i. 4. i, 2. [5] Dionysius, De Cselesti
Hierarchia, 6, 7, 8, 9. A work erroneously ascribed to Dionysius the
Aieopagite. The epithet supposed shows that Bacon believed it to be
spurious. The Latin has merely qua Dionysii Areopagita nomine evul-
gatur. Thomas Heywood, in his Hierarchic of the Blessed Angels
(1635), divides them into Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones. Dominations,
Vertues, Powers, and Principats. See also Milton, Par. Lost, v. 601,
772, 840. [15] Gen. i. 3. [22] Gen. ii. 3. [32] Gen. ii. 19.

P. 46. [i] Comp. pp. 5, 6. [7] In a note on the corresponding pas
sage of the De Augmentis Mr. Ellis quotes from S. Thomas Aquinas,
Summ. Theol. Sec. Secund. q. 163. a. 2: Primus homo peccavit princip-
alifer appetendo similitudinem Dei quantum ad scientiam boni et niali, sicnl
serpens ei suggessit, ut scilicet per virtutem proprice naturae determinant sibi
quid esset bonum et quid malum ad agendum. [13] Gen. iv. 2. [23] Gen.
iv. 21, 22. [25] Gen. xi. [30] Acts vii. 22. Comp. Of the Interpreta
tion of Nature, p. 219. [32] Plato, Tim. iii. 22. Comp. Nov. Org. i.
71 ; Apoph. 223.

P. 47. [n] Lev. xiii. 12, 13. [14-18] Among the Regales Aphoristni
or maxims of King James I. edited by W. Stratton, 1650, is the follow
ing, evidently borrowed from this passage: As it is a principle of nature,
that putrifaction is more contagious before maturity than after ; so it is
a position of Moral Philosophic, that men abandoned to vice, do not so
much corrupt manners, as those that are half good and half evill (p. 165).
In De Augm. iii. i, Bacon gives as a rule in physics, Putredo serpens
magis contagiosa est quam matura. [24] Job xxvi. 7. [28] Job xxvi. 13.
[30] Job xxxviii. 31.

P. 48. [i] Job ix. 9. [5] Job x. 10. [7] Jobxxviii. 1,2. [12] i Kings
iii. 5, &c. [17] verdure: verdor edd. 1605, 1629, 1633, which Mr.
Spedding would retain as another form of the word. It probably only
represents the current pronunciation. The corresponding passage of the
treatise Of the Interpretation of Nature, p. 220, has all that is green.
[18] the moss upon the wall: The English version of i Kings iv. 33
has hyssop. Bacon followed the rendering of Junius and Tremellius.
[19] Nov. Org. ii. 30. [20-24] Nay, the same Salomon the king,
although he excelled. . . yet he maketh &c.: The same loose construction
as before, pp. 20. 1. 27; 39. 11. ii, 32, 33. [26] Prov. xxv. 2. Comp.
the corresponding passage Of the Interpretation of Nature, p. 220.

P. 49. [4] Luke ii. 46. [8] Acts ii. i. [iH] who was only learned:
i. e. the only learned man among the Apostles. Lat. qui inter Apostolos

280 NOTES.

solus llteratns full. [22] fathers: Father in ed. 1605. [24] Amm. Marc,
xxii. 10. 7; xxv. 4. 19. Comp. Gibbon, ch. 23 ; Juliani Epist. xlii. The
Lat. adds catera viri egregii. [30] Paulus Diaconus, iii. par. 33. Comp.
Ess. Iviii. p. 232 ; Gibbon, ch. 45.

p. eo. [4] Scythians : The Scythians or Tartars invaded the Gothic
empire A.D. 375. See Gibbon, ch. 26. [5] Saracens: The Arabs under
Abubeker conquered Syria A.D. 633-639. See Gibbon, ch. 51. [9-16]
And we see ... knowledges : Omitted in the Latin. [22 &c.] With this
paragraph compare Of the Interpretation of Nature, p. 221. [27] Pss.
xix. civ.

P- 5*. [3-8] Comp. Nov. Org. i. 89. [4] Matt. xxii. 29. This text
is made the subject of the section De Haeresibus in Bacon s Medita-
tiones Sacrse. [25] See Herodian, Hist. iv. 2. [26] dives in some
copies of ed. 1605. [32] honours heroical: honour heroicall in edd.
1605, 1629, 1633.

P. 52. [1-19] Comp. Of the Interpretation of Nature, p. 223: The
dignity of this end (of endowment of man s life with new commodities)
appeareth by the estimation that antiquity made of such as guided there
unto. For whereas founders of states, lawgivers, extirpers of tyrants,
fathers of the people, were honoured but with the titles of Worthies or
Demigods, inventors were ever consecrated amongst the Gods them
selves. And if the ordinary ambitions of men lead them to seek the
amplification of their own power in their countries, and a better ambi
tion than that hath moved men to seek the amplification of the power of
their own countries amongst other nations, better again and more worthy
must that aspiring be which seeketh the amplification of the power and
kingdom of mankind over the world ; the rather because the other two
prosecutions are ever culpable of much perturbation and injustice ; but
this is a work truly divine, which cometh in aura lent without noise or
observation. [9] as was: So in edd. 1605, 1629, 1633. For construc
tion compare Luke v. 10. [13, 14] for a latitude of ground: Lat. pro
amplitudine traclus terra. [18] coming in: In ed. 1605 this is printed
com- in, the first syllable occurring at the end of a line. It was altered
to commonly in in edd. 1629, 1633, but the passage Of the Interpretation
of Nature above quoted, and the Lat. veniuntque in aura lent, show that
coming in is the true reading. The Vulgate of I Kings xix. 12 is post
ignem sibilus aura, tenuis. Bacon uses the expression again in a letter to
Sir Toby Matthew (Life and Letters, ed. Spedding, iii. 74). [24] Philo-
strati Junioris Imagines, vii. Comp. Discourse on the Plantation in
Ireland (Life and Letters, iv. 117), and De Sapientia Veterum, n.

P. 53. [10] Plato, Repub. v. p. 473. A favourite saying of Antoninus
Pius (Capitolinus, Vit. Ant. P. c. 27). Rabelais, Gargant. i. 45. [31] six
princes : six sciences in ed. 1605, corrected in Errata. [33] for temporal
respects : We should say in temporal respects.

BOOK I. 281

P- 54- [3] Suetonius, Dom. 23, quoted again in Ess. xxxv. p. 150, and
in a letter from Bacon to King James on a Digest of the Laws of
England. [7-13] of which . .. altogether : tie quibus sigillatim sed brevis-
sime verba faciam. The following paragraphs, as far as p. 58, 1. 32, are
much condensed in the Latin, [n] Hor. Od. ii. 10. 19. [15] Tac.
Agric. 3 : et quamquam primo statim beatissimi seculi ortu Ncrva Casar res
olim dissociabiles miscuerit principatnm ac libertatem. [21] Horn. II. {.42;
riatiav Aavaol t^a Sdrcpva aoiat &t\(aaiv. Dio Cass. (Xiphilinus) Ixviii.
p. 771. [24] Matt. x. 41.

P- 55- [ 2 1 This story is told of Gregory the Great in his life by Faulus
Diaconus, c. 27, and in that by Joannes Diaconus, lib. ii. c. 44; and is
referred to by Joannes Damascenus, De iis qui in Fide Dormierunt, c.
16. See also Dante, Purgatorio, cant. x. 73 &c. Vision of Piers Plough
man, 6857-6907, ed. T. Wright. [10] Plin. Epist. x. 96. [12] Adrian:
Dio Cass. Ixix. 3, ii. [17] Philip of Macedon: Some copies of ed.
1605 have and Macedon. The story is told by Plutarch, de Adul. et
Amico, 27 ; Symp. ii. I. 12 ; and repeated by Bacon, Of the Interpreta
tion of Nature, p. 230, Apoph. 159. [26] It was not Hadrian, but Alex
ander Severus, who is said, in his life by Lampridius (c. 29), to have
had, in the shrine where his lares were placed, figures of Apollonius,
Christ, Abraham, Orpheus, and others. And again (c. 43), Christo tern-
plum facere voluit, eumque inter deos recipere. [32] Trajan s : Mr. Sped-
ding conjectures Trajan, which no doubt is more correct, though Trajan s
is probably what Bacon wrote.

P. 56. [3] Aurelius Victor, Epit. xli. 13. Quoted again in a Letter
from Bacon to King James, Of a Digest to be made of the Laws of
England (Cabala, p. 75). [n] policing: the regulating and governing
of a town. Edd. 1605, 1629 have pollicing, ed. 1633 pollishing. He
gave also multitudes of charters and liberties for the comfort of corpora
tions and companies in decay. Bacon, Offer of a Digest of the Laws of
England. [16] Antoninus : the three old editions have Antonius. [19]
Dio Cassius, Ixx. 3. Comp. Juliani Caesares. If his wit be not apt to
distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoole-men ; for they
are cymini sectores Bacon, Ess. 1. p. 206. [31] Acts xxvi. 28.

P. 57. [3] Lucius Ceionius Commodus, son of ./Elius Caesar, and
Marcus Annius Verus, were adopted by Antoninus Pius, and on his
death in 161 succeeded him with the titles of L. Aurelius Verus and
M. Aurelius Antoninus [4] Spartianus, Vit. JILlii Veri, c. 5 : idem
Martialem epigrammaticnm poetam Virgilinm situm dixisse. [6] Lucius
Verus died of apoplexy A.D. 169: Marcus Aurelius survived till A.D. 180.
[10] Juliani Ciesares, xviii. [22] Lampridius, Vita Severi, 5-10. [31]
the world : the omitted in ed. 1605.

P. 58. [1-5] Compare Bacon s Letter to the Lord Chancellor, touching
the history of Britain, where he speaks of Queen Elizabeth in nearly the

282 NOTES.

same words. [3] lives: lynes in ed. 1605. [6] rare: grace in some
copies of 1605 ; others read great. In the Errata it is corrected to rare,
and this is the reading of edd. 1629 and 1633. [12] her: So in some
copies of ed. 1605; others read the. [30] to the purpose: that is, as
regards the purpose &c.

P. 59. [12] Plutarch, Alex. 8. i. [19] Achilles: Plut. Alex. 15. 3.
[22] Pliny, H. N. vii. 30; Plutarch, Alex. 26. i. [25] Plutarch, Alex.
7- 4-

P. 60. [i-io] And herein ... praises : Omitted in the Latin. [14]
Plutarch, Alex. 14. 2. [i 7] Seneca, De Benef. v. 4. 4. [23] Plutarch,
De Adulatore et Amico, 25 ; Alex. 22. 2. [27] The Latin adds, cum
tarn indigentia quam redundantia natura, per ilia duo designata, mortis
sini tanquam arrhabones. [31] Seneca, Ep. Mor. vi. 7. 12. Plutarch,
Alex. 28. i. [32] Horn. II. v. 340 ; IX&P oUs irep TC peti fj.andpffffft

P. 61. [2] Plutarch, Alex. 74. 2. [6, 7] that was the matter: We
should say, that was the point. Lat. hoc ipsum animos eis dedit. [15]
Plutarch, Alex. 53. 2. Quoted again by Bacon in his Letter to the
King on a Digest of the Laws of England (Cabala, p. 76). [24, 25]
Lat. Callisthenes negotium in se recepit, idque tarn acerbe tamque aculeate
prastitit &c. [29] translation : Bacon uses this word as the rendering of
metaphor, borrowing it from the Lat. translatio as employed by Cicero.
[30] Plutarch, Apoph. Reg. et Imp. Alex. 17. Mr. Ellis has pointed
out that Bacon, following Erasmus, misunderstood the story. Holland
translates it : When some there were who much praised unto him the
plainenesse and homelie simplicitie of Antipater, saying that he lived an
austere and hard life, without all superfluities and delicious pleasures
whatsoever: Well (quoth he) Antipater weares in outward shew his
apparell with a plaine white welt or guard, but he is within all purple
(I warrant you) and as red as scarlet ( Avrhrarpo* XevKOTrapvQos tan, ra
8 evSov 6\oir6p<j)vpo$}.

P. 62. [3-9] Plutarch, Alex. 31. 5. Quoted again in Ess. xxix.
p. 120. [i 3] ^ Plutarch, Alex. 47. 3. [19] according to the model of
their own mind : Comp. Hor. Epist. i. 7. 98, Metiri se quemque suo
modulo ac pede verum est. [21] Plutarch, Alex. 29. 3. [25] Perdiccas,
according to Plutarch, was the only one of Alexander s friends who
asked the question. Plutarch, Alex. 15. 2. [30] Plutarch, Cses. 11.
i. Crassus became surety to Caesar s creditors for 880 talents, before
he was allowed to take the prsetorship in Spain. [32] This story of the
Duke of Guise had been heard by Bacon when he was in France in 1576.
In his Apology concerning the Earl of Essex, he says, in reference to
Essex s offer of a piece of land, My answer, I remember, was, that for
my fortune it was no great matter; but that his lordship s offer made
me to call to mind what was wont to be said, when I was in France, of

BOOK 7. 283

the duke of Guise, that he was the greatest usurer in France, because he
had turned all his estate into obligations; meaning that he had left him
self nothing, but only had bound numbers of persons to him.

P. 63. [4-8] To conclude. .. prince: Omitted in the Latin. [14] his
company: that is, his companions, the company he kept. The Latin
has ex familiar ibus. [20] the real passages: This expression, which is
omitted in the translation, either means the actual occurrences or the
truthful descriptions of them. [21] lively images: We should say
vivid pictures. [25] Suetonius, Jul. Cses. 56; Quintil. i. 7. 34- This
work, De Analogia, in two books, is again referred to by Bacon, De
Augm. vi. i, in which passage he is doubtful whether it treated of what
we should call philosophical Grammar, and not rather of elegance and
purity of language. It is quoted by Cicero (Brutus, 72) under the title
of De ratione Latine loquendi, and in the first book Caesar is said to
have laid down as a maxim verbornm delectum originem esse eloqnentite.
Aulus Gellius (i. 10) quotes another precept from the same book that
an unusual word is to be avoided like a rock (tit tanquam scopuliim sic
fngias insolens verbum). Again (ix. 14) he appeals to the Second Book
of the De Analogia as an authority for the forms hujus die and hnjus
specie, and to the work generally (xix. 8), without mentioning the book,
for the opinion that harena, ccelum, triticum could only be used in the
singular, and that quadrigae could only occur in the plural. Compare
also iv. 16. [28-30] This passage is slightly modified in the Latin
translation, which is thus rendered into English by Wats : that words,
which are the images of things, might accord with the things them
selves, and not stand to the arbitrement of the vulgar. [32] Suet. Jul.
Cces. 40.

P. 64. [3] Anti-Cato: According to Suetonius (Jul. CJES. 56) this
was in two books. It was written in answer to Cicero s panegyric on
Cato, and is quoted by Aulus Gellius (iv. 16). Compare Cicero ad Att.
xii. 40, 41, xiii. 50; Plutarch, Jul. Caes. 54. 3. [4] victory of wit:
Archbishop Trench in his Select Glossary has given an excellent quota
tion from Bp. Reynolds, which illustrates the difference between the
present and past usages of the word wit. For I take not wit in that
common acceptation, whereby men understand some sudden flashes of
conceipt, whether in stile or conference, which like rotten wood in the
darke, have more shine then substance ; whose use and ornament are
like themselves, swift and vanishing; at once both admired and for
gotten ; but I understand a setled, constant, and habituall sufficiency of
the understanding, whereby it is inabled in any kind of learning, theory,
or practice, both to sharpnesse in search, subtilty in expression, and dis
patch in execution. Reynolds, The Passions and Faculties of the Soul,
c. xxxix. p. 514. [8] These Apophthegms (Cic. ad Fain. ix. 16), or
Dicta collectanea as they are called by Suetonius (Jul. Cres. 56), were

284 NOTES.

among the works which Augustus suppressed. [16] Eccl. xii. n, from
the Vulgate, though not quite literally. [21] Suetonius, Jul. Cses. 70.
[25] cashiered: cassiered in ed. 1605, a form of spelling which points
to the derivation of the word from Fr. casser. In Wats s trans, of De
Augm. the Latin is rendered, and seditiously prayed to be cassed.
[26] by expostulation thereof: Lat. hoc postulate.

P. 65. [6] Suetonius, Jul. Caes. 79. [15] Rex was a surnamt with the
Romans: comp. Hor. Sat. i. 7. i ; Bacon, Apoph. 186. [17] Plutarch,
Jul. Cses. 35. 4.

P. 66. [i] Suet. Jul. Cses. 77. [15] Xen. Anab. ii. 5. 37. [16] the
great king: of Persia. [25] The saying here ascribed to Xenophon is
in Schneider s edition of the Anabasis (ii. i. 12) given to Theopompus.
Xenophon, who is described as serving merely as a volunteer, and hold
ing no command in the army, could hardly have taken part in the parley
with Phalinus. Diodorus (xiv. p. 409) attributes the speech to Proxenus.
In Stephens s edition of 1561, which Bacon may have used, the reading

is KVO<{>UV.

P- 67. [7] Jason the Thessalian (assassinated B.C. 370) was later than
Agesilaus, though Bacon mentions him first. See Smith s Hist, of
Greece, p. 473. [8] Agesilaus: See Plut. Ages. 15; Smith s Hist, of
Greece, p. 439, &c. The date of the attempted invasion of Persia by
Agesilaus was B.C. 396-394. Compare Bacon s treatise, Of the True
Greatness of Britain (Works, vii. 50) : And those that are conversant
attentively in the histories of those times, shall find that this purchase
which Alexander made and compassed was offered by fortune twice
before to others, though by accident they went not through with it;
namely, to Agesilaus, and Jason of Thessaly. For Agesilaus, after he
had made himself master of most of the low provinces of Asia, and had
both design and commission to invade the higher countries, was diverted
and called home upon a war excited against his country by the states of
Athens and Thebes, being incensed by their orators and counsellors,
which were bribed and corrupted from Persia, as Agesilaus himself
avouched pleasantly, when he said That an hundred thousand archers
of the kings of Persia had driven him home : understanding it, because
an archer was the stamp upon the Persian coin of gold. And Jason of
Thessaly, being a man born to no greatness, but one that made a fortune
of himself, and had obtained by his own vivacity of spirit, joined with
the opportunities of time, a great army compounded of voluntaries and
adventurers, to the terror of all Graecia, tha,t continually expected where
that cloud would fall, disclosed himself in the end, that his design was
for an expedition into Persia, (the same which Alexander not many
years after achieved,) wherein he was interrupted by a private conspiracy
against his life, which took effect. [14, 15] Ovid, Ep. Pont. ii. 9. 47.
Ovid has Adde quod for scilicet. Mr. Ellis has pointed out that the

BOOK I. 385

origin of this saying is to be found in a fragment of Theophrastus :
SoKti ydp -fj iratdda, Kol TOVTO irdvTt$ ufj.o\oyovai. fyfj.fpovv rdt i^v\a9,
d<paipov<ra r<5 OypiwSts KO.I dyvajpov (Stobeei Florilegium, ed. Gaisford, Iv.
A PP- P- 55* ed. 1822). [23] examined and tried: observe the Latinized
construction of the participles. [29] Eccl. i. 9 ( There is no new
thing under the sun ), quoted from memory. [30, 31] The Latin
has, qui pone aulaa caput inserens organa quibus moventur et filamenta
cernit.

P. 68. [3] for a passage: that is, a pass or ford. The Latin has
propter pontem aliquem. [4] Plutarch (Ages. 15. 6) relates that Alex
ander called the battle between Antipater and Agis a battle of mice.
The news was brought to him soon after the battle of Arbela. [9]
Compare Seneca, Nat. Quaest. i. prol. 10: Formicarum isle discursus est
in angusto laborantium. [20] See Epictetus, Enchir. 33, and Simplicii in
Epict. Comm. c. 33. The dramatic form of the story is apparently
Bacon s own. [24] Virg. Georg. ii. 490. [33] rationem totivs : appa
rently referring to Eccl. xii. 13.

P. 69. [5] Plato, Alcib. Prim. ii. 133. [6] Mr. Spedding quotes
another form of this sentence as Bacon had entered it in the Promus,
4 Suavissima vita indies meliorem fieri. It appears to be derived from
Xenophon, Memor. i. 6. 8. The same sentiment occurs in Dante,
Parad. xviii. 58, quoted by Mr. Ellis. Comp. also Adv. to the E. of
Rutland (Works, ix. p. 7).

P. 70. [6] Virg. Georg. iv. 561. [9] over the will: The Latin adds
licet liberam et non astrictam. [23] Rev. ii. 24. [24] force : face in ed.
1605, corrected in Errata. [31] A saying of Hiero s, recorded by Plu
tarch (Reg. et Imp. Apoph.), is perhaps what Bacon was thinking of.
Xenophanes complained that his poverty did not allow him to keep two
servants. How is that? said Hiero : Homer, whom you worry with
abuse, dead as he is, supports more than ten thousand.

P. 71. [10] exceed the pleasure of the sense: So in the Errata to ed.
1605. The original editions have exceed the senses. The Lat. is
oblectamenta sensuum excedent. The true reading is probably exceed
the pleasures of the senses. [15] satiety: sacietie, ed. 1605. [16] ver
dure: In edd. 1605, 1629, 1633, it is verdour, which perhaps shows what
the old pronunciation was. In Cotgrave s French Diet, and Florio s
Ital. Diet, of 161 1, the spelling of the word is as we have it. See note
on p. 48, 1. 17. [17] deceits of pleasure: that is, deceptive, unreal
pleasures. The Lat. has umbras tantum et fallacias voluptatum. [20]
ambitious princes : Bacon was perhaps thinking of the Emperor Charles
V., who resigned the crown of Spain in favour of his son in 1556, and
retired to the monastery of San Yuste. See Ess. xix. p. 76. [22] it,
that is, knowledge, is omitted as the subject of appeareth. The
whole sentence stands thus in the Lat. : ut neces&e sit hujus delectationit

286 NOTES.

bonnm simplex esse, non ex accidente, ut cumfraude. [27] Lucr. ii. i-io,
quoted again in Ess. i. p. 3.

P. 72. [n] to this tend: tend is omitted in ed. 1605, but added in the
Errata. [19] infinite: used loosely for innumerable. The Lat. has
innumera. It occurs once in the same sense in Shakespeare, Tim. of
Ath. v. I. 37: a satire against the softness of prosperity, with a dis
covery of the infinite flatteries that follow youth and opulency. 1 [Ib.]
have been decayed: that is, have been brought to decay, fallen into
decay. [21] statuaes: so in ed. 1605. Statua was the old form of
the word while still unnaturalized which Bacon adopted. See Glossary
to his Essays. [23, 24] cannot but leese of the life and truth: that is,
cannot but lose some of the life and truth.

P- 73- W Bacon here refers to Aristotle and his followers, [n]
affection: The true reading is probably affections, as in 1. 14. [25]
Phsedr. iii. 12. Quoted again in Ess. xiii. p. 48. It was a favourite
fable with Bacon. Comp. Of the True Greatness of Britain (Works,
vii. 57): In which people (i.e. the Swiss) it well appeared what an
authority iron hath over gold at the battle of Granson, at what time one
of the principal jewels of Burgundy was sold for twelve pence by a poor
Swiss, that knew no more a precious stone than did -ffisop s cock.
See Commines, B. v. c. 2. [26] Midas : Ovid, Metam. xi. 153, &c.
[29] Paris: Eurip. Troad. 924, &c. [30] Tac. Ann. xiv. 9, Occidat
dum imperet. [31] any : Omitted in ed. 1605, but added in the Errata.
[32] Horn. Od. v. 218 ; Plutarch, Gryll. I ; Cic. de Orat. i. 44. Quoted
again in Ess. viii. p. 27.

P. 74. [2] must: Omitted in ed. 1605, but added in the Errata. [4]
Matt. xi. 19, quoted from the Vulgate.

BOOK II.

P. 75. [1-7] Comp. Ess. viii. p. 26: Yet it were great reason, that
those that have children, should have greatest care of future times ; unto
which, they know, they must transmit their dearest pledges. [9-12]
and yet so ... survive her: Omitted in the Lat., apparently for the reason
mentioned in note on p. 21, 11. 16-21. [19] affection: Lat. studium
meum erga literas.

P- 76- [3] Hercules columns : The two rocks Calpe (Gibraltar} and
Abyla (Ximiera, or Jebel el Mina) on either side of the Straits of Gibraltar
were so called by the ancients, as being supposed to mark the end of
the western wanderings of Hercules, and so the limits of early geogra
phical knowledge in that direction (comp. Pindar, Nem. iii. 35 ; Herod.
iv. 42, 181, 185). Pliny says of the Straits of Gibraltar (Hist. Nat. iii.
proem, trans. Holland, ed. 1601): Of both sides of this gullet, neere
unto it, are two mountaines set as frontiers and rampiers to keepe all in :
namely, Abila for Africke, Calpe for Europe, the utmost end of Hercules

BOOK II. 287

Labours. For which cause, the inhabitants of those parts call them,
The two pillars of that God ; and doe verily beleeve, that by certaine
draines and ditches digged within the Continent, the maine Ocean, before
excluded, made way and was let in, to make the MecHteranean seas,
where before was firme land : and so by that meanes the very face of
the whole earth is cleane altered. The origin of the legend is probably
to be sought in the fact that the Phoenicians were the great navigators
of the ancient world, and that Melkarth, the Greek Hercules, was their
tutelary deity. In any case the pillars of Hercules, which, like the
ultima Thule of a later period, once denoted the extreme limit of geo
graphical discovery in one direction, are used metaphorically by Bacon
to denote the limit of any investigation whatever. [10] Lat. sermone
quodam activo et masculo. [12] ground : the foundation or basis of an
argument. [16] supplieth: Lat. succurrit. [17] direction: Perhaps we
should read soundness of direction, as before. Lat. consilii prudentia et
sanitas. [Ib.] S. Augustine, Serm. clxix. (vol. v; p. 569, ed. Ant. 1700):
Melior it claudus in via, quam cursor prater viam. See Nov. Org. i. 6l.
In the Promus (vii. p. 200) it stands, Melior claudus in via quam cursor
extra viam. Ben Jonson, in his Sylva, quotes it in a different form,
Aegidius cursu superatA cripple in the way out-travels a footman, or
a post out of the way: St. Giles being the patron saint of cripples.
[19] Eccl. x. 10. Quoted again in a modified form in the treatise Of
the Interpretation of Nature (iii. p. 223): for as Salomon saith excel
lently, The fool putteth to more strength, but the wise man considered which
way, signifying the election of the mean to be more material than the
multiplication of endeavour.

P- 77- [7] accomplishments: Lat. ornamentis. [20] discharge of
cares: Lat. vacationem a curis. [23] Virg. Georg. iv. 8. [27] and that
without delusion or imposture : Omitted in the translation. See note to
p. 21, 1. 16.

P. / [9] Cic. Orat. post reditum in Senatu, xii. 30: Nam difficile est
non aliyuem, nefas quemquam prceterire. [n] Phil. iii. 13. [14] I find
strange: Lat. demiror. [18] the ancient fable: The fable of the belly
and the members told by Menenius Agrippa, Livy, ii. 32. See Shake
speare, Cor. i. i. 99, &c. [24] universality: the study of general princi
ples. Lat. contemplationibus universalibus.

P. 79. [r] professory learning: the teaching which has for its object
one special branch of study. [2] malign aspect and influence: This
metaphor is derived from the old astrology, in which the planets were
supposed to exercise control over human destinies. See Trench, English
Past and Present, Lect. iv. p. 180, ed. 4. [15] The Lat. adds prasertim
apud nos. [17] Readers: i.e. lecturers. [22, 23] to appropriate his
whole labour, and to continue his whole age in that function and at
tendance : i. e. to devote his whole energy and to spend his whole life in

2 88 NOTES.

discharging and attending to the duties of his office. [23-26] and
therefore . . . profession : Omitted in the Lat. [28] i Sam. xxx. 22.

P. 80. [3] Virg. Georg. iii. 128. [4, 5] some alchemist . .. who call:
For another example of this loose construction see p. 19, 11. 8, 9, some
friar. . . to whom, &c. [10] Physic: Lat. medicina. [17] Lat. nee usu
mortuorum corporum ad observationes anatomicas destitui. [28] Pliny,
Hist. Nat. viii. 17. [31] travail: In edd. 1605, 1629, 1633, travailes.
[31, 32] much better . .. nature : Lat. certe majus quiddam debetur its, qui
non in saltibus naturae pererrant, sed in labyrinthis artium viam sibi aperhmt.
Mr. Spedding explains arts of nature as working upon and altering
nature by art. In p. 86 history of arts is equivalent to history of
nature altered or wrought. But from the expressions in the Latin
translation it would rather seem that by arts of nature Bacon intended
those recondite and intricate operations which are the subjects of inves
tigation by the experimental philosopher, as the chemist for example,
and which are contrasted with the more external manifestations with
which the naturalist deals, as the windings of a labyrinth with the open
glades of a forest. See Nov. Org. prsef.

P. 81. [27] Cic. De Orator, iii. 26. [28] Cic. Orator. 24.

P. 82. [22] Cic. Ep. ad Att. ix. 7.

p. 83. [2] Lat. adeo ut habeant prcefectos (altos Provinciates, alios Gene-
rales} quibus omnes parent. [9] James i. 17. [23] Aaron, not Moses.
See Exod. vii. 12. [26] opera basilica, works for a king: Perhaps
Bacon was thinking of the basilica facinora of Plautus (Trin. iv. 3. 23).
[29] the inducing part: the introductory part. Lat. speculaliva ilia
pars.

P. 84. [16] A mare et sapere vix Deo conceditur. Publ. Syr. Sent. 15.
Quoted again in Ess. x. p. 37. Comp. Ovid, Met. ii. 846 : Non bent
convenient nee in una sede morantur Majestas et amor. [20] Quoted from
Ennius by Cicero, De Off. i. 16.

P. 85. [3] Prov. xxii. 13. [4] Virg. JEn. v. 231. [9-21] This
paragraph is much enlarged in the De Augmentis, ii. i. [22] De
Aug. ii. 4. In the De Augmentis Bacon makes only two divisions
of History, natural and civil; including in the latter history ecclesi
astical and literary.

P. 86. [5] a. just story of learning; i.e. an accurate history. [21]
In De Augm. ii. 2 the same division is made but at greater length.
[32] the strange events of time and chance: Lat. casuum (ut ait ille)
ingenia.

P. 87. [ii] it is never called down: Lat. nunquam postea exter-
minantur out retractantur. [13] The treatise De miris auscultationibus
attributed to Aristotle is now believed not to be by him. Bacon
again refers to it in p. 35, 1. 24. [Ib.] is nothing less than : i. e. is
by no means intended. [16] axioms: Mr. Kitchin, in his edition of

BOOK II.

the Novum Organum, App. A., has shown that Bacon uses axiom
to denote any general principle of the lowest degree of generality.
And in this he is followed by Sir Isaac Newton, who gives the title
of Axiom to all general experimental truths, to the laws of motion,
which are purely inductive and not at all self-evident truths, to the
principles of optics, c.

P. 88. [4] In the treatise D?emonologie, in forme of a Dialogue,
in three books, printed among the works of James I., p. 93, ed. 1616.
[5] Comp. Nov. Org. i. 1 20, sol enim ague palatia et cloacas ingreditur,
neqne tamen polluitur. And Chaucer s Parson s Tale, quoted by Mr.
Kitchin: Certes holy writ may not be defouled, no more than the
sonne that schyneth on a dongehul (vol. iii. p. 168, Percy Soc. ed.).
[7-9] I hold fit, that these narrations . . . be sorted by themselves,
and not to be mingled &c. : For other instances of this mixed con
struction, see Ps. Ixxviii. 4, 8 (Pr. Bk.) : That we should not hide . . .
but to shew &c. That they might put their trust in God, and not
to forget &c. [23] Plato, Hippias Major, iii. 291.

P. 89. [3] the philosopher : Thales. See Plato, Therct. i. 1 74 ; Diog.
Laert. i. 34. [9] Arist. Polit. i. 3. i ; Phys. i.

P. 90. [i] Proteus: Virg. Georg. iv. 386, &c. [5] De Augm. ii. 6.
[22] of the world: i.e. in the world. [27] as was said: See above,
1. 13. In this paragraph Bacon perhaps had in his mind Camden s
Remaines concerning Britaine (1605).

P. 91. [2] In the discourse on the Union of the Kingdoms (Life and
Letters, iii. p. 94) Bacon gives instances in nature of those bodies
which were imperfecte mista, and concludes, So as such imperfect
minglings continue no longer than they are forced, and still in the
end the worthiest gets above. He probably had this in his mind
when he called such histories the salvage of the deluge of time. [5]
epitomes: Bacon elsewhere (p. 175) condemns Ramus for introducing
the canker of epitomes. Here he refers probably to the Epitomes of
Florus, Aurelius Victor, and others. [10] De Augm. ii. 7. [26] the
true and inward resorts : Lat. veros fomites et texturas subtiliores. Perhaps
we should read fontes. [27] The Latin adds neque enim de elogiis et
hujusmodi commemorationibus jejtmis loquimur. [32] Referring to
Thucydides, Xenophon, and Sallust.

P. 92. [4, 5] specially of any length : This refers to the length of the
period contemplated by the history, not to the history itself. The
Latin has a different idea, frcesertim qua cctate scriptoris multo antiquior
sit; where the true reading would be quod . . . antiquius. [5] p. 9^.
[4] Omitted in the Latin. [22] Virg. A\u. iv. 177. [29] Justinianus:
Born A.D. 483; reigned from 52710565. [Ib.] Ultimus Romanonnn:
Used of Cassius by Tacitus (Ann. iv. 34) and of Brutus and Caseins
by Suetonius (Tib. 61). [33] to be kept: are is omitted in the

U

290 NOTES.

construction. Comp. p. 94, 1- 8, and yet her government so mascu
line, where the copula is omitted.

p. 93 . [8] Cicero, De Off. i. 34. Comp. Tac. Hist. i. i. [lo] in
the main continuance thereof: Lat. quatenus ad corpus ejus integrum.
[12] George Buchanan, who wrote Rerum Scoticamm Historia. To
this James I. evidently refers in the second book of his Basilicon Doron,
where he reckons among unpardonable crimes the false and vnreverent
writing or speaking of malicious men against your parents and pre
decessors (Works, p. 158). [21] Bacon himself endeavoured to carry
out the plan which he here suggested; but the only part of the work
which was completed was the History of Henry VII., published in 1622,
during his retirement. Besides this he left a fragment of the history of
the reign of Henry VIII. In his letter to the Lord Chancellor touching
the history of Britain, to which reference has been made before (p. 58,
note), he speaks in nearly the same words of the defects of previous
histories. [24] hath been : Observe the construction, and see p. 52, 1. 9.
[27] By Henry VII. Compare Bacon, Henry VII. p. 3: There were
fallen to his lot, and concurrent in his Person, three seuerall Titles to
the Imperiall Crowne. The first, the Title of the Lady Elizabeth,
with whom, by precedent Pact with the Partie that brought him in,
he was to marry. The second, the ancient and long disputed Title
(both by Plea, and Armes) of the House of Lancaster, to which he was
Inheritour in his owne Person. The third, the Title of the Sword ^ or
Conquest, for that he came in by victorie of Battaile, and that the King
in possession was slaine in the Field. [33] Henry VIII.

p. 94 . [5] Edward VI. and the attempt of the Duke of Northumber
land to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne. [6] Comp. Ess. xxix.
p. 127 : A civill warre, indeed, is like the heat of a leaver. [7] Mary,
married to Philip of Spain. [Ib.] Elizabeth. [8] and yet her govern
ment so masculine: The copula is omitted as in p. 92, 1. 33. [8-n]
and yet ... thence : Omitted in the Latin. [12] divided from all the
world: Comp. Virg. Eel. i. 67, Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos.
[14] Virg. JEn. iii. 96. [18] Comp. p. 134, L 25, and Ess. xi. p. 43,
And as in nature, things move violently to their place, and calmely
in their place. [23] it -/redundant. [32] Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, at
the end of the 34th book and the beginning of the 35th. Mr. Singer,
in Notes and Queries, v. 232, was the first to point out the source of
this reference. [33] the ancient fiction : The fable of the three fates,
Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. The allusion is more distinctly given
in the Latin translation.

p. 95. [14] Virg. JEn. v. 751. [15] Plin. Ep. iii. 21 : Nam postquam
desiimus facere laudanda, laudari qiioque ineptum putamus. [i 7] Prov.
x- 7- [24] Cicero, Phil. ix. 5. 10: Vita enim mortnorum in memoria
vivorum est posita. The sentiment appears to have been borrowed from the

BOOK II. 291

law of Solon quoted by Demosthenes adv. Lept. p. 488, ^ \{y f

P. 96. [7] De Aug. ii. 9. [Ib.] partition: portion in ed. 1605, cor-
rected in Errata. [12] giving but a touch of certain magnificent build
ings: that is, but slightly alluding to them. [13] Tac. Ann. xiii. 31.
[15] a kind of contemplative heraldry: that is, as is explained in the
Latin, a heraldry by which the rank of books as well as of persons
may be distinguished. [22] time: Mr. Spedding reads times. [24]
what passed day by day: For the construction compare Hamlet, i.
i. 33: What we two nights have seen. [25] Esth. vi. i. [28] Plut*
Symp. i. 6. i ; Alex. 23. 2, 76, &c.

P. 97. [i] De Aug. ii. 10. [ 4 ] Mr. Ellis, in his note on the corres
ponding passage of the De Augmentis, remarks that the most cele
brated work of this kind is one with which Bacon was familiar,
the Discorsi of Macchiavelli, of which the narrative part is derived
from Livy. Sec what Bacon himself says, p. 225. [22] Comp Of the
Interpretation of Nature (Works, iii. 225) : For at that time the world
was altogether home-bred, every nation looked little beyond their own
confines or territories, and the world had no through lights then, as it
hath had since by commerce and navigation, whereby there could
neither be that contribution of wits one to help another, nor that
variety of particulars for the correcting of customary conceits. See
also Nov. Org. i. 84. [27] Virg. Georg. i. 250.

P. 98. [i] in their word : Lat. in symbolo suo. [2] plus ultra: Charles
the Fifth s motto. [3] imitabile fulmen : referring to the invention of
gunpowder. [5] Virg. /En. vi. 590. [7] Fernando de Magalhaens (or
Magellan) was the first navigator who sailed round the world, 1519-
1522. Drake s voyage was in 1577-1 579. [14] Dan. xii. 4. The
quotation in the text, which is from the Vulgate, is altered in the Latin
to augebitur scientia. [21] De Aug. ii. u. [22] in the propriety
thereof: Lat. proprio vero nomine.

P. 99. [u] Ps. xc. 4; 2 Pet. iii. 8. [23] r Cor. ii. 14. [26] Eph.
ii. 12. [28] Hab. ii. 2. This very common form of misquotation of
this passage appears to have had its origin in Coverdale s Version;
that who so commeth by, may rede it. The correct rendering is
that given in the English Bible ; that he may run that readeth it.

P. loo. [4] De Aug. ii. 12. [a6] it is a great loss of that book of
Caesar s : A loose construction equivalent to it is a great loss, viz. the
loss of that book of Caesar s.

P. 101. [4-6] one of the cells . . . which is that of the memory:
Comp. Burton, Anat. of Mel. Parti. Sec. i. Mem. 2. Subs. 4. The
fourth creek, behind the head, is common to the cerebel or little brain,
and marrow of the back-bone, the least and most solid of all the rest,
which receives the animal spirits from the other ventricles, and conveys

2 9 2 NOTES.

them to the marrow in the back, and is the place where they say the
memory is seated. Vigo defines the brain as a substance full of
marrowe diuided into three ventricles, of which there is one in the
fore part which is greater then the other three. The second is in
the middest. The third hath his residence in the hinder part. And
therefore after Galens iudgement, it is the foundation of imagination,
and of deuising, and of remembrance (Works, fol. 66, Lond. 1586).
Compare Chaucer, Knight s Tale, 1378:

Engendrud of humour malencolyk,
Byforne in his selle fantastyk.

[7] Differently arranged in De Augm. ii. 13, where much new matter
is introduced. [13] Hor. De Art. Poet. 9. [19] may be styled: that
is, may have this title of feigned history, whether written in prose or
verse.

P. 102. [i 6] After this paragraph there is added in the De Aug-
mentis one on Dramatic Poetry. [32] The seven wise men were Solon,
Thales, Pittacus, Bias, Chilon, Cleobulus, and Periander of Corinth.
Instead of the last, Plato (Protag. i. 343) enumerates Myso. Their
maxims have been collected in Orelli s Opuscula Grsecorum veterum
sententiosa et moralia. As other instances of parabolical wisdom the
Latin mentions tessera Pythagora, and anigmata sphingis. The former
of these are associated with ^Egyptian hieroglyphics by Plutarch (De
Isid. et Osir. 10) in a passage which Bacon probably had in his
mind.

P. 103. [15] Both these fables are quoted by Bacon in his fifteenth
Essay, Of Seditions and Troubles, with substantially the same com
ments. In the De Augm. is substituted a lengthened discussion of the
fables of Pan, Perseus, and Dionysus. See also Wisdom ot the Ancients,
c . 9 . [ 2 i] Virg. JEn. iv. 178. [30] Thetis, not Pallas. See Horn.
II. i. 398, &c.

P. 104. [2] Achilles: Horn. II. xi. 832 ; Plutarch (De Musica, xl. 4).
[4] Machiavel: The Prince, c. 18. Mr. Ellis, in his note on this
passage, suggested that As two of the animals are the same it is
possible that Macchiavelli was thinking of what was said of Boniface
VIII. by the predecessor whom he forced to abdicate, that he came
in like a fox, would reign like a lion, and die like a dog. [i i] Chry-
sippus: a Stoic philosopher, born B.C. 280. Bacon here refers to
what Cicero says of him, De Nat. Deor. i. 15, 58-41. [13] the
fictions: the is omitted in some copies of ed. 1605. [16-20] Surely
meaning : The construction of this sentence is imperfect, though the
sense is clear. [16] Homer : The same remark is made by Rabelais (Gar-
gantua, prol.) of the allegorical interpretations of Homer by Plutarch,
Eustathius, Heraclides Ponticus and Cornutus. [17] To the Greeks

BOOK II. 293

Homer was in fact a Bible, and guarded with all the care and all the
piety that belong to such a book. Prof. Blackie, Art. on Homer,
Encyc. Brit, eighth ed. This is true generally, and not only of the
later schools of the Grecians. But what really conveys a more
vivid impression of the influence of Homer in Greek education, than
any anecdotes about schools and schoolmasters, is the very apt and
easy way in which all Greek men are everywhere found quoting Homer
from memory, and applying it for the need of the moment, by a sort
of habitual " accommodation," just as we see many a devout father of
the Christian Church, and the ancient Jews, constantly quoting the
Old Testament, without any curious inquiry as to the exact critical
propriety of the text so applied. Blackie, Homer and the Iliad, i.
308. [24] this third part of learning : It should be this second
[27-32] But . . . harangues : Omitted in De Augm.

p I0 5- [3] Tne tnird book of the De Augm. begins here. [29] philo-
sophia prirna : See p. 40, 1. 8.

P. 106. [i] a certain rhapsody: Lat. farraginem quandam et massam
inconditam. [27] The instances of these participles in nature given by
Bacon in the De Augm. are, moss, which is intermediate between putre
faction and a plant ; fish that adhere and do not change their place and
are between a plant and an animal ; mice and other animals which are
between those propagated by putrefaction and those propagated by
impregnation ; bats, which are between birds and quadrupeds ; Hying
fish, between birds and fish ; seals, between fish and quadrupeds, and so
on. See Nov. Org. ii. 30.

P. 107. [8] Euclid, Elem. Book i. Axiom 4. [9, 10] an axiom.,
mathematics: In some copies of ed. 1605, and in the edd. of 1629 and
1633, this clause is inserted by mistake after the following sentence.
The error is noted in the Errata at the end of a copy of ed. 1605 in the
Bodleian Library, and the true reading is given, preceded by the follow
ing remark: In some few Bookes, in Ff: fol. 21, and the beginning of
the second page thereof, there is somewhat misplaced, and to be read
thus. The catchword of the previous page is And. [10] This ana
logy between commutative (or corrective) and distributive justice is
derived from Aristotle (Eth. v. 3, 4). Of distributive justice Sir Alex
ander Grant in his notes on the passage gives the following summary :
Justice implies equality, and not only that two things are equal, but
also two persons between whom there may be justice. Thus it is a
geometrical proportion in four terms ; if A and B be persons, C and D
lots to be divided, then as A is to B, so must C be to D. And a just
distribution will produce the result that A + C will be to B+D in the
same ratio as A was to B originally. In other words, distributive
justice consists in the distribution of property, honours, ^c., in tlu- state,
according to the merits of each citizen. And of corrective, or as liacon

294 NOTES.

calls it commutative, justice, he says: Corrective justice goes on a prin
ciple, not of geometrical, but of arithmetical proportion; in other words,
it takes no account of persons, but treats the cases with which it is con
cerned as cases of unjust loss and gain, which have to be reduced to the
middle point of equality between the parties. (Grant s Aristotle, ed. 2,
ii pp 108 112.) [13] Eucl. Elem. Bk. i. Axiom i. Whately, Logic,
ii 3 2; Nov. Org. ii. 27. [16] Ovid, Met. xv. 165. [18] Comp.
Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, cent. i. 100 (Works, ii. 383, ed. Spotting) :
There is nothing more certain in nature than that it is impossible for
any body to be utterly annihilated; but that as it was the work of the
omnipotency of God to make somewhat of nothing, so it requireth the
like omnipotency to turn somewhat into nothing. [21] Eccl. in. 14,
quoted from the Vulgate. [23] Machiavelli, Disc, sopra Livio, iii. i.
[27] the Persian magic: Plato commends this Magia, and^calls it
Machagistia, and Otwv Oepairda the worship of the Gods ; and saith, that
the Kings of Persia learned it, as a knowledge of diuine mysteries,
wherein by the worlds Common-wealth they were instructed to gouerne
their owne. Purchas his Pilgrimage, p. 366, ed. 1614. The passage
of Plato referred to is Alcib. Prim. ii. 121, but the remark of Purchas
is apparently derived from the Apologia of Johannes Picus Mirandula
(p. 121, ed. 1557). That Plato called Magia by the mystic name of
Machagistia is stated by Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. 6. 32). [30]
Comp. Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, cent. ii. 113 : There be in music certain
figures or tropes ; almost agreeing with the figures of rhetoric, and with
the affections of the mind, and other senses. First, the division and
quavering, which please so much in music, have an agreement with the
glittering of light ; as the moon-beams playing upon a wave. Again,
the falling from a discord to a concord, which maketh great sweetness
in music, hath an agreement with the affections, which are reintegrated
to the better after some dislikes; it agreeth also with the taste, which is
soon glutted with that which is sweet alone. The sliding from the close
or cadence, hath an agreement with the figure in rhetoric which they
c&\\ prater expectatum; for there is a pleasure even in being deceived
(Works, ed. Spedding, ii. 388, 389). Comp. also Nov. Org. ii. 27, and
Of the Interp. of Nat. (vol. iii. p. 230).

P. 108. [i] See Quint. Inst. Or. vi. 3 ; Cic. de Orat. ii. 63. 255. [2j
with: Some copies of the ed. 1605, according to Mr. Spedding, read
which. [4] Virg. JEn. vii. 9. [5] Comp. Nov. Org. ii. 27, where the
same illustrations are given of what Bacon calls conformable instances
or physical similitudes. From these he deduces the principle, organa
sensuum et corpora, qua pariunt reflexiones ad sensus, esse similis nature*.
(61 the eye with a glass : i. e. a looking-glass. Lat. oculus enim similis
speculo. [20] De Augm. iii. 2. [22] Virg. JB*. vi. 788. [28] Lat
scientia, seu potius scieutia scintilla. [32] Comp. Ess. xvz. p. 64: And

BOOK II. 295

therefore, God never wrought miracle, to convince Atheisme, because
his ordinary works convince it.

P. 109. [10} Comp. Macrobius, in Somn. Scip. ii. 12: Idea physici
mundnm magnum hominem, et hominem brevem mundum esse dixernnt.
[13] Gen. i; Ps. viii. 3, 6. Comp. Bereshith Rabba, 8: Rabbi
Tiphrai, in the name of R. Acha (says), the superior beings were created
in the image and likeness (of God), and do not increase and multiply ;
the inferior increase and multiply, but were not created in the image and
likeness (of God). [24] See p. 10, 1. 5. [33] hath : Observe the con
struction as in p. 34, 1. 25, so great an affinity hath fiction and belief.

P. no. [4] Otherwise., spirits: i.e. with respect to the nature of
angels and spirits the case is different. Comp. p. 158, 1. 2. Lat. Secus
est quod ad angelorum et spirituum naluram attinet. [7] Col. ii. 4, 18.
[AS" 1 7] Lat. caterum sobria circa illos inquisitio, qua vel per rerum cor-
porearum scalam ad eorum naturam pernoscendam ascendat, vel in anima
hiimana veluti in specula earn intueatur neutiquam prohibetur. [23! 2 Cor
ii. ii. [27] many: The theory of angels and that of fallen spirits form
a large and not very profitable chapter in every Summa Theologize.
(Ellis.) See Reginald Scot s Discourse concerning Devils and Spirits.
[30] De Augm. iii. 3.

P. in. [2] Diog. Laert. ix. 72: \v 0v9$ yap i) d^Ofta. Cic. Acad.
Post. i. 1 2. [3] Paracelsus, Lib. Meteor, cap. 4. [9] pioneers : Pion-
ners in ed. 1605. [17-23] And here .. superstition: Omitted in the
Lat. [33] De Augm. iii. 4.

P. 112. [8] from mistaking: i.e. from being misundeistood. Comp.
D Ewes, Journal of the House of Commons, p. 560: Mr. Winch, one
of the Committee in the Bill to keep horses from stealing, &c. [12]
Comp. what Bacon says of Aristotle, p. 127. [23] John v. 43. [31]
his scholar: Alexander the Great.

P. 113. [4] Adapted from Lucan, x. 20 &c. Mr. Ellis has pointed
out that Bacon has changed not only the order of words but the con
struction. The whole passage stands thus:

Illic Pellaei proles vesana Philippi,
Felix prrcdo, jacet, terrarum vindice fato
Raptus; sacratis totum spargenda per orbem
Membra viri posuere adytis. Fortuna pepercit
Manibus, et regni duravit ad ultima fatum.
Nam sibi libertas unquam si redderet orbem
Ludibrio servatus erat, non utile mundo
Editus exemplum, c.

[ii] usque ad aras: i.e. so far as is consistent with religious obligations.
Plutarch (De Vitioso Pudore, vi.) relates that Pericles, when asked to
perjure himself for his friend, replied, mxpi rov ffatpov $i\os dpi. See
also Plut. Prsecepta Ger. Reipubl. xiii. 17; Aul. Gellius, Noct. Alt. i. 3.

2 9 6 NOTES.

Bacon introduces it again in a characteristic passage of his Apology
concerning the Earl of Essex (Life and Letters, iii. 142): For every
honest man, that hath his heart well planted, will forsake his king
rather than forsake God, and forsake his friend rather than forsake his
king; and yet will forsake any earthly commodity, yea and his own
life in some cases, rather than forsake his friend. I hope the world hath
not forgotten these degrees, else the heathen saying, Amiens usque ad
Bras, shall judge them. [15] Tac. Ann. i. 3. [20] philosophia prima:
See p. 105. [32] Lat. id solummodo cavendo ut physice, non logice trac-

tentur.

P. 114. [10] a being and moving: The Lat. adds, et naturalem necessi
tate. [12] platform : Lat. ideam. [15] productions: probably a mis
print for production. See p. in, 1. 14. The Lat. has productionem
effechmm. [17] The division here referred to is Aristotle s, as given in
the First Book of the Metaphysics: The efficient cause is that which
acts the material cause that which is acted on ; as when the fire melts
wax, the former is the efficient, the latter the material cause of the effect
produced. The formal cause is that which in the case of any object
determines it to be that which it is, and is thus the cause of its various
properties ; it is thus the " ratio essentioe," the \6yos rrjs ovffias. The
final cause is that for the sake of which any effect takes place, whether
the agent is or is not intelligent. Ellis s note on the corresponding
passage of the De Augmentis. [27] Virg. Eel. viii. 80.

P. 1 15. [20] Mr. Ellis (Gen. Preface, p. 29) says that Bacon has repeat
edly denied the truth of the scholastic doctrine that Forms are incogno-
scible because supra-sensible. See Nov. Org. i. 75 ; ii. 2. [23] See Nov.
Org. ii. I : Data autem nature for mam, sive differenfiam veram, sive naturam
naturantem, sive fontem emanationis . . invenire, opus et intenth est humana
scientia. Mr. Ellis, in his General Preface to the Philosophical Works
(pp. 28-31), after pointing out that in Bacon s system substance is con
ceived of as the causa immanens of its attributes, or in other words it is the
formal cause of the qualities which are referred to it, divides these quali
ties into primary and secondary ; the former being those which belong to
tubstance as its essential attributes, the latter those which are connected
with it by the relation of cause and effect. He then shows that Bacon s
conception of the nature of Forms relates merely to the primary quali
ties of bodies. For instance, the Form of heat is a kind of local motion
of the particles of which bodies are composed, and that of whiteness a
mode of arrangement among those particles. This peculiar motion or
arrangement corresponds to and engenders heat or whiteness, and this in
every case in which those qualities exist. The statement of the distin
guishing character of the motion or arrangement, or of whatever else
may be the Form of a given phenomenon, takes the shape of a law : it
is the law in fulfilling which any substance determines the existence of

BOOK IT. 2Q7

the quality in question. Bacon himself, in the Novum Organum, speaks
of forma rei as ipsissima res (ii. 13), of forma as verce rerum differentia
and leges actus pnri (i. 75), and asserts that res and forma differ only as
apparens ct existens, ant exterius et interius, out in ordine ad hvminem et in
ordine ad universitm (ii. 13). [29] Plato, Repub. x. I. [33] See pp. 41,
119; Nov. Org. i. 96.

P. 116. [7] Gen. ii. 7. [9] Gen. i. 20, 24. [9, 10] the forms of
substances, I say : Lat. species inqnam creatnrarum. [15] Comp.
Plato, Philebus, ii. 17. [31] Nov. Org. ii. 23; Of the Inter, of Nat. p.
236.

P. 117. [2] See Nov. Org. ii. 23 : Efficient vero semper ponitur nil ahud
esse quam vehiculum sive deferens formes. [16] Hippocrates, Aph. i. I.
[22] Eccles. iii. n. [25] to them that are depraved: Lat. apud homines
propter scientia inflates et fheomachos. [26] the giants hills : Perhaps we
should read three for the. The Lat. has tres moles gigantea. [27]
Virg. Georg. i. 281, 282. [31] Rev. iv. 8.

P. 118. [i] law: Some copies of ed. 1605 read loue. [2] Plato,
Parmen. 165, 166. This view of the Parmenides is probably derived
from the Argumentum of Ficinus. Parmenides of Elca travelled with
Zeno to Athens, circ. B.C. 460. [15] Comp. Of the Inter, of Nature,
p. 235 : for the poet saith well Sapientibns undique lalce sunt via. [17]
Cic. de Off. i. 43; Tusc. Disp. iv. 26; De Fin. ii. 12. 37. [24] sense:
Some copies of ed. 1605 have sort, but one at least has sens, which is
evidently the true reading, as appears from the Lat. sensu magis divino.
[25] Prov. iv. 12. [30] misplaced: The Lat. adds, solent enim inquiri
inter physica non inter metaphysica.

P. 119. [2] On the injury to philosophy by the investigation of final
causes see Nov. Org. i. 48, 65 ; ii. 2. [5] satisfactory and specious
causes : Lat. speciosis et umbratilibtis causis. [7] Plato, Timseus, iii. 44
&c. anchoreth: ancreth in ed. 1605. [8] Aristotle, Phys. ii. 8. 2;
Galen, De Usu Partium ; Xenophon, Memor. i. 4. See on this subject
Prof. Sedgwick s Disc, on the Studies of the Univ. of Cambridge, 5th ed.
App. p. 150. [14] frames: frame in ed. 1605. The Lat. has/a&r/ca,
and perhaps the true correction of the sentence would be to read is for
are in the next line. [24] Democritus : Cic. Tusc. i. n; Diog. Laert.

ix. 44. 45-

P. 120. [n] Virg. Eel. vii. 45. [32] De Augm. iii. 6.

P. 121. [6] as hath been said: See p. 106. [10] Democritus and
Pythagoras : See Arist. De Anima, i. 2 ; Met. i. 4, 5 ; lamblichus, Vit.
Pythag. xii. 59. [21] champain: champion in ed. 1605. [30] merely
severed : Lat. penittts abstractam.

P. 122. [7] intervening: interueyning in ed. 1605. [8] enginery:
Inginarie in ed. 1605. Lat. Machinaria. [12] See p. 183, and comp.
Ess. 1. p. 205. [24] De Augm. iii. 5.

298 NOTES.

P. 123. [2] Lat. qua magis ingeniosa qutdem res est et sagax, quam
philosophica. [7] Hor. Od. ii. 10. 3. [16] in books : Among others the
Magia Naturalis of Baptista Porta, published in 1589. [22] Bacon uses
the same comparison in his treatise Of the Interpretation of Nature
(Works, iii. 234). The story of King Arthur of Britain was compiled
from the French legends by Sir Thomas Malory about the year 1470,
and was first printed by Caxton in 1485. Sir John Bourchier, Lord
Berners, the translator of Froissart, also translated from the French, at
the request of the Earl of Huntingdon, the romance of Sir Hugh of
Bourdeaux, a knight of the age of Charlemagne (Warton, Hist, of Eng.
Poetry, iii. 342, ed. 1824). This was printed by William Copland
about 1540. In Burton s time these romances were the favourite reading
of the country squires. If they read a book at any time . . tis an
English chronicle, S!" Huon of Bordeaux, Amadis de Gaul, &c., a play-
book, or some pamphlet of news. (Anat. of Mel. i. p. 205, ed. 1813).
The romance of Hugh of Bourdeaux supplied the incidents of Wieland s
Oberon. For a summary of it see Dunlop s History of Fiction, i. 394-
419 (ed. 1816). Montaigne (i. 25, trans. Florio, p. 85, ed. 1603) says,
of King Arthur, of Lancelot du-Lake, of Amadis, of Huon of Burdeaux,
and such idle time-consuming, and wit-besotting trash of bookes wherein
youth doth commonly ammuse it-selfe, I was not so much as acquainted
with their names. [27] the fable of Ixion : Pindar, Pyth. ii. 21.

P. 124. [19] medicines, motions: Lat. medicinas proprias, accommodata
etlam exercitia. [21] Lat. qnam quod hoc fieri possit per guttas paucnlas,
ant scrupulos alicnjns pretiosi liquoris ant quintessentice. [3 2] This inven
tory was intended to occupy the tenth chapter of the treatise Of the
Interpretation of Nature.

P. 125. [9] deducing: diducing in ed. 1605. [15] In the De Aug-
mentis Bacon omits the example of the mariner s compass and sub
stitutes the experiments made by Drebbel on the artificial congelation
of water by means of ice and saltpetre. To this he again alludes in
the fifth book of the De Augmentis. See Mr. Ellis s note (Works, i. p.
628, note i). [24] Virg. Eel. x. 8. [26] See Nov. Org. i. 35. Alex
ander (properly Roderigo) Borgia was Pope Alexander VI., and the
expedition of the French was that under Charles VIII. in 1494. Bacon
quotes the story again in his Redargutio Philosophiarum (Works, iii.
558), and in his Hist, of Hen. VII. (Works, vi. 158).

P. 126. [i] De Augm. iii. 4. [5] Non liquet was a Roman legal
formula, by which the judge declared his inability to decide upon
the guilt or innocence of the accused : like the Scotch not proven. [14,
15] the entry of doubts are: An instance of a loose construction of
frequent occurrence, Jn which the verb agrees in number with the
substantive interposed between it and its subject. Comp. Shakespeare,
Hamlet, i. 2. 36-38 :

BOOK II. 299

Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king, more than the scope
Of these delated articles allow.

Compare also Sanderson, Serm. iv. Ad Magistratum (Works, vol. ii. p.
274, ed. Jacobson, 1854): The result of these particulars amount in
the whole to this. An example in which the intervening substantive is
in the singular is in Mid. Night s Dr. iii. 2. 97:

1 With sighs of love that cos/5 the fresh blood dear.
And again, Com. of Err. v. i. 69, 70:

The venom clamours of a jealous woman
Poisons more deadly than a mad dog s tooth.
[15] use, in the sense of interest or increase: Lat. incrementa.

P. 127. [14] The Lat. omits Empedocles and adds Philolaus, Xeno-
phanes, Anaxagoras, and Leucippus. [16] In 1574 Amurath III. on
succeeding to the throne caused his five brothers to be strangled, and
in 1595 Mahomet III. removed all his brothers in the same way and
caused ten of his father s wives and concubines to be drowned (Knolles,
Hist, of the Turks, pp. 919, 1056, ed. 1603). See Nov. Org. i. 67.
[18] Lat. tamen Us, qni non regnum out magisterium sed verilatis inqui-
titionem atqne illustrationem sibi proponunt. [24] the received astronomy:
That is, the Ptolemaic system, in which the earth was the centre of the
universe. See p. 97, 1. 32, Ess. xxiii. p. 96, and Shakespeare, Troilus
and Cressida, i. 3. 85 : The heavens themselves, the planets, and this
centre. On the slowness with which the Copernican theory was diffused,
and especially Bacon s opposition to it, see Whewell s Hist, of the Ind.
Sciences, i. 404-412, ed. 1847. Copernicus died in 1543, and his
opinions were introduced into England mainly through Giordano Bruno,
who came over about 1583. [31] Arist. Phys. i. i.

P. 128. [7-11] In the Latin the sources of information are indicated;
viz. the lives of the philosophers, Plutarch s collection of their opinions,
the quotations of Plato, the refutation of Aristotle, and the scattered
notices in Lactantius, Philo, Philostratus, and the rest, [i 2] severedly :
The editions of 1605, 1633 all read severely, but severedly is the
reading in ed. 1629 and in the Errata to ed. 1605. Mr. Markby reads
severally in the same sense. [23, 24] The Latin more clearly, Neque
absimilis est ratio philosophies, quando proponitur integra, et quando in
frusta concisa et dissecta. [26] Theophrastus of Hohenheim, called
Paracelsus, was born at Einsiedlen near Zurich in 1493 ; died at
Salzburg in the 47th year of his age, 24 Sept. 1541. His works on
chemistry and medicine were collected in ten volumes and printed at
Frankfort in 1603. [28] Severinus: Petrus Severinus, a Danish phy
sician, born at Ripen in 1542, died in 1602. The work in which he
reduced into harmony the philosophy of Paracelsus was Idea

300 NOTES.

Philosophic^, 4to. Basil. 1571. [Ib.] Tilesius: a misprint for Telesius,
as it stands in the De Augmentis, though the editions of 1605, 1629,
1633 of the Advancement read Tylesius. Bernardino Telesio of
Cosenza (1508-1588), according to the Latin, revived the philosophy
of Parmenides, and turned the weapons of the Peripatetics against
themselves. He wrote De Rerum Natura in nine books (Napoli, 1586),
De Colorum Generatione (1570), and De Mari (1570). See Maurice,
Mod. Philosophy, p. 162. [29] Donius ; Augustino Doni, a physician
of Cosenza, wrote two books De Natura Hominis, 4to. Basil. 1581.
[Ib.] as a pastoral philosophy : i. e. as Bacon explains it in the treatise
De Principiis atque Originibus, a philosophy which contemplates the
world placidly and at its ease. See also p. 46, 1. 14. [30] Fracas-
torius : Hieronymus Fracastorius, poet and physician, born at Verona
1483. Paul III. appointed him physician in ordinary to the Council
of Trent, with a salary of ninety thalers a month. He died of apoplexy,
Aug. 6, 1553, on his estate near Verona. Neither Donius nor Fraca
storius is mentioned in the Latin, but there is substituted Patricius the
Venecian, who hath sublimated the fumes of the Platonists (Wats
trans, ed. 1640). [33] Gilbertus: See p. 41, 1. 8.

P. 129. [2] For Xenophanes the Latin has Philolaus. [10] De
Augm. iv. i. [n] Plato, Alcib. Pr. ii. 124; Protag. i. 343; Cic. de
Legg. i. 22. 58, 59. IVcDflt aavrov is one of the sentences which are
said to have been written over the entrance to the temple of Apollo
at Delphi. [17] Comp. Seneca, Ep. Mor. xiv. i. 2: Faciam ergo, qnod
exigis, et philosophiam in partes non in frusta dividam. Dividi enim illam,
non concidi, utile est. [24] Cicero, De Orat. iii. 16, 19. Comp. Of the
Interpretation of Nature (Works, iii. 228). [27] Comp. Of the Inter
pretation of Nature (Works, iii. 229): And therefore the opinion of
Copernicus in astronomy, which astronomy itself cannot correct, because
it is not repugnant to any of the appearances, yet natural philosophy
doth correct. Observe the change in the text of appearances to
phainomena and of doth correct to may correct. [28] The Latin
adds qn<E mine quoqne invaluit. [31, 32] the science of medicine, if
it be destituted . . . it is not much better &c. : For examples of a
similar redundancy of the pronoun see p. 39, 11. n, 33.

P. 130. [26] Aristotle: in his Physiognomica. [27] Hippocrates:
in his Proenotiones. [31] physiognomy: used in a wider sense than
at present.

P. 131. [4] the factures of the body: Lat. corporis fabricam dum
qniescit. [i 2] For as the tongue speaketh to the eares, so doeth the
gesture speake to the eyes of the auditour. Basilicon Doron, book iii.
(Works of King James I. p. 183). [24] affects of the body: Lat. tem-
per amentum corporis.

P. 132. [2] the Pythagoreans : Referring to the precepts against eat-

BOOK II. 301

ing beans (Cic. de Div. i. xxx. 62) and the fish melanurus, to which
Plutarch gives a mystical signification (De Educ. Pueror. 17). [3]
Manichees : ed. 1605 has Mamcheas. For the rules of life which Manes
laid down for his followers see Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. cent. 3. part. ii. ch.
5. 10. [4] Mahomet : During the month of Ramadan, from the
rising to the setting of the sun, the Musulman abstains from eating,
and drinking, and women, and baths, and perfumes ; from all nourish
ment that can restore his strength, from all pleasure that can gratify
his senses. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, c. 50. [Ib.] do exceed: Lat.
omtiem modum superant. [5] See Lev. iii. 17; xi. [7] the faith : Lat.
Christiana fides. [12] the ceremony : the Lat. adds et excercitium obedi-
entiae. [16] question = call in question: Lat. in dubium revocare. [19]
Lat. qni simul cum malris ajfectibus compatitur, et tamen e cor pore matris
suo tempore excluditur.

P- J 33- [3] Apoph. 236. Said by Socrates of a treatise of Heraclitus
which had been lent him by Euripides (Diog. Laert. ii. 22). The same
is told of Crates (Diog. Laert. ix. 12). [n] Plato, Timoeus, iii. 69, 70,
referred to by Montaigne, Ess. ii. 12. See Cic. Tusc. Disp. i. 10.
[13] Lat. cum tumori et superbice sit propior. [15] In the Latin is
added a reference to the classification of the intellectual faculties,
fancy, reason, and memory, according to the ventricles of the brain.
[19] De Augm. iv. 2. [25] Tac. Ann. xvi. 18. [26] Lat. Subjectum
istud medicines (corpus nhnirum humanum). The word other is super
fluous. Compare Ess. ix. p. 35 : We will adde this, in generall,
touching the Affection of Envy ; that of all other Affections, it is the
most importune, and continual!.

P. 134. [i] See Plato, Timseus, iii. 43 &c. [2] Severinus (see above
p. 128) in his Idea Medicinse Philosophies, pp. 36, 37, after describing
the researches of the physician as ranging through the whole economy
of nature, proceeds : Hisce perceptis ad humanam rempublicam descendit,
et diuina quidem analogic, maioris mundl dispositionem tanquam parentis,
microcosmo accommodat, elementa constituit hnmante naturae consentanea :
in his semina foueri , et astro, calestia, area, aquatica, lerrestria demonstrat :
&c. See also Crollii Basilica Chymica, p. 80 (ed. 1643), and Bacon,
Wisd. of the Ancients, ch. 26. [22] Virg. JEn. vi. 747. [25] See Ess.
xi. p. 43: And as in nature, things move violently to their place, and
calmely in their place : so vertue in ambition is violent, in authoritie
setled and calme. In his Promus or Common-place Book, fol. 8 b,
Bacon entered, Augustus rapide ad locum leniter in loco. [29] Ovid,
Met. i. 518, 521.

P. 135. [2] are: Added in Errata to ed. 1605. [3] by acts and
masterpieces: Lat. virtute sua et functione. [14] the: Omitted in
the early editions. [16] mountebank: Montabanke ed. 1605. [20]
Virg. JEn. vii. 772. [23] Virg. Jn. vii. n. [28] Eccl. ii. 15.

302 NOTES.

P. 136. [n, 12] Lat. quantum obtineat imperil intellectus subtilitas et
acumen. [19, 20] yet men can likewise discern them personally: Lat.
hujus tamen discrimina in singulis personis facile internoscimus. [26]
incomprehensions: Lat. acatalepsies. See p. 154, 1. 4. [32] avenues:
printed in italics in ed. 1605 as if it were a foreign word.

P. 137. [i] Altered from Ovid, Rem. Am. 525, the true reading being
Nam quoniam variant animi, variamus et artes. Some editions have
variabimus artes. [3-13] This paragraph is inserted in the De Aug-
mentis near the beginning of the chapter, after eruditus luxtis (p. 133,
1- 2 5)- [5] the sun: the is omitted in ed. 1605. .ffisculapius is
said to have been the son of Apollo and Coronis. [n] Matt. xvii.
27. The miracle was not wrought for the payment of the Roman
tribute but for the tax which was due to the Temple. [20] accidents :
Used here in the sense of symptoms, as in p. 12. [26] Hippocrates:
in his work De Epidemiis. [29] how they were judged: i.e. how the
cases were decided.

P. 138. [5] and if men will intend to observe: Lat. qui autem ad
obscrvandum adjiciet animum. [17] being comparative and casual: Lat.
qucE comparativa est et casum recipit. [21] cause continent: Mr. Ellis
quotes the following passage from Celsus from which this phrase is
taken : Igitur hi qui rationalem medicinam prqfitentur hcec necessaria esse
proponunt : Abditarum et morbos continentium causarum notitiam, deinde
evidentium, &c. Celsus, Prsefatio. [31] Celsus, De Re Medica, praef.
Incidere autem vivorum corpora et crudele et supervacuum est. [32] the
great use: Some copies of ed. 1605 omit the.

P. 139. [26] passed: So in edd. 1605, 1629, 1633. See Phineas
Fletcher s verses in Sorrowes loy, 1603 (Poems, ed. Grosart, iii. 268):

Wearie of passed woe, and glad of present ioy.

[27] Sylla: Plutarch, Sylla, c. 31.

P. 140. [9] Suetonius: Aug. 99. [10] Antoninus Pius: See his Life
by Capitolinus (c. 12) in Hist. Aug. Script.: Atque ita cotwersus quasi
dormiret, spiritnm efflavit apud Lorium. [12] Diog. Laert. x. 15. [16]
From the Latin translation by Sambucus (Antw. 1566) of a Greek
epigram quoted by Diogenes Laertius, x. 15. [24] the receipts of
propriety, respecting the particular cures of diseases, i.e. medicines
appropriate to particular diseases: Lat. particulars tamen medicinas
qua ad curationes morbortim singulorum proprietate quadam spectant.
[31] treacle: Lat. Theriaca. [32] The Latin adds et confectione Alkermes.
The following is Mr. Ellis s note on the corresponding passage of the
De Augm. : Theriaca, from which treacle is a corruption, is the name
of a nostrum invented by Andromachus, who was physician to Nero.
For an account of the history and composition of mithridatum, see
Celsus, v. 23. The invention of what was palled diascordium is

BOOK II. 303

ascribed to Fracastorius, who speaks of it as " Diascordium nostrum "
in his De Cont. Morb. Cur. iii. 7. The confection of Alkermes in its
original form seems to have been invented by Mesu, an Arabian
physician. About Bacon s time what was called mineral kermes,
which was a preparation of antimony, was a popular medicine, but it
is probable that he here refers either to the confection of Mesu6 or
to some modification of it.

P. 141. [i] the confections of sale which are in the shops: Lat. medi-
camenta ilia qua in officinis prostant venalia. [2] for readiness and not
for propriety : i. e. they are compounded for immediate use and not with
reference to the particular disease. [10] probations: In old MS. books
of receipts it is common to find probatum est written against such as have
been tried and found effectual. [21] I do find strange: Lat. mirari subit.
[23] extolled: i.e. by the school of Paracelsus. [33] more commanded:
i. e. more under control. Some copies of ed. 1605 read commended.
The Lat. has pro arbitrio regere.

P. 142. [23] no more: Observe the repetition of the negative. We
should now say any more/ See p. 208, 1. 19. [29] artificial decora
tion : i. e. painting the face. Lat. adulterina ilia decoratio, quw fucos tt
pigmenta adhibet. [31] Mr. Spedding conjectures wholesome to use,
nor handsome to please. [33] I take the subject of it largely : Lat.
earn sensu intelligimus paulo largiori quam accipi consuevit.

P. 143. [3] patience; i.e. endurance: Lat. tolerantia. [7] The Latin
adds in the prodigious strength of madmen. [16] which though it be
not true, &c. : Compare, for this construction, p. 81, 1. II, and Shake
speare, Merch. of Yen. i. 3. 137:

4 Who if he break, thoa may st with better face
Exact the penalty.
[23] Comp. Bacon, Ess. Iviii. p. 237 ; quoted in note to p. 1 1, 1. 28.

P. 144. [i] De Augm. iv. 3. [17, 18] by the benediction of a pro-
ducat: as in the fifth day of creation. See Gen. i. 20, 24: Producant
. . producat terra. See p. 1 1 6, 11. 5-9.

p. 145. [6, 7] Lat. Etiam Chaldaorum Astrologia solennior, non multo
melior. [13] Sallust, Bell. Jug. 39. [16] referred over : i.e. to the par
ticular knowledges among which the various kinds of artificial cliuna-
tion are distributed; as astronomy, medicine, politics, and the like. [24]
near death : As an illustration of this belief in the possession of the
prophetic power by persons at the point of death, compare Shakespeare,
Rich. II. ii. i. 31, 32:

Mcthinks I am a prophet new inspired
And thus expiring do foretell of him.
[28] Plato, Timaeus, iii. 71 : olov tv Karunrpy Stxontvy rvnovi.

P. 146. [i] fury: Comp. Ovid, Met. ii. 640; vaticirios concefit mentt

304 NOTES.

furores. [6] See Paracelsus, De Vermibus, c. x. (p. 243, ed. 1603):
Quanquam admitto imaginationem et fidem esse tarn potetites, ut per eas nos
ipsos reddere sanos aut cegros valeamus : imo quod mains est, possumus in
ceternum servari, vel perdi, sccundum usum in quern assumt&fuerint. See
also Crollii Basilica Chymica, Prsef. Admon. pp. 70-77 (ed. 1643). [9]
miracle-working faith : Comp. Matt. xvii. 20. [10] the secret passages
of things, &c. : Lat. occultas rerum energies et impressiones, sensuum irra-
diationes, contagionum de cor pore in corpus transmissions. [16] now
almost made civil: Lat./ac&e quasi popular es. [26] The reference to the
Roman church is omitted in the Latin. [32] opposing to : i. e. in oppo
sition to, repugnant to. [33] Gen. iii. 19.

P. 147. [3-6] For this sentence are substituted in the Latin two desi
derata on Voluntary Motion, and on Sense and the Sensible, with a dis
cussion of the Form of light. [7] De Augm. v. I. [13-16] Lat. Nam
sensus idola omnigena phantasies tradit, de quibus postea ratio judicat : at
ratio vicissim idola electa et probala phantasies transmittit, priusquam fiat
executio decreti. [21] Ovid, Met. ii. 14. [25] Arist. Pol. i. 3.

P. 148. [i] impressions: impression in ed. 1605. The plural seems
necessary here from what follows, although other is used as an adjec
tive with singular nouns. See Shakespeare, Cymbeline, iii. 4. 144. [3]
In the Latin this is expressed more clearly ; that where the minds of men
are in any way wrought upon by rhetorical artifices, the imagination is
roused till it triumphs over the reason, and as it were does it violence,
partly by blinding and partly by exciting it. On the office of rhetoric
see p. 177. [6] the former division : i. e. the division which is given at
p. 85. [8-15] And if it be . . his true place: Omitted in the Latin. [17]
in the doctrine De Anima : See p. 146. [21] the former division: See
p. 144. [27] pabulum animi : Cicero, Acad. Qusest. ii. 41. Est enim
animortim ingeniorumque naturale quoddam quasi pabulum consideratio con-
templatioque naturae. Comp. also De Senect. 14. [30] ad ollas carnium:
to the flesh-pots (of Egypt), Num. xi. 4-6.

P. 149. [3] lumen siccum: See p. 8, 1. 26. [6] Aristotle, De Anima,
iii. 8. [ii] to shoot a nearer shoot: Lat. ut melius quis collimet. [18]
These divisions are adopted from Peter Ramus ; the artes logicse in
cluding what Ramus calls Dialectic and Rhetoric, of which the former
is divided into Inventio and Judicium, and the latter into Elocutio and
Pronunciation Ellis s note on De Augm. v. i. [22] De Augm. v. 2.

P. 150. [6] Arist. Prior. Anal. i. 30; Eth. Mag. i. i. 17. [9] See
Celsus, De Re Medica, i. i, where he gives it as the opinion of the Em
pirics, [i 2] The reference to the Thesetetus is a mistake. It is corrected in
the Latin to the more general assertion Plato non semel inmdt. Bacon was
perhaps thinking of the Philebus, p. 17. [19] See Plutarch, De Solertia
Animalium, c. 20. [21] Virg. yEn. xii. 412. [28] Virg. ^En. viii. 698.

P. 151. [1-4] Omitted in the De Augm. but retained in substance in

BOOK II. 305

the Cogitata et Visa (Works, iii. 614). Acosta, in his Natural Hist, of
the Indies, describes the^mode of obtaining fire by rubbing two sticks
together (Bk. iii. ch. 2). In the English translation of this book (p. 1 19,
ed. 1604) there is a misprint of stones for sticks, the manner to
strike fire in rubbing two stones one against another, where the Spanish
has palos. [5] to a wild goat for surgery : See the passage quoted on
the previous page from Virgil. [6] the ibis : The like device to this,
namely of clystres, we learned first of a foule in the same /Egypt, which
is called Ibis (or the blacke Storke). Holland s Pliny, viii. 27 (ed. 1601).
This and the previous illustration are both mentioned by Montaigne,
Ess. ii. 12. [7] the pot-lid that flew open for artillery : Of the discovery
of guns we read, in the English translation of Pancirolli Rerum Mira-
hilium Libri Duo (Lond. 1785, p. 384), All Histories do agree in this,
that a German was Author of this Invention, but whether his Name be
known, or whether he was a Monk of Friburg, Constantine Ancklitzen,
or Bertholdus Swartz (as some call him) a Monastick too, is not so very
certain. Tis said he was a Chymist, who sometimes for Medicines kept
Powder of Sulphur in a Mortar, which he covered with a Stone. But it
happened one Day as he was striking Fire, that a Spark accidentally
falling into it, brake out into a Flame, and heav d up the Stone. The
Man being instructed by this Contingency, and having made an Iron
Pipe or Tube together with Powder, is said to have invented this
Engine/ The story is found in Polydore Vergil (De Inventoribus
Rerum, ii. u). [8] Comp. Agatho, quoted by Arist. Eth. Nic. vi. 4:

TtXVT) TVXTJV tffTp KO.I T\>Xq T X VT)V. [ii] Virg. GeOrg. 1. 133. [14]

do put in ure: i.e. do use. [17] Cic. Pro Balbo, 20: Assiduus usus uni
rei deditus et ingenium et arlem scepe vincit. [20] Virg. Georg. i. 145 :
vicit in the original. [22] Persius, Prol. 8: Quis expedivit Psittaco wum
Xafpe. [23] See Holland s Pliny, x. 43. [24] pebbles: pibbles in
ed. 1605 ; as in Shakespeare, Coriolanus, v. 3. 56, the first folio has,

Then let the Pibbles on the hungry beach
Fillop the Starres.

[28] Looke what seeds or graines they do lay up for provision, sure
they will be to gnaw it first, for feare they should sprout and take loot
again and so grow out of the earth. Holland s Pliny, xi. 30. The
supposed grains of corn are no doubt the nymphce. Huber repeatedly
observed ants in the act of tearing the integument in which the young
ant was enclosed, in order to facilitate its exit. Ellis s note on De
Augm. v. 2, p. 619. This again is mentioned by Montaigne, Ess. ii. 12.
P. 152. [i] See p. 150, 1. 26. [5] Nothing is said of Plato in the
tmnslation. [14] Virg. Georg. iv. i. [21] for who can assure: Lat.
quis enim in se recipiet. [23] not other: any other in some copies of
ed. 1605. [24] i Sam. xvi. [25] Issay: So in the edd. of 1605,

X

306 NOTES.

1633. Isai is the form of the word in the Bishops Bible. [32] The
lictores and viatores were both attendants upon a Roman magistrate, the
business of the former being to clear the way and of the latter to sum
mon persons before him. So that lictores corresponds to whifflers,
and viatores to sergeants.

P- J 53- [5] Referring to Matt, xviii. 3. Compare Of the Interpreta
tion of Nature (iii. p. 224); It is no less true in this kingdom of know
ledge than in God s kingdom of heaven, that no man shall enter into it
except he become first as a little child. [10] in subject of nature : Lat. in
rebus naturalibus qu<z participant ex materia. [l 7] In this sentence Bacon
appears to have had in his mind what he afterwards said of the investig
ation of final causes : nam causarum finalium inquisitio sterilis est, et tan-
quam virgo Deo consecrata nihil parit (De Augm. iii. 5). In speaking of
these (p. 119, 1. 5) he calls them satisfactory and specious causes;
while in the present passage he characterizes them as producing assent
but barren of result. [20] the current tokens or marks of popular
notions of things: See again pp. 166, 167, and Arist. Interp. i. i. 2.
[21] notions: Lat. notiones ips& (qua verborum animce sunt}. For the
construction, see p. 143, 1. 16. [32] Cic. Acad. Qusest. ii. 5. 15 :
Socrates aulem, de se ipso detrahens in disputatione, plus tribuebat Us
quos volebat refellere. Ita cum aliud diceret atque sen tire f, libenter uti
solitus est ea dissimulatione quam Graci flpaivdav vacant. See also Brutus,
c.8 5 .

P. 154. [i] Tiberius: Tac. Ann. i. 7. n. [4] acatalepsia: incompre
hensibility, the doctrine of the impossibility of attaining absolute truth.
Cic. Acad. Qusest. ii. 6. 18. See Nov. Org. i. 37. [9] in both acade
mies : The Lat. adds, multo magis inter Scepticos. [10] in subtilty and
integrity : Lat. simpliciter et integre, as if the reading had been, as it pro
bably should be, in simplicity and integrity. [14] by help of instru
ment : Lat. ope instrumentorum. Perhaps we should read instruments.
With this whole passage compare what Bacon says in his treatise Of the
Interp. of Nat. (Works, iii. 244) : That the information of the senses is
sufficient, not because they err not, but because the use of the sense in
discovering knowledge is for the most part not immediate. So that it is
the work, effect, or instance, that trieth the Axiom, and the sense doth
but try the work done or not done, being or not being. [29] experientia
literata : In the De Augmentis this is explained at some length as treat
ing of the methods of making experiments. [30] interpretatio naturce :
The Lat. adds, sive Novum Organum. Of these two divisions Bacon
says, in the De Augmentis, the former proceeds from one experiment to
another ; the latter from experiments to axioms, which in their turn
lead to new experiments.

P. 155. [i] De Augm. v. 3. [23] Aristotle, Soph. El. ii. 9. [30]
Matt. xiii. 52.

BOOK II. 307

P 156- [5] being broken unto it by great experience: Lat. longa doctus
experientia. [6] Cic. Orat. xiv. 45, 46. [8] in thesi: in these, ed. 1605,
corrected in Errata. [23] See p. 181.

P. 157. [i] Plato, Menon, ii. p. 80. [12] See Aristotle, Rhet. ii. 22.
16, 17. [22] See Nov. Org. i. 130. [23] in going of a way: i.e. in
going on or along a road. [29] In the De Augm. is here inserted an
example of a special topic, de gravi et levi. [30] De Augm. v. 4.
C3i 3 2 1 which .. .which: There is a little confusion of construction
here, the first which referring to arts, and the second to judgement.

P. 158. [2] otherwise it is: i.e. it is otherwise. Comp. p. no, 1. 4.
[14] Aristotle, De Motu Anim. 2, 3. [16] Atlas: See Horn. Od. i.
5 2 -54- [3 1 ] principle: Some copies of ed. 1605 read principles. [Ib.]
probation ostensive : or ostensive reduction, because you prove, in the
first figure, either the very same conclusion as before, or one which implies
it. Whately, Logic, ii. 3. 5.

P. 159. [i] Reductio ad impossible. By which we prove (in the first
figure) not directly that the original conclusion is true, but that it cannot
be false; i.e. that an absurdity would follow from the supposition of its
being false. Whately, Logic, ii. 3, 6. [2] the number of middle
terms to be; i.e. greater or less. [29] Seneca, Ep. Mor. 45. 8; sic
ista sine noxa decipiunt, quomodo prcsstigiatorum acetabula et calculi, in
quibus me fallacia ipsa delectat. [23] doth not only put a man besides
his answer : Lat. non solum id prcestant ut non habeat quis quod respondent.
[27] the Sophists: The Lat. specifies Gorgias, Hippias, Protagoras,
Euthydemus, and the rest. [28] See the beginning of the Thextetus.

P. 160. [23] categories or predicaments: Of Aristotle s enumeration
of Existences, as the basis of Logic, Mr. Mill says, The categories, or
predicaments the former a Greek word, the latter its literal interpreta
tion in the Latin language were intended by him and his followers as
an enumeration of all things capable of being named ; an enumeration
by the summa genera, i. e. the most extensive classes into which things
could be distributed. Logic, i. p. 60. They were ten in number : sub
stance, quantity, quality, relation, action, passion, time, place, position,
and habit. [31] This section is expanded in the Latin into a discussion
of the idols or fallacies of the human mind ; the idols of the tribe, the
cave, the marketplace, and the theatre. See Nov. Org. i. 39-68.

P. 161. [10] false appearances : I,at. idola. [16] See Essay xxxv.
p. 152. These are what Bacon elsewhere calls the Idols of the Tribe.
[18] This story is told of Diagoras by Cicero, De Nat. Deor. iii. 37,
and of Diogenes the Cynic by Diogenes Lnertius, vi. 59. See Bacon,
Nov. Org. i. 46. [23] Nov. Org. i. 45. [32] monodica, sui juris : as
if from puvos and O IKTJ. The word Bacon intended to use was mona-
dica, unique, which he then might have rendered sui generis instead of
sui juris

X 2

308 NOTES.

P. 162. [i] is : Compare Macbeth, i. 3. 141 :

And nothing is
But what is not.

[Ib.] an element of fire : Empedocles recognised the existence of four
elements, earth, air, fire, and water, and among these gave the most
important place to fire. Heraclitus assumed the elemental principle to
be fire, as the most subtle and active of the elements. See Tennemann,
Manual of the Hist, of Phil. 103, 106, trans. Johnson. [5] Prota
goras affirmed that man is the measure of all things. Arist. Met. x. 6.
[7] The Anthropomorphites, who were a branch of the Monophysites,
held that God was of human shape, and interpreted literally all the
passages in the Scriptures in which mention is made of his eye, ear, arm,
or hand. See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, c. 47 ; Nicephorus, Hist. Eccl.
xiii. 10. The monastic sect of Audseans, founded by Audseus, or Audius,
in Mesopotamia in the fourth century, maintained that the expression,
God created man in his own image, is to be understood in its most
literal sense. A sect of Anthropomorphites was in existence in Italy in
the tenth century. [8] Epicurus : Cic. De Nat. Deor. ii. 1 7, &c. Comp.
Of the Interp. of Nat. p. 241, for the original form of much in this para
graph, [n] Cic. De Nat. D.eor. i. 9, 22 : Quid autem erat quod concu-
pisceret Deus, mundum signis et luminibus, tanquam <xdilis, ornare f [Ib.]
Epicurean: In the ed. of 1605 this is spelt Epicurian, but in p. 191 the
spelling is the same in the old as in the modern editions. The word in
Bacon s time was pronounced with the accent on the third syllable, as
in Shakespeare, Ant. and Cl. ii. i. 24:

Epicurean cooks

Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite.

[13] The curule sediles were at first appointed to take charge of the
ludi Romani, but the ludi scenici, or dramatic representations, and the
ludi megalesii also came under their control. The decoration of the
Argentaria, with the gilded shields of the Samnites, at the triumph of
Papirius, in B. c. 309, is said to have first suggested to the Aediles the
idea of ornamenting the Forum and its vicinity with statues, pictures,
embroidery, and other works of art, during solemn processions and the
celebration of the public games. (Ramsay, Rom. Ant. p. 159.) [19]
number : numbers in some copies of ed. 1605. [22] Let us consider
again : i. e. Again, let us consider, c. These false appearances are the
Idols of the Cave. See Nov. Org. i. 42. [24] Plato, Repub. vii. sub init.
P. 163. [i] in our first book : See p. 40. [3] These are the Idols of
the Marketplace : See Nov. Org. i. 43. [7] This is quoted as a saying
of Aristotle by Roger Bacon, Opus Majus, i. 4 : Quare Philosophus dicit in
secundo Topicorum, quod sentiendum est ut panel, licet loquendum sit utplures.
He was perhaps thinking of Aristotle, Top. ii. 2. 5. He that wyll wryte
well in any tongue, must folowe thys councel of Aristotle, to speake as

BOOK II. 309

the common people do, to thinke as wise men do. Ascham s Toxophilus,
ed. Arber, p. 18. [9] The Tartars, says Dr Giles Fletcher, in his Russe
Commonwealth, c. 19. p. 67 (ed. 1591), are very expert horsemen,
& vse to shoot as readily backward, as forward. And Maundevile
(Voyage, &c., p. 304, ed. 1727): And 366 schulle undirstonde, that it is
gret drede for to pursue the Tartarines, jif thei fleen in Bataylle. For in
fleynge, thei schooten behynden hem, and sleen bothe men and Hors.
Comp. Speech on the Subsidy Bill (Life and Letters, ii. 89) : Sure I am
it was like a Tartar s or Parthian s bow, which shooteth backward.
[30] so slightly touched: The Lat. has siquidem Aristoteles rem nolavit,
tnodum rei nullibi persecutes est.

P. 164. [2] syllogism: sophisme in ed. 1605, corrected in Errata.

[3] Arist. Prior. Anal. ii. 5 ; Post. Anal. ii. 13. [4-7] The construction

here is loose. We ought correctly to read, every of these hath certain

subjects ... in which respectively it hath chiefest use ; and certain others,

from which it ought &c. But Bacon regarded every of these as

equivalent to all these, and finished the sentence accordingly. A

similiar construction is found in Shakespeare, Mid. N. s Dr. ii. I. 90-92 :

Contagious fogs, which falling in the land

Have every pelting river made so proud,

That they have overborne their continents.

[16] De Augm. v. 5. [18, 20] for : i. e. as for. [28] a matter of great
use and essence: Lat. magni prorsus rem esse usus et firmitudinis. [31]
and contracteth judgement to a strength : Lat. et aciem judicii in unum
contrabat.

P. 165. [6] An art there is extant of it: Cornelius Agrippa, in his
Vanitie of the Sciences, has a chapter Of the Arte of Memorie :
Among these Artes, the Arte of Memorie is also accoumpted, whiche
(as Cicero saithe) is nothing els, but a certaine induction and order of
teaching, consisting of places and Images, as it were in a paper, deuised,
firste in Caracters by Sitnonides Melito, afterwaide broughte to perfection
by Metrodorus Scepticus. . . . Cicero hath written thereof in his newe
Rhetorike, Quintilian in his Institutions, Seneca, and of the fresher sorte.
Franciscus Petrarcha, Mareolus of Verona, Petrus of Ravenna, and
Hermannus Buschius, and others, but vnworthie of rehersal, men little
knowen (Eng. trans, cap. 10, ed. 1575). Giordano Bruno also wrote an
Ars Memorise. [27] dischargeth : i.e. dismisses, relieves us of.

P. 1 66. [3] distinguish: i.e. assert distinctly, decide. Bacon refers to
what he said on p. 84 : my purpose is, at this time, to note only
omissions and deficiencies, and not to make any redargution of errors, or
incomplete prosecutions. [5] De Augm. vi. i. [12] the organ of
tradition : The Latin adds qua et grammatica dicitur. [13] Arist. De
Interp. i. i. [15] it: Omitted in editions of 1605, 1629, 1633. [24]
China, and the kingdoms of the High Levant: In Acosto s Naturall and

NOTES.

Morall Historic of the East and West Indies, lib. vi. chap. v. (Eng. tr.
1604), is an account Of the fashion of Letters, and Bookes, the Chinois
vsed. They have no Alphabet, neither write they any letters, but all
their writing is nothing else but painting and ciphering : and their letters
signifie no partes of distinctions, as ours do, but are figures and
representations of things, as of the Sunne, of fire, of a man, of the sea,
and of other things. The which appears plainely, for that their writings
and Chapas, are vnderstood of them all, although the languages the
Chinois speake, are many and very different ... So as things being of
themselves innumerable, the letters likewise or figures which the Chinois
vse to signifie them by, are in a maner infinite. Of the Japanese, to
whom probably Bacon refers as the people of the High Levant or far
East, Acosta says in the same chapter, I have had some of their
writings shewed me, whereby it seemes that they should have some
kinde of letters, although the greatest part of their writings, be by the
characters and figures, as hath bin saide of the Chinois Acosta is in all
probability the source of Bacon s information, for, from the expression
And we understand further/ which in the Latin is rendered Quinetiam
notissimum fieri jam ccepit, it was clearly but recently acquired, and
there is other evidence that he had read his book.

P. 167. [u] The story of Thrasybulus sending to consult Periander is
told by Aristotle (Polit. iii. 13). In Herodotus (v. 92) it is Periander
who sends to Thrasybulus. Compare with this Livy s version (i. 54),
where it is applied to Tarquinius Superbus. The form of the tale as it
appears in Herodotus is adopted by Plutarch (Sept. Sap. Conv. 2). [16]
grandees: In ed. 1605 grandes, which probably represents the early
pronunciation of the word, with the accent on the first syllable. In
Burton s Anat. of Mel. (Democritus to the Reader, p. 34, ed. 1628), it is
found in the form grandy : For in a great person, right worshipfull Sir,
a right honourable Grandy, tis not a veniall sinne. In the first edition
of the Advancement the word is printed in italics, an indication that it
was not yet naturalised, but had been adopted from the Spanish or
Italian. [28] words are the tokens current and accepted for conceits :
See p. 153; words are but the current tokens or marks of popular
notions of things. [31] Perhaps Bacon had in his mind the paper money
of the Chinese, of which an account had been given by Rubruquis and
confirmed by Marco Polo (Travels, Bk. ii. c. 18, trans. Marsden; ii. 24,
ed. Yule). Colonel Yule in his edition of Marco Polo (i. pp. 380-385)
says it was in use as early as the Qth cent.

P. 168. [4] the first general curse: Gen. iii. 16-19. [ 6 ] the second
general curse : Gen. xi. 6-8. [7,8] in a mother tongue: in another
tongue ed. 1605, corrected to in mother tongue in the Errata and in
edd. 1629, 1633. The Latin has linguis quibusque vernaculis. [32] Mart.
ix. 83.

BOOK II. 311

P. 169. [n] decipher: discypher in ed. 1605. [13] Of this kind of
cipher Bacon gives an example in the De Augm., which he says was
invented by him at Paris. [30] words: some copies of ed. 1605 read
markes.

P. 170. [4] labours and studies: some copies of ed. 1605 read labours
studies, and Mr. Spedding, considering that one of these words is a
correction of the other, reads studies alone. [5] De Augm. vi. 2.
Besides Ramus himself and Carpentier, one of the principal persons in
this controversy was the Cardinal D Ossat, of whom some account will
be found in De Thou s memoirs. (Ellis.) [14] The first book of the
Dialectica of Ramus is De Inventione, the second De Judicio, and of the
latter the last four chapters are on Method. [19] invention: inventions
in ed. 1 605, corrected in Errata. [79] Cicero, Pro Czelio xviii. 42 : Ergo hcec
dcserta via et inculta atqne interclnsajamfrondibus et virgultis relinquatur.

P. 171. [i] be: Omitted in ed. 1605. [7] to be spun on: i. e. to be
spun continuously, without break. [Ib.] intimated : Mr. Spedding
conjectures insinuated. The Latin has insinuanda. But in distinguish
ing in the De Augmentis the two kinds of Methods, Magistralis and
Initiattva, Bacon says Magistralis siquidem docet ; Initiativa intimat,
and therefore, as in this passage he is speaking of the latter of these,
intimated is probably the true reading. [9] knowledge induced : that
is, derived by induction. Lat. scientia per inductionem acqmsita. [12]
secundnm majus et minus : to a greater or less extent. See p. 30, 1. 8.

P. 172. [i] enigmatical and disclosed: In the De Augm. he dis
tinguishes them as Acroamatica and Exoterica. In this passage Bacon s
remarks apply to the enigmatical method. [16] except they should be
ridiculous : We should now say unless they would be ridiculous. [26]
Hor. Ars Poet. 242. [31] demonstration in orb or circle : See p. 164.

P. 1 73. [8] The scholastical method which is condemned previously.
See pp. 32, 33. [13] indeed : Mr. Spedding interprets this as equivalent
to although indeed. Rather, perhaps, would is used for should.
The difficulty is evaded in the Latin translation, which is as follows :
lllud tamen itificias non ierim urbem aliquam magnam et immitam a tergo
relinqnere haudqiiaqiinm semper tuttim esse. Piece in the sense of
fort occurs in Fairfax s Tasso, Book vii. st. 90. Bacon gives this
as an example of what he means by keeping the field and pursuing the
sum of the enterprise. A general will not waste his strength in attack
ing some small fort when an important position is held by the enemy in
his rear, and the teacher of a science will only employ confutation to
remove strong preoccupations and prejudgements from the minds of
his pupils, and not to refute their minor cavils and doubts. Modern
editions read some important piece with an enemy. [29] shells:
shales in ed. 1605. [31] particular topics for invention : See pp. 156,

312 NOTES.

P. 1 74. [i] judgement : The Latin has here Seqnitur aliud Methodi <#s-
crimen, in tradendis scientiis cum judicio adhibendum. Method has been
described (p. 170) as a part of judgement, and here the one word
seems to have been substituted for the other. [5] agreeable : i. e. to
received opinions. Lat. opinioriibus jampridem imbibltis et receptis affinis.
[7] Arist. Eth. Nic. vi. 3. The opinion alluded to in this passage is
generally supposed to be that of Plato (Theset. p. 197) and not
Democritus. Mr. Ellis conjectured that Bacon might inadvertently have
substituted one name for the other. [10] need only but: One of these
words is redundant. We should say need only or need but. [22]
Mr. Ellis quotes Plato, Politic, ii. 277: x a ^ 67 " W irapaSef-yjiewri \p&-
fjifvov, iKavuis (vSet/evvcrOai n rwv pci^ovow. [27] The Latin adds to
these diversities of methods Di&reticam and Homericam.

P. 175. [8] Ramus (Dialect, lib. ii. c. 3) divides the axioms or first
principles of sciences (axiomata artium) as follows : Axioms are either
true or false. Of true axioms, some are true contingently, others
necessarily. A necessary axiom must be true in all cases, and the
predication is then said to be Kara TTOLVTOS. It must be homogeneous,
that is, its parts must be essentially connected together, as form with the
thing formed, the subject with its proper adjunct, genus with species : in
this case it is said to be naO avro. Thirdly, it must be catholic or
universal, that is, the converse of the proposition must be true as well as
the proposition itself, when it is KadoXov irpwrov. To these three rules
Ramus gives the fanciful names of the law of truth (KO.TCL itavros), the law
of justice (rcaO alro\ and the law of wisdom (itaOoXov irp&TOv ). It is the
last law which is referred to in the concluding sentence of this paragraph,
[u] the canker of epitomes: In p. 91 Bacon calls epitomes the
corruptions and moths of history.* [13] Referring probably to the
dragons which kept the garden of the Hesperides and the golden fleece.
Compare also Shakespeare, As You Like It, ii. i. 12-14 :

Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

[26-28] and the longitude . . .precept: Lat. longitudo vero sumitur a
summa proposition ad imam in eadem scientia. [30] which is the rule they
call KaOavro : Omitted in the Latin. See note on p. 175, 1. 8.

P- I 7 ( 5. [5] Ortelius: Abraham Ortel, or Ortelius, born June 9, 1527,
at Antwerp, and called the Ptolemy of his time. He was appointed
geographer to the King of Spain, and died June 26, 1598. Prefixed to
his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum is a map of the world called Typus Orbis
Terrarum, to which Bacon probably alludes. [20] Raymundus Lullius:
born at Palma in Majorca in 1235. He was at first steward to King
James of Majorca and High Chamberlain ; or.^s others say, a merchant

BOOK 77. 373

like his ancestors. His early life was licentious, but he afterwards con
ceived a disgust for the world, and when forty years of age studied
Latin and Arabic at Paris. While preaching Christianity in Africa he
was stoned by the natives, and carried off by a Genoese vessel, on board
of which he died off the coast of Majorca, March 26, 1315. For an
account of his art, which he said was revealed to him on a mountain, see
Maurice s Mediaeval Philosophy, pp. 244 &c. Cornelius Agrippa says
of it, herein I wil admonishe you, that this Arte auaileth more to the
outwarde shewe of the witte, and to the ostentation of Learning, than to
gette knowledge: and hath much more presumptuousnesse, than effi-
cacie. Of the Vanitie and Uncertaintie of Artcs and Sciences, cap. 9
(Engl. trans, ed. 1575). [27] De Augm. vi. 3. [Ib.] which concerneth
the illustration of tradition : Lat. de illvstratione sermonis. [33] Adapted
from Ex. iv. 16. See Ex. vii. I.

P. 177. [2] Prov. xvi. 21, quoted from the Vulgate from memory.
[8] hath made : Observe the loose construction, the singular being used
for the plural. [18] The Latin adds, Rhetorica certe Phantasia quemad-
modum Dialectica Intdlectui snbsentit : Rhetoric is to the imagination
what logic is to the understanding. [23] morality: Lat. Ethicam, ethics
or moral philosophy. [26] Lat. ant argumentorum fallaciis obruimur.

P. 178. [2] to fill the imagination: Lat. phantasiam implere observa-
tinnibus et simttlockris. [4] Plato, Gorg. i. p. 462, &c. [13] Thuc. iii.
42. [iS] Plato, Phocdr. iii. 250: see also Cic. De Off. i. 5. 14; de Fini-
bus, ii. 16. 52 ; Rabelais, Pantag. ii. 18. For the opposite sentiment
compare Pope, Essay on Man, Ep. ii. 217 :

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen.

[23] The Latin adds, a Cicerone. See Cicero, De Fin. iv. 18, 19; Tusc.
Disp. ii. 1 8. 42. [26] with the will: Lat. cum phantasia et voluntate.
[32] Ovid, Metam. vii. 20.

P. 179. [16] See Aristotle, Rhet. i. i. 14. [18] The comparison is
attributed to Zeno; Cicero, Orat. xxxii. 113; De Finibus, ii. 6. 17;
Sextus Empiricus, Adv. Mathem. ii. 7. Bacon uses it again, though in
a different context, in his letter to Toby Matthew, upon sending him
part of Instauratio Magna (Life and Letters, iv. 137): And to speak
truth, it is to the other but as palma to pugnus, part of the same thing
more large. [19] palm : pawme in ed. 1605. [23] Arist. Rhet. i. 2.
7. [29] Virg. Eel. viii. 56. [33] respectively; i.e. in terms adapted
to the persons addressed.

P. 1 80. [9] attendances: See p. 177, and therefore the deficiences
which I shall note will rather be in some collections, which may as
handmaids attend the art, than in the rules or use of the art itself. The
Latin has qua (vt ante diximus) ejns sunt generis, ut pro appendicibus potiut

3*4

NOTES.

censeri debeant, quant pro portionibus artis ipsius, et pertinent omnia ad
Promptuariam. [u] Aristotle, Rhet. i. 6, 7; Top. i. 12, &c. [14] Bacon
refers to the Colours of Good and Evil which he published with the first
edition of his Essays in 1597. In the Latin twelve examples are given
of these sophisms. [19] Hor. Ep. ii. 2. n. [20] Prov. xx. 14. [31]
Arist. Rhet. i. 6. [32] Virg. JEn. ii. 104.

P. 181. [2] See pp. 155, 156. [9] Of these Antitheta forty-seven
examples are given in the De Augmentis, of which the instance on this
page is the last but one. [22] For examples of these formulae, see the
Promus of Formularies and Elegancies printed by Mr. Spedding in
the seventh volume of his edition of Bacon. Three others are given
from Cicero in the De Augmentis. [33] De Augm. vi. 4.

P. 182. [i] the other pedantical : Lat. altera p&dagogica. [4, 5] con-
cerneth chiefly writing of books: The editions of 1605, 1629, and 1633
read concerneth chiefly in writing of books. The true reading is pro
bably consisteth chiefly in writing &c. In the Latin it is in scriptione
librorum consistit. [u] In the De Augm. the story of the priest is
omitted and another substituted of a proposed emendation of a passage
in Tacitus, Hist. i. 66. [Ib.] As the priest : I am afraid that this tale
must share the fate of many other good stories, when their genuineness
is put to the test. The Vulgate rendering of the passage in question is
in sporta and not per sportam, a reading which leaves no room for the
point of the story as Bacon tells it. Nor, so far as I can ascertain, is
per sportam to be found in any Latin version. [12] Acts ix. 25. [17]
as it hath been wisely noted : Lat. quod nonnemo prudenter notavit. [31]
Lat. Ad Padagogicam quod attinet, brevissimum foret dictu, consule scholas
Jesuitarum : nihil enim, quod in usum venit, his melius. Bacon has already
(p. 21) expressed his appreciation of the services rendered by the Jesuits
to education.

P. 1 83. [6] courses : Mr. Spedding conjectures cases. [7] See Essay
xxxviii. p. 159: Hee that seeketh victory over his nature, let him not
set himselfe too great, nor too small tasks : for the first will make him
deiected by often faylings ; and the second will make him a small pro-
ceeder, though by often prevailings. And at the first, let him practise
with helps, as swimmers doe with bladders, or rushes : but after a time,
let him practise with disadvantages, as dancers doe with thick shooes.
For it breeds great perfection, if the practise be harder then the use.
[13] See Essay 1. p. 205 : So if a mans wit be wandring, let him study
the mathematicks ; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away
never so little, he must begin again. [25] Cicero, de Orat. i. 33. Comp.
Essay xxxviii. p. 160 : Let not a man force a habit upon himselfe, with
a perpetuall continuance, but with some intermission. For both the
pause reinforceth the new onset ; and if a man, that is not perfect, be
ever in practise, he shall as well practise his errours, as his abilities ;

BOOK II.

and induce one habite of both: and there is no meanes to helpe this, but
by seasonable intermissions/ [33] and as it was noted : by Machiavelli,
Disc, sopra Livio, i. 19.

P. 184. [a] was : Observe the construction, the whole of the previous
clause being the nominative. Or else we have here another instance of
a common error, by which the verb is made to agree in number with
the last substantive which precedes. [10] Tac. Ann. i. 16-22, quoted
from memory. In the Latin Bacon strongly recommends acting as a
branch of education, for though of ill repute as a profession yet as a
part of training it is one of the best. In this he fortifies himself by the
practice of the Jesuit schools. [15] mutiners, i.e. mutineers, the old
form of spelling in Bacon s time. Compare planners for pioneers (p. in)
in ed. 1605. In Shakespeare s Temp. iii. a. 41 the word is spelt muti
neers in the first folio, but in Coriol. i. i. 254 it is mutiners as here.

P. 185 [13] that he were like to use: i. e. that he might be likely to
use. [i 6] had been to handle : We should now use the verb to have
instead of the verb to be in this idiom. But the latter was formerly
common. See Shakespeare, Mer. of Ven. i. i. 5 :

But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn

[27] De Augm. vii. i. [29] Prov. iv. 23.

P. 186. [10] they pass it over altogether: Another instance of the
redundance of the pronoun, as in p. ao, 1. 27. [12] by habit and not by
nature: See Aristotle, Eth. Nic. ii. I. [13] Arist. Eth. Nic. x. 10. [27]
Seneca, Ep. ad Lucil. 52. 14. [33] Demosthenes, Olyn. ii. 8.

P. 187. [10] Virg. Georg. iii. 289. [29] were as the heathen divinity:
Lat. qua ethnicis instar theologies erant. [30] Aristotle, Eth. Nic. i. i o ;
Rhet. ii. 12.

P. 1 88. [3] than was: Lat. quam cujus ilia esset capax. [4] Seneca,
Ep. ad Lucil. 53. 12, quoted again in Essay v. p. 16: It is true
greatnesse, to have in one, the frailty of a man, and the security of a
god. [18] their triplicity of good: the threefold division of good as it
relates to mind, body, and estate. Aristotle, Eth. Nic. i. 8. 2. The
comparison between a contemplative and an active life : See Arist. Eth.
Nic. x. 6-8. [21] honesty and profit: Arist. Rhet. i. 6. [Ib.] balanc
ing of virtue with virtue: Arist. Eth. Nic. iii. iv.

P. 189. [12] rather than to suffer : We should say rather than suffer.
[21] being in commission of purveyance for a famine; i.e. being com
missioned to make provision for a famine. [25] Plutarch, Pomp. c. 50.
[33] St. Paul in Rom. ix. 3, and Moses in Exod. xxxii. 32. Comp. Ess.
xiii. p. 50: But above all, if he have St. Pauls perfection, that he would
wish to be an anathema from Christ, for the salvation of his brethren,

316 NOTES.

it shewes much of a divine nature, and a kinde of conformity with Christ
himselfe.

P. 190." [i] anathematized: anathemized in ed. 1605, corrected in
Errata. [15] The story is told by Cicero (Tusc. Disp. v. 3) from Hera-
elides Ponticus of Leo tyrant of Phlius, not of Hiero. See lamblichus,
Vita Pythag. xii. 58. [21] this theatre of man s life, &c. : the reference
is to Gen. i. where after each of the six days work God saw that it
was good. Compare Essay xi. p. 40: For if a man, can be partaker of
Gods theater, he shall likewise be partaker of Gods rest. [24] Ps.
cxvi. 15. [27] simple: So ed. 1605; the editions of 1629, 1633 read
simply. [30] or taking : Some copies of ed. 1605 have or in taking,
others and in taking: in the Errata to ed. 1605 the reading is or
taking, and this is adopted in edd. 1629, 1633. [31] Ex. xxiii.

P. 191. [i] Gen. v. 24. [2] Jude 14. The apocryphal Book of Enoch
was brought from Abyssinia by Bruce, and translated into English by
Abp. Laurence. [4] knoweth it not: Some copies of ed. 1605 read
knoweth it, decideth it not. The Latin has nescit earn certe Tkeologia.
The compositor s eye had been caught by the following line. [6] Zeno,
the Stoic, who died B.C. 263. [10] the Cyrenaics: founded by Aristip-
pus of Cyrene, who flourished B.C. 366. Their doctrines terminated in
Epicureanism. [15] Lat. nee minus illam alter am Epicuri scholam, quasi
reformatam. [19] Comp. Ovid, Met. i. 107:

Ver erat seternum, placidique tepentibus auris
Mulcebant zephyri natos sine semine flores.

[20] and Herillus: Lat. denique et illam explosam Pyrrhonis et Herilli
scholam. Herillus of Carthage flourished about B.C. 264, Cic. de Fin.
iv. 14. [24] revived: Some copies of ed. 1605 read receued. [29]
Epictetus, Enchir. 1-7.

P. 192. [2] Consalvo: Fernandez Consalvo, or Gonsalvo, of Cordova,
the Great Captain. This story is told by Guicciardini, Hist. vi. 2.
[3, 4] he had rather die . . than to have : Observe the looseness of the
construction. See p. 189, 1. 12. [5] leader: So edd. 1629 and 1633,
and some copies of ed. 1605 ; others have reader. Lat. dux et impera-
tor. [6] hath signed : to sign to a document is to attest it by affixing
one s signature, and hence to attest generally. [Ib.] Prov. xv. 15. [18]
Aristotle, Rhet. i. 5. 10. [24] Mr. Ellis has shown that this was the
opinion of Aristippus and not of Diogenes. Diog. Laert. Aristip. ii. 75
TO KpartTv KOI i^ fjTTaaOai fjoovuv dpiarov, ov TO /XT) x/?<7#cu. [ 2 5] av *~
Xov Kal aircxov was the maxim of Epictetus. [26] refrain: to bridle,
rein in, as it were ; a figure from horsemanship. [29] want of applica
tion : Lat. ineptitudinem ad morlgerandum. Mr. Spedding rightly explains
it as want of compliance or accommodation.

P. 193. [i] This saying of Consalvo is quoted again in Essay Ivii.

BOOK II. 3 1 7

p. 229; in Apoph. 180; and in the Speech against Duels (pp. 78, 29.
ed. 1614). See note on the Essay. [4] De Augm. vii. 2. [8] Plautus,
Pseud, ii. 2. 14, Condus promus sum procurator pern. Baret (Alvearie)
gives : He that hath the keeping of a storehouse, or drie larder : also a
buttler. Promus. And A Steward, or he that keepeth the store of
houshold. Condus. Bacon in this passage evidently regards condus as
the officer who collected the stores, and promus the one who dispensed
them, so called quia promit quod conditum est. [n, 12] whereof the
latter seemeth to be the worthier: In the Latin this is expanded; Atqne
hie posterior, qui Activus est et veluti Promus, potentior videtur et dignior ;
tile autem prior, qui Passivus est et veluti Condus, inferior censeri potest.
[16] Acts xx. 35. [17] but esteemeth, i. e. but he esteemeth. [23] the
state : Lat. securitas et mora. [24] Seneca, Nat. Quaest. ii. 59. 7.
[15] Prov. xxvii. i. [28] Rev. xiv. 13. [32] Sen. Ep. x. i. 6, quoted
also in Essay ii. with slight variations from the original, eadem feceris,
for jamdiu idem facias, and fortis aut miser aut prudens for prudens
et fortis aut miser.

P. 194. [6] By Seneca, Ep. 95. 46: Vita sine proposito vaga est
[7] any: and ed. 1605; any is the reading of 1629, 1633. [8]
though in some case it hath an incidence into it : Lat. quamquam
nonmmquam ambo coincident. [13] gigantine : i.e. seditious, rebel
lious, like the giants who warred against the gods. See p. 103, and
Ess. xv. [16] Sylla s epitaph, written by himself, was this, That no
man did euer passe him, neither in doing good to his friends, nor in
doing mischiefe to his enemies. North s Plutarch, p. 488 (ed. 1631).
Compare p. 240, 1. 30. [19] active good: Lat. bonum activum indivi-
dnale saltern apparens. [20] See p. 189. [23] For let us take., and
rightly : Omitted in the Latin. [33] multiplying and extending their
form upon other things: The ed. of 1605 has multiplying their fourm
and extending upon other things.

P. 195. [6] in state: Lat. in suo statu. [9] Virg. JEn. vi. 730. [30]
by equality: by the equality, ed. 1605, corrected in the Errata. [31]
evil : Euils in some copies of ed. 1605.

P. 196. [4] See Plato, Gorgias, i. 462, 494. [19-30] Compare what
Bacon says in Essay xix. p. 76 : That the minde of man is more cheared,
and refreshed, by profiting in small things, then by standing at a stay in
great. [27] Plutarch, Solon. 7. Again quoted by Bacon in Cogit. de
Sc. Hum. frag. 3 (Works iii. 197). [31] Comp. Essay ii. p. 6: Certainly,
the Stoikes bestowed too much cost upon death, and by their great pre
parations made it appeare more fearefull.*

P. 197. [4] Juv. Sat. x. 358; quoted again in Ess. ii. p. 7. The true
reading is spatium forjinem. [10-16] For as ... life: Omitted in the
Latin.

P. 198. [22] Comp. Ess. xlviii. p. 200: For lookers on, many times,

318 NOTES.

see more then gamesters : and the vale best discovereth the hill. [27]
of active matter: i.e. concerning subjects of active life. [29] The story
is told by Cicero, De Orat. ii. 18. 75.

P. 199. [4] The Basilicon Doron, written by King James for the in
struction of his eldest son, Prince Henry, and published in 1603. It is
in three books : the first, Of a kings Christian dutie towards God ;
the second, Of a kings dutie in his office; and the third, Of a kings
behaviour in indifferent things. [9] not sick of dizziness: Lat. non
vertigine aliquando corripitur. The edition of 1605 has Dusinesse/
which is corrupted to Businesse in the editions of 1629 and 1633.
[i l] nor of convulsions . . impertinent : Lat. non digressionibus distrahitur,
ut ilia qucB nihil ad rhombum sunt expatiatione aliqua flexuosa complectatur.
[23] a great cause of judicature: Mr. Spedding says, Probably in the
case of Sir Francis Goodwin, in 1604, when the question was whether it
belonged to the House of Commons or the Court of Chancery to judge
of the validity of an election. [28] The title of this work of king James
is The True Lawe of Free Monarchies, or the reciprock and mutuall
dutie betwixt a free king, and his naturall subiects. It was first
published anonymously in 1603, and was afterwards included in the
collected edition of the king s works published in 1616.

P. 200. [10] In the De Augm. Bacon quotes the example of Pliny the
younger in his panegyric on Trajan. [14] part: partie in ed. 1605,
corrected in Errata. [25] Prov. xiv. 6. [30] Comp, Shakespeare, Cym
beline, ii. 4. 107 :

It is a basilisk unto mine eye,
Kills me to look on t.

[32] which., they leese: Another example of the redundance of the
pronoun. See note on p. 21, 1. 26.

P. 201. [2-17] Comp. Bacon, Meditationes Sacrse, 3. [16] Prov.
xviii. 2, quoted from the Vulgate. [18] for construction, see p. 52, 1. 9.
[30] Lucius Brutus: See Livy, bk. ii. 5. [33] Virg. JEn. vi. 823 ; jacta
for fata is the true reading, but the latter is also found in the De Aug-
mentis.

P. 202. [2] This discussion is related by Plutarch, Brutus, xii. 2. [n]
Comp. Shakespeare, Mer. of Ven. iv. i. 216:

* To do a great right, do a little wrong.

[12] Plutarch, De Sanitate Prsecepta, 24; Prsecepta Gerund. Reip. 24;
Bacon, Apoph. 138. [20] De Augm. vii. 3. [26] Aristotle, Magn.
Mor. i. i.

P. 203. [3] Cicero, Pro Mursena, 30. 62. [6] Seneca, Ep. 71. 2.
[9] Hippocrates, Aphorism, ii. 6. [13, 14] Lat. attamen philosophiam
moralem in famulitium tkeologta recipi instar ancilla prudentis et pedissequce

BOOK II. 319

fidelis, qua ad omnes ejus nutus prasto sit et ministref, quid prohibeatl [15]
Ps. cxxiii. 2. [20] as it may yield of herself: Observe that the neuter
reflexive pronoun itself had not come generally into use. [24] 204.
[2] the rather . . extant : Instead of this the Latin has only, Earn igitur,
ex more nostro, cum inter desiderata collocemus, aliqna ex parte adum-
brabimus.

P. 204. [7] the husbandman cano/ command, neither, &c. : Observe
the double negative, as in Shakespeare, Mer. of Ven. iii. 4. 1 1 :

I never did repent for doing good,
Nor shall not now.

[n] without our command: i.e. beyond our control. [12-26] Fbr to
the basis .. apply : Altered in the Latin. [16] Virg. JEn. v. 710,
Superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est. [23] properly: property in
ed. 1605, corrected to properly in the Errata and in ed. 1629.

P. 205. [2-31] wherein .. malignity: Omitted in the Latin. [6] Aris
totle, Eth. Nic. iv. 7. [10] to few: Mr. Spedding conjectures that we
should read to intend few. [18] Virg. JEn. i. 22. [20] See Ex. xxxiv.
5. [21] Aristotle, Eth. Nic. iv. 6. [30] properly: This is the reading
of edd. 1605, 1629, 1633, but Mr. Spedding alters it to property, as in
p. 204, 1. 23.

P. 206. [2] Lat. cum utrique scientia clarissimum luminis jubar affundere
possit. [6] These different dispositions are arranged according to the
planets which are supposed to predominate over them : Saturn, Jupiter,
Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. Comp. p. 43: Saturn,
the planet of rest and contemplation, and Jupiter, the planet of civil
society and action/ [6] Compare Bacon s Letter to Lord Burghley
(Life and Letters, i. 108) : not as a man born under Sol, that loveth
honour ; nor under Jupiter, that loveth business (for the contemplative
planet carrieth me away wholly). [8-23] A man shall find ..use of
life : This is entirely omitted in the Latin, and another paragraph sub
stituted which is partly made up of a sentence previously omitted (p. 203,
11. 24-28), and of a passage of some length in which Bacon points to
the wiser historians as the source, from which to gather materials for
this treatise on the several characters of natures and dispositions. [9]
For some of these relations see Ranke s History of the Popes, App.
5 6 (trans. Foster). [16] is: as in edd. 1605, 1629, 1633. [21]
posies : poesies is the spelling of ed. 1605. [26] by the region : Lat.
patria. [32] Plautus, Miles Gloriosus, iii. i. 40.

P. 207. [4] Tit. i. 12, 13, quoting from Epimenides. [6] Sallust,
Bell. Jug. 113. This is quoted again in Essay xix. p. 77, and there
attributed to Tacitus : For it is common with princes, (saith Tacitus)
to will contradictories. Sunt plerumque reguni voluntates vehementes,
& inter se contraries. For it is the solsecisme of power, to thinke to

320 NOTES.

command the end, and yet not to endure the meane. [9] Tacitus,
Hist. i. 50; quoted again in Essay xi. p. 42. [n] Pindar, Olym. i. 55.
of Tantalus : /carairtyai plyav o\&ov OVK eSwdaOrj. [14] Ps. Ixii. IO.
[17] Arist. Rhet. ii. 12-17. C 2 ^] ^ * s * n order: i.e. the order is.

P. 208. [i] politiques: in politiques, ed. 1605, corrected in Errata
and in edd. 1629, 1633. [2] Solon, Fr. i. 8 (ed. Gaisford), referring to
Pisistratus. See Bacon s Apoph. 232, and Cicero, Pro Cluentio, 49.
Solon s lines are :

*E avfJL(av 5t OdXaaaa rapaoatTai, fy 54 ns avrr^v

Mr; Kivrj TTO.VTOJV cffrl Si.KaioTa.Tr).
AvSpwv 5 l/f fj.cyd\(av TTO\IS 6 AA.VTCtt K. r. \.

[i 2] affections, which is, &c. : for which are, &c. in modern usage. It
is not necessary to suppose that this is a mistake of Bacon s. The sub
stantive verb is frequently found to agree with the subject which follows
it, as in Chaucer (Cant. Tales, 1. 14625), Peter! it am I. See also
p. 226, 1. 22, and Shakespeare, Rich. II. v. 5. 55, 56:

Now sir, the sound that tells what hour it is

Are clamorous groans.

[13] Aristotle, Rhet. ii. i-n. Comp. Eth. Nic. ii. 4. i. [19] For the
repetition of the negative see note on p. 142, 1. 23. [29] Plutarch and
Seneca wrote on Anger, and Plutarch has treatises of comfort upon
adverse accidents (addressed to his wife and to Apollonius), and of
tenderness of countenance (irfpl Svaam ias) or bashfulness. Seneca too
has a dialogue de Consolatione. [30] of comfort upon adverse accidents :
Omitted in Lat.

P. 209. [2] and how again contained from act and further degree:
i.e. how restrained from leading to actions and reaching a greater
height. [4] how they gather and fortify: Omitted in the Latin. [13]
prcemium and pcena : The doctrine of rewards and punishments is familiar
to the readers of Butler s Analogy. [25] these as they have determinate
use in moralities : Lat. h&c enim sunt ilia quce regnant in moraltbus.
From which Mr. Spedding conjectures we should read these are they
&c. [27] described: Perhaps we should read prescribed. [28] serve:
seeme in ed. 1605, corrected in Errata. [30] insist: visit in ed.
1605, corrected in Errata and in edd. 1629, 1633.

P. 210. [i] Aristotle, Eth. Nic. ii. i. 2. [22] as there is: We should
now say, as there are, but Bacon uses there is like the Fr. il y a.
[26] diffident: different in ed. 1605, corrected in Errata and in edd.
1629, 1633. L 2 9] m tne en ^ : on tne en d * n et ^- 1 65> corrected in
Errata.

P. 211. [3] the knots and stonds of the mind: Lat. nodos obicesqne
animi. [4] the more easy: the more easily in ed. 1605, corrected in
Errata and edd. of 1629, 1633. Mr. Spedding says, Possibly Bacon

BOOK II. 321

wrote run more easily. The translation has facile et filacide delabentur.
[5] Aristotle, Eth. Nic. ii. 9. 5. [9] bending: So ed. 1633; bynding
ed. 1605; binding ed. 1629. [24] St. Augustine (Confess, i. 16) calls
poetry vinum erroris ab ebriis doctoribus propinatum, and Jerome, in one
of his letters to Damasus (Ep. 146), says, D<emonum cibus est carmina
poetarum. Both these quotations are combined in one passage by Cor
nelius Agrippa, De Incert. &c. c. 4, and hence Bacon may have com
pounded the phrase vinum dcemonum, which he uses again in Essay i.
p. 2 : One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesie vinum d&mo-
num; because it filleth the imagination, and yet it is, but with the
shadow of a lie. [28] Aristotle, Eth. Nic. i. 3. 5. Mr. Ellis, in his
note on the corresponding passage of the De Augmentis, points out
that Aristotle, however, speaks not of moral but of political philosophy.
It is interesting to observe that the error of the text, which occurs also
in the Advancement of Learning, has been followed by Shakespeare in
Troilus and Cressida :

" Not much

Unlike young men, whom Aristotle thought

Unfit. to hear moral philosophy."

See Hector s speech in the second scene of the second act. Mr. Sped-
ding has shown that the same error is committed by Virgilio Malvezzi
in his Discorsi sopra Corndio Tacito.

P. 212. [12] Seneca, Here. Furens, 251. [13] Juvenal, Sat. xiii. 105.
[16] Machiavelli, Disc. i. 10. [24] incompatible: Lat. insociabiles.
[Ib.] Cicero, Pro Murcena, xxix. 61. [31] See p. 209,!. 22-25.

P. 213. [15] as was said : See p. 203.

P. 214. [8] Which state of mind: i.e. With regard to, or concerning
which state of mind. [10] Aristotle, Eth. Nic. vii. I. I. [17] Pliny,
Paneg. c. 74. Pro nobis ipsis quidem hcec fuit summa volorum, ut not *ic
amarent dii quomodo tu. This panegyric was not a funeral oration, as
Bacon describes it, but was delivered at the beginning of the reign of
Trajan, who survived Pliny. [35] Col. iii. 14. [26] as: Omitted in ed.
1605, but inserted in the Errata and edd. 1629, 1633. [27] Menander :
Not Menander, but Anaxandrides. (Ellis.) See Meineke Grace. Com.
Frag. iii. 199 -

Zpoj* aoif>t<TTov yiyvtrai 8ioda/ca\os

atcaiov iro\v Kpf mcuv irpus ^^>v dvdpuncw 0iov.

Compare Dryden s Cymon and Iphigenia.

P. 215. [5] Xenophon, Symp. i. 10. [n] See Nov. Org. praef. [17]
transgressed: Lat. pratvaricati writ. [13] Is. xiv. 14. [14] Gen. iii. 5.
[18] Matt. v. 44; Luke vi. 27, 28. [24] Ps. cxlv. 9. [27] concerning
the culture and regiment of the mind: Lat. de Georgicis animi. [33]
Demosthenes, De Falsa Legatione, p. 355. This story is omitted in the

Y

322 NOTES.

Latin, and is made use of by Bacon (Nov. Org. i. 123) for illustrating
the difference between his own philosophy, which he compares to wine,
and the philosophy which was current in his time.

P. 216. [4] Virg. JEn. vi. 894. [18] See p. 133, 1. 21. [19] inquired
in rational and moral knowledges : i. e. investigated with reference to
what is known in reason and morals. Lat. sijuxta moralis doctriiuz scita
illud contemplemur. [22] agile: agill in edd. 1605, 1629, 1633. The
same spelling is found in the early quartos of Shakespeare, Romeo and
Juliet, iii. i. 162. [24] easy: easilye in ed. 1605; easie, edd. 1629,
1633. [28, 29] which have neither strength of honesty, nor substance
of sufficiency : Lat. Hits tamen non suppetit out probitas animi ut velint out
vires ut possint recte agere. Sufficiency is here used in the sense of
capacity, ability, as in 2 Cor. iii. 5, ix. 8, and in Bacon, Essay Iv.
p. 221 ; such as have great places under princes, and execute their places
with sufficiency [30] that can neither become themselves: i.e. who
can neither act gracefully. Lat. qui tamen nee sibi ipsis ornamento sunt.
[31] And those in whom this conjunction is found, he adds in the Latin,
are men endued with a kind of stoic gloom and insensibility, who do the
deeds of virtue but enjoy none of its pleasures. [33] reduced to stupid :
i. e. rendered stupid. Compare leaveth it for suspect, p. 81, 1. 12. Mr.
Kitchin suggests stupidity or stupor.

P. 217. [3] De Augm. viii. i. [6] Plutarch, Cato, 8. [7] a man
were better : i. e. might better, which is the reading of some modern
editions. [8, 9] if you could get but some few go right : i. e. to go
right. See Abbott s Shakespeare Grammar, 349. [16] 2 Chron. xx. 3^,
of the kingdom of Judah under Jehoshaphat. The early editions have
dixerat for direxerat, but the latter is the correct reading of the De Aug-
mentis. [20] Gen. xl. [23, 24] These respects . . . knowledge: Instead
of this sentence the Latin has, Hoc denique Ethicam gravat, Politico suc-
currit. [28] comfort, use, and protection : The Latin explains these as
comfort against solitude, assistance in business, and protection against
injuries.

P. 218. [2] In the Latin, the value of conversation is compared to
that of action in oratory. [3] Ovid, De Arte Amat. ii. 312. [6]
Quintus Cicero, in his book De Petitione Consulatus (xi. 44), says:
Curaque ut aditus ad te diurni nocturnique pateant ; neque solum foribus
adium tuarum sed etiam vultu ac fronte qua est animi janua ; qua si
significat voluntatem abditam esse ac retrusam, parvi refert patere ostinm.
[10] Cicero, Ep. ad Att. ix. 12. [u] the war depending: Lat. bello
adhuc fervente. [17] Livy, xxiii. 12: Si reticeam aut superbus out ob-
noxins videar, &c. [23] affectation: affection in ed. 1605; corrected
in Errata and edd. 1629, 1633. [Ib.] Quid deformius, &c. See An-
titheta, xxxiv. [31] form: howr in ed. 1605, corrected to fourme
in Errata: forme is the reading of ed. 1629, hour of ed. 1633.

BOOK II. 323

Mr. Spedding reads honor. If any conjecture were necessary,
humour might be suggested. [Ib.] in it: in name* ed. 1605,
corrected in Errata and ed. 1629. Mr. Spedding conjectures that
the true reading may be in the same, though he prints in name
doubtfully.

P. 219. [6] Eccl. xi. 4, quoted again in Essay lii., Of Ceremonies
and Respects (p. 212): Salomon saith; He that consiJereth the wind,
shall not sow, and he that looketh to the clouds, shall not reape. A wise
man will make more opportunities then he findes. Mens behaviour
should be like their apparell, not too strait, or point device, but free
for exercise or motion. The whole Essay should be read in connexion
with this passage. [15] hath been elegantly handled: A MS. note in
the margin of a copy of the Advancement of Learning (ed. 1605) in the
Cambridge Univ. Library is per il Guazzo, that is, Stefano Guazzo,
who wrote La Civil Conversatione in four books. The first three
books were translated into English by George Pettie in 1581. Another
edition, including a translation of the fourth book by B. Young, ap
peared in 1586. [20, 21] Comp. Advice to the Earl of Rutland on his
travels: An authority of an English proverb, made in despite of
learning, that the greatest clerks are not the wisest men. (Spedding s
Letters and Life of Bacon, ii. 12.) See Montaigne, Ess. i. 24, and
a saying of Heraclitus of Ephesus, noXvp.a.Oi^ vuov ov SiSdatefi (Diog.
Laert. ix. i). [24] for wisdom of behaviour: i.e. with regard to
wisdom of behaviour. [30] except some few scattered advertisements :
Lat. prater pauca quadam monita civilia in fasciculum unum vel altentm
collecta. [33] as the other : i. e. as of the others. Lat. sicut de cateris.
[Ib.] with mean (i. e. moderate) experience : Lat. aliquo experiential
manipulo instructi.

P. 220. [2] and outshoot them in their own bow: Lat. et proprio
illorum (quod dicitur) arcu usi magis e longinquo ferirent. Bacon uses
the same expression in Essay Iv. p. 220. [9] Cicero, De Oral. iii. 33.
33. !34- L lb -] it: was then in use: i- e - "* tne times of which he
was writing, a little before his own. Lat. paulo ante sua secula. [i 2]
in the Place: Lat. in foro. [20] cases: So in ed. 1605; causes in
ed, 1629, 1633. Lat. in ca^ibus particularibus. [21] cases: causes
in edd. 1605, 1629, 1633. Lat. casuum consimilium. Perhaps we
should read cases in both instances. [22] Q. Cicero: Q. is omitted
in ed. 1605, but added in the Errata, and in edd. 1629, 1633. [24]
Mr. Ellis adds Frontinus s tract Dt AqucEductibus. [31] i Kings
iv. 29.

P. 221. [3] The number of examples in the De Augmentis is in
creased to thirty-four, which are arranged in a different order and
discussed at much greater length. The I4th and 2ist in the Advance
ment are omitted altogether in the De Augmentis. The quotations,

Y 2

3*4

NOTES.

except that on p. 224, 1. I, are from the Vulgate, which will be found
in many cases to differ materially from the English Version. [4]
Eccl. vii. 21. [6] commended: concluded in ed. 1605, corrected
in Errata. [8] Plutarch, Pomp. 20; Sert. 27. [10] Prov. xxix. 9.
[17] Prov. xxix. 21. [21] Prov. xxii. 29. [26] Eccl. iv. 15. [28]
Plutarch, Pomp. xiv. 2 ; Tacitus, Ann. vi. 46. Quoted again in Essay
xxvii. p. 108 : For when he had carried the consulship for a frend
of his, against the pursuit of Sylla, and that Sylla did a little resent
thereat, and began to speake great, Pompey turned upon him againe,
and in effect bad him be quiet ; For that more men adored the sunne
rising, then the sunne setting. [31] Eccl. x. 4.

P. 222. [4] Eccl. ix. 14, 15. [Ib.] et panel: et is omitted in ed.
1605. [5] vallavit: the true reading, but vadavit is in the old editions
and in the De Augmentis. [9] corruption: So in edd. 1629, 1633:
corruptions in ed. 1605. [u] Prov. xv. I. [14] Prov. xv. 19.
[16] deferred: differred in ed. 1605. [19] Eccl. vii. 8. [20] about
prefaces and inducements: Lat. de sermonum stiorum aditu atque in-
gressu. [23] Prov. xxviii. 21. [25] Compare Essay xi. p. 42: As
for facilitie; it is worse then bribery. For bribes come but now
and then ; but if importunitie, or idle respects lead a man, he shall
never be without. As Salomon saith ; To respect persons, is not good ;
for such a man will transgresse for a peece of bread. [26] lightly : so
in ed. 1605; highly in edd. 1629, 1633. [28] Prov. xxviii. 3. [32]
Prov. xxv. 26. Comp. Essay Ivi. p. 222: One foule sentence doth
more hurt, then many foule examples. For these doe but corrupt
the streame ; the other corrupteth the fountaine.

P. 223. [4] Prov. xxviii. 24. Omitted in the Latin. [10] Prov.
xxii. 24. [15] Prov. xi. 29. [20] Prov. x. I ; quoted again in Essay
vii. p. 24. [25] Prov. xvii. 9. [30] Prov. xiv. 23. [32] aboundeth:
So in ed. 1605. Compare Shakespeare, Rich. II. ii. i. 258:

Reproach and dissolution hangeth over him.

P. 224. [i] Prov. xviii. 17. [3] in sort: So in ed. 1605; in such
sort, edd. 1629, 1633. [6] Prov. xviii. 8. Omitted in the Latin. [7]
Here: there in edd. 1605, 1629, 1633. [n] Prov. ix. 7. [Ib.]
sibi: f tibi in some copies of ed. 1605. [12] general: gerit in ed.
1605, corrected in Errata. [16] Prov. ix. 9. [21] Prov. xxvii. 19.
[26] Ovid, De Art. Am. i. 760. [29] p. 225. [7] led with a desire . . .
examples : The Latin has only, dignitate et rei ipsius et authoris longius
provecti.

P. 225. [3] more of the eagle: In Mr. Ellis s copy of Montagu s ed.
of Bacon I find the following MS. note : More of the eagle that is,
more of a mystical and recondite character. The allusion is to the
eagle as the symbol of S. John, and to the character of his gospel.

BOOK II. 325

As is known, the four beasts in Ezechiel are taken by S. Jerome to
typify the 4 evangelists. [6] deducements: diducements in ed. 1(05.
[13] for fables: Lat. quod ad Jabulas. [17] of negotiation and
occasions: Lat. de negotiis et occa^ionibus sparsis. [18] See p. 97.
[28] may: manye* in ed. 1605, corrected to may in the Errata.
Some copies of ed. 1605 have maye. [30] action: gaine in ed.
1605, corrected in Errata and edd. 1629, 1633. Mr. Spedding con
jectures aime.

P. 226. [3] histories: So all the old editions. We should probably
read history. [5] because it is: The edd. of 1605, 1629, 1633 have
simply is. The reading of the text is from the Errata to ed. 1605.
Mr. Markby mends the passage thus : so history of lives is the most
proper for discourse of business, for discourse of business is more con
versant in private actions. Mr. Spedding prints, so histories of Lives
is the most proper for discourse of business, as more conversant in
private actions. In the text of ed. 1605 the passage stands thus:
4 so Histories of Liues is the moste proper for discourse of businesse
is more conversante in priuate actions. [9] great: Mr. Spedding
conjectures nearer. Perhaps greater may be the true reading, ed.
1605 having greate. The Latin is, epistola- magis in proximo et ad
vivum negotia solent repraesentare. [12] of this part of civil knowledge,
touching negotiation : Lat. portionis prima doctrine de negotiis, qua tractat
occasiones sparsas. [14, &c.] Read with this passage Essay xxiii., Of
Wisedome for a Mans Selfe. [22] like ants, which is &c. : For the
construction compare 1. 4 above, and p. 208, 1. 12. Perhaps we should
read like an ant, which is &c. Comp. Ess. xxiii. p. 96: An ant
is a wise creature for it selfe : but it is a shrewd thing, in arf orchard,
or garden. [24] Plautus, Trinummus, ii. 2. 82. [26] This proverb
is usually ascribed to Appius Claudius. See the treatise De Republ.
Odin. i. i, formerly attributed to Sallust. Both this and the following
quotation are repeated in Essay xl. Of Fortune. [27] Livy xxxix. 40.
[30] Read with this paragraph Essay xl.

P. 227. [3] Plutarch, Sylla, vi. 5. [7] E/ek. xxix. 3. [8] I lab. i.
jg. [IQ] The Latin adds de contemptore Deum Mezentio. [ii] Virg.
JEn. x. 773. [Ib.] missile: inutile in ed. 1605, but corrected in
Errata. [12] The Latin adds another story of Julius Caesar from
his life by Suetonius, c. 77. [16] Plutarch, Sylla, vi. 5. [18] Plutarch.
Ccesar, c. 38. [19] positions: I^t sententice. [20] Sapiens dominabitur
astris: Mr. Ellis says, This sentence is ascribed to Ptolemy by
Cognatus. Compare Albumazar, i. 7 :

Indeed, th* ^Egyptian Ptolomy the wise

Pronounc d it as an oracle of truth, sapiens dominabitur astris.
[Ib.] Invia virtuti &c. : Ovid, Met. xiv. 113. [29] Suetonius, Octav.
99-

NOTES.

P, 228. [13] because pragmatical men, &c. : i.e. in order that, &c.
[20] the globe of crystal: See p. 249, 1. 9. [32] Lucian, Hermotim.
20. The story is again alluded to in Essay xlv. p. 180.

P. 229. [9] Virg. yEn. iv. 423. [20, 21] For an explanation of the
terms major and minor propositions in a syllogism, sec Fowler s
Deductive Logic, ch. iii. p. 81. [25] Prov. xx. 5. [31] Na</>e ical
fj.ffj.vaa airiffTftv, ap6pa ravra rwv typtvwv, a saying of Epicharmus
quoted by Cicero, Epist. ad Att. i. 19. 8, and again by Q. Cicero,
De Petit. Cons. x. 39 : quamobrem Eirix a PI JLe * ov illud teneto, nervos
atque artus esse sapientise, non temere credere. [32] Comp. Ess. vi.
p. 20 : For the discovery, of a mans selfe, by the tracts of his counten
ance, is a great weaknesse, and betraying: by how much, it is many
times, more marked and beleeved, then a mans words.

P. 230. [3] Juv. ii. 8. [6] Q. Cicero, De Petit. Consul, xi. 44. [8]
Tacitus, Ann. i. 12. [13] Tacitus, Ann. i. 52. [18] Tacitus, Ann. iv.
31. [26] This paragraph and the following ( As for words . . . truth )
are transposed in the Latin. [28] Livy, xxviii. 42. [29] Mr. Ellis
quotes the Italian proverb :

Chi mi fa piii caresse che non suole
O m a ingannato, o ingannar mi vuole.

[32] For small favours, c.: i. e. As for small favours, &c.

P. 231. [i] Demosthenes, Olynth. iii. 33, Wolfs Latin translation.
See Ellis s note on De Augm. vi. 3 (vol. i. p. 68 O. Compare The
Colours of Good and Evil, 10. p. 265 (ed. W. A. Wright): As when
Demosthenes reprehended the people for harkning to the conditions
offered by King Phillip, being not honoi^able nor equall, he saith they
were but aliments of their sloth and weakenes, which if they were
taken away, necessitie woulde teach them stronger resolutions. [2]
are: See note on p. 126, 1. 14. [6] Tacitus, Hist. iv. 39. [10] Lat.
sunt quidem ilia (ut de urinis loquuntur medici) meretricia. [16] Tacitus,
Ann. iv. 52. See Suetonius, Tib. 53. [21] Hor. Ep. i. 18. 38. [27]
This proverb is again quoted in Essay vi. Of Simulation and Dis
simulation, p. 21. [29] As for the knowing of men, &c. This
paragraph and the following are transposed in the Latin. [30] weak
nesses: The reading of ed. 1633; edd. 1605 and 1629 have weak
nesse.

P. 232. [2] or equals: Omitted in the translation. [3] Q. Cicero,
De Petit. Consul, v. 17, quoted again in Essay Iv. p. 220. [10] Lat.
ubi tanquam ordinarhis resederat. [29] Prov. xxv. 3.

P- 2 33- [3] Tacitus, Ann. xiv. 57. [4] rimatur : rinacur* in ed.
1605, corrected in Errata. [23] Epictetus, Enchir. c. 9. [25] In the
Latin this is more fully expressed : Et hoc volo, atque etiam aliquid quod
in futurum usui esse possit addiscere.

BOOK II. 327

P. 234. [i] but only: i.e. but, or only. We have an instance of
the same reduplication in p. 174, 1. 10: For those whose conceits
are seated in popular opinions, need only but to prove or dispute. [7]
James i. 23, 24. [14] these . . . those : The first referring to the nearer,
the second to the more distant antecedent. [26] Tacitus, Ann. i. 54.
The Latin quotes the instance of Pericles. [31] by Duke Valentine:
Lat. a Valentino Borgia. Cnesar Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI.,
who was made Duke of the Valentinois. Guicciardini, vi. 3. If
Bacon had lived now he might have quoted the instance of Talleyrand.
who began life as an ecclesiastic, and was an Abbe and Bishop of
Autun before he became the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and
the first diplomatist in Europe.

P- 2 35- [6] Plutarch, Caesar, c. 3. [12] transferred: transgressed 1
in edd. 1605, 1629, 1633. The Latin has, iranstiJit se ad arles militares
et imperatorias ; ex quibus summum rerum fastigium conscendit. [16] all
whose friends and followers: The Latin adds, Antonius, Hirtius, Pansa,
Oppius, Balbits, Dolabella, Pollio, reliqiii. [24] Cicero, Epist. ad Att.
ix. 10. [27] and pressing the fact: Lat. quique factum in omnibus

P. 236. [n] Tacitus, Hist. ii. 80; quoted again in Essay liv., Of
Vaine-Glory, which may be read in connexion with this paragraph.
[16] Mr. Ellis suggests that this precept seems taken from the advice
given by Medius to Alexander s sycophants. See Plutarch, De Adulat.
et Amico, c. 24. [Ib.] calnmniare : calumniari in ed. 1605, corrected
in Errata. It is attributed to Machiavelli in a letter from the Earl
of Derby to his son (Peck s Desiderata Curiosa, lib. xi. p. 38, ed.
J 735) : fortiler calumniare, aliqnid adharebit. See also Bacon, Works,
viii. 148. [25] as in military persons: Comp. Ess. liv. p. 217: In
militar commanders and soldiers, vaine glory is an essentiall point ;
for as iron sharpens iron, so by glory one courage sharpneth another.
[28] taxing, i. e. censuring. [29] gracing, i. e. praising, complimenting.
[31] Comp. Ess. liv. p. 217: And those that are of solide and sober
natures, have more of the ballast, then of the saile.

p. 237. [8] satiety: Spelt saciety* in ed. 1605. [n] Rhetor, ad
Heren. iv. 4, quoted by Mr. Ellis : Videte ne insueti rerum majorum
videamini, si vos parua res sicitli magna dehctat. [21] their wants,
i. e. their defects. [26] Ovid, Are Amand. ii. 662.

P- 238. [7! that passeth this other, i. e. in impudence. [23] rescus-
sing: So edd. 1605 and 16*9 ; ed. 16.^3 has the modern form rescuing.
See Glossary. [25] by somewhat in their person or fortune: The
Latin illustrates this by instances of deformed persons, bastards, and
men branded with some mark of disgrace. Comp. Essay xliv., Of
Deformity, p. 178: Whosoever hath anything fixed in his person,
that doth enduce contempt, hath also a perpetuall spurre in himsclfe,

328 NOTES.

to rescue and deliver himself from scorne: therefore all deformed
persons are extreme bold. [27] Paragraphs 32-38 are arranged in
the Latin in the following order; 35, 32, 36, 37, 33, 34, 38. [31]
Cicero, Brut. 95 ; of the fluent and luxuriant speech of Hortensius.
See Essay xlii. p. 175. [33] Livy xxxix. 40; quoted again in
Essay xl.

P. 239. [8] Machiavelli, Disc, sopra Livio, iii. 9. [14] Demosthenes,
i Phil. 46. [21] See Aulus Gellius, i. 19; Bacon, Essay xxi. p. 89;
Colours of Good and Evil, p. 264. [30] Lucan, viii. 485.

P. 240. [2] from foil: i.e. from being foiled or repulsed. Lat. a
repulsa. [3] please the most: i.e. the majority of people. Lat. et
pauciores ojfendemus. [10] Demosthenes, i Phil. 45. [18] unperfect:
vnperfite in ed. 1605. [22] Prov. xxx. 19. [27] Comp. Essay vi.
p. 19: Certainly the ablest men, that ever were, have had all an
opennesse, and francknesse of dealing ; and a name of certainty, and
veracity; but then they were like horses, well mannaged; for they
could tell passing well, when to stop, or turne. Sir H. L. Bulwer
(Historical Characters, i. 400) says of Talleyrand: What struck the
vulgar, and many, indeed, above the vulgar, who did not remember
that the really crafty man disguises his craft, was the plain, open,
and straightforward way in which he spoke of and dealt with all
public matters, without any of those mysterious devices which dis
tinguish the simpleton who is in the diplomacy from the statesman
who is a diplomatist. [30] Plutarch, Sylla, 38. See p. 194. [32]
Plutarch, Cses. xi. 2.

P. 241. [2] Cicero, Ep. ad Att. x. 4. i. [6] darling: Spelt dear-
ling in ed. 1605. [7] Cicero, Ep. ad Att. xvi. 15. 3. [10] Caesar s:
See p. 55,1. 32. [Ib.] and men laughed: So in ed. 1605; edd. 1629,
1633 have whereat many men laughed. [12] the like: So ed. 1605;
the like to this edd. 1629, 1633. [Ib.] thought: So edd. 1629, 1633 ;
though ed. 1605. [16] Tacitus, Hist. ii. 38. [17] Sallust apud
Sueton. De Claris Gram. c. 15. [27] casual: Lat. casibus obnoxia.
[30] Compare Essay vi. p. 18: Dissimulation is but a faint kind
of policy, or wisdome ; for it asketh a strong wit, and a strong heart,
to know when to tell truth, and to doe it. Therfore it is the
weaker sort of politicks, that are the great dissemblers. [32] Tacitus,
Ann. v. I.

P. 242. [10] but not of proportions and comparison, i. e. of the
relative values of things. Lat. de pretiis vero imperitissime. [22] Coesar,
Bell. Civ. i. 30. Compare Essay xxvi. p. 104 : So certainly, there
are in point of wisdome, and sufficiency, that doe nothing or little,
very solemnly; Magno conatu nugas. [31] In the second place: the
is omitted in edd. 1605, 1629, 1633.

P. 243. [2] Compare Essay xxix. p. 121, where Machiavelli is again

BOOK II.

329

referred to (Disc, sopra Liv. ii. 10). Nervos belli pecuniam infinitam;
Cicero, Phil. v. a. 5. In Diog. Laert. iv. 48, TOV -nkovrov v f vpa npaynd-
TWV is quoted as a saying of Bion s. See also Plutarch, Cleom. 27.
[6] Lucian, Charon, 10-12. [13] In the third place: the is omitted
in edd. 1605, 1629. [14, 15] Compare Shakespeare, Julius Czesar,
iv. 3. 218-221. [16] it being extreme hard to play an after game
of reputation : Lat. Ardua enim res, Jamam pr<Ecipiiantem retrovertere.
[26] Virgil, Eel. ix. 66. [29] Virgil, Georg. iii. 284.

P. 244. [i] fortune: So in ed. 1605; fortunes in edd. 1629, 1633.
[5] Comp. pp. an, 213. [6, 7] and bend not . . . intendeth : Omitted
in the Latin. [17-19] So that he should exact ... and not to stand
Sec. : This mixed construction is of very common occurrence. It
should be, of course, either So that he should exact . . . and not stand
&c., or So that he ought to exact . . . and not to stand &c. See note
on p. 88, 11. 7-9. [18] an account: So in ed. 1605 ; an is omitted in
edd. 1629, 1633. [26] Matt, xxiii. 23; Luke xi. 42. [30] p. 245.
[2] Omitted in the Latin. The story is told again in the Colours
of Good and Evil, 4.

p - 2 45- [5] Aristotle, Rhet. ii. 13. 4; Cicero, De Amic. 16.
Bacon, Apoph. 182. [8] troublesome spleens: Lat. molestis et turbidis
odiis. [26] The allusion is probably to Macchiavelli s Principe, and
to the Cortigiano of Castiglione.* (Ellis.)

P. 246. [4] Machiavelli, II Principe, 17, 18. [12] Cic. Pro Rege
Deiot. ix. 25: Pereant amid, &c. [16] Pope Alexander ... was
desirous to trouble the waters in Italy, that he might fish the better.
Hist, of Hen. VII. (Works, vi. 113). [17] Cic. Pro Mur. xxv. 51.
[19] Plutarch, Lys. 8. [25] Bacon had entered this maxim in his
Promus or Commonplace book, In actions as in wayes the ncerest
V fowlest (Works, vii. 209). [31] Eccl. ii. n.

P- 2 47- [5] Vir g- ^ n - . 252. [8] The Latin quotes Cic. Ep. ad
Att. ix. 12, Atque eum ulciscentur mores sni. [n] Job xv. 35. [20]
Hor. Sat. ii. 2. 79. [23] Aurelius Victor, Epit. i. 28. [24] Spartfanus,
Vit. Sept. Sev. c. 18; Bacon, Apoph. 98. [33] Charles V., after
raising the siege of Metz, is reported to have said, Fortune, I now
perceive, resembles other females, and chooses to confer her favours
on young men, while she turns her back on those who are advanced
in years. Robertson, Charles V. ch. ix.

P. 248. [6] Matt. vi. 33. [10] sands: same* in cd. 1605, corrected
in Errata and edd. 1629, 1633. Mr. Speckling reads sand. The
reference of course is to Matt. vii. 24, 27. [n] The dying exclamation
of Brutus, according to Dio Cassius, xlvii. 49. The Latin is a trans
lation of part of two Greek iambics :

u T\rjnov aptTfj \uyos ap IjffO , iyw 8e at
wt tpyov TJOKOVV, av 5 op i5ov\(v(t

330 NOTES.

See Plut. De Superstitione, I, where part is quoted. [16] In De Augm.
viii. 3 the subject is treated quite differently. The remarks on the
secret part of government are entirely omitted, and the apology to
the king for passing over the subject in silence is transferred to the
beginning of the book. The remainder of the chapter is taken up
with two dissertations, the one, De Proferendis Finibus Imperii, which
corresponds with Essay xxix. Of the True Greatnesse of Kingdomes
and Estates ; the other, De Justitia Universali. The former of these
is said to have been translated into Latin by Hobbes of Malmesbury.
[22] Virg. JEn. vi. 726. [33] futility: facilitie in ed. 1605, corrected
to futilitie in Errata. The correction is adopted in edd. 1629, 1633.
[Ib.] Sisyphus and Tantalus: See Horn. Od. xi. 582-600; Cic. Tusc.
Disp. i. 5. 10 ; iv. 16. 35. Sisyphus was punished because he had
betrayed the designs of the gods (Servius on Virg. JEn. vi. 616).
Tantalus divulged the secrets of Zeus.

P. 249. [9] Rev. iv. 6. [18-25] Transferred in the De Augm. to
the beginning of the book. [24] The story is told of Zeno ; Plut. De
Garrulitate ; Diog. Laert. vii. 24.

P. 250. [16] Comp. Ess. Ivi. p. 227: For many times, the things
deduced to judgement, may bee meum and tuum, when the reason and
consequence thereof may trench to point of estate : I call matter of
estate, not onely the parts of soveraigntie, but whatsoever introduceth
any great alteration, or dangerous president ; or concerneth manifestly
any great portion of people.

P. 251. [3, 4] The same in all probability as the dissertation in the
De Augm., De justitia universal!. [6] This paragraph is omitted in
the Latin. [9] Virg. JEn. iv. 647. [19] Virg. Eel. ii. 27.

P. 752. [15] only if: i.e. if only. [24] Made by Themistocles to
Eurybiades: Plut. Reg. et Imper. Apoph. [25] so they observe: i.e.
provided that they observe. [31] Sabbath: Sabaoth in ed. 1605,
corrected in edd. 1629, 1633. This confusion between Sabaoth ( hosts )
and Sabbath ( rest ) is by no means uncommon, though in p. no,
1. 32, Sabbath is printed correctly in ed. 1605. Even as late as the
middle of the last century Dr. Johnson, in the first edition of his
Dictionary, treated the two words as synonymous. Other examples
are found in Spenser (F. Q. viii. 2) :

But thenceforth all shall rest eternally
With him that is the God of Sabaoth hight :
O! that great Sabaoth God, grant me that Sabaoth s sight.

And the second quarto of Shakespeare s Mer. of Ven. iv. i. 36, has
Sabaoth for Sabbath, which is the reading of the first quarto and of
the folios.

P- 2 53- [ J ] De Augm. ix. i. [9] Rom. iv. 22. [10] Gen. xviii. 12.

BOOK II. 331

[12] of: So in ed. 1605; omitted in edd. 1629, 1633. [18] i Cor. xiii.
12. [23] Ps. xix. i. [25] Isa. viii. -20. [29] Matt. v. 44, 45. [33] it
ought to be applauded: i.e. this applause ought to be given. [Ib.]
Virg. Jn. i. 328.

P. 254. [4] Ovid, Met. x. 330. [5] Plutarch (Alex. 65) calls him
Dandamis, Strabo (xv. 64) Mandanis. [28] Comp. with this paragraph
Hooker, Eccl. Pol. i. 8, 9; iii. 8. 9. [31] Rom. xii. i.

P. 255. [i] non-significants and surd characters: See p. 169, in the
paragraph on ciphers. [22] grift: grifte in edd. 1605, 1629; graft*
in ed. 1633.

P. 256. [20] This and the three following paragraphs are consider
ably modified in the Latin. [31] John iii. 4.

P- 2 57- [ ! 1 John xvi. 17. [5, 6] an opiate to stay and bridle, &c.
The metaphor is better preserved in the Latin : utpote qua futura s>it
instar opiatce cujusdam medicine, quee non modo speculationum quibus
schola interdum laborat inania con&opiat, verum etiam controversiarnm
furores quce in ecclesia tumultus dent nonnihil midget. [13] if men : of
men in ed. 1605, corrected in Errata. [14] i Cor. vii. 12. [15] i Cor.
vii. 40. [17] i Cor. vii. 10. [21] Prov. xxvi. a.

P. 258. [3] further: Some copies of ed. 1605 have sounder, others
4 furder. [7] With this paragraph compare Ess. iii. Of Unity in
Religion, and the notes upon it. [15] Ex. ii. 11, 12. [17] Ex. ii. 13;
Acts vii. 26. [22] Matt. xii. 30. [24] l.uke ix. 50. [25] John
xix. 23. [26] garment: Some copies of ed. 1605 have garmente,
others gouernment. [27] Ps. xlv. 10 (Prayer Book version). [29]
Matt. xiii. 29.

P 2 59- [3] In tne Latin Bacon explains that he treats here only of
the method, not of the authority, of interpretation, which is founded
upon the consent of the church. [6] John iv. 13, 14. [11-13] Tne
former ... corrupt : Omitted in the Latin. [18] Paragraphs 11-13
are omitted in the Latin. [30] the Master of the Sentences: Peter
Lombard, bishop of Paris; so called from his Sum of Theology,
in four books, entitled The Sentences. [33] Tribonianus, was
successively quaestor, consul, and master of the offices to Justinian . . .
In A.D. 530 Tribonianus, then qux-stor, was commissioned with sixteen
others to compile the Digest or Pandect. (Smith s Diet, of Biog.)

P. 260. [12] the weaker do you conclude: i. e. the weaker are your
conclusions. [22] Rom. xi. 33. [24] I Cor. xiii. 9. [3.1] in the Latin
the substance of paragraphs 14 and 15 is much condensed.

P. 261. [2] curious : So some copies of ed. 1605 ; others have ruinous.
[12] From the Vulgate of Prov. xxv. 27. [14] Ex. xxxiii. 20. [Ib.]
Prov. viii. 27. [16] John ii. 25. [18] Acts xv. 18. [20] two of these:
So ed. 1605; of these two in edd. 1629, 1633. [24] i Cor. xiii. 12.

P. 262. [8] the latter; i.e. the philosophical exposition. [9] The

333 NOTES.

Latin adds that it had its beginning with the Rabbins and Cabbalists.
See p. 263. [16] Mark xiii. 31. [19] Comp. Luke xxiv. 5. [28] The
authority of one who is treating of a different "nbject is of small
weight, i.e. in regard to those things which he only mentions in
cidentally.

P- 263. [5] Matt. xxiv. 35. Noli altum sapere was the motto of the
printer Robert Stephens, [i 2] See, for an example of answers of this
kind, Luke ix. 47, 48.

P. 264. [20-32] For ... times : Omitted in the Latin. In its place
is substituted an application to theology of the illustration he makes
use of in Ess. Ivi. p. 223, in reference to the administration of justice:
And where the wine-presse is hard wrought, it yeelds a harsh wine,
that tastes of the grape- stone.* The following is Mr. Spedding s trans
lation of the passage in the De Augm. : Certainly as we find it in
wines, that those which flow freely from the first treading of the
grape are sweeter than those which are squeezed out by the wine
press, because the latter taste somewhat of the stone and the rind;
so are those doctrines most wholesome and sweet which ooze out of
the Scriptures when gently crushed, and are not forced into controversies
and common places. [21] Livy ix. 19. [26] island: So edd. 1629,
1633; islands in ed. 1605. [Ib.] Brittany: Brittanie in ed. 1605.
[33] Paragraphs 19-25 (The matter . . . sowing of tares) are omitted in
the Latin.

P. 265. [8] Comp. Ess. iii. p. 8 : For you may imagine, what kinde
of faith theirs was, when the chiefs doctors, and fathers of their church,
were the poets. But the true God hath this attribute, that he is a
jealous God ; and therefore, his worship and religion will endure no
mixture, nor partner.

P. 266. [i] privately: So edd. 1605, 1629, 1633. Mr. Spedding, with
great probability, reads privatively. [20] thought, word, or act: Comp.
Plato, Protag. i. 3^8 D. [32] man: So edd. 1629, 1633; mans in ed.
1605.

P. 267. [2] John iv. 23, 24. [Ib.] Hosea xiv. 2. [15] privative:
primitive in ed. 1605, corrected in Errata and edd. 1629, 1633. [22]
witchcraft is the height of idolatry: See King James s treatise on
Dsemonology, iii. 6: it is the highest point of Idolatry. [26] i Sam.
xv. 23.

P. 268. [23] question : i. e. the raising of doults, which he describes
just before as litigious arguments. [26] See Lev. i. 8, 12, &c.

GLOSSARY.

A redundant. In a readiness: p. 155, 1. 25.

Abate, v. /. To beat down, lower, depress: p. 12, 1. 5. Compare Shake
speare, Coriolanus, iii. 3. 132:

Till at length

Your ignorance

deliver you as most

A bated captives to some nation
That won you without blows.
Abstracted, adj. Abstract: p. 114, 1. 8.

Abuse, v. t. To deceive: p. 159, 1. 24; p. -242, I. 23. Compare Shake
speare, Tempest, v. i. 112:

4 Whether thou be st he or no,
Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me.
As late I have been, I not know.
Abuse, sb. Deception: p. 224, 1. 5.
Abused, p. p. Deceived : p. 66, 1. 31 ; p. 235, I. 25.
Accent, *6. Emphasis: p. 67, 1. 17. Compare Shakespeare, Hamlet, ii. a.

489 : Well spoken, with good accent and good discretion.
Accepted of. Accepted: p. 5, 1. 13.
Accept of, v. t. To accept, admit : p. 67, 1. 23.
Acception, sb. Acceptation, meaning: p. Ill, 1. 32; p. 113, 1. !?
Accidents, sb. The accidents of a disease are its symptoms : p. 13, 1. 28 ;
p. 137, 1. 20; p. 145, 1. 12; p. 204, 1. 10. See Cotgrave (Fr. Diet. ed.
1632): Symptome: m. A symptome; an affect, passion, or accident
accompanying a disease. Bacon, in a letter to his mother, says : In truth
I heard Sir John Scidmore often complain, after his quartain left him, that
he found such a heaviness and swelling, specially under his ribs, that he
thought he was buried under earth half from the waist, and therefore that
accident is but incident. (Works, viii. 300.)

Accommodate, />./>. Accommodated: p. 138,!. 25. See consecrate.
Accomplishments, sb. Ornaments: p. 77, I. 7.

Accordingly, adv. In accordance therewith: p. 126, 1. 24; p. 234,
1. 29. Compare the phrase in the Litany : that both by their preaching
and living they may set it forth, and shew it accordingly The word is
by no means obsolete, but the force of it is often missed.
According to. Corresponding to, in harmony with: p. 16. L a.
Accords, sb. Harmonies: p. 52, 1. 28.
Account, v. i. To count, reckon: p. 232, 1. 23.
Accouple, v. t. To couple : p. 96, 1. 9.

334

G L O S S A R

Accumulate, p. p. Accumulated ; the old form of participles derived from
the Latin: p. 18, 1. 6; p. 65, 1. 20. Comp. Accommodate.

Accurate, adj. Worked out with care: p. 213, 1. i.

Accustom, v. i. To use, be accustomed : p. 58, I. 9 ; p. 77, 1. 7.

Acquaint, v. t. To accustom, familiarize: p. 67, 1. 21. Compare Shake
speare, Tempest, ii. 2. 41 : Misery acquaints a man with strange bed
fellows.

Addition, sb. Title: p. 95, i. 20. According to Cowel (Law Diet. s. v.}
it signifies a title given to a man besides his Christian and surname,
shewing his estate, degree, mystery, trade, place of dwelling, &c. Com
pare Shakespeare, Coriolanus, i. 9. 66 :

Caius Marcius Coriolanus ! Bear

The addition nobly ever !
And Macbeth, i. 3. 106:

He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor :

In which addition, hail, most worthy thane !
See also Lear, ii. 2. 26.

Adoption, sb. An obtaining, acquisition: p. 93, 1. 27.

Adjacence, sb. Contiguity: p. 120, 1. 15.

Adoptive, adj. Adopted: p. 57, 1. 2. Adoptive brethren = brothers by
adoption.

Advance, v.t. To promote: p. 231, 1. 5.

Adventive, adj. Coming from without, adventitious: p. 113, I. 29;
p. 144, 1.6.

Advertised, p. p. Informed : p. 68, 1. 4 ; p. 80, 1. 27.

Advertisement, sb. Information: p. 100, 1. 16. Notice: p. 219, 1. 31.

Advise, v.i. To consider: p. 67, 1. 31 ; p. 161, 1. 21.

Advised, p.p. Deliberate, well considered : p. 100, 1. 22. Compare Shake
speare, Merchant of Venice, i. I. 142 :

I shot his fellow of the selfsame flight
The selfsame way with more advised watch.

Affect, sb. Affection, disposition: p. 131, 1. 24. Compare Shakespeare,
Love s Labour s Lost, i. I. 152 :

For every man with his affects is born.

Affectionate, adj. Zealous, devoted, attached: p. 29, 1. 14. Eagerly
desirous, studious: p. 1 1 2, 1. 10. Compare Bacon, Hist, of Hen. VII.,
p. 17 (ed. 1622): So he being truly informed, that the Northerne parts
were not onely affectionate to the House of Yorke, but particularly had
been deuoted to King Richard the third.

After, adv. Afterwards: p. 18, 1. 9 ; p. 67, I. 7.

Afterward, adv. Afterwards: p. 27, 1. 2 ; p. 127, 1. 33.

Agreed, p.p. Agreed to, admitted: p. 158, 1. 27.

All, used where now we should use any : p. 17, 11. 2, 7 : p. 56, 1. 27.
Comp. without all contradiction (Heb. vii. 7).

Allege, v.t. To quote: p. 88, 1. 30; p. 199, 1. 31.

All one. The same: p. 30, 1. 17; p. 158, 1. i.

Allow, v.t. To approve: p. 2O, 1. 18 ; p. I II. 1. II. Compare Luke xi.
48 : Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers.

Allowance, sb. Approval : p. 24, 1. 6. So Shakespeare, Hen. VIII. iii. 2.
322 : Without the King s will or the state s allowance.

GLOSSARY. 235

Allusive, adj. Figurative: p. 102, 1. 22, 28. Todd quotes from South
ierm. n. 376), 1 he foundation of all parables, is some analogy or simili
tude between the tropical or allusive part of the parable, and the thing
couched under it and intended by it.

Almost, adv. Apparently in the sense of most of all, or generally :
? .3. >: II- Bacon uses it in the same way in Essay xliii. p. 176;
Neither is it almost scene, that very beautifull persons, are otherwise of
great vertue.

Aloft, adv. Upwards : p. 89, 1. 6.

Ambages, sb. Circuitous ways or methods: p. m, 1. 6; p. 124, 1. 18.
Compare Bale, Image of both Churches (p. 260, Parker Soc.) ; Evident
will these secret mysteries be unto him, which are privily hid unto other
under dark ambages and parables.

Amplification, sb. Exaggeration: p. 3, 1. 17. Shakespeare uses ampli
fied in the sense of exaggerated in Coriolanus, v. 2. 16 :
His fame unparallel d, haply, amplified.

Anatomy, sb. A body used for dissection : p. 80 I. 18- p 118 II 16 28-
p. 139.1- 17-

Animosity, sb. Courage: p. 133, 1. 12. Cotgrave (Fr. Diet.) gives,
Animosit^ : f. Animositie, stoutnesse, courage, mctall, boldnesse, resolution,
hardinesse.

Anointment, sb. Anointing : p. 83, 1. 5.

Answerable, adj. Corresponding: p. 93, 1. 79; p. 162, 1. 9. Compare
Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, ii. i. 361 :

4 Six score fat oxen standing in my stalls,
And all things answerable to this portion.

Ant (p. 151, 1. 28), a feminine noun, as in Prov. vi. 6.

Antistrophe, sb. Literally, that part of a song sung by a chorus of
dancers when they retraced their steps in the dance. It corresponds to a
previous strophe. Bacon uses it of correspondence generally: p. 131,

Antiques, sb. Grotesque figures : p. 25, I. 24. Compare Shakespeare,
Much Ado, iii. i. 63 :

If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antique.

Made a foul blot.
Apace, adv. Swiftly: p. 15, 1. 8.

Apparently, adv. Openly, manifestly: p. 127, 1. 7. Compare Shake
speare, Comedy of Errors, iv. I. 78 :

I would not spare my brother in this case,

If he should scorn me so apparently.

Application, sb. Appliance: p. ai, 1. 3. Accommodation, adaptation:
p. 192, 1. 30; p. 204, 11. 6, 15, 24. Comp. p. 204, I. 23, which is
that properly which we call accommodating or applying. Sec also p. 26,
1. 25.

Apply, v.i. To accommodate, adapt oneself: p. 204, 1. ?6. Used re-
flexively, p. 24, 1. 10. To apply ones selfe to others, is good: so it
be with demonstrations that a man doth it upon regard, and not upon
facilitie. Essay Iii. p. ail. Used transitively in the sense of, to devote
oneself to : p. 41, 1. i.
Apprompt, v. j. To prompt : p. 156, 1. 32.

336 GLOSSARY.

Apt, adj. Fit, suitable: p. 181, 1. 22. Compare Shakespeare, Jul. Cxs.

ii. 2. 97 : A mock Apt to be render d.

Arefaction, sb. Drying, the act or state of growing dry: p. 124, 1. 14.
Arrogancy, sb. Arrogance : p. 5, 1. 9 ; p. 88, 1. 22. Compare Shake
speare, Hen. VIII. ii. 4. no:

But your heart

Is cramm d with arrogancy, spleen, and pride.

Artificial, adj. Constructed with art, ingenious, skilfully contrived : p. 125,
1. 5. So in Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, i. I. 37 :

Artificial strife

Lives in these touches, livelier than life.*
Artsman, sb. One skilled in the liberal arts: p. 150, 1. 15.
As = that, in the phrases so as : p. 4, 1. 4 ; p. 16, 1. 28, &c. insomuch

as : p. 56, 1. 2. Such ... as : p. 91, 1. 23.
As. As that: p. 23, 1. 5. As for instance: p. 26, 1. 15.
Ask, v. t. To require: p. 85, 1. 6. Comp. Essay vi. p. 18 ; It asketh a
strong wit, and a strong heart, to know, when to tell truth, and to doe it.
Aspect, sb. The appearance of a planet, which varied with its position
among the stars : p. 145, 1. 10. Used metaphorically, p. 79, 1. 2, with a
reference to the old astrological belief in the power exercised by the planets
upon the fate of man. So Shakespeare, Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 92 :

Whose medicinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil.
So also Essay ix. p. 29.

Aspersion, sb. Sprinkling; and so, intermixture : p. 47,!. 20; p. 199,1.6.
Assure, v. i. To ensure, guarantee: p. 152,!. 21. Used transitively by
Shakespeare, 3 Hen. VI. iii. 3. 240:

This shall assure my constant loyalty.
Assured, p.p. Safe, secure : p. 171, 1. 18.

As touching. With respect to: p. 8, 1. 10. See Matt, xviii. 19.
Astrolabe, sb. An ancient astronomical instrument for taking the height
of the stars &c. Chaucer wrote a treatise upon it for the use of little
Lewis his son : p. 80, 1. 13.
Athletic, sb. The art of activity : p. 133, 1. 24. We now use athletics

in the same sense.

Attend, used as a transitive verb, p. 153, 1. 6.
Attended, p.p. Accompanied: p. 224, 1. 32.
Attend upon. To accompany : p. 225, 11. 23, 24.
Authorised, adj. Gifted with authority: p. 253, 1. 16. Authenticated:

p. 34, 1. 27.
Awake, v. t. To awaken, rouse: p. 203, 1. 1 1.

We must awake endeavour for defence.*

Shakespeare, K. John, ii. I. 8l.
B.

Backward, adv. Backwards: p. 38, 1. 19.

Baladine, sb. A ballet dancer : p. 165,!. 22. Cotgrave (Fr. Diet. ed. 1632)
gives, Baladin : m. A common dauncer of galliards, and other stirring,

or

_. liuely Ayres.
Bare = Bore; past tense of bear : p. 59, 1. 19.

G L O S S A R } .

337

Basilisk, sb. A fabulous creature described by Pliny (viii. 33, xxix. 19) as a

serpent, of which many marvels are told : p. 200, 1. 30, note; p 362 1 32

Battle, sb. A body of troops : p. 71, 1. 30. They were more ignorant

in ranging and arraying their battailes Essay Iviii. p. 337.
Be, 3 phi. Are: p. 10, 1. 17 ; p. 33,!. 5; p. 50, 1. 23. in the phrase

had been to handle ; p. 185, 1. 16.

Because, conj. In order that : p. 228, 1. 13. See Matt. xx. 31.
Become, used reflexively, p. 216, 1. 30. Can neither become themselves

= can neither act in a graceful or becoming manner.
Beholding, part. Beholden, indebted : p. 104, 1. 30. The stage is more

beholding to love, then the life of man. Essay x. p. 36.
Bent, adj. Crooked, twisted; and so, sinister: p. 25, *1. 3.
Besides, prep. Beside: p. 12, 1. 33 ; p. 159, 1. 23.
Bird-witted, adj. Incapable of fixed attention, volatile: p. 183, 1. 14.
Blanch, v. t. To flinch from, avoid: p. 182, 1. 21. Some are never
without a difference, and commonly by amusing men with a subtilty,
blanch the matter. Essay xxvi. p. 105, 1. 13.

Blasphemy, sb. In its literal sense of defamation or slander : p. 17, I. 15.
Compare the use of blaspheme in Shakespeare, Macbeth, iv. 3. 108 :
Since that the truest issue of thy throne
By his own interdiction stands accursed,
And does blaspheme his breed.
Blemish, v.t. To stigmatize: p. 27, 1. 28.
Blow up, v.t. To inflate: p. 7, 1. 20.
Blown up, p.p. Inflated: p. 39, 1. 25.
Bond-woman, sb. A female slave : p. 43, 1. 25.
Borne out, p.p. Compensated for; p. 19, 1. 12.
Bounden, p.p. Bound, indebted: p. 268, 1. 28.
Braver, adj. Finer, more beautiful: p. 216, 1. 10.

The Duke of Milan
And his more braver daughter could control thee.

Shakespeare, Tempest, i. 2. 439.
Break, v.t. To train: p. 197, 1. 12. Still used of horses.

Why, then thou canst not break her to the lute ?

Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, ii. I. 148.
Briber, sb. A taker of bribes: p. 222, 1. 25.

Brittany, sb. Britain: p. 93, I. 14; p. 94, 11. 12, 17; p. 264, 1. 26. In
tlie first and last of these passages the word is spelt Brittanie in ed.
1605. On the other hand, what we call Brittany is uniformly, I believe,
called Britaine in Bacon s Hist, of Hen. VII.
Broken, p.p. Trained : p. 156, 1. 5.
Buckle, v.t. To bend: p. 102, 1. 10.
Buffon, sb. The old spelling of buffoon : p. 136,!. 20. Florio (Ital.

Diet. 1611) has Buffonare, to ieast or play the biijfon?
But only. This expression is found where we should now use one or
other of the words: p. 234, 1. I. So only but is used for but* or
only : p. 174, 1. 10. Compare Shakespeare, Meas. for Meas. iii. I. 3 :
The miserable have no other medicine

But only hope.

By how much. In the same proportion as : p. 12, 1. 8 ; p. 129, 1. 13.

Z

338 GLOSSARY.

C.

Called down, p.p. Cried down, decried ; p. 87, 1. n.

Capable, adj. In the construction capable to lodge instead of capable

of lodging : p. 1 25, 1. 31.
Capable of. Able or apt to receive: p. 6, 1. 23. In a passive sense.

Abhorred slave,

Which any print of goodness will not take,
Being capable of all ill. Shakespeare, Tempest, i. 2. 353.
Caption, sb. Deception, fallacy, in argument: p. 159,1.33. From the

Lat. captio as used by Cicero, De Fato, xiii. 30, &c.
Card, sb. A chart : p. 246, 1. 33. Comp. Essay xviii. p. 72 : Let him carry

with him also some card orbooke describing the country, where he travelleth.
Carefulness, sb. Anxiety: p. 8, 1. 24. Comp. Ezek. xii. 18, 19.
Carnosity, sb. A fleshy excrescence : p. 139, I. 14.
Carriage, sb. Baggage : p. 79, 1. 29. See Judg. xviii. 21.
Case, sb. In some case = \n some cases, sometimes : p. 194, 1. 8.
Cast, v. t. To consider, plan : p. l8i,l. 26. Comp. Luke i. 29, and Bacon,

Essay xlv. p. 183: Cast it also, that you may have roomes, both for

summer, and winter.
Casual, adj. Uncertain, subject to accident : p. 241, 1. 27. Comp. Colours

of Good and Evil, p. 248 : Sometimes because some things are in kinde

very casuall, which if they escape, prove excellent. Having reference

to special cases : p. 138, 1. 17.
Casualty, sb. Uncertainty, instability: p. 23, 1. 13. See Bacon s Colours

of Good and Evil, p. 256 (ed. W. A. Wright), this colour will bee

reprehended or incountred by imputing to all excellencies in compositions

a kind of povertie or at least a casually or ieopardy.
Cautel, sb. Deceit : p. 200, 1. 16.

And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
The virtue of his will. Shakespeare, Hamlet, i. 3. 15.

Cautelle: f. A wile, cantell, sleight; a craftie reach, or fetch, guilefull

deuise or endeuor; also, craft, subtiltie, trumperie, deceit, cousenage.

Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.

Cautionary, adj. Full of cautions: p. 196, 1. 30.
Caveat, sb. A caution, warning : p. 22, 11. 9, 17 ; p. 55, 1. 7-
Cavillation, sb. A cavil, objection: p. 33, 1.3; p. 154,!. 12. Cavil-

lation. A cauill ; a wrangling proposition, ouerthwart reason ; also, a

cauilling. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.

Cease, v. t. To cause to cease : p. 40, 1. 8; p. 56, 1. 32.
Celsitude, sb. Loftiness, height : p. 214, 1. 15. Celsitude : f. Celsitude,

highnesse, excellencie ; (tearmes conferred on Princes). Cotgrave, Fr.

Diet.

Censure, v. i. To judge, give an opinion : p. 84, 1. 23 ; p. 250, 1. 32.
That I, unworthy body as I am,
Should censure thus on lovely gentlemen.

Shakespeare, Two Gent, of Ver. i. 2. IQ,

G L O S S A R Y.

339

Censure, sb. An opinion, judgement: p. 5, 1. 18; p. 7, I. 28; p. 49,
1. 32. The speech of Themistocles the Athenian, which was haughtie
and arrogant, in taking so much to himselfe, had been a grave and
wise observation and censure, applied at large to others. Essay xxix.
p. 1 1 8.
Ceremonies, sb. Superstitious rites : p. 146, I. 33.

For he is superstitious grown of late,
Quite from the main opinion he held once
Of fantasy, of dreams and ceremonies

Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, ii. I. 197.
Certify, v. t. To give information of: p. 154, 1. 13.
Challenge, v. t. To claim : p. n, 1. 13. Comp/Ex. xxii. 9.
Challenge, sb. Claim: p. 198, 1. 21.

And not of any challenge of desert.

Shakespeare, I Hen. VI, v. 4. 153.
Champain, adj. Level, like a plain: p. 1 21, 1. 21.
Charity, sb. Used in the same sense as in i Cor. xiii. I, &c., for the

Greek dydnij. p. 214, 1. 24.
Ciphering, sb. Writing in cipher: p. 169, 1. 16.

Circuit of speech. Circumlocution : p. 29, 1. a. Compare Cotgrave
(Fr. Diet.) : Circuition de paroles. A circumlocution, paraphrase, great
circumstance of words ; a going about the bush.
Circumf erred, p. p. Carried round: p. 105, 1. 15.

Civil, adj. Public, popular : p. 146,!. 1 6. The Latin has quasi populates.
Civility, sb. Civilization, refinement: p. 19, 1. 17. And a man shall
ever see, that when ages grow to civility and elegancie, men come to build
stately, sooner then to garden finely. Essay xlvi. p. 1 86.
Clear, v. t. To make clear or manifest: p. 17, 1. n. This is the sense
in which it is understood in the Latin of the De Augmentis, but it appears
to be used in the present passage in the legal sense to justify.
Cleave, v. i. To adhere : p. 18, 1. 26.

Climate, sb. Region : p. 48, 1. 4. Climat : m. A clyme, or Clymate ; a
diuision in the Skie, or Portion of the world, betweene South and North.
Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.

The ancient geographers divided the space comprehended between the
equator and the pole into thirty parts, which they denominated Climates
or Inclinations, viz. twenty-four between the equator and polar circle, and
six between the polar circle and the pole. Diet, of Science and Art, ed.
Hrande and Cox.
Close, sb. A cadence in music : p. 107, 1. 33.

The setting sun, and music at the close,
As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last.

Shakespeare, Richard II, ii. I. 13.
Close, adj. Secret : p. 230, 1. 7.

The close contriver of all harms.

Shakespeare, Macbeth, iii. 5, 7.
Close, adv. Closely, secretly: p. 234, 1. 22.

Stand you thus close, to steal the bishop s deer?

Shakespeare, 3 Hen. VI, iv. 5. 17.
Coarctation, sb. Restriction : p. 8, 1. 3.

Z 2

340 GLOSSARy.

Cockboat, sb. A small boat: p. 23, 1. 28. Called a cock by Shake
speare. Lear iv. 6. 19 :

Yond tall anchoring bark
Diminish d to her cock.
Cogitations, sb. Thoughts : p. 4, 1. 28 ; p. 70, 1. 14, &c. Comp. Dan.

vii. 28.
Colliquation, sb. Melting, liquefaction : p. 114, 1. 30. Colliquation : f.

A Colliquation; a consumtion of the radicall humor, or substance of

the bodie ; also, a melting, resoluing, dissoluing. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.
Colour, sb. Pretext : p. 24, 1. 26. * To give colour, p. 238, 1. 2.
Columbine, adj. Dove-like : p. 20 r, 1. 4. Colombain: m. ine : f. Doue-

like ; of the nature of Doues ; of, or belonging to, Doues. Cotgrave,

Fr. Diet.

Combustion, sb. Heat, feverish excitement: p. 184, 1. 13.
Comen, p.p. Come : p. 37, I. 3 ; p. 60, 1. 25 ; p. 188, 1. 24. So be-

comen for become. Sir Robert Clifford (who was now becomen the

state informer). Hist, of Hen. VII. (Works, vi. p. 152). See also

Overcommen.
Comfort, v. t. To strengthen : p. 77, 1. 4. Not contented thus to have

comforted and assisted Her Majesty s rebels in England, he procured a

rebellion in Ireland. Bacon, Observ. on a Libel (Works, viii. 194).
Comfortable, adj. Strengthening: p. 148, 1. 32.
Comforting, sb. Strengthening, a verbal noun: p. 77, 1. 14.
Comical, adj. Comic: p. 226, 1. 25.
Commanded, p.p. Controlled: p. 141, 1. 33. See p. 140, 11. 29, 30

p. 230, 1. 20.

Commandment, sb. Command: p. 48, 1. 32 ; p. 69, 11. 20, 23, 24, &c
Commenter, sb. Commentator: p. 42, 1. 12.
Commixed, p.p. Mixed: p. no, 1. i.

The smile mocking the sigh, that it would fly
From so divine a temple, to commix
With winds that sailors rail at.

Shakespeare, Cymb. iv. 2. 55.

Commodity, sb. Convenience, advantage: p. 80, 1. 16.
* Commodity, the bias of the world.

Shakespeare, K. John, ii. I. 574.
Commonalty, sb. A corporation: p. 56,!. n. Spelt also communally,

p. 83, 1. 5. Communaut^: f. The comminaltie, or common people;

.... also, a societie, brotherhood, corporation, or companie incorporate.

Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.
Common place, sb. The subject of a thesis or discussion: p. 19, 1. 8.

Some have certaine common places, and theames, wherein they are good,

and want variety. Essay xxxii. p. 136.
Commutative, adj. Relating to exchange: p. 107, 1. n. See note.

Johnson defines commutative justice as that honesty which is exercised

in traffick ; and which is contrary to fraud in bargains.
Compacted, p.p. Compact, consolidated: p. 259, 1. 19; p. 260, 1. IO.

See Eph. iv. 1 6.

Compaction, sb. The being fastened together or consolidated: p. 260, 1. 8.
Compass, sb. A pair of compasses: p. 154, 1. 25. Compas: m. A

GL OSSARY. 34]

compasse; a circle, a round; also, a paire of compasses. Coterave
Fr. Diet.

Compass, adj. Circuitous: p. 232, 1. 17.

Compatible, adj. Sympathetic: p. 132, 1. 19. Compatible: com. Com-
patible, concurrable; which can abide or agree together; or indure or
beare with, one another/ Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.

Complexion, sb. The constitution both of mind and body ; p. i a, I. 37 ;
p. 162, I. 30. Hence it denotes a natural tendency or inclination
Comp. Shakespeare, Meas. for Meas. iii. i. 24:

4 Thou art not certain ;
For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,
After the moon.

Compounded, p.p. Compound: p. 134, 1. 19.
Conceit, sb. Conception : p. 20, 1. 17 ; p. 102, 1. 29 ; p. 174, 1. g.
4 Hear me without thine ears, and make reply
Without a tongue, using conceit alone.

Shakespeare, K. John, iii. 3. 50.

Conclude, v. t. To lay down as a conclusion : p. 206, 1. 17.
Concordance, sb. Agreement, harmony: p. 89, 1. 16; p. 130, 1. 16.
Concupiscence, sb. Eager desire, lust: p. 133, 1. 14. See Rom. vii. 8.
Concurrent, sb. A rival : p. 235, 1.4. Concurrent: in. A concurrent,

corriuall, competitor. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.

Confectionary, sb. One who makes confections or conserves: p. 206,
1. 22. See i Sam. viii. 13.

4 But myself,
Who had the world as my confectionary.

Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, iv. 3. 260.
Confer, v. i. To consult: p. 66, 1. 24. See Gal. i. 16. To contribute:

p. 102, 1. 6.

Confidences, sb. Unusual in the plural: p. 227, I. 13. See Jer. ii. 37.
Congregate, adj. Collected : p. 130, 1. 3.
Conjugate, adj. United: p. 130, 1. 4.

Conjugates, sb. Things related to, and so resembling each other : p. 161,

33- Johnson defines a conjugate as Agreeing in derivation with

another word, and therefore generally resembling in signification. Bacon

uses it in a wider sense.

Conjugation, sb. Relation, connexion, combination : p. 89, 1. 12 ; p. 164,

1. 19; p. 198, 1. 10.

Conscient, adj. Conscious: p. 227, 1. 30.
Consecrate, p.p. Consecrated: p. 95, 1. 10.

The imperial seat, to virtue consecrate.

Shakespeare, Tit. And. i. I. 14.

Compare accommodate, accumulate, alienate, copulate, corroborate, dedic
ate, excommunicate, degenerate, demonstrate, devote, dilute, enumerate,
illuminate, illustrate, incorporate, palliate, premeditate, &c.
Consequent, sb. By comeq nent = in consequence, consequently: p. 134,

1-33-
Conserve, v.t. To preserve: p. 195, 1. 4.

Thou art too noble to conserve a life
In base appliances. Shakespeare, Meas. for Meas. iii. i

342

GLOSSARY.

Considerative, adj. Requiring consideration or reflection : p. 1 26,
1. 4. Compare Demonstrative.

Consist, v.i. To stand firm, subsist, remain settled: p. 145, 1. 27;
p. 209, 1. 13; p. 210, 1. 2. Comp. Col. i. 17. Consister. To consist,
be; rest, reside, abide; to settle, stand still, or at a stay. Cotgrave,
Fr. Diet.

Consociate, v. t. To associate, unite: p. 72, 1. 32.

Consort, sb. Fellowship: p. 102, 1. 14.

Constitute, v. i. To establish : p. 130, 1. 9.

Construe, v. i. To interpret: p. 50, 1. 33 ; p. 245, 1. 4.
4 Construe the times to their necessities.

Shakespeare, 2 Hen. IV, iv. I. 104.

Contain, v. t. To hold in, as the breath : p. 143, 1. 10.

Contained, p.p. Restrained: p. 209, 1. 2 ; p. 261, 1. 22.

Contemplative, sb. One devoted to contemplation: p. 191, 1. I.

Contend, v.i. To strive, endeavour : p. 22, 1. 6.

Content, sb. The thing contained : p. 6, 1. 13.

Contentation, sb. Contentment: p. 13, 1. iS.

Contention, sb. Effort, exertion: p. 104, 1. 12 ; p. 184, 1. 6.

Contestation, sb. Strife, debate: p. 22, 1. 16. Contestation: f. A con.
testation ; a protestation, taking, or calling to witnesse ; also, a contesting,
striving, debating, reasoning, brabling about a matter. Cotgrave,

Fr. Diet.

Your wife and brother
Made wars upon me; and their contestation
Was theme for you. Shakespeare, Ant. and Cl. ii. 2. 43.
Continent, adj. Containing ; the cause continent = the containing

cause: p. 138, Lai.
Continent, sb. The thing containing: p. 6, 1. 13.

Heart, once be stronger than thy continent,

Crack thy frail case ! Shakespeare, Ant. and Cl. iv. 14. 40.
Continue, v. /. To continue his whole age = to devote his whole life

continuously: p. 79, 1. 22.

Continued, p.p. Kept, caused to remain: p. 162, I. -25.
Contract, sb. Convention, agreement : p. 167, 1. 2.
Contrariwise, adv. On the contrary: p. 13, 1. 3; P- 15* 9- See

2 Cor. ii. 7.

Contristation, s6. Sadness: p. 5, 1. 21.
Convenient, adj. Suitable: p. 58, 1. 21.

Conversant, adj. Are conversant about = have to do with, are con
cerned with: p. 76,1.32.

Converse, v.i. To dwell or abide; and so, to associate: p. 43, 1. 10.
I have, since I was three year old, conversed with a magician, most
profound in his art. Shakespeare, As You Like It, v. 2. 66.
Conversion, sb. A turning round, revolving: p. 158, 1. 19.
Convince, v.t. To convict, refute: p. 108, 1. 31. See John vm. 46.
Copie, sb. Copiousness: p. 29, 1. 14; p. 3. ! 4? P- 54 ! 5-
Copy To change copy = to change, shift about: p. 221, 1. 15. Inen
Callisthenes changing copy, spake boldly many things against the Mace
donians. North s Plutarch, Alex. p. 701 (ed.

GLOSSARr.

343

Corroborate, v. t. To strengthen: p. 131, 1. 33.

Corroborate, p.p. Confirmed in strength, grown strong: p. a I, I. I.
4 There is no trusting to the force of nature, nor to the bravery of words ;
except it be corroborate by custome. Essay xxxix. p. 162.
Corrupt, v.i. To become corrupt: p. 259, I. 13. Likewise glorious
gifts and foundations, are like sacrifices without salt ; and but the painted
sepulchres of almes, which soone will putrifie, and corrupt inwardly. Essay
xxxiv. p. 148.

Cosmetic, sb. The art of decoration : p. 133, 1. 24.
Countenance, sb. Appearance, semblance: p. n, 1. 26. A counte
nance of gravity = an appearance of importance.

Countervail, v. t. To counterbalance, outweigh: p. 14,1. 15; p 161
1.17.

But come what sorrow can,
It cannot countervail the exchange of joy.

Shakespeare, Rom. and Jul. ii. 6. 4.
Course, In course = in its due order: p. 86, 1. 22.
Cramp in, v. t. To force, press in: p. 199, 1. n. The modern cram.
Creature, sb. Anything created: p. no, 1. 13. See Rom. i. 25; viii. 19.
4 The first creature of God, in the workes of the dayes, was the light of
the sense. Essay, i. p. 2.
Crossness, sb. Intricacy : p. 250, 1. 24.
Cryptic, sb. Concealment: p. 174, 1. 27.
Cumber, sb. Encumbrance: p. 246, 1. 6.
Curiosity, sb. Nicety: p. 32, 1. 10.

4 Wherefore should I

Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me.

Shakespeare, Lear, i. 2. 4.

Curious, adj. Careful to excess, scrupulous, careful, nice: p. 10, 1. 21 ;
p. 20, 1. 32 ; p. 180, 1. 6. Wrought with care: p. 134, 1. 30.
4 His body couched in a curious bed.

Shakespeare, 3 Hen. VI, ii. 5. 53.
Customed, p.p. Frequented by customers : p. 155, 1. 29.

D.

Decarded, p.p. Discarded: p. 126, 1. 33.

Decayed, p.p. Brought to decay: p. 72, 1. 19. Decay is used transi
tively in Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, i. 5. 82 :

4 Infirmity, that decays the wise.

Decency, sb. Comeliness, propriety: p. 216, 11. 21, 26 ; p. 219, 11. 4, 5.
4 Decence : f. Deceticie, seemelinesse, comelinesse, handsomenesse. Cot-
grave, Fr. Diet.

Decent, adj. Becoming, appropriate: p. 6, 1. 19; p. 181, 1. 22. In beauty,
that of favour, is more then that of colour, and that of decent and gracious
motion more then that of favour. Essay xliii. p. 176.

344 GLOSSARY.

Declination, s&. Decline: p. 143, 1. 25. And the one of them said, That
to be a secretary, in the declination of a monarchy, was a ticklish thing,
and that he did not affect it. 1 Essay xxii. p. 94.
Deducement, sb. Deduction : p. 225, 1. 6 ; p. 260, 1. 30.
Defeat, v./. To ruin, undo: p. 207, 1. n. Desfaire. To vndoe ; breake,
defeat, discomfit, ouercome; mine, destroy, ouerthrow. Cotgrave, Fr.
Diet.

Deficience, sb. Deficiency: p. 84, 11. 6, 22 ; p. 118, 1. 33.
Define of. To define: p. 116, 1. 28; p. 257, 1. 5.
Defunct, sb. A dead man: p. 149, 1. 26.

Degenerate, p.p. Degenerated: p. 81,1.32. Reduce things, to the
first institution, and observe, wherein, and how, they have degenerate.
Essay xi. p. 41.

Degrees, sb. Ranks in society : p. 96, 1. 17.
Delectable, adj. Delightful : p. 64, 1. 17 ; p. 89, 1. 24.

4 Making the hard way sweet and delectable.

Shakespeare, Rich. II. ii. 3. 7.
Delectation, sb. Delight: p. 102, 1. 7. Delectation: f. Delectation,

delight, pleasure, oblectation. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.

Delicacy, sb. Effeminacy: p. 19, 1. 14. Delicatesse : f. Delicacie, dainti-
nesse, tendernesse, nicenesse, wantonnesse, effeminacie ; sensualite. Cot-
grave, Fr. Diet.

Delicate, adj. Affected, effeminate : p. 28, 1. 10.

Deliver, v. f. To pronounce, communicate, as a message: p. 7, 1. 21.
The former delivers the precepts of the art ; and the latter the perfection.
Essay xlv. p. 181.
Demand, v. t. To ask, simply ; not as now, to ask with authority or as

a right : p. 85, 1. 7. See 2 Sam. xi. 7.
Demonstrate, p.p. Demonstrated: p. 39, 11. 10, II.
Demonstrative, adj. Capable of demonstration, demonstrable: p. 14,
1. 29.

He sends you this most memorable line,
In every branch truly demonstrative.

Shakespeare, Hen. V, ii. 4. 89.
Dependences, sb. Dependents: p. 229, 1. 7; p. 231, 1. 9; p. 235,

1. 14.

Depending, p.p. Impending: p. 218, 1. II.
Deplored, p.p. Despaired of: p. 140, 1. 20.
Your love, sir, like strong water
To a deplor d sick man, quicks your feeble limbs
For a poor moment.

Albumazar, i. 2. (Dodsley s Old Plays, vii. 115, ed. 1825.)
Depravation, sb. Depreciation, defamation, slander: p. 17, 1. 2.

Apt, without a theme,

For depravation. Shakespeare, Tr. and Cr. v. 2. 132.

Deprave, v. t. To defame, depreciate, disparage : p. 27, 1. 25 ; p. 37, 1. 15.
4 If affection lead a man, to favour the lesse worthy in desert, let him
doe it without depraving or disabling the better deserver. Essay xlix.
p. 202.
Depredation, sb. A robbing, plundering : p. 1 06, I. 6.

GLOSSARY. 34 5

Derivation, sb. Originally, the turning of a stream into another channel:
p. 36, 1. 12. See ijote.

Derived, p.p. Drawn off, as in channels: p. 259, 11. 9, 17.

Descry, v. /. To observe, discern : p. 71, 1. 33 ; p. 115, 1. 29.

4 Moreover, to descry
The strength o the enemy. Shakespeare, Lear, iv. 5. 13.

Designation, sb. Appointment: p. 78, 11. i, 3 ; p. 83, I. 12; p. 84, 1. 4.

Designment, sb. Design: p. 16, 1. i.

Served his designmenfs
In mine own person. Shakespeare, Coriolanus, v. 6. 35.

Desolate, v. t. To render desolate: p. 231, 1. 8. Desoler. Todelola e;
make lonelie, solitary, deavelie, or desart ; to deuast, waste extreamely,
mine vtterly. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.

Despite, sb. Spite: p. 61, 1. 27.

1 Full of despite, bloody as the hunter.

Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 243.

Destituted, p.p. Left destitute, abandoned: p. 129,1.31. Bacon uses
destitute as a verb in Essay xxxiii. p. 143 : It is the sinfullest thing in
the world, to forsake or destitute a plantation, once in forwardnesse.

Determinate, adj. Definite : p. 209, 1. 35.

Determination, sb. The solution or decision of a question : p. 173, 1. 7.
It is now used rather in the sense of resolution which itself once was
equivalent to solution.

Devote, adj. Devoted: p. 42, 1. 8.

Dexterioxisly, adv. Dexterously: p. 214, 1. 32. This is the form of the
word in the editions of 1605, 1629, 1633, and in Shakespeare, Twelfth
Night, i. 5. 66 : Ztattrtbttf/jr, good madonna. In p. 240, 1. 15, the word
is spelt as usual.

Diascordium, sb. P. 140, 1. 33. See note.

Dictature, sb. Office of dictator, dictatorship: p. 65, 1. 33.

Difference, sb. A distinguishing mark, a badge: p. 4, 1. 14; p. 47, 1. 4.
In heraldry a difference is a figure added to a coat of arms to distinguish
the persons or families who bear the same arms, and to indicate their
nearness to the original bearer/ (Webster, Diet.) Hence, in Shakespeare,
Haml. iv. 5. 183; O you must wear your rue with a difference ; and,
Much Ado, i. i, 69; Let him bear it for a difference between himself
and his horse.

Differing, adj. Different: p. 10, 1. 25; p. 28, 1. 33, &c.

Difficile, adj. Difficult: p. 217, 1. 10. Difficile: com. Difficile, difficult;
hard, vneasie, troublesome, intricate, painefull, almost impossible. Cot-
grave, Fr. Diet.

Digested, p.p. Arranged: p. 154, 1. 28. We have cause to be glad
that matters are so well digested. Shakespeare, Ant. and Cl. ii. 2. 179.

Digladiation, sb. Literally, a combat with swords ; hence, a quarrel or
controversy: p. 33, 1. 20.

Dilatation, sb. Dilation, expanded description: p. 117, 1. 32.

Dilute, adj. Diluted; and so, feeble: p. 260, 1. 16.

Disable, v. t. Literally, to disqualify; then, to pronounce disqualified, to
disparage: p. 13, 1. 7 ; p. 153, 1. 32; p. 176, I. 32. Comp. Shakespeare,
As You Like It, v. 4. 80; He disabled my judgement.

GLOSSARF

Disallowed,/./. Disapproved: p. 27, 1.13; p. 41, 1. 31. See I Pet.
ii. 4, 7- *

Discern,!/./. To distinguish between, recognize: p. 136, 1. 20. To
discern of : p. 203, 1. 1 8. Comp. accept of, define of.

Discharge, sb. The phrase discharge of cares signifies delivery from the
charge or burden of cares: p. 77, 1. 20.

Discharged, p.p. Dismissed, got rid of: p. 187, 1. 30.

Disclaim in. To disclaim all share in, renounce: p. 73, I. 15. You
cowardly rascal, nature disclaims in thee : a tailor made thee. Shake
speare, Lear, ii. 2. 59.

Discontents, sb. Causes of disaffection : p. 58, 1. 23.

His discontents are unremoveably

Coupled to nature. Shakespeare, Tim. of Ath. v. 2. 227.
Discontinuation, sb. A solution of continuity : p. 139, I. ii.
Discourse of reason. The power of inferring one thing from another ;
the reasoning faculty, as distinguished from reason: p. 28, 1. 13. Com
pare Shakespeare, Haml. i. 2. 150:

A beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn d longer.
And Troilus and Cressida, ii. 2. 116:

Or is your blood

So madly hot that no discourse of reason
Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause,
Can qualify the same?
Shakespeare uses discourse* alone in the same sense, Haml. iv. 4. 36:

* Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not

That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused.
Discoursing, adj. Discursive, shifting: p. 119, 1. 9. The figure is

evidently taken from a sandbank. See p. 120, 11. 1-5.
Discover, v. /. To uncover, lay bare : p. 9, 1. 10. Comp. Ps. xxix. 9.
Disesteem, v. t. To depreciate, undervalue : p. 20, 1. 28. Disestimer. To
disesteeme, neglect, contemne, set naught by, make no reckoning of.
Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.

Disguisement, sb. A disguising, disguise: p. 123, 1. 19.
Disincorporate, adj. Disincorporated, dissevered : p. 258, 1. 32.
Dismantled, p.p. Unmasked, stripped of disguise : p. 238, 1. 19. Com
pare Shakespeare, Lear, i. I. 220:

That she

. . . . should in this trice of time
Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle
So many folds of favour.

Dispose, v. t. To arrange: p. 44, 1. 23; p. 81, 1. 25.
Disposition, sb. Arrangement: p. 44, 1. 27. Of studies, says Bacon,
their chief use for ability, is in the judgement and disposition of busi-
nesse. Essay 1. p. 204.
Distaste, sb. Disgust : p. 8, 1. 8. * Prosperity is not without many feares

and distastes. Essay v. p. 1 7.
Distemper, v.t. To derange, disorder: p. 134, 1. 28. The malignancy

G L O S S A K Y.

347

of my fate might perhaps distemper yours. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

ii. I. 5.

Distinguish, v. i. To assert distinctly, decide : p. 166, I. 3.
Disvalued, p.p. Depreciated : p. 237, I. 3.

1 But in chief

For that her reputation was disvalueil
In levity. Shakespeare, Meas. for Meas. v. I. 221.
Divers, adj. Different; and so, several: p. 25, 1. 32; p. 85, 1. 31. For

indeed, every sect of them, hath a divers posture, or cringe by themselves.

Essay iii. p. 9.

Diverse, adj. Different: p. 39, 1. 27 ; p. 85, I. 15.
Divination, sb. Foretelling of future events : p. 87, 1. 25. Diuination,

or Southsaying, & telling things by coniecture. Mantice. Baret,

Alvearie.

Diyulsion, sb. A tearing asunder: p. 189, 1. 13. Divulsion : f. A. divi
sion, or pulling vp ; also, a cutting, section, or division. Cotgrave

Fr. Diet.

Dogmatical, sb. Dogmatical statement, dogma: p. 153, I. 30.
Dolor, sb. Grief, suffering: p. 140, 1. 5. A minde fixt, and bent upon

somewhat, that is good, doth avert the dolors of death. Essay ii. p. 7.
Domestical, adj. Domestic : p. 223, 1. 16. Domestique: com. Dotius-

ticall, housall, of our household. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.
Donative, sb. A gift, largess: p. 48, 1. 14; p. 71, 1. i. For their men

of warre ; it is a dangerous state, where they live and remaine in a body,

and are used to donatives. 1 Essay xix. p. 8l.
Dotation, sb. Endowment: p. 79, 1. i.
Doubt, v.i. To hesitate through fear, and then, to fear: p. 16, 1. 28-

p. 26, 1. 8.

I doubt some danger does approach you nearly.

Shakespeare, Macb. iv. 3. 67.
Droumy, adj. Turbid : p. 246, 1. 16. Halliwell (Arch, and Prov. Diet.)

gives the word as a Devonshire provincialism. Chaucer uses drovy.*
Drown, v. i. To be drowned : p. 92, 1. 27.

Drowth, sb. Drought: p. 151, 1. 23. Compare Pericles, iii. Gower, 3.
Dulceness, sb. Sweetness, p. 238, 1. 21.

E.

Easiliest, adv. Most easily : p. 41, I. 29.

Ecstasy, sb. A trance: p. 145, 1. 24. A state in which the functions of

the senses are temporarily suspended. Such was the trance (Ixaraatt)

into which the Apostle Peter fell (Acts x. 10). See Shakespeare, Oth.

iv. i. 80:

I shifted him away,
And laid good scuse upon your ecstasy
Eccentrics, sb. According to the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the

supposed circular orbits described by the planets about the earth, which

was not in the centre: p. 161, I. 30.

348 GLOSSARy.

Edition, sb. Promulgation, publication: p. 266, 1. 5.
Effectual, adj. Energetic, effective, practical: p. 235, 1. 17. ^ Neither
can they (i. e. vain persons) be secret, and therefore not effectual!. Essay
liv. p. 216.
Elected, p.p. Chosen : p. 158, 1. 28.

Why hast thou gone so far,
To be unbent when thou hast ta en thy stand,
The elected deer before thee ? Shakespeare, Cymb. iii. 4. 1 12.
Election, sb. Choice : p. 46, 1. 18 ; p. 49, 1. 9. But contrariwise in
favour, to use men with much difference and election, is good. Essay
xlviii. p. 199. See also Haml. iii. 2. 69.

Elegancy, sb. Elegance: p. 47, 1. 33; p. 64, 1. 18. But yet, since
princes will have such things (i. e. masques), it is better, they should be
graced with elegancy, then daubed with cost. Essay xxxvii. p. 156.
Elenche, sb. From the Greek (\fyx os > a term 5n lo g ic which if defined
as a syllogism by which the adversary is forced to contradict himself:
p. 159, 11. 18, 25 ; p. 160, 1. 14.
Elogy, sb. A panegyric, eulogy: p. 94, I. 31.
Emancipate, p.p. Emancipated, set free: p. 130, 1. II.
Embased, p.p. Debased, deteriorated : p. 127,1.9. And that mixture
of falshood, is like allay in coyne of gold and silver ; which they make
the metall worke the better, but it embaselh it. Essay i. p. 3.
Embassage, sb. An embassy. To come in embassage = to come on an
embassy : p. 1 1, 1. I. I will ... do you any embassage to the Pigmies.
Shakespeare, Much Ado, ii. I. 277.
Emulate with. To emulate, vie with: p. 112, 1. 32. The construction

is an imitation of the Latin aemulari cum aliquo.
Emulation, sb. Envy, rivalry in a bad sense : p. 49, 1. 29.
Whilst emulation in the army crept.

Shakespeare, Tr. and Cr. ii. 2. 212.

It is now used exclusively in a good sense, as in p. 50, 1. 1 8.
Enable, v. t. To make able, to qualify: p. 12, 1. 22 ; p. 42, 1. 33. Comp.

1 Tim. i. 12.
Enablement, sb. A qualifying or making able, qualification : p. 59,

1. 3 ; p. 79, 1. 9.

End To the end ^in order: p. 17, 1. 19; p. 46, 1. 6 ; p. 48, 1. 29.
4 Nay, some undertake sutes, with a full purpose, to let them fall ; to the
end, to gratifie the adverse partie, or competitour. Essay xlix. p. 201.
Endeavour, v. t. To strive after, aim at, attempt : p. 10, 1. 10. Obsolete
construction.

But I ll endeavour deeds to match these words.

Shakespeare, Tr. and Cr. iv. 5. 259.
Engaged, p. p. Literally, bound by a gage or pledge ; and so, pledged or

committed to a certain course of conduct : p. 234, 1. 29.
Engine, sb. A contrivance, device, requiring ingenium or skill: p. 241,

1. 1 8.

Enginery, sb. Engineering: p. 122, 1. 8.

Enterprised, p.p. Attempted, undertaken: p. 97, 1. 33. And therefore
is not by any to be enterprised, nor taken in hand, unadvisedly. Marriage
Service.

GLOSSARY.

Entitle, v. t. To give a title to, designate : p. 26, I. 19.

Enucleate, v. t. To extract as a kernel : p. 256 1 27

Enumerate, p.p. Enumerated : p. 83, 1. 24.

Envimis, adj. Malicious ; used in a much stronger sense than at present :

But none can drive him from the envious plea
Of forfeiture, of justice, and his bond.

_ Shakespeare, Mer. of Ven. iii. 2. 285.

Envy, sb. Ill-will: p. 55, 1. 3.

Envy, v. i. To bear ill-will, to grudge : p. 38, 1. 8.

Epicure, sb. An Epicurean: p. 196, 1. 13.

Essence, *6. Essential importance : p. 164, 1. 30.

Estate, sb State : p. 13, 11. 28, 30 ; p. 23, 1. 27 ; p. 70, 1. 13. Condition :

Esteem of. To esteem, reckon, estimate: p. 178, 1. 6; p. 228, I. 24.

Whosoever esteemetb too much of amorous affection, quitteth both riches]

and wisedome. Essay x. p. 37. Comp. define of, discern of.
Estuation, sb. Fermentation, agitation of mind: p. 195, |. 20.
Every, pron. Each: p. 14, 1. 21 ; p. 136, 1. i. Every of them is carried

swiftly, by the highest motion, and softly in their owne motion. Essay

xv. p. 56.
Examinable, adj. Capable of being examined : p. 255, 1. 33 ; p. 256,

Exceed, v. i. To be excessive : p. 132, 1. 4.

Marg. I saw the Duchess of Milan s gown that they praise so.

Hero. O, that exceeds, they say. Shakespeare, Much Ado, iii. 4. 17.
Excellency, sb. Excellence : p. 55, 1. 3. As if nature, were rather busie,

not to erre, then in labour, to produce excellency. Essay xliii. p. 176.
Except, p.p. Excepted : p. 68, 1. 8 ; p. 116, 1. 6. Christ in the truth of

our nature was made like unto us in all things, sin only except. Art. XV.
Excusation, sb. Excuse: p. 24, 1. 6 ; p. 181, 1. 25. Prefaces, and

passages, and excusations, and other speeches of reference to the person,

are great wasts of time. Essay xxv. p. 102.
Exemplar, adj. Pattern, used as an adjective; conspicuous: p. 92, 11. 10,

24; p. 222,1. 33.
Exhibit, v.t. To administer as a remedy; a medical term: p. 131,

Expect, v.t. To await: p. 16, 1. 18.

4 Let s in, and there expect their coming.

Shakespeare, Mer. of Ven. r. i. 49.

Expedite, adj. Unencumbered, expeditious, speedy : p. 159, 1. 16.
Expostulation, sb. Demand : p. 64, 1. 36.
Expulse, v.t. To drive out, expel : p. 16, 1. 29 ; p. 173, 1. 30.
For ever should they be expulsed from France. *

Shakespeare, I Hen. VI. iii. 3. 35.
Exquisite, adj. Elaborate, minute: p. 24, 1. 14; p. 28, 1. 23; p. 35,

1. 20.

Extemporal, adj. Extemporary: p. 82, 1. 8. Sir Nathaniel, will you
hear an extemporal epitaph on the death of the deer? Shakespeare,
Love s Labour s Lost, iv. 2. 50.

GLOSSARr.

Extensive, adj. Capable of being extended: p. 31, 1. 13. Compare

demonstrative.

Extenuate, v. 1. To lessen, depreciate : p. 1 3, 1. 6. Extenuating and
blasting of your merit. Bacon, Letter of Advice to Essex (Works, ix. 41).
Speak of me as I am ; nothing extenuate,
Nor set aught down in malice.

Shakespeare, Oth. v. 2. 342.
Extern, adj. External: p. 106, 1. 16; p. 199, 1. 20.

When my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern. Shakespeare, Oth. i. I. 63.

Extinguish, v. i. To be extinguished : p. 92, 1. 27.
Extinguishment, sb. Extinction; p. 191, 1. 21.
Extirper, sb. An extirpator: p. 52, 1. 2.

Extreme, adv. Extremely: p. 243, 1. 16. Acting in song, especially
in dialogues, hath an extreme good grace. Essay xxxvii. p. 150,
1. 10.
Extremely, adv. Most extremely compounded = compounded in the

most extreme degree : p. 134, 1. 8.
Exulceration, sb. An ulcer: p. 68, 1. 32.

Face out, v. t. To confront boldly, brazen out : p. 238, 1. 8.

Facile, adj. Easily swayed, fickle, pliant: p. 222, 1. 27. If they

(i. e. judges) be facile, and corrupt, you shall have a servant, five times

worse than a wife. Essay viii. p. 27.

Facility, sb. Pliancy : p. 238, 1. 21. See quotation under Apply.
Facture, sb. Shape, form: p. 131, 1. 4 ; p. I3 8 . 1- *9- Facture :

f. The faclure, workemanship, framing, making of a thing. Cotgrave,

Fr. Diet.
Faculty, sb. Power, influence: p. 136, 1. 12.

4 Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek.

Shakespeare, Macb. i. 7. 17.
Fair, adj. Handsome: p. 32, I. 30. 4 It is a reverend thing, to see an

ancient castle, or building not in decay ; or to see a faire timber tree,

sound and perfect. Essay xiv. p. 52.
Faith, sb. The Christian faith or religion: p. 49, 1. lo ; p. 132, 1. 7;

p. 255,1. II.

False, adv. Falsely: p. 182, 1. II.
Fallace, sb. Fallacy: p. 159, 1. 30.
Fallacy, sb. Deception: p. 71, 1. 22. Fallace: f. A fallacie; guile,

deceit, wile, tromperie, a craftie tricke, cheating, sleight, cousenmg deuice.

Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.

Fall out, v. i. To happen : p. 28, 1. 7 ; p. 103, 1. 1 6.
Fame, sb. Report, rumour: p. 34. 1- 2I - See Gen. xlv. 16.

tumults, and seditious fames, differ no more, but as brother and ter,

masculine and feminine. Essay xv. p. 55.

GLOSSARY. 3^1

Fastest, adv. Most closely: p. 18, 1. 26.

*tfS?JL A u uck S d fortune: P- "7, 1. 15- The pencil! of the
holy Ghost, hath laboured more, in describing the afflictions of lob,
then the felicities of Salomon. Essay v. p. 17.

Find strange. To wonder; p. 78, 1. 14; p. 94, 1. 25; p . , 4 ,, j. 2I .
It cannot be found strange, it cannot be wondered at: p. 140, I. 31.
Lat. non est cur miretur quispiam.
Fitteth, is befitting: p. 82, 1. 3.
Fixing, sb. Fixed position: p. 47, |. 32. Compare fixure in Troilus

and Cressida, i. 3. 101.

Flexuous, adj. Winding, intricate: p. 1 1 8, 1. 15.
Fluctuant, adj. Floating : p. 98, 1. 26.

Fly, v. t. To chase flying, as with a hawk : p. 209, I. 10. But now,
if a man can tame this monster, and bring her to feed at the hand,
and govern her, and with her fly other ravening fowle, and kill them,
it is somewhat worth. Essay of Fame, p. 240.
For = as for: p. 71, ]. 8.

Force. Of force = of necessity, necessarily : p. 106, I. 1 7.
Forth, redundant in the phrases how far forth, as far forth :
p. 176, 1. 12; p. 257, 1. 30. Forth of = out of: p. 231, 1. 14. See
Gen. viii. 16.

Fortify, v. i. To become strong : p. 209, 1. 4.

Forwards. In the phrase so forwards = so forth, so on : p. 48, 1. 9.
Frame. Out of frame = out of order: p. 217, 1. 19. And therfore,
when great ones, in their owne particular motion, move violently. . . .
it is a signe, the orbs are out of frame. Essay xv. p. 56.
Fret, v. t. To eat away : p. 91, 1. 7. See Lev. xiii. 55.
Frets, sb. p. 162, 1. 17. Figures in architecture, used in ornamenting
the roofs of houses, formed by small fillets intersecting each other
at right angles. Parker s Glossary of Architecture. The Egyptian key
pattern is a familiar example. Fringotteries : f. Frets ; cranklings, wrigled
flourishing, in caruings, &c. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet. A. S.frcetu, an ornament.
Fripper, sb. A dealer in old clothes: p. 176, 1. 25. Fripier: m. A
Fripier ; or broker; a mender, or trimmer vp of old garments, and
a seller of them so mended. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet. Shakespeare (Temp,
iv. I. 225) uses a frippery for an old-clothes shop.
Fro, prep. From : p. 68, 1. 10.

Fume, sb. Vapour, smoke ; used metaphorically : p. 89, I. 35.
Funambalo, sb. A rope-dancer: p. 165, 1. 23. We see the industry
and practice of tumblers and funambulos, what effects of great wondei
it bringeth the body of man unto. Bacon, Disc, touching Helps for
the Intell. Powers (Works, vii. p. 99).

Futility, sb. Idle talkativeness, blabbing of secrets : p. 248, I. 33.
Bacon (Essay vi. p. 20) uses the adjective futile. As for talkers
and futile persons, they are commonly vaine, and credulous withalL
And again in Essay xx. p. 84.

352 GLOSSARY.

G.

Gamester, sb. A player at any game ; not necessarily a gambler : p. 1 98,

1.23.

Generosity, sb. Nobility : p. 69, 1. 30.
Gigantine, adj. Giantlike: p. 194, 1. 13. Referring to the war of the

giants against Jupiter.

Glance, sb. An allusion, hint: p. 57, 1. 17.
Glass, sb. A mirror: p. 108, 1. 6 ; p. 161, 1. 6 ; p. 176, 1. 7. In the New

Atlantis Bacon uses glass for lens (Works, iii. 162).
Glory, sb. Ostentation: p. 7, 1. 27; p. 112, 1. 19; p. 171, 1. 4. See

Essay Ivi. p. 224, 1. 31 : Whatsoever is above these, is too much; and

proceedeth either of glory and willingnesse to speake ; or of impatience to

hear, &c.

Go, v. t. Used in a transitive sense: p. 83, 1. 29.
Go about. To endeavour: p. 173, 1. IO. See Rom. x. 3.
Grace, v. t. To compliment, praise: p. 236, 1. 29. Comp. Essay Ivi.

p. 225: There is due from the iudge, to the advocate, some commend
ation and gracing, where causes are well handled, and faire pleaded.
Gravelled, p.p. Puzzled. To be gravelled = to hesitate: p. 57, 1. 15.

Nay, you were better speak first, and when you were gravelled for

lack of matter, you might take occasion to kiss. Shakespeare, As You

Like It, iv. I. 74.

Grecia, sb. Greece : p. 3, 1. 25 ; p. 12, 1. IO. See Dan. viii. 21.
Grecians, sb. Greeks: p. II, 1. 15. Comp. Joel iii. 6.
Grift, v. t. To graft: p. 255, 1. 22. The ed. of 1605 has grlfte, which

in ed. 1629 became grift, and in ed. 1633 graft. Baret (Alvearie, s. v.)

gives To grijfe. Inserere arbori.

Grossly, adv. Clumsily, unskilfully : p. 37, 1. 7; p. 153, 1. 22.
Grot, sb. A grotto or cave : p. 162, 1. 26.
Ground, sb. The plain-song of a tune, on which the variations or descants

are made : p. 197, 1. II.
Ground, sb. Foundation : p. 76, 1. 12.
Ground, v. t. To lay the foundation of: p. 113, 1. 9.
Grounded, p.p. Well founded: p. no, 1. 15. Well grounded = with

good foundations : p. 217, 1. 21.
Grounds, sb. Soils : p. 207, 1. 20. Among the disadvantages in the

site of a house, Bacon enumerates want of fruitfulnesse, and mixture

of grounds of severall natures. Essay xlv. p. 1 80.

H.

Hand. To be in hand with = to have in hand, to treat of: p. 18, 1. 30;

p. 98, 1. 32.
Hap, v. i. To happen: p. 6i,l. 4. The remnant of people, which hap

to be reserved, are commonly ignorant and mountanous people.

Essay Iviii. p. 232.

GLOSSARY.

Hardiier, adv. With more difficulty: p -24* 1 ic

Hardliest, adv. With most difficulty : p. 217 1 c

Hardness, sb. Hardiness: p. 143, 1. 4.

Harmonical, adj. Harmonious: p. 107 1 *

Heat, sb. Anger: p. 231, 1. 15.

Henoch sb. Enoch: p. 190, 1. 33. This form is adopted in the older
English .version, of the Old Testament, and in the Authorized Version
followed 3> W IU C Testan > e " the Greek form Enoch is

Herdman, sb A herdsman; p. 69, 1. 25. See Gen. xiii. 7.

Jleroical, ; Heroic: p. 18, 1. 6; p. 51, 1. 33, Sec:

But gainst your privacy
The reasons are more potent and heroical.

Heteroclite, sb. A word ineguIarleSST^ ^ u* " 3 9

His. Its: p. 89, 1. 10 ; p. 120, 1. 31 ; p . 148, i. 15

His, used as the sign of the genitive. Socrates his ironical doubting:

Historiographer, sb. Historian: p 17, 1. 30.

2!? V J keep t0 : p - X 4 f l 7- To ^strain, withhold : p. 15, 1. 1 1.
I of. To pertain to, have to do with: p. a, 1. 32; p. 124, 1. i;

Holdeu, p.p. Held: p. 69, 1. 31.

Holpen, p.p. Helped: p. 92, i. 22. See Ps. Ixxxiii. 8; Dan. xi. 34.

Honesty, sb. Used to denote high and honourable character, and hence

transferred to moral beauty and grace: p. 22, 1. 8.
Humanist, sb. A student of the humanities (///me humauiores): p. 135,

1. 33. The term is still used in the Scotch universities.
Humanity, sb. The knowledge of man ; human philosophy, as distin

guished from natural theology and natural philosophy: p. 105, 1. 19;

p. r^o, 1. i. It is contradistinguished from divinity in p. 28, 1. 20;

p. 58, 1. 8.
Humorous, adj. Fanciful, capricious: p. 18, 1. 12; p. 245, 1. o. As

humorous as winter. Shakespeare, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 4. 34
Humour, sb. Caprice: p. 4<>, 1. 3..

In humours like the people of this world.

Shakespeare, Rich. II, v. 5. 10.

I.

Ice, sb. A flaw in a jewel: p. 197, 1. 17. Compare the Fr. glafons.

which Cotgrave explains Isicles, or flakes of yce ; also, rlawes iii stones

resembling flakes of yce.
Ill, adj. Bad : p. 69, 1. 1 1. Neither is it ill aire onely, that maketh an ill

seat, but /// wayes, / // markets. Kssay xlv. p. 180.
Illaqueation, sb. An entangling in argument, a sophism: p. 159, 1. 17;

P. 177- 1- 21.

Illuminate,/)./). Illuminated, enlightened: p. ^3, 1. 16.
Illustrate, v.t. To render illustrious : p. 37, I. i6.
Illustrate, p.p. Illustrated: p. ^o, I. _-.

A a

354 GLOSSARY.

Imaginant, sb. One who imagines : p. 132, I. 29; p. 146, 1. 4.

Imbarred, p.p. Interrupted, checked: p. 46, 1. 27.

Imbase, v.t. To debase, degrade : p. 37, 1. 11 ; p. 96, 1. 18. Nuptiall
love maketh mankinde ; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love
corrupteth, and imbaseth it. Essay x. p. 38.

Immediate, adj. Closely connected, proximate : p. 14, 1.14. Immediate
times are those which are not separated by any interval from the
present.

Immediately, adv. Directly, without the intervention of anything else:
p. 154, 1. 14. Now generally used of time only.

Import, v.t. To have a bearing upon, affect: p. 163, 1. 24.

Impostumation, sb. An abscess : p. 139, 1. n.

Imprese, sb. A device with a motto : p. 167, 1. 6. An Imprese (as the
Italians call it) is a devise in picture with his Motte, or Word, borne by
noble and learned personages, to notifie some particular conceit of their
owne. Camden, Remaines, p. 158 (ed. 1605).

Impression, sb. Stamp, lasting character ; used in a moral sense : p. 47,
1. 5. Comp. p. 214, 1. 24; by imprinting upon their souls charity:
and p. 69, 1. 17; for truth prints goodness.

Improficience, sb. Want of progress or proficiency: p. 119, 1. I.

Impulsion, sb. Impulse, impelling cause: p. 137, 1. 19.

In, prep. Into: p. 72, 1. 28. Conversant in = conversant with: p. 75,
1. 1 6. With verbal nouns in is used like the Latin gerund: while
they are in tuning their instruments, p. 251, 1. 22. Comp. m depart
ing, Gen. xxxv. 18; * in seething, I Sam. ii. 13; in building,
I Kings vi. 7.

Incensed, p.p. Burnt: p. 268, 1. 26.

Incensing, adj. Exasperating: p. 231, 1. 14.

Inception, sb. Beginning: p. 194, 1. 4; p. 213, 1. 13.

Incertainty, sb. Uncertainty : p. 250, 1. 13.

Incidence, sb. Coincidence: p. 122, 1. 30. It hath an incidence into
it = it coincides with it: p. 194, 1. 9.

Incidently, adv. Incidentally : p. 182, 1. 6 ; p. 198, 1. 9.

Included, p.p. Shut up, inclosed: p. 162, 1. 29.

Incompatible, adj. Incongruous: p. 10, 1. 25. Used here in an obsolete
construction. See also p. 212, 1. 24.

Incomprehension, sb. Want of comprehension : p. 136, 1. 26. A trans
lation of the Greek acatalepsia, p. 154, 1. 4.

Inconvenient, adj. Unsuitable: p. 81, 1. 8.

Incorporal, adj. Incorporeal: p. 45, 1. 17:

Alas, how is t with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy,
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?

Shakespeare, Haml. iii. 4. 118.

Incorporate,/*, p. Incorporated : p. 36, 1. n ; p. 97, 1. 5.
No, it is Casca ; one incorporate
To our attempts. Shakespeare, Jul. Caes. i. 3. 135.

Incurring, pr. p. Running: p. 175, 1. 18.

Indifferent, adj. Impartial: p. 21, 1. 31. See Ecclus. xlii. 5. Belonging
to all alike, common : p. 113, 1. 27.

GLOSS A R} .

355

Indifferently, adv. Impartially: p. 84, 1. 19. Comp. Prayer for the
Church Militant : That they may truly and indifferently minister justice
Inditer, sb. A composer: p. 261, 1. 8.
Induced, p.p. Derived by induction: p. 171, 1. 9.
Inducement, sb. An introduction: p. 83, 1. 16; p. 144, 1. 32; p. 222,

Inducing, adj. Introductory, preliminary : p. 83, 1. 29.

Indulgent, adj. Apt to indulge: as < indulgent in allusions, p. 264, 1. 2.

Induration, so. Hardening: p. 114, 1. 29.

Infinite, adj. Innumerable: p. 72, 1. 19; p. 194, 1. I5 . See note on
p. 72.

Infirm, v. t. To weaken, invalidate: p. 159, 1. 29.

Influxion, sb. Inflowing, influence, intromission : p. 145 II 20 27 32

Infolded, p.p. Involved: p. 54, 1. 10.

Inform, v. t. To instruct, teach: p. 108, 1. 31 ; p. 254, I. 24. To in
form ourselves / = to inform or instruct ourselves with regard to
p. 232, 1. 30.

Informed, p.p. Taught : p. 257, 1. 22 ; p. 264, 1. 33. Animated : p. 105,
1. 5. Comp. Shakespeare, Coriol. v. 3. 71 :

Inform
Thy thoughts with nobleness.

Ingenious, adj. Ingenuous: p. 236, 1. 2^.

Ingurgitation, sb. An immoderate draught: p. 140, 1. 14.

Inherent to. Inherent in: p. 21, 1. 33.

Injury, sb. Insolence, contumely: p. 236, I. 30; p. 238, 1. 20.

Inquire, v. t. To investigate: p. 89, 1. ir; p. no, 11/14, 2 5. &c.

Inquisition, .<&. Inquiry, investigation: p. 6, 1. 10: 0.48, 1. 25: p 88
1. I,&c. See Deut. xix. 18; Ps. ix. 12.

Inquisitor, sb. Searcher : p. 88, I. -24.

Insatisfaction, sb. Dissatisfaction: p. 2ro, I. 39.

Insinuate, v. t. To introduce indirectly, by winding courses: p. 14, 1. 19.

Insinuation, sb. Intertwining, intimate connexion: p. 102, 1. 12. Indi
rect argument: p. 178, 1. 29.

Insinuative, adj. Winding itself in, insinuating: p. 148, 1. 19.

Insolency, sb. Insolence : p. 67, 1. 20 ; p. 227, 1. 22. To give moderate
liberty, for griefes, and discontentments to evaporate, (so it be without too
great insolency or bravery) is a safe way. Essay xv. p. 61.

Instance, s6. Urgency: p. 189, 1. 23; p. 243, 1. 25.

Instrumental, sb. An instrument : p. 80, 1. U.

Intelligence, sb. To have intelligence = to have an understanding, to
correspond: p. 36, I. I. The arch-flatterer, with whom all the petty
flatterers have intelligence, is a mans selfe. 1 Essay x. p. 37. See Dan. xL
30. Information : p. So, 1. 25.

Intelligenced, p.p. Informed: p. 233, I. 13.

Intelligencer, sb. An informer: p. 80, 1. 26.

1 Richard yet lives, hell s black intelligencer,
Only reserved their factor, to buy souls
And send them thither. Shakespeare, Rich. Ill, ir. 4. 71.

Intend, v.t. To aim at, direct the attention to: p. 135, 1. 31; p. 138,
1.6; p. 192, 1. 19; p. 205, 1. 9; p. 218, 1. 22. The intending of
A a 2

356 GLOSSARY.

the discretion of behaviour = attention to, &c. : p. 218, 1. 29. Romulus,

after his death (as they report, or faigne) sent a present to the Romans ;

that, above all, they should intend arms. Essay xxix. p. 1 25. Ibid. p. 1 26.
Intendment, sb. Intention: p. 167,!. 19.
Intensive, adj. Intensive upon = directed to : p. 146,1.4.
Intent, sb. Intention, purpose: p. 6, 1. 3. See John xiii. 28.
Interlace, v.t. To mix: p. 244, 1. 6. Interlace not businesse, but

of necessitie. Essay xi. p. 41.
Intervenient, adj. Incidental: p. 122, 1. 18. When there is matter

of law, intervenient in businesse of state. Essay Ivi. p. 227.
Into, prep. Hath an influence /to = hath an influence upon : p. ?i8, 1. 2.

Comp. p 250, 11. 16, 17. Immersed into = immersed in, p. 131,1. 18.
Intrinsic, adj. Internal; and so, hidden: p. 37, 1. 33- Compare the use

of inward.

Invent, v.t. To find out, discover: p. 149, 1. 15.
Invention, sb. Finding, discovery: p. in, 1. 30; p. 149, 1. 22.
Inveterate, adj. Long established: p. 115, 1. 20.
Invocate, v.t. To invoke: p. 40, 1. 27; p. 161, 1. 21.
Inward, adj. Hidden, secret: p. 248, 1. 28.

Inwardness, sb. Hidden sense : p. 104, 1. 20. Intimacy : p. 233, 11. 8, 18.
Irony, sb. An ironical speech : p. 88, 1. 33.
Issay. The old form of spelling Jesse : p. 152, 1. 25.
Iteration, sb. Repetition: p. 137, 1. 18; p. 202, 1. 33. Truth tired

with iteration: Shakespeare, Tr. and Cr. iii. 2. 183.

J.

Joculary, adj. Belonging to jest or juggling : p. 143, 1. 28.

Joy, v. i. To rejoice : p. 6, 1. 25. There is no man, that imparteth his

ioyes to his frend, but he ioyeih the more. Essay xxvii. p. 1 10.
Judge, v. i. To give judgement, decide: p. 73, 1. 28.
Judged, p.p. Decided: p. 137, 1. 29.
Jurisconsxilt, sb. A lawyer: p. 85, 1. 32 : p. 259, 1. 33.
Just, adj. Exact: p. 85, 1. 4.

If thou cut st more
Or less than a just pound.

Shakespeare, Mer. of Yen. iv. I. 327.

K.

Kindly, adj. Natural: p. 140, 1. 12. So in the Litany, the kindly fruits

of the earth.

Knit, v. i. To become compact: p. 39, 1. 31.
Knowledge, sb. A branch of knowledge, a science: p. 32, 1. 15;

p. 50, 1. 16. To take knowledge of = to recognize : p. 48, I 2;

p. 226, 1. 24.

Laboured, p.p. Elaborated : p. 78, 1. 4; p. 220, 1. 6.
Large, adj. Diffuse: p. 181, 1. 10.

GLOSSARY. 357

Latitude, sb. Extent: p. 53, 1. 14; p. 258, 1. 31.

Laudative, sb. A eulogy: p. 44, 1. 4; p. 100, 1. 13. The funtrall

landatives and monuments for those that died in the wars. Essay

xxix. p. 129.
Learnings, sb. Branches of knowledge : p. 49, 1. 17.

Puts to him all the learnings that his time
Could make him the receiver of.

Shakespeare, Cymb. J. I. 43.

Least wise. At least wise = at least: p. 147, 1. 23.
Leese, v.t. To lose: p. 37,!. 5; p. 72, 1. 33; p. 77,!. 2; p. 239, 1. 18.

For that that he winnes in the hundred, he leeseth in the shire. Essay

xix. p. 80.

Legend, adj. Legendary: p. 55, 1. I.
Levant, High. The far East: p. 166, 1. 24. The Latin has quod in

Chinae et provinciis itltimi orientis in usu hodie sunt &c.
Levant, sb. The East: p. 24, 1. 32.
Levity, sb. Lightness, in its literal sense: p. 116, 1. 23.
Lidger, sb. A resident ambassador: p. 232, 1. n. Spelt also leiger.
Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,
Intends you for his swift ambassador,
Where you shall be an everlasting leiger.

Shakespeare, Meas. for Meas. iii. I. 59.
Lieth, as much as: p. 113, 1. 9. See Rom. xii. 18.
Like, adj. Likely: p. 39, 1. 18 ; p. 185, 1. 10.
Liker, adj. More likely: p. 60, 1. 25.
Lighter, adj. More foolish, or less grave: p. 221, I. 13.
Lightly, adv. Easily: p. 222, 1. 26. The traitor in faction lightly goeth

away with it. Essay, li. p. 208.

Limned, p.p. Drawn, illustrated with drawings, illuminated : p. 30, 1. 12.
Lively, adv. Vividly: p. 15, 1. 5 ; p. 52, 1. 23; p. 55, I. I. Lively

describing Christian resolution. Essay v. p. 17.
Long, v.i. To belong: p. 124, 1. 10.
Longanimity, sb. Patience, longsuflering : p. 205, 1. 19.
Long time. Long: p. 28, 1. 21.
Lothness, sb. Unwillingness, dislike: p. 239,!. 18.
Lubricity, sb. Slipperiness : p. 201, 1. 6. Lubricit6: f. Lubricitie,

slipperinesse, vncertaintie. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.
Lucre, sb. Gain: p. 19, 1. 7; p. 42, 1. 24. The stratagems of prelates

for their owne ambition and lucre. Essay xvii. p. 69.

M.

Magistracy, sb. The holding the office of magistrate : p. 206, 1. 30.
Magistral, adj. Dogmatic : p. 41, 1. 27 ; p. 141, 1. 14; p. 170, I. 27.
Magistrality, sb. Dogmatism; p. 127, 1. 19 ; p. 140, 1. 27.
Magnify, v.t. To make much of, to extol: p. 13, I. 15; f-. 73, I. 1.

Comp. Ps. xxxiv. 3.
Main, adj. Important: p. So, 1. 19.
Malice, sb. Evil disposition : p. 38, 1. 6.

35 8 GLOSSARY.

Malign, adj. Malignant, injurious : p. 79, 1. 2.

Maniable, adj. Manageable, tractable : p. 1 7, I. 8. Maniable : com.

Tractable, wieldable, handleable, &c. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.
Mansion, sb. A dweliing-place : p. 119, I. 18; p. 134,!. 17. See John

xiv. 2.

Maniirance, sb. Manuring, fertilizing : p. 184, 1. 4
Manured, p.p. Cultivated: p. 84, 1. 10.
Mar, v. 1. To injure: p. 10, 1. 20.
Marvel, v. i. To wonder : p. 112, 1. 13.
Materially, adv. Solidly, soundly: p. 198, 1. 26.
Mathematics, sb. Mathematics: p. 121, 1. 2. Comp. athletic, cosmetic,

metaphysic, physic.
Matter, sb. The point or essential part of a subject : p. 6l, 1. 7. Comp.

Albumazar, ii. 4 :

Then vouch a statute, and a Latin sentence,

Wide from the matter.
May = can: p. 141, 1. 31. Comp. Shakespeare, Mer. of Ven. i. 3. 7 : May

you stead me. And Ps. cxxv. I, Pr. Bk. Mount Zion, which may not be

removed.
Mean, sb. Means, medium: p. 76, 1. 21 ; p. 195, 1. 19. For it is the

solcecisme of power, to thinke to command the end, and yet not to

endure the meane. Essay xix. p. 77.
Mean, adj. Moderate: p. 219, 1. 33.

Means, sb. Wealth : p. 20, 11. 8, 9. Used as a singular noun : p. 242, 1. 24.
Mechanicals, sb. Mechanics : p. 198, 1. 5. The word occurs in a different

sense in Shakespeare, Mid. N s. Dr. iii. 2. 9.

A crew of patches, rude mechanicals.
Mechanique, sb. Mechanism: p. 124, 1. 10; p. 138, 1. 24.
Medicinable, adj. Medicinal: p. 141, 1. 26. In Shakespeare, Oth. v. 2.

351, where the Quartos read,

Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum,

the Folios have medicinable. See also Much Ado, ii. 2. 5 ; Troilus and

Cressida, iii. 3. 45.

Medicine, v. t. To administer medicine to: p. 207, 1. 27.
Mercurius, apparently not yet Anglicised: p. 52, 1. 10. Comp. Acts xiv.

12.
Mere, adj. Absolute: p. 106, 1. 29.

I have engaged myself to a dear friend,
Engaged my friend to his mere enemy.

Shakespeare, Mer. of Ven. iii. 2. 265.
Merely, adv. Absolutely, simply: p. 88, 1. 10; p. 121, 1. 30; p. 258,

1.32.

We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.

Shakespeare, Temp. i. I. 59.
Meriting, adj. Meritorious: p. 7, 1. 27.

Message, Came in message = came as a messenger: p. 66, 1. 16.
Metaphysic, sb. Metaphysics: p. 112, 11. I, 2 ; p. 113, 1. 1 8. Bacon s

definition is given on p. 114.
Minion, sb. A darling: p. 30, 1. 33. In ed. 1605 it is printed migmon

GLOSSARY. 359

in mistake for nugnon. Mignon: m. A minion, fauorite, wanton,
dilling, darling. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.

Minister, v. t. To supply, furnish: p. 14, 1. 21 ; p. 51, 1. 7.

Ministry, sb. Service : p. 206, 1. 2.

Mirabilaries, sb. Collections of marvels : p. 87, 1. 15.

MITHRIDATUM, sb. See note on p. I 4 o, 1. 31. Methridat : m.
Methridate ; a strong Treacle, or Preseruatiue deuiscd at first by the
Pontian King, Mithridates. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet. The first he (i.e.
Mithridates) was also who devised sundrie kinds of antidots or countre-
poisons, whereof one reteineth his name to this day. Holland s Pliny,

XXV. 2.

Model, sb. A small plan ; and so, a compendium : p. 54, 1. 2. The Lat.

has totius orbis tune epitome. Measure, scale: p. 62, 1. 19 ; p. 194, 1. 15.
Moe, adj. More: p. 22, 1. 3; p. 166, 1. i.
Monastical, adj. Monastic: p. 190, 1. 27.
Moneys, sb. Coins, pieces of money: p. 167: 11. 29, 31.
Morality, sb. Moral philosophy: p. 177, 1. 23.
Morigeration, sb. Obsequiousness : p. 26, 1. 24.
Mortalest, adj. Most deadly: p. 184, 1. 25.
Most, adv. Mostly : p. 94, 1. 29.
Motions, sb. Exercises: p. 124, 1. 19.
Mought. Might : p. 79, 1.7; p. 80, 1. 30. The part of Epimetheus,

mought well become Prometheus, in the case of discontentments.

Essay xv. p. 61.
Mountebank, sb. A quack doctor : p. 135, 1. 16. Cotgrave (Fr. Diet.)

gives : Charlatan : m. A Mountebanke, a cousening drug-seller, a

pratling quack-saluer. See Essay xii. p. 45: As there are moim-

tebanques for the naturall body : so are there mount ebanques for the

politique body.

Move, v. t. To excite: p. 125, 1. 21. To propose: p. 244, 1. 32.
Moyses. The old spelling of Moses, from the Vulgate Moyses : p. 46,

1. 28, &c. Bacon is not uniform in adopting this spelling. See p. 83,

1. 23.

Mutiner, sb. A mutineer: p. 184,!. 15. See note.
Mystery, sb. A craft or trade : p. 89, 1. 29. Mestier : m. A Trade,

Occupation, Misterie, Handicraft. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet. Comp. Chaucer,

Cant. Tales, Prol. 615 :

In youthe he lerned hadde a good metier;
He was a wel good wright, a carpenter.

N.

Nature, sb. Used in the phrase it is nature for it is natural ; as it is

reason for it is reasonable: p. 239, 1. 3.
Nature, sb. Kind: p. 7, 1. 15 ; p. 168, 1. n. Flo\ver-de-lices, and lillies

of all natures Essay xlvi. p. 187.
Navigation, sb. A sea voyage: p. 96, 1. 31.
Near hand, adv. Near: p. 53, 1. 25.

360 G L O S S A R y.

Negotiation, sb. Transaction of business: p. 219, 1. 17; p. 225, 1. 17 ;

p. 226, 1. 12.

Neighbour, adj. Neighbouring: p. 58, 1. 25. See Jer. xlix. 18, I. 40.
Nestling, sb. A place for building a nest; hence applied to the place

where humours may breed: p. 138,!. 13. That the birds may have

more scope, and naturall neastling. Essay xlvi. p. 194.
Nether, adj. Lower: p. 57, 1. 13. See Ex. xix. 17.
New. In the phrase one is new to begin = one has to begin anew :

p. 183, 1. 1 6.
Non -promo vent, adj. Literally, not advancing: p. 175, 1. 17. The

epithet is applied to axioms as equivalent to circular and incurring

into themselves.

Nor . . . not. Double negative : p. 120, 11. II, 13.
Nor never. Double negative : p. 23, 1. 23.

This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror.

Shakespeare, K. John, v. 7. II 2.
Not . . . nor: p. 4, 11. 10, n ; p. 127, 1. 9; p. 186, 11. 22, 23; p. 240,

1. 17. Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cano choose one nor refuse

none ? Shakespeare, Mer. of Ven. i. 2. 28.
Notably, adv. Remarkably, conspicuously: p. 59, 1. 17.
Note, sb. Mark, sign : p. 44, 1. 28 ; p. 166, 1. 33.
Note, v. t. To denote : p. 146, 1. I.
Nothing, adv. In no respect: p. 251, 1. 23.
Nothing less than = anything but : p. 87, 1. 13. The use of this work

... is nothing less than to give contentment &c, that is, it is so little

intended to give contentment to the appetite of curious and vain wits that

nothing is less so. Comp. Stubbs, Anatomic of Abuses, fol. 5 (ed. 1585) *.

Pride of the hatre is perpetrate, when as a man liftyng hymself on high,

thinketh of hymself, aboue that whiche he is : dreamyng a perfection of

himself, when he is nothyng lesse?
Null, sb. A non-significant cipher: p. 169, 1. *].

O.

Oblation, sb. An offering: p. i, 1. 10; p. 4, 1. 17.

Obnoxious, adj. Exposed, p. 229, 1. 7. In dread of punishment : p. 246,
1. 9 .

Obscureness, sb. Obscurity : p. 20, 1. 10.

Obtain, v.i. To attain: p. 51, 1. 22. Comp. Essay vi. p. 19 : But if a
man cannot obtaine to that iudgment, then it is left to him, generally, to
be close, and a dissembler.

Occupate, v. t. To occupy: p. 133, 1. 8.

Occupate, p.p. Occupied : p. 268, 1. 4.

Of, redundant in the phrases * accept o/, p. 63, 1. 23 : esteem of, p. 178,
1. 6 ; p. 228, 1. 24 : define of, p. 257, 1. 5 : discern of, p. 203, 1. 18 :
meaning of, p. 241,!. 2. The reverence of laws and government:
p. 17, 1. I. We should now use for. Comp. a zeal o/ God, Rom. x. 2.
* Of used partitively for some of: p. 72, 1. 24, cannot but lecse o/the
life and truth. See p. 135, 1. 33. To participate o/ = to participate in:

GLOSSARY.

P- 73. I- 3 ; p. 87, 1. 28. To grow r/ = to grow from : p. 16, 1 10
hwcsted o/ = ,nvestcd with: p. 4, 1. 5 ; p . 2 ? 4 , ,. ; . . In P coni parisoi ;
of . p 20, 1. 13. O/the one side = on the one side : p. c8, 1 16 Of
herself = by herself, alone : p. 58, I. 26. Of consequence = in conse-
quence, consequently: p. 71, 1. j 2 .

f r> 1 ,h An a " empt : P 9 t l 5> Ma " y ^P^ but as Epicurus

is> iniperfcct *" and - c ioun

Offc, fltfv. Often: p. 2;, 1. 12.

Omnipotency, 56. Omnipotence: p. 51, I. 13; p . IQ ^ ; K , 9 Is xL

On, p. 171, 1. 7. See note.

One^ The same; in the phrases much one/ p. 146, 1. 8 ; all one/ p. 158.

Only, adv. Alone; Saint Paul, who was only learned amongst the
Apostles, Signifies that he alone of the Apostles was a learned man;
p. 49, 1. I8j p. 80, 1. 10. Cootp. Collect for Thirteenth Sunday after
Innity, of whose only gift it cometh.

Only but. Used for but or only : p. 174, ]. Io . See But only.
Open, y ./. To explain, or make plain: p. 43, 1. 27. Coinp. Acts xvii. 3.

lo disclose or reveal: p. 240, 1. 24.
Opened, p.p. Explained : p. 162, 1. 3.

And in regard of causes now in hand,
Which I have open d to his grace at large,
As touching France. Shakespeare, Hen. V, i. I. 78.

Operation, sb Influence, effect: p. 94, 1. 9; p. 21I , 1. 32 . A good
sherr.s-sack hath a two-fold operation in it. Shakespeare, 2 Hen IV
iv. 3. 104.

Operative, adj. Effective, productive : p. 80, 1. 9.
1 Our foster-nurse of nature is repose,
The which he lacks ; that to provide in him,
Are many simples operative, whose power
Will close the eye of anguish.

_ . Shakespeare, Lear, iv. 4. 14.

Opinion, sb. Reputation: p. 49, 1. 31 ; p . 87, 1. 10; p. 220, 1. 10.
But fish not, with this melancholy bait,
For this fool gudgeon, this opinion.

Shakespeare, Mer. of Ven. i. i. 102
Opposing, adj. Repugnant : p. 146, 1. 32.

Opposite, sb. An opponent: p. 229, 1. 8. Betake you to your guard;
for your opposite hath in him what youth, strength, skill, and wrath
can furnish man withal. Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 2^3; and
again, 1. 293.

Ordainraent, sb. Ordination: p. 23, 1. 17.

Order. To be in order = lo be the true order of proceeding: p. 207,

Ordinary, adj. Customary: p. 13, 1. 6.

Osteiisive, adj. p. 158, 1. 31. See note.

Other, pron. Others: p. 14, 1. 6 ; p. 62, I. 16; p. 160, 1 10

Outwardest, adj. Outermost: p. 120, 1. 15.

362 GLOSSARY.

Over, redundant in command over, p. 140, 11. 29, 30.

Overcommen, p.p. Overcome, achieved, accomplished: p. 76, 1. 13.

Compare Essay xxxiv, p. 146. See Comen.
Over usual. Too customary: p. 182, 1. 21.

P.

Painful, adj. Laborious: p. 243, 1. 32. I think we have some as
painful magistrates as ever was in England. Latimer, Sermons, p. 142
(Parker Soc!).

Painted forth, p.p. Depicted: p. 57, 1. 31 ; p. 206, 1. n ; p. 208, 1. 33.
Painted out, p.p. Depicted: p. 15, 1. 7.
Palliate, p.p. Palliated: p. 138, 1. 25.

Pantomimus, sb. A mimic: p. 136, 1. 21. Pantomime: m. An Actor
of many parts in one Play; one that can represent the gesture, and
counterfeit the speech, of any man. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet.
Parcel, sb. A part. Nothing parcel = no part : p. 7, 1. 5.

Many a thousand,
Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear.

Shakespeare, 3 Hen. VI. v. 6. 38.
Participant, adj. Partaking: p. 254, 1. 22.
Particular, adj. Private: p. 185,!. 12.

But value dwells not in particular will.

Shakespeare, Tr. and Cr. ii. 2. 53.

Particular, sb. A private affair ; used of an individual case : p. 8, 1. 22 ;
p. 156, 1. 9.

Though no man lesser fears the Greeks than I,
As far as toucheth my particular.

Shakespeare, Tr. and Cr. ii. 2. 9.

Pasquil, sb. A satire: p. 57, 1. 10. Sometimes contrived into pleasant
pasquils and satires, to move sport. Bacon, Obs. on a Libel (Works, viii.
148). Pasquille: f. A Pasquill ; a Libell clapt on a Poste, or Image.
Pasquin : m. The name of an Image, or Poste in Rome, whereon Libels
and defamatorie Rimes are fastened, and fathered; also, as Pasquille.
Cotgrave, Fr. Diet. The statue still stands at the corner of the Palazzo
Braschi, near the Piazza Navona.

Passage, sb. A ford, or pass: p. 56, 1. n ; p. 68, 1. 3. Comp. Judges
xii. 6 ; I Sam. xiii. 23. Metaphorically, a proceeding, process, transaction,
course: p. 25, 1. 19 ; p. 91, 1. 21 ; p. 100, 1. 18 ; p. ^146, 1. II. To
give passage = to give way : p. 39, 1. 21. In passage = in passing, cur
sorily : p. 78, 1. 28 ; p. 205, 1. 3 ; p. 207, 1. 17 ; p. 262, 1. 26.
Passed, adj. Past : p. 93, 1. 16 ; p. 139, 1. 26 ; p. 239, 1. 18. See note
on p. 139, and compare Drayton, Polyolbion, i. 383

1 And by his present losse, his passed error found.
Pastor, sb. A shepherd: p. 199, 1. 21. See Jer. xxiii. i, 2.
Patience, sb. In its literal sense of endurance of suffering : p. 143, H. 3, 4.
Peccant, adj. Morbid, unhealthy : p. 37, 1. 32 ; p. 43, 1. 28. L humeur
peccante. The corrupt, or corrupting humor in the bodie. Cotgrave,
Fr. Diet.

G L O S S A R Y.

Pedanti, sb. A pedant : p. 13, 11. if>, 19. PI ur . pedanles : p. 13, 11. 7, 14;
p. 21, 1. 8. From the It. fedante, which appears not to have been quite
naturalised in 1605. Pedante occurs in Florio s Worlde of Wordes,
1598; and in Shakespeare s Love s Labour s Lost, iii. I. 179, A domi
neering psdant o er the boy, it must have been pronounced as a dis
syllable. The first ed. of this play was published in 1508

Pedantical, adj. Pedantic: p. 13, 1. 26; p. 165, 1. 3.

Pensileness, sb. Suspended condition : p. 4;, 1. 26.

Percase, adv. Perhaps: p. 209, 1. u.

Peremptory, adj. Destructive : p. 53, 1. 18.

Perfective, adj. Capable of being perfected or improved: p. 25^, I. 2.
Compare Demonstrative.

Peruse, v. t. To review : p. 3, 1. 21. See Shakespeare, Rich. II, iii. 3. 53.
4 That from this castle s tatter d battlements
Our fair appointments may be well perused.

Phainomena, p. 129, 1. 30. This mode of spelling shows that the word
in Bacon s time had not become fully naturalised, though in p. 127, 1. 23
it appears in its usual form. Later still in the Reliquiae Wotto niaiix
(p. 101, ed. 1655) I find phainomenon.

Physic, sb. Physics, or physical science: p. Ill, 1. 33 ; p. 114, 1. 21.

Pilosity, sb. Hairiness : p. 120, 1. 10.

Place, sb. A passage of an author or book : p. 7, 1. 32 ; p. 8, 1. i 2 ; p.
190, 1. 25. A topic or subject of discourse : p. 155, 1. 33. A piazza , or
public square ; here, the Forum: p. 220, 1. 12 ; p. 241, 1. 10. To give
place = to yield: p. 98, 1. 19.

Plash, sb. A shallow pool, a puddle : p. 244, 1. 32.

Platform, sb. Plan: p. 44, 1. 12; p. 114, 1. 12 . Pattern : p. 187, 1. 19.
See note on p. 44.

Ply, sb. Bend, bias: p. 239, 1. 19. For it is true, that late learners,
cannot so well take the pile. Essay xxxix. p. 164.

Poesy, sb. A poem : p. 35, 1. 6. Poetry : p. 60, 1. 28 ; p. 211, 1. 25.

Point, sb. In the phrase was of such a point as whereat Sarah laughed :
P 2 53> ! I0 ; where the Latin has de ht/ji/sinodi re extitit quam irrisui
habebat Sarah.

Police, v.t. To regulate : p. 56, 1. u. Spain, says Bacon, in his Observa
tions on a Libel (Works, viii. 169) is not in brief an enemy to be feared
by a nation seated, manned, furnished, and pollicied as in England ; where
two MSS. read poll iced.

Politique, sb. A politician : p. 5, 1. 9 ; p. 10, 1. 17 ; p. 18, 1. 12, &c. In
p. 13, 1. 6, it is used as an adjective ; politique men = politicians.

Popular estate. A democracy : p. 53, 1. 8; p. 208, 1. i. Therefore, we
see it (i. e. boldness) hath done wonders, in popular states. Essay xii.
P-45-

Popularity, sb. Democratic character: p. 252, 1. 5.

Populous, adj. Numerous : p. 243, 1. 5. See Dcut. xxvi. 5.

Portugal, adj. Portuguese: p. 29, 1. 23.

Position, *b. The laying down of a law: p. 147, 1. 1 1. A maxim, senti
ment: p. 221, 1. I ; p. 227, 1. 19 ; p. 2 4 (>, 1. 2O.

Possess, v.i. To prepossess: p. 224, 1. 3.

Practique, sb. Practice : p. 165, I. 33.

364 GLOSSARY.

Practise, v.i. To plot: p. 179, 1. 2. He will practise against thee by

poison. Shakespeare, As You Like It, i. I. 156.
Pray in aid. To call in to one s assistance : p. 1 74, 1. 23.

1 A conqueror that will pray in aid for kindness,
Where he for grace is kneel d to.

Shakespeare, Ant. and Cl. v. 2. 27.

Sir T. Hanmer in his note on this passage says : Praying in aid is a term
used for a petition made in a court of justice for the calling in of help
from another that hath an interest in the cause in question.
Precedent, adj. Preceding, previous: p. 82, 1. 26; p. 214, 1. 7.
4 Our own precedent passions do instruct us
What levity s in youth.

Shakespeare, Tim. of Ath. i. I. 133.
Preception, sb. Precept : p. 214, 1. 31.

Prefer, v.t. To promote: p. 3, 1. 31. See Esth. ii. 9; Dan. vi. 3.
Preferred, p.p. Recommended: p. 203,!. 14.

Large gifts have I bestow d on learned clerks,
Because my gift preferr d me to the king.

Shakespeare, 2 Hen. VI, iv. 7. 77.

Preferred before. Preferred to : p. 48, 1. 13. See John i. 15.
Prelusive, adj. Preliminary, introductory : p. 94, 1. 23.
Premeditate, p.p. Premeditated : p. 82, 1. 6 ; p. 156, 1. 8.
Prenotion, sb. Foreknowledge: p. 130, 1. 25 ; p. 145, 1. 23.
Preoccupate, v.t. To preoccupy: p. 268, 1. 14.
Preposterous, adj. Inverted in order; literally, having the last hrst

p. 243, 1. 21.

Prescript, sb. A prescription: p. 22, 1. 25 ; p. 132, 1. n ; p. 142, 1. 5.
Present, v.t. To represent: p. 100, 1. 2.

Ay, my commander : when I presented Ceres,
I thought to have told thee of it.

Shakespeare, Temp. iv. I. 167.

Present, adj. Immediate: p. 222, 1. 13. Present speeches = speeches
made on the spur of the moment, impromptu speeches: p. loo, 1. 22.
In present -- Lat. in prtesenti, at present: p. 202, 1. 16.
Presention, sb. Presentiment : p. 144, 1. 31.
Press, v.t. To pursue eagerly: p. 226, 1. 19. Pressing the fact seems

to mean urgently pursuing the business in hand : p. 235, 1. 27.
Pretence, sb. The thing pretended or aimed at : p. 124, 1. 5.
Pretend, v. i. To aim at, propose as an end or object : p. 36, 11. 5, 7, 10;

p. 211, 1. 13.

Pretermit, v.t. To pass by : p. 208, 1. 17 ; p. 215, 1. 30.
Prevent, v.i. To anticipate: p. 200, 1. 33; P- 201, i. 24. Comp. Ps.

cxix. 148.

Prevented, p.p. Anticipated: p. 171,!. 10.
Price, sb. Value: p. 26, 1. 13 ; p. 29, 1. 8, &c. See Matt. xiii. 46. To

be in price = to be valued : p. 29, 1. 24.
Prime, adj. Chief, excellent : p. 199, 1. 32.
Prince, used of Queen Elizabeth : p. 58, 1. 2.
Print, sb. Impression, of a seal : p. 69, 1. 16.
Privateness, sb. Privacy : p. 10, 1. 29 ; p. 15, 1. 16, &c. Comp. Essay

GLOSSARY.

xi. p. 39 : Nay, retire men cannot, when they would ; neither will they,

when it were reason : but are impatient of privatenease, even in age, and

sicknesse, which require the shadow.

Probably, adv. With probability, in a probable manner : p. 156, 1. 29.
Probation, s6. Trial; and hence, proof from experience : p. 141* 1 10

p. 158, 1. 31.

Proceed, v. i. It proceedeth = the result is : p. 79, I. 3.
Proceeding, sb. Progress: p. 170, 1. 9; p. 173, H. Q, IO p. 193, 1. 3O .
Proceeding upon. Resulting from : p. i, 1. 2.

Profession, sb. Means of living, livelihood : p. 42, 1. 25 ; p. 43, 1. 9.
Professory, adj. Professional : p. 79, 1. i. See p. 43, *1. 7, &c.
Proficience, sb. Progress, advancement : p. 43, 1. 30; p. 76, 1/27.
Profiting, sb. Profit, advantage: p. 183, 1. 19.
Progression, sb. Progress: p. 76, 1. 27; p. 78, 1. 27.
Promiscuous, adj. Mixed indiscriminately: p. 113, 1. 27.
Proof, sb. Experiment: p. 119, 1. 27. Good or ill proof is the proving

or turning out good or ill : p. 223, 11. 22, 23.
Proper, adj. One s own : p. 182, 1. 3.
Propriety, sb. Peculiarity : p. i, 1. 10 ; p. 4, 1. 9 ; p. 6, 1. I. Property :

p. 113, 1. 18; p. 212, 1. 28; p. 252, 1. 12. Receipts of propriety ~

specific receipts, proper or peculiar to certain diseases: p. 140. I. 24.

Not for propriety = not appropriate to particular diseases, as Bacon

explains afterwards : p. 141,!. 2.
Prosecution, sb. Investigation : p. 84, 1. 7.
Provocation, sb. Incitement: p. 50, 1. 18.
Punctual, adj. Minute: p. 25, 1. 21.
Puntos, sb. Minute observances, punctilios : p. 219, 1. 2.
Purchase, sb. Acquisition, that which is acquired : p. 16, 1. 4. Value :

p. 242, 1. 14.

Pureness, sb. Purity : p. 29, 1. 3,
Purgament, sb. An excretion : p. 139, 1. 6.

Pursuance, sb. A prosecuting or following out, sequence : p. 143, 1. 19.
Pursued, p.p. Followed out: p. 106, 1. 14.

Pursuit, sb. Consecutiveness, sequence: p. 142, 1. 13; p. ifia, 1. 29.
Pusillanimity, . 6. Littleness of mind : p. 49, 1. 33 ; p. 205. I. 13.
Put forth, v.refl. To endeavour: p. 70, 1. 2.
Put to, v . t. To apply: p. 156, 1. 10.
Pyramides, sb. p. 117, 1. 18. The old form of the word before it wa>

naturalised. Compare Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2. 6l :

Rather make
My country s high pyramides my gibbet.

In Minsheu s Spanish Dictionary (1599), s.v. Piramide, the singular is

given as pyramis. But Cotgrave (Fr. Diet.) and Florio (Ital. Diet.)

both use piramides as singular.

Q.

Question, v. t. To call in question: p. 132, 1. 16.

Quintuple, adj. Fivefold: p. 169, 1. 14.

Quit, v.refl. To get quit of, relieve oneself: p. 221, 1. 1 6.

G L O S S A R r.

R.

Raven, used as a feminine noun, p. 151, 1. 23. In the Authorized Version
it is masculine.

Reach, sb. A contrivance: p. 232, 1. 17-

Reader, sb. A lecturer: p. 78, 1. i ; p. 79, 1. 17. Still retained in the
Universities and the Inns of Court.

Reason. By reason = because : p. 19, 1. 6 ; p. 167, 1. 20. It was
reason = it was reasonable : p. 27, 1. 10. It is reason : p. 64, I. 19.

Receipt, sb. Power of receiving, capacity: p. 7, 1. 9. Reception: p. 77,
1. 14 ; p. 100, 1. 10.

Receive, v. t. To admit: p. 157, 1. 18.

Recess, sb. A withdrawal, retirement : p. 117, 1. 10.

Recompense, v. t. To compensate for: p. 14, I. 3.

Reconcilement, sb. Reconciliation: p. 223, 1. 27; p. 231, 1. 4.

Redargution, sb. Reply, refutation: p. 18, 1. 14; p. 84, 1. 6 ; p. 159,
1. 1 8. Redargution: f. A redargution, checking, reprouing, reprehend
ing, controwling. Cotgrave, Fr. Diet."

Reduced. Reduced to stupid = rendered stupid: p. 216, I. 33.

Re-edify, v. t. To rebuild : p. 56, I. 9.

Reflect, v.i. To be reflected : p. 161, 1. 7.

Refrain, v. t. To restrain, hold in check as with a bridle: p. 53, 1. 17 ;
p. 183, I. 3; p. 192, 1. 26.

Regiment, sb. Regimen, training : p. 3, 1. 6 ; p. 97, 1. 19. Rule, govern
ment: p. 58, 1. 15.

Region, sb. Climate, atmosphere : p. 206, 1. 26. See note on Hamlet, ii.
2.472.

Regular, adj. Rigid in adhering to rule, methodical : p. 14, 1. 2$. Bacon
had previously (p. 10, 1. 22) spoken of one of the charges brought against
learned men that they were too peremptory or positive by strictness of
rules and axioms. For the word see Essay xxx. p. 133.

Reintegrate, v. t. To restore : p. in, 1. 19.

Relation, sb. p. 39, 1. 12. Relation is, where, in consideration of law
two times, or other things are considered so as if they were all one ; and
by this, the thing subsequent is said to take his effect by relation at the
time preceding. Cowel s Law Dictionary, ed. 1727. Narrative, story :
p. 52,1. 24; p. 8^, 1. 3.

Reluctation, sb. Struggle, violent eflort, reluctance : p. 45, 1. 27 ; p. Io8 (
1. 20; p. 253, 1. 3.

Remembered, p.p. Mentioned : p. 102, 1. 23; p. 174, 1. 30.

Remora, sb. A fabulous fish, which was supposed to delay the progress of
a vessel by adhering to its bottom ; and so generally, a hindrance : p. 119,
1. 20. Many holde opinion, that in that last and famous sea-fight, which
Antonie lost against Augustus, his Admirall-gallie was in her course staied
by that little fish, the Latines call Remora, and the English a Sucke-stone,
whose propertie is, to stay any ship he can fasten himsdfe vnto. Mou-
taigne s Essaies, transl. Florio, p. 270, ed. 1603.

Remove, sb. Removal : p. 98, 1. 29 ; p. 242, 1. 28.

Reposed, />/> Laid up as in store : p. 77i ! 2 ^-

G L O S S A R Y. 367

Reprehensions, si. Reproofs : p. 100, 1. 14.

Reprove, v. t. To refute : p. 112, I. 19.

Repugnancy, sb. Repugnance : p. 120, 1. 7; p. 240, 1. 8.

Kescussing, sb. Rescuing: p. 338, 1. -23. Rescous and Rescusser are the
old law terms for rescue and rescuer, and although I have not been able to
find any other instance of the occurrence of rescussing, I have not hesi
tated to retain it, as it is found in the editions of 1605 and 1629. Chaucer
(Cant. Tales, 2645) uses rescovs :

4 And in the rescous of this Palamon
The stronge kyng Ligurgius is born adoun.

Resemble, v. t. To compare : p. 1 78, 1. 6.

Resort, sb. Spring, source: p. 91, 1. 26. Comp. Essay xxii. p. 95 : the
resorts and falls of businesse.

Respective, adj. Having respect or reference to: p. 31,!. 12. Appro
priate: p. i, 1.9. Special, relative: p. 114, 11. 25, 29, 30; p. 198, 1. 14.
Peculiar : p. 265, 1. 20.

Respectively, adv. Appropriately: p. 179, I. 32. Relatively: p. 263,
1. 74.

Respect, sb. Consideration: p. 53, 1. 33; p. 194, 1. 10; p. 217, 1. 2;> ;
p. 228, 1. 28. For bribes come but now and then; but if importunitie,
or idle respects lead a man, he shall never be without. Essay xi. p. 42.
See Hamlet, iii. I. 68.

Rest, v.i. To remain : p. 129, 1. 8. Since therefore they must be used,
in such cases, there resteth to spcake, how they are to be brideled. Essay
xxxvi. p. 154.

Retire, v. t. To withdraw: p. 103, 1. 12.

Reverent, adj. Reverend, venerable: p. 19, 1. 18.

Reverted, p.p. Turned back: p. 105, I. 16.

Revolve, v. t. To reflect upon: p. 3, 1. 21 ; p. 157, 1. 9.

Revolved,/)./). Considered, reflecte-d upon : p. 28, 1. 22 ; p. 212, 1. 4.

Rhapsody, sb. A patchwork, confused mixture: p. ic6, 1. i. This
concerneth not those mingle-mangles of many kindes of stufie, or as the
Grecians call them Rapsodies. Florio s Montaigne, p. 68, ed. 1603.

Rhetorics, sb. Rhetoric: p. 177, I, 9.

Round about, v. i. To roam about : p. 8, 1. 15. For a man may wander
in the way, by rounding up and down. Bacon, Of the Interp. of Nature
(Works, iii. 232).

Rudiment, sb. An elementary form : p. 48, 1. 19.

Rule over, v. t. To decide, as a judge decides a point of law : p. 7, 1. 6.

S.

Sabbathless, adj. Restless: p. 247, 1. 14.

Sacramental, adj. Bound by an oath or solemn obligation: p. 146,!. 2.j.

Saddest, adj. Most serious, most important : p. 220, I. 8.

Sake. For .... sake : As in the phrases for entertainment sake : p. f>i,
1. 16; for demonstration sake : p. 185, 1. 21 ; for example s.ike, p. 81,
1. 16; assurance sake/ p. 159. 1. 1 6. Compare Hooker, Eccl. Pol. i.
p. 156 (ed. Keble) : for that work s.ike which we covet to perform.

3 68

GLOSSARY.

Sale, sb. Confections of sale = confections which are offered for sale:

p. 141, 1. I.
Salomon, sb. Solomon: p. 20, 1. 5. The old form of the name in the

Geneva Bible.

Sapience, s6. Wisdom : p. 44, 1. 18; p. 118, 1. 16.
Satisfactory, adj. Bacon uses this word on three occasions in a sense
which, so far as I am aware, has not been noticed in the dictionaries.
These satisfactory and specious causes (p. 119, 1. 5); by way of
argument or satisfactory reason (p. 153, 1. 16); more satisfactory than
substantial (p. 260, 1. 7). See also p. 30, 1. 26. From these instances it
appears that an explanation is satisfactory which merely stops the mouth
of the inquirer, and, as Bacon says of Mirabilaries, gives contentment to
the appetite of curious and vain wits (p. 87). Again, in the same spirit
he speaks of the methods of tradition of knowledge in his time; he that
receiveth knowledge desireth rather present satisfaction, than expectant
inquiry: and so rather not to doubt, than not to err (p. 171). Compare
the use of satisfy, p. 172, 1. 33.

Scale. By scale = by degrees, step by step : p. J 18, 1. 4.

Scape, v. t. To escape : p. 161, 1. 20.

Science, sb. Knowledge, erudition: p. 59, 1. 32.

Scope, sb. Mark to aim at; and so, aim, object ; p. 42, 1. 6.

Seducement, sb. Seduction: p. 14, 1. 17; p. 153, 1. 3.

Seeing, used as an adjective, p. 76, 1. 6.

Seek, to. To be to seek = to be at a loss: p. 13, 1. 31; p. 25, 1. 20
For if you reduce usury, to one low rate, it will ease the common bor
rower, but the merchant will be to seeke for money. Essay xli. p. 171.

Seen, p.p. Versed, skilled : p. 25, 1. 19 ; p. 46, 1. 30 ; p. 136, 1. I.

Seem much, to. To appear a great thing : p. 3, 1. 28. So to think
much is to reckon highly as an act of importance.

Segregate, adj. Separate: p. 130, 1. 2; p. 216, 1. 13.

Septuagenary, adj. Seventy years old : p. 38, 1. 28.

Service, *6. Used especially of military service ; a campaign or engage
ment : p. 68, 1. 2. We speak of a soldier having seen service.

Set forward, v.t. To further, promote: p. 83, L 30. See I Chr. xxiii. 4.

Set into, v.t. To set to, apply oneself to: p. 82, 1. 18.

Seven. The seven wise men of Greece : p. 102, 1. 32. See note.

Sever, v. i. To be separated: p. 216, 1. 24; p. 217, 1. 29; p. 226, I. 20.

Several, adj. Separate: p. 185, 1. 14. See Matt. xxv. 15.

Severally, adv. In several ways : p. 5, 1. 7.

Severe, adj. Rigidly accurate: p. 87, 1. 4.

Severedly, adv. Separately: p. 128, 1. 12.

Shall, used for will : p. 80, 1. 27.

Shape, v.i. To acquire shape or form : p. 39, 1. 31.

Shoot, sb. A shot : p. 149, 1. n.

Shoot over, v.t. To overshoot the mark : p. 232, 1. 16.

Should, used for would : p. 2, 1. 23 ; p. 66, 1. 5 ; p. 126, 1. 17 ; p. 155,
1. 28.

Show, sb. Semblance, appearance : p. 3, 1. 30 ; p. IO2, 1. 9. See Is. iii. 9.

Side. On the other side = on the other hand : p. 35, 1. 22. So also o(
the other side : p. 210, 1. 30.

GLOSSARY. 369

Sign unto, v. i. To attest : p. 192, 1. 6.

Signify, v. t. To indicate : p. 65, 1. 9.

Similitude, sb. Likeness: p. 70, 1. 26; p. 215, 1. 16. Comparison
p. 87, 1. 10 ; p. 147, 1. 32.

Simples, sb. Herbs : p. 80, 1. 17.

Sincereness, sb. Sincerity : p. 195, 1. 29.

Skill, v.i. To understand, know: p. 66, 1. I. Comp. i Kings v. 6;
2 Chr. ii. 7, 8, xxxiv. 12.

Slug, v. t. To delay, hinder: p. 119, 1. 21.

Sobriety, sb. Temperance in its widest sense, sobermindedness : p. i<\
1. 7; p. 44, 1. 14; p. 216, 1. 8.

Softest, adj. Most effeminate : p. 195, I. 25.

Softness, sb. Effeminacy: p. 16, 1. 9.

Solemn, adj. Grave, decorous: p. 235, 11. 18, 27.

Solidness, sb. Solidity: p. 119, 1. 17.

So long time. So long : p. 38, 1. 23.

Solute, adj. Free, unfettered : p. 259, 1. 4 ; p. 260, 1. 33.

Some, used with a singular, p. 194, 1. 8.

Sometime, adv. Sometimes: p. 20, 1. a ; p. 122, 1. 29. As it is scene
sometime in friars. Essay x. p. 38.

Soothe, v.t. To flatter: p. 205, I. 23.

Thou art perjured too,
And soothest up greatness.

Shakespeare, K. John, iii. r. lai.

Sophister, sb. A sophist : p. 160, 1. 3.

A subtle traitor needs no sophisler.

Shakespeare, 2 Hen. VI. v. I. 191.

Sorcery, sb. Fortune-telling by casting lots: p. 87, 1. 24.

Sort, sb. A class of persons : p. 29, 1. 10; p. 163, 1. 6.

The shallowest thick-skin of that barren sort.

Shakespeare, Mid. N. s Dr. iii. 2, 13.
In sor/ = in such a manner: p. 224, 1. 3 ; p. 255, 1. 21.

Sort, v.i. To agree: p. 14, 1. 12; p. 234, 1. 18. A frend may speak,
as the case requires, and not as it sorteth with the person. Essay xxvii
p. 115.

Sortable, adj. Agreeable, suitable : p. 58, 1. 20.

Sounding, adj. That which merely gives forth a sound ; and so, meta
phorically, hollow, unsubstantial : p. 7, 1. 27.

Spacious, adj. Widely extended: p. 67, 1. 33. Not used now of coun
tries.

Spake. Spoke; past tense of speak : p. 64, 1. 23.

Sparkle, sb. A spark : p. 238, 1. 22 ; p. 254, 1. 21.

Speak to. To speak of or upon, as a topic : p. 157, 1. 13.

Speak unto. To speak of, or with reference to : p. 27, 1. 33.

Specially, adv. Especially: p. 51, 1. 27.

Speculation, sb. Inquiry, investigation : p. 87, 1. 30 ; p. 125, I. IO.

Speculative, adj. Inquisitive: p. 24, 1. 26; p. in, 1. 14.

Spial, sb. A spy : p. So, 11. 24, 26. But yet their trust towards them,
hath rather beene as to good spialls, and good whisperers ; then good
magistrates, and officers. Essay xliv. p. 179.
B b

GLOSSARY.

Spinosity, sb. Thorniness: p. 148, 1. 26.

Spleen, sb. Ill humour, anger ; of which the spleen was believed to be

the seat : p. 245, 1. 8.

If she must teem,

Create her child of spleen ; that it may live,
And be a thwart disnatured torment to her.

Shakespeare, K. Lear, i. 4. 304.

See also the quotation under Arroganey.
Stand, v. i. To stand firm, keep one s position: p. 23, 1. 31 ; p. 36, 1. 32.

See Eph. vi. 13. To stop : p. 210, 1. 8.
Stand with. To be consistent with : p. 112, 1. II. It is true, speedie

profit is not to be neglected, as farre as may stand, with the good of

the plantation, but no further. Essay xxxiii. p. 139.
State, sb. Original condition: p. 27, 1. 26 ; p. 195, 1. 6. Estate: p 149,

1. 26. Certainly who hath a state to repaire, may not despise small

things. Essay xxviii. p. 117. Stability : p. 193, 1. 23. In the favours

of others or the good windes of fortune we have no state or certainty.

Colours of Good and Evil, p. 262.
Station, sb. A standing-place: p. 119, 1. 17.

Statua, sb. Statue: p. 72, 1. 21; p. 85, 1. 29; p. 202, 1. 24; p. 241, 1. 9.
Even at the base of Pompey s statua.

Shakespeare, Jul. Caes. iii. i. 192.
Stay, sb. A standstill: p. 37, 1. 2. He that standeth^ at a stay, when

others rise, can hardly avoid motions of envy. Essay xiv. p. 52.
Stay, v. i. To stand still, rest: p. 119, 1. 5. To dwell : p. 233, 1. 26.
Still, adv. Constantly : p. 39, 1. 16 ; p. 69, 1. II ; p. 72, 1. 28.
Thou call dst me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the s/z//-vex d Bermoothes.

Shakespeare, Tempest, i. 2. 229.
Stond, s6. An impediment, hindrance: p. 211, 1. 3. The removing of

the stands and impediments of the mind doth often clear the passage and

current of a man s fortune. Bacon, Disc, touching Helps for the Intell.

Powers (Works, vii. 99). See also Essay xl. p. 165.
Stood upon. Insisted upon: p. 8, 1. 30; p. 174, 1. 28. But it is so

plaine, that every man profiteth in that hee most intendeth, that it needeth

not be stood upon. Essay xxix. p. l?6.

Story, sb. History : p. 86, 1. 4; p. 90, 1. 32. See 2 Chr. xiii. 22.
Strait, adj. Tight: p. 210, 1. 10; p. 219, 1. 13. ^
Straitly, adv. Strictly : p. 43, 1. 3. See Gen. xliii. 7.
Stroke. Struck; the preterite of strike : p. 150, 11. 32, 33.
Stupid. Reduced to stupid = rendered stupid : p. 216, 1. 33. Compare

leaveth it for suspect, p. 8 1, 1. 12.

Style, sb. Title or formula, designation : p. 44, 1. 33 ; p. 57, 1. 27.
Style, sb. The pen of the ancient Greeks and Romans, one end of

which was pointed for the purpose of writing on the wax tablets;

the other broad and flat to erase what had been written. Hence the

Latin phrase vertere stylum, to turn the style, = to erase, and this is

imitated by Bacon, p. 61, 1. 23.
Styled. See note on p. 101, 1. 19. Perhaps we should read may be so

styled.

GLOSSARy. 371

Subject, adj. Liable : p. 259, 1. 13.

A widow, husbandless, subject to fears.

Shakespeare, K. John, in. 1.14.
Subject, sb. Used as a collective noun for the people: p. 55, 1. 33, as in

Hamlet, i. I. 72.

Suborn, v. t. Like the Lat. subornare, to furnish, equip : p. 187, 1. 14.
Subsistence, sb. Substance: p. 44, 1. 22.
Substantive, adj. Substantial : p. 106, 1. 8.
Subtility, sb. Subtilty; the old form of spelling, which Bacon most

frequently adopts; from Lat. subtilitas : p. 32, 1. 10; &c.
Success, sb. The result or issue of an action, good or bad : p. 101, 1. 31 :
P- J 35 4- I* was formerly used with some qualifying adjective. See
Josh. i. 8.

Such one. Such, such a one : p. 253, 1. 15.
Succours. Plural for singular : p. 28, 1. 18.
Suddenly, adv. Quickly, hastily : p. 184, 1. 16; p. 234, 1. 8.
4 Muse not that I thus suddetily proceed.

Shakespeare, Two Gent, of Ver. i. 3. 64.
And suddenly resolve me in my suit.

Id. Love s Lab. Lost, ii. 2. no.
Suffice, v.i. To be competent: p. 172, 1. 23.
Sufficient, adj. Competent, able: p. 79, 1. 18; p. 93, 1. 32; p. 221,

1. 25. Sufficient men = men of capacity, ability.
Sufficiency, sb. Ability, capacity : p. 216, 1. 29. See 2 Cor. iii. 5.
Summary, adj. Chief, most important : p. 6, 1. 30; p. 19, 1. 30 ; p. 45,

LSI.

Suppeditation, sb. Assistance : p. 206, 1. 2.

Supply, v.t. To assist : p. 76, 1. 16.

Suppose, v.t. To imagine: p. 267, 1. 19-

Supposed, adj. Fictitious, imaginary: p. 45, 1. 5. Upon supposed
fairness. Shakespeare, Mer. of Yen. iii. 2. 94. Wounding supposed
peace. Id. 2 Hen. IV. iv. 5. 196.

Surcharge, sb. Surfeit : p. 83, 1. 20.

Surd, adj. Literally, without sound, unmeaning : p. 255, 1. I.

Suspect, adj. Suspected, suspicious: p. 81, 1. 12; p. 260, 1. 19. Cer
tainly in Italy, they hold it a little suspect in popes, when they have often
in their mouth, padre commune. Essay li. p. 208.

Swelling, sb. Inflation of mind by pride: p. 10, 1. 13- Compaie 2 Cor.
xii. 20.

Syntax, sb. Arrangement: p. 182, 1. 28.

Systasis, sb. See p. 174, 1. 27.

T.

Table, sb. A tablet, picture: p. 57, 1. 31. A pair of tables, p. 64, I. IO.
Who art the table wherein all my thoughts
Are visibly character d and engraved.

Shakespeare, Two Gent, of Vcr. ii. 7. 3.
B b 2

37*

GLOSSARY.

Taint, v.t. To sully, tarnish : p. 27, 1. 28. With the use of blemish and
taint in this passage, compare Macbeth, iv. 3. 124 :

The taints and blames I laid upon myself.
Take up, v.refl. To check oneself: p. 65, 1. 23.
Take upon. To arrogate, assume to oneself: p. 65, 1. 31.
Tax, v.t. To censure: p. 24, 1. 4; p. 135, 1. 14. In the former passage
the Latin translation takes the word in the modern sense. See note.
They tax our policy and call it cowardice.

Shakespeare, Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 197.

Taxation, sb. Censure, reprehension: p. 62, 1. 17; p. 103, 1. 27. You ll
be whipped for taxation one of these days. Shakespeare, As You Like
It, i. 2. 91.

Temperature, sb. Temperament : p. 21, 1. 26; p. 59, 1. 2. The best
composition, and temperature is, to have opennesse in fame and opinion ;
secrecy in habit ; dissimulation in seasonable use ; and a power to faigne,
if there be no remedy. Essay vi. p. 22.

Tenderness, sb. Sensitiveness: p. 192, 1. 29. Tenderness of coun
tenance =bashfulness: p. 208,1. 31.

Lest I give cause
To be suspected of more tenderness
Than doth become a man.

Shakespeare, Cymb. i. I. 94.
Term, sb. Limit, termination: p. 129, 1. 14.
Terrene, adj. Earthly: p. 48, 1. 13.

Alack, our terrene moon

Is now eclipsed. Shakespeare, Ant. and Cl. iii. 13. 153.
That, pron. That which: p. 66, 1. 30; p. no, 1. 8 ; p. 112, 1. 9 ; p. 155,

1. 2.

The, used for the possessive pronoun its : p. 27, 1. 26. Compare the
version in the Bishops Bible of Lev. xxv. 5 : That which groweth of
the owne accord of thy haruest, thou shalt not reape. And also Holland s
Plutarch, p. 812 (ed. 1603) : Anstotle arid Plato doe holde, that matter
is corporall, without forme, shape, figure and qualitie, in the owne nature
and propertied
The, redundant. At the first: p. 37, 11. 7, II. The which: p. 37,!. 31 ;

p. 234, 1. 10. Other the heathen gods : p. 38, 1. 25.
Theomachy, sb. A battle with the gods : p. 194, 1. 18.
Theory, sb. Speculation : p. in, 1. 33.
Think much. To take ill, grudge : p. 88, 1. 30.
Through-lights, sb. Lights or windows on both sides of a room : p. 97*

1. 25. C0mp. Essay xlv. p. 183.
Throughly, adv. Thoroughly; p. 67, 1. 28; p. 86, 1. 19. See Matt.

iii. 12.

Through-passage, sb. Transit, traversing: p. 98, 1. 15.
Thwart, adj. Perverse: p. 17, 1. 10.

Create her child of spleen ; that it may live,
And be a thwart disnatured torment to her.

Shakespeare, K. Lear, i. 4. 305.

To, prep. Designed to* = designed for: p. 234, 1. 31. Comp. gain to,
p. 43, 1. 25 ; employ to p. 252, 1. 20. To redundant in rather thar

GLOSSARY.

to suffer* : p. 189, I. 12. Comp. Colours of Good and Evil, p. 262 ; Yet
you shall seldome see them complaine, but to set a good face upon it.

Tongue, sb. Language: p. 17, 1. 19.

Touch, sb. To give a touch of = to allude to, mention slightly: p. 96,
1. 12. Testing, examination, p. 153, 1. n, as of gold by the touch-stone.

Touching, prep. Concerning: p. 59, 1. 22; p. 88, 1. 25.

Tractate, sb. A treatise: p. 245, 1. 17.

Tradition, sb. The delivery of knowledge: p. 166, 1. 8 ; p. 170, 1. 5;
p. 176, 1. 28.

Traduced, p.p. In the passage in which this word occurs, p. 20, 1. 25,
traduce appears to be used with a distinct reference to its original mean
ing to lead along, lead in procession, and so to parade. Hence
traduced to contempt would mean paraded contemptuously, or so as to
excite contempt.

Traducement, sb. Misrepresentation, calumny : p. 38, 1. i ; p. 43, 1. 31.

Twere a concealment

Worse than a theft, no less than a tradncement,
To hide your doings. Shakespeare, Cor. i. 9. 22.

Translation, sb. A metaphor: p. 61, 1. 29. See note.

Travail, v. i. To labour: p. 49, 1. 7 ; p. 80, 1. 31.

Travail, sb. Labour: p. 10, 1. 27; p. 28, 1. 23, &c. Travails = pains .
p. 208, 1. 22. See Num. xx. 14, Lam. iii. 5.

Treacle, sb. p. 140, 1. 31. Formerly triacle from Gk. OrjpiaKrj, an antidote
to the viper s poison. " Treacle," or " triacle," as Chaucer wrote it, was
originally a Greek word, and wrapped up in itself the once popular belief
(an anticipation, by the way, of homoeopathy), that a confection of the
viper s flesh was the most potent antidote against the viper s bite. . . .
Expressing first this antidote, it then came to express any antidote, then
any medicinal confection or sweet syrup ; and lastly that particular syrup,
namely, the sweet syrup of molasses, to which alone it is now restricted.
Trench, English Past and Present, fourth ed. p. iSS. Coverdale s version
of Jer. viii. 22 is I am heuy and abashed, for there is no more Triacle
at Galaad; and of Jer. xlvi. II Go vp (o Galaad) and bringe triacle
vnto the doughter off Egipte.

Trepidation, sb. Trembling ; used in a literal sense: p. 94, 1. 19.

Triplicity, sb. A threefold combination or nature: p. 4, 1. 5; p. 188, 1. 18.

Trivial, adj. Trite, commonplace : p. 1/4,!. 17.

Trope, sb. A figure, generally of speech ; here applied to music : p. 107,
". 32, 33-

Tutor, sb. A guardian: p. 21, 1. u ; p. 184, 1. i. See Gal. iv. 2.

Typocosmy, sb. p. 176, 1. 21. Defined by Blount and others a figure
or type of the world. But this does not appear to me satisfactory.
Among the means that help the understanding and faculties thereof
Bacon enumerates Lullius Typocosmia. To reduce surnames to a
Methode, is matter for a Ramist, who should happly finde it to be a Typo-
cosmie. Camden, Remaines, p. 95, ed. 1605. It seems rather to mean
an orderly arrangement of the figures or types which play such an im
portant part in the Art of Lullius.

Tyrannous, adj. Tyrannical: p. 61, I. 30.

Tyranny, sb. Absolute power : p. 241, 1. 8 ; p. 202, 1. 8.

374 GLOSSARY.

u.

Unawares, at. Unexpectedly: p. u, 1. 7 ; p. 16, 1. 31. Comp. Ps.
xxxv. 8.

Uncivilly, adv. Rudely : p. 25, 1. 14.

Uncomely, adv. Ungracefully, awkwardly : p. 26, 1. 7.

Unconstancy, sb. Inconstancy : p. 38, 1. 33.

Uncredible, adj. Incredible : p. 35, 1. 28.

Understandingly, adv. Intelligently: p. 128, 1. 8.

Undertake, v. t. To deal with, contend with: p. 221, 1. 12.

Undervalue, sb. Depreciation : p. 4, 1. 25.

Universality, sb. The study of general principles : p. 78, 1. 24.

Unlikest, adj. Most unlike : p. 235, 1. 26.

Uumanured, p. p. Uncultivated : p. 84, 1. 8.

Unmovable, adj. Immovable: p. 158, 1. 13.

Unpartial, adj. Impartial: p. 234, 1. 12.

Unperfect, adj. Imperfect: p. pr, 1. i; p. 240, U 18. In the latter
passage the ed. of 1605 has vnperfite.

Unproper, adj. Improper: p. 41, 1. 2.

Unsafety, sb. Insecurity: p. 236, 1. 24.

Untaxed, p.p. Uncensured : p. 56, 1. 19.

Un winded, p.p. Unwound: p. 181, 1. 15.

Unwrap, v. t. To disentangle: p. 246, 1. 16.

Upon, prep. Used in phrases where we should now employ other pre
positions. Upon a natural curiosity = out of a natural curiosity :
p. 42, 1. 20. Proceeding upon some inward discontent = proceeding
from, &c. : p. 54, 1. 19. Upon a more original tradition : p. 104,!. 21.
Upon displeasure : p. 221, 1. 33. Upon heat : p. 231, 1. 23, &c. To
take advantage upon* = to take advantage of: p. 27, 1. 26. To do good
/>o = to do good to: p. 201, 1. 9. Multiplying and extending their
form upon other things : p. 195, 1. I. Study upon : p. 222, 1. 21.
Be bold upon : p. 223, 1. 8. See Glossary to Bacon s Essays.

Ure, sb. Use: p. 151, 1. 15; p. 171, 1. 27.

Use, v. i. To be accustomed : p. 21, 1. 3 ; p. 40, 1. 31.

Use, sb. Usance, interest, increase: p. 126, 1. 15.

V.

Value, v. t. To give value to: p. 118, 1. 10.

Vaporous, adj. Boastful, vain: p. 15. 1. 12; p. 123, I. 31.

Variably, adv. Unsystematically : p. 153, 1. 22.

Vastness, sb. A waste, wilderness : p. 120, 1. 5.

Vehemency, sb. Vehemence: p. 177, 1. 25.

Ventosity, sb. Windiness : p. 7, 1. 1,6 ; p. 95, 1. 13.

Verdure, sb. Literally, greenness ; and so, vegetation generally : p. 48,

1.17.
Verity, sb. Truth: p. 91, 1. 18 ; p. 109, 1. 20.

GLOSSARY. 375

Vermioulate, adj. Intricate, winding, like the moving of a worm : p. 31,

1.23.

Versatile, adj. Changeable : p. 24, 1. I.
Vestiments, sb. Vestments, dress: p. 88, 1. 33. Vestimento, as Veste,

any vestiment or vesture. Florio, Ital. Diet.

Vicissitude, sb. Change: p. 6, 1. 26. Order of things : p. 49, 1. 16.
Void, adj. Empty: p. 43, 1. 22.

Vollies, sb. Flights: p. 252, 1. II. From Fr. voice a flight of birds.
Volubility, sb. Rolling or twisting motion : p. 201, 1. 6.
Voluble, adj. Capable of revolving: p. 239, 1. 27.
Voluntary, sb. A volunteer : p. 66, 1. 14.

Voluptuary, adj. Belonging to pleasure : p. 133, 1. 25 ; p. 143, 1. 26.
Vulgar, adj. Common, familiar : p. 54, 1. 8.

W.

"Wait on. To attend: p. 49, 1. 17.

Wait upon. To attend : p. 95, 1. 3.

Want, sb. Defect, deficiency: p. 237, 11. 21, 23.

Warrant, v.i. To attest : p. n, 1. 27.

Watch candle, sb. A night light : p. 32, 1. 32. Compare Albumazar ii.

9; Why should I twine mine arms to cables, and sigh my soul to air?

Sit up all night like a watching candle, and distil my brains through my

eyelids? My good old mistress was wont to call me her watch-candle,

because it pleased her to say I did continually burn (and yet she suffered

me to waste almost to nothing). Bacon, Letter to King James (Works,

x. 280).
Water, sb. A piece of water: p. 105, 1. 9. Compare Tennyson, Morte

d Arthur :

On one side lay the ocean, and on one

Lay a great water, and the moon was full.
Wavering, sb. Oscillation : p. 94, 1. 19.
Way, in the phrase to hold way with = to keep pace with: p. 14, I. 16.

So to keep way with, p. 113, 1. 10 ; to take the way = to take steps

or measures: p. 173, 1. 27.

Way, sb. A road : p. 144, 1. 11 ; p. 246, 1. 25.

Ways. No ways = in no way: p. 28, 1. 16 ; p. 56, 1. 25 ; p. 221, 1. 15.
Weal, sb. Welfare, prosperity : p. 55, 1. 33.
Wear, v. i. To suffer from wear or use : p. 15, 1. 24.
Went of = were current about : p. 68, 1. 5.
Were better, p. 217, 1. 7 ; p. 222, 1. 25. We should now say a man

had better, or it were better for a man &c.
What time. At which time, when: p. 92, 1. 27.
Whereas, adv. Where : p. 68, 1. 9.
Whether, pron. Which, of two: p. 195, 1. 32.
Which, rel. pr. Who ; used of persons : p. 9, 1. 18 ; p. 28, 1. 21 ; p. 233,

L 12.

376

GLOSSARY.

Whiffler, sb. An officer whose duty it was to clear the way for a proces
sion : p. 152,1. 32.

Which like a mighty ivhiffler fore the king.

Shakespeare, Hen. V. v. Chor. 12.

"Wit, sb. Our modern word intellect expresses as nearly as possible the
meaning which wit had in Bacon s time : p. 33, 1. 26. See note on
p. 64, 1. 4, and comp. Essay vi. p. 18 ; xliv. p. 179. Games of wit are
games of skill or science as opposed to games of chance : p. 256, 1. 7.

"With, prep. Occurs where we should now use by. Waited on with =
attended by : p. 49, 1. 17. Attended with = attended by : p. 59, 1. 14.

"Withal, prep. With : p. 24, 1. 3. Plated after the case it governs.

"Within, prep. Among : p. 46, 1. 21.

"Without, prep. Beyond : p. 185, 1. 25 ; p. 204, 1. II. Comp. 2 Cor. x.

13. 15-
Word, sb. Motto: p. 98, 1. I.

And the device he bears upon his shield
Is a black Ethiope reaching at the sun ;
The word, Lux tua vita mihi.

Shakespeare, Per. ii. 2. 21.
"Work, To set on work = to set working: p. 198, 1. 7. So to set in

work = to put in motion : p. 240, 1. 23.
"Worthy, sb. A hero: p. 52, 1. 4. Comp. the nine worthies and Nah.

ii. 5.
Wrought, p.p. Influenced, worked upon: p. 177, 1. 24.

Anagcgical, adj. Mystical: p. 261, 1. 23.

Consul, sb. Loosely used for counsellor, senator*: p. 36, 1. 32. Com
pare Shakespeare, Othello, i. I. 25 ; i. 2. 43.

Piece, sb. A castle or fort: p. 173, 1. 14. See Jewell s Works (Parker
Soc. ed.), i. 485.

Additional Notes.

P. 1 8 [a]. Socrates however was not put to death till B.C. 399.

P. 228 [20]. Dr. Thompson, the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge,
has pointed out to me that the origin of Bacon s globe of matter and
globe of crystal or form is probably the a<patpos aladrjTos and the
atympos J/OTJTOS of Empedocles as interpreted by Proclus. See Proclus in
Tirnseum, p. 160 D, and Simplicius in Physica, p. 7 b.

THE END,

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Racon, Francis.

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