CONTENTS.

PAGK

THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, ..... 1

NOTES, . 68

INDEX TO NOTES, * 146

THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEAKNING.

BOOK I.

The
Advancement of Learning

Book I.

By

Francis Bacon

WITH NOTES BY

F. G. Selby, M.A. Oxon.

Late Scholar of Wadham College ; Principal and Professor, of

Logic and Moral Philosophy, Deccan College, Poona

Fellow of the University of Bombay

London
Macmillan and Co., Limited

New York: The Macmillan Company
1905

All rights reserved

1IOV I 0 19421

First Edition 1892.
Reprinted with alterations 1893, 1898, 1005.

GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.

THE

FIRST BOOK OF FRANCIS BACON ;

OF THE PROFICIENCE AND

ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING,

DIVINE AND HUMAN.

To the King.

THERE were under the law, excellent King, both daily
sacrifices and freewill offerings ; the one proceeding upon
ordinary observance, the other upon a devout cheerfulness :
in like manner there belongeth to kings from their servants
both tribute of duty and presents of affection. In the
former of these I hope I shall not live to be wanting,
according to my most humble duty, and the good pleasure
of your Majesty's employments : for the latter, I thought it
more respective to make choice of some oblation, which might
rather refer to the propriety and excellency of your individual 10
person, than to the business of your crown and state.

Wherefore, representing your Majesty many times unto
my mind, and beholding you not with the inquisitive eye of
presumption, to discover that which the Scripture telleth
me is inscrutable, but with the observant eye of duty and
admiration ; leaving aside the other parts of your virtue
and fortune, I have been touched, yea, and possessed with

2 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

an extreme wonder at those your virtues and faculties,
which the Philosophers call intellectual ; the largeness of
your capacity, the faithfulness of your memory, the swiftness
of your apprehension, the penetration of your judgment,
and the facility and order of your elocution : and I have
often thought, that of 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

10 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 delivered. And as the Scrip
ture 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 v
given your Majesty a composition of understanding admirable,

20 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 instru
ment 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 Csesar : Augusta profluens, et quae princi-
pern deceret, eloquentia fuit : [Augustus had an easy and fluent
way of speaking, such as became a sovereign.'] 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,

30 or speech that is framed after the imitation of some pattern
of eloquence, though never so excellent ; all this hath some
what servile, and holding of the subject. But your Majesty's
manner of speech is indeed prince-like, flowing as from a
fountain, and yet streaming and branching itself into nature's
order, full of facility and felicity, imitating none, and inimi
table by any. And as in your civil estate there appeareth to

THE FIRST BOOK. 3

be an emulation 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 inclina
tion 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 10
nature, and the universality and perfection of your learning.
For I am well assured that this which I shall say is no
amplification at all, but a positive and measured truth ;
which is, that there hath not been since Christ's time any
king or temporal monarch, which hath been so learned in all
literature and erudition, divine and human. For let a man
seriously and diligently revolve and peruse the succession of
the emperors of Rome, of which Csesar the Dictator, who
lived some years before Christ, and Marcus Antoninus, were
the best learned ; and so descend to the emperors of Graecia, 20
or of the West ; and then to the lines of France, Spain,
England, Scotland, and the rest, and he shall find this judg
ment is truly made. For it seemeth much in a king, if, by
the compendious extractions of other men's wits and labours,
he can take hold of any superficial ornaments and shows of
learning ; or if he countenance and prefer learning and
learned men : but to drink indeed of the true fountains of
learning, nay, to have such a fountain of learning in himself,
in a king, and in a king born, is almost a miracle. And the
more, because there is met in your Majesty a rare conjunction, 30
as well of divine and sacred literature, as of profane and
human ; so as your Majesty staiideth invested 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

4 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

individual attribute in your Majesty, deserveth to be ex
pressed not only in the fame and admiration 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 difference and perfection of such
a king.

Therefore I did conclude with myself, that I could not
make unto your Majesty a better oblation than of some

10 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 excellency 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 undertaken 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 particulars, yet I may excite your princely

20 cogitations to visit the excellent treasure of your own mind,
and thence to extract particulars for this purpose, agreeable
to your magnanimity and wisdom.

In the entrance to the former of these, to clear the
way, and as it were, to make silence, to have the true testi
monies concerning the dignity of learning to be better heard,
without the interruption of tacit objections ; I think good to
deliver it from the discredits and disgraces which it hath
received, all from ignorance ; but ignorance severally dis
guised ; appearing sometimes in the zeal and jealousy of
30 divines ; sometimes in the severity and arrogancy of poli
ticians ; and sometimes in the errors and imperfections of
learned men themselves.

I hear the former sort say, that knowledge is of those
things which are to be accepted of with great limitation and
caution ; that the aspiring to overmuch knowledge was the

THE FIRST BOOK. 5

^ original temptation and sin, whereupon ensued the fall of
man ; that knowledge hath in it somewhat of the serpent,
and therefore where it entereth into a man it makes him
^ swell ; scientia inftat : [knowledge puffeth up :] that Solomon
** gives a censure, That there is no end of making books, and that
much reading is a 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 demonstrates how learned men 10
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.

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 universality, a
knowledge by the light whereof man did give names unto
other creatures in Paradise, as they were brought before 20
him, according unto their proprieties, which gave the occasion
to the fall : but it was the proud knowledge of good and evil,
with an intent in man to give law unto himself, and to
depend no more upon God's commandments, which was the
form of the temptation. Neither is it any quantity of know
ledge, 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
Solomon, speaking of the two principal senses of inquisition,
the eye and the ear, affirmeth that the eye is never satisfied 30
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 calendar or ephemerides, which he maketh of the
diversities of times and seasons for all actions and purposes ;

6 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

and conclude th thus : God hath made all things beautiful, or
decent, in the true return of their seasons : also He hath placed
the world in man's heart, 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 behold
ing the variety of things and vicissitude of times, but

10 raised also to find out and discern the ordinances and
decrees, which throughout all those changes are infallibly
observed. And although he doth insinuate that the
supreme or 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
V derogate from the capacity of the mind, but may 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

20 man is subject. For that nothing parcel of the world is
denied to man's inquiry and invention, he doth in another
place rule over, when he saith, The spirit of man is as the
lamp of God, wherewith He searcheth the inwardness of all
secrets. If then such be the capacity and receipt of the mind
of man, it is manifest that there is no danger at all in the
proportion or quantity of 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

30 thereof, hath in it some nature of venom or malignity, and
some effects of that venom, which is ventosity or swelling.
This corrective spice, the mixture whereof maketh knowledge
so sovereign, is charity, which the Apostle immediately addeth
to the former clause : for so he saith, Knowledge bloiveth up,
but charity buildeth up; not unlike unto that which he
delivereth in another place : If I spake, saith he, with the

THE FIRST BOOK. 7

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 Vet
men and mankind, it hath rather a sounding and unworthy j , "
glory, than a meriting and substanial virtue. And as for ~ f
that censure of Solomon, concerning the excess of writing
and reading books, and the anxiety of spirit which redound-
eth from knowledge ; and that admonition of St. Paul, That
we be not seduced by vain philosophy; let those places be 10
rightly understood, and they do indeed excellently set forth
the true bounds and limitations, whereby human knowledge
is confined and circumscribed ; and yet without any such
contracting or coarctation, but that it may comprehend all
the universal nature of things ; for these limitations are
three : the first, That we do not so place our felicity in know
ledge, as we forget our mortality : the second, That we make
application of our knowledge, to give ourselves repose andr
contentment, and not distaste or repining : the third, That we
do not presume by the contemplation of nature to attain to 20
the mysteries of God. For as touching the first of these,
Solomon doth excellently expound himself in another place
of the same book, where he saith : / saw well that knowledge
recedeth as far from ignorance as light doth from darkness ;
and that the wise man's eyes keep watch in his head, whereas
the fool roundeth about in darkness : but withal I learned, that
the same mortality involveth them both. And for the second,
certain it is, there is no vexation or anxiety of mind which
resulteth from knowledge, otherwise than merely by acci
dent ; for all knowledge and wonder (which is the seed of 30
knowledge) is an impression of pleasure in itself : but when
men fall to framing conclusions out of their knowledge,
applying it to their particular, and ministering to themselves
thereby weak fears or vast desires, there groweth that
carefulness and trouble of mind which is spoken of : for then
knowledge is no more Lumen siccum, [a dry light,] whoreof

8 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

Heraclitus the profound said, Lumen siccum optima anima;
[a dry light is the best souj,;~\ but it becometh lumen madidum,
\a light wet,] or maceratum [softened] by steeping, being
steeped and infused in the humours of the affections. And
as for the third point, it deserveth to be a little stood upon,
and not to be lightly passed over : for if any man shall
think by view and inquiry into these sensible and material
things to attain that light, whereby he may reveal unto
himself the nature or will of God, then indeed is he spoiled

10 by vain philosophy : for the contemplation of God's creatures
and works produceth (having regard to the works and
creatures themselves) knowledge, but having regard to God,
no perfect knowledge, but wonder, which is broken know-'
ledge. And therefore it was most aptly said by one of
Plato's school, That the sense of man carrieth a resemblance
, with the sun, which, as we see, openeth and revealeth all the
terrestrial globe ; but then again it obscureth and concealeth the
stars and celestial globe : so doth the sense discover natural
things, but it darkeneth and shutteth up divine. And hence it

20 is true that it hath proceeded, that divers great learned men
have been heretical, whilst they have sought to fly up to the
secrets of the Deity by the waxen wings of the senses. And
as for the conceit that too much knowledge should incline
a man to atheism, and that the ignorance of second causes
should make a more devout dependence upon God, which
is the first cause ; first, it is good to ask the question which
Job asked of his friends : Will you lie for God, as one man
will do for another, to gratify him ? For certain it is that
God worketh nothing in nature but by second causes :

30 and if they would have it otherwise believed, it is mere
imposture, as it were in favour towards God ; and nothing
else but to offer to the author of truth the unclean sacrifice
of a lie. But further, it is an assured truth, and a conclusion
of experience, that a little or superficial knowledge of
philosophy may incline the mind of man to atheism, but,";'1
a farther proceeding therein doth bring the mind back A,

THE FIRST BOOK. 9

again to religion : for in the entrance of philosophy, when
the second causes which are next unto the senses, do offer
themselves to the mind of man, if it dwell and stay there
it may induce some oblivion of the highest cause ; but when
a man passeth on further, and seeth the dependence of
causes, and the works of Providence ; then, according to
the allegory of the poets, he will easily believe that the
highest link of nature's chain must needs be tied to the foot
of Jupiter's chair. To conclude, therefore, let no man upon\
a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, 10
think or maintain, that a man can search too far, or be i
too well studied in the book of God's word, or in the_book of
Groji'8_ 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.

And as for the disgraces which learning receiveth from
politicians, they be of this nature ; that learning doth 20
soften men's minds., and makes them more unapt for the ^
honour and exercise of arms ; that it doth mar and pervert &
men's dispositions for matter of government and policy ;
in making them too curious and irresolute by variety of
reading ; or too peremptory or positive by strictness of
rules and axioms ; or too immoderate and overweening by
reason of the greatness of examples ; or too incompatible
and differing from the times, by reason of the dissimilitude
of examples ; or at least, that it doth divert men's travails
from action and business, and bringeth them to a love of
leisure anrl privat.pr>P«« ; and that it doth bring into states a ,
relaxation of discipline, whilst every man is more ready
to^ argue, than to obey and execute. Out of this conceit,
Cato, surnamed the Censor, one of the wisest men indeed
that ever lived, when Carneades the philosopher came in

10 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

embassage to Eome, and that the young men of Eome began
to flock about him, being allured with the sweetness and
majesty of his eloquence and learning, gave counsel in
open senate, that they should give him his dispatch with
all speed, lest he should infect and enchant the minds
and affections of the youth, and at unawares bring in an
alteration of the manners and customs of the state. Out
of the same conceit, or humour, did Virgil, turning his
pen to the advantage of his country, and the disadvantage

10 of his own profession, make a kind of separation between
policy and government, and between arts and sciences, in
the verses so much renowned, attributing and challenging
the one to the Romans, and leaving and yielding the other
to the Grecians : Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento,
Hce tibi erunt artes, etc.: [Be it thy task, 0 Roman, to rule over
subject peoples.] So likewise we see that Anytus, the
accuser of Socrates, laid it as an article of charge and
accusation against him, that he did, with the variety and
power of his discourses and disputations, withdraw young

20 men from due reverence to the laws and customs of their
country ; and that he did profess a dangerous and pernicious
science, which was to make the worse matter seem the
better, and to suppress truth by force of eloquence and
speech.

But these, and the like imputations, have rather a
countenance of gravity, than any ground of justice : for
experience doth warrant, that both in persons and in times,
there hath been a meeting and concurrence in learning and
arms, flourishing and excelling in the same men and the

30 same ages. For, as for men, there cannot be a better nor
the like instance, as of that pair, Alexander the Great and
Julius Caesar the Dictator ; whereof the one was Aristotle's
scholar in philosophy, and the other was Cicero's rival in
eloquence : or if any man had rather call for scholars that
were great generals, than generals that were great scholars,
let him take Epaminondas the Theban or Xenophon the

THE FIRST BOOK. 11

Athenian ; whereof the one was the first that abated the
power of Sparta, and the other was the first that made way
to the overthrow of the monarchy of Persia. And this con
currence is yet more visible in times than in persons, by
how much an age is a greater object than a man. For both
in Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Grecia, and Eome, the same times
that are most renowned for arms, are likewise most admired
for learning ; so that the greatest authors and philosophers,
and the greatest captains and governors have lived in the
same ages. Neither can it otherwise be : for as, in man, the 10
ripeness of strength of the body and mind cometh much
about an age, save that the strength of the body cometh
somewhat the more early ; so in states, arms and learning,
whereof the one correspondeth to the body, the other to
the soul of man, have a concurrence or near sequence in
times.

And for matter of policy and government, that learn
ing should rather hurt, than enable thereunto, is a thing
very improbable : we see it is accounted an error to com
mit a natural body to empiric physicians which com- 20
monly have a few pleasing receipts whereupon they are
confident and adventurous, but know neither the causes of
diseases, nor the complexions of patients, nor peril of
accidents, nor the true method of cures : we see it is a like
error to rely upon advocates or lawyers, which are only men
of practice and not grounded in their books, who are many
times easily surprised, when matter falleth out besides their
experience, to the prejudice of the causes they handle : so, by
like reason, it cannot be but a matter of doubtful conse
quence, if states be managed by empiric statesmen, not well 30
mingled with men grounded in learning. But contrariwise,
it is almost without instance contradictory, that ever any
government was disastrous that was in the hands of learned
governors. For howsoever it hath been ordinary with politic
men to extenuate and disable learned men by the names of
pedants ; yet in the records of time it appeareth, in many

12 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

particulars, that the governments of princes in minority
(notwithstanding the infinite disadvantage of that kind of
state) have nevertheless excelled the government of princes
of mature age, even for that reason which they seek to
traduce, which is, that by that occasion the state hath been
in the hands of pedants : for so was the state of Rome for the
first five years, which are so much magnified, during the
minority of Nero, in the hands of Seneca^a^gedant : so it
was again, for ten years' space or more, during tHe minority

1 0 of Gordianus the younger, with great applause and contenta-
tion in the hands of Misitheus &pedant : so was it before
that, in the minority of AlexanHer Severus, in like happiness,
in hands not much unlike, by reason of the rule of the
women, who were aided by the teachers and preceptors.
Nay, let a man look into the government of the Bishops of
Rome, as by name, into the government of Pius Quintus,
and Sextus Quintus, in our times, who were both at their
entrance esteemed but as pedantical friars, and he shall find
that such Popes do greater things, and proceed upon truer

20 principles of estate, than those which have ascended to the
papacy from an education and breeding in affairs of estate
and courts of princes ; for although men bred in learning are
perhaps to seek in points of convenience and accommodating
for the present, which the Italians call ragioni di stato,
[reasons of state,] whereof the same Pius Quintus could not
hear spoken with patience, terming them inventions against
religion and the moral virtues ; yet on the other side, to
recompense that, they are perfect in those same plain
grounds of religion, justice, honour, and moral virtue, which

30 if they be well and watchfully pursued, there will be seldom
use of those other, no more than of physic in a sound or
well-dieted body. Neither can the experience of one man's
life furnish examples and precedents for the ewits of one
man's life : for, as it happen eth sometimes that the grand
child, or other descendant, resembleth the ancestor more
than the son ; so many times occurrences of present times

THE FIRST BOOK. 13

may sort better with ancient examples, than with those of the
latter or immediate times : and lastly, the wit of one man
can no more countervail learning than one man's means can
hold way with a common purse.

And as for those particular seducements, or indisposi
tions of the mind for policy and government, which learning
is pretended to insinuate ; if it be granted that any such
thing be, it must be remembered withal, that learning
ministereth in every of them greater strength of medicine or
remedy, than it offereth cause of indisposition or infirmity ; 10
for if, by a secret operation, it make men perplexed and
irresolute, on the other side, by plain precept it teacheth
them when and upon what ground to resolve ; yea, and how i^
to carry things in suspense, without prejudice, till they
resolve ; if it make men positive and regular, it teacheth
them what things are in their nature demonstrative, and
what are conjectural ; and as well the use of distinctions and
exceptions, as the latitude of principles and rules. If it mis
lead by disproportion, or dissimilitude of examples, it teacheth
men the force of circumstances, the errors of comparisons, 20
and all the cautions of application ; so that in all these it
doth rectify more effectually than it can pervert. And these
medicines it conveyeth into men's minds much more forcibly
by the quickness and penetration of examples. For let a man
look into the errors of Clement the Seventh, so lively
described by Guicciardine, who served under him, or into the
errors of Cicero, painted out by his own pencil in his Epistles
to Atticus, and he will fly apace from being irresolute. Let
him look into the errors of Phocion, and he will beware how
he be obstinate or inflexible. Let him but read the fable of 30
Ixion, and it will hold him from being vaporous or imagina
tive. Let him look into the errors of Cato the second, and
he will never be one of the Antipodes, to tread opposite to
the present world.

And for the conceit that learning should dispose men to
leisure and privateness, and make men slothful ; it were a

14 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

strange thing if that, which accustom eth the mind to a
perpetual motion and agitation, should induce slothfulness :
whereas contrariwise it may be truly affirmed, that no kind
of men love business for itself, but those that are learned ;
for other persons love it for profit, as a hireling, that loves
the work for the wages ; or for honour, as because it beareth
them up in the eyes of men, and refresheth their reputation,
which otherwise would wear ; or because it putteth them in
mind of their fortune, and giveth them occasion to pleasure

10 and displeasure ; or because it exerciseth some faculty
wherein they take pride, and so entertaineth them in good
humour and pleasing conceits toward themselves ; or because
it advanceth any other their ends. So that, as it is said of
untrue valours, that some men's valours are in the eyes of
them that look on ; so such men's industries are in the eyes
of others, or at least in regard of their own designments :
only learned men love business, as an action according to
nature, as agreeable to health of mind, as exercise is to health
of body, taking pleasure in the action itself, and not in the

20 purchase : so that of all men they are the most indefatigable,
if it be towards any business which can hold or detain their
mind.

And if any man be laborious in reading and study, and
yet idle in business and action, it groweth from some weak
ness of body, or softness of spirit ; such as Seneca speaketh
of : Quidam tarn sunt umbratiles, ut putent in turbido esse
quicquid in luce est ; [Some men live so much in the shade,
that whenever they are in the light they seem to be in trouble ;]
and not of learning : well may it be, that such a point of a

30 man's nature may make him give himself to learning, but it
is not learning that breedeth any such point in his nature.

And that learning should take up too much time or
leisure : I answer ; the most active or busy man that hath
been or can be, hath, no question, 'many vacant times of
leisure, while he expecteth the tides and returns of business
(except he be either tedious and of no despatch, or lightly

THE FIRST BOOK. 15

and unworthily ambitious to meddle in things that may be
better done by others :) and then the question is, but how
those spaces and times of leisure shall be filled and spent ;
whether in pleasures or in studies ; as was well answered by
Demosthenes to his adversary ^Eschines, that was a man
given to pleasure, and told him, That his orations did smell of
the lamp : Indeed, said Demosthenes, there is great difference
between the things that you and I do by lamp-light. So as no
man need doubt that learning will expulse business, but
rather it will keep and defend the possession of the mind 10
against idleness and pleasure, which otherwise at unawares
may enter to the prejudice of both.

Again, for that other conceit, that learning should
undermine the reverence of laws and government, it is
assuredly a mere depravation and calumny, without all
shadow of truth. For to say, that a blind custom of obedi
ence should be a surer obligation than duty taught and under
stood ; it is to affirm, that a blind man may tread surer
by a guide than a seeing man can by a light. And it is
without all controversy, that learning doth make the minds 20
of men gentle, generous, maniable, and pliant to government ;
whereas ignorance makes them churlish, thwart, and muti
nous : and the evidence of time doth clear this assertion,
considering that the most barbarous, rude, and unlearned
times have been most subject to tumults, seditions, and \,
changes.

And as to the judgment of Cato, the Censor, he was
well punished for his blasphemy against learning, in the
same kind wherein he offended ; for when he was past
threescore years old, he was taken with an extreme desire 30
to go to school again, and to learn the Greek tongue, to
the end to peruse the Greek authors ; which doth well
demonstrate, that his former censure of the Grecian learning
was rather an affected gravity, than according to the in
ward sense of his own opinion. And as for Virgil's verses,
though it pleased him to brave the world in taking to the

16 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

Bomans the art of empire, and leaving to others the arts
of subjects ; yet so much is manifest, that the Komans
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 historiographer, Titus Livius ; the best
antiquary, Marcus Varro ; and the best, or second orator,
Marcus Cicero, that to the memory of man are known.

10 As for the accusation of Socrates, the time must be remem
bered when it was prosecuted ; which was under the Thirty
Tyrants, the most base, bloody, and envious persons that
have governed ; which revolution of state was no sooner
over, but Socrates, whom they had made a person criminal,
was made a person heroical, and his memory accumulate
with honours divine and human ; and those discourses of
his which were then termed corrupting of manners, were
after acknowledged for sovereign medicines of the mind
and manners, and so have been received ever since till

20 this day. Let this, therefore, serve for answer to politicians,
which in their humorous severity, or in their feigned
gravity, have presumed to throw imputations upon learning ;
which 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, [bright stars,]
stars of excellent light and most benign influence, hath

30 wrought in all men of place and authority in our nation.

Now therefore we come to that third sort of discredit
or diminution of credit, that groweth unto learning
from learned men themselves, which commonly cleaveth
fastest : it is either from their fortune ; or from their
manners ; or from the nature of their studies. For the first,

THE FIRST BOOK. ] 7

it is not in their power ; and the second is accidental : the
third only is proper to be handled : but because we are not
in hand with true measure, but with popular estimation and
conceit, it is not amiss to speak somewhat of the two former.
The derogations therefore which grow to learning from the
fortune or condition of learned men, are either in respect of
scarcity of means, or in respect of privateness of life, and
meanness of employments.

Concerning want, and that it is the case of learned
men usually to begin with little, and not to grow rich so 10
fast as other men, by reason they convert not their labours
chiefly to lucre and increase : it were good to leave the
common place in commendation of poverty to some friar to
handle, to whom much was attributed by Machiavel in this
point ; when he said, That the kingdom of the clergy had been
long before at an end, if the reputation and reverence towards
the poverty of friars had not borne out the scandal of the
superfluities and excesses of bishops and prelates. So a man
might say that the felicity and delicacy of princes and great
persons had long since turned to rudeness and barbarism, 20
if the poverty of learning had not kept up civility and
honour of life : but without any such advantages, it is
worthy the observation, what a reverent and honoured
thing poverty of fortune was, for some ages, in the Roman
state, which nevertheless was a state without paradoxes :
for we see what Titus Livius saith in his introduction :
Cceterum aut me amor negotii suscepti fallit aut nulla unquam
respublica nee major, nee sanctior, nee bonis exemplis ditior
fuit ; nee in quam tarn serce avaritia luxuriaque immigra-
verint ; nee ubi tantus ac tarn diu paupertati ac parsimonice 30
honos fuerit : [If I am not led away by love of the task which I
have undertaken, there never was a state greater nor more
religious, nor richer in good examples than Rome: nor one
into which avarice and luxury were so long in making their
way : nor one in which poverty and economy were held in such
great and such long continued esteem.} We see likewise, after

18 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

that the state of Eome was not itself, but did degenerate,
how that person, that took upon him to be counsellor to
Julius Csesar after his victory, where to begin his restoration
of the state, maketh it of all points the most summary to
take away the estimation of wealth : Verum hcec et omnia
mala pariter cum honore pccunice desinent: si neque magis-
tratus, neque alia vulgo cupienda venalia erunt : [But these
and all evils will disappear when wealth is no longer honoured,
and when the magistracies and other objects of general

10 ambition are not procurable by moneyJ] To conclude this
point, as it was truly said, that Rubor est virtutis color,
[A blush is virtue's colour,] though sometime it come from
vice ; so it may be fitly said that Paupertas est virtutis
fortuna, [Poverty is virtue's fortune,'] though sometime it
may proceed from misgovernment and accident. Surely
Solomon hath pronounced it both in censure, Qui festinat
ad divitias non erit insons, [He that maketh haste to be rich
shall not be innocent ;] and in precept, Buy the truth, and sell
it not ; and so of wisdom and knowledge ; judging that means

20 were to be spent upon learning, and not learning to be
applied to means. And as for the privateness, or obscure-
ness (as it may be in vulgar estimation accounted) of life
of contemplative men ; it is a theme so common, to extol a
private life not taxed with sensuality and sloth, in com
parison and to the disadvantage of a civil life, for safety,
liberty, pleasure, and dignity, or at least freedom from
indignity, as no man handleth it, but handleth it well :
such a consonancy it hath to men's conceits in the express
ing, and to men's consents in the allowing. This only

30 I will add, that learned men forgotten in states, and
not living in the eyes of men, are like the images of
Cassius and Brutus in the funeral of Junia : of which
not being represented, as many others were, Tacitus saith,
Eo ipso prcefulgebant, quod non visebantur : [They out
shone them all from the very fact that they were not to be ,,
seen.] /\

THE FIRST BOOK. 19

And for meanness of employment, that which is most
traduced to contempt is that the government of youth is
commonly allotted "to them ; which age, because it is the
age of least authority, it is transferred to the disesteeming
of those employments wherein youth is conversant, and
which are conversant about youth. But how unjust this
traducement is (if you will reduce things from popularity
of opinion to measure of reason) may appear in that, we
see men are more curious what they put into a new vessel,
than into a vessel seasoned ; and what mould they lay 10
about a young plant, than about a plant corroborate ; so
as the weakest terms and times of all things use to have
the best applications and helps. And will you hearken to
the Hebrew rabbins ? Tour young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams ; say they youth is
the worthier age, for that visions are nearer apparitions
of God than dreams ? And let it be noted, that howsoever
the condition of life of pedants hath been scorned upon
theatres, as the ape of tyranny ; and that the modern
looseness or negligence hath taken no due regard to the 20
choice of schoolmasters and tutors ; yet the ancient wisdom
of the best times, did always make a just complaint, that
states were too busy with their laws, and too negligent
in point of education : which excellent part of ancient dis
cipline hath been in some sort revived of late times by
the colleges of the Jesuits ; of whom, although in regard
of their superstition I may say, Quo meliores, eo deteriores,
[The better they are the worse they are;] yet in regard of this,
and some other points concerning human learning and
moral matters, I may say, as Agesilaus said to his enemy 30
Pharnabazus, Talis quum sis, utinam noster esses, [ You are so
good that I wish you were on our side.] And thus much
touching the discredits drawn from the fortunes of learned
men.

As touching the manners of learned men, it is a thing
personal and individual : and no doubt there be amongst

20 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

them, as in other professions, of all temperatures : but yet
so as it is not without truth, which is said, that Abeunt
studio, in mores, studies have an influence and operation upon
the manners of those that are conversant in them.

But upon an attentive and indifferent review, I for my
part cannot find any disgrace to learning can proceed
from the manners of learned men not inherent to them as
they are learned ; except it be a fault (which was the
supposed fault of Demosthenes, Cicero, Cato the second,

10 Seneca, and many more) that, because the times they read
of are commonly better than the times they live in, and the
duties taught better than the duties practised, they contend
sometimes too far to bring things to perfection, and to
reduce the corruption of manners to honesty of precepts
or examples of too great height. And yet hereof they
have caveats enough in their own walks. For Solon, when
he was asked whether he had given his citizens the best
laws, answered wisely, Yea, of such as they would receive:
and Plato, finding that his own heart could not agree with

20 the corrupt manners of his country, refused to bear place
or office ; saying, That a man's country was to be used as his
parents were, that is, with humble persuasions, and not with
contestations. And Caesar's counsellor put in the same
caveat, Non ad vetera instituta revocans quce jampridem
corruptis moribus ludibrio sunt: [Do not attempt to restore
things to the original institutions which, by the long corruption
of manners, have fallen into contempt f\ and Cicero noteth
this error directly in Cato the second, when he writes to his
friend Atticus, Cato optime sentit, sed nocet interdum rei-

30 publicce; loquitur enim tanquam in republica Platonis, non
tanquam in face Romuli: [Cato's opinions are excellent, but
sometimes do harm to the commonwealth : for he speaks as if
he were living in Plato's republic, and not amid the dregs of
the Roman populace.] And the same Cicero doth excuse and
expound the philosophers for going too far, and being too
exact in their prescripts, when he saith, Isti ipsi prceceptores

THE FIRST BOOK. 21

virtutis et magistri, videntur fines offidorum paulo longius
quam natura vellet protulisse, ut cum ad ultimum animo
contendissemus, ibi tamen, ubi oportet, consisteremus : [ Those
very teachers of virtue themselves seem to have fixed the
standard of duty somewhat higher than nature can bear: in
order that after striving our utmost to attain to it, we might
at any rate reach the proper standard:] and yet himself
might have said, Monitis sum minor ipse meis, [I do not act
up to my own precepts ;] for it was his own fault, though not
in so extreme a degree. 10

Another fault likewise much of this kind hath been in
cident to learned men ; which is, that they have esteemed
the preservation, good, and honour of their countries or
masters before their own fortunes or safeties. For so
saith Demosthenes unto the Athenians : If it please you
to note it, my counsels unto you are not such whereby I should
grow great amongst you, and you become little amongst the
Grecians ; but they be of that nature, as they are sometimes not
good for me to give, but are always good for you to follow. A nd
so Seneca, after he had consecrated that quinquennium Neronis 20
[those five years of Nero's reign] to the eternal glory of learned
governors, held on his honest and loyal course of good and
free counsel, after his master grew extremely corrupt in his
government. Neither can this point otherwise be ; for
learning endueth men's minds wi^h L<a true sense of the
frailty of their persons, the casualty of their fortunes,
and the dignity of their soul and vocation : so that it is im
possible for them to esteem that any greatness of their own
fortune can be a true or worthy end of their being arid
ordainment ; and therefore are desirous to give their account 30
to God, and so likewise to their masters under God (as kings
and the states that they serve) in these words ; Ecce tibi
lucrefeci, \Lo ! I have made profit for you,] and not Ecce mihi
lucrefeci: \Lo ! I have made profit for myself :\ whereas the
corrupter sort of mere politicians, that have not their
thoughts established by learning in the love and appre-

22 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

hension of duty, nor ever look abroad into universality, do
refer all things to themselves, and thrust themselves into the
centre of the world, as if all lines should meet in them and
their fortunes ; never caring, in all tempests, what becomes
of the ship of estates, so they may save themselves in the
cockboat of their own fortune : whereas men that feel the
weight of duty, and know the limits of self-love, use to make
good their places and duties, though with peril ; and if they
stand in seditious and violent alterations, it is rather the

10 reverence which many times both adverse parts do give to
honesty, than any versatile advantage of their own carriage.
But for this point of tender sense, and fast obligation of
duty, which learning doth endue the mind withal, howsoever
fortune may tax it, and many in the depth of their corrupt
principles may despise it, yet it will receive an open allow
ance, and therefore needs the less disproof or excusation.

Another fault incident commonly to learned men, which
may be more probably defended than truly denied, is, that
they fail sometimes in applying themselves to particular

20 persons : which want of exact application ariseth from two
causes ; the one, because the largeness of their mind can
hardly confine itself to dwell in the exquisite observation or
examination of the nature and customs of one person : for it
is a speech for a lover, and not for a wise man, Satis magnum\ ^^
alter alteri theatrum sumus : [ We are a sufficiently large theatre]
one for another^ Nevertheless I shall yield, that he that
cannot contract the sight of his mind, as well as disperse and
dilate it, wanteth a great faculty. But there is a second
cause, which is no inability, but a rejection upon choice and

30 judgment. For the honest and just bounds of observation
by one person upon another, extend no further but to under
stand him sufficiently, whereby not to give him offence, or
whereby to be able to give him faithful counsel, or whereby
to stand upon reasonable guard and caution in respect of a
man's self : but to be speculative into another man, to the
end to know how to work him, or wind him, or govern him,

THE FIRST BOOK. 23

proceedeth from a heart that is double and cloven, and not
entire and ingenuous ; which as in friendship it is want of
integrity, so towards princes or superiors is want of duty.
For the custom of the Levant, which is, that subjects do for
bear to gaze or fix their eyes upon princes, is in the outward
ceremony barbarous, but the moral is good : for men ought
not by cunning and bent observations to pierce and penetrate
into the hearts of kings, which the Scripture hath declared to {/
be inscrutable.

There is yet another fault (with which I will conclude 10
this part) which is often noted in learned men, that they do
many times fail to observe decency and discretion in their
behaviour and carriage, and commit errors in small and
ordinary points of action, so as the vulgar sort of capacities
do make a judgment of them in greater matters by that
which they find wanting in them in smaller. But this con
sequence doth oft deceive men, for which I do refer them
over to that which was said by Themistocles, arrogantly and
uncivilly being applied to himself out of his own mouth ;
but, being applied to the general state of this question, 20
pertinently and justly ; when, being invited to touch a lute,
he said, He could not fiddle, but he could make a small town a
great state. So, no doubt, many may be well seen in the
passages of government and policy, which are to seek in little
and punctual occasions. I refer them also to that which
Plato said of his master Socrates, whom he compared to the
gallipots of apothecaries, which on the outside had apes and
owls and antiques, but contained within sovereign and
precious liquors and confections; acknowledging that to an
external report he was not without superficial levities and 30
deformities, but was inwardly replenished with excellent
virtues and powers. And so much touching the point of
manners of learned men.

But in the mean time I have no purpose to give allow
ance to some conditions and courses base and unworthy,
wherein divers professors of learning have wronged them-

24 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

selves, and gone too far ; such as were those trencher phil
osophers, which in the later age of the Roman state were
usually in the houses of great persons, being little better
than solemn parasites ; of which kind, Lucian maketh a merry
description of the philosopher that the great lady took to
ride with her in her coach, and would needs have him carry
her little dog, which he doing officiously and yet uncomely,
the page scoffed, and said, That he doubted, the philosopher of
a Stoic would turn to be a Cynic. But above all the rest, the

10 gross and palpable flattery, whereunto many not unlearned
have abased and abused their wits and pens, turning, as Du
Bartas saith, Hecuba into Helena, and Faustina into Lucretia,
hath most diminished the price and estimation of learning.
Neither is the modern dedication of books and writings, as
to patrons, to be commended, for that books, such as are
worthy the name of books, ought to have no patrons but
truth and reason. And the ancient custom was to dedicate
them only to private and equal friends, or to entitle the
books with their names : or if to kings and great persons, it

20 was to some such as the argument of the book was fit and
proper for : but these and the like courses may deserve
rather reprehension than defence.

Not that I can tax or condemn the morigeration or
application of learned men to men in fortune. For the
answer was good that Diogenes made to one that asked him
in mockery, How it came to pass that philosophers were the
followers of rich men, and not rich men of philosophers ? He
answered soberly, and yet sharply, Because the one sort knew
what they had need of, and the other did not. And of the like

30 nature was the answer which Aristippus made, when having
a petition to Dionysius, and no ear given to him, he fell down
at his feet ; whereupon Dionysius stayed, and gave him the
hearing, and granted it ; and afterward some person, tender
on the behalf of philosophy, reproved Aristippus that he
would offer the profession of philosophy such an indignity,
as for a private suit to fall at a tyrant's feet : but he

THE FIRST BOOK. 25

answered, It was not his fault, but it was the fault of
Dionysius, that had his ears in his feet Neither was it
accounted weakness, but discretion in him that would not
dispute his best with Adrianus Caesar ; excusing himself,
That it was reason to yield to him that commanded thirty
legions. These and the like applications, and stooping to
points of necessity and convenience, cannot be disallowed ;
for though they may have some outward baseness, yet in a
judgment truly made they are to be accounted submissions
to the occasion and not to the person. 10

Now I proceed to those errors and vanities which have
intervened amongst the studies themselves of the learned,
which is that which is principal and proper to the
present argument ; wherein my purpose is not to make a
justification of the errors, but, by a censure and separation
of the errors, to make a justification of that which is good
and sound, and to deliver that from the aspersion of the
other. For we see, that it is the manner of men to scandalize
and deprave that which retaineth the state and virtue, by
taking advantage upon that which is corrupt and degenerate : 20
as the heathens in the primitive church used to blemish and
taint the Christians with the faults and corruptions of
heretics. But nevertheless I have no meaning at this time
to make any exact animadversion of the errors and impedi-U*''^'
merits in matters of learning, which are more secret and
remote from vulgar opinion, but only to speak unto such as
do fall under or near unto a popular observation.

There be therefore chiefly three vanities in studies,
whereby learning hath been most traduced. For those
things we do esteem vain, which are either false or frivolous, 30
those which either have no truth, or no use : and those
persons we esteem vain, which are either credulous orf
curious ; and curiosity is either in matter or words : so that
in reason, as well as in experience, there fall out to be these
three distempers, as I may term them, of learning ; the first,

26 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

fantastical learning ; the second, contentious learning ; and
the last, delicate learning ; vain imaginations, vain alterca
tions, and vain affectations ; and with the last I will begin.
Martin Luther, conducted no doubt by a higher providence,
but in discourse of reason, finding what a province he had
undertaken against the Bishop of Rome and the degenerate
traditions of the Church, and finding his own solitude, being
110 ways aided by the opinions of his own time, was enforced
to awake all antiquity, and to call former times to his succour,

10 to make a party against the present time. So that the
ancient authors, both in divinity and in humanity, which had
long time slept in libraries, began generally to be read and
revolved. This by consequence did draw 011 a necessity of a
more exquisite travail in the languages original, wherein
those authors did write, for the better understanding of
those authors, and the better advantage of pressing and
applying their words. And thereof grew again a delight in
their manner of style and phrase, and an admiration of that
kind of writing ; which was much furthered and precipitated

20 by the enmity and opposition that the propounders of those
primitive, but seeming new opinions, had against the School
men ; who were generally of the contrary part, and whose
writings were altogether in a different style and form ;
taking liberty to coin and frame new terms of art to express
their own sense, and to avoid circuit of speech, without regard
to the pureness, pleasantness, and, as I may call it, lawfulness
of the phrase or word. And again, because the great labour
that then was with the people (of whom the Pharisees were
wont to say, Execrdbilis ista turba quce non novit legem, [That

30 wretched crowd that knoweth not the law,] for the winning and
persuading of them, there grew of necessity in chief price and
request eloquence and variety of discourse, as the fittest and
forciblest access into the capacity of the vulgar sort : so
that these four causes concurring, the admiration of ancient
authors, the hate of the Schoolmen, the exact study of
languages, and the efficacy of preaching, did bring in an

THE FIRST BOOK.

affectionate study of eloquence and copia of speech, which
then began to flourish. This grew speedily to an excess ; for
men began to hunt more after words than matter ; more
after the choiceness of the phrase, and the round and clean
composition of the sentence, and the sweet falling of the
clauses, and the varying and illustration of their works with
tropes and figures, than after the weight of matter, worth of
subject, soundness of argument, life of invention, or depth of
judgment. Then grew the flowing and watery vein of
Osorius, the Portugal bishop, to be in price. Then did 10
Sturmius spend such infinite and curious pains upon Cicero
the Orator, and Hermogenes the Rhetorician, besides his own
books of Periods, and Imitation, and the like. Then did Car
of Cambridge, and^^cLaiUyjyith 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 occasion to make the
scoffing echo : Decem annos consumpsi in legendo Cicerone ; [I
have spent ten years in reading Cicero ;] and the echo answered
in Greek, "Oe, Asine, [Thou donkey.] Then grew the learning 20
of the Schoolmen to be utterly despised as barbarous. In
sum, the whole indication and bent of those times was rather
towards copia than weight.

Here, therefore, is the first distemper of learning, wheni
men study words, and not matter ; whereof, though I have I
represented an example of late times, yet it hath been, and
will be, Secundum majus et minus [in a greater or less degree]
in all time. And how is it possible but this should have an
operation to discredit learning, even with vulgar capacities,
when they see learned men's works like the first letter of a 30
patent, or limned book ; which though it hath large flourishes,
yet it is but a letter. It seems to me that Pygmalion's frenzy
is a good emblem or portraiture of this vanity : for words are
but the images of matter ; and except they have life of reason
and invention, to fall in love with them is all one as to fall in
love with a picture.

28 / OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

But yet, notwithstanding, it is a thing not hastily to
be condemned, to clothe and adorn the obscurity even of
philosophy itself, with sensible and plausible elocution ;
for hereof we have great examples in Xenophon, Cicero,
Seneca, Plutarch, and of Plato also in some degree ; and
hereof likewise there is great use : for surely, to the severe
inquisition of truth, and the deep progress into philosophy,
it is some hindrance ; because it is too early satisfactory to
the rnind of man, and quencheth the desire of further

10 search, before we come to a just period : but then if a man
be to have any use of such knowledge in civil occasions, of
conference, counsel, persuasion, discourse, or the like ; then
shall he find it prepared to his hands in those authors which
write in that manner. But the excess of this is so justly
contemptible, that as Hercules, when he saw the image of
Adonis, Venus' minion, in a temple, said in disdain, Nil sacri
es ; [You are no divinity ;] so there is none of Hercules'
followers in learning, that is, the more severe and laborious
sort of inquirers into truth, but will despise those delicacies

20 and affectations, as indeed capable of no divineness. And
thus much of the first disease or distemper of learning.

The second, which followeth, is in nature worse than
the former : for as substance of matter is better than beauty
of words, so, contrariwise, vainjnatter is worse than vain
words : wherein it seemeth the reprehension of Saint Paul
was not only proper for those times, but prophetical for the
times following ; and not only respective to divinity, but
extensive to all knowledge : Devita prof anas vocum novitates,
et oppositiones falsi nominis scientiae; [Avoid profane novel-

30 ties of terms, and oppositions of science falsely so called'].
For he assigneth two marks and badges of suspected and
falsified science : the one, the novelty and strangeness of
terms ; the other, the strictness of positions, which of neces
sity doth induce oppositions, and so questions and alterca
tions. Surely, like as many substances in nature, which are
solid, do putrefy and corrupt into worms ; so it is the

THE FIRST BOOK.

<4&

property of good and sound knowledge, to putrefy and
dissolve into a number of subtle, idle, unwholesome, and,
as I may term them, vermiculate questions, which have
indeed a kind of quickness, and life of spirit, but no
soundness of matter, or goodness of quality. This kind of
degenerate learning did chiefly reign amongst the schoolmen :
who having sharp and strong wits, and abundance of leisure,
and small variety of reading, (but their wits being shut up
in the cells of a few authors, chiefly Aristotle their dictator,
as their persons were shut up in the cells of monasteries and 10
colleges,) and knowing little history, either of nature or
time, did, out of no great quantity of matter, and infinite
agitation of wit, spin out unto us those laborious webs of
learning, which are extant in their books. For the wit and
mind of man, if it work upon matter, which is the contem
plation of the creatures of God, worketh according to the
stuff, and is limited thereby ; but if it work upon itself, as
the spider worketh his web, then it is endless, and brings
forth indeed cobwebs of learning, admirable for the fineness
of thread and work, but of no substance or profit. 20

This same unprofitable subtilty or curiosity is of two
sorts ; .either in the subject itself that they handle, when it
is a fruitless speculation or controversy, whereof there are
no small number both in divinity and philosophy, or in the
jnanner or method of handling of a knowledge, which
amongst them was this ; upon every particular position or
assertion to frame objections, and to those objections,
solutions ; which solutions were for the most part not con
futations, but distinctions : whereas indeed the strength of
all sciences is, as the strength of the old man's faggot, in the 30
band. For the harmony of a science, supporting each part
the other, is and ought to be the true and brief confutation
and suppression of all the smaller sorb 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

30 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

was said of Seneca, Verborum minutiis rerum frangit pondera ;
\He breaks up the weight of the matter by his verbal subtleties ;]
so a man may truly say of the schoolmen, Qucestionum
minutiis, scientiarum frangunt soliditatem, [They break up the
solidity and coherency of the sciences by the minuteness of their
questions.] For were it not better for a man in a fair room
to set up one great light, or branching candlestick of lights,
than to go about with a small watch-candle into every
corner ? And such is their method, that rests not so much

10 upon evidence of truth proved by arguments, authorities,
similitudes, examples, as upon particular confutations and
solutions of every scruple, cavillation, and objection ; breed
ing for the most part one question, as fast as it solveth
another ; even as in the former resemblance, when you carry
the light into one corner, you darken the rest ; so that the
fable and fiction of Scylla seemeth to be a lively image of
this kind of philosophy or knowledge ; which was trans
formed into a comely virgin for the upper parts ; but then
Candida succinctam latrantibus inguina monstris : [there were

20 barking monsters all about her loins:] so the generalities of
the schoolmen are for a while good and proportionable ; but
then, when you descend into their distinctions and decisions,
instead of a fruitful womb, for the use and benefit of man's
life, they end in monstrous altercations and barking ques
tions. So as it is not possible but this quality of knowledge
must fall under popular contempt, the people being apt
to contemn truth upon occasion of controversies and alter
cations, and to think they are all out of their way which
never meet : and when they see such digladiation about

30 subtilties, and matters of no use or moment, they easily fall
upon that judgment of Dionysius of Syracuse, Verba ista
sunt senum otiosorum: [Those are the words of old men who
have nothing to do.]

^ Notwithstanding, certain it is that if those schoolmen,
to their great thirst of truth and unwearied travail of wit,
had joined variety and universality of reading and contem-

THE FIRST BOOK. 31

plation, they had proved excellent lights, to the great
advancement of all learning and knowledge ; but as they
are, they are great undertakers indeed, and fierce with dark
keeping : but as in the inquiry of the divine truth, their
pride inclined to leave the oracle of God's word, and to
vanish in the mixture of their own inventions ; so in the
inquisition of nature, they ever left the oracle of God's
works, and adored the deceiving and deformed images
which the unequal mirror of their own minds, or a few
received authors or principles, did represent unto them. 10
And thus much for the second disease of learning.

For^^he third vice or disease of learning, which con-
cernetlraeceit or untruth, it is of all the rest the foulest ;
as that which doth destroy the essential form of knowledge,
which is nothing but a representation of truth : for the
truth of being and the truth of knowing are one, differing
no more than the direct beam and the beam rejected.
This vice therefore brancheth itself into two sorts ; clelighb
in deceiving, and Aptness to be deceived ; imposture and
credulity ; which, although they appear to be of a diverse 20
nature, the one seeming to proceed of cunning, and the
other of simplicity, yet certainly they do for the most part
concur : for as the verse noteth,

Percontatorem fugito, nam, garrulus idem est,
[Avoid inquisitive men, for they are babblers,]
an inquisitive man is a prattler, so, upon the like reason, a
credulous man is a deceiver : as we see it in, fame, that he
that' will easily believe rumours, will as easily augment
rumours, and add somewhat to them of his own ; which
Tacitus wisely noteth, when he saith Fingunt simul ere- 30
duntque : [Those who are prone to invent are also prone to
believe .-] so great an affinity hath fiction and belief.

This facility of credit, and accepting or admitting things
weakly authorized or warranted,^ of two kinds, accord
ing to the subject : foftjit is either a belief of history,
or, as the lawyers speak, matter of fact ; or else of matter of

32 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

art and opinion. As to the former, we see the experience
and inconvenience of this error in ecclesiastical history ;
which hath too easily received and registered reports, and
narrations of miracles wrought by martyrs, hermits, or
monks of the desert, and other holy men, and their relics,
shrines, chapels, and images : which though they had a
passage for a time, by the ignorance of the people, the
superstitious simplicity of some, and the politic toleration
of others holding them but as divine poesies ; yet after a

10 period of time, when the mist began to clear up, they grew
to be esteemed but as old wives' fables, impostures of the
clergy, illusions of spirits, and badges of Antichrist, to the
great scandal and detriment of religion.

So in natural history, we see there hath not been that
choice and judgment used as ought to have been ; as may
appear in the writings of Plinius, Cardanus, Albertus, and
divers of the Arabians, being fraught with much fabulous
matter, a great part not only untried, but notoriously
untrue, to the great derogation of the credit of natural

20 philosophy with the grave and sober kind of wits : wherein
the wisdom and integrity of Aristotle is worthy to be
observed ; that, having made so diligent and exquisite a
history of living creatures, hath mingled it sparingly with
any vain or feigned matter : and yet, on the other side,
hath cast all prodigious narrations, which he thought
worthy the recording, into one book : excellently discerning
that matter of manifest truth, (such, whereupon observation
and rule were to be built,) was not to be mingled or weak
ened with matter of doubtful credit ; and yet again, that

30 rarities and reports that seem incredible are not to be
suppressed or denied to the memory of men.

And as for the facility of credit which is yielded to
arts and opinions, it is likewise of two kinds ; either when
too much belief is attributed to the arts themselves, or to
certain authors in any art. The sciences themselves, which
have had better intelligence and confederacy with the

THE FIRST BOOK. 33

imagination of man than with his reason, are three in
number ; astrology, natural magic, and alchemy : of which
sciences, nevertheless, the ends or pretences are noble.
For astrology pretendeth to discover that correspondence
or concatenation, which is between the superior globe and
the inferior : natural magic pretendeth to call and reduce
natural philosophy from variety of speculations to the
magnitude of works : and alchemy pretendeth to make
separation of all the unlike parts of bodies, which in
mixtures of nature are incorporate. But the derivations 10
and prosecutions to these ends, both in the theories and in
the practices, are full of error and vanity ; which the great
professors themselves have sought to veil over and conceal
by enigmatical writings, and referring themselves to auri
cular traditions and such other devices, to save the credit of
impostures : and yet surely to alchemy this right is due,
that it may be compared to the husbandman whereof JEsop
makes the fable ; that, when he died, told his sons that he
had left unto them gold buried under ground in his vine
yard ; and they digged over all the ground, and gold they 20
found none ; but by reason of their stirring and digging the
mould about the roots of their vines, they had a great
vintage the year following : so assuredly the search and stir
to make gold hath brought to light a great number of good
and fruitful inventions and experiments, as well for the
disclosing of nature, as for the use of man's life.

And as for the overmuch credit that hath been given
unto authors in sciences, in making them dictators, that
their words should stand, and not consuls to give advice ;
the damage is infinite that sciences have received thereby, 30
as the principal cause that hath kept them low, at
a stay without growth or advancement. For hence it hath
come, that in arts mechanical the first deviser comes
shortest, and time addeth and perfecteth ; but in sciences
the first author goeth furthest, and time leeseth and
corrupteth. So, we see, artillery, sailing, printing, and the

c

J

OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

like, were grossly managed at the first, and by time accom
modated and refined ; but contrariwise, the philosophies
> and sciences of Aristotle, Plato, Democritus, Hippocrates,
Euclides, Archimedes, of most vigour at the first and by
time degenerate and imbased ; whereof the reason is no
other, but that in the former many wits and industries
have contributed in one ; and in the latter many wits and
industries have been spent about the wit of some one,
whom many times they have rather depraved than illus-

10 trated. For as water will not ascend higher than the level
of the first springhead from whence it descendeth, so
knowledge derived from Aristotle, and exempted from
liberty of examination, will not rise again higher than the
knowledge of Aristotle. And therefore although the posi
tion be good, Oportet discentem credere, [ While we are learn
ing we should believe,] yet it must be coupled with this,
Oportet edoctum judicare; \After we have learnt we should
judge /] for disciples do owe unto masters only a temporary
belief, and a suspension of their own judgment until they be

20 fully instructed, and not an absolute resignation, or per
petual captivity : and therefore, to conclude this point, I
will say no more, but so let great authors have their due, as
time, which is the author of authors, be not deprived of his
due, which is, further and further to discover truth. sj*\-

Thus have I gone over these three diseases of learning ;
besides the which, there are some other rather peccant
humours than formed diseases : which nevertheless are not
so secret and intrinsic, but that they fall under a popular
observation and traducement, and therefore are not to be

30 passed over.

The first of these is the extreme affecting of two ex-

^7\ f&^r*~ ^"™ mm^^^ — » •• ^ — ^

tremities :^wie one antiquity^bhe other novelty ; wherein
it seemeth the children of time do take after the nature
and malice of the father. For as he devoureth his children,
so one of them seeketh to devour and suppress the other ;

THE FIRST BOOK. 35

while antiquity envieth there should be new additions, and
novelty cannot be content to add, but it must deface :
surely, the advice of the prophet is the true direction in
this matter, State super vias antiquas, et videte qucenam sit
via recta et bona, et ambulate in ea : [Stand upon the ancient
paths and see which is the straight and good road, and walk
in it.] Antiquity deserveth that reverence, that men should
make a stand thereupon, and discover what is the best way L_
but when the discovery is well taken, then to make pro
gression. And to speak truly, Antiquitas sceculi juventus 10
^mundi: [Old times were the youth of the world.] These times;
are the ancier^time^, when the world is ancient, and not/
those which we account ancient ordine rctrogrado, by a com
putation backward from ourselves.
Another error, induced by the former, is a distrust,

any thing should be now to be found out, which the
world should have missed and passed over so long time ;
as if the same objection were to be made to time, that
Lucian maketh to Jupiter and other the heathen gods ; of
which he wondereth that they begot so many children in 20
old time, and begot none in his time ; and asketh whether
they were become septuagenary, or whether the law Papia,
made against old men's marriages, had restrained them.
So it seemeth men doubt lest time is become past children
and generation; wherein, contrariwise, we see commonly
the levity and inconstancy of men's judgments, which, till
a matter be done, wonder that it can be done ; and, as soon
as it is done, wonder again that it was no sooner done : as
we see in the expedition of Alexander into Asia, which at
first was prejudged as a vast and impossible enterprise: 30
and yet afterwards it pleaseth Livy to make no more of it
than this, Nil aliud quam bene ausus vana contemnere: [He
simply ventured to despise idle fears:} and the same happened
to Columbus in the western navigation. But in intellectual
matters it is much more common ; as may be seen in most of
the propositions of Euclid : which till they be demonstrate,

36 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

they aeem 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.

Another error, that hath also some affinity with the
former, is a conceit that of former opinions or sects, after
variety and examination, the best hath still prevailed, and
suppressed the rest ; so as, if a man should begin the
labour of a new search, he were but like to light upon
somewhat formerly rejected, and by rejection brought

10 into oblivion : as if the multitude, or the wisest for the
multitude's sake, were not ready to give passage rather to
that which is popular and superficial, than to that which is
substantial and profound ; for the truth is, that time
seemeth to be of the nature of a river or stream, which
carrieth down to us that which is light and blown up, and
sinketh and drowneth that which is weighty and solid.

Another error, of a diverse nature from all the former,
is the over early and peremptory reduction of know
ledge into arts and methods ; from which time com-

20 monly sciences receive small or no augmentation. But as
young men, when they knit and shape perfectly, do seldom
grow to a further stature ; so knowledge, while it is in
aphorisms and observations, it is in growth : but when it
once is comprehended in exact methods, it may perchance
be further polished and illustrated, and accommodated for
use and practice; but it increaseth no more in bulk and
substance.

Another error which doth succeed that which we last
mentioned, is, that after the distribution of particular arts

30 and sciences, men have abandoned universality, or ph ilo-
sophia prima T\fir&t philosophy :] which cannot but 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.

THE FIRST BOOK. 37

Another error hath proceeded from too great a rever
ence, and a kind of adoration of the mind and understanding
of man ; by means whereof, men have withdrawn themselves
too much from the contemplation of nature, and the obser
vations 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 philosophers, 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 10
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.

Another error that hath some connection with this
latter, is, that men have used to infect their meditations,
opinions, and doctrines, with some conceits which they have
most admired, or some sciences which they have most
applied ; and given all things else a tincture according to 20
them, utterly untrue and improper. So hath Plato inter
mingled 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 countryman, 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, 30
saith pleasantly, Hie ab arte sua non recessit, [This man
is faithful to his art,] etc. But of these conceits Aristotle
speaketh seriously and wisely, when he saith, Qui respiciunt
ad pauca de facili pronunciant : [Men, who only take a few
things into consideration, find it easy to give an opinion.]

Another error is an impatience of doubt, and haste to

38 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

assertion without due and mature suspension of judgment.
For the two ways of contemplation are not unlike the two
ways of action, commonly spoken of by the ancients ; the
one plain and smooth in the beginning, and in the end
impassable ; the other rough and troublesome in the entrance,
but after a while fair and even : so it is in contemplation ;
if a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts ;
but if lie will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end
in certainties.^

10 Another error is in the manner of the tradition and
delivery of knowledge, which is for the most part magistral
and peremptory, and not ingenuous and faithful ; in a sort as
may be soonest believed, and not easiliest examined. It is
true, that in compendious treatises for practice, that form is
not to be disallowed : but in the true handling of knowledge,
men ought not to fall either, on the one side, into the vein of
Velleius the Epicurean, Nil tarn metuens, quam ne dubitare
aliqua de re videretur: [Fearing nothing so much as that he
might seem to be in doubt about anything :] nor, on the other

20 side, into Socrates hisjrontcal doubting of all things ; but to
propound things sincerely, with more or less asseveration, as
they stand in a man's own judgment proved more or less.

Other errors there are in the scope that men propound
to themselves, whereunto they bend their endeavours ; for
whereas the more constant and devoted 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

30 methodical compounder or abridger, and so the patrimony of
knowledge cometh to be sometimes improved, but seldom
augmented.

But the greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking

or misplacing of the last or furthest end of "knowledge : for

r men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge,

sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite ;

THE FIRST BOOK. 39

sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight ;
sometimes for ornament and reputation ; and sometimes to
enable them to victory of wit and contradiction ; and most
times for lucre and profession ; and seldom sincerely to give
a true account of their gift of reason, to^ the benefit and us_e ^
of men : as if there were sought in knowledge a couch, where
upon to rest a searching and restless spirit ; or a tarasse, for a *
wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with
a fair prospect ; or a tower of state, for a proud mind to
raise itself upon ; or a fort or commanding ground, for strife 10
and contention ; or a shop, for profit or sale ; and not a
rich storehouse, for the glory of the Creator, and the relief
of man's estate. But this is that which will indeed dignify
and exalt knowledge, if contemplation and action may be
more nearly and straitly conjoined and united together than
they have been ; a conjunction like unto that of the two
highest planets, Saturn, the planet of rest and contemplation,
and Jupiter, the planet of civil society and action : howbeit,
I do not mean, when I speak of use and action, that end
before-mentioned of the applying of knowledge to lucre and 20
profession ; for I am not ignorant how much that diverteth
and interrupteth the prosecution and advancement of know
ledge, 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:
[She goes aside from her course, and picks up the rolling gold.]
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 30
knowledge only to manners and policy. But as both heaven
and earth do conspire and contribute to the use and benefit
of man ; so the end ought to be, from both philosophies to
separate and reject vain speculations, and whatsoever is
empty and void, and to preserve and augment whatsoever is
solid and fruitful ; that knowledge may not be, as a courtesan,

40 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

for pleasure and vanity only, or as a bond-woman, to acquire
and gain to her master's use ; but as a spouse, for generation,
fruit, and comfort.

Thus have I described and opened, as by a kind of
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 remem
bered, Fidelia vulnera amantis, sed dolosa oscula malignantis :

10 [Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy
are deceitful.'] This, I think, I have gained, that I 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 var
nish or amplification, justly to weigh the dignity of know
ledge in the balance with other things, and to take the true

20 value thereof by testimonies and arguments divine and
human.

First, therefore, let us seek the dignity of knowledge
in the archetype or first platform, which is in the attri
butes and acts of God, as far as they are revealed to man,
and may be observed with sobriety ; wherein we may not
seek it by the name of learning ; for all learning is know
ledge acquired, and all knowledge in God is original : and
therefore we must look for it by another name, that of
wisdom or sapience, as the Scriptures call it.
30 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 power, the other to wisdom ; the one expressed
in making the subsistence of the matter, and the other in
disposing the beauty of the form. This being supposed, it
is to be observed that for anything which appeareth in the

THE FIRST BOOK. 41

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, Let there be heaven and earth, as it is set down of
the works following ; but actually, that God made heaven
and earth : the one carrying the style of a manufacture,
and the other of a law, decree, or counsel. 10

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
celestial hierarchy of that supposed Dionysius the senator of
Athens, the first place or degree is given to the angels of love,
which are termed seraphim ; the second to the angels of light,
which are termed cherubim ; and the third, and so following
places, to thrones, principalities, and the rest, which are all
angels of power and ministry ; so as the angels of knowledge
and illumination are placed before the angels of office and
domination. 20

To descend from spirits and intellectual forms to sensible
and material forms ; we read the first form that was created
was light, which hath a relation and correspondence in
nature and corporal things to knowledge in spirits and
incorporal things.

So in the distribution of days, we see, the day wherein
God did rest, and contemplate his own works, was blessed
above all the days wherein he did effect and accomplish
them.

After the creation was finished, it is set down unto us, 30
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

42 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

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 imposition of names. As for the know
ledge which induced the fall, it was, as was touched before,
not the natural knowledge of creatures, but the moral know
ledge of good and evil ; wherein the supposition was, that
God's commandments or prohibitions were not the originals
of good and evil, but that they had other beginnings, which

10 man aspired to know ; to the end to make a total defection
from God, and to depend wholly upon himself.

To pass on : in the first event or occurrence after the fall
of man, we see, (as the Scriptures have infinite mysteries, not
violating at all the truth of the story or letter,) an image of
the two estates, the contemplative state and the active state,
figured in the two persons of Abel and Cain, and in the two
simplest and most primitive trades of life ; that of the shep
herd, (who, by reason of his leisure, rest in a place, and
living in view of heaven, is a lively image of a contemplative

20 life,) and that of the husbandman : where we see again the
favour and election of God went to the shepherd, and not to
the tiller of the ground.

So in the age before the flood, the holy records within
those few memorials which are there entered and registered,
have vouchsafed to mention and honour the name of the in
ventors and authors of music and works in metal. In the
age after the flood, the first great judgment of God upon the
ambition of man was the confusion of tongues ; whereby the
open trade and intercourse of learning and knowledge was

30 chiefly imbarred.

To descend to Moses the lawgiver, and God's first pen :
he is adorned by the Scriptures with this addition and com
mendation, That he was seen in all the learning of the
Egyptians; which nation, we know, was one of the most
ancient schools of the world : for so Plato brings in the
Egyptian priest saying unto Solon : You Grecians are ever

THE FIRST BOOX. 43

children; you have no knowledge of antiquity, nor antiquity of
knowledge. Take a view of the ceremonial law of Moses ;
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 Kabbins have travailed profitably
and profoundly to observe some of them a natural, some of
them a moral, sense or reduction of many of the ceremonies
and ordinances. As in the law of the leprosy, where it is
said, If the whiteness have overspread the flesh, the patient may 10
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 theological sense, much
aspersion of philosophy.

So likewise in that excellent book of Job, if it be 20
revolved with diligence, it will be found pregnant and
swelling with natural philosophy ; as for example, cosmo
graphy, and the roundness of the world, Qui extendit
aquilonem super vacuum, et appendit terram super nihilum;
[He stretcheth out the North over the empty place, and hangeth
the earth upon nothing /] 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 coelos, et obstetricante manu
ejus eductus est coluber tortuosus: [By his spirit he hath 30
garnished the heavens : his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.]
And in another place ; Nunquid conjungere valebis micantes
Stellas Pleiadas, aut gyrum Aroturi poteris dissipare? [Canst
thou bring together the glittering stars of the Pleiades, or
scatter the array of Arcturus .?] Where the fixing of the stars,
ever standing at equal distance, is with great elegancy noted.

44 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

And in another place, Qui facit Arcturum, et Oriona, et
ffyadas, et interior a Austri ; [who maketh Arcturus, Orion, and
Hyades, and the secrets of the South ;] 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 ? [Hast thou not
poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese f] etc.
Matter of minerals ; Hdbet argentum venarum suarum

] 0 principia : et auro locus est in quo confiatur, ferrum de
terra tollitur, et lapis solutus calore in ces vertitur : [Surely
there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold
where they fine it. Iron is taken out of the earth, and
brass is molten out of the stone:] and so forwards in that
chapter.

So likewise in the person of Solomon the king, we see
the gift or endowment of wisdom and learning, both in
Solomon's petition, and in God's assent thereunto, preferred
before all other terrene and temporal felicity. By virtue of

20 which grant or donative of God Solomon became enabled, not
only to write those excellent parables, or aphorisms concern
ing divine and moral philosophy ; but also to compile a
natural history of all verdure, from the cedar upon the moun
tain 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 Solomon 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

30 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 ; considering the great

THE FIRST BOOK. 45

commandment of wits and means, whereby nothing needeth
to be hidden from them.

Neither did the dispensation of God vary in the times
after our Saviour came into the world ; for our Saviour him
self 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 ex
pressed in the similitude and gift of tongues, which are but
vekicula scientice : [the carriers of knowledge.] 10

So in the election of those instruments, which it pleased
God to use for the plantation of the faith, notwithstanding
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 know
ledge ; yet, nevertheless, that counsel of his was no sooner
performed, but in the next vicissitude and succession he did
send his divine truth into the world, waited on with other
learnings, as with servants or handmaids : for so we see
St. Paul, who was the only learned amongst the Apostles, 20
had his pen most used in the Scriptures of the New
Testament.

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 accounted a more pernicious
engine and machination against the Christian Faith, than
were all the sanguinary prosecutions of his predecessors ; 30
neither could the emulation and jealousy of Gregory the first
of that name, Bishop of Rome, ever obtain the opinion of
piety or devotion ; but contrariwise received the censure of
humour, malignity, and pusillanimity, even amongst holy
men ; in that he designed to obliterate and extinguish the
memory of heathen antiquity and authors. But contrariwise,

46 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

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 learning,
which otherwise had been extinguished, as if no such thing
had ever been.

And we see before our eyes, that in the age of ourselves
and our fathers, when it pleased God to call the Church of
Rome to account for their degenerate manners and cere-

10 monies, and sundry doctrines obnoxious, and framed to up
hold 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.

Whereof, to conclude this part, let it be observed, that

20 there be two principal duties and services, besides ornament
and illustration, which philosophy and human learning do
perform to faith and religion. The one, because they are an
effectual inducement to the exaltation of the glory of God :
for as the Psalms and other Scriptures do often invite us to
consider and magnify the great and wonderful works of God ;
so if we should rest only in the contemplation of the exterior
of them, as they first offer themselves to our senses, we
f should do a like injury unto the majesty of God, as if we
should judge or construe of the store of some excellent

30 jeweller, by 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 expressing his

THE FIRST BOOK. 47

power ; whereof the latter is a key unto the former : not
only opening our understanding to conceive the true sense of
the Scriptures, by the general notions of reason and rules of
speech ; but chiefly opening our belief, in drawing us into a
due meditation of the omnipotency of God, which is chiefly
signed and engraven upon his works. Thus much therefore
for divine testimony and evidence concerning the true dignity
and value of learning.

As for human proofs, it is so large a field, as, in a discourse 10
of this nature and brevity, it is fit rather to use choice
of those things which we shall produce, than to embrace
the variety of them. First, therefore, in the degrees
of human honour amongst the heathen, 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 : according to which, that
which the Grecians call apotheosis, and the Latins relatio inter
divos, [deification,'] was the supreme honour which man could
attribute unto man : especially when it was given, not by a 20
formal decree or act of state, as it was used among the Koman
emperors, but by an inward assent and belief. Which
honour, being so high, had also a degree or middle term : for
there were reckoned, above human honours, honours heroical
and divine : in the attribution and distribution of which
honours, we see, antiquity made this difference : that whereas
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, 30
Romulus, and the like : on the other side, such as were
inventors and authors of new arts, endowments, and com
modities towards man's life, were ever consecrated amongst
the gods themselves ; as were Ceres, Bacchus, Mercurius,
Apollo, and others : and justly ; for the merit of the former
is confined within the circle of an age or a nation ; and is like

48 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

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 ; coining in aura
leni, [with gentle breath,] without noise or agitation.

Neither is certainly that other merit of learning, in
repressing the inconveniences which grow from man to man,

10 much inferior to the former, of relieving the necessities which
arise from nature ; which merit was lively set forth by the
ancients in that feigned relation of Orpheus' theatre, where
all beasts and birds assembled ; and, forgetting their several
appetites, some of prey, some of game, some of quarrel, stood
all sociably together listening to the airs and accords of the
harp ; the sound whereof no sooner ceased, or was drowned
by some louder noise, but every beast returned to his own
nature : wherein is aptly described the nature and condition
of men, who are full of savage and unreclaimed desires, of

20 profit, of lust, of revenge ; which as long as they give ear to
precepts, to laws, to religion, sweetly touched with eloquence
and persuasion of books, of sermons, of harangues, so long is
society and peace maintained ; but if these instruments be
silent, or that sedition and tumult make them not audible,
all things dissolve into anarchy and confusion.

But this appeareth more manifestly, when kings them
selves, or persons of authority under them, or other governors
in commonwealths and popular estates, are endued with
learning. For although he might be thought partial to his

30 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, if they be illuminate by
learning, they have those notions of religion, policy, and

THE FIRST BOOK. 49

morality, which do preserve them and refrain them from all
ruinous and peremptory errors and excesses; whispering
evermore in their ears, when counsellors and servants stand
mute and silent. And senators or 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 dis
cover them not till they come near hand, and then trust to
the agility of their wit to ward off or avoid them.

Which felicity of times under learned princes, (to keep 10
still the law of brevity, by using the most eminent and
selected examples,) doth best appear in the age which passed
from the death of Domitian the emperor until the reign of
Commodus ; comprehending a succession of six princes, all
learned, or singular favourers and advancers of learning ;
which age, for temporal respects, was the most happy and
nourishing that ever the Eoman empire (which then was a
model of the world) enjoyed : a matter revealed and pre
figured unto Domitian in a dream the night before he was
slain ; for he thought there was grown behind upon his 20
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 commemoration ; wherein although
the matter will be vulgar, and may be thought fitter for a
declamation-- than agreeable to a treatise infolded as this is,
yet because it is pertinent to the point in hand, Neque semper
arcum tendit Apollo, [A nd Apollo is not always stretching his
bow,] 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 30
Cornelius Tacitus touched to the life : Postquam divus Nerva
res olim insociabiles miscuisset, imperium et libertatem ; [ When
the divine Nerva had reconciled things which did not go to
gether before, namely, authority and liberty J\ And in token
of his learning, the last act of his short reign, left to memory,
was a missive to his adopted son Trajan, proceeding upon

D

50 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

some inward discontent at the ingratitude of the times,
comprehended in a verse of Homer's :

Telia, Phoebe, tuis lacrymas uleiscere nostras :

[0 Phoebus, by thy shafts avenge these tears.]

Trajan, who succeeded, was for his person not learned :

but if we will hearken to the speech of our Saviour, that

saith, He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet,

shall have a prophefs reward, he deserveth to be placed

amongst the most learned princes : for there was not a

10 greater admirer of learning, or benefactor of learning ; a
founder of famous libraries, a perpetual advancer of learned
men to office, and a familiar converser with learned 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 history doth more livelily set forth,
than that legend tale of Gregorius Magnus, bishop of Rome,
who was noted for the extreme envy he bore towards all
heathen excellency ; and yet he is reported, out of the love

20 and estimation of Trajan's moral virtues, to have made unto
God passionate and fervent prayers for the delivery of his
soul out of hell ; 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.

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

30 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 I. It pleased God likewise to use the curiosity

THE FIRST BOOK. 51

of this emperor as an inducement to the peace of his Church
in those days. For having Christ in veneration, not as a God
or Saviour, but as a wonder or novelty ; and having his
picture in his gallery, matched with Apollonius, with whom,
in his vain 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 10
subject he did exceed him. For Trajan erected many
famous monuments and buildings ; insomuch as Constantine
the Great in emulation was wont to call him Parietaria,
(wall flower), because his name was upon so many walls :
but his buildings and works were more of glory and triumph
than use and necessity. But Adrian spent his whole reign,
which was peaceable, in a perambulation or survey of the
Roman empire ; giving order, and making assignation where
he went, for re-edifying of cities, towns, and forts decayed ;
and for cutting of rivers and streams, and for making 20
bridges and passages, and for policying of cities and
commonalties 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.

Antoninus Pius, who succeeded him, was a prince ex
cellently learned ; and had the patient and subtle wit of
a schoolman ; insomuch as in common speech, which leaves
no virtue untaxed, he was called Cymini Sector, (a carver or
divider of cummin,) which is one of the least seeds ; such 30
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

52 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

hath reigned or lived, made his mind continually present
and entire. He likewise approached a degree nearer unto
Christianity, and became, as Agrippa said unto St. Paul,
half a Christian; holding their religion and law in good
opinion, and not only ceasing persecution, but giving way
to the advancement of Christians.

There succeeded him the first Dim fratres, [Divine
brothers,] the two adoptive brethren, Lucius Commodus
Verus, (son to ^Elius Verus, who delighted much in the

10 softer kind of learning, and was wont to call the poet
Martial his Virgil,) and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ;
whereof the latter, who obscured his colleague and survived
him long, was named the Philosopher : who, as he excelled
all the rest in learning, so he excelled them likewise in
perfection of all royal virtues ; insomuch as Julianus the
emperor, in his book intitled Ccesares, being as a pasquin
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

20 scoff on every one as they came in ; but when Marcus
Philosophus came in, Silenus was gravelled, and out of
countenance, not knowing where to carp at him ; save at
the last he gave a glance at his patience towards his wife.
And the virtue of this prince, continued with that of his
predecessor, made the name of Antoninus so sacred in the
world, that though it were extremely dishonoured in
Commodus, Caracalla, and Heliogabalus, who all bore the
name, yet when Alexander Severus refused the name,
because he was a stranger to the family, the senate with one

30 acclamation said, Quomodo Augustus, sic et Antoninus : [Let
the name of Antoninus be as the name of Augustus.] 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 emperor's styles. In this emperor's times
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

THE FIRST BOOK. 53

learning in sovereignty, painted forth in the greatest table
of the world.

But for a tablet, or picture of smaller volume, (not
presuming to speak of your Majesty that liveth,) in my
judgment 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 parallels,
would trouble him, I think, to find for her a parallel
amongst women. This lady was endued with learning in
her sex singular, and rare even amongst masculine princes ; 10
whether we speak of learning, language, or of science,
modern or ancient, divinity or humanity : and unto the very
last year of her life she was accustomed to appoint set hours
for reading, scarcely any young student in a university more
daily, or more duly. As for her government, I assure my
self, 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 20
and security, the good administration of justice, the tem
perate use of the prerogative, not slackened, nor much
strained, the nourishing 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 opposition
of Eome ; and then, that she was solitary and of herself :
these things, I say, considered, as I could not have chosen an 30
instance so recent and so proper, so, I suppose, I could not
have chosen one more remarkable or eminent to the purpose
now in hand, which is concerning the conjunction of
learning in the prince with felicity in the people.

Neither hath learning an influence and operation only
upon civil merit and moral virtue, and the arts or tempera-

54 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

ture of peace and peaceable government ; but likewise it
hath no less power and efficacy in enablement towards
martial and military virtue and prowess ; as may be notably
represented in the examples of Alexander the Great, and
Ceesar the Dictator, mentioned before, but now in fit place
to be resumed ; of whose virtues and acts in war there needs
no note or recital, having been the wonders of time in that
kind : but of their affections towards learning, and perfec
tions in learning, it is pertinent to say somewhat.

10 Alexander was bred and taught under Aristotle the
great philosopher, who dedicated divers of his books of
philosophy unto him : he was attended with Callisthenes
and divers other learned persons, that followed him in camp,
throughout his journeys and conquests. What price and
estimation he had learning in doth notably appear in these
three particulars : first, in the envy he used to express that
he bore towards Achilles, in this, that he had so good a
trumpet of his praises as Homer's verses : secondly, in the
judgment or solution he gave touching that precious cabinet

20 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 expostulated with him for publishing the secrets
or mysteries of philosophy ; and gave him to understand
that himself esteemed it more to excel other men in learning
and knowledge than in power and empire. And what use
he had of learning doth appear, or rather shine, in all his
speeches and answers, being full of science, and use of

30 science, and that in all variety.

And herein again it may seem a thing scholastical, and
somewhat idle, to recite things that every man knoweth ; but
yet, since the argument I handle leadeth me thereunto, I am
glad that men shall perceive I am as willing to natter, if they
will so call it, an Alexander, or a Csesar, or an Antoninus,
that are dead many hundred years since, as any that now

THE FIRST BOOK. 55

liveth : for it is the displaying of the glory of learning in
sovereignty that I propound to myself, and not a 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
on^ 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 I not Alexander, I would wish
to be Diogenes. But Seneca inverteth it, and saith : Plus 10
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.)

Observe again that speech which was usual with him,
That he felt his mortality chiefly in two things, sleep and lust ;
and see if it were not a speech extracted out of the depth of
natural philosophy, and liker to have come out of the mouth
of Aristotle or Democritus, than from Alexander.

See again that speech of humanity and poesy ; when upon
the bleeding of his wounds, he called unto him one of 20
his flatterers, that was wont to ascribe to him divine honour,
and said, Look, this is very blood ; this is not such a liquor as
Homer speaketh of, which ran from Venus' hand, when it was
pierced by Diomedes.

See likewise his readiness in reprehension of logic, in
the speech he used to Cassander, upon a complaint that was
made against his father Antipater : for when Alexander
happened to say, Do you think these men would have come
from so far to complain, except they had just cause of grief?
and Cassander answered, Yea, that was the matter, because 30
they thought they should not be disproved. Said Alexander
laughing : See the subtilties of Aristotle, to take a matter both
ways, pro et contra, [for and against,] etc.

But note again how well he could use the same art,
which he reprehended, to serve his own humour : when
bearing a secret grudge to Callisthenes, because he was

56 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

against the new ceremony of his adoration, feasting one night
where the same Callisthenes was at the table, it was moved b/
some after supper, for entertainment sake, that Callisthenes,
who was an eloquent man, might speak of some theme or
purpose, at his own choice : which Callisthenes did : choosing
the praise of the Macedonian nation for his discourse, and
performing the same with so good manner, as the hearers
were much ravished : whereupon Alexander, nothing pleased,
said, It was easy to be eloquent upon so good a subject. But,

10 saith he, turn your style, and let us hear what you can say
against us: which Callisthenes presently undertook, and did
with that sting and life, that Alexander interrupted him,
and said, The goodness of the cause made him eloquent before,
and despite made him eloquent then again.

Consider further, for tropes of rhetoric, that excellent
use of a metaphor or translation, wherewith he taxed Anti-
pater, who was an imperious and tyrannous governor : for
when one of Antipater's friends commended him to Alexander
for his moderation, that he did not degenerate, as his other

20 lieutenants did, into the Persian pride, in use of purple, but
kept the ancient habit of Macedon, of black ; True, saith
Alexander, but Antipater is all purple within. Or that other,
when Parmenio came to him in the plain of Arbela, and
showed him the innumerable multitude of his enemies,
especially as they appeared by the infinite number of lights,
as it had been a new firmament of stars, and thereupon
advised him to assail them by night : whereupon he answered,
That he would not steal the victory.
For matter of policy, weigh that significant distinction,

30 so much in all ages embraced, that he made between his two
friends, Hephsestion 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 others in duty love their
crown.

Weigh also that excellent taxation of an error, ordinary

THE FIRST BOOK. 57

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's great offers,
Parmenio had said, Surely I would accept these offers, were I as
Alexander; saith Alexander, So would /, were I as Parmenio.

Lastly, weigh that quick and acute reply, which he made
when he gave so large gifts to his friends and servants,
and was asked what he did reserve for himself, and he
answered, Hope: weigh, I say, whether he had not cast
up his account aright, because hope must be the portion of all 10
that resolve upon great enterprises. For this was Caesar'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 Guise, of whom it was usually said,
that he was the greatest usurer in France, because he had
turned all his estate into obligations.

To conclude, therefore : as certain critics are used to
say hyperbolically, That if all sciences were lost they might be
found in Virgil ! so certainly this may be said truly, there 20
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 r hath carried me too far.

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 per
manent, and some unfortunately perished. For, first, we
see, there is left unto us that excellent history of his own 30
wars, which he intitled 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,

58 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

is well witnessed by that work of his, intitled, De A nalogia,
[On Analogy,] being a grammatical philosophy, wherein he
did labour to make this same vox ad placitum [conventional
speech] to become vox ad licitum, [correct speech,] and to
reduce custom of speech to congruity of speech ; and took, as
it were, the pictures of words from the life of reason.

So we receive from him, as a monument both of his

power and learning, the then reformed computation of the

year ; well expressing that he took it to be as great a glory

10 to himself to observe and know the law of the heavens, as

to give law to men upon the earth.

So likewise in that book of his, Anti-Cato, it may easily
appear that he did aspire as well to victory of wit as
victory of war : undertaking therein a conflict against the
greatest champion with the pen that then lived, Cicero the
orator.

So again in this 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
20 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 Alex
ander, they are truly such as Solomon noteth, when he
saith, Verba sapientum tanquam aculei, et tanquam clam in
altum defixi: [The words of the wise are as goads and as
nails driven deep in :] whereof I will only recite three, not
so delectable for elegancy, but admirable for vigour and
efficacy.

30 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 Eomans, when their generals
did speak to their army, did use the word Milites, [Soldiers,"]
but when the magistrates spake to the people, they did use
the word, Quirites, [Citizens.] The soldiers were in tumult,
and seditiously prayed to be cashiered; not that they so

THE FIRST BOOK. 59

meant, but by expostulation thereof to draw Csesar to other
conditions ; wherein he being resolute not to give way, after
some silence, he began his speech, Ego, Quirites, [I, citizens^
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 Nilites : [Soldiers.]

The second speech was thus : Csesar did extremely
affect the name of king ; and some were set on, as he 10
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 surname ;
Non Rex sum, sed Caesar ; [I am not King, but Ccesar ;] a
speech, that if it be searched, the life and fulness of it can
scarce be expressed : for, first, it was a refusal of the name,
but yet not serious : again, it did signify an infinite con
fidence 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 allurement 20
toward his own purpose ; as if the state did strive with him
but for a name, whereof mean families were vested ; for
Rex [King] was a surname with the Romans, as well as King
is with us.

The last speech which I will mention, was used to
Metellus ; when Caesar, 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. 30
And presently taking himself up, he added, Adolescens,
durius est mihi hoc dicere quam facere : [Young man, it is
harder for me to speak it than to do itJ\ A speech compounded
of the greatest terror and greatest clemency that could pro
ceed out of the mouth of man.

But to return and conclude with him ; it is evident,

60 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

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 own advan
tage, answered, That Sylla could not skill of letters, and there
fore knew not how to dictate.

And here it were fit to leave this point, touching the
concurrence of military virtue and learning, for what
example would come with any grace after those two of

10 Alexander and Csesar ? 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

20 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 now but

30 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

THE FIRST BOOK. 61

was, that this young scholar, or philosopher, after all the
captains were murdered in parley by treason, conducted
those ten thousand foot, through the heart of all the king's
high countries, from Babylon to Graecia in safety, in
despite of all the king's forces, to the astonishment 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 10
scholar.

To proceed now from imperial and military virtue to moral
and private virtue : first, it is an assured truth, which is
contained in the verses :

Scilicet ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes,

Emollit mores, nee sinit esse feros :

[ Without doubt a faithful study of the liberal arts

A Softens and humanises the character^

It taketh away the wildness and barbarism and fierceness
of men's minds ; but indeed the accent had need be upon 20
fideliter : [faithful :] for a little superficial learning doth
rather work a contrary effect. It taketh away all levity,
temerity, and insolency, by copious suggestion of all doubts
and difficulties, and acquainting the mind to balance reasons
on both sides, and to turn back the first offers and conceits
of the mind, and to accept of nothing but examined and
tried. It taketh away vain admiration of anything, which
is the root of all weakness : for all things are admired either
because they are new, or because they are great. For novelty,
no man that wadeth in learning or contemplation thoroughly, 30
but will find that printed in his heart, Nil novi super terram :
[There is nothing new on the earth,] Neither can any man
marvel at the play of puppets, that goeth behind the curtain,
and adviseth well of the motion. And for magnitude, as
Alexander the Great, after that he was used to great armies,

62 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

and the great conquests of the spacious provinces in Asia,
when he received letters out of Greece, of some fights and
services there, which were commonly for a passage, or a
fort, or some walled town at the most, he said, It seemed to
him, that lie 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 divineness of souls except,) will not seem
much other than an ant-hill, whereas some ants carry corn,
10 and some carry their young, and some go empty, and all to-
and-fro a little heap of dust. It taketh away or mitigateth
fear of death, or adverse fortune ; which is one of the greatest
impediments of virtue, and imperfections of manners. For if
a man's mind be deeply seasoned with the consideration of
the mortality and corruptible nature of things, he will easily
concur with Epictetus, who went forth one day and saw a
woman weeping for her pitcher of earth that was broken ;
and went forth the next day and saw a woman weeping for
her son that was dead : and thereupon said, Heri vidifragilem
20 frangi, hodie vidi mortalem mori : [ Yesterday I saw a brittle
thing broken, to-day a mortal dead.] And therefore Virgil
did excellently and profoundly couple the knowledge of
causes and the conquest of all fears together, as Concomitantia:
[concomitants.]

Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,
Quique metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari :
[Happy the man who doth the causes knoiv
Of all that is : serene he stands, above
30 All fears; above the inexorable fate,

And that insatiate gulf that roars below.]
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 increas
ing appetite, sometimes healing the wounds and exulcerations

THE FIRST BOOK. 63

thereof, and the like ; and, therefore, T will conclude with
that which hath rationem totius ; [the essence of the whole ;]
which is, that it disposeth the constitution of the mind not
to be fixed or settled in the defects thereof, but still to be
capable and susceptible of growth and reformation. For the
unlearned man knows not what it is to descend into himself,
or to call himself to account ; nor the pleasure of suavissima
vita, indies sentire se fieri meliorem : [that most pleasant life,
feeling one's self grow better every dayl\ The good parts he
hath he will learn to show to the full, and use them 10
dexterously, but not much to increase them : the faults he
hath he will learn how to hide and colour them, but not
much to amend them : like an ill mower, that mows on still,
and never whets his scythe. Whereas with the learned man
it fares otherwise, that he doth ever intermix the correction
and amendment of his mind with the use and employment
thereof. Nay further, in general and in sum, certain it is
that Veritas [Truth] and Bonitas [Goodness] 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 20
and perturbations.

From moral virtue let us pass on to matter of power and
commandment, and consider whether in right reason there be
any comparable with that wherewith knowledge investeth
and crowneth man's nature. We see the dignity of the com
mandment is according to the dignity of the commanded : to
have commandment over beasts, as herdmen have, is a thing
contemptible ; to have commandment over children, as school
masters have, is a matter of small honour ; to have command
ment over galley-slaves is a disparagement rather than an 30
honour. Neither is the commandment of tyrants much
better, over people which have put oft7 the generosity of their
minds : and therefore it was ever holden that honours in free
monarchies and commonwealths had a sweetness more than
in tyrannies ; because the commandment extendeth more
over the wills of men, and not only over their deeds and

64 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

services. And therefore, when Virgil putteth himself forth
to attribute to Augustus Caesar the best of human honours,
he doth it in these words :

Victorque volentes

Per populos dat jura, viamque affectat Olympo.
[Moving in conquest onward, at his will
To willing peoples he gives laws, and shapes
Through worthiest deeds on earth his course to Heaven.]
But yet the commandment of knowledge is yet higher than
10 the commandment over the will ; for it is a commandment
over the reason, belief, and understanding of man, which is
the highest part of the mind, and giveth law to the will
itself : for there is no power on earth which setteth up a
throne or chair of state in the spirits and souls of men, and
in their cogitations, imaginations, opinions, and beliefs, but
knowledge and learning. And therefore we see the detestable
and extreme pleasure that arch-heretics, and false prophets,
and impostors are transported with, when they once find in
themselves that they have a superiority in the faith and
20 conscience of men ; so great, that, if they have once tasted of
it, it is seldom seen that any torture or persecution can make
them relinquish or abandon it. But as this is that which the
author of the Revelation calleth the depth or profoundness of
Satan : so by argument of contraries, the just and lawful
sovereignty over men's understanding, by force of truth
rightly interpreted, is that which approacheth nearest to the
similitude of the divine rule.

As for fortune and advancement, the beneficence of
learning is not so confined to give fortune only to states
30 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 Caesar, or Augustus ever did, notwithstanding their great
largesses and donatives, and distributions of lands to so many
legions : and no doubt it is hard to say, whether arms or
learning have advanced greater numbers. And in case of

THE FIRST BOOK. 65

sovereignty we see, that if arms or descent have carried away
the kingdom, yet learning hath carried the priesthood, which
ever hath been in some competition with empire.

Again, for the pleasure and delight of knowledge and
learning, it far surpasseth all other in nature : for, shall the
pleasures of the affections so exceed the pleasure of the
senses, as much as the obtaining of desire or victory ex-
ceedeth a song or a dinner ? and must not, of consequence,
the pleasures of the intellect or understanding exceed the
pleasures of the affections ? We see in all other pleasures 10
there is satiety, and after they be used, their verdure
departeth ; which showeth well they be but deceits of
pleasure, and not pleasures ; and that it was the novelty
which pleased, and not the quality : and therefore we see
that voluptuous men turn friars, and ambitious princes turn
melancholy. But of knowledge there is no satiety, but satis
faction and appetite are perpetually interchangeable ; and
therefore appeareth to be good in itself simply, without
fallacy or accident. Neither is that pleasure of small efficacy
and contentment to the mind of man, which the poet 20
Lucretius describeth elegantly,

SUAVE MARI MAGNO, TURBANTIBUS JEQTTORA VENTIS, etc.

It is a view of delight, saith he, to stand or walk upon the
share side, and to see a ship tossed with tempest upon the sea ; or
to be in a fortified tower, and to see two battles join upon a
plain ; but it is a pleasure incomparable, for the mind of man
to be settled, landed, and fortified in the certainty of truth ; and
from thence to descry and behold the errors, perturbations,
labours, and wanderings up and down of other men.

Lastly, leaving the vulgar arguments, that by learning 30
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 nature doth most aspire,

E

66 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

which is immortality or continuance : for 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 Homer continued twenty-five hundred years, or
more, without the loss of a syllable or letter ; during which

10 time infinite palaces, temples, castles, cities, have been
decayed and demolished? It is not possible to have the
true pictures or statues of Cyrus, Alexander, Caesar ; no,
nor of the kings or great personages of much later years ; for
the originals cannot last, and the copies cannot but lose of
the life and truth. But the images of men's wits and know
ledges remain in books, exempted from the wrong of time,
and capable of perpetual renovation. Neither are they fitly
to be called images, because they generate still, and cast
their seeds in the minds of others, provoking and causing

20 infinite actions and opinions in succeeding ages : so that if the
invention of the ship was thought so noble, which carrieth
riches and commodities from place to place, and consociateth
the most remote regions in participation of their fruits, how
much more are letters to be magnified, which, as ships, pass
through the vast seas of time, and make ages so distant to
participate of the wisdom, illuminations, and inventions, the
one of the other ? Nay further, we see, some of the phil
osophers which were least divine, and most immersed in the
senses, and denied generally the immortality of th.e soul, yet

30 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 affections ; 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

THE FIRST BOOK. 67

but the body changed, shall be advanced to immortality,
do disclaim in these rudiments of the senses. But it must
be remembered both in this last point, and so it may likewise
be needful in other places, that in probation of the dignity of
knowledge or learning, I did in the beginning separate divine
testimony from human, which method I have pursued, and so
handled them both apart.

Nevertheless I do not pretend, and I know it will be
impossible for me, by any pleading of mine, to reverse the
judgment, either of .^Esop's cock, that preferred the barley- 10
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 imperet, [Let him kill his mother, provided
that he become Emperor,] that preferred empire with any con
dition never so detestable ; or of Ulysses, Qui vetulam
prcetulit immortalitati, [who preferred an old woman to im
mortality^ being a figure of those which prefer custom and
habit before all excellency ; or of a number of the like 20
popular judgments. For these things continue as they have
been : but so will that also continue whereupon learning hath
ever relied, and which faileth not : Justificata est sapientia a
Jiliis suis [ Wisdom is justified by her children.]

NOTES.

[KB.— The letters E., J. S., and W. show that the notes to
which they are appended are borrowed from Mr. .Ellis, Mr.
Spedding, and Mr. Wright, to all of whom I am much indebted.
The references to Bk. 2 are to my own edition.]

Pages 1-4. Dedication to the king. Ey the law of Moses
there were certain daily sacrifices which every Jew was obliged
to offer to God : but, besides these, pious individuals might make
voluntary offerings according to their ability. In like manner
subjects may make voluntary offerings to their sovereign, over
and above the services which they owe to him as subjects.
Considering the largeness of the king's intellect, his eloquence,
and above all, his great learning, Bacon thinks that he cannot
offer him a more appropriate present than a book which shall
set forth the dignity of learning, and shall contain an account
of what has been already done, and what still remains to be
done, for the advancement of learning. Such a book will serve
as a perpetual testimony to the merits of the king, and the
perusal of it will, Bacon hopes, incite the king to take such
measures as, in his wisdom, he shall think most fit to promote
learning.

James's flatterers used to call him the British Solomon. He was
a bad king and wanted the qualities which make a man successful
in action ; but he was a man of great natural sagacity, and was
eminent for his learning even amongst the learned men of his
time. Macaulay talks of him as " a witty and well-read scholar,"
and Lingard praises his "quickness of apprehension and soundness
of judgment," though he censures him for his self-sufficiency and
affectation. Besides the Basilicon Doron James wrote a book on
the True Law of Free Monarchy, and also a treatise on Dcumon-
ology, in which he claimed to have demonstrated the existence of
witches. Bacon refers to these three works in the Advancement.
To the end of his life James took great interest in theology, which
he considered the first of sciences. It is difficult to read Bacon's

68

[PAGE L] NOTES. 69

exaggerated panegyric without a smile. Bacon, however, cer
tainly understood what would please the king better than we can
do, and we must attribute his compliments to his earnest desire
to attract the attention and obtain the patronage of James.
Bacon's great object was to abolish the old learning altogether,
and to institute the study of experimental philosophy in its place.
This was a project which the king, trained as he was in the old
learning, could hardly be expected to favour. But a survey of
the existing stock of knowledge, which is given in the Advance
ment, was a necessary preliminary to reform, and might be
expected to interest the king very much. Ultimately, no doubt,
Bacon hoped to enlist James's sympathy in favour of the larger
schemes which he was meditating. See Spedding's Francis
Bacon and his Times, 1 — 426. Bacon had also another motive
for flattering and conciliating the king. He hoped to obtain
from him the promotion for which he had striven with such
small success under Elizabeth. Perhaps the best known picture
of King James is that drawn by Sir Walter Scott in his Fortunes
of Nigel.

Page 1, 1. 2. proceeding upon ordinary observance, "These
things ye shall do unto the Lord in your set feasts, beside your
vows and your freewill offerings." — Numbers xxix. 30. Pro
ceeding upon means resulting from.

1. 5. In the former, etc. , I hope that, as long as I live, I shall
never fail to do my duty in any position in which it may please
you to place me.

1. 9. respective, appropriate, oblation, offering.

1. 10. propriety, peculiarity. It is the same as the logical
term property, and is derived from the Latin adjective proprius,
which signifies what belongs to a thing in its own right. Bacon
wishes to adapt his gift to the personal tastes of King James, not
to his official position.

1. 12. representing, lit. bringing before the mind. Cf. "calling
to view," Bk. 2, p. 73.

1. 15. is inscrutable, Prov. xxv. 3. Cf. Bacon's 19th Essay.
" It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and
many things to fear. And yet that commonly is the case of
kings : who, being at the highest, want matter of desire, which
makes their minds more languishing : and have many repre
sentations of perils and shadows, which makes their minds the
less clear. And this is one reason also of that effect, which the
Scripture speaketh of : that the king's heart is inscrutable. For
multitude of jealousies and lack of some predominant desire, that
should marshal and put in order all the rest, maketh any man's
heart hard to find or sound," etc.

1. 16. your virtue and fortune, see note on p. 2, 1. 36. Notice

70 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

that Bacon uses the word virtue in the general sense of excellence,
and is, therefore, obliged to qualify it by an adjective showing
what kind of excellence he means. Virtue with us means moral
excellence. It is therefore unnecessary for us to talk of ' moral
virtue' as Bacon does. See, e.g., p. 61, 1. 12.

Page 2, 1. 5. I have often thought, The king learns so readily
that, instead of learning something new, he seems to be merely
recalling something which he had forgotten. The Platonic doc
trine referred to is that our souls have possessed knowledge in a
previous state of existence : and that therefore the knowledge
which we acquire in this life is not put into us from without. It
is latent in the soul, and is recovered by an act of recollection.
In the dialogue called the Meno Socrates says "that he had
heard from priests and priestesses and inspired men that the
soul of man is immortal, and at one time has an end, which is
termed dying, and at another time is born again, but is never

destroyed The soul, then, as being immortal, and

having been born again many times, and having seen all things
that there are, whether in this world or the world below, has
knowledge of them all ; and it is no wonder that she should be
able to call to remembrance all that she ever knew about virtue,
and about everything ; for as all nature is akin, and the soul has
learned all things, there is no difficulty in her eliciting, or as men
say learning, all out of a single recollection, if a man is strenuous
and does not faint ; for all enquiry and all learning is but recollec
tion." Having thus stated the doctrine, he further proves the
existence of this latent knowledge by the interrogation of one of
Meno's slaves, who, in the skilful hands of Socrates, is made to
acknowledge some elementary relations of geometrical figures.
But whence had the uneducated man this knowledge ? He had
never learnt geometry in this world ; nor was it born with him ;
he must therefore have had it when he was not a man. And as
he always was or was not a man, he must have always had it.
Jowett's Plato, vol. 1, p. 261 and p. 281. The same doctrine is
repeated and illustrated by Plato in the Phcedo. Cf . the passage
in Wordsworth's Ode on Intimations of Immortality, beginning —
" Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting :

The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar. "

The form in which the doctrine is expressed is fanciful, but it
contains an important psychological truth. The mind of each in
dividual is not a mere passive receptivity, but a complex of
tendencies and aptitudes. The mind takes an active part in the
by which knowledge is acquired.

11. tabernacle, a diminutive of the Latin taberna (Eng.
rn), lit. 'a shed made of planks.' It signifies a temporary

2-3.] NOTES. 71

dwelling, sequestered, obscured. Bacon also uses ' to sequester '
in the sense of to put on one side. It was properly a law term
signifying to withdraw or remove from a person and put
temporarily in the hands of a trustee something of which the
ownership was disputed.

1. 12. such a light, etc. The most trifling observation or the
slightest hint is sufficient to make a truth flash upon your mind.

1. 15. the Scripture saith, etc. "And God gave Solomon wis
dom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart,
even as the sand that is on the seashore. " — 1 Kings iv. 29.

1. 17. which ... it, This irregular construction, where it is un
necessarily inserted after the relative, occurs very frequently.

1. 20. To compass and comprehend, to embrace and take in. To
compass means literally to complete the circuit of a thing. To
comprehend means to grasp.

1. 23. for, as regards.

1. 24. Tacitus, The reference is to the Annals, bk. 13, ch. 3.
The Roman historian Tacitus lived from about 60 — 120 A.D.

1. 31. though never so excellent, i.e., no matter how excellent
it may be. The use of never so is to be explained by an ellipsis.
Thus — "Though the speech were excellent — though never a
speech were so excellent. " Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 406.

1. 32. holding of the subject, i.e., wanting in originality. It is
opposed to prince-like in the following sentence, and means
literally 'partaking of the nature of a subject,' i.e., not indepen
dent.

1. 33. flowing, etc., though copious, yet well arranged.

1. 35. felicity, we still use the phrase "a happy expression," to
denote one which is peculiarly appropriate to express the thing
intended.

1. 36. And as in, etc. Just as in your political and domestic
life your virtues have been as eminent as your good fortune has
been conspicuous, so, in intellectual matters, the knowledge which
you have acquired is not less remarkable than the faculties with
which you were by nature endowed, estate, position.

Page 3, 1. 2. a virtuous disposition, etc. These sentences
explain the 'emulation and contention.' In each sentence an
instance of virtue is set over against an instance of good luck.

1. 3. regiment, education. The word literally means control,
from Lat. regere, to rule. On p. 53, 1. 19, it is used as equivalent
to government, when time was, once upon a time, i.e., in the
days, when, as yet, you were only heir to the throne. Notice
that was is used absolutely, your greater fortune, i.e., the
possession of the English crown.

72 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

1. 8. neighbour, used as an adjective for neighbouring.

1. 13. amplification, exaggeration.

1. 15. temporal, opposed to ecclesiastical.

1. 17. revolve, reflect upon. By Rome Bacon means the Roman
Empire before it was divided. By Grcecia he means the Eastern
half of the original empire, of which Constantinople was the
capital. The capital of the West was Rome. Peruse means to
survey. It means properly 'to use up,' and so to go through
thoroughly.

1. 18. C33sar the Dictator, " Julius Csesar was invested with the
Dictatorship at first temporarily after the return from Spain in
49, then after the battle of Pharsalus from the autumn of 48 for
an indefinite time, lastly after the battle of Thapeus from the
1st January, 45, as an annual office, to which he was designated
at first for ten years, ultimately in 44 for life." — Mommsen, vol.
iv. , p. 493. For the meaning of Dictator see on p. 29, 1. 9.
Bacon gives examples of the learning of Caesar below, pp. 57-60,
and on p. 52 he says that Marcus Antoninus was named The
Philosopher.

1. 24. wits, the word wit is generally used simply as the
equivalent of mind. We must not expect original research or
profound knowledge from a king. If he can appropriate and re
peat what others have discovered, so as to create the impression
of being well informed, he has done all that is to be expected.

1. 26. countenance and prefer, favour and promote.

1. 29. in a king born, The learning of a sovereign who has been
raised to the throne from a private station excites no astonish
ment. Before his elevation he had the same leisure, and the
same incentives to work, that ordinary men have.

1. 30. conjunction, a term borrowed from astrology,

1. 31. profane, secular. We now use the word to signify im
pious. The word literally expresses what is in front of or outside
of the temple. Lat. fanum.

1. 32. so as, so that. The phrase occurs repeatedly in the text,
and always in this sense.

1. 34. Hermes, said to have been a great philosopher, king, and
priest, of Egypt. But the real Hermes, or the writer of the
works ascribed to him, was a neophyte Platonist of the second or
third century. — E. The name, according to Dean Church, was
given to a vast series of writings on theology, philosophy, and
nature, which appear to have grown up in Egypt from the second
century onwards, and which, embodying Jewish and Christian, as
well as Eastern, Greek, and Egyptian ideas, were probably in
tended as a body of literature antagonistic to Christianity, giving

3-4.] NOTES. 73

to philosophy the attractions of a religious and inspired character.
For invested of, we should now say invested with.

1. 36. propriety, see on p. 1, 1. 10. Bacon means that it must
not be left unrecorded that James occupied an exceptional posi
tion among kings as an original thinker and teacher. The Latin
translation has — 'it is right that it should be engraved on some such
solid work as will express the power of a great king, and recall
the image of a king so eminently learned.'

Page 4, 1. 5. character or signature, i. e. , a stamp or impression.

The word ' character ' is here used in its literal sense to denote

' an impression. ' The Queen's head on a coin is properly called

' a character.' Shakespeare uses ' to character,' for * to impress '—

' And these few precepts in thy memory

See thou character.' — Hamlet) i. 3. 57.

1. 6. difference means a distinguishing mark. It is a term used
in heraldry to signify ' ' a figure added to a coat of arms to dis
tinguish the persons or families who bear the same arms, and to
indicate their nearness to the original bearer." — Webster. The
words used by Bacon show that he has in his mind the habit of
blazoning arms upon monuments.

1. 16. undervalues, i.e., shortcomings.

1. 19. framed particulars, a scheme complete in all details.

1. 21. for this purpose, the Latin translation has ' to extend the
bounds of arts and sciences.'

Pages 4-9. Before proceeding to set forth the dignity of
learning, Bacon wishes to clew the way by showing that the
objections which have been raised against learning are based
upon ignorance. He deals first with the objections raised by.
theologians.

Theologians quote Scripture to prove that the desire of know
ledge was the cause of original sin, that it puff's up the mind, as
the serpenfs poison causes the body to swell, and that it is pro
ductive only of anxiety. They assert, moreover, that knowledge
draws men away from God. In reply Bacon says that it was
not the knowledge of the properties of natural objects which was
the cause of the fall, but the desire of man to learn the distinc
tion between good and evil with a view to emancipating himself
from the divine authority, and becoming a law to himself. As
for knowledge puffing up the mind, there is, in reality, no sub
ject which is too great for the mind, except God himself. Bacon
quotes Scripture to prove that the human mind is so constituted
as to be capable of attaining to the knowledge of all phenomena,
and of the laws of their operation. If certain accidental hin
drances ivere removed, the mind might even attain to the know-

74 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

ledge of the l summary law of nature.'' It is never by knowledge
that the mind is corrupted, but by a wrong use of knowledge.
Knowledge is to be used to improve the condition of men, not to
flatter our own vanity, nor to raise extravagant hopes and fears,
nor to lead us to attempt to understand God, who is incompre
hensible. If these cautions be observed, knowledge is an
unmixed good. In reply to the assertion that knowledge draws
men away from God, Bacon says that the truths of science are
indisputable, and that therefore the cause of true religion cannot
be served by denying them: (will you lie for God to gratify
him ?) and, as a matter of fact, the wider and more profound
a man's knowledge is, the deeper will be his conviction of the
truths of religion. Cf. Bk. 2, p. 44.

? In this passage Bacon gives his conception of the scope and

jobject of science. The scope of science is 'nature and univer-
. sality ' : i.e. , a complete understanding of all natural phenomena.
I The object of science, as he says elsewhere, is the glory of God,

and the relief of man's estate.
1 1. 23. the former of these, i.e., the first half of the present

treatise : see above, 1. 11.

1. 24. to have, etc. , so as to secure a favourable hearing for.

1. 28. ignorance severally disguised, i.e., concealing itself under
different forms, such for example, as zeal for religion or for the
state.

1. 30. divines, theologians ; for arrogancy we write arrogance.

1. 33. the former sort, i.e., theologians, is of, i.e., is one of.

1. 34. accepted of, the of is redundant.

Page 5, 1. 2. knowledge hath, the Latin translation adds, ' even
at the present day.'

1. 5. a censure, an opinion. Ecclesiast. xii. 12 and i. 18.

1. 7. contristation, sadness.

1. 9. a caveat, a warning. Coloss. ii. 8.

1. 11. how learned times, etc. Amongst the causes of Atheism,
Bacon, in his 16th Essay, mentions " Learned times, specially
with peace and prosperity : for troubles and adversities do more
bow men's minds to religion."

1. 12. second causes, what we call 'physical causes.' The
attraction of the earth is the second or physical cause of an un
supported body falling to the ground. Second causes are opposed
to the first or efficient cause, viz., God. Cf. p. 8.

1. 15. To discover, to show. The literal meaning of the word
is to uncover.

1. 16. it may well appear, it is obvious.

4-6.] NOTES. 75

1. 19. man did give names, cf. p. 42, 1. 2. The argument is that
Adam knew the nature and properties of all creatures, because,
in the garden of Eden, he gave them names, and names express
the properties of the things named. Ellis quotes the same argu
ment from the writings of Thomas Aquinas.

1. 21. proprieties, properties.

1. 22. of good and evil, The tree of knowledge of good and
evil stood in the midst of the garden of Eden, and man was for
bidden to taste the fruit of it on pain of death. See p. 42. It
was the accepted doctrine of the Clmrch that Adam's sin arose
from pride. See Dante's Paradiso, vii. 25. Dante probably
took it from Thomas Aquinas.

1. 27. extend, distend.

1. 29. principal senses of inquisition, i.e., the senses which are
of most use to us in acquiring knowledge. Bacon means that the
senses supply the mind with the objects of thought : they are
* reporters to the mind.' Cf. " Our senses, conversant about par
ticular sensible objects, do convey into the mind several distinct
perceptions of things, according to those various ways in which
those objects do effect them." — Locke's Essay, bk. 2, ch. 1. The
objects of sight and hearing, colours and sounds, are those which
we first apprehend, and which are most frequently presented to
us. For the quotation, see Ecclesiast. i. 8. Bacon frequently
uses the word inquisition where we should use inquiry or in
vestigation.

1. 32. the continent, that which contains.

1. 35. ephemerides, a calendar. It is a Greek word exactly
equivalent to our ' diary,' from Latin dies, a day. The passage
to which Bacon alludes begins thus, "To everything there is a
season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven," Eccl. 3. 1.

Page 6, 1. 2. decent, becoming, suitable, in the true return of
their seasons, i. e. , each at its proper time. The work which God
worketh from the beginning to the end. Bacon often uses this
phrase to denote the law on which the primary qualities of matter
ultimately depend. In all our inquiries we must start with
matter existing, and possessed of its primitive qualities. But on
what do these primary qualities depend? What is the law of
' the force implanted by God in these first particles, from the
multiplication whereof all the variety of things proceeds and is
made up?' Here, as elsewhere, he leaves it doubtful whether
this question can ever be answered. Cf. Bk. 2, p. 44, and see On
Principles and Origins, Ellis and Spedding's edn., vol. 5, p. 461.
He calls this law ' the work which God worketh/row the beginning
to the end,' because the whole series of natural phenomena results
from it.

1. 6. capable of, able to receive.

76 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

1. 9. vicissitude of times, change of seasons.

1. 10. raised, desirous of finding.

ordinances and decrees, i.e., the laws of nature. A uni
formity in nature is called a law because what happens in nature
is regarded as happening by the command of God. Thus Words
worth, in his Ode to Duty, represents the heavens as being pre
served by the performance of their duty. The two senses of the
term are brought together in a single sentence below, p. 58, 1. 10.

1. 17. ill conjunction, imperfect co-operation.

1. 18. tradition, the word is used, as Bacon generally uses it,
in its literal sense of ' delivery,' or ' communication.'

1. 20. nothing parcel of, i.e., no part of. Parcel is the low
Latin word particella, which means a small part. .

1. 21. lie doth rule over, he decides.

1. 24. receipt, capacity, or power of receiving.

1. 27. out-compass itself, exceed its proper limits.

1. 30. malignity, injurious property.

1.31. ventosity, windiness. Cf. below, " knowledge bloiveth up. "

1. 32. corrective spice, an antidote.

1. 33. sovereign, the word means properly supreme, and so
possessed of great power, efficacious. It is often used as an
epithet of the word medicine, charity, defined below as the
habit of referring everything to the good of men and mankind.
1 Corinth, xiii. 1.

Page 7, 1. 4. referred to, directed towards, as its object.

1. 5. sounding, literally making a noise and nothing else, i.e.,
unsubstantial.

1. 6. meriting, meritorious.

1. 7. censure, p. 5, 1. 5.

1. 13. confined and circumscribed, limited and bounded. To
confine means to keep within limits ; to circumscribe means to
draw a line round anything.

1.14. coarctation, a Latin word for narrowing, but that it may
comprehend, i.e., as would prevent it from comprehending, i.e.,
including.

1. 17. as, that.

1. 19. distaste, the exact equivalent of disgust.

1. 26. roundeth about, wanders about Ecclesiast. ii. 13, 14.

1. 27. the same mortality involveth them both, Bacon means to
say that we must not become such slaves to any pleasure that the
renunciation of it at the time of death will be painful. Any
pursuit, however pleasurable, will become painful, if we are con-

6-8.] NOTES.

stantly distressing ourselves with the thought that, at some
time or other, we shalMhave^o abandon it. The wise man and
the fool must alike submit to the conditions of human existence.
But the wise man will n%j undertake more than he can hope to
accomplish within the limits of a life-time. Instead of repining
at the shortness of life, he will show his wisdom in making a
good use of it.

1. 29. merely, entirely. The Latin word merus means pure, or
unmixed : and in Elizabethan English mere and merely are used
in their literal sense.

1. 30. wonder, Aristotle says that it was wonder which first led
men to seek for knowledge: and Plato says, "Wonder is the
feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder."

1. 33. their particular, their own condition.

1. 35. carefulness, anxiety. We may illustrate Bacon's re
marks by reference to the extravagant hopes entertained by the
alchemists.

1.36. a dry light, Plutarch mentions the opinion of Heraclitus
that ' the wisest mind is a dry light ' : and Bacon elsewhere says,
"Heraclitus the Obscure said : The dry liyM was the best sold :
meaning, when the faculties intellectual are in vigour, not wet,
nor, as it were, blooded by the affections." In the 27th E]ssay
too Bacon says, "Heraclitus saith well in one of his Enigmas;
Dry light is ever the best. And certain it is that the light that a
man receiveth by counsel from another is drier and purer than
that which cometh from his own understanding and judgment,
which is ever infused and drenched in his affections and customs."
The word dry is used in the sense of ' clear ' or ' pure. ' The
meaning of the passage will be best understood by comparing it
with the 49th Aphorism of the first book of the Novum Organum,
in which Bacon says, " The mind of man is not like a dry light,
but it receives from the will and affections a taint which pro
duces capricious or arbitrary sciences : for what a man wishes to
be true, that he is inclined to believe to be true." In working
out an arithmetical problem, we are not likely to be swayed by
passion, but in the study of economical, or political, or theological
doctrine, we are very apt to be biassed, and to start with pre
conceived opinions which make us overlook or misinterpret
evidence, and so vitiate our conclusions.

Page 8, 1. 5. stood upon, dwelt upon.

1. 13. broken, incomplete. Cf. abrupt, Bk. 2, p. 190.

1. 14. one of Plato's school, Philo Judeeus, who was born at
Alexandria about B.C. 20. He aimed at harmonizing the prin
ciples of the Greek philosophy of religion with the text of the
Mosaic writings. The jnorQjggL study nature, the more we S£e

n *j{L$he_ knowledge of Ggd.

78 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

If therefore men try to arrive at such knowledge, their conclu
sions are sure to be heretical, i.e. at variance with the teaching
of Revelation, which is the only source of knowledge as to the
divine character and will. Bacon frequently insists in his writings
on the necessity of keeping theology and science separate : see
Bk. 2, pp. 35 and 1 83. In the 65th Aphorism of the first book of the
Novum Organum, he says, " An ill-advised admixture of things
human and divine produces a fantastical philosophy, and an
heretical religion." In his 17th Essay he mentions among the
^ causes of superstition "the taking an aim at divine matters by
human, which cannot but breed mixture of imaginations." We
may here briefly consider what Bacon's attitude towards religion
s was. He says in the text that the more we study nature, ami
I see how law and harmony regulate its apparent diversity, the
\ more convinced we become of the existence of a God, who put in
I motion originally, and who still controls, the vast machinery of
^•the system. In his 16th Essay he says, "I had rather believe
all the fables in the Legend, [a book containing the lives of the
Saints] and the Talmud, and the Alcoran than that this Universal
Frame is without a mind. ... It is true that a little philosophy
inclineth man's mind to atheism : but depth in philosophy
bringeth men's minds about to religion: for while the mind of
man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest
in them and go no further. But ivhen it beholdeth the chain of
them confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to providence,
and deity." See below, p. 46. Bacon, then, certainly believed
in the existence of God, and in the government of the world by
divine providence. These he regarded as truths established by
natural religion. Natural religion, then, according to Bacon,
falls within, and is demonstrated by philosophy. ThfioJogji,
Bacon says, does not come within the sphere of philosophy.
It rests simply ojijfejth : its dogmas are not to be tested or
criticised by reason, nor to be rejected if they are repugnant to
reason (see Bk. 2, p. 183). If Bacon had been asked why he
•believed in the Christian theology, he would have replied because
/it is contained in the Bible. He did not ask whether the Bible
.ywas worthy of credit, nor did he care to co-ordinate his theo-
yogical with his other beliefs. He was too much interested in
^science to devote his time to theology. He lived in an age of
violent theological discussion, but took neither part nor interest
in it. Theological discussions are, he says, for the most part
frivolous and unfruitful. Unity as to the essentials of religion
is all that is necessary. (See Essay 3.) He would have allowed
perfect freedom of judgment, limited only by the positive declar
ations of Scripture. He accepted the doctrines of Christianity,
but his was rather a belief of the lips than of the heart : and he
was always more interested in the moral than in the doctrinal
side of Christianity. (See Macaulay's Essay on Bacon.) Bacon's

8-9.] NOTES.

position was not altogether a logical one, but it is easily explained.
Firstly, as noticed above, he was so interested in science that he
was content simply to accept theology as resting on evidence of
its own, without caring to examine the evidence. Secondly, a
historical criticism of the sacred books of the Christians was not
taken up till after his time. Lastly, in an age when scientific
inquirers were being punished by the church, it was of the first
importance to show the absurdity of trying to control scientific
inquiry. The task of reconciling its results to ecclesiastical
dogmas might be left to theologians.

1. 22. by the waxen wings of the senses, referring to the legend
of Icarus, who attempted to fly from Crete on wings made of
wax. He flew too near the sun : his wings melted, and he fell
into the sea, and was drowned. The senses are as incapable
of penetrating the divine mysteries as the wings of Icarus were
of carrying him through the air.

1. 23. the conceit, the idea. The word is used in this sense
throughout the book. It means lit. anything which is conceived
in the mind.

1. 23. should incline, the conditional mood shows that Bacon is
quoting an opinion of others, and not expressing his own.

1. 27. Job, a person whose history is told in one of the books of
the Jewish Scripture. He was distinguished for his patience
under trials and misfortune.

1. 29. worketh nothing, in the Latin tr. Bacon adds ordinarily.
He excepts the miracles recorded in Scripture.

1. 32. unclean, the word is used in the English translation of
the Jewish law to signify what is ceremonially impure.

Page 9, 1. 1. in the entrance of philosophy, when a man begins
to study science.

1. 4. it, i.e., the habit of concentrating the attention on second
causes. The word induce is used in its literal sense of bring on.
This use of the word is common in Bacon.

1. 7. the highest link, etc., an allegorical interpretation of a
passage in Homer, in which Jupiter says 'that, if all the gods
and goddesses were to pull at a golden chain hung from earth to
heaven, they could not drag him down, but that he could drag
them up, together with earth and sea, and suspend all in mid
air.' Cf. Bk. 2, p. 35. Bacon means that the series of natural
phenomena is directed by God. However far back we may go in
the series of physical causes, we are driven ultimately to the
conception of a first cause. Cf.

" But who can turn the stream of destiny,
Or break the chain of strong necessity,
Which fast is tied to Jove's eternal seat ? "

— Spenser, Faery Queene, 1. v. 25 ;

OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGE

and, "There is a nearer way to Heaven than Homer's chain ; an
easy logic may conjoin a heaven and earth in one argument, and,
with less than a sorites, resolve all things to God. For though
we christen effects by their most sensible and nearest causes, yet
is God the true and infallible cause of all,' etc. Religio Medici,
§18.

1. 9. let no man, etc. Let no one, under the foolish impression
that he is restraining his inquiries within proper limits, or im
pelled by a mistaken moderation, etc.

1. 12. the book of God's word is the Bible : the book of God's
works is nature.

1. 13. divinity or philosophy, theology or science.
1. 14. endeavour, attempt. We no longer use the word thus.
1. 15. charity, see on p. 6, 1. 33.

1. 16. swelling, pride. We talk of men being 'puffed up with
pride. '

1. 17. learnings, studies, or branches of learning.

Pages 9-16. Bacon now proceeds to refute the objections
which have been raised against learning by statesmen.

Statesmen quote authorities to show that learning enervates :
that it induces habits of mind and body which unfit men_ for-
business^ : and that the habit of discussion is fatal to the habit
of obedience. Bacon in reply says that these three objections
are based on exceptional instances which can easily be ex
plained. As a matter of fact, learning does not enervate:
<. ftifttmy jTT'wiT that the, are me- indimdual may be both n. gnnd
2 scholar and a brave and skilful general. History too confirms
the natural expectation that the ages, which have been most
distinguished for learning, would also be most distinguished for
skill in the arts of war and government. As for the second
objection, it is absurd to say that learning unfits men for the
work of governing. An ignorant statesman is a mere empiric,
nn tnnrp. in ha twi.stP.d than a, quack doctor. The most successful
governments have been those which have~6een directed by learned
men. Learned men may have their weaknesses, but from their
knowledge of history they must have learned the_^s^ntial ^rm-
ciples of real statesmanship. Learned men are likely iobethe
most indefatigable in business, and to be the only ones who will
take it up for its own sake. The intervals of business will afford
leisure for study. A learned man may occasionally be slothful:
but that is not because he is learned. All ignorant men are not
active. Lastly. le,arne,d men make the best citizens, because they
see the necessity of obedience, and therefore yield it wilUnfl

9.] NOTES. 81

p

It is in barbarous communities that the task of government is
most difficult.

Cf. the end of Article III. in Book v. chap. I. of Adam Smith's
Wealth of Nations. With the whole of this passage, cf. pp. 48-61.

The substance of the passage is that, other things being equal,
all arts, and therefore the arts of government and war among
"the rest, will be practised with greater success by those who
have had a proper training, than bv mere empirics. A quack
doctor, who by a given remedy has cured a fever, may cure an
other by the same remedy, if the two cases happen to be exactly
alike ; but a man trained in the principles of medicine, who
knows how and why his medicines act, will be able to adjust his
remedies to different constitutions and to different forms of the
same disease. Similarly a mere empiric may hit upon a tax
which will be productive, and which will be paid willingly : a
scientific statesman will be able to make a rational and trust
worthy forecast. Cf. Essay xii. " So are there mountebanks
for the politique body ; men that undertake great cures and
perhaps have been lucky in two or three experiments, but want I
the grounds of science, and therefore cannot hold out." By 7
Learning Bacon intends chiefly a knowledge of history, or raiEKer \
of what we should call thejphilosophy of history. In the Intro
duction to Book 2, he repeats that a liberal education, i.e.,
an education in histories, modern languages, books of policy and
civil discourse, and other the like p.nah laments imto service of
estate, is a necessary qualification for statesmanship^ The whole
tendency of Burke 's political teaching is in harmony with these
remarks of Bacon. The spirit of Bacon's teaching reappears too
in Carlyle's Hero-worship, which is, in reality, a demand that
nations should be governed by the wisest and best of their
citizens.

1. 19. as for the disgraces, etc. The meaning of the sentence
is that politicians try to discredit learning on the following
grounds. The use of be for are was common, specially in refer
ence to a number of persons or things considered as a kind or
class.

1. 24. curious, careful. With this passage cf. p. 13. 8 seqq.,
where the objections here raised are answered. If their know
ledge of history suggests to them so many courses of action that
they are puzzled which to choose, yet it teaches them when
further hesitation is dangerous, and at the same time enables
them to act on a reasonable principle, when they do act.

1. 25. peremptory, obstinate. It is said that learned men
adhere too strictly to rigid rules and principles, from which, in
practice, deviations are often required. For instance, it is often
said that ' modified free trade ' is expedient for some countries :
' a learned statesman ' might enforce pure free trade everywhere.

F

82 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

«

Bacon says in reply (p. 13) that the learned man alone knows
when a theory is proved, and when it is not : and within what
limits, and under what circumstances, exceptions to a rule are
reasonable.

1. 26. too immoderate, etc. It is said that learned men will
aim presumptuously at equalling the greatness of the most
celebrated men of whom they have read in history : or that
they will simply attempt to imitate the past, forgetting that
what is possible in one age is impossible in another. In reply
to this Bacon says (p. 13) that only ignorant men will regard
every historical personage as a model to be imitated, and every
historical event as a precedent to be followed.

1. 27. incompatible, not suited to the times in which they live.

1. 29. travails, the two forms travail and travel were used
indiscriminately to express labour, as in this passage, and
journeying. Dean Church quotes a passage from Hooker in
which the connection between the two meanings is expressed —
"Rest is the end of all motion, and the last perfection of all
things that labour. Labours in us are journeys, and even in
them which feel no weariness by any work, they are but ways
whereby to come unto that which bringeth not happiness till it
do bring rest."

1. 35. in embassage, on an embassy. In the year 155 B.C.
the Athenians sent an embassy to Rome to ask for the remission
of a fine which had been imposed on their city. Carneades, a
philosopher of the sceptical school, was one of the envoys. The
story is told by Plutarch in his life of Cato, ch. xxii.

Page 10, 1. 1. that, redundant. Abbott (Sh. Gr. § 287) points
out that that was affixed to words originally interrogative to
give them a relative meaning, and was then by analogy attached
to other words such as if and though.

1. 6. at unawares, we should omit ' at. ' Unawares is a genitive
form. Needs, in the sense of necessarily, is another example of
an adverb formed from the possessive inflection of nouns.

1. 11. The second between is superfluous. The meaning is,
' between policy and government on the one hand, and arts and
sciences on the other. '

1. 12. challenging, claiming. JEn. vi. 852.

1. 22. to make the worse matter seem the better, i.e., to em
ploy sophistical arguments in defence of a bad cause. Socrates
was tried and condemned B.C. 399.

1. 26. countenance, appearance.

1. 31. the like instance, i.e., so good an instance.

1. 36. Epaminondas, the Theban, in the fourth century B.C.

10-11.] NOTES. 83

destroyed the supremacy of Sparta in the Peloponnese. Up to
his fortieth year he led a retired life and studied under Lysis the
Pythagorean, who was an exile from Tarentum. Xenophon, see
note on p. 60, 1. 13.

Page 11, 1. 1. abated, lit. beat down. It is connected with to
batter.

\. 2. made way to, prepared the way for.

1. 3. this concurrence, etc. Cf. Gibbon, ch. x., "In the most
polite and powerful nations, genius of every kind has displayed
itself about the same period : and the age of science has generally
been the age of military virtue and success."

1. 5. both, notice that the word is not used in its proper dual

1. 9. captains, military leaders.

1. 12. about an age, i.e. about the same age.

1. 18. hurt than enable, unfit than qualify. For a similar use
of enable, cf. p. 39, 1. 3.

1. 20. empiric, derived from the Greek empeiria, i.e. experi
ence. The name of Empirics was anciently given to a sect of
physicians who contended that practice was the one thing
necessary in their art. The word empiric is used generally to
denote a quack, as opposed to one who has had a scientific
training. For which we should say who.

1. 21. pleasing, i.e. with which the empirics themselves are
satisfied, receipts, prescriptions.

1. 23. complexions, constitutions.

1. 24. accidents, symptoms.

1. 25. men of practice, whose knowledge is derived simply
from their own experience, and who know nothing of the
principles of law.

1. 27. falleth out, happens, besides, used as a preposition for
beside, i.e. outside of. The final s in besides is an adverbial
suffix.

1. 28. so by like reason, etc. Cf. Essay 1. "The chief use
of studies for ability is in the judgment and disposition of busi
ness. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of
particulars, one by one : but the general counsels, and the plots
and marshalling of affairs come best from those that are learned.
... To judge wholly by their rules is the humour of a scholar. ...
Studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large,
except they be bounded in by experience."

1. 29. of doubtful consequence, dangerous : lit. of which the
result cannot be foreseen.

1. 31. contrariwise, on the other hand. A learned man is not

84 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

necessarily a good governor, as we see in the case of James him
self. "James, though an able man, was a weak monarch. His
quickness of apprehension and soundness of judgment were marred
by his credulity and partialities, his childish fears, and habit of
vacillation. Eminently qualified to advise as a counsellor, he
wanted the spirit and resolution to act as a sovereign. His
discourse teemed with maxims of political wisdom, his conduct
frequently bore the impress of political imbecility." — Lingard,
vol. vii., p. 139.

1. 34. politic men, politicians.

1. 35. to extenuate and disable, to depreciate and disparage.
To extenuate now means to represent an evil as less than it is :
and to disable means to disqualify.

1. 36. pedants. The word is derived from the Greek word
paideuein, which means, literally, to bring up a child.

Page 12, 1. 1. particulars, instances.

1. 2. the infinite disadvantage. Cf. " Woe to the land that's
governed by a child ! " Rich. III. ii. 3. 11. Stevens quotes as a
parallel, "Woe to thee, 0 land, when thy king is a child."
Ecclesiastes, x. 16.

1. 5. traduce, to ridicule.

1. 8. Seneca, for the influence of Seneca over Nero, see Meri-
vale's Roman Empire, vol. vi. p. 273.

1. 10. contestation, satisfaction. Gordian died at the age of
nineteen. Gibbon says of Misitheus, who was Gordian's father-
in-law, that his ' wise counsels had no object except the glory of
his sovereign and the happiness of the people. ' Ch. vii.

1. 13. not much unlike, practically it was a government by
pedants, because they advised the women who were the nominal
rulers.

1. 14. the women, viz. Mamsea his mother, and Msesa his grand
mother. The latter soon died, and Mamsea then summoned to
her assistance sixteen of the wisest and most virtuous senators,
as a perpetual council of state. "The general tenor of her
administration was equally for the benefit of her son and of the
empire." — Gibbon, ch. vi.

1. 15. the Bishops of Rome, the Popes.

1. 16. as by name, for instance. Pius the fifth was a Dominican,
Sixtus the fifth a Franciscan friar. Pius was Pope from 1565-
1572. The most remarkable event of his Pontificate was the
defeat of the Turks in the battle of Lepanto, in which his fleet
was engaged in conjunction with those of Venice and Spain.
Sextus was Pope from 1585-1590. His vigorous, though cruel,
administration is described by Gibbon, ch. Ixx.

12-13.] NOTES. 85

1. 18. pedantical, the Latin tr. has 'ignorant of affairs.'

1. 20. estate, state.

1. 23. to seek in, deficient in. points of convenience, expe
dients, accommodating for the present, arranging matters for
the moment. In our own time John Bright has expressed a
similar dislike and distrust of the methods of diplomacy.

1. 25. reasons of state, political considerations.

1. 27. to recompense, to compensate for. We generally use the
word now in the sense of to reward.

1. 31. use, need. Notice other, used as a plural pronoun.

1. 32. neither can, etc. This is an additional reason for en
trusting the work of government to learned men.

Page 13, 1. 1. sort with, agree with, resemble.

1. 2. immediate, present.

1. 4. hold way with, to equal. For the metaphor, cf. "We are
afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private
stock of reason, because we suspect that this stock in each man
is small, and that the individuals would do better to avail them
selves of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages. " —
Burke.

1. 5. And as for, etc., as for the ways in which it is declared
that learning indirectly unfits the mind, etc. The present form of
the word seducement is seduction.

1. 7. To insinuate means properly to introduce indirectly. It is
derived from the Latin word sinus, which means a bend.

1. 9. ministereth, supplies, every, each. For the explanation
of this passage, see note on p. 9, 1. 24.

1. 14. without prejudice, without any harm being done.

1. 15. regular, adhering strictly to rules.

1. 16. demonstrative, The terms demonstration and demonstra
tive are applied to propositions and reasonings which contain no
mixture of hypothesis.

1. 18. the latitude of principles, the cases to which they are
applicable. For instance, a Free Trader may logically concede
that countries, which in the face of competition cannot develop
their industries, may claim a temporary protection.

1. 24. quickness and penetration, vividness and force. Cf. the
common proverb, " Example is better than precept." The word
quickness in Bacon's time signified life : and quick was used
where we should now say living.

1. 25. Clement the Seventh, Pope Clement VII. was contem
porary with Henry VIII. of England. Guicciardine says of
him — "Both in deliberation and in the execution of what he

86 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

had deliberated about, every fresh little consideration which
might occur to him — every trifling impediment which he might
encounter, seemed enough to make him fall back into the same
state of confusion in which he had been before he began to
deliberate."— E. Guicciardine was an Italian statesman and
historian, who lived 1483-1540.

1.27. Cicero, Mommsen says of Cicero — "As a statesman
without insight, opinion, or purpose, he figured successively as
democrat, as aristocrat, and as a tool of the monarchs, and was
never more than a short-sighted egotist." — Vol. iv. p. 641.
painted out, depicted. Cf. painted forth, p. 53, 1. 1.

1. 29. Phocion, an Athenian general, born B.C. 402. He took
part in the wars between the Athenians and Philip of Macedon,
but he opposed what seemed to him the extreme policy of the
great orator Demosthenes. He was condemned on a charge of
treachery and put to death B.C. 317. Thucydides, bk. 2, ch. 40,
makes Pericles say of the Athenians that they were lovers of
wisdom without being effeminate.

1. 31. Ixion, see Bk. 2, p. 50— "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 whoever shall entertain high and vaporous imaginations shall
beget hopes and beliefs of strange and impossible shapes."
Jupiter took up a king named Ixion to heaven, to purify him
from a murder. For his attempted seduction of the wife of
Jupiter he was tied to a wheel that never ceased revolving.

1. 31. vaporous, boastful. The word naturally signifies some
thing unsubstantial. Similarly Bacon uses the word fume
(smoke) to signify a foolish idea.

1. 32. Cato, Marcus Cato, the last great champion of Repub
licanism in Rome. He committed suicide, B.C. 46, on hearing
that his party was destroyed by the victory of Caesar at Thapsus.
See Mommsen, vol. iv. p. 469. After a certain point, Bacon says,
it is useless to oppose the spirit of the age.

Page 14. 1. 3. may be truly affirmed, etc. This is explained on
pp. 21-2.

1. 6. it beareth them up, etc. The Latin tr. explains it—
' whilst they are in charge of affairs, they live in the eyes of
men. '

1. 8. wear, decrease. It means lit. to suffer from wear or
use.— W.

1. 9. giveth them occasion, etc., i.e., gives them opportunities
of rewarding their friends and punishing their enemies.
1. 14. are in the eyes of them that look on, i.e., a mere braggart

13-15.] NOTES. 87

is sometimes bold in the presence of others, where cowardice
would bring disgrace : so the industry of some men is to be
attributed either to the desire of applause, or a regard for their
own interests, designments, designs. Their industry is assumed
for a purpose.

1. 17. according to. agreeable to : in harmony with.

1. 19. in the purchase, in the advantage which they derive
from it.

1. 21. which can hold their mind, which seems to them worthy
of attention.

1. 25. spirit, mind. There is no doubt that the retired life
and mental habits of a student do tend to unfit him for active
life. The concentration of his interests upon study makes him
impatient of the necessary drudgery of business ; and his mode
of life makes him deficient in 'knowledge of the world.' More
over, being accustomed never to come to a decision without com
plete evidence, he is unfitted to act in those frequent emergencies
when either the requisite data for decision are not attainable, or
when there is no time to weigh them.

1. 27. Some men, etc. . Men of a shy and nervous temperament,
when they have to appear in public or take part in public affairs,
are as perplexed and embarrassed as a man brought suddenly out
of darkness into the light of the sun.

1. 32. that, as for the objection that.
1. 35. expecteth, is waiting for.

the tides and returns of business, i.e., busy times.
Business ebbs and flows : and in times when there is little or no
business, the statesman can study. Bacon's picture is drawn
from the ministers of Queen Elizabeth, who were all men of
letters, and who "were the first generation of statesmen by
profession that England produced." — See Macaulay's Essay on
Bacon.

1. 36. tedious, dilatory. We generally use the word in the
sense of tiresome.

Page 15, 1. 6. his orations did smell of the lamp, i.e. they were
the fruit of much care and study. The point of Demosthenes'
reply is that he spent the night in study, ^schines in de
bauchery. ^Eschines, the Athenian orator, born B.C. 389, was
the great rival of Demosthenes. While Demosthenes advocated
a policy of opposition to Philip of Macedon, ^Eschines was the
head of the peace party. When Ctesiphon proposed that a
golden crown should be given to Demosthenes for his services to
his country, ,/Eschines indicted him for bringing forward an
illegal proposition. Demosthenes replied, and ^Eschines was
defeated. As a penalty for bringing forward an unfounded

88 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

accusation he had to retire from Athens. He died at Samos,
B.C. 314.

1. 9. doubt, fear, expulse, expel.

1. 11. at unawares. See above, p. 10, 1. 6.

1. 12. both, viz. , business and learning.

1. 14. of, we should say for.

1. 15. depravation, slander, all, any. It is a Latinism.

1. 18. it, redundant. A man who simply obeys a rule of which
he cannot understand the reason is compared to a blind man who
follows a guide without seeing where he is going. Those who
can see the reasonableness of duty, and are sufficiently enlightened
to see what their duty is, are more likely to do it, than those who
simply yield an unintelligent obedience to what seems an arbitrary
command.

1. 20. without, outside : beyond dispute.

1. 21. maniable, manageable.

1. 22. thwart, perverse.

1. 23. clear, prove.

1. 28. blasphemy, used in the general sense of evil speaking, or
slander. We use it to signify profane language.

1. 36. to brave, to challenge.

Page 16, 1. 7. historiographer, lit. a writer of histories. We
should say historian. Livy (50 B.C. -17 A.D.) wrote the history of
Rome from its foundation to the death of Drusus, 9 B.C. Of the
142 books only 35 have come down to us, and two of those are
imperfect.

1. 8. Marcus Varro, born B.C. 116, was distinguished for his
vast and varied erudition. Only a few fragments of his great
work on Roman antiquities have survived, the best or second
orator, Bacon doubts whether Cicero or Demosthenes is first.

1. 11. the Thirty Tyrants, after the retirement of the Spartans
from Athens, B. c. 404, the government of the city was for a short
time in the hands of a Committee of Thirty. Bacon is mistaken
here. It is true that Socrates was summoned before the Thirty
and reprimanded. But his trial and death took place under the
restored democracy.

1. 12. envious, malicious. For a similar use of the word in a
much stronger sense than it now bears, Wright refers to Shaks.
Mer. of Yen., iii. 2. 285, "But none can drive him from the
envious plea of forfeiture, of justice, and his bond."

1. 15. accumulate, loaded. This form of the participle in verbs
derived from the Latin frequently occurs in Bacon's writings.

1. 18. sovereign, see on p. 6, 1. 33. for, as. For a similar

16.] NOTES. 89

estimate of the value of the Socratic dialectics, which we know
chiefly in the dialogues of Plato, see Mill's Essay on Liberty,
p. 26.

1. 19. manners, morals.

1. 21. humorous, capricious.

1. 23. redargution, refutation. Under governments so favour
able to learning as those of Elizabeth and James, a defence of
learning is unnecessary. Other governments, however, may in
time arise who will be hostile to learning, and then Bacon's
defence of it may prove useful.

1. 25. in regard of, on account of.

1. 28. bright stars, Bacon was, to a certain extent, a believer
in astrology. See note on p. 33, 1. 2. The words bright stars are
from Horace, Bk. 1, Od. 3, 1. 2. Castor and Pollux the twin
sons of Leda were after death placed in heaven as the constella
tion of the Twins. They were worshipped as favourable to
sailors. Cf.

" At their joint star, what time on storm-beat seamen

Dawns its white splendour,
Back from the rocks recedes the rush of waters,
Winds fall — clouds fly — and every threatening billow,
Lulled at their will, upon the breast of ocean

Sinks into slumber."

Martin's Translation. Burke, in his speech on Conciliation with
America, quoted this passage to illustrate his arguments that
conciliatory measures on the part of England would quiet the
political storm.

Pages 16-25. Bacon now proceeds to consider the discredit
which is supposed to have been brought upon learning by
the position, character, manners, and studies of learned men
themselves. Of tfiese the last alone deservlTconsideration. No
reasonable man would condemn a scholar because of the position
in which circumstances had placed him, or the disposition with
which nature had endowed him. However, we are dealing here
not with rational objections, but with popular prejudices: so
that the remaining considerations cannot be thus lightly dis
missed. Learned men^ it is said, are poor and obscure* and
pursue mean occupations. This is not the place, Bacon says,
for a panegyric on poverty, but it would be easy to show that the
world owes much to poor but learned men. Wealth is not
always a guarantee of virtue : nor ought learning to be regarded
as a means of obtaining wealth. As for obscurity, most men
allow the superior dignity and comfort of a private station •'
~wJiile there can be no greater mistakejhan that of regarding the

90 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

occupation of a teacher as either unimporlanLMr contemptible.
In its influence upon character^ the, tendency ofj^arning is to
fe^nej_ the defects which it produces are unselfishness, verging
on imprudence, and an inclination to n.im, at ton high a
standard in the attempt0 *n vofnvm. piMir. manners. These,
it must be confessed, are faults which ' lean to virtue's side 3 :
and learning itself supplies an antidote to the second of them.
Again, it is said that in their intercourse with others learned
men are wanting in tact. This is not necessarily the case :
and, besides, what men praise as tact is often only another
name for interested obsequiousness. Mere awkwardness of
demeanour is not worth consideration. Bacon utterly condemns
all selfishness and meanness, but he says justly that there are
occasions on which scholars may, without loss of dignity, make
concessions to those who are great and powerful.

1. 32. groweth to, attaches to.
1. 34. fastest, closest. Cf.

" Siloa's brook that flowed

Fast by the Oracle of God."— Paradise Lost, I. 11.
fortune, explained below to mean 'scarcity of means,' etc.

1. 35. manners, the word includes both disposition and de
meanour. We use it now to denote only the latter.

Page 17, 1. 2. we are not in hand with, we are not dealing with.

1. 11. by reason, equivalent to because, i.e., by the cause.

1.13. commonplace, a subject for discussion. The word ' place '
is frequently used by Bacon in the sense of a 'topic,' on the
analogy of the Latin word 'locus,' (a place, or a topic) and the
word 'topic' is the Greek 'topos,' which signifies properly 'a
place.'

1. 13. friar ... to whom, a similar construction occurs, Bk. 2, p.
6, 1. 6. In the Latin translation it is * mendicant friars,' a body
of men so called from the vow of poverty which they took. They
belonged to the Franciscan and Dominican orders of monks. For
an account of their life and work, see Green's History of the
English People, vol. i., p. 256.

1. 17. borne out, compensated for. The Christian priesthood
would have been condemned long ago, if it had been judged by
the conduct of the members of its higher orders : it was tolerated
out of respect for the virtues of its humbler and poorer members.
We may notice, in connection with Bacon's remarks, the Defence
of Poverty, by William of Ockham. It was published in 1323,
and was a violent protest against the power, pride, and wealth
of the Pope and the Prelates of the Church. Machiavelli was a
Florentine of the 16th century. His books embody the principles

16-19.] NOTES. 91

of the statesmanship of his time : and he himself has been un
fairly charged with the immorality which distinguished the
statecraft of that age in Italy. Bacon is referring to ch. 1 of the
3rd book of his Discourses on Livy.

1. 19. delicacy, luxury.

1. 21. civility, refinement. Bacon means that mere material
prosperity does not constitute civilization. Without learning
man would be " devoid of every finer art and elegance of life."-
Thomson, Summer, v. 1761. The poverty of learning means the
poverty of the learned.

1. 23. worthy the observation, it is worth noticing, reverent,
reverend, venerable.

1. 25. without paradoxes, the Romans were distinguished for
plain common sense. The words paradox and paradoxical signify
what runs counter to received opinion.

1. 36. after that, See on p. 10, 1. 1.

Page 18, 1. 4. summary, efficacious. The counsellor alluded to
in the text is supposed to be Sallust.

1. 11. it was truly said, the saying is attributed to Diogenes
the Cynic.

1. 15. misgovernment, intemperance.

1. 24. not taxed with, free from.

1. 25. civil, public.

1. 29. allowing, admitting : approving. It is the Latin allau-
dare, to praise. Bacon means that * it at once recommends itself
to our minds, and commands our assent as soon as it is proposed.'

This only, etc. Bacon means to say that the public often
keep a man's merits in remembrance all the more, because
Government does not honour them as they deserve. Tacitus
says of another man, " The refusal of the honour heightened his
renown." It was the custom at Roman funerals to carry in pro
cession the images of the ancestors and relations of the deceased.
See Tac. Ann. iii. 76. Junia, who died A.D. 22, was the wife of
Cassius and the sister of Brutus. Their images were not carried
in the procession because they had been guilty of the murder of
the first Caesar.

Page 19, 1. 2. traduced to contempt, held up to contempt.
' Traducement,' below, signifies ' calumny.' Cf. p. 12, 1. 5. Mr.
Wright points out that the word is used here with a distinct
reference to its original meaning ' to lead along, lead in proces
sion,' and so ' to parade.' Hence ' traduced to contempt ' would
mean 'paraded contemptuously, or so as to excite contempt.'

1. 4. it, redundant. Cf. p. 2, 1. 17. disesteeming, disparaging.

92 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

1. 5. conversant in or about, to be, to have to do with ; to be
concerned with.

1. 9. curious, careful.

1. 11. corroborate, which has attained its full strength. Cf.
p. 16, 1. 15.

1. 12. use to have, are accustomed to have.

1. 13. applications, appliances.

1. 14. say they, i.e. from which text they infer.

1. 15. rabbins, theological teachers. The word literally means
masters.

1. 17. howsoever, etc. Wright compares Florio's Montaigne,
p. 60, "I have in my youth oftentimes been vexed to see a
pedant brought in, in most of Italian comedies, for a vice or a
sporte-maker. " For the meaning of ' pedant,' see p. 12, 1. 6.

1. 26. Jesuits, so called from the ' Society of Jesus ' to which
they belong. They are Catholic priests, and the Society was
formed in 1534. For an account of their services in the cause of
education, see Buckle's History of Civilization, vol. ii. p. 336 ;
and Green's History of the English People, vol. ii. p. 262.

1. 28. The better, etc. Their very cleverness makes them the
more mischievous. In the Latin translation, which was intended
to be read by scholars in Catholic as well as in Protestant
countries, passages like this, depreciatory of the Catholic Church,
are omitted.

1. 30. For Agesilaus, see p. 61, 1. 9. Bacon is referring to
Plutarch's Life ofAgesilaus, ch. 12.

Page 20, 1. 1. temperatures, dispositions.

1. 3. studies, In the Latin translation Bacon adds, ' Except
when it enters into a mind which is much depraved, learning
corrects and improves the natural disposition.' Cf. Cardinal
Newman's Idea of a University, Discourse viii. § 4.

1. 5. indifferent, impartial.

1. 7. not inherent, that is to say, not from such manners as are
inherent, etc. For to we should say in.

1. 12. contend, strive.

1. 14. to reduce, etc. , to bring back again. The Latin transla
tion has — ' They strive to impose upon a dissolute age the moral
code of a rigid antiquity.' Cf. "It is no inconsiderable part of
wisdom, to know how much of an evil ought to be tolerated, lest
by attempting a degree of purity impracticable in degenerate
times and manners, instead of cutting off the subsisting ill
practices, new corruptions might be produced for the conceal
ment and security of the old." — Burke, manners, morals.
Cf. 1. 20.

19-21.] NOTP]S. 93

1. 16. caveats, warnings. Cf. below, 1. 24. walks, lines of
life, i.e., relatively to a student, books.

Solon, a celebrated Athenian legislator, born about
638 B.C.

1. 23. contestation, strife. See Cicero, Ep. ad Fam. 1. 9.
Improvements, according to Plato, should be effected by per
suasion, not by force : and as he saw that, if he held office, he
could not introduce the reforms which he considered necessary
without using force, he preferred not to hold office. In the Crito,
Socrates is represented as refusing to violate the laws of his
country by escaping from the prison to which he had been
condemned.

Caesar's counsellor, See p. 18, 1. 2.

1. 28. Cato the second, p. 13, 1. 32. No violent revolution
should be attempted either in morals or politics. We should
attempt to raise the standard of both gradually, as the people
advance in respect of education.

1. 33. Plato's republic, an ideally perfect state sketched by
Plato : a Utopia.

1. 34. excuse and expound, at the same time apologises for
them, and shows why they did it. The philosophers, says Cicero,
purposely proposed an unattainable standard of perfection, in
order that, in their attempts to attain to it, men might not fail to
attain to the highest perfection of which they were capable.

Page 21, 1. 21. those five years, cf. p. 12, 1. 7.
1. 25. endueth, an old spelling of endoweth.

1. 26. casualty, uncertainty. We use the word in the sense of
' an accident.' Here it means ' liability to accident.' With this
paragraph cf. pp. 13-14, and Essay xxxiii. In the Latin transla
tion Bacon says that scrupulous honesty and unselfishness are
attributed to learned men ' perhaps not unjustly.'

1. 28. to esteem, to think. We no longer say * to esteem that.1

1. 30. ordainment, position : appointment. God ordained them
for something higher than mere happiness. In illustration of this
passage the student may profitably read two fine chapters in
Carlyle's Past and Present, bk. iii. ch. 4 and 12.

1. 31. as kings and the states, etc., i.e., whether they serve
under a king or a republic.

1. 33. I have made profit, etc. Wishing to emphasize the fact
that power is a trust, Bacon appropriately uses words taken from
the well-known parable of the talents — " The kingdom of heaven
is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own
servants, and delivered unto them his goods, and unto one he
gave five talents, to another two, and to another one ; to every

94 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

man according to his several ability ; and straightway took his

journey After a long time the lord of these servants cometh

and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five
talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou
deliveredst unto me five talents : behold; / have gained, beside
these, five talents more. His Lord said, Well done, thou good
and faithful servant : thou hast been faithful over a few things, I
will make thee ruler over many things : enter thou into the joy
of thy lord," etc. Matt. xxv. 14. Our use of the word talent in
the sense of ability is derived from this parable.

1. ,36. apprehension, understanding.

Page 22, 1. 1. nor ever, etc., i.e., who confine their attention to
their own individual interests, without thinking of the public
good.

do refer, etc. Cf. "It is a poor centre of a man's actions

himself The referring of all to a man's self is a desperate

evil in a servant to a prince ... whatsoever affairs pass such
a man's hands, he crooketh (bendeth) them to his own ends,
which must needs be often eccentric to (different from) the ends
of his master or state." — Essay xxiii.

1. 5. estates, kingdoms.

1. 6. cockboat, little boat. The word shows the insignificance
of the fate of the individual, in comparison with that of the state,
which is compared to a large vessel. Shakespeare uses the form
cock. It is from the Latin concha, a shell, and appears in the
derivative coxswain, i.e., cock's -swain.

1. 7. make good their places and duties, i.e., perform the duties
of their station. Cf. " Divide with reason between self-love and
society : and be so true to thyself, as thou be not false to others,

r dally to thy king and country." — Essay xxiii. For use to,
p. 19, 1. 12.

1. 9. stand, remain safe. The meaning of the passage is that,
if they are preserved through seasons of rebellion and revolution,
they owe their safety not to their power of making friends with
the stronger party, but to the universal respect which their
honesty commands.

1. 11. versatile, lit. changeable. Bacon says they are not pre
served by their skill in changing from side to side, carriage, be
haviour.

1. 12. tender, scrupulous.

1. 13. withal, frequently used for with, after the object at the
end of the sentence.

1. 14. tax, burden, i.e., try it. No amount of misfortune will
induce such a man to become dishonest.
1. 15. allowance, approval. Cf. p. 18, 1. 29.

21-23.] NOTES. 95

1. 16. excusation, excuse. There is no need to deny or to
apologise for what every one approves of.

1. 18. more probably, i.e., in a way which will meet with more
general approval ; more successfully.

1. 19. in applying themselves, in accommodating themselves to :
in humouring.

1. 22. exquisite, careful.

1. 23. it is a speech, etc. A lover is content with contemplating
his beloved : but no one is of sufficient importance to claim the
undivided attention of the wise man. Cf. "It was a poor saying
of Epicurus, ' We are a sufficiently large theatre, one for another':
as if man, made for the contemplation of heaven and all noble
objects, should do nothing but kneel before a little idol, and make
himself subject, though not of the mouth, as beasts are, yet of the
eye, which was given him for higher purposes." — Essay x.

1. 26. I shall yield, I am willing to admit.

1. 29. cause, viz. , why learned men do not study the character of
individuals. The cause is their uprightness, a rejection upon
choice, a deliberate refusal to do so.

1. 30. bounds of observation, cf. "Counsellors should not be too
speculative into their Sovereign's person. The true composition
of a counsellor is rather to be skilful in their master's business,
than in his nature : for then he is like to advise him and not to
feed his humour " — Essay xx.

1. 34. a man's self, Bacon generally uses ' a man ' where we
should use the indefinite ' one.'

1. 35. speculative is used in its literal sense of ' prying into.'

1. 36. to work, to influence, to wind, to make him do what you
please. The Latin tr. has ' lead him about at your pleasure.'
Cf. our expression, ' to twist a person round one's fingers.'

Page 23, 1. 2. entire, honest. It is the Latin integer, which
means both whole and honest.

1. 4. the Levant, i.e. the East generally. The Greek historian
Herodotus makes this custom as old as 700 B.C. Ellis supposes
that Bacon is referring to the narration of some modern traveller.

1. 7. bent, crafty : not straightforward.

1. 8. the hearts of kings, etc., p. 1, 1. 13.

1. 13. carriage, demeanour, small and ordinary, etc. In the
Latin translation Bacon adds, ' For instance in their looks, ges
ture, gait, daily conversation, and the like.'

1. 16. consequence, inference.

1. 19. uncivilly, with bad taste. Cf. " The speech of Themi-
stocles, the Athenian, which was haughty and arrogant in taking

96 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGI

so much to himself, had been a grave and wise 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 town a great
city. " — Essay xxix. A man may be wanting in small accomplish
ments, and yet be a very able man.

1. 23. well seen in the passages, well versed in the transactions.
The Latin participle spectatus, lit. seen, is also used in the sense
of tried or proved.

1. 24. to seek in, p. 12, 1. 23.

1. 25. punctual, minute.

1. 27. gallipots, glazed earthen pots.

1. 28. antiques, fanciful figures. The word used in the Latin
translation is ' Satyrs. ' Alcibiades, in the Symposium, one of
the dialogues of Plato, compares Socrates to the masks of the god
Silenus, the faces of which were hideous : but when they were
opened, images of the gods were found inside. Spedding sup
poses that Bacon was thinking of the following passage in the
French humourist Rabelais : " Silenuses formerly were small
boxes, such as we see at present in apothecaries' shops, with
merry and grotesque figures painted on the top." For sovereign,
see p. 6, 1. 33.

1. 29. confections, medicines. It means lit. ' something made
up,' Latin conficere. The words comfit, confection, etc., are from
the same root, to an external report, to those who judged by
appearances.

1. 34. in the meantime, i.e., before preceding further, I must
warn my readers that, etc. allowance, p. 18, 1. 29.

1. 36. wronged themselves, disgraced themselves.

Page 24, 1. 1. trencher philosophers, hangers-on at the
tables of the great. A trencher is a dish or plate on which
food is placed. It is from the French word Trencher, to
cut.

1. 4. A parasite means literally ' one who eats with another ' :
' a guest.' It is used to denote those who by flattery manage to
live at the expense of others. The satire of Lucian, referred to
below, is directed against Greek scholars, who practised the arts
of the parasite in the houses of wealthy Romans, and so brought
disgrace both on themselves and their calling.

1. 4. Lucian, a satirist and humourist, was a native of Samosata
on the Euphrates. He was born about 125 A.D.

1. 6. would needs, etc. , insisted on his carrying. Needs is the
old genitive used adverbially.

1. 7. uncomely, adv., awkwardly. We use the word as an
adjective.

23-24.] NOTES. 97

1. 8. of a Stoic, from being a Stoic. It is a literal translation
of the Latin e stoico.

1. 9. a Cynic, there is a play on the word Cynic, which means
dog-like, and was also the name of a school of Greek philosophers,
to which Diogenes, mentioned below, belonged. The name ' dog-
like ' was perhaps given to these philosophers from their coarse
way of life. The Stoics were another sect of philosophers, re
markable for their austerity and indifference to worldly goods.
The name Stoic is derived from the Stoa Poecile or colonnade in
Athens where Zeno taught.

1. 11. abused, turned to a bad use.

turning, etc. ,i.e. , representing old and ugly women as young
and beautiful, and vicious women as chaste. Hecuba was the wife
of Priam, king of Troy. Helen was the wife of the Grecian Mene-
laus : her seduction by Paris was the cause of the Trojan war.
Faustina was the wife of the Roman emperor, Marcus Antoninus,
and was celebrated for her immorality. Lucretia was a virtuous
Roman matron who was violated by the son of king Tarquin, and
who, rather than survive the shame, committed suicide.

Ellis says that the writings of Du Bartas were held in great
esteem by King James. He was born in 1544, at Montfort in
Armagnac. His chief poem was on the subject of the Creation.

The student will find some remarks on literary patronage in
Macaulay's Essay on Johnson and in Buckle's History of Civiliza
tion, vol. ii., ch. iv. Patronage was necessary to the scholar in
times when readers were so few that he could not maintain him
self by his pen.

1. 15. for that, because.

1. 20. it was to some such, etc. As Bacon himself had done :
see above, pp. 1-4. argument, the subject. The word argu-
mention bears this sense in Latin.

I. 23. tax, find fault with, morigeration, humouring. It is a
Latin word, and signifies literally ' bearing the habits ' of a man.

1. 24. application, p. 22, 1. 19.

Diogenes, it should be Aristippus.

1. 28. the one sort, etc., philosophers.

1. 29. the other, etc., the rich.

1. 30. Aristippus, born about 435 B.C. He was the founder of
the Cyrenaic school of philosophy. Dionysius was the ruler of
Syracuse.

1. 33. tender, sensitive.

1. 34. that he would offer, i.e., for offering. The point of
Aristippus' reply is that a philosopher, who has a request to
make, must make it prostrate, if the king will not listen to him

G

98 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

in any other attitude. Cf. Johnson, "You may be prudently
attached to great men, and yet independent. You are not to do
what you think wrong : and, Sir, you are to calculate, and not to
pay too dear for what you get. You must not give a shilling's
worth of court for sixpence worth of good. But if you can get a
shilling's worth of good for sixpence worth of court, you are a
fool if you do not pay court."

Page 25, 1. 7. disallowed, disapproved.
1. 8. outward, i.e., in appearance.

Pages 25-34. Bacon now proceeds to consider the last and
most serious objection which has been raised against learning,
and which is based on the results of the studies of learned men.
He confesses that there are Certain spurious kinds of learnmg,
but genuine learning is not for this reason to be despised.
Bacon proposes first to eliminate and discard the spurious
kinds of learning : when this has been done, the value of true
learning will be appreciated.

The three circumstances which have brought discredit upon
learning are these: (i.) learned men have propounded untruths:
(ii.) they have been over subtle and contentious : (iii.) tfiey Tiave
been guilty of r/jfi^^?-^

Affectation relates not to matter, but to style, and is first
considered. The Reformers, says Bacon, were Led to a careful
study of the ancient writers, partly with a view of deriving from
them support for their own opinions, partly with a view of
ascertaining what was that primitive practice of the Church,
which they wished to restore. By this diligent study of the
ancient tongues, the Reformers were inspired with an admira
tion for them which, added to their hatred of the barbarous
style of the schoolmen, and to the necessity which they were
under of expressing themselves in language which would impress
the vulgar, led to an affected purism of style and a luxuriant
extravagance of speech. Matter was, by them, sacrificed to style.
This fault of affectation shows itself at intervals, and always
brings discredit upon learning. Style is by no means to.fyi s
despised, but a good style is not to be accepted in the place of H
matter.

The second fault, viz., that of over-subtlety and contentious
ness, is worse than the first. 'Inhere is no great harm in affected
language, provided it is the vehicle of truth : but nothing can
atone for deficiency in the matter. It is the fault of which
the ^ schoolmen were conspicuously guilty. By constantly ex
ercising their ingenuity upon very limited data, they have
spun an endless but quite urutiihstn.ntinJ r^d wnrtftess web of

.

25.] NOTES. / 99

philosophy. This over-subtlety of the schoolmen showed itself I
both, in tfieir choice of subjects, and in their method of discussion. I
They chose the most fruitless subjects for discussion: and in the
discussions themselves they contented themselves with setting up
each proposition in science as an object of attack and defence.
Such a method could only issue in fruitless altercations about
trifles A proposition is to be considered with the Limitations
which the context requires: thus looked at, it may be true:
though stated absolutely, it may be false. A stick will stand
upright in the middle of a bundle : but unsupported, it will fall
to the ground. The schoolmen might have advanced the cause
of learning, if they had sought the necessary data, for reasoning
cither from Clod's word or from his works. fl\ey failed because
tiny were content to argue from their own h priori ideas, or to
§ pin endless syllogisms from a few unverified premises.

The third fault^untrutflZs-is the worst of all. It is the very
negation of knowledge. Ttis due to credulity and intentional
deceit, two faults which generally coexist. Credulity manifests
itself in three ways, (i.) with regard to matters of fact. Men
are too ready to give credence to alleged miracles^ or to prodigies
in natural history, (ii.) A man may be too credulous as to
what a given art can effect. Alchemy, astrology, and magic are
effective~arWwiihin certain limits : but it is well known how the
professors of them have imposed upon the credulity of mankind.
(iii.) Men give too ready an a^e^.f. t.n n.vt.y jMv%™*j^j^a*A is
sanctioned by the authority of a great name.

1. 13. which is principal and proper to, i.e., with which the
present argument is principally and more appropriately con
cerned.

1. 17. aspersion, the word literally signifies sprinkling, or
admixture. It is used in this sense on p. 43, 1. 19. The sentence
in the text might mean ' to save it from being confounded with
the rest.' But the word aspersion has also derived from the
Latin the sense of calumny, and Bacon probably uses it in that
sense here, so that the sentence would mean, ' to show that it
does not deserve the reproaches which have been directed against
the rest.' The Latin translation has ' to save from reproach.'

1. 18. to scandalize and deprave, to abuse and depreciate.

1. 19. retaineth the state, has not degenerated. For ' the ' we
should now say 'it's.'

1. 20. upon, we should say ' of.'

1. 21. to blemish and taint, to reproach and blacken. Mr.
Wright quotes appropriately from Macbeth, iv. 3. 124, 'The
taints and blames I laid upon myself.'

100 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

1. 23. I have no meaning, I do not intend.

1. 24. animadversion, consideration. It is a Latin word signi
fying literally ' a turning of the mind towards ' a thing.

1. 26. unto, concerning.

1. 29. traduced, calumniated. Cf. p. 19, 1. 2.

1. 33. curious, subtle. The Latin translation adds — ' In things
which are of little use.' curiosity is either in matter or words,
the Latin translation adds by way of explanation — ' that is to
say, when men labour at unimportant subjects or devote too
much attention to purity of style.'

1. 34. in reason, as we should have expected a priori. Credulity
produces false or fantastical philosophy. Frivolity, in the sense
of 'curiosity in matter,' i.e. subtlety in trifles, produces con
tentious philosophy. Frivolity, in the sense of ' curiosity in
words,' i.e. undue attention to verbal purity, leads to affectation.

1. 35. distempers, diseases.

Page 26, 1. 1. fantastical, fanciful.

1. 2. delicate, affected.

1. 4. Martin Luther, In the Latin translation the words which
would offend the Catholics are omitted, and Bacon merely says
that ' though this extravagance of luxuriant speech has been
admired at intervals in the past, yet it grew to an extraordinary
pitch about the time of Luther.' He attributes this to the
desire to attract the vulgar by sermons and to a hatred of the
scholastic style.

1. 5. in discourse of reason, by the exercise of his reason.
Shakespeare uses the phrase to denote the reasoning faculty.
Hamlet, i. 2, 150.

a province, a task. It is probable that the Latin word
' provincia ' meant ' a public duty, ' before it acquired the more
special meaning of ' a district. '

1. 9. to awake all antiquity, i.e. to call attention to the
opinions of the ancients, succours, we should now use the
singular.

1. 13. revolved, considered.

1. 14. exquisite, careful. For travail, see note on p. 9, 1. 29.

1. 21. the Schoolmen, the philosophers of the middle ages.
The Scholastic philosophy lasted, roughly speaking, from the
ninth to the fifteenth century. The name was taken originally
from the teachers in the schools established by Charlemagne.

1. 22. part, party. The Schoolmen were all ecclesiastics, and,
of course, members of the Catholic Church.

1. 24. to coin and frame new terms, we are indebted to the

26-27.] NOTES. 101

Schoolmen for many of the technical terms of the formal logic,
and for a number of words, such as essence, entity, substance,
etc., which are familiar to students of philosophy.

1. 28. the Pharisees, a sect of the Jews, remarkable for their
scrupulous observance of the precepts and ritual of the Mosaic
Law.

1. 33. the vulgar sort, the common people.

Page 27, 1. 1. copia, a Latin word for fluency.

1. 4. round and clean, perfect and polished. The word
' round ' expresses an absence of roughness.

1. 5. falling, cadence : rhythm.

1. 7. tropes, a trope is a figure of speech. It is derived from a
Greek word signifying to turn, or twist.

1. 8. life of invention, lively invention, vigorous.

1. 9. watery, thin : unsubstantial. The word denotes the
absence of matter in his speech. Osorius was Bishop of Sylves
in Algarves. He died in 1580. One of his chief works was a
book containing an account of the Portuguese discoveries and
conquests which took place in the reign of Emanuel the Great
(1495-1521).— E.

1. 10. to be in price, to be valued : a Latinism.

1. 11. Sturmius (1507-1589) was a Professor at Paris and
Strasburg. He has been styled 'the German Cicero.' — E. Her*
mogenes lived under Marcus Aurelius. He was so successful in
communicating a polished style that he went by the name of
4 the file.' curious, p. 19, 1. 9.

1, 13. Car of Cambridge, Nicholas Carr (1523-1568) was Pro
fessor of Greek in the University of Cambridge.

1. 14. Roger Ascham (1515-1568) was tutor to Queen Eliza
beth.

1. 16. delicate, p. 26, 1. 2.

1. 17. Erasmus, one of the most learned scholars of the Renais
sance period. See Green's History of the English People, vol. ii.
p. 81.

1. 18. The last word in Erasmus' sentence is ' Cicerone ' : the
Greek word which echoes to it is ' one,' i.e., ' thou donkey.'

1. 31. patent, any warrant issued by the sovereign, and con
ferring a title or privilege on a subject. It is so called because
such a warrant is open to public inspection, limned book, illus
trated book, though it bath large nourishes, though it is much
ornamented : in the Latin translation, it is — ' though it be deco
rated with flourishes of the pen and flowers. '

1. 32. It seems, etc. Pygmalion fell in love with a statue of a

102 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGE

woman that he had made. At his request Venus endowed the
statue with life. To admire a frivolous book is like falling in
love with lifeless stone. Cf. ' In all speech, words and sense are
as the body and the soul. The sense is as the life and soul of
language, without which all words are dead.' — Ben Jonson.
Page 28, 1. 1. it, i.e., the clothing and adorning, etc.

1. 3. sensible, striking the senses, plausible, such as attracts
the admiration of readers. The literal meaning of the word is
to attract or deserve applause : and it is frequently used in this
sense by Bacon.

1. 7. inquisition, cf. p. 5, 1. 29.

1. 10. period, conclusion. Attractiveness of style must not
blind us to the necessity of strict proof. The meaning of the
word satisfactory is explained by the following passage from
Bacon's Of the Interpretation of Nature, — ' In the inquiring of
causes and reasons it is much easier to find out such causes as
will satisfy the mind of man and quiet objections than such causes
as will direct him,' etc. Cf. Bk. 2: 'He that receiveth know
ledge, desireth rather present satisfaction, than expectant in
quiry ; and so rather not to doubt, than not to err.' if a man
be to have, etc., i.e., if a man have occasion to make use of his
knowledge.

1. 11. civil, p. 18, 1. 25.

1. 16. Adonis, a beautiful youth beloved by Venus.

1. 17. Hercules, the strong man of Grecian mythology. Hence
scholars who shrink from no labour in study are called 'Her
cules' followers in learning.' Burke talks of 'a man with an
herculean robustness of mind, and nerves not to be broken with
labour. '

1. 21. distemper of learning, In the Latin translation Bacon
adds — ' There is also another kind of style a little better than the
former, and commonly following it in point of time, which aims
at having the words pointed, the sentences concise, and the
language rather forced than flowing. By a trick of this kind
everything seems more ingenious than it really is. Such a style
is found conspicuously in Seneca, and to a less extent in Tacitus
and Plinius Secundus, and for some little time it has been pleasing
to the ears of our own time. It is true that it is generally pleasing
to men of ordinary understanding, so that it brings some dignity
to literature : but it is justly despised by more polished judg
ments, and may be considered as one of the diseases of learn
ing, because it is a kind of hunting after words and their
charm.'

1. 22. The second, Supply ' distemper of learning. ' In order
to understand this section the student should bear in mind that

27-28] NOTES. 103

the Scholastic Philosophy was, in the main, an application of the
logic of Aristotle to the development and explanation of the doc
trines of the Christian faith. This was its character on the
whole. Occasionally we meet with a Schoolman who left the
beaten track of theology. Roger Bacon, for instance, was as
diligent and enthusiastic a votary of science as his more cele
brated namesake. Cf . Green's History of the English People, vol.
i., p. 259. But the circumstances of the time were n,ofr f^vonr-
able to scientific inquiry : and the grefttt fiY*1 of finTlft1f!fflt-1'r>1'aiTli jn
Bacon's opinion, was that it diverted men's minds from more
1 USeiulsMies. Ui. Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. iii., p. 432. We
may^Tstinguish certain periods in Scholasticism. The first of the
Schoolmen was Erigena^ who was born between 800 and 810.
The only work of Aristotle with which he was acquainted was
the Logic. His philosophy was that of the later Platonists : and
his system is an attempt to reconcile theology with his philosophy
by means of the rules of the Aristotelian logic. With him philo
sophy was only so far subject to theology, that the latter determined
the former in all cases where the two diverged. He allowed him
self full liberty of speculation on points which did not come within
the sphere of theology. His writings were afterwards condemned
by the Church. The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries were
occupied with the great struggle between the Realists and the
Nominalists, a struggle which gave the Church an opportunity of
asserting a constantly increasing authority, since the various
issues raised by the conflict had a distinct bearing on theological
dogmas. The most conspicuous figure in the twelfth century is
Abelard, who came into conflict with, and was condemned by the
Ohurch, for his fearless application of the Aristotelian dialectic
to subjects which, according to the contention of the Church, were
to be settled by authority. It was not until the thirteenth cen
tury that Scholasticism attained its full development and all
philosophy was included in theology. This phenomenon was
due to the introduction into Europe of the ethical, physical, and
metaphysical treatises of Aristotle. Armed with these the
Church was in a position to put forth an authoritative exposi
tion of the truth on all subjects. The most eminent representa
tive of this fully developed Scholasticism is TJiomas Aquinas.

"mtati

Thus the history of Scholasticism displays a progressive limitation
of the right to freedom of thought. The last representative of
the Scholastic method is the famous William of Ockham. When
he appeared Scholasticism was doomecT In his works we see the
human mind once more asserting its irrepressible claim to the
right of freedom in speculation. Ockham was a revolutionist
both in philosophy and politics. He employed his dialectic skill
in attacking the main positions of the philosophy of Aquinas.
He was scholastic in his method, but his philosophical ideas are
those not of the past, but of succeeding generations. It is not

104 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

then to be wondered at if the Schoolmen only succeeded in
weaving a web of contentious metaphysics. When the mind has
exhausted the data presented to it, if no fresh experience is
forthcoming, it must either be idle, or return upon the same data
from which everything of value has already been extracted, or
else it must invent questions for the mere purpose of discussing
them. The only data presented to t.hp. School men wp.rp t.hp.
.Christian dogmas and the doctrines of Aristotle. These were
accepted on authority, and conclusions were drawn from them
by syllogism. The want of fresh data inevitably drove men to
.controversies about trifles^. A philosophy of any value presup-
poses scientific knowledge. Bacon, who was impatient of alii
metaphysical and theological discussions, naturally despised*
Scholasticism. He gives the true reason of the failure of the
Schoolmen — " Their wits were shut up in the cells of a few
authors," and they had "no great quantity of matter." They
did not even know Aristotle at first hand, but only through
Arabian commentators. Science wants data : and a fruitful
philosophy must rest on a wide and well-considered experience.
Scholasticism failed because it had no experience, and because it
had a bad method. This is the truth which Bacon wished to
impress upon the world. He says in the Nov. Org., Bk. 1, Aph.
121 — "Subtlety of discussion and reasoning is too late and is
useless when the principles of science have once been established :
the only, or, at any rate, the principal time when subtlety is
required is when we are weighing evidence and establishing
principles — Nature like Fortune has long hair in front, but she
is behind bald." Roger Bacon gives the same preference to
inductive over formal reasoning — and the general resemblance
between Roger and Francis Bacon is very strong — see Hallam,
ibid. The student will find an excellent sketch of the Scholastic
philosophy in Milman's Latin Christianity, bk. 14, ch. 3. He
may also consult with advantage Whewell's History of the In
ductive Sciences, vol. 1, bk. 4. For the Scholastic character of
Indian philosophy, see Duncker's History of India, bk. 5, ch. viii.
1. 27. respective, having reference to.

1. 28. extensive, capable of being extended to. St. Paul is
warning the person to whom he writes to keep the Christian
faith in its primitive purity and simplicity. 1 Tim. vi. 20.
Bacon condemns the Schoolmen for importing new ideas and
drawing unmeaning distinctions, which become the subject of
violent but unfruitful controversy. In the third Essay Bacon
remarks upon this same text from St. Paul, "Men create oppo
sitions which are not, and put them into terms so fixed, as
whereas the meaning ought to govern the term, the term in
effect governeth the meaning."

1. 33. strictness of positions, dogmatic assertions.

28-29.] NOTES. 105

Page 29, 1. 3. vermiculate, wriggling like a worm, intricate,
which have indeed, etc., a book which bristles with discussion
appears to be full of life : but if the discussions are trivial, the
book is worthless.

1. 4, quickness, see p. 13, 1. 24.

1. 8. their wits being shut up, etc., their knowledge being con
fined to a few authors.

1. 9. their dictator, the authority whom they followed blindly.
The Dictator was a magistrate whom the Romans appointed on
extraordinary emergencies, and who, so long as he held office,
possessed absolute power. Dante, in the Divina Commedia (A.D.
1300), calls Aristotle "the master of those that know." He
represents him as sitting as head of "the philosophic family,"
and says that Plato and all the rest look up to him.

1. 15. which, viz., working on matter. By working on matter,
say."1 Bacon, I mean studying nature.

1. 16. creatures, i.e., all created things. We now use the word
to express living things, worketh according to the stuff and is
limited thereby, i.e., does not transcend experience, but asserts
such propositions only as are warranted by experience.

1. 17. if it work upon itself, i.e., if it employ itself merely
with ideas of its own creation, and not about ideas which are
abstracted from actual facts.

1. 23. whereof there are no small number, Bacon regarded all
metaphysical speculation as 'fruitless,' because not productive
of any material result. The following questions, which are dis
cussed by Thomas Aquinas, may serve as more glaring instances
of the 'fruitless speculation of the Schoolmen': — Whether all
angels belong to the same genus. Whether demons are evil by
nature, or by will. Whether they can change one substance into
another. Whether Christ possessed merit in the very instant of
his conception, or not till the following instant. Whether an
angel can move from one point to another without passing
through the intermediate space. Whether, if Adam had not
sinned, exactly equal numbers of males and females would have
been born.

1. 24. the manner, etc. The method of the Schoolmen is
correctly described in the text. Generally each inquiry begins
with a statement of the different points which are to be eluci
dated. To each of these is allotted a separate paragraph. One
or more reasons are alleged in favour of the opinion which the
author means to reject. Some objection, generally founded on a
quotation from some conclusive authority, is then stated against
it, and then the author gives his own opinion in what is called
the conditsion, and proceeds to refute one by one the arguments
he has adduced on the other side. It is impossible not to recog-

106 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

nise in this procedure the influence of a system of oral disputa
tion. — E. See Bk. 2, p. 101, where the substance of this section
is repeated. Cf. Ueberweg's History of Philosophy , vol. i. , p. 432.
"The method of the Schoolmen consisted first in connecting the
doctrines to be expounded with a commentary on some work
chosen for the purpose. The contents of this work were divided
and sub -divided, until the separate propositions, of which it was
composed, were reached. Then these were interpreted, questions
were raised with reference to them, and the grounds for affirming
and for denying them were presented. Finally the conclusion was
announced," etc. Bacon means to say that the truth or false
hood of a proposition cannot be determined without taking into
account the limitations imposed by the other propositions of the
science, of which it forms a part. The proposition that * wages
tend to an equality ' is false, absolutely : it is true in the place
which it occupies in an English treatise on economy.

1. 28. which solutions, etc. Milman says of Thomas Aquinas,
that " his luxury of distinction and definition, if it be not a con
tradiction, his imaginative logic is inexhaustible." Again, talk
ing of Scotus' vindication of the grace of God, he says that,
"Scotus draws a distinction (he saves everything by a distinction
which his subtlety never fails to furnish) between the absolute
and secondary will of God." Again, talking of the controversy
between the Scotists and Thomists, he says that "one defines
away necessity till it ceases to be necessity, the other fetters
free-will till it ceases to be free." The following may serve as an
instance of a "solution" which in reality consists merely of
formal distinctions. Thomas Aquinas thus proves that the
beginning of the world in time is not philosophically demon
strable. "It is said that the cause must precede the effect:
but we must draw a distinction between efficient causes and per
fect causes. The dictum applies to the former, but not to the
latter. God is a perfect cause, and could by his almighty power
create an eternal world. Again, that the world was created from
nothing does not prove its temporal origin. Here we must draw
a distinction between temporal succession and order. ' From
nothing' means 'after nothing,' but not necessarily in the sense
of temporal succession. Again it is said, that we cannot pursue
the chain of causation to infinity, but that at some point we
must come to that which is uncaused. Those who urge this ob
jection overlook the distinction between intermediary causes and
the absolute cause." In the Paradiso, c. 13, Dante represents
Thomas Aquinas as emphasizing the importance of drawing dis
tinctions in all affirmation or negation. The same method of
demonstration was employed generally by the Schoolmen both in
theology and physics. In the sphere of physics their formal dis
tinctions were generally supported by quotations from Aristotle,
whose physical speculations are peculiarly fanciful, so that the

29-30.] NOTES. 107

student will easily understand that this method would never
enable the Schoolmen to make any progress in scientific dis
covery. At the best, their method was but an analysis, accord
ing to the rules of logic, of abstract terms and popular general
izations. So long as the terms which men use are an inadequate
or incorrect expression of facts, mere formal consistency in
reasoning is simply consistency in error. Moreover, progress was
impossible. No new ideas were got by fresh examinations of
nature, consequently the Schoolmen were perpetually engaged
with the same questions. Another circumstance which hindered
progress was that they were not allowed to question their pre
mises. In the sphere of theology they were bound by the
dogmas of the Church : in the sphere of physics, * Aristotle was
their dictator,' Cf. Whewell, * On the Character of Commen
tators.' History of the Inductive Sciences, vol. I., bk. iv., ch. ii.

1. 30. the old man's faggot, see ^Esop's Fables, 52. It is im
possible to break sticks when they are tied in a large bundle, but
each can be broken separately if taken out of the bundle. So
the strength of a science lies 'in the bond,' i.e., in the consistency
of each part with every other.

1. 34. axiom, proposition.

Page 30, 1. 4. They break up, etc. , they never get a comprehen
sive view of a subject. The remark about Seneca is from the
Roman rhetorician Quintilian.

1. 6. fair, large.

1. 8. watch-candle, a small light kept burning in a room at
night. Science should take a comprehensive view of the whole
extent of a subject, such as a brilliant light gives us of a large
room.

1. 12. cavillation, quibble : captious objection.

1. 14. as in the former resemblance, to take the comparison
which we took above, 1. 6. In The Interpretation of Nature,
when he is condemning the science of his day, Bacon repeats the
comparison which occurs below. "The strange fiction of the
poets of the transformation of Scylla seemeth to be a lively
emblem of this philosophy and knowledge : a fair woman up
wards in the parts of show, but when you come to the parts
of use and generation, Barking Monsters ; for no better are the
endless distorted questions, which ever have been, and of neces
sity must be, the end and womb of such knowledge." It must
always be borne in mind that, futile as the speculations of the
Schoolmen appear in the light of modern science, still we have to
thank them for maintaining an intellectual activity through ages
in which all but themselves were sunk in ignorance.

1. 20. generalities, generalizations.

1. 21. proportionable, comprehensive enough.

108/ OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

1. 23. instead of a fruitful, etc., the student should notice the
stress which Bacon lays on the proposition, that all study is
worthless, which is not productive of benefits to mankind.

1. 24. barking, loud. It is mere noise.

1. 25. quality, kind.

1. 28. they are all out of their way which never meet, people
who never agree must, it is thought, all be in error.

1. 29. digladiation, obstinate fighting.

Page 31, 1. 3. with dark keeping, with being kept in the dark —
" shut up in the cells of a few authors," p. 29, 1. 10. He alludes
to the effect of darkness on the temper of animals.

1. 5. to leave the oracle, etc. , as for instance in the discussion
of such subjects as I have alluded to on p. 29, 1. 23.

1. 7. the oracle of God's works, called "the book of God's
works," p. 9, 1. 12.

1. 9. unequal, uneven. Instead of deriving their ideas of
things from a direct study of things themselves, they contented
themselves with their own erroneous ideas of things. The idea
which a prejudiced mind forms of a thing no more resembles the
reality, than does an image reflected in a mirror with a rough or
broken surface.

1. 13. of all the rest, this is a confusion of two expressions,
"Foulest of all," and " Fouler than all the rest."

1. 14. the essential form, the Latin tr. has ' the very nature and
life of knowledge.' The words essence and form signify the
qualities which make a thing what it is.

1. 1 5. for the truth, i. e. , the truth is to reality as the reflection
is to the object reflected. We have attained to truth when our
subjective ideas about things and their .relations correspond
exactly to the things themselves and their objective relations.

1. 21. to proceed of, we should say /row.

1. 23. the verse, quoted from Horace, Ep. 1. 8. 69.

1. 27. as we see it in fame, as we see in the case of rumours.

1. 32. fiction and belief, the wish to deceive, and the tendency
to be imposed upon.

1. 36. speak, say. matter of art and opinion, see p. 32, 1. 32.

Page 32, 1. 6. they had a passage, they were believed. On
this subject, see Gibbon, ch. 28.

1. 9. divine poesies, religious fictions. It was thought unwise
to shake any of the foundations of religious belief.

1. 10. they, for the construction cf. p. 2, 1. 17.

1. 12. Antichrist, the spirit of evil ; literally, the opponent of
Christ. When predicting the signs of the approaching destruc-

30-33.] NOTES. 109

tion of Jerusalem, Christ said, "There shall arise false Christs,
and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders ;
insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very
elect." Matt. xxv. 24. St. Paul, foretelling the defections from
the purity of the Christian faith, says, "Then shall that wicked
be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume. . . . Even him,
whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and
signs and lying wonders. " 2 Thess. ii. 8.

1. 16. Plinius was a Roman writer on Natural History, A.D.
23-79.

Cardanus (1501-1576), a physician of Milan, who wrote
on Natural History, Medicine, and Astrology.

Albertus also wrote on Natural History. He was Bishop
of Ratisbon, and on account of his learning was called * The
Great.' He was born A.D. 1193.

1. 17. the Arabians, see Gibbon, ch. 52, and Whewell's History
of the Inductive Sciences, bk. iv. , ch. 2. They became acquainted
with the philosophy and science of the Greeks in the eighth
century after Christ. It was through them that the Schoolmen
became acquainted with the physical and metaphysical works of
Aristotle : and their commentaries on the works of Aristotle,
especially those of Ibn-Raschid, known in Europe as Averroes,
had a considerable influence on the Scholastic philosophies. In
philosophy, however, the Arabians confined themselves to ex
plaining and developing the doctrines of Aristotle : it was in the
sphere of science that they displayed originality. To the science
of medicine especially, and also to the sciences of chemistry and
algebra, they made considerable contributions.

1. 18. untried, unverified.

1. 22. exquisite, p. 26, 1. 14.

1. 26. worthy the recording, this record of extraordinary narra
tions, which the author had heard, is not really by Aristotle.
With this passage cf. 2, i. 3.

1. 31. to the memory of man, i.e., to posterity.

1. 35. which have had, etc., which are rather fanciful than
rational. Literally, which have corresponded more closely, and
been more nearly allied, to imagination than to reason. The
Latin translation has 'which rest more upon imagination and
faith than upon reason and proofs.' For natural magic and
alchemy, see Bk. 2, p. 51.

Page 33, 1. 2. astrology. The so-called science of Astrology
came originally from the Chaldeans. The chief power which
astrologers claimed was that of prediction. It was thought
that the heavenly bodies influenced the course of natural
phenomena : and that each of the stars had a different influence

110 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGE

according to its composition. Jupiter and Venus were com
pounded of warm and moist, and their influence was good, since
heat and moisture are creative elements. On the other hand, the
influence of Mars and Mercury was bad, since the one was dry,
and the other was changeable. It was thought, moreover, that
each of the signs of the zodiac presides over a special part of the
body : and that a child's fortune in life could be predicted from
the sign of the zodiac which rose at its birth. It was thought
also that an undertaking would prosper according to the season
in which it was undertaken. This last belief was held by Bacon —
" We must not," he says, "altogether reject the choice of times,
though we should place less reliance on it than on predictions. For
we see that in sowing, and planting, and grafting, an observation
of the age of the moon is a thing not altogether to be despised."
Bacon rejected the grosser follies of Astrology. " Astrology," he
s?ys, "is so full of superstition, that we can scarcely find anything
sound in it" — but he could not shake off the belief in it alto
gether. He says that it may enable us to predict not only
natural phenomena, such as frosts, floods, earthquakes, etc., but
wars, seditions, schisms, transmigrations of peoples, and, in
short, all commotions or great revolutions of things, natural as
well as civil. See Fowler's Introd. to Nov. Org. p. 26, and
Whewell's History of the Inductive Sciences, vol. I. , bk. iv. , ch. 3.
Alchemy is the Arabic Alkimia. Alis the Arabic article. Kimia
is the late Greek word chemeia, which is perhaps a corruption of
chumeia, a mixture, or fusion. The form chumeia justifies the
spellings alchymy and chymistry.

1. 5. concatenation, connection.

1. 6. to reduce is used in its literal sense, and is equivalent to
'to bring back.' Cf. 'induceth,' Bk. 2, p. 43. In the De Aug.
Bacon says "that the proper function of natural magic is to
apply the knowledge of hidden causes to the production of
wonderful results." See below, Bk. 2, p. 38. For the ground
of Bacon's objections to the ordinary magic, see Bk. 2, p. 51.
pretendeth, claims, professes.

1. 9. in mixtures of nature, in substances as they exist in
nature. The order is, 'which are incorporate, i.e., incorporated,
in mixtures of nature.' He explains this in the De Aug. thus :
"Alchemy professes to extract and eliminate the heterogeneous
elements which are latent in substances, as they exist in nature,
and to purify bodies which are impure, to set free those which
are enchained, and to perfect those which are incomplete," i.e.,
Alchemy was engaged in the refining and transmuting of metals.
See Bk. 2, p. 51, for Bacon's opinion as to the way in which
transmutation can really be effected, and the futility of the means
by which the alchemists sought to effect it.

1. 10. derivations and prosecutions, the devices and the

33.] NOTES. Ill

methods. Mr. Wright points out that the words mean literally,
' the subsidiary channels leading to those ends and the modes in
which they have been followed.' Cf. Bk. 2, p. 51 : "In their
propositions the description of the means is ever more monstrous
than the pretence or end."

1. 14. enigmatical writings, in the corresponding passage in the
De Aug. Bacon says that alchemy is not taught in a straight
forward way, but is artificially fenced round with obscurities ;
cf. the Filum Labyrinthi, Ellis and Spedding's edn., vol. iii.,
p. 496. The alchemists published their more important dis
coveries in enigmatical writings, i.e., in writings which the un
initiated could not understand. The alleged reason for this pro
ceeding was ' for the avoiding of abuse in the excluded, and the
strengthening of affection in the admitted,' i.e., to prevent the
knowledge thus reserved from becoming known to and being mis
used by incapable persons, and to encourage those, to whom it
was committed, to take more interest in it, by making them feel
that they were entrusted with a valuable treasure. This, how
ever, says Bacon, though the alleged reason, was not the real
one. They wrote enigmatically to hide their ignorance and
fraud ; for that, which they published enigmatically, was no less
worthless and false, than that which they published openly. Mr.
Nichol says " that the interval between the twelfth and six
teenth centuries is studded with books of secrets." The explana
tion of this, he says, is that some writers were afraid of being
punished for unhallowed dealing in the black arts, others were
anxious to gain credit for the possession of superhuman know
ledge. The student will find some interesting information on
this point in Vaughan's Hours with the Mystics.

referring themselves to auricular traditions, this was
another device of the alchemists, similar to that of ' enigmatical
writing.' The pretext and real reason for the two were the
same. They pretended that some of their discoveries were so
important, that they were not even published enigmatically, but
were reserved for selected auditors. The words auricular tradition
mean 'teaching by word of mouth' (literally, 'delivery, i.e.,
teaching, to the ears ') as opposed to books. Referring themselves
to, having recourse to.

1. 15. to save the credit of impostures, to induce people still to
believe in their impostures.

1. 28. dictators, p. 29, 1. 9.

1. 29. stand, maintain their position, be accepted without
question.

consuls, magistrates whose power was not absolute, but
who voted in the Senate. The Consulship dates from the
expulsion of the last king of Rome, B. c. 510. Ellis prints counsels

112 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

from the original edition. He supposes that Bacon wrote
counsell™- This conjecture is supported by the Latin translation
— ' Credulity has invested certain authors with a dictatorial
power of giving orders, instead of the senatorial power of giving
counsel. '

' 1. 31. at a stay, kept them from making progress. We should
say at a standstill.

1. 33. comes shortest, accomplishes least.

1. 35. leeseth, loseth.

1. 36. artillery, the art of constructing engines for the dis
charge of missile weapons. The word now means ' cannon. '

Page 34, 1. 1. grossly, unskilfully.

1. 3. Democritus, born about B.C. 460, a leader of the Atomistic
school of philosophy in Greece. Bacon thought more highly of
him than of any of the Greek philosophers, because he devoted
himself more to the study of nature, and less to the elaboration
of logical forms.

Hippocrates, B.C. 460, a well-known Greek physician, and
writer on medicine.

1. 4. Euclides, the geometrician. He lived in the fourth
century B.C., but the exact date of his birth is unknown.

Archimedes, B.C. 287, a great astronomer, and discoverer
in mathematics, both pure and applied. He was a native of
Syracuse, and lost his life in the storming of the city by the
Romans, B.C. 212. It is told of him that, during the siege, he
burned the enemies' ships in the harbour by reflections from a
mirror.

1. 5. imbased, corrupted. In the Latin translation it is —
' having lost much of their original splendour.'

1. 6. many wits and industries, the labour of many minds.

1. 7. in one, to the same object.

1. 9. whom . . . illustrated, in spite of the time which they have
spent upon him, they have rather distorted than illustrated his
works. This is a parenthetical remark. The word For, which
follows, continues the sense from some one.

1. 12. exempted from liberty of examination, i.e. accepted on
authority : as the doctrines of Aristotle were by the Schoolmen.
Bacon means that time is wasted, if spent in making endless
comments on one author. When we have learned all that an
author has to say, we should leave him, and go on to fresh
studies. Cf . "To go beyond Aristotle by the light of Aristotle
is to think that a borrowed light can increase the original light
from whom it is taken." — Bacon, On the Interpretation of Nature.

1. 14. the position, the maxim, or rule.

33-34.] NOTES. 113

1. 23. time which is the author of authors, cf. " Truth is the
daughter of time. "— Nov. Org., Bk. 1. Aph. 84, cf. p. 34, 1. 11.

1. 24. to discover, to disclose.

1. 26. peccant humours, unhealthy states. Literally the words
signify ' morbid juices ' in the body.

1. 28. intrinsic, used in its literal sense of 'internal,' 'hidden
from sight.'

1. 29. traducement, see on p. 19, 1. 2.

Pages 34-40. Having considered the grosser blemishes which
disfigure and bring discredit upon learning, Bacon now proceeds
to consider its more superficial defects. Of these he enumerates

(i.) Men are too ready to accept ideas and beliefs, either'
because they are old, or because they are novel.

(ii.) It is generally thought that everything that is to be
discovered must have been discovered long ago. Hence ensues
awfmj. nf entfirpri.™ in sri.f>.n™_

~7m.) It is commonly thought that, by a kind of 'natural
selection,' those doctrines, which have survived to the present
time, must be the soundest. In reality, the opposite of this is
true. In the river of time the weightiest doctrines sink first.

(iv.) Arts and sciences have been formulated before the
necessary data were obtained. Thus a false air of completeness
has been given to knowledge.

(v.) The results of the different sciences have not been com
pared and co-ordinated. Hence individual sciences have not
progressed as they might have done, because deprived of the
light which other sciences might have thrown upon them.

(vi.) Students have placed such confidence in their own
faculties that they have ventured to explain phenomena a priori,
wanting the patience for a diligent study of nature.

(vii.) Men have come biassed to the study of nature, reading
ii in the light of preconceived idea§: and interpreting it in
terms of their own philosophy.

(viii.) There has been a general impatience, of ^ffiw.ZfoW
No satisfactory conclusions can be arrived at, when difficulties
are passed over instead of being solved.

(ix.) Writers have asserted as proved things which are not
proved: whereas they ought in their writings to distinguish
those principles which are proved, from those which need
further corroboration.

(x.) Students have neglected original research, and have been
contented with simply editing the works of others.

H

114 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

(xi.) Men have mistaken the end o£ knowledge. The student
should woo knowledge as a spouse, theTfruiT of whose womb shall
be benefits for mankind.

' Lastly, says tfacon, as I have not been sparing in my criticism
of learning, I hope that due weight will be given to what I shall
urge in its favour.

1. 31. affecting of, liking for.

1. 34. the father, Bacon refers to the Greek myth, according
to which Kronos, i.e., time, devoured his children as soon as
they were born. The myth expressed the passage of time,
which cannot be recalled. Bacon says that the children are
imitating the father ; the old days wishing to destroy the later,
and the later to destroy the older.

Page 35, 1. 1. while antiquity, etc. Conservatives hate all
changes : radicals insist on destroying, instead of merely reform
ing, what is old.

1. 3. surely, etc. A man, says Bacon, should dwell upon what
has been already discovered, only until he has hit upon the path
of further discoveries, which he must then follow. Cf . Essay xxiv.

1. 9. when the discovery is well taken, when he is certain that
he has discovered it.

1. 11. old times, etc. Elsewhere Bacon says "the present time
is the real antiquity, for the world has now grown old. And,
indeed, as we expect greater knowledge and riper judgment from
an old man than from a youth, because of his wider experience,
so it is natural to expect far greater things from our own age
than from ancient times ; for the world has now grown old, and
has been enriched with countless experiments and observations."
— Nov. Org. 1. 84. Ellis quotes the same idea from a dialogue
by the Italian Giordano Bruno, who was contemporary with
Bacon. Similar reflexions, he says, occur in the writings of
several of the scientific reformers. He also quotes from 2
Esdras, xiv. 10, " The world has lost its youth, and the times
begin to grow old."

1. 15. induced, used in its literal sense of 'brought on.'

1. 19. Lucian, the remark is really Seneca's. It is a satire on
the popular mythology.

1. 22. septuagenary, too old to beget children : literally, seventy
years old. the Papian law, the Lex Papia Poppcea, which was
passed in the reign of Augustus, did not actually forbid old men
to marry. Its object was to induce all men, who had not
reached a certain age, to marry, by granting them political
privileges.

1. 24. doubt, fear, past children and generation, past produc
ing children, i.e., new discoveries.

34-36.] NOTES. 115

1. 34. Columbus, writing in 1503 to Ferdinand and Isabella,
says — " I was seven years at your court, and for seven years I
was told that my plan was an absurdity : and now the very
tailors ask leave to go to discover new countries." — E.

Page 36, 1. 1. they, see on p. 2, 1. 17. seem strange to our assent,
i.e., we hesitate to assent to them. For the form demonstrate,
cf. p. 16, 1. 15.

1. 2. relation, lit. carrying backward, a technical term in law,
denoting that effect is given to an action from a date preceding
that on which it was performed. For example, letters of
administration, though issued after a man's decease, take effect
from the day of his death. In the case of simple truths, Bacon
says, we appear to ourselves to have known them before the
time at which we actually acquired them.

1. 3. speak, p. 31, 1. 36.

1. 5. after variety and examination, i.e., when a number of
different opinions have been propounded and examined. Cf. The
Interpretation of filature, " It is sensible to think that when men
first enter into search and inquiry, according to the several
frames and compositions of their understanding they light upon
different conceits, and so all opinions and doubts are beaten over,
and then men having made a taste of all wax weary of variety,
and so reject the worst and hold themselves to the best." Then,
after repeating the metaphor of the river, Bacon says: "The
state of knowledge is ever a Democratic, and that prevaileth
which is most agreeable to the senses and conceits of people. "

1. 6. still, always.

1. 8. he were but like, etc. , he would probably only light.

1. 10. for the multitude's sake, to please the multitude.

1. 11. to give passage to, to accept.

1. 15. blown up, filled with air. This image of a river is a
false analogy which Bacon often employs. Cf. Essay liii. :
" Fame is like a river that beareth up things light and swollen,
and drowns things weighty and solid."

1. 17. Another error, etc. Cf. The Interpretation of Nature :
" Men have used of a few observations upon any subject to make
a solemn and formal art, by filling it up with discourse, accom
modating it with some circumstances and directions to practice,
and digesting it into method, whereby men grow satisfied and
secure, as if no more inquiry were to be made of that matter."
See Bk. 2, p. 100.

1. 18. peremptory, ai^bitrary.

1. 21. knit and shape, when the limbs are firmly set and the
body is fully formed.

1. 24. methods, by a method Bacon means a formal treatise

116 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

professing to contain an exhaustive exposition of a subject, as
opposed to the exposition of a subject in aphorisms, which are
professedly imperfect, and valuable rather as suggestions than as
dogmas. See Nov. Org., 1, 86.

1. 25. illustrate, for this form of the participle, cf. accumulate,
p. 16, 1. 15, demonstrate, p. 36, 1. 1, etc.

1. 31. cease, used transitively. For an explanation of this
paragraph, see Bk. 2, pp. 31-3 and p. 40. Bacon frequently and
wisely emphasizes the danger of excessive specialization. The
world is so vast that we are obliged to study it in parts. The
specialization of inquiry is only an application of the principle of
what economists call the division of labour to intellectual industry.
But there are no absolute divisions in nature corresponding to
the divisions of the sciences. If, therefore, we study a subject
in isolation, we must remember that our conclusions will have to
be modified in virtue of the relation in which the subject really
stands to the rest of nature. Each science, in other words, gives
an imperfect view of its object. The_/rrs£ philosophy of Bacon is
intended to correct the errors of specialized inquiry. It was to
determine the principles common to all or many sciences, i.e., it
was to show how nature works according to the same laws in
different spheres : and secondly it was to answer certain general
questions about nature which it is not the business of any special
science to solve. Cf. " All knowledge forms one whole, because
its subject-matter is one : for the universe in its length and
breadth is so intimately knit together, that we cannot separate
off portion from portion, and operation from operation, except by
mental abstraction .... Sciences are the result of that mental
abstraction, which I have spoken of, being the logical record
of this or that aspect of the whole subject-matter of knowledge.
As they all belong to one and the same circle of objects, they are
one and all connected together : as they are but aspects of things,
they are severally incomplete in their relation to the things
themselves, though complete in their own idea and for their own
respective purposes ; on both accounts they at once need and
subserve each other. And further, the comprehension of the
bearings of one science on another, and the use of each to each,
and the location and limitation and adjustment and due apprecia
tion of them all, one with another, this belongs, I conceive, to a
sort of science distinct from all of them, and in some sense a
science of sciences, which is my own conception of what is meant
by philosophy, in the true sense of the word, and of a philosophi
cal habit of mind." Cardinal Newman's Idea of a University,
Discourse iii. § 4.

1. 32. for no perfect discovery, etc. In the Latin translation

it is "Extensive views can be obtained only from towers, or hig
places": and after the words "to a higher science," 1. 36, th

h
the

36-37.] NOTES. 117

c

Latin adds "as to a watch-tower." In The Interpretation of
Nature, he says: "Sciences distinguished (i.e. individual sciences)
have a dependence upon universal knowledge to be augmented
and rectified by the superior light thereof " ; and he gives a
curious instance of this. " The opinion of Copernicus in Astro
nomy," he says, "which astronomy itself cannot correct because
it is not repugnant to any of the appearances, yet natural philo
sophy doth correct." Cf. Bk. 2, p. 56. In his 278th Apophthegm
Bacon says ' ' Aristippus said that those that studied particular
sciences and neglected philosophy were like Penelope's wooers,
that made love to the waiting woman."

Page 37, 1. 5. tumbled up and down in, have become confused
among. See notes on p. 30, 11. 34 seqq., where the substance
of this paragraph is repeated.

1. 6. intellectualists, Bacon coins the word to express those
who contemplate only the creations of their own minds.

1. 9. in their own little worlds, in the microcosm of their own
minds. They try to get at truth a priori, or, in Bacon's lan
guage, they wish to anticipate, instead of being content to
interpret nature.

1. 11. the volume of God's works, p. 9, 1. 12. In The Inter
pretation of Nature Bacon speaks of the felicity wherewith God
hath blessed an humility of mind, such as rather laboureth to
spell and so by degrees to read in the volumes of his creatures,
than to solicit and urge and as it were to invocate a man's own
spirit (mind) to divine and give oracles unto him. For the
metaphor of spelling, cf. our expression ' The A B C of a subject.'

1. 13. invocate, call upon. We say invoke.

1. 14. to divine, to account for phenomena or to anticipate the
future by a supernatural power. A diviner is a soothsayer.

1. 16. Another error, etc. With this section cf. Buckle's
History of Civilization, vol. ii. p. 289, where, in illustrating the
influence of theological prejudice upon writers of history, the
author speaks of "a general law of the mind, by which those
who have any favourite profession, are apt to exaggerate its
capacity : to explain events by its maxims, and, as it were, to
refract through its medium the occurrences of life. "

1. 17. have used, have been accustomed.

1. 20. applied, studied.

1. 21. Plato, the same charge is brought against Plato in the
Novum Organum, Bk. 1, Aph. 96, in which passage also, the
same charges, as here, are made against Aristotle and Proclus.
He is referring to Plato's fondness for the theologian's argument
from design. Cf. Bk. 2, p. 45.

1. 22. Aristotle was fond of viewing natural phenomena as

118 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

exemplifications of his metaphysical distinctions. The seed and
the tree for instance exemplify 'potentiality' and 'actuality.'
See Bk. 2, p. 88. Aristotle ought to have kept distinct the
logical question, What is the meaning of the terms actuality
and potentiality ? and the physical question, By what process
is the tree, as a matter of fact, developed out of the seed ? Cf.
below Bk. 2, p. 32. It is only fair to Aristotle to remember
that, as he lived before the age of physical science, his task was
not so much to explain the world as to conceive it. The most
elementary ideas of physics were not defined in his time. Besides,
we can hardly blame Plato or Aristotle for not doing the work of
a man of science. Plato, as a philosopher, was properly concerned
to show that the universe is a rational system ; and Aristotle, as
a metaphysician, was properly concerned with the characteristics
of being as such, and not with the discovery of the properties of
any particular kind of being. Many of Aristotle's conceptions
are still of the greatest value as applied even in science.

1. 23. the second school of Plato, i.e. the Neo-Platonists, the
last representatives of ancient philosophy. The doctrines of
Plato and the vaguer traditions of Pythagoreanism, coming into
contact with the ideas of the East, produced the philosophy
of Neo-Platonism, the chief characteristic of which is its
mysticism. Proclus (A.D. 412-485) was born in Constantinople,
but spent most of his life in Athens. He wrote commentaries
on Plato's dialogues, that on the Timaeus being especially well
known. His own philosophical ideas are mainly contained in
his treatise ' On the Platonic Theology. ' Pythagoras first
attempted to find in numbers the key to the explanation of the
Universe. He exercised a profound influence on the mind of
Plato. It was not therefore wonderful that this influence was
transmitted to the Neo-Platonists. See Whewell's History of the
Inductive Sciences, vol. 1, bk. iv. ch. 3. § 2.

1. 24. which had a kind of primogeniture with them, of which
they were fondest. The Latin has ' which they used to fondle
as if they had been their first-born children.'

1. 26. the alchemists, See Bk. 2, p. 50.

1. 27. Gilbertus, cf. Nov. Org., 1. 54. Bacon means to say that
he tried to explain by magnetism phenomena which it would not
account for. For instance, he explained the phenomena of
gravitation as cases of magnetism. William Gilbert (1540-1603),
Court Physician to Queen Elizabeth, and author of the celebrated
treatise ' On the Magnet,' was, according to Fowler, the real
founder of the sciences of Electricity and Magnetism. Else
where Bacon praises him for his industry and method : though he
justly censures him for endeavouring to build a universal philosophy
upon so narrow a basis. — E. See also Whewell's Philosophy of
Discovery, ch. xiv. § 7.

37-38] NOTES. 119

1. 31. pleasantly, wittily.

1. 32. Aristotle speaketh, similarly Carlyle says " The Universe
makes no immediate objection to be conceived in any way."
This section is quoted and illustrated by Cardinal Newman,
Idea of a University, Discourse iv. , § 4.

Page 38, 1. 2. two ways of action, Cf. two sayings quoted by
Xenophon, " Do not aim at ease, lest you meet with discomfort,"
and " The gods sell us all good things for labour."

1. 7. he shall end, he will certainly end. Shall properly
connotes compulsion, and is often, therefore, used to denote
what is inevitable.

1. 10. the manner of the tradition, the way of handing on
or communicating knowledge. Cf . The Interpretation of Nature :
"He that delivereth knowledge desireth to deliver it in such
form as may be soonest believed, etc. ... Glory (i.e., pride) maketh
the author not to lay open his weakness. " Cf . Bk. ii. pp. 98-9.

1. 11. magistral, after the fashion of a master, whose word is
not to be disputed.

1. 12. peremptory, dogmatic: not brooking question or contra
diction.

1. 15. disallowed, disapproved.

1. 17. VeUeius, Bacon is referring to Cicero's treatise on the
Nature of the Gods. The treatise is in the form of a discussion
in which Velleius takes part. Authors, says Bacon, should avoid
the two extremes of dogmatism and scepticism.

1. 20. Socrates his, in early times his was substituted by mis
take for the '« of the genitive. The change occurred most fre
quently in the case of nouns ending in a sibilant, owing to the
coincidence of sound. Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 217.

ironical doubting, the word ' irony ' as applied to
Socrates means ' self -depreciation.' Socrates wrote nothing,
and established few positive conclusions. It was his custom
to profess entire ignorance of a subject and to ask some one for
an explanation of it. This explanation he then criticised, and
by a process of cross-examination showed that the explanation
which he had received was either insufficient or incorrect. His
chief subject of discussion was the meaning of general names,
specially those of moral philosophy. Socrates thus performed
the essential service of showing men their ignorance, and putting
them in the way of right reasoning. Our reasoning will never
be of any value so long as we can attach no definite meaning to
the terms which we employ.

1. 23. scope, aim. It is a Greek word signifying literally f a
mark to aim at.'

1. 29. commenter, we should say commentator.

120, OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

1. 30. eompounder, one who makes an analysis, or abstract, of
a book.

1. 33. of all the rest, see note on p. 31, 1. 13.
1. 34. furthest, ultimate.
1. 36. upon, out of : by reason of.
Page 39, 1. 4. profession, means of livelihood.

1. 4. to give a true account, etc. Cf. The Interpretation of
Nature : " The true end, scope, or office of knowledge I have set
down to consist not in any plausible, delectable, reverend, or
admired discourse, or any satisfactory arguments, but in effecting
and working, and in discovery of particulars not revealed before
for the better endowment and help of man's life. "

1. 7. a tarasse, a terrace.

1. 9. a tower of state, a lofty tower.

1. 10. commanding, a commanding position is one which gives
the holder of it any advantage.

1. 12. the glory of the Creator, because the more we know of nature,
the more we admire the power and the wisdom of the Creator.

1. 13. estate, condition, straitly, closely. It is the same as
strictly. Both words are from the Latin stringere, to draw tight.
For the implied belief in astrology, see on p. 33, 1. 2.

1. 23. Atalanta, the daughter of a king of Boeotia, who refused
to marry any one who had not beaten her in a foot race.
Milanion obtained her by a stratagem. He obtained from Venus
some golden apples, which, when he was pressed in the race, he
threw down, from time to time, before the maiden. She could
not resist the temptation to stop and pick them up, and so lost
the race. Similarly, the student who goes aside from the path of
knowledge for the sake of lucre will make but slow progress.

1. 29. to converse upon the earth, i.e., to occupy itself with
human affairs. Cf. " Socrates was the first to call down philo
sophy from heaven, to place it in cities, to introduce it even into
men's homes, and to force it to inquire concerning life and
morals, concerning things good and evil." — Cic. Tusc. v. 4.
See on p. 38, 1. 20. /

1. 31. manners and policy, ethics and politics.
1. 33. both philosophies, i.e., both physics and moral and
political philosophy.

Page 40, 1. 1. a bond- woman, a female slave.
1. 5. peccant humours, see on p. 34, 1. 26.
1. 6. proficience, progress. The quotation which follows is
from Proverbs, xxvii. 6.

1. 15. a laudative, a panegyric.

38-40.] NOTES.

1. 16. The Muses were the patron goddesses of art and science.

1. 17. varnish, literally ' an external polish ' : here equivalent
to 'exaggeration.' Cf. "I wi1! a round unvarnish'd tale deliver."
—Othello, i. 3. 90.

Pages 40-47. Having now * cleared the way ' (p. 4, 1. 23)
by disposing of objections, Bacon proceeds to. adduce evidence in
favour nf Learning, both from the Scriptures and l£cclesiastica(,
History, and from Secular History We cannot talk of God's
learning, since he possesses all knowledge without having
acquired it ; but we see that, in the creation of the world, he
manifested wisdom as well as power : and while the works of
power were completed in a moment, seven days were given to the
disposition of created matter by divine wisdom.

Among the celestial beings, who stand next in rank to God,
a higher place is given to the spirits of knowledge than to the
spirits of power ; and the day of rest and contemplation is
more blessed than the days of labour. The work which God
assigned to man in Eden was to be pursued for the sake of
pleasure and observation; and the f/rst acts of man in Paradise
were manifestations of knowledge. The story of the first \
fratricide displays, in an allegory, the preference of God for a I
contemplative rather than an active life. The Scriptures men
tion with honour the inventors who lived before the flood ; and
the greatest punishment which God could inflict on sinful man,
after the flood, was to stop the progress of knowledge. It is
specially mentioned in the Scriptures that Moses, whom God
chose to communicate the divine law to the Jews, was a learned •"
man ; and both from the writings of Moses, and from other
parts of the holy books, we learn lessons in morals and science.
Solomon preferred knowledge to all things, and God approved
of his choice. Christ showed his wisdom before he showed his
power ; and the chosen apostles of Christianity were learned
men.

Learning loa* held in etfeem in tho Eavly Church, and in the
sixteenth century, at the same time that God reformed his
church, he also gave fresh life to learning. The Church of
owes the deepest debt of gratitude to the learned order of
^ Learning performs a double service to religion. Th-f \

trned man alone can appreciate the power nf Gnd a* m^M.- /
fested in nature ; and learning enables a man to understand
the Scriptures, and predisposes him to believe them.

1. 23. platform, pattern. Similarly in Essay xlix., Bacon talks
of ' the platform of a garden. ' The most perfect type of wisdom
must be looked for in God.

122 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

1. 29. sapience, the Latin sapientia, wisdom.

1. 30. we see, etc., Bacon wishes to show from the Jewish
account of the creation that God assigns to wisdom a preeminence
over power. He distinguishes the creation of matter, which was
at first formless (cf. Genesis i. 2, "and the earth was without
form "), from the arrangement of the matter in the form of the
world as we Imow it ; and the preeminence of wisdom appears
from this, that the mere creation of matter, which was an act of
power, is clearly distinguished from the orderly distribution of
the matter in the form of the world as we know it, which was an
exercise of wisdom. The first 'carries the style of,' i.e., is
described as, a manufacture, the second as a law or decree. If
we look at the time which God allotted to the two, we shall find
that the act of power may, for anything that appears to the
contrary, have been performed in a moment, whereas six days
were assigned to the work of wisdom. With this passage cf.
Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity, Bk. 1. 3.

The student must bear in mind that when it is said that matter
was formless, it is only meant that it had not assumed its present
orderly arrangement.

1. 32. expressed, manifested.

1. 33. subsistence, substance.

1. 35. for anything which appeareth, sc. to the contrary.

Page 41, 1. 4. note, mark. By ' God made heaven and earth ' is
meant, ' God created matter ' : by ' the works following ' Bacon
means the orderly distribution of the matter. He is alluding to
the form of words used in the Bible — * Let there be light,' * Let
there be a firmament,' etc.

1. 12. the celestial hierarchy, this work, in the genuineness of
which no one probably now believes, exercised great influence on
the medieval development of the doctrine of the nature and
faculties of angels. — E. Dante, in his Paradiso, refers to the
book, and believes Dionysius to be the author of it. Dionysius
is said to have been converted by St. Paul, from whom he might
naturally acquire information about the angels, because it is said
in the Bible that St. Paul, during his life-time, was ' caught up
into Paradise.' In place of 'that supposed Dionysius' Bacon
says in the Latin translation that the book is ' published in the
name of Dionysius,' i.e., is attributed to him.

1. 18. ministry, the words ministry and office mean service and
duty. These angels are charged with the execution of God's
orders. The student will remember that in Milton the angels
are frequently addressed as 'thrones, dominations, virtues,
princedoms, powers.' The curious student will find information
on the scholastic views of the angels in Longfellow's notes to
Dante's Paradiso, c. 28.

40-42.] NOTES. (JL23

1. 21. forms, Observe that the word 'form ' is applied both to
angels and material objects. Bacon probably had in mind
scholastic uses of the word. Thomas Aquinas uses the word, as
Bacon does here, to express ' material objects ' — ' matter to
which shape has been given,' — but he also says that there are
separate and immaterial forms, as an instance of which he
mentions the angels, incorporal, incorporeal.

1. 26. in the distribution, etc., "And on the seventh day God
ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh
day . . . and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it."

1. 30. it is set down, it is written.

1. 35. reluctation, effort. The necessity of labour was imposed
on man as a punishment after the fall.

1. 36. of consequence, consequently. For of we should say
in. The words ' sweat of the brow ' are suggested by the
words of the curse pronounced by God upon Adam after his
sin: 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." —
Gen. iii. 19.

Page 42, 1. 3. summary, most important. Observation and
language are necessary to knowledge. With this passage,
cf. i. 3.

1. 5. induced, brought on. Cf. p. 35, 1. 15. touched, just
mentioned.

1. 8. were not the originals, i.e., things were not constituted
right or wrong simply by God ordering or forbidding them.
This remark might seem to imply a discouragement of the study
of Ethics, but we must not press his words too closely. In the
first place, he is not expressing an opinion of his own, but in
terpreting a text of Scripture. Moreover, Bacon held that
although the laws of morals are discoverable by reason, still
they are to be inferred from the will of God as revealed in
Scripture and manifested in nature.

1. 13. as the Scriptures, etc., in bk. 2, pp. 193-4. Bacon says
that the words of Scripture bear not only the literal sense, but
also a moral, and often a typical or allegorical sense.

1. 16. Abel and Cain, the two brothers Abel and Cain, sons of
Adam, the one a shepherd and the other a tiller of the ground,
both made offerings to God. That of Abel was accepted, and
that of Cain rejected. In a fit of jealousy, Cain murdered his
brother. After the word husbandman, Bacon adds in the Latin
translation : ' one who is weary with labour, and whose eyes are
bent upon the ground.'

1. 28. the confusion of tongues, "And the Lord said, Behold,
the people is one, and they have all one language . . . and now
nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined

124 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

to do. Go to. let us go down, and confound their language, that
they may not understand one another's speech."— Gen. xi. 6.
The punishment was inflicted on men because they wished to
build a tower which should reach to heaven.

1. 29. open, unrestricted, trade, on the analogy of the Latin
"commercium," which had the general meaning of "inter
course," before it acquired the special meaning of "trade."

1. 30. unbarred, stopped.

1. 31. God's first pen, the writer of the first of the sacred
books.

1. 33. seen in, p. 23, 1. 23.

1. 34. which nation, i.e., learning flourished in Egypt earlier
than almost any other country.

1. 35. Plato brings in, etc., " Thereupon one of the priests, who
was of a very great age, said : O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are
but children, and there is never an old man who is a Hellene.
Solon in return asked him what he meant. I mean to say, he
replied, that in mind you are all young : there is no old opinion
handed down among you by ancient tradition: nor any science
which is hoary with age." — Plato's Timaeus. Cf. Nov. Org.,

Page 43, 1. 3. you shall find, you cannot help finding. See on
p. 38, 1. 7. the prefiguration of Christ, Christian theologians
find in the Jewish ritual a series of types or foreshadowings of

the teaching of Christ, or of events in his life.

1. 4. difference, see on p. 4, 1. 6. the people of God, viz., the
Jews, who were distinguished from other nations as "God's
chosen people." the impression, the enforcement of.

1. 8. a moral reduction of the ceremonies, i.e., a moral inference
from the ceremonies. By "a natural reduction" is meant "an
inference in physics."

1. 14. a position, a maxim. When a man is half good and half
bad, the attractiveness of his good qualities blinds us to the danger
of being infected by his vices.

1. 19. aspersion, a sprinkling, i.e., an intermixture. See on p.
25, 1. 17.

1. 26. pensileness, the fact that the earth is suspended. Milton
talks of "the pendulous round earth."

1. 27. the finiteness, etc. , because it is said that our Universe
is suspended in empty space.

1. 28. touched, see p. 42, 1. 5.

Page 44, 1. 3. he takes knowledge of, he recognises.

1. 14. so forwards, so forth : so on.

42-45.] NOTES. tt25

Vl>

1. 17. both in Solomon's petition, etc., "The Lord appeared to
Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall
give thee. And Solomon said ... Give thy servant an under
standing heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between
good and bad ... And the speech pleased the Lord. ... And God
said unto him . . . Lo ! I have given thee a wise and understanding
heart. " — History of the Jewish Kings, i. iii, 5.

1. 20. donative, a gift.

1. 21. parables, "And Solomon spake three thousand proverbs
... And he spake of trees from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon
even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall : he spoke
also of beasts and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. "
— Ibid. i. iv. 33.

1. 23. verdure, trees and vegetables.

1. 24. a rudiment, something undeveloped. Elsewhere Bacon
calls rudiments 'participles,' i.e. partakers of two kinds. He
defines them as "things, the appearance of which is such, that
they seem to be made up of two species or to be ' rudiments '
between one species and another." According to Fowler, moss
is incorrectly described as a rudiment. He mentions as instances
of 'rudiments,' in the animal world, the order Dipnoi, which
have affinities to fishes in one set of organs, and to amphibia in
another.

1. 28. of service and attendance, i.e., of servants to wait upon
him.

1. 30. inquisition, cf. p. 5, 1. 29. The inquirer trying
cover the secrets of nature, is represented as playing a game
hide and seek with the author of nature.

1. 36. the great commandment of wits and means, i.e., con
sidering that a king can command the assistance of so many
men's brains, and has such large resources at his disposal. The
student should observe the truth, which Bacon so often insists

on, that ^JgjjjjJLJ£fia.JintL.-re^al^ He

who would learn the truth must patiently ' interrogate nature, '
and cross-examine her, as a lawyer does a witness.

Page 45, 1. 4, for our Saviour, etc. , when Christ was only twelve
years old, his parents "found him in the temple, sitting in the
midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them ques
tions. And all that heard him were astonished at his under
standing and answers." — Luke, ii. 46.

1. 7. to subdue nature, a miracle is a suspension of the ordinary
course of nature by God.

1. 8. the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Christian Trinity.
The disciples of Christ are said to have been visited by the
Spirit, and his presence was revealed to them by their suddenly

to dis-J
;ame of I

126 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

being endowed with the power of speaking the languages of all
those to whom they wished to preach Christianity.

1. 12. for the plantation of the faith, i.e., to disseminate the
doctrines of Christianity.

1. 13. altogether unlearned, the immediate followers of Christ
and first preachers of Christianity possessed no knowledge except
such as was miraculously given them by God, ' by inspiration. '
They belonged, mostly, to the lowest classes : some of them being
common fishermen. Their natural ignorance, says Bacon, dis
played all the more clearly that they were under the direct
influence, ' immediate working, ' of God.

1. 16. counsel, intention.

1. 17. in the next vicissitude and succession, in the times
immediately following.

1. 20. who was the only learned, i.e., who alone, among the

postles, was learned. Bacon's argument is that learning must
be a good thing, otherwise God would not have employed it in
the service of religion.

1. 21. had his pen most used in, wrote the greater part of.
the New Testament, the Christian, as opposed to the Jewish,
Scriptures.

1. 24. fathers, the word is used of those priests of the church
whose writings have been accepted as authoritative on points of
doctrine.

1. 26. interdicted, forbidden. The Emperor Julian, who wished
to destroy Christianity and to restore the early religion of Rome,
issued an edict, A. D. 363, forbidding Christian professors to teach.
This indirectly forbade Christians to learn, since they could not
conscientiously attend the schools of Pagan teachers. — Gibbon,
ch. xxiii.

1. 31. emulation and jealousy, i.e., his zeal for Christianity, and
his hatred of anything that might prove a dangerous rival to it.
See below, p. 50.

1. 32. the opinion, the reputation.

1. 34. humour, caprice.

1. 35. in that, because. Gregory the First, commonly called
'the Great,' was Pope from A.D. 590-604. "It is commonly
believed that Pope Gregory the First attacked the temples and
mutilated the statues of the city : that by the command of the
barbarian the Palatine Library was reduced to ashes, and that
the history of Livy was the peculiar mark of his absurd and
mischievous fanaticism. The writings of Gregory himself reveal
his implacable aversion to the monuments of classic genius, and
he points his severest censure against the profane learning of a
bishop who studied the Latin poets, and pronounced with the

45-47.] NOTES. (127

same voice the praises of Jupiter and those of Christ. But the
evidence of his destructive rage is doubtful and recent." —
Gibbon, ch. xlv.

Page 46, 1. 2. the Scythians, the Scythians in Europe inhabited
the tract of country stretching from the Danube to the Crimea
and Mount Caucasus. They appeared on the boundaries of the
Roman Empire, A.D. 375. But the name is vaguely applied to a
great number of barbarian tribes.

1. 3. the Saracens, this name is applied to the tribes who
dwelt between Mecca and the Euphrates. In the seventh century
they conquered Persia, Syria, and Africa ; and in the eighth
century they conquered Spain.

1. 4. thereof, viz. , of the church.

1. 13. a renovation and new spring, etc. Bacon alludes to the
Renaissance, or Revival of Learning. As a matter of fact the
Reformation was due to the spirit of inquiry generated, and the
new ideas which were everywhere disseminated by the New
Learning.

1. 14. partly in themselves, etc., i.e., partly by what they did
themselves, and partly by what their example induced others to
do. Cf. p. 19, 1. 25.

1. 16. quickened, given life to.

1. 18. reparation, restoration. Bacon means that the Jesuits
have increased the power of the Papacy, the Roman see, i.e.,
the Papacy. " A see " is the district over which the authority
of a Bishop extends. The see of the Pope, of course, includes
all parts of the world in which there are any Catholics.

1. 24. the Psalms, a book of hymns forming part of the Jewish
Scriptures.

1. 29. construe of, form an opinion of. Our admiration of
God's power will be greater in proportion as we go beneath the
surface of things, and penetrate into the hidden workings of
nature.

1. 34. if we will, if we wish to be.

1. 36. the creatures, p. 29, 1. 16. expressing, showing. In j
Bk. 2, pp. 35-6, Bacon says that natural theology can prove the I
existence, power, providence, and wisdom of God, but that his /
nature can only be learnt from the Bible, the contents of which |
are to be taken on faith.

Page 47, 1. 1. not only opening, etc., i.e., study strengthens the
intellectual faculties, and so helps us to understand the Scrip
tures : and it predisposes us to belief by the evidence which it
brings to light of God's power.

1. 6. signed, stamped.

128 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

Pages 47-61. Passing from the Bible and Ecclesiastical
history, Bacon now proceeds to give certain proofs of the value
of learning drawn from history Innumerable proofs might be
given ; it is impossible here to do more than select a few of
them.

Of all the honours which men have bestowed upon their more
famous fellow-men, the highest honour of nll} that, of fJp.>'fr.n.tir>>n^
has been conferred on those who by their labours and inventions
have added to the stock of human comforts.

Learning, like an Orpheus' lute, tames the evil passions, and
renders social life possible.

have bp™ *p prosperous aft fhn^. luhic.h l^are.

directed by ynvernnrs Jp.arned in. the. p>riw'p7os nf <mnrgljty

qnie statesmanship. This fact is illustrated by the history of the
Roman people under the learned successors of Domitian — Jjerva,
who showed that the maintenance of the authority^ f7ie lavfims
not incompatible with the liberty of the subject ; Trajan, who
combined patronage of learning with virtue and gooagovern-
ment ; the inquiring Adrian, who gave peace to the Church, and
traversed the Empire, redressing wrongs and improving the
condition of his people ; the pure and studious Antoninus, who
was almost a Christian ; the philosophic Marcus Aurelius, that
perfect ruler in whom envy itself could detect no fault. In
modern times, to say nothing of James himself, Queen Elizabeth
was at the same time the most learned of women and the most+S
successful of sovereigns.

Nor is learning less conducive to success in war, than to success
in the arts of peace. Alexander^was equally great as a soldier
and as a philosopher. He understood the true value of worldly
goods, the weaknesses of man, the worthlessness of flattery, and
^.J\ the uses and abuses of argument. He was skilled in the use of
'-. rhetoric. He was a keen judge of character, and could truly
estimate the resources which ambition has to rely upon. .^Julius.
C^esar^was a great general, but he was also a great scholar. He
was a9 good writer, and a master of style. He reformed the
Calendar. He was not afraid to enter the lists against the most
learned disputants. Though a sayer of wise things himself, he
was not above studying the wisdom of others. By a single word
he suppressed a mutiny ; he knew how to relieve himself from an
embarrassing situation by a happy speech, and in a pithy saying
he could give expression to the most opposite feelings. He was
conscious of his superiority, and knew how to turn this conscious
ness to his own advantage. Xenophon the philosopher also
performed one of the greatest military feats that history records,

47-48.] NOTES. 129

1. 9. it is so large, etc., i.e., the evidence afforded by history
is so vast.

1. 10. to use choice, etc., i.e., it is more convenient to select a
few than to include them all.

1. 13. human honour, honour which man could confer upon
man.

1. 15. as the forbidden fruit, referring to the story of Adam's
temptation. Cf. —

" Of man's first disobedience and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woes," etc.

Paradise Lost, 1. 1.
Christians are not allowed to worship any man as God.

1. 20. as it was used among, as it was the custom to give it to
the Roman Emperors. Divine honours were regularly decreed
to the Emperors, generally during their lifetime, by the Senate.

1. 21. by an inward assent, i.e., voluntarily, or by tacit con
sent. The honour was all the greater, when it was granted by
the people spontaneously.

1. 22. a degree or middle term, i.e., there were three degrees of
honour — deification was the highest, and honour granted during
a man's lifetime, or human honour, the lowest ; between these
two extremes came the honour of being made a demi-god — which
Bacon calls ' honour heroical. '

1. 26. extirpers, extirpators.

1. 27. fathers of the people, a title given at Rome to those who
delivered their country in times of danger. Cicero, after defeat
ing the conspiracy of Catiline, was styled 'the father of his
country.' This is an instance of ' human honour.'

eminent persons in civil merit, men who had rendered
conspicuous services to their country.

1. 28. worthies, i.e., heroes, or demi-gods.

1. 29. Hercules, p. 28, 1. 17. He freed Greece from a number
of monsters which infested the country, and destroyed both life
and property. Theseus, Minos, and Romulus were the legendary
founders of the Athenian, Cretan, and Roman states.

1. 33. Ceres, Bacchus, Mercury, and Apollo were the givers of
corn, wine, speech, and music.

Page 48, 1. 2. a latitude of ground where, the extent of ground
on which.

1. 6. Divine Presence, referring to a story of God visiting the
Jewish prophet Elijah, and making his presence known 'by a
slight breath of air.'

130 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

1. 9. which grow from man to man, which men inflict on one
another before they are softened and civilized by learning.

1. 11. lively, vividly. It is properly an adjective. When the
adjective already ends in ly it is often used as an adverb too.

1. 12. Orpheus, the wonderful musician who, by the magic of
his lyre, is said to have made even the trees of the forest follow
him.

1. 14. game, playfulness.

1. 15. airs and accords, tunes and harmonies. We still use the
word ' air ' in this sense.

1. 21. sweetly touched with, i.e., made pleasant to the ear by.
The metaphor is from ' touching ' the strings of a harp. Elo
quence will charm man, as music charmed the brutes.

1. 23. instruments, viz., eloquence and persuasion of books,
etc. , but the metaphor from music is still kept up ; for we talk of
a musical * instrument,' to express anything from which musical
sounds are produced.

1. 24. that, see note on p. 10, 1. 1.

1.28. popular estates, republics. With this paragraph, cf. p. 11.

1. 30. Then should people, etc. This saying is taken from
Plato's Republic. See p. 20, 1. 33.

1. 35. customs, the Latin translation adds 'like other men.'
illuminate, see on p. 16, 1. 15.

Page 49, 1. 1. refrain them, we now use the word 'refrain' in
transitively.

1. 2. peremptory, irremediable : or the word may be used in
its literal sense of destructive. With this passage, cf. Essay xx.
"It was truly said, The dead are the best councillors : books will
speak plain, when councillors blanch (are afraid). Therefore it
is good to be conversant in them : specially the books of such, as
themselves have been actors upon the stage."

1. 6. men of experience, mere empirics. Cf. "which are only
men of practice," p. 11, 1. 26.

1. 8. near hand, an adverbial phrase. It means near, or close
at hand.

1. 9. agility, we still speak of a 'quick,' i.e., a ready wit. to
ward, we say to ward off: i.e., to keep off: to parry.

1. 12. the age which passed, etc., from A.IX 96 to 180.

1. 16. for temporal respects, for temporal considerations. The
Latin translation has, ' If we look only to temporal prosperity.'
' Temporal ' is opposed to spiritual.

1. 17. which was a model of the world, which may be taken to
represent the whole world, since it nearly included it.

48-50.] NOTES. 131

1. 21. which came to pass, i.e., which dream was fulfilled.

1. 24. vulgar, known to all.

1. 25. infolded, condensed : literally, ' wrapped up,' so as to
occupy little space.

1. 27. and Apollo, etc., this line of Horace has passed into a
proverb meaning that 'every one relaxes occasionally.' Cf.
' Ease and relaxation are profitable to all studies. The mind is
like a bow, the stronger by being unbent." (Ben Jonson.)

1. 28. naked, cf. our use of the word ' bare,' in the phrases a
'bare assertion,' and 'barely to mention,' i.e., without any com
ment.

1. 30. a glance, a single remark. A glance is a rapid look.

1. 36. proceeding upon, caused by.

Page 50, 1. 4. 0 Phrebus, etc. Nerva asks his son, under the
name of Phoebus, to avenge his father's wrongs. The line is taken
from Homer, who describes the priest Chryses as calling upon
his patron god Apollo to avenge the wrong which he had suffered
in the abduction of his daughter by Agamemnon.

1. 5. was for his person not learned, was not himself a learned
man.

1. 7. in the name of a prophet, i.e., because he is a prophet :
out of respect for his sacred character. Trajan did honour to
learned men out of respect for their learning, and therefore
should be honoured equally with the learned, on the principle
that he that receiveth a prophet, etc.

1. 13. who were noted, In the Latin Bacon adds that this was
the more remarkable because he was a warlike emperor.

1. 17. legend, used as an adj. , legendary. Gregorius Magnus,
p. 45, 1. 31.

1. 19. the love, we should say ' his love.'

1. 22. out of hell, the Catholic Church excluded non-Christians
from heaven, a caveat, a warning. For the legend, cf. Dante,
Purg. 10. 73, Paradiso, 20. 106.

1. 24. the persecutions, see Gibbon, ch. xvi. Pliny was governor
of Bithynia, and asked Trajan's advice as to how the Christians
were to be dealt with.

1. 26. advanced, promoted.

1. 27. curious, inquiring. The word now means either ' in
quisitive' or 'strange.' Gibbon, ch. 1, says of Hadrian, "that
his life was almost a perpetual journey : and as he possessed the
various talents of the soldier, the statesman, and the scholar, he
gratified his curiosity in the discharge of his duty . . . nor was
there a province of the empire which, in the course of his reign,
was not honoured with the presence of the monarch. "

132 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

1. 28. it was noted for an error, etc. In the eleventh Essay,
Bacon gives the following piece of advice to men in great place —
" Preserve the rights of inferior places : and think it more honour
to direct in chief than to be busy in all." to comprehend, to take
into his own hands.

1. 32. Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great.

over-rule and put down, to contradict and silence : to
prove him to be in the wrong. Cf. The Interpretation of Mature.
" Sir (saith a man of art to Philip, king of Macedon, when he
controlled him in his faculty), God forbid your fortune should be
such as to know these things better than I. In taxing his ignorance
in his art he represented to him the perpetual greatness of his
fortune, leaving him no vacant time for so mean a skill." For
the expression would needs, cf. p. 24, 1. 6.

Page 51, 1.1. an inducement to, a means of furthering.

1. 4. matched with ApoUonius, placed side by side with that of
Apollonius. Apollonius of Tyana in Cappadocia, who lived in
the first century A.D., was a diviner and a reputed worker of
miracles. It is said that it was not Hadrian, but Alexander
Severus, who matched the picture of Christ with that of
Apollonius, and who actually built a temple in honour of Christ.
Hadrian, however, had a feeling of respect both for Christ and
for Apollonius. — E.

1. 6. it served, the construction is irregular. * It ' means the
admiration of the Emperor for Christ.

1. 8. civil, opposed to ecclesiastical.

1. 10. weal, welfare.

1. 19. re-edifying, used in its literal sense of 're-building.'
The verb 'to edify' now means 'to instruct,' or 'to improve a
man's character.'

1. 21. passages, roads, policying, regulating.

1. 22. commonalties, corporations.

1. 23. granting new franchises and incorporations, investing
new cities with municipal independence.

1. 27. subtle wit of a schoolman, see p. 29.

1. 29. untaxed, uncensured. Cymini sector, cf. Essay 1. "If
his wit be not apt to distinguish, or find differences, let him study
the Schoolmen : for they are cymini sectores." We now talk of
' hair-splitting.'

1. 31. settled spirit, determination.

1. 33. which ... entire, observe the irregular construction. The
subject properly is mind, but the sentence beginning ' but having'
is applicable only to Antoninus.

1. 36. all, for any : a Latinism.

50-52.] NOTES. 133

Page 52, 1. 1. present and entire, ready and undistracted.

1. 3. as Agrippa said, the Christian Paul was brought for
trial before the Roman governor Agrippa, who, on hearing the
prisoner's defence, said to him, "Almost thou persuadest me to
be a Christian."

1. 7. The first divine brothers, for an explanation of ' divine,''
see on p. 47, 1. 20. It was customary for a Roman emperor to
associate some colleague with him in the government, who re
ceived the title of Caesar. Marcus Aurelius took for his colleague
L. Commodus Verus, who was, like himself, an adopted son of
Antoninus Pius. This was the first time fhat the Emperor and
the Caesar had been brothers. Bacon's estimate of the virtues of
the Antonines is a true one : and his opinion of the prosperity of
the Roman world during the period under discussion is confirmed
by Gibbon, who says, " If a man were called to fix the period in
the history of the world, during which the condition of the
human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without
hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian
to the accession of Commodus. The vast extent of the Roman
world was governed by absolute power, under the guidance of
virtue and wisdom. The labours of these monarchs were over
paid .... by the exquisite delight of beholding the general
happiness of which they were the authors." — Ch. 3.

1. 15. Julianus, p. 45, 1. 26. For an account of his book, see
Gibbon, ch. 24.

1. 16. pasquin, a satire. The word originally signified a cer
tain post in Rome to which libels and defamatory verses were
affixed. -W.

1. 19. nether, lower.

1. 20. Marcus Philosophus, Marcus Aurelius, named the philoso
pher. He was a strict disciple of the Stoic School. He has left
a volume of Meditations, for an account of which see Matthew
Arnold's Essays in Criticism.

1. 21. gravelled, puzzled, out of countenance, taken back.
Silenus was a drunken companion of the god of wine.

1. 23. he gave a glance at, he hinted at, cf. p. 49, 1. 30. his
wife, see on p. 24, 1. 11.

1. 24. continued with, succeeding to.

1. 30. Let the name, etc. The name Augustus was originally a
personal title, assumed by the first emperor : but it was after
wards adopted as an official title by all his successors. The
Senate wished to commemorate the virtues of Antoninus by
making his name one of the permanent imperial titles.

1. 34. addition, title, style, official designation.

1. 35. the Church, it appears on the contrary that the Christians

134 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

suffered somewhat severely under the reign of Marcus. See
Gibbon, ch. 16.

Page 53, 1. 1. table, picture. The Latin word 'tabula' is used
in this sense. Of. tablet, in 1. 3. With painted forth, cf. painted
out, p. 13, 1. 27.

1. 3. volume, size. The word means properly 'any thing rolled
up' : hence it signifies properly 'a book,' since books were at first
scrolls of parchment, rolled round a stick.

1. 7. Plutarch, a Greek writer born A. D. 40, wrote biographies
in pairs : he selected.some eminent Greek and Roman, gave an
account of each, and ended with a comparison of the two.

1. 9. endued with learning", for the extent of the learning of
women in the sixteenth century, see Macaulay's Essay on Bacon.

1. 12. humanity, secular learning.

1. 18. the season, the time.

1. 19. regiment, government, of, we should now say 'on.'

1. 22. the prerogative, this word describes such powers as the
sovereign can exercise without asking the sanction of Parliament.

1. 23. sortable, suitable.

1. 24. estate, condition. Bacon" means to say that wealth was
equally distributed.

1. 26. moderation, controlling, quieting.

1. 29. of herself, by herself, i.e. unmarried.

1. 36. civil, opposed to military. We still use the word
' civilian' of all who are not soldiers, temperature, cf. p. 20, 1. 1.

Page 54, 1. 2. enablement, qualifying men for.

1. 7. note, account, having been, because they have been.

1. 8. affections towards, their love of and zeal for learning.

1. 12. attended with, we should say 'by.' Callisthenes was a
nephew of Aristotle. He is said to have composed an account
of Alexander's exploits.

1. 17. Achilles, the hero of the Iliad, the poem in which Homer
has described the Trojan wa-r.

1. 19. cabinet, a box used for keeping jewels or other valuables
in.

1. 23. set forth, published his treatise on physics. Cf. Alex
ander gained from Aristotle not only moral and political know
ledge, but was also instructed in those more secret and profound
branches of science, which they call acroamatic and epoptic, and
which they did not communicate to every common scholar. For
when Alexander was in Asia, and received information that
Aristotle had published some books, in which those points were
discussed, he wrote him a letter in behalf of philosophy, in which

52-56.] NOTES. 135

he blamed the course he had taken. The following is a copy
of it:

' ' Alexander to Aristotle, prosperity. You did wrong in
publishing the acroamatic parts of science. In what shall we
differ from others, if the sublimer knowledge which we gained
from you be made common to all the world ? For my part, I
had rather excel the bulk of mankind in the superior parts of
learning than in the extent of power and dominion. Farewell."
Plutarch, Life of Alexander, c. 7. Langhorne's Translation.

1. 27. what use lie had of learning, to what extent he had pro
fited by learning. The Latin translation has * How well he had
cultivated his mind by learning. '

1. 29. use of science, application of knowledge.

1. 31. scholastics!, pedantic.

Page 55, 1. 4. Diogenes, see on p. 24, 1. 9. He is the type of
those who despise fortune : and Alexander thought, that next to
himself, Diogenes was the happiest man in the world. Seneca,
on the other hand, thought that the lot of Diogenes was a happier
one than that of Alexander, state, determination, solution.
The question is whether it is better to be able to supply all our
wants, or to have no wants.

1. 16. out of the depth, etc., the Latin translation adds, ' since
deficiency and superfluity, which are expressed by weariness and
intemperance, are, as it were, earnests of mortality. '

1. 17. liker, more likely.

1. 18. Democritus, p. 34, 1. 3.

1. 19. of humanity, etc., showing a knowledge of human nature
and of poetry.

1. 22. this is very blood, the liquid which ran in the veins of
the gods was called ichor. Alexander said, " It is mere flattery
to call me a god ; I do not bleed ichor, when I am wounded."

1. 25. logic, i.e., subtlety in argument. In the Latin transla
tion it is, ' skill in turning an objector's arguments against
himself.'

1. 30. that was the matter, that is just what has encouraged
them to come. They know that, so far away from home, there
will be no one to contradict their assertions.

1. 36. to, we should say ' against.'

Page 56, 1. 2. moved, proposed.

1. 5. purpose, plan. The word means literally * something
proposed ' : Lat. propositum.

1. 7. with so good manner as, in such a good manner that.

1. 10. turn your style, speak on the opposite side. The ' style '
was the instrument with which the Romans wrote on wax. One

136 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

end of it was sharp ; the other end, which was flat, was used for
erasing what had been written. So * to turn the style ' meant in
Latin ' to erase.'

1. 12. with that sting, with such bitterness.

1. 14. despite, spite. Alexander showed by this answer that
he too could ' take a matter both ways.' He thought that Callis-
thenes could find nothing to say against the Macedonians : when
he found that he could, he accounted for it by saying ' that spite
gave him eloquence.'

1. 15. tropes, figures.

1. 16. translation, this word is the exact Latin equivalent of
the Greek word ' metaphor.' Both words mean a ' transference.'
A metaphor is ' a transference ' of a word from its original to a
figurative sense. ' A translation,' in the sense in which we
ordinarily use the word, is ' a transference ' of meaning from one
language to another, taxed, censured. Cf. untaxed, p. 51, 1. 29.

1. 19. that he did not, in not degenerating.

1. 22. is all purple within, is full of proud thoughts. Purple,
in the East, was the colour of the Imperial robes. We still talk
of a member of a Royal family as ' born in the purple.' Antipater
was not praised for keeping to the Macedonian dress, but gener
ally for the severity of his way of life. Bacon was probably mis
led by Erasmus, who took the story from Plutarch without
understanding it. Alexander compared Antipater to a white-
striped garment, which on the inside, the stripe being an external
appendage, showed no trace of white, but was purple throughout.
Erasmus confounded the name of the garment with the Greek
word for white, and apparently supposed the remark to refer to
Antipater's dress. — E.

1. 23. Arbela, a city near the Tigris, near which Alexander
defeated the Persian King Darius, B.C. 330.

1. 26. as it had been, like. Owing to the number of camp-fires
they appeared as it were a second starry firmament.

1. 30. embraced, assented to.

1. 34. their crown, i.e., their office. Some men love a king as
a personal friend ; others love the institution of monarchy,
though they have no personal regard for the reigning king.

1. 36. taxation, censure. The point of Alexander's reply is,
that conduct, which may be perfectly becoming in a subject,
may be beneath the dignity of a king.

Page 57, 1. 2. model, measure.

1. 9. hope, the story is told inaccurately. When Alexander
was asked what he kept for himself, he replied not " hope," but
"what I hope for," i.e., all the wealth which I expect to get by
my conquests. — E.

56-58.] NOTES. 137

1. 12. his estate, etc., he having spent all his own property in
making presents to his soldiers.

1. 14. transported with, carried away by.

1. 16. he had turned all his estate into obligations, he had
spent all his money in securing friends. ' Obligations,1 used in its
literal sense of ' binding ' people to him by his liberality. He
was a usurer, because he expected to get interest on his money,
in the shape of services from those who had received it. Henry,
Duke of Guise, was uncle to Mary Queen of Scots.

1. 21. the prints and footsteps, the signs.

1. 23. not as Alexander, etc., i.e., not as a powerful conqueror,
but as a student.

1. 26. argued, inferred, company, companions. Cf. the com
mon saying " A man is known by his friends."

1. 28. permanent, equivalent to ' extant. '

1. 33. real passages, vivid descriptions ; by ' real ' is meant
1 true to the life.'

Page 58, 1. 5. congruity of speech, fitness of speech ; i.e., the
use of words appropriate to describe the things intended. In the
Latin translation the passage stands thus : ' Wherein he did
labour to make conventional speech to become correct speech :
he wished to substitute an appropriate and correct habit of
speech for careless speech, and to make words, which are the
images of things, suit the things themselves, instead of obeying
simply the will of the multitude.'

Words are ' the pictures ' of things, because they are the sym
bols by which we represent things. Caesar employed such words
as the exercise of his reason told him were true pictures of what
he wished to express.

It appears, then, that the object of the book was to remove the
errors of vulgar language, and to show that the language of a
people may be specially adapted to a clear and appropriate expres
sion of ideas. We cannot however speak with any certainty
about the book. Bacon calls it here ' a philosophy of grammar ' ;
elsewhere he speaks of it as a mere collection of precepts for
speaking correctly.

1. 7. of his power, Caesar completed the regulation of the calen
dar, and corrected the erroneous computation of time, agreeably
to a plan which he had ingeniously contrived, and which proved
of the greatest utility .... Yet this useful invention furnished
matter of ridicule to the envious, and to those who could but ill
brook his power. For Cicero (if I mistake not), when some one
happened to say "Lyra will rise to-morrow," answered, "Un
doubtedly, there is an edict for it " : as if the calendar was forced
upon them as well as other things. (Plutarch.)

138 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

1. 9. expressing, showing. Caesar found that the old calendar
had anticipated the true time by sixty-seven whole days.

1. 12. Caesar's Anti-Cato was a reply to a panegyric which Cicero
had written on Cato the chief of the republican party, and there
fore an opponent of Caesar. See p. 13, 1. 32.

1. 18. to make himself but a pair of tables, to turn himself into
a pair of tablets, i.e., to record. The tablets were the slips of
wood covered with wax, on which the Romans wrote. They
were folded, and the writing was preserved by the tablets having
projecting rims.

1. 21. as princes pretend, which is the object of vain princes.
For this use of pretend, cf . p. 33, 1. 4.

1. 28. delectable, pleasing.

1. 30. it is reason he be thought, it is reasonable to consider
him.

1. 36. cashiered, discharged. We apply the word now to an
officer dismissed from the army with disgrace, not that they so
meant, etc., i.e., not really wishing to be discharged, but hoping
that, by demanding their discharge, they would induce Caesar to
come to terms. ' Expostulation ' is no longer used in the literal
sense of ' demand. '

Page 59, 1. 7. made it their suit, requested.

L 9. did extremely affect, was very desirous of obtaining.

1. 12. poor, uttered only by a few.

1. 20. of great allurement toward, well calculated to bring
about.

1. 22. but for a name, the Latin translation adds—'* for he had
long been possessed of the power of a king." whereof mean
families were vested, the name King was borne by people of
obscure birth.

1. 26. after war declared, after he had declared war against
Pompey and the Senatorial party. The issue of this war was
that Caesar obtained supreme power in Rome. The idiom is
a Latin one.

1. 28. accumulate, see on p. 16, 1. 15.

1. 29. whereto, to which : viz., the prohibition of Metellus.

1. 31. taking himself up, checking himself.

1. 34. terror, used of the fear inspired, and not, as usually,- of
the fear felt.

1. 36. conclude with him, finish my remarks about him.
Page 60, 1. 1. took it upon him, assumed.
1. 3. spake, we should use said.

Lucius Sylla was elected perpetual dictator B.C. 82, but

58-61.] NOTES. 139

resigned power B.C. 79. With this passage cf. the 15th Essay :
" I have noted that some witty and sharp speeches, which have
fallen from princes, have given fire to seditions. Csesar did him
self infinite hurt in that speech : Sylla knew nothing of letters, and
therefore could not dictate : for it did utterly cut off that hope,
which men had entertained, that he would at one time or other
give over his dictatorship." There is a play on the double mean
ing of dictate, which means both to read out and to wield the
power of a dictator. The word to skill in the sense of to under
stand occurs also in the English Bible.

1. 11. particular, instance.

1. 12. as that which, in this respect that it, etc. It explains
' ' rareness of circumstance. "

1. 13. Xenophon, B.C. 401, the younger Cyrus raised an army,
largely composed of Greeks, with a view of dethroning his
brother Artaxerxes, king of Persia. Cyrus was defeated and
killed at Cunaxa, near Babylon. The Greek generals were
inveigled into a conference by Artaxerxes, and murdered : and
Xenophon led the Greek army home. The remark which
Bacon attributes below to Xenophon was not really made by
him.

1. 17. seen the wars, had any experience of war. We still
speak of "seeing service."

1. 18. a voluntary, a volunteer.

1. 19. conversation, society.

1. 20. in message, as the bearer of a message. The great king,
this title was generally given to the king of Persia. The Greeks
often called him simply "The king."

1. 21. after that, see on p. 10, 1. 1, cf. p. 61, 1. 35.

1. 24. The message imported, the purport of the message was.

1. 30. virtue, courage. The word properly signifies "manly
worth."

1. 35. abused, deceived.

Page 61, 1. 4. high countries, the inland districts — those far
away from the sea.

1. 8. Jason of Pherae had intended to invade Persia, but
was assassinated before he had put his plan into execution, B.C.
370.

1. 9. Agesilaus, the Spartan, ravaged the western satrapies of
Persia, B.C. 396, but, before he had accomplished much, was
recalled home.

Alexander the Macedonian, Alexander the Great.

1. 10. upon the ground of, we should now say, " on the strength

140 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

o/" The meaning is, that these three men were all incited by
the example of Xenophon.

Pages 61 to end. Bacon now proceeds to demonstrate the
pood effects of knowledge upon the character of the indivi-
duaL J^earning refines and softens the character^ It produces
cautiousness in judgment. It removes the fear of death and
poverty. It provides a remedy for all morbid states of mind.
JJ^iricites men to continual, self-improvement. Knowledge and
goodness go together.. Knowledge, too, is power ; and it is
power of the highest hind, for the dignity of power is propor
tioned to the dignity of that over which it is exercised, . and the
power which is given by knowledge is power w#r the <mj<nr1.<t nf
men._ The possession of learning is a means of livelihood ; and
as for pleasure, intellectual pleasures are the highest of all
pleasures, for they alone never pall. Lastly, all men are
anxious to leave behind some memorials of themselves in the
world; and what memorials are more lasting than books?
Books, too, are the only mp.'m.nrials wMrA arc, not barren. It is
worthy of notice that even materialistic philosophers have allowed
immortality ^ to the mind. Bacon concludes by saying that he is
fully conscious that his arguments will not suffice to give to
learning the first place in the estimation of the vulgar .' still,
notwithstanding popular prejudices, he is certain that the

pn*xeiun.fvn. nf l"n.™nJpAfjt> tmll ahnaaf* 7)i its mm, justification.

1. 12. imperial and military virtue, proficiency in the arts of
government and war.

1. 13. to moral, etc., to consider the influence of learning upon
the character and conduct of individuals.
1. 24. acquainting, accustoming.

1. 25. the first offers, the ideas which first present themselves.
conceits, ideas.

1. 26. nothing but examined, nothing but what has been ex
amined. It is a Latin idiom. With this passage, cf. Pope's
Essay on Criticism, v. 215.

"A little learning is a dangerous thing ;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again."
1. 29. For, as regards.

1. 30. wadeth, "to wade" is properly to walk in water. " To
wade thoroughly .in learning" is "to study deeply."

1. 32. There is nothing, etc., "There is no new thing under the
sun." Ecd. i. 9. Bacon quotes from memory. Neither can, etc.,

60-62.] NOTES. HI

this is given as an illustration of the remark just made. The
dancing of dolls is a type of the things which excite the wonder
of the vulgar, but which appear simple enough to those who
know the means by which they are effected.

1. 34. adviseth, informs himself about. The Latin translation
explains the meaning : " No one will be much astonished at the
play of puppets, who puts his head behind the curtain, and
sees the contrivances and the threads by which the puppets
are moved."

Page 62, 1. 3. services, battles. We talk of a soldier "going on
service," and "seeing service." for a passage, viz., over a
river.

1. 5. advertised, informed.

1. 6. went of, told of. We still say — ' So the story went ' or
' So the story ran. '

1. 8. the divineness of souls except, the immortality of the soul
can never be regarded as a trifling subject. Except, for excepted:
the past participle.

1. 9. whereas, where. As and that were added probably to
give a relative meaning to the originally interrogative adverb
where. Abbott, Sh. Gr., § 135.

1. 11. to and fro, used here as a preposition. It is generally
used adverbially, signifying 'backwards and forwards.' 'Fro'
is the same as 'from.'

1. 13. impediments of virtue", etc., because men do what is
wrong or abstain from doing what is right for fear of suffering
death or misfortune, manners, character.

1. 23. Yesterday, Epictetus means that the death of a man is
as natural as the breaking of a clay vessel. In the 2nd Essay,
Bacon says — " The fear of death, as a tribute due unto nature,
is weak. " Epictetus was a Stoic, born at Hierapolis in Phrygia
about 50 A.D.

1. 21. Virgil, Georg. 2. 490. Virgil was perhaps thinking of
Lucretius.

1. 32. the particular remedies, cf. Essay 1. , " Nay there is no
stond (hindrance) or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought
out by fit studies, like as diseases of the body may have appro
priate exercises ... every defect of the mind may have a special
receipt. " Observe that the diseases of the mind are expressed in
terms which properly denote bodily diseases. Learning at one
time removes morbid affections of the mind : sometimes remedies
defects (see Bk. 2, p. 49) : sometimes enables the mind to digest
knowledge : sometimes makes it hungry for more knowledge :
sometimes heals the scars that have been left by passion or

142 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

Page 63, 1. 4. thereof, i.e. in its own defects. Cf. p. 46, 1. 4.
still, always.

1. 6. to descend into himself, to examine himself.

1. 8. that most pleasant life, etc., Bacon gives the words as a
quotation. Ellis points out that the idea is taken from Xeno-
phon's Memorabilia, 1. 6. Cf.—

" And as, by feeling greater delectation,
A man in doing good from day to day
Becomes aware his virtue is increasing," etc.

Dante, Par. xviii. 58.

1. 9. the good parts he hath, any virtues that he possesses.

1. 12. to colour, to excuse, or give a specious appearance to.
The word is frequently used in the general sense of ' to make a
thing appear what it is not.'

1. 13. that mows on still, who goes on mowing. For ' still,'
cf. p. 36, 1. 6.

1. 19. print, i.e. the impression made by the seal. Goodness
is to knowledge, as an impression is to the seal : it is knowledge
which makes men good.

they be, etc., the Latin translation has — " While, on the
other hand, the storms of vice burst forth from the clouds of
error." Bacon means to say that, just as knowledge produces
goodness, so error or ignorance produces vice. What Bacon says
here is partly, though not altogether, true. In virtue there is
both an intellectual and a moral element — the perception of what
is right, and the will to do it. Men do sometimes deliberately
what they know to be wrong : but vicious actions may, perhaps,
more often be attributed either to ignorance of what is right, or
to a want of self-control. Cf. Essay xxxviii.

1. 25. commandment, authority.

1. 27. herdmen, herdsmen.

1. 30. galley-slaves, ships called galleys were manned with
condemned criminals.

1. 32. generosity, the noble feelings. We use the word now in
the special sense of ' liberality.' It means properly ' noble birth,'
and so came to signify generally ' nobility.' In the Latin trans
lation, it is 'a servile people.'

1. 33. free monarchies, those in which the authority of the
ruler is submitted to voluntarily.

Page 64, 1. 1. putteth himself forth, strives his utmost.

1. 12. giveth law to the will itself, i.e. except when we are
carried away by passion, our volitions are determined by our
perceptions of what is reasonable. The only reason why we
submit our judgment to others is that we believe them to be
better informed than ourselves. If they really are so, then our

63-65.] NOTES. 143

submission is wise, and is an honour to them. But it is a device
of the Evil One to lead us into sin, to make us venerate impostors
as if they were wise.

1. 19. have a superiority in the faith and conscience, control
men's beliefs, and determine their ideas of right and wrong.

1. 20. great, qualifies ' pleasure,' in 1. 17.

1. 23. revelation, the name of the last book of the Christian
Scriptures.

1. 30. as, that. Learning is not so liberal to states, that it
has nothing left for individuals.

Page 65, 1. 1. descent, hereditary right, carried away, ob
tained. The traditional authority of the Brahman caste is a good
illustration of Bacon's remark.

1. G. so exceed... as much as, i.e., exceed as much as. The
superiority of a victory to a dinner is the measure of the superiority
of the pleasures of the affections to those of sense.

1. 8. of consequence, consequently. The pleasures of the
intellect are as far above those of the affections as the latter are
above those of sense.

1. 10. By the affections are meant the emotions and desires
distinct from the bodily appetites.

1. 11. after they be used, when we have experienced them for
some time, verdure, freshness.

1. 12. deceits of pleasure, unreal pleasures.

1. 15. ambitious princes, etc. , Alexander sighed for new worlds
to conquer : and Charles V. resigned the crown of Spain to his
son and retired into a monastery. Cf. Essay xix. : " We see also
that kings that have been fortunate conquerors in their first
years, it being not possible for them to go forward infinitely, but
that they must have some check or arrest in their fortunes, turn
in their latter years to be superstitious and melancholy, as did
Alexander the Great, Dioclesian, and, in our memory, Charles
the Fifth : and others. For he that is used to go forward, and
findeth a stop, falleth out of his own favour, and is not the thing
he was."

1. 16. satisfaction, full enjoyment. They never pall : however
much we have of knowledge, we still wish for more.

1. 21. Lucretius, a Roman poet, born about B.C. 95. He wrote
a poem 'On the Nature of Things,' expounding and defending
the atomistic philosophy. Cf. Essay i. The same idea is
expressed in the Mahabharata ; —

" As men who climb a hill behold
The plain beneath them all unrolled,
And thence with searching eye survey

144 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES

The crowds that pass along the way,

So those on wisdom's mount who stand

A lofty vantage ground command.

They thence can scan the world below

Immersed in error, sin, and woe :

Can mark how mortals vainly grieve,

The true reject, the false receive,

The good forsake, the bad embrace,

The substance flee, the shadows cfiase.

But none who have not gained that height

Can good and ill discern aright."
Page 66, 1. 1. to this tendeth, this is the object of.
1. 2. generation, the begetting of children.
1. 4. celebration, we should now say celebrity.

1. 6. the monuments of wit, etc., cf. the boast of the Latin
poet Horace — "I have raised a monument more lasting than
brass, and loftier than the kingly structure of the pyramids —
one which neither piercing rain, nor raging wind, nor lapse of
time can destroy."

1. 9. without the loss, Bacon wrote before the days of Homeric
criticism.

1. 10. have been decayed, we should now say have decayed.

1. 16. the wrong, the injury.

1. 18. still, p. 36. 1. 6. With this passage cf. Milton's
Areopagitica, pp. 5-6 (Ed. Clarendon Press), "Books are not
absolutely dead things, but do contain a potencie of life in them
to be as active as that soule was whose progeny they are : nay,
they do preserve as in a violl the purest efficacie and extraction
of that living intellect that bred them. "

1. 22. consociateth, joins.

1. 28. most immersed in the senses, i.e., materialistic : explain
ing the functions of the mind by the activity of the senses, and
denying the existence of any divine or immortal part in man.

1. 30. came to this point that, confessed so much that. The
Latin translation has — ' were compelled by force of truth to allow
that.' Bacon is referring here to the doctrine of Aristotle and
his followers. Plato had taught the immortality of the individual
soul. This Aristotle denied. All the lower functions of the
soul, he said, are destroyed by death ; but the highest function
of the soul, viz., the creative intellect, is indestructible. There
fore though after death the individual ceases to exist, yet the
creative intellect is not destroyed, but is resumed into the
universal mind.

1. 33. affections, see on p. 65, 1. 10.

65-67.] NOTES. 145

Page 67, 1. 2. do disclaim in, do renounce. These imperfect
suggestions of Aristotle, says Bacon, are nothing to the Christian,
for he knows that after death body as well as soul shall be
purified, and enjoy immortality : still I have mentioned them,
because they are a human testimony to the dignity of knowledge.

1. 4. probation, proof. We use the word now in the sense of
'trial*

1. 10. .ffisop's cock, see Phaedrus, iii. 12. Bacon alludes to the
fable again in Essay xiii.

1. 13. judged for plenty, decided in favour of plenty. Midas
was a king of Phrygia, and it is said that, as a punishment for
the judgment referred to in the text, Apollo turned his ears into
those of an ass.

Paris, Juno the Goddess of Power, Minerva the Goddess
of Wisdom, and Venus the Goddess of Love and Beauty, all
claimed the golden apple inscribed 'for the fairest,' which Discord
threw into heaven. Paris, a Trojan shepherd, was made umpire,
and gave the prize to Venus. See Tennyson's (Enone.

1. 14. Agrippina, mother of the Emperor. Many years before
Agrippina had anticipated this end for herself, and had spurned
the thought. For when she consulted the astrologers about Nero,
they replied that he would be Emperor and kill his mother.
"Let him kill her," she said, "provided he is Emperor,"
Tacitus, Annals xiv. 9. To please his mistress, the Emperor
Nero caused his mother Agrippina to be murdered in the year
59 A.D.

1. 17. Ulysses, the most crafty Greek who joined the expedition
against Troy, in the course of his wanderings fell into the hands
of the enchantress Calypso, who promised him immortality, if he
would stay with her. He preferred to return to his wife
Penelope.

1. 24. Wisdom is justified, etc., i.e., that nothing is better than
wisdom is shown by the superiority of those who possess wisdom.
This is one of the sayings of Jesus — Matthew xi. 19.

INDEX TO THE NOTES.

The references are to the pages of this volume.

A

PAGE

Albertus,

PAGE

. 108

Abate, to,

. 82

Alchemy,

. 109

Abuse, to,

96, 138

Alexander the Great,

. 133

Accept of, to, .

. 74

136, 138

Accident, an, .

. 83

All, for any, ,

87, 131

Accord, an,

. 129

Allow, to,

. 90

Accumulate, .

. 88

Allowance,

. 94

Acquaint, to, .

. 139

Amplification,

. 71

Addition, an, .

. 132

Animadversion,

. 99

Adonis, .

. 101

Antichrist,

. 107

Advance, to, .

. 130

Antipater,

. 135

Adverbs —

Antiques,

. 95

At a stay, .

. Ill

Antoninus,

. 132

At unawares,

, 82

Apollonius,

. 131

Fast, .

. 89

Application, .

. 91

Lively,

. 129

Apply, to,

94, 116

Needs,

. 96

Apprehension,

. 93

Of consequence, .

. 122

Aquinas, 102, 104,

105, 122

Only, . . .

. 125

Arabians, the,

. 108

Still, . .114,

141, 143

Arbela, .

. 135

Uncomely, .

. 96

Archimedes, .

. Ill

Whereas,

, 140

Argue, to,

. 136

Whereto, .

. 137

Argument,

. 96

Advertise, to,

. 140

Aristippus,

. 96

Advise, to,

. 140

Aristotle, 76, 104,

111, 116

^Eschines,

. 87

117,

133, 143

Affect, to,

. 113

Arrogancy,

. 74

Affection,

133, 143

Artillery,

. Ill

Agesilaus,

91, 138

Ascham, Roger,

. 100

Agrippa,

. 132

Aspersion,

98, 123

Agrippina,

, 144
. 129

Astrology,
Atalanta,

88, 108
. 119

INDEX TO THE NOTES.

147

B

PAGE

PAGE

Conditional mood, use of,

79

Bent,
Blasphemy,

95

. 88

Confections, .
Confine, to,

96
76

Blemish, to, .
Both (plural), .

. 99

. 83

Conjunction, .
Conjunctions —

72

Brave, to,

88

After that, . . 91

139

Broken, .

77

As, for that, . 7

2,76

By reason, .

90

C

For that, .

97

Csesar, Julius,

72, 137, 138

In that,

126

Callisthenes, .
Capable of,

. 134, 135
. 75

That (used redundantly)
Consequence, .

, 82
95

Car, Nicholas,

. 101

Consociate, to,

144

Cardanus,

. 109

Construe of, to,

127

Carefulness, .

. 77

Contend, to, .

92

Carlyle, .

93, 119

Contentation, .

84

Carneades,

. 82

Contestation, .

93

Carriage,

94, 95

Continent, a, .

75

Cashier, to,

. 138

Contrariwise, .

83

Casualty,

. 93

Contristation, .

74

Cato, Marcus, .

. 86, 92, 138

Converse, to, .

120

Caveat, a,

. , . 74

Conversant in, to be,

92

Cavillation, a,

. 107

Conversation, .

139

Cease, to (tr.),

. 116

Copia, ....

101

Celebration, .

. 144

Corroborate, .

92

Censure, a,

. 74

Countenance, .

82

Challenge, to,

. 82

Countenance, to,

72

Character, a, .

. 73

Creature, a, .

105

Charles V., .

. 143

Curiosity,

100

Cicero, .

. 86

Curious, .81,92,100,

131

Circumscribe, to,

. 76

Cymini sector, a, .

132

Civil,

91, 132, 134

Cynic, ....

97

Civility, .

. 91

Clean, .

. 101

D

Clear, to,

. 88

Dante, 105, 106, 122, 131,

142

Clement VII.,

. 85

Decayed,

144

Coarctation, .

. 76

Decent, .

75

Cockboat, a, .

. 94

Delectable,

138

Colour, to,

. 142

Delicacy,

91

Columbus,

. 115

Delicate, . 100,

101

Commenter, a,

. 119

Democritus, .

112

Common-place, a,

. 90

Demonstrative,

85

Compass, to, .

. 71

Demosthenes, . 87

, 88

Complexion, a,
Compounder, a,

. 83
. 120

Depravation, .
Deprave, to, .

88
99

Comprehend, to,

. 71

Derivation, a, .

110

Concatenation,

, 110

Designments, .

87

148 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

PAGE

F

Dictator, . . .72

PAGE

Difference, a, . . .73

Falling, a,

. 101

Digladiafcion, . . .108

Fathers, the, .

. 126

Diogenes, . . 97, 135

Form, a, .

. 123

Dionysius, the Areopagite, 122

Disable, to, . . . 84

G

Disallow, to, . . 98, 119
Disclaim in, to, . .145
Discover, to, . .. 74, 113
Disesteem, to, , . 91
Distaste, . . . .76
Distemper, a, . . .100

Galley-slaves, .
Gallipot, a,
Game,
Generosity,
Genitive, form of, .
Gibbon, 83, 84, 108,

. 142
. 96
. 130
. 142
. 119
126, 131

Divine, a, . 74

133, 134

Donative, a, , , .125

Gilbertus

. 118

Doubt, to, , . 88, 114
DuBartas, ... 97

Glance, a,
Glance, to,

. 131
. 133

Gravel, to,

. 133

E

Gregory the Great,

. 126

Grow to, to, .

90

Embassage, to come in, . 82

Guicciardine, .

. 86

Embrace, to, , . ,136
Empiric (adj.), . . 83

Guise, Duke of, the,

. 137

Enable, to, , , 83

H

Enablement, . . . 134
Endeavour, to, . . 80
Endue, to, . . . 93
Enigmatical writings, . Ill
Entire, ... 95, 133

Hadrian,
Heraclitus,
Hercules,
Herdmen,

131

. 77
102, 129
. 142

Envious . 88

Hermes, .

72

Epaminondas, . . . 82
Ephemerides, ... 75
Epictetus, . . .141
Epicurus, ... 95
Erasmus, . . 101, 136
Estate, . .71, 85, 94, 134
Esteem, to, , . . 93

Hermogenes, .
Hippocrates, .
Historiographer, a,
Hold way with, to,
Humanity,
Humorous,
Humour, a,

. 101
. 112
. 88
. 85
134, 135
. 89
113, 126

Euclides, . . .112

Hurt, to,

83

Except, . . . .141

Excusation, ... 95

I

Expect, to, . . 87

Icarus, .

79

Expostulation, . .138

Illuminate,

130

Express, to, . 122, 127, 138

Illustrate,

116

Expulse, to, . . . 88

Imbarred,

124

Exquisite, ... 95

Imbased,

112

Extend, to, . . . 75

Impression,

124

Extenuate, to, . . 84

Incorporal,

123

Extirper, an, . . .129

Indifferent,

92

INDEX TO THE NOTES.

149

Induce, to, . 79, 113,

PAGE

122

Midas, .

PAGE

. 144

Inducement, an,

131

Minister, to, .

. 85

Infolded,

130

Ministry,

. 121

In hand with, to be,

89

Misgovernment,

. 90

Inquisition, .
Insinuate, to, .

74

85

Morigeration, .

. 96

Intellectualists,

116

N

Interdict, to, .
Intrinsic,
Invocate, to, .
Ixion, ....

125
112
116

85

Naked, .
Neighbour (adj.), .
Neo-Platoiiists, the,

130
. 71

. 117
130

Nether, .

. 132

Never so,

. 71

Jason, ....

138

Newman, Cardinal,

115, 118

Jesuits, the, .

91

Note, a, .

. 121

Job, ....

79

Julian, . . .125,

132

0

Oblation, an, .

69

K

Obligation,

. 136

Knit, to,
Knowledge of, to take, .

114
123

Ockham, William of,
Ordainment, .

90, 102
. 93

Orpheus,

. 129

L

Osorius, .

. 100

Latinisms, , 88, 131,

139

Out-compass, to,

. 75

Laudative, a, .

119

Over-rule, to, .

. 131

Law of nature, a, .

75

Leese, to, ...

111

P

Legend (adj.),.

130

Painted forth,

. 133

Lex Papia, the,
Like, for likely, . 114,

113
J34

Painted out, .
Parasite, a,

. 85
. 95

Limned, ....

100

Parcel, .

. 75

Livy, ....

87

Paris,

. 144

Lucian, . . .96,
Lucretius,

113
142

Part, a, .
Pasquin, a,

. 100
. 132

Passage, to give to,

. 114

Patent, a,

. 100

Machiavelli, .

90

Peccant, .

. 112

Magistral, . .

118

Pedant, a,

. 83

Malignity,
Man, a, indefinite use of,

75
94

Pedantical,
Pensileness, .

. 84
. 123

Maniable,

87

Peremptory, 81, 114,

118, 129

Manners, 88, 89, 92, 119,

140

Period, a,

. 101

Marcus Aurelius, .

132

Pharisees, the,

. 100

Merely, ....

76

Philo Judseus,

. 77

Meriting,

76

Phocion, .

. 85

Method, a, ...

114

PiusV.,.

. 84

150 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING.

PAGE

Platform, a, . . .121

R

PAGE

Plato, 70, 77, 93, 96, 105, 117
118, 124, 130, 144

Receipt, .
Recompense, to,

76,83
. 85

Plausible, . .102

Redargution,

. 89

Pliny, . . .109

Reduce, to,

92, 110

Plutarch, . 134, 136

Re-edify, to,

. 132

Police, to, . .132

Refrain, to (tr ),

. 130

Policy, . .120

Regiment,

71, 134

Politic (adj.), . • 84

Regular,

. 85

Position, a, . 104, 124

Relation,

. 115

Prefer, to, . . 72

Relative pronoun, irreg

Prepositions —
Besides, for beside, . 83

ular construction of, 71
Religion, Bacon's views

For, for as regards, . 81
In regard of, . 89
Of, for by, . . 134
Of, for for, . . 88
Of, for from, . 108
Of, for on, . . 134

on, .
Reluctation, .
Reparation,
Represent, to,
Respective,
Revolve, to, .

79
. 123
. 127
. 69

69, 104

72, 100

Of, for one of, . 74
Of , for somewhat of , . 143
Unto, for concerning, . 100

Round (adj.), .
Round about, to,
Rudiment, a, .

. 101
76, 101
. 125

Upon, for because of, . 120

Rule over, to,

76

Upon, for of, . . 99

To, for against, . . 135

S

To and fro, . . .141

Sapience,

. 122

Withal, ... 94

Saracens, the,

. 127

Without, for beyond, . 88
Prerogative, . . .134

Satisfactory, .
Scandalize, to,

. 102
. 99

Pretend, to, . .110, 138

Schoolmen, the, 100,

103, 105

Price, to be in, , . 101

Scope,

. 119

Print, a, . . . 137, 142
Probation, . . .145

Scythians, the,
Seducement, .

. 127

. 85

Proceed upon, to, 69, 73, 131

Seneca, . . 84,

107, 114

Proclus, . . . 117, 118

Sensible,

. 102

Profane,. ... 72
Propriety, a, . . .69
Province, a, . . .100
Psalms, the, . . .127
Punctual, ... 96

Septuagenary,
Sequester, to, .
Shall, for will,
Shape, to,
Sign, to, .

. 114
. 71
119, 124
. 116
. 127

Pygmalion, . . .101

Signature, a, .

. 73

Silenus, .

. 133

Q

Sixtus V.,

. 84

Socrates,

93, 119

Quicken, to, . . .127

Solon,

93, 124

Quickness, ... 85

Sortable,

. 134

Quintilian, . . . 107

Sort with, to, .

. 85

INDEX TO THE NOTES.

151

PAGE

u

Sounding,

, 76

PAGE

Sovereign (adj.),

. 76

Ulysses, .

>

. 145

Speak, to, . 108,

115, 138

Uncivilly,

t

. 95

Speculative, .

. 95

Unclean,

e

. 79

Stand upon, to,

- 77

Undervalued,

.

. 73

State, .

. 135

Untaxed,

.

. 132

Stoics, the,

- 97

Untried,

.

. 109

Straitly, .

, 120

Use,

85, 134

Sturmius,

. 101

Use, to, .

§

. 92

Style, . . .

, 133

Style, the, to turn,

. 135

Subsistence, .

. 122

V

Summary,
Sylla, Lucius,

91, 123
. 138

Vaporous,
Varnish, .

•

86
. 121

T

Varro, Marcus,

. 88

Table, a,

134, 138

Velleius,

.

. 119

Tabernacle, a.

. 70

Ventosity,

. 76

Tacitus, .

. 71

Verdure,

.

125, 143

Taint, to,

. 99

Vermiculate,

t

. 105

Tarasse, .

120

Versatile,

. .

. 94

Tax, to, . .91, 94-, 97, 136

Volume, .

.

. 134

Taxation,

. 136

Voluntary, a,

.

. 139

Tedious, .

. 87

Temperature, .

. 92

Tender, .

94, 97

w

Themistocles, .
Thirty Tyrants, the,
Thwart (adj.),
To seek in, to be, .
Touch, to,
Trade, .
Tradition,
Traduce to, . 84
Traducement,

. 95
. 88
. 88
. 85
123, 130
, 124
. 76
, 91, 100
. 91

Walk, a,
Ward, to,
Watch-candle
Watery, .
Weal, .
Wear, to,
Well seen in,
Wind, to,

, a, .
to be,

. 93
. 130
. 107
. 101
. 132
. 86
. 96
95

Trajan, .
Translation, a,

. 131
, 136

Wit,
Work, to,

: :

72
. 95

Travail, .

. 82

Trencher, a, .

. 96

X

Trope, a,

101, 136

Tumble up and down,

to, 117

Xenophon,

83, 119,

139, 140

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