Motif's Classics

XCIII

THE ADVANCEMENT OF

LEARNING

and NEW ATLANTIS

BY FRANCIS BACON

OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS

AMEN HOUSE, E.G. 4

London Edinburgh Glasgow New York
Toronto Melbourne Capetown Bombay

Calcutta Madras
HUMPHREY MILFORD

PUBLISHER TO THE
UNIVERSITY

THE ADVANCEMENT OF

LEARNING
and NEW ATLANTIS

BY FRANCIS BACON

WITH A PREFACE
BY

THOMAS CASE

\

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON : HUMPHREY MILFORD

FKANCIS BACON

Born . . . London, January 22, 1560-1
Died , Highgate, April 9, 1626

The l Advancement of Learning' was first pub
lished in 1605, and ' New Atlantis' in 1627. In
* The World's Classics ' they were first published
together in 1906, with a preface by Thomas Case, then
President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and
reprinted in 1913, 1929, and 1938.

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

PREFACE

LIKE all great philosophical works, the Advancement
of Learning is constructed on a systematic plan, of
which the analysis is as follows : —

BOOK I. THE DIGNITY OF LEARNING.

To the King : introductory (p. 3).

A.. Negative part : the discredits of learning
(pp. 6-40).

1. —from divines (p. 6).

2. —from politics (p. 11).

3. — from learned men themselves (p. 18).

1) from their fortune (p. 18).

2) from their manners (p. 21).

3) from their studies (p. 26), including —

(1) three diseases of learning (p. 26).

(2) its peccant humours or errors

(p. 35).

B. Positive part: the dignity of knowledge (pp. 40-
66).

1. Divine evidences (p. 40).

2. Human proofs (p. 47).

BOOK II. THE SURVEY OF LEARNING.

To the King: acts performed by Kings and others

for the advancement of learning (p. 67).
Three parts of human learning (p. 75) : —

A. History (p. 76).

1. Natural.

2. Civil.

i PREFACE

3. Ecclesiastical.

4. Literary.

B. Poetry (p. 89).

1. Narrative.

2. Representative.

3. Allusive or parabolical.

C. Knowledge [scientia] (pp. 93—234).
I. Philosophy (pp. 93-221).

Primitive or summary philosophy, philosophia
prima (p. 93).

1. Divine philosophy, natural theology

(pp. 96-8).

2. Natural philosophy (pp. 98-114).

1) Speculative : inquisition of causes

(p. 99;.

(1) Physic, which inquireth material and
efficient causes (p. 101).

(2) Metaphysic, which inquireth formal
and final causes (p. 102 j.

Mathematic, a branch of Metaphysio
(p. 107).

2) Operative : production of effects (p. 108).

(1) Experimental, corresponding with
Natural history.

(2) Philosophical, corresponding with
Physic.

(3) Magical, corresponding with Meta
physic.

8. Human philosophy (pp. 114-219).

1) Simple and particular knowledge

(pp. 115-90).
Human nature in general (p. 115).

(1) Knowledge of body (pp. 118-27).
&. a. Medicine for health.
Cosmetic for beauty.

PREFACE vii

c. Athletic for strength.

d. Arts voluptuary for pleasure.

(2) Knowledge of mind (pp. 127-90).
a. The soul (pp. 127-9;.
I. Faculties (pp. 129-90).

(a) Rational faculties: Logic

(pp. 131-63).

i. Invention (p. 132).

(i) — of arts and sciences

(p. 132).

(ii) — of speech and arguments
(p. 136).

ii. Judgement, including also Idols

of the human mind (p. 139).
iii. Custody or Memory (p. 144).
iv. Tradition or delivery (p. 146).

(i) Its organ (p. 146).
(ii) Its method (p 149).
(iii) Its illustration : Rhetoric
(p. 155).

Appendices to Tradition (p. 160):
(i) Critical,
(ii) Pedantical.

(b) Moral faculties : Moral philo

sophy (pp. 163-90).

i. Exemplar, or Nature of Good

(pp. 165-77).
The double nature of Good

(p. 166).
(i) Private, active and passive

(p. 169).

(ii) Communicative : Duty
(p. 173).

ii. Regiment, or culture of mind
(pp. 177-89}

viii PREFACE

2) Conjugate and civil knowledge (pp. 190-
219).

(1) Conversation or Behaviour (p. 191).

(2) Negotiation or Business, including also

Architecture of Fortune (p. 192).

(3) Government (p. 217).

II. Divinity, sacred and inspired [as distinct
from Divine philosophy or Natural theology]
(pp. 221-34).

Like all great philosophers, Bacon took long to
mature his works. From his youth upwards he had
been thinking about philosophy, knowledge, learning.
When, at the age of 16, he was an undergraduate at
Cambridge, he became dissatisfied with the philosophy
of Aristotle, ' for the unfruitfulness of the way ' * ; and
as a young man of 25 he had commenced a philosophy
of his own, styled Temporis Partus Maximus. In 1592
(aet. 32) he wrote to Burghley, * I have taken all
knowledge to be my province,' and in that year the
' Praise of Knowledge ' in a ' Triumph ' given by
Essex before the Court bears the stamp of Bacon's
mind and style. In 1597 (aet. 37) appeared his Essays,
of which there were only ten in the first edition ;
while half of those — namely, on Studies, Discourse,
Regiment of Health, Factions, and Negotiating — were,
as it were, notes for the larger work on all learning
which was to follow eight years later. After many
years, therefore, of preparation, at length in 1605
(aet. 45), in the prime of his life, and in the first
sunshine of the patronage of King James I, Bacon
published the Advancement of Learning. It is indeed
a work which is not merely the expression of a
mature mind, but also a kind of summing-up of the
Revival of Learning in the sixteenth century.

Large as is its scope, the Advancement was itself
destined, if not designed, to form the first part of an
even larger scheme— the regeneration of all the

1 Kawley's Life of Bacon.

PREFACE ix

sciences by a new method of the interpretation of
nature. This scheme again Bacon took long to
mature. In the Advancement he has got so far as
to contemplate a separate work containing Interpre-
tatio Naturae 'concerning the invention of sciences'1;
and about the same time he was writing such a work,
the Valerius Terminus, Of the Interpretation of Nature
(left unfinished, and posthumously published by
Stephens in 1784), in which he also contemplates
a discourse on Knowledge, roughly in idea corre
sponding to the Advancement, as an introduction to
the Interpretatio Naturae. The Advancement and the
Valerius Terminus therefore imply one another, and
show that in 1605 Bacon was already meditating both
a survey of knowledge and a logic of its method. In
the course of the next two years he went on to con
ceive the whole scheme of regeneration, or Instauratio,
as he now began to call it, in a work called Partis
Instaurationis Secundae Delineatio et Argumentum
(written in 1606-7, but left unfinished, and post
humously published by Gruter in 1653), wherein
he distributed the Instauratio into six parts, of which
the survey of the sciences was to be the first, and
began the treatment of the method of the sciences
as the second part. Finally, in 1620 (aet. 60), he
published his great work entitled Instauratio Magna.
But in reality it was only an instalment ; beginning
with the division into six parts, called Distributio
Operis, Bacon next refers his readers to the Advance
ment as to some extent representing the first part on
the classification of sciences, and then proceeds in the
rest of the work to elaborate the second part on the
Interpretatio Naturae, or scientific method of induction,
under the title by which the work is now best known
— Novum Organum.

Bacon did not rest content with referring to the
Advancement of Learning as the first part of the
Instauratio. He went on to have it translated into

1 Post, p. 136.

x PREFACE

Latin under the title De Dignitate et Augmentis
Scientiarum, which he published in 1623 (aet. 63) ;
and he took advantage of this edition in Latin to
amplify the Second Book into eight, as well as to
make important alterations. History was now doubly
divided into natural and civil, of which literary and
ecclesiastical became subdivisions 1. Natural philo
sophy was not only enlarged, but also its operative part
was differently subdivided into Mechanica, depending
on Physica, and Magia, depending on Metaphysica*.
The voluptuary arts received the welcome addition
of painting and music3. The soul, again, in the
Advancement had been regarded simply as inspired
from God ; but in the De Augmentis, in accordance
with the views of Lucretius and Telesio, a sensible
soul is introduced, common to animals and derived
from matter, as distinct from the rational soul,
inspired into man from heaven 4. Finally, Bacon took
care that his work, in passing from English into
' the universal language ', should become as general,
and as generally acceptable, as possible. Hence,
under History he curtailed his particular treatment
of English history ; and in translating Divinity into
Theologia Inspirata, he prefaced his remarks by
a warning that he should say as little as possible
about details 5. For that wise reason, and not from
any change in his attitude to Christianity, of which
there is no evidence, he abridged his treatment of
Christian dogmas so as to avoid controversy. Indeed,
the De Augmentis throughout exhibits the curious
point that its Protestant author purposely omitted
the translation of anything in the Advancement which
might be thought likely to offend Roman Catholics. In
his letter written to King James on sending the Latin
edition, he says : ' I have been also mine own Index
Expurgatorius, that it may be read in all places. For

1 De Augmentis, Lib. II. a Ib., Lib. III.

1 Ib., Lib. IV, cap. 2. 4 Ib., Lib. IV, cap. 3.

5 Ib., Lib. IX.

PREFACE xi

since my end of putting1 it into Latin was to have it
read everywhere, it had been an absurd contradiction
to free it in the language and to pen it up in the
matter.'

Bacon's Essays evince his pregnancy of thought
and power of surprise ; his Novum Organum all the
logical faculties of wit, memory, judgement, and
elocution imputed to him in his Life by his chaplain,
Dr. Rawley ; his Advancement and De Augmentis what
his biographer calls his deep and universal apprehen
sion. As Macaulay remarks, 'The knowledge in
which Bacon excelled all men was a knowledge of the
mutual relations of all the departments of know
ledge.' He had, in short, the very qualities required
for a book on all learning ; wherein, though a critic of
antiquity, he nevertheless appreciates the past, while
he expects more from the future ; wherein he finds a
place for the display of all man's faculties, historical,
poetical, and scientific ; and wherein he enlarges the
scope of science to the triple knowledge of God,
nature, and man as the three main constituents of
the universe ; while before all, like Aristotle, he places
the science of all things, and warns us that 'men
have abandoned universality, or philosophic* prima :
which cannot but cease and stop all progression * '.
In dealing with God, he recognizes both natural and
revealed theology 2. In dealing with Nature, he em
braces all kinds of causes, adds to the concrete
sciences of bodies the abstract sciences of their
attributes, such as motion, sound, heat, &c., which
have proved so successful since his times, and shows
his wide comprehension of physical science by
devoting it to the whole fabric of nature and to its
least elements, as well as to the various bodies of
which it is composed 3. In dealing with Man, he at
once grasps human nature as a whole ; man both as
an individual and as a social being ; body and soul

1 Post, pp. 37, 93 seq. a Post, -pp. 96 seq., 221 seq.

3 Post, pp. 98 seq.

rii PREFACE

in their connexion ; the soul too as a whole, its
nature as well as its faculties, and all its faculties
both logical and moral; and lastly, man's future
state as a whole, and not as a mere immortality of
soul, nor as a mere resurrection of body, since ' not
only the understanding but the affections purified,
not only the spirit but the body changed, shall be
advanced to immortality ' x.

This admirable comprehensiveness is the answer
to Bacon's detractors, who charge him variously with
all sorts of narrowness in philosophy, such as mate
rialism, relativism, and empiricism. Bacon was
never narrow. He was no materialist ; though he
thought more about nature, he believed in the super
natural, recognized not only natural but also
' intellectual ' forms, and regarded man as both
material body and inspired soul 2. He was no relati
vist : he said indeed that sense and intellect are
relative to man and not to the universe, but he added
that the former faculty aided by systematic experience,
and the latter by systematic induction and the new
method, would make the mind the image of the very
essence of things 3. He was no empiricist : for,
although he exhorted men to reject as idols all pre
conceived notions and lay themselves alongside of
nature by observation and experiment, so as gradually
to ascend from facts to their laws, nevertheless he was
far from regarding sensory experience as the whole
origin of knowledge, and in truth had a double theory,
that, while sense and experience are the sources of our
knowledge of the natural world, faith and inspiration
are the sources of our knowledge of the supernatural,
of God, and of the rational soul 4.

The same answer must be given to his detractors
on the practical side, who have accused him of

1 Post, pp. 66, 114 seq.

* Post, pp. 41, 118, 127, 221-34.

8 Post, pp. 8, 102 ; cf. Novum Organwn, passim.

• Post, pp. 10, 93, 96-7, 127, 222.

PREFACE xiii

Machiavellianism, or the view which, like Jesuitry in
religion, holds that in politics the end justifies the
means, and that the prince for the good of the State
should use both good and evil arts according to
circumstances. But the English Machiavellian is
Hobbes, not Bacon. The expansive genius of Bacon
fitted him to hold the balance between the merits
and the defects of Machiavel ; and it is curious to
trace in the Advancement- how he alternately praises
and condemns him with calm impartiality. He
quotes his clever remark that the poverty of friars had
excused the superfluities of prelates l ; but criticizes
him for saying that a prince ought ' to play the part
of the lion in violence and the fox in guile as of the
man in virtue and justice ' 2. He agrees with him that
the way to preserve a government is to reduce it to its
principles 3, but dissents from his comparison of Caesar
with Catiline 4. It is under the head of Civil Knowledge
that the English comes closest to the Italian politician,
whom he approves for ' discourse upon histories or
examples ' as drawing knowledge out of particulars,
and for history of times as the best ground for dis
course of government 5. Under the same head, Bacon
follows Machiavel in the importance attached by him
to fortune in human affairs, and pays special attention
to the 'Architecture of Fortune'6; but he severs
himself at once from the demoralization of his pre
decessor's views by subordinating fortune to virtue ".
Though he thinks it for the most part true, according
to the Italian proverb, that ' there is commonly less
money, less wisdom, and less good faith than men do
account upon ' 8, he does not draw the Machiavellian
conclusion, bad faith is to be repaid by bad faith, and
etill less does he approve of Machiavel's model,
Caesar Borgia, Duke Valentine 9. If there is a Machia-

1 Post, p. 19. 2 Post, p. 92. 3 Post, p. 95.

4 Post, p. 186. s Post, pp. 197-8.

6 Post, pp. 198-217. T Post, p. 200. * Post, p. 203.
9 Post, p. 205.

xiv PREFACE

vellian sound in the advice that ' nothing is more
politic than to make the wheels of our minds con
centric and voluble with the wheels of fortune ' !,
there is an anti-Machiavellian ring in the counsel
that ' the continual habit of dissimulation is but a
weak and sluggish cunning, and not greatly politic ' 2.

The fact is that Bacon grasped Machiavel's wisdom
in isolated maxims, such as that the sinews of war are
the sinews of men's arms3, but set himself against the
Machiavellian system of ' evil arts ' with all the weight
of his most impressive eloquence 4. The reason is that
Bacon's ethics are founded on the distinction between
private and public good, and the subordination of the
former to the latter, so that ' the conservation of duty
to the public ought to be much more precious than
the conservation of life and being ' 6 ; his politics are
based not only on good arms, but still more on good
laws 6 ; and his religion is grounded on the conviction
that a man cannot search too far in the book of God's
word or in the book of God's works, and that the
further he studies Nature the nearer he comes to God 7.
In short, his whole philosophy, speculative and prac
tical, springs from comprehensiveness guided by
philanthropy ; and in his survey of all learning he
stands by the side of Plato and Aristotle as a universal
philosopher.

Naturally, then, has Bacon become the prophet of
modern science. He owed his far-seeing power
of prevision to no accident, but to many causes in
himself, of which the first is that quality noticed
in him by Rawley, and exhibited throughout the
Advancement— his deep and universal apprehension ;
or what Dr. Johnson calls in another reference,
' that comprehension and expanse of thought, which
at once fills the whole mind, and of which the
first effect is sudden astonishment, and the second

1 Post, p. 209. 2 Post, p. 211. 3 Post, p. 212.

4 Post, p. 215. 5 Post, p. 166. 6 Post, pp. 218-9.

7 D^,.J -^^ 1 A 11

* Post, p. 215.
7 Post, pp. 10-11,

PREFACE xv

rational admiration ' l. Bacon is like a great archi
tect, conceiving a vast plan, distributing it into its
proportionate parts, and so giving each man his
appropriate chamber, in which to direct his mind to
the right object in its real relations to the whole
of things. Hence, in projecting the Encyclopedic,
D'Alernbert called Bacon the greatest, the most
universal, the most eloquent of philosophers, and
joined Diderot in adopting as their basis the Baconian
classification of sciences as the most exact enumera
tion possible.

Secondly, in the Advancement Bacon showed his
deliberate foresight by distinguishing between what
had been done for learning and what remained to be
done, so as to strike the balance between merits and
defects. Hence too, at the end of the De Augmentis,
he drew out of these defects a list of Desiderata. The
consequence is an extraordinary suggest] veness of
problems to the thinking mind. At the very moment
when we tend to lose ourselves in the antique techni
cality of his intricate divisions and subdivisions, we are
constantly surprised by some new proof of his
modernity. The stress on the facts of natural history
as opposed to theories, and the demand for a history
of literature and philosophy 2 ; the requirement, in the
De Augmentis3, of a living astronomy which should
dissect, as it were, the viscera, the physical causes,
of the substance, of the motion, and of the influence
of the stars ; the conception of comparative anatomy,
vivisection, and relief of pain as a physician's business4 ;
the grasp of human nature as a whole and in its
parts 5 ; the perception of a philosophic grammar, and
the definition of rhetoric as the application of reason
to imagination for the better moving of the will 6 ; the
preference of duty to interest and of action to con
templation 7, together with the recognition that more

1 Johnson, Lives of the Poets : Cowley.
8 Post, pp. 76 seq., 113. 3 Lib. Ill, c. 4.

* Post, pp. 122-3. 6 Post, p. 115.

6 Post, pp. 146-9, 156. 7 Post, pp. 166-7.

xvi PREFACE

is to be learnt about the passions from poets than
from philosophers, who, however, should make these
springs of our nature the objects of special inquiry1 ;
the political acumen and command of the principles
of law and its codification 2 ; the insight finally into
the problem of reconciling science and religion : — all
these are among many points in which Bacon has
anticipated our problems, and may stimulate our
thoughts at the present day.

Thirdly, even in the Advancement, although its
subject is only a defence and survey of learning, Bacon
also foresaw the new method, the Novum Organum,
which was destined to enlarge the inductive basis of
all the sciences. He perceived that, to understand
Nature, we must, on the one hand, universalize it by
taking for our objects the main attributes of motion,
gravity, sound, heat, &c., and by looking for the
universal natures of each of them, not, however, as
abstracted from, but as determined by, matter3; while,
on the other hand, we must particularize ourselves
by using a more systematic method of induction, out
of particulars natural and artificial or experimental,
and through instances contradictory as well as affirma
tive 4. Further, he already perceived at least three of
the Idola, false appearances, or fallacies, imposed on
us by the general nature of the mind, by the indi
viduality of each mind, and by words 5. But he left
this theory of three Idola to be developed into the
Idola Tribus, Specus, and Fori, with the addition of
Idola Theatri as a fourth kind ; and he left his general'
theory of Interpretatio Naturae, to be elaborated in
the Novum Organum, which remains to this day our
logic of science, so far as science is inductive in
method.

Fourthly, though to a less degree, the Advancement
contains adumbrations of what Bacon was to do

1 Post, pp. 92, 182-3. 2 Postt pp< 217-19.

8 Post, pp. 102-3. 4 Post, p. 134.

6 Post, pp. 141-4.

PREFACE xvii

himself towards the future regeneration of science.
Essentially, Bacon's own contribution consisted in
reviving the Atomism of Democritus in the modified
form called afterwards the corpuscular philosophy;
and already in the Advancement he showed his
preference for the natural philosophy of Democritus
over that of Plato and Aristotle ' in particularities of
physical causes ' l. But it was afterwards that he
modernized Atomism, first by substituting for the
solid indivisible atoms and void, supposed by Demo
critus, real particles of a flexible kind like those
supposed by Maxwell and Lord Kelvin ; and secondly
by looking for the nature of attributes, such as heat,
not, as Democritus did, in the statical figures of
atoms, but in the dynamical motions of particles,
partly perhaps from having come under the influence
of Galileo.

Fifthly, Bacon, even in the Advancement (1605),
showed his foresight of the future regeneration of
science by the stress he laid on natural history,
acquired both by observation and by experiment, as
the foundation of natural philosophy. He further
foresaw in the Novum Organum (1620) that what
natural science wanted was facts accumulated by the
associated labours of many inquirers, a task beyond
the power of individuals, a royal work for which he
solicited the help of King James. Towards the end
of his life he began the New Atlantis2 (1624, aet. 64 ,
published posthumously by Rawley 1627), in which
he got so far as to picture an ' island of Bensalem ' 3,
westward of 'the great Atlantis (that you call
America) ' *, where was established ' Salomon's House ',
a ' college ', ' order ', or ' society ' ' dedicated to the
study of the works and creatures of God ', * the finding
out of the true nature of all things,' * the knowledge
of causes, and secret motions of things; and the
enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the

1 Post, p. 106. * Post, pp. 237-end.

3 Post, p. 245. * Post, pp. 237, 250.

xviii PREFACE

effecting of all things possible ' l. Dr. Sprat's History
of 1he Royal Society proves that Bacon's vision of
Salomon's House was a prevision of the Royal Society
— the best of all proofs that Bacon was prophet, and
partly parent, of modern science.

Lastly, the prescience, which Bacon owed to his
comprehensiveness, his suggestiveness, his new logic
of inductive reasoning, his conversion of ancient
atomism into modern corpuscular science, and his
aspiration after a Royal Society for making discoveries
from experience, became a potent and permanent
influence by means of his expression of great thoughts
in majestic language. The key to Bacon's style is
contained in the words, ' I hold the entry of common
places to be a matter of great use and essence in
studying 2 '. It was this habit which made him deep
and full, caused his sentences to contain the com
pressed essence of things, and charged his writings
with pregnant sayings which are often aphorisms
and always aphoristic 3.

Again, his style is the reflection of a thoroughly
logical mind, full of order, distinctness, design ; fond,
indeed, of sudden strokes and breaks as new thoughts
occur, but sustaining itself, or, if it fails, desisting and
leaving an unfinished torso: nobody, in consequence,
has suffered more from posthumous publication. His
etjrle is also the reflection of a poetical mind, which
adorns its logic with an imagery, picturesque,
piquant, and full of metaphors, similes and ana
logies, sometimes strained, always suggestive. Nor
must we forget that it is the style of an orator, who
knows how to fit his words to the occasion, and writes
at will in language, now compressed as in the first
edition of the Essays, now more ornate as in those
added to the second edition, now flowing onwards
with easy eloquence as in those added in the third
edition as we now have them. It is, indeed, the

1 Post, pp. 246, 253, 255, 265 -end. 2 Post, p. 145.

3 Cf.post, pp. 151-2.

PREFACE xix

combination of philosopher and orator which consti
tutes the essence of Bacon's style, with its masculine
and clear expression, its weight and dignity, its force
and authority, its wealth of thought and richness of
diction, and, over all, its philosophic calm and philan
thropy, born of knowledge and love of mankind.

This is not to say that Bacon was perfect. As a
man he was very far from it. In philosophy, his
judicious realism would satisfy neither modern
materialism nor modern idealism. Even his style
to our ears may sound too pedantic and oracular : his
own mother spoke of his ' enigmatical folded writing'1.
But, after all, what books, if not Bacon's Essays and
Bacon's Advancement of Learning, are to be placed
first among specimens of English prose, for combined
matter and style, for the truest thoughts expressed in
the grandest language, for the light of science regu
lated by the law of eloquence ?

1 Lady Bacon in a letter to his brother Anthony.

A CHRONOLOGY OF BACON'S
LIFE AND WRITINGS

Born at York House .... January 22, 1560-1
Entered at Trinity College, Cambridge . . April, 1573
Admitted ' de societate magistrorum ' at Gray's

Inn June 27, 1575

Accompanies Sir Amias Paulet to Paris September 25, 1576
Returns to England .... March 20, 1578-9
Admitted Utter Barrister of Gray's Inn June 27, 1582

First Essay on the Instauration of Philosophy, which

he called Temporis Partus Maximus, composed

about 1583

Begins public life. Takes his seat as Member for

Melcombe in Dorsetshire . . November 23, 1584
Becomes a Bencher of Gray's Inn .... 1586
Acquaintance with Essex begins about . . . 1591
'Edition of the Essays in their earliest shape . . 1597
Arraignment of Essex . . . February, 1600-1
Declaration of the Practices and Treasons attempted and

committed by Robert late Earl of Essex . . . 1601

Death of Elizabeth and Accession of James

March 24, 1602-3

Publication of the Advancement of Learning October, 1605
Gunpowder Plot .... November 5, 1605
Marriage to Alice Barnham . . . May 10, 1606
Appointed Solicitor General . . . June 25, 1607
Composition of the Cogitata et Visa Summer of 1607

Composition of the Novum Organum probably begun 1G08
An instalment of the Instauratio Magna (probably the
Redargutio Philosophiarum) sent to Tobv
Matthew ..... October 10, 1609

xxii CHRONOLOGY

Publication of De Sapientia Veterum . . E«d of 1609
Publication of the Essays in their second form

October 12, 1612

Appointed Attorney General . . October 28, 1613
Returned Member for Cambridge University

April 2, 1614

Peacham's case 1614-5

Admitted Privy Councillor . . June 9, 1616

Appointed Lord Keeper . . . March 7, 1616-7
Appointed Lord Chancellor . . January 4, 1617-8
Created Baron Verulam .... July 12, 1618
Execution of Raleigh . . . . October 29, 1618
Publication of the Novum Organum October 12, 1620

Created Viscount St. Alban's . . January 27, 1620-1
Meeting of Parliament . . . January 30, 1620-1
Sentence of the House of Lords . . . May 3, 1621
Retires to Gorhambury .... June 23, 1621
Limited pardon sealed by the King, probably in Nov. 1621
Publication of the History of Henry VII .

End of March, 1622
Publication of the first monthly instalment of the

Natural and Experimental History — Historia

Ventorum .... . November, 1622

Publication of another instalment — Historia Vitae

et Mortis January, 1622-3

Publication of the De Augments . . October, 1623

Death of James I March 27, 1625

Publication of the third edition of the Essays, much

enlarged 1625

Death .... April 9 (Easter Sunday) 1626

Publication of the Syha Sylvarum and New Atlantis,

byRawley 1627

Publication of Certaine Miscellany Works, by Rawley 1629

Publication of the Opera M or alia et Civilia, by

Rawley . ... 1638

CHRONOLOGY xxiii

Publication of the Remain* 1648

Publication of Isaac Gruter's Collection . . . 1653

Publication of the Resuscitatio, by Rawley . . 1657
Publication of the Opuscula varia postliuma, by

Kawley 1658

Publication of the Second Edition of the Resuscitatio,

containing new matter 1661

Publication of the Third Edition of the Resuscitatio,

after Rawley's death, also containing new matter 1671

Publication of Baconiana, by Tenison . . . 1679

Publication of Letters and Remains, by Stephens . 1702
Publication of Letters and Remains (Second Collection) 1 734
Publication of Letters, Speeches, &c., by Birch . 1763-4

THE
ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

FIRST BOOK OF FRANCIS BACON;

OF THE PROFICIENCE AND

ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING,

DIVINE AND HUMAN.

To the King.

1. THEUE were under the law, excellent King, both
daily sacrifices and freewill offerings ; the one pro
ceeding 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 re
spective to make choice of some oblation, which might
rather refer to the propriety and excellency of your
individual person, than to the business of your crown
and state.

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

4 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

at those your virtues and faculties, which the Philo
sophers call intellectual ; the largeness of your capacity,
the faithfulness of your memory, the swiftness of your
apprehension, the penetration of your judgement, and
the facility and order of your elocution : and I have
often thought, that of all the persons living that I have
known, your Majesty were the best instance to make
a man of Plato's opinion, that all knowledge is but
remembrance, and that the mind of man by nature
knoweth all things, and hath but her own native and
original notions (which by the strangeness and dark
ness 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 pre
sented, or the least spark of another's knowledge
delivered. And as the Scripture saith of the wisest
king, * That his heart was as the sands of the sea ' ;
which though it be one of the largest bodies, yet it
consisteth of the smallest and finest portions ; so hath
God given your Majesty a composition of understand
ing admirable, being able to compass and comprehend
the greatest matters, and nevertheless to touch and
apprehend the least ; whereas it should seem an
impossibility in nature, for the same instrument to
make itself fit for great and small works. And for
your gift of speech, I call to mind what Cornelius
Tacitus saith of Augustus Caesar : ' Augusto pro-
fluens, et quae principem deceret, eloquentia fuit.*
For if we note it well, speech that is uttered with
labour and difiiculty, or speech that savoureth of the
affectation of art and precepts, or speech that is framed
after the imitation of some pattern of eloquence,
though never so excellent ; all this hath somewhat
servile, and holding of the subject. But your Majesty's
manner of speech is indeed prince-like, flowing as
from a fountain, and yet streaming and branching
itself into nature's order, full of facility and felicity,
imitating none, and inimitable by any. And as in
your civil estate there appeareth to be an emulation

THE FIRST BOOK 5

and contention of your Majesty's virtue with your
fortune ; a virtuous disposition with a fortunate
regiment ; a virtuous expectation (when time was) of
your greater fortune, with a prosperous possession
thereof in the due time ; a virtuous observation of the
laws of marriage, with most blessed and happy fruit
of marriage ; a virtuous and most Christian desire of
peace, with a fortunate inclination in your neighbour
princes thereunto : so likewise in these intellectual
matters, there seemeth to be no less contention between
the excellency of your Majesty's gifts of nature and
the universality and perfection of your learning. For
I am well assured that this which I shall say is no
amplification at all, but a positive and measured truth ;
which is, that there hath not been since Christ's time
any king or temporal monarch, which 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
Caesar the Dictator, who lived some years before
Christ, and Marcus Antoninus were the best learned ;
and so descend to the emperors of Grecia, or of the
West, and then to the lines of France, Spain, England,
Scotland, and the rest, and he shall find this judgement
is truly made. For it seemeth much in a king, if, by
the compendious 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, as well of divine
and sacred literature, as of profane and human ; so
as your Majesty standeth invested of that triplicity,
which in great veneration was ascribed to the ancient
Hermes ; the power and fortune of a king, the know
ledge and illumination of a priest, and the learning
and universality of a philosopher. This propriety in
herent and individual attribute in your Majesty

6 CF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

deserveth to be expressed 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, bear
ing a character or signature both of the power of
a king and the difference and perfection of such a king.
3. Therefore I did conclude with myself, that I could
not make unto your Majesty a better oblation than of
some treatise tending to that end, whereof the sum
will consist of these two parts ; the former concern
ing the excellency of learning and knowledge, and the
excellency of the merit and true glory in the augmenta
tion and propagation thereof : the latter, what the
particular acts and works are, which have been em
braced and undertaken for the advancement of learn
ing ; 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 cogitations to visit the excellent
treasure of your own mind, and thence to extract par
ticulars for this purpose, agreeable to your magnani
mity and wisdom.

1. 1. In the entrance to the former of these, to clear
the way, and as it were to make silence, to have th0
true testimonies concerning the dignity of learning to
be better heard, without the interruption of tacit
objections ; I think good to deliver it from the dis
credits and disgraces which it hath received, all from
ignorance ; but ignorance severally disguised ; appear
ing sometimes in the zeal and jealousy of divines ;
sometimes in the severity and arrogancy of politiques ;
and sometimes in the errors and imperfections of
learned men themselves.

2. I hear the former sort say, that knowledge is of
those things which are to be accepted of with great
limitation and caution : that the aspiring to overmuch
knowledge was the original temptation and sin where
upon ensued the fall of man : that knowledge hath in

THE FIRST BOOK 7

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

3. To discover then the ignorance and error of this
opinion, and the misunderstanding in the grounds
thereof, it may well appear these men do not observe
or consider that it was not the pure knowledge of
nature and universality, a knowledge by the light
whereof man did give names unto other creatures in
Paradise, as they were brought before 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 knowledge, how great soever, that can
make the mind of man to swell ; for nothing can fill,
much less extend the soul of man, but God and the
contemplation of God ; and therefore Salomon, speak
ing of the two principal senses of inquisition, the eye
and the ear, affirmeth that ' the eye is never satisfied
with seeing, nor the ear with hearing ' ; 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 like
wise in these words, placed after that Kalendar or
Ephemerides which he maketh of the diversities of
times and seasons for all actions and purposes ; and
concludeth thus : * God hath made all things beautiful,

8 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

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 beholding the
variety of things and vicissitude of times, but raised
also to find out and discern the ordinances and decrees,
which throughout all those changes are infallibly
observed. And although he doth insinuate that the
supreme or summary law of nature, which he calleth
' The work which God worketh from the beginning to
the end,' is not possible to be found out by man ;
yet that doth not derogate from the capacity of the
mind, but may be referred to the impediments, as of
shortness of life, ill conjunction of labours, ill tradition
of knowledge over from hand to hand, and many other
inconveniences, whereunto the condition of man is
subject. For that 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 in
wardness 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 thereof,
hath in it some nature of venom or malignity, and
some effects of that venom, which is ventosity or
swelling. This corrective spice, the mixture whereof
maketh knowledge so sovereign, is charity, which the
Apostle immediately addeth to the former clause : for
so he saith, ' Knowledge bloweth up, but charity
buildeth up ' ; not unlike unto that which he delivereth
in another place : * If I spake,' saith he, ' with the
tongues of men and angels, and had not charity, it

THE FIRST BOOK 9

were but as a tinkling cymbal ' ; not but that it is an
excellent thing to speak with the tongues of men and
angels, but because, if it be severed from charity, and
not referred to the good of men and mankind, it hath
rather a sounding and unworthy glory, than a merit
ing and substantial virtue. And as for that censure
of Salomon, concerning the excess of writing and read
ing books, and the anxiety of spirit which redoundeth
from knowledge ; and that admonition of Saint Paul,
* That we be not seduced by vain philosophy ' ; let
those places be rightly understood, and they do indeed
excellently set forth the true bounds and limitations,
whereby human knowledge is confined and circum
scribed ; and yet without any such contracting or
coarctation, but that it may comprehend all the uni
versal nature of things ; for these limitations are three :
the first, That we do not so place our felicity in know
ledge, as we forget our mortality: the second, That we
make application of our knowledge, to give ourselves
repose and contentment, and not distaste or repining :
the third, That we do not presume by the contempla
tion of nature to attain to the mysteries of God. For
as touching the first of these, Salomon doth excellently
expound himself in another place of the same book,
where he saith : ' I saw well that knowledge recedeth
as far from ignorance as light doth from darkness ;
and that the wise man's eyes keep watch in his head,
whereas the fool roundeth about in darkness : but
withal I learned, that the same mortality involveth
them both.' And for the second, certain it is, there is
no vexation or anxiety of mind which resulteth from
knowledge otherwise than merely by accident ; for all
knowledge and wonder (which is the seed of know
ledge) is an impression of pleasure in itself : but when
men fall to framing conclusions out of their know
ledge, applying it to their particular, and ministering
to themselves thereby weak fears or vast desires, there
groweth that carefulness and trouble of mind wrhich is
spoken of : for then knowledge is no more Lumen
siccum, whereof Heraclitus the profound said, * Lumen

10 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

siccum optima anima ' ; but it becometh Lumen
madidum, or maceratum, being steeped and infused in
the humours of the affections. And as for the third
point, it deserve th to be a little stood upon, and not
to be lightly passed over : for if any man shall think
by view 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 by vain philosophy : for the contemplation of
God's creatures and works produceth (having regard
to the works and creatures themselves) knowledge, but
having regard to God, no perfect knowledge, but wonder
which is broken knowledge. And therefore it was most
aptly said by one of Plato's school, ' That the sense of
man carrieth a resemblance with the sun, which (as
we see) openeth and revealeth all the terrestrial globe ;
but then again it obscureth and concealeth the stars
and celestial globe : so doth the sense discover natural
things, but it darkeneth and shutteth up divine.' And
hence it is true that it hath proceeded, that divers
great learned men have been heretical, whilst they
have sought to fly up to the secrets of the Deity by
the waxen wings of the senses. And as for the conceit
that too much knowledge should incline a man to
atheism, and that the ignorance of second causes should
make a more devout dependence upon God, which is
the first cause ; first, it is good to ask the question
which Job asked of his friends : * Will you lie for God,
as one man will do for another, to gratify him ? ' For
certain it is that God worketh nothing in nature but
by second causes : and if they would have it other
wise 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. Bub
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 a further proceeding therein doth bring the mind
back again to religion. For in the entrance of philo
sophy, when the second causes, which are next unto

THE FIRST BOOK 11

the senses, do offer themselves to the mind of man, if
it dwell and stay there it may induce some oblivion
of the highest cause ; but when a man passeth on
further, and seeth the dependence of causes, and the
works of Providence, then, according to the allegory
of the poets, he will easily believe that the highest link
of nature's chain must needs be tied to the foot of
Jupiter's chair. To conclude therefore, let no man
upon a weak conceit of sobriety or an ill-applied
moderation think or maintain, that a man can search
too far, or be too well studied in the book of God's
word, or in the book of God's works, divinity or philo
sophy ; but rather let men endeavour an endless pro
gress or proficience in both ; only let men beware
that they apply both to charity, and not to swelling ;
to use, and not to ostentation ; and again, that they
do not unwisely mingle or confound these learnings
together.

II. 1. And as for the disgraces which learning re
ceive th from politiques, they be of this nature ; that
learning doth soften men's minds, and makes them
more unapt for the honour and exercise of arms ; that
it doth mar and pervert men's dispositions for matter
of government and policy, in making them too curious
and irresolute by variety of reading, or too peremptory
or positive by strictness of rules and axioms, or too
immoderate and overweening by reason of the great
ness of examples, or too incompatible and differing from
the times by reason of the dissimilitude of examples ;
or at least, that it doth divert men's travails from
action and business, and bringeth them to a love of
leisure and privateness ; and that it doth bring into
states a 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 embassage to Rome, and that the
young men of Rome began to flock about him, being
allured with the sweetness and majesty of his eloquence
and learning, gave counsel in open senate that they

12 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

should give him his dispatch with all speed, lest he
should infect and enchant the minds and affections of
the youth, and at unawares bring in an alteration of
the manners and customs of the state. Out of the
same conceit or humour did Virgil, turning his pen to
the advantage of his country, and the disadvantage
of his own profession, make a kind of separation
between policy and government, and between arts
and sciences, in the verses so much renowned, attribut
ing and challenging the one to the Romans, and leaving
and yielding the other to the Grecians : ' Tu regere
imperio populos, Romane, memento, Hae tibi erunt
artes,' &c. So likewise we see that Anytus, the accuser
of Socrates, laid it as an article of charge and accusa
tion against him, that he did, with the variety and
power of his discourses and disputations, withdraw
young men from due reverence to the laws and customs
of their country, and that he did profess a dangerous
and pernicious science, which was, to make the worse
matter seem the better, and to suppress truth by force
of eloquence and speech.

2. But these and the like imputations have rather
a countenance of gravity than any ground of justice :
for experience doth warrant, that both in persons and
in times there hath been a meeting and concurrence
in learning and arms, nourishing and excelling in the
same men and the same ages. For as for men, there
cannot be a better nor the like instance, as of that pair,
Alexander the Great and Julius 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
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 concurrence is yet more visible in times than
in persons, by how much an age is [a] greater object
than a man. For both in Egypt, Assyria, Persia,

THE FIRST BOOK 13

Grecia, and Rome, the same times that are most
renowned for arms, are likewise most admired for
learning ; so that the greatest authors and philosophers
and the greatest captains and governors have lived in
the same ages. Neither can it otherwise be : for as in
man the ripeness 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 con
currence or near sequence in times.

3. And for matter of policy and government, that
learning should rather hurt, than enable thereunto, is
a thing very improbable : we see it is accounted an
error to commit a natural body to empiric physicians,
which commonly have a few pleasing receipts where
upon they are confident and adventurous, but know
neither the cause 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 ex
perience, to the prejudice of the causes they handle :
so by like reason it cannot be but a matter of doubtful
consequence if states be managed by empiric states
men, not well mingled with men grounded in learning.
But contrariwise, it is almost without instance con
tradictory that ever any government was disastrous
that was in the hands of learned governors. For
howsoever it hath been ordinary with politique men
to extenuate and disable learned men by the names of
pedantes ; yet in the records of time it appeareth in
many particulars that the governments of princes in
minority (notwithstanding the infinite disadvantage of
that kind of state) have nevertheless excelled the
government of princes of mature age, even for that
reason which they seek to traduce, which is, that by
that occasion the state hath been in the hands of
pedantes : for so was the state of Rome for the first five

14 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

years, which are so much magnified, during the minority
of Nero, in the hands of Seneca a pedanti : so it was
again, for ten years' space or more, during the minority
of Gordianus the younger, with great applause and
contentation in the hands of Misitheus a pedanti : so
was it before that, in the minority of Alexander Severus,
in like happiness, in hands not much unlike, by reason
of the rule of the women, who were aided by the
teachers and preceptors. Nay, let a man look into the
government of the bishops of 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 prin
ciples of estate, than those which have ascended to
the papacy from an education and breeding in affairs
of estate and courts of princes ; for although men bred
in learning are perhaps to seek in points of convenience
and accommodating for the present, which the Italians
call ragioni di stato, whereof the same Pius Quintus
could not hear spoken with patience, terming them
inventions against religion and the moral virtues ; yet
on the other side, to recompense that, they are perfect
in those same plain grounds of religion, justice, honour,
and moral virtue, which if they be well and watchfully
pursued, there will be seldom use of those other, no
more than of physic in a sound or well-dieted body.
Neither can the experience of one man's life furnish
examples and precedents for the events of one man's
life. For as it happeneth sometimes that the grand
child, or other descendant, resembleth the ancestor
more than the son ; so many times occurrences of
present times may sort better with ancient examples
than with those of the later or immediate times : and
lastly, the wit of one man can no more countervail
learning than one man's means can hold way with
a common purse.

4. And as for those particular seducements or indis
positions of the mind for policy and government, which
learning is pretended to insinuate ; if it be granted that

THE FIRST BOOK 15

any such thing be, it must be remembered withal, that
learning minis tereth in every of them greater strength
of medicine or remedy than it offereth cause of indis
position or infirmity. For if by a secret operation it
make men perplexed and irresolute, on the other side
by plain precept it teacheth them when and upon what
ground to resolve ; yea, and how to carry things in
suspense without prejudice, till they resolve. If it
make men positive and regular, it teacheth them what
things are in their nature demonstrative, and what are
conjectural, and as well the use of distinctions and
exceptions, as the latitude of principles and rules. If
it mislead by disproportion or dissimili tude of examples,
it teacheth men the force of circumstances, the errors
of comparisons, 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 Ixion, and it will hold
him from being vaporous or imaginative. Let him
look into the errors of Cato the second, and he will
never be one of the Antipodes, to tread opposite to
the present world.

5. And for the conceit that learning should dispose
men to leisure and privateness, and make men slothful ;
it were a strange thing if that which accustometh the
mind to a perpetual motion and agitation should
induce slothf ulness : whereas contrariwise it may be
truly affirmed, that no kind of men love business for
itself but those that are learned ; for other persons
love it for profit, as an hireling, that loves the work
for the wages ; or for honour, as because it beareth
them up in the eyes of men, and refresheth their reputa-

16 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

tion, which otherwise would wear ; or because it
putteth them in mind of their fortune, and giveth
them occasion to pleasure and displeasure ; or because
it exerciseth some faculty wherein they take pride,
and so entertaineth them in good humour and pleasing
conceits toward themselves ; or because it advanceth
any other their ends. So that as it is said of untrue
valours, that some men's valours are in the eyes of
them that look on ; so such men's industries are in
the eyes of others, or at least in regard of their 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 purchase : so that
of all men they are the most indefatigable, if it be
towards any business which can hold or detain their
mind.

6 And if any man be laborious in reading and study
and yet idle in business and action, it groweth from
some weakness of body or softness of spirit ; such as
Seneca speaketh of : ' Quidam tarn sunt umbratiles,
ut putent in turbido esse quicquid in luce est ' ; and
not of learning : well may it be that such a point of
a man's nature may make him give himself to learning,
but it is not learning that breedeth any such point hi
his nature.

7. And that learning should take up too much time
or leisure ; I answer, the most active or busy man that
hath been or can be, hath (no question) many vacant
times of leisure, while he expecteth the tides and
returns of business (except he be either tedious and
of no dispatch, or lightly and unworthily ambitious to
meddle in things that may be better done by others),
and then the question is but how those spaces and times
of leisure shall be filled and spent ; whether in pleasures
or in studies ; as was well answered by Demosthenes
to his adversary Aeschines, that was a man given to
pleasure and told him ' That his orations did smell of
the lamp :' 'Indeed (said Demosthenes) there is a great
difference between the things that you and I do by

THE FIRST BOOK

17

lamp-light.' So as no man need doubt that learning
will expulse business, but rather it will keep and defend
[ the possession of the mind against idleness and pleasure,
I which otherwise at unawares may enter to the prejudice
lof both.

8. Again, for that other conceit that learning should
idermine the reverence of laws and government, it is
ssuredly a mere depravation and calumny, without all

shadow of truth. For to say that a blind custom of
)bedience should be a surer obligation than duty
ight and understood, it is to affirm, that a blind
lan may tread surer by a guide than a seeing man can
>y a light. And it is without all controversy, that
irning doth make the minds of men gentle, generous,
laniable, and pliant to government ; whereas ignor-
lance makes them churlish, thwart, and mutinous : and
[the evidence of time doth clear this assertion, consider
ing that the most barbarous, rude, and unlearned
[times have been most subject to tumults, seditions,
and changes.

9. And as to the judgement of Cato the Censor, he
was well punished for his blasphemy against learning,
in the same kind wherein he offended ; for when he
was past threescore years old, he was taken with an
extreme desire to go to school again, and to learn the
Greek tongue, to the end to peruse the Greek authors ;
which doth well demonstrate that his former censure
of the Grecian learning was rather an affected gravity,
than according to the inward sense of his own opinion.
And as for Virgil's verses, though it pleased him to
brave the world in taking to the Romans the art of
empire, and leaving to others the arts of subjects ; yet
so much is manifest that the Romans never ascended
to that height of empire, till the time they had ascended
to the height of other arts. For in the time of the two
first Caesars, which had the art of government in
greatest perfection, there lived the best poet, Virgilius
Maro ; the best historiographer, Titus Livius ; the best
antiquary, Marcus Varro ; and the best, or second orator,
Marcus Cicero, that to the memory of man are known.

18 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

As for the accusation of Socrates, the time must be
remembered when it was prosecuted ; which was under
the Thirty Tyrants, the most base, bloody, and envious
persons that have 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 this day. Let this
therefore serve for answer to politiques, which in their
humorous severity, or in their feigned gravity, have
presumed to throw imputations upon learning ; which
redargution nevertheless (save that we know not whether
our labours may extend to other ages) were not needful
for the present, in regard of the love and reverence
towards learning, which the example and countenance
of two so learned princes, Queen Elizabeth and your
Majesty, being as Castor and Pollux, lucida sidera,
stars of excellent light and most benign influence,
hath wrought in all men of place and authority in
our nation.

III. 1. Now therefore we come to that third sort
of discredit or diminution of credit that groweth unto
learning from learned men themselves, which com
monly cleaveth fastest : it is either from their fortune,
or from their manners, or from the nature of their
studies. For the first, it is not in their power ; and
the second is accidental ; the third only is proper to
be handled : but because we are not in hand with
true measure, but with popular estimation and conceit,
it is not amiss to speak somewhat of the two former.
The derogations therefore which grow to learning
from the fortune or condition of learned men, are
either in respect of scarcity of means, or in respect of
privateness of life and meanness of employments.

2. Concerning want, and that it is the case of learned
men usually to begin with little, and not to grow rich
so fast as other men, by reason they convert not their

THE FIRST BOOK 19

labours chiefly to lucre and increase, it were good to
leave the commonplace 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 super
fluities and excesses of bishops and prelates.' So
a man might say that the felicity and delicacy of
princes and great persons had long since turned to
rudeness and barbarism, if the poverty of learning had
not kept up civility and honour 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 : ' Caeterum aut me
amor negotii suscepti fallit, aut nulla unquam respublica
nee major, nee sanctior, nee bonis exemplis ditior fuit ;
nee in quam tarn serae avaritia luxuriaque iinmigra-
verint ; nee ubi tantus ac tarn diu paupertati ac
parsimoniae honos fuerit.' We see likewise, after that
the state of Rome was not itself, but did degenerate,
how that person that took upon him to be counsellor
to Julius Caesar after his victory where to begin his
restoration of the state, maketh it of all points the
most summary to take away the estimation of wealth :
* Verum haec et omnia mala pariter cum honore
pecuniae desinent ; si neque magistratus, neque alia
vulgo cupienda, venalia erunt.' To conclude this point,
as it was truly said, that Rubor est virtutis color, though
sometime it come from vice ; so it may be fitly said
that Paupertas est virtutis fortuna, though sometimes
it may proceed from misgovernment and accident.
Surely Salomon hath pronounced it both in censure,
' Qui festinat ad divitias non erit insons ' ; and in
precept ; ' Buy the truth, and sell it not ; and so of
wisdom and knowledge ' ; judging that means were to
be spent upon learning, and not learning to be applied
to means. And as for the privateness or obscureness

20 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

(as it may be in vulgar estimation accounted) of life of
contemplative men ; it is a theme so common to extol
a private life, not taxed with sensuality and sloth, in
comparison and to the disadvantage of a civil life, for
safety, liberty, pleasure, and dignity, or at least free
dom from indignity, as no man handleth it but handleth
it well ; such a consonancy it hath to men's conceits
in the expressing, and to men's consents in the allow
ing. This only I will add, that learned men forgotten
in states and not living in the eyes of men, are like the
images of Cassius and Brutus in the funeral of Junia ;
of which not being represented, as many others were,
Tacitus saith, ' Eo ipso praefulgebant, quod non vise-
ban tur.'

3. And for meanness of employment, that which is
most traduced to contempt is that the government of
youth is commonly allotted to them ; which age,
because it is the age of least authority, it is transferred
to the disesteeming of those employments wherein
youth is 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 about
a young plant than about a plant corroborate ; so as
the weakest terms and times of all things use to have
the best applications and helps. And will you hearken
to the Hebrew rabbins ? ' Your young men shall see
visions, and your old men shall dream dreams ' ; say
they youth is the worthier age, for that visions are
nearer apparitions of God than dreams ? And let it
be noted, that howsoever the condition of life of
pedantes hath been scorned upon theatres, as the ape
of tyranny ; and that the modern looseness or negli
gence hath taken no due regard to the choice of school
masters 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

THE FIRST BOOK 21

discipline hath been in some sort revived of late times
by the colleges of the Jesuits ; of whom, although in
regard of their superstition I may say, ' Quo meliores,
eo deteriores ' ; yet in regard to this, and some other
points concerning human learning and moral matters,
I may say, as Agesilaus said to his enemy Pharnabazus,

* Talis quum sis, utinam noster esses.' And thus much
touching the discredits drawn from the fortunes of
learned men.

4. As touching the manners of learned men, it is
a thing personal and individual : and no doubt there
be amongst them, as in other professions, of all tempera
tures : but yet so as it is not without truth which is
said, that * Abeunt studia in mores,' studies have an
influence and operation upon the manners of those that
are conversant in them.

5. But upon an attentive and indifferent review,
I for my part cannot find any disgrace to learning can
proceed from the manners of learned men ; not in
herent to them as they are learned ; except it be
a fault (which was the supposed fault of Demosthenes,
Cicero, Cato the second, Seneca, and many more) that
because the times they read of are commonly better
than the times they live in, and the duties taught
better than the duties practised, they contend some
times too far to bring things to perfection, and to
reduce the corruption of manners to honesty of pre
cepts or examples of too great height. And yet hereof
they have caveats enough in their own walks. For
Solon, when he was asked whether he had given his
citizens the best laws, answered wisely, ' Yea of such
as they would receive ' : and Plato, finding that his
own heart could not agree with the corrupt manners of
his country, refused to bear place or office ; saying,

* That a man's country was to be used as his parents
were, that is, with humble persuasions, and not with
contestations.' And Caesar's counsellor put in the
same caveat, ' Non ad vetera instituta revocans quae
jampridem corruptis moribus ludibrio sunt ' : and
Cicero noteth this error directly in Cato the second,

22 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

when he writes to his friend Atticus ; ' Cato optime
sentit, sed nocet interdum reipublicae ; loquitur enim
tanquam in republica Platonis, non tanquam in faece
Romuli.' And the same Cicero doth excuse and ex
pound the philosophers for going too far and being too
exact in their prescripts, when he saith, ' Isti ipsi
praeceptores virtutis et magistri videntur fines officio-
rum paulo longius quam natura vellet protulisse, ut
cum ad ultimurn anirno contendissemus, ibi tamen, ubi
oportet, consisterernus ' : and yet himself might have
said, ' Monitis sum minor ipse meis ' ; for it was his
own fault though not in so extreme a degree.

6. Another fault likewise much of this kind hath
been incident to learned men ; which is, that they
have 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 ib please you to note it, my counsels
unto you are not such whereby I should grow great
amongst you, and you become little amongst the
Grecians ; but they be of that nature, as they are
sometimes not good for me to give, but are always good
for you to follow.' And so Seneca, after he had con
secrated that ' Quinquennium Neronis ' to the eternal
glory of learned governors, held on his honest and loyal
course of good and free counsel, after his master grew
extremely corrupt in his government. Neither can
this point otherwise be ; for learning endueth men's
minds with a true sense of the frailty of their persons,
the casualty of their fortunes, and the dignity of their
soul and vocation : so that it is impossible for them
to esteem that any greatness of their own fortune can
be a true or worthy end of their being and ordainment ;
and therefore are desirous to give their account to God,
and so likewise to their masters under God (as kings
and the states that they serve) in these words ; ' Ecce
tibi lucrefeci,' and not ' Ecce mihi lucrefeci ' : whereas
the corrupter sort of mere politiques, that have not
their thoughts established by learning in the love and
apprehension of duty, nor never look abroad into

THE FIRST BOOK 23

universality, do refer all things to themselves, and
thrust themselves into the centre of the world, as if
all lines should meet in them and their fortunes ; never
caring in all tempests what becomes of the ship of
estates, so they may save themselves in the cockboat
of their own fortune : whereas men that feel the weight
of duty and know the limits of self-love, use to make
good their places and duties, though with peril ; and
if they stand in seditious and violent alterations, it is
rather the reverence which many times both adverse
parts do give to honesty, than any versatile advantage
of their own carriage. But for this point of tender
sense and fast obligation of duty which learning doth
endue the mind withal, howsoever fortune may tax it,
and many in the depth of their corrupt principles may
despise it, yet it will receive an open allowance, and
therefore needs the less disproof or excusation.

7. Another fault incident commonly to learned men,
•which may be more probably defended than truly
denied, is, that they fail sometimes in applying them
selves to particular persons : which want of exact
application ariseth from two causes ; the one, because
the largeness of their mind can hardly confine itself to
dwell in the exquisite observation or examination of
the nature and customs of one person : for it is a speech
for a lover, and not for a wise man, ' Satis magnum alter
alteri theatruin sumus.' Nevertheless I shall yield,
that he that cannot contract the sight of his mind as
well as disperse and dilate it, wanteth a great faculty.
But there is a second cause, which is no inability, but
a rejection upon choice and judgement. For the honest
and just bounds of observation by one person upon
another, extend no further but to understand him
sufficiently, whereby not to give him offence, or whereby
to be able to give him faithful counsel, or whereby to
stand upon reasonable guard and caution in respect of
a man's self. But to be speculative into another man
to the end to know how to work him, or wind him, or
govern him, proceedeth from a heart that is double
and cloven and not entire and ingenuous ; which as in

24 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

friendship it is want of integrity, so towards princes
or superiors is want of duty. For the custom of the
Levant, which is that subjects do forbear to gaze or
fix their eyes upon princes, is in the outward ceremony
barbarous, but the moral is good : for men ought not
by cunning and bent observations to pierce and pene
trate into the hearts of kings, which the scripture hath
declared to be inscrutable.

8. There is yet another fault (with which I will con
clude this part) which is often noted in learned men,
that they do many times fail' to observe decency and
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 judgement of them
in greater matters by that which they find wanting
in them in smaller. But this consequence doth oft
deceive men, for which I do refer them over to that
which was said by Themistocles, arrogantly and un
civilly being applied to himself out of his own mouth,
but, being applied to the general state of this question,
pertinently and justly; when being invited to touch
a lute he said ' He could not fiddle, but he could make
a small town a great 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 apothe
caries, which on the outside had apes and owls and
antiques but contained within sovereign and precious
liquors and confections ; acknowledging that to an
external report he was not without superficial levities
and deformities, but was inwardly replenished with
excellent virtues and powers. And so much touching
the point of manners of learned men.

9. But in the mean time I have no purpose to give
allowance to some conditions and courses base and
unworthy, wherein divers professors of learning have
wronged themselves and gone too far ; such as were
those trencher philosophers which in the later age of
the Roman state were usually in the houses of great

THE FIRST BOOK 25

persons, being little better than solemn parasites ; of
which kind, Lucian maketh a merry description of the
philosopher that the great lady took to ride with her
in her coach, and would needs have him carry her little
dog, which he doing officiously and yet uncomely, the
page scoffed and said, ' That he doubted the philosopher
of a Stoic would turn to be a Cynic.' But above all
the rest, the gross and palpable flattery, whereunto
many not unlearned have abased and abused their wits
and pens, turning (as Du Bartas saith) Hecuba into
Helena, and Faustina into Lucretia, hath most diminished
the price and estimation of learning. Neither is the
modern dedication of books and writings, as to patrons,
to be commended : for that books (such as are worthy
the name of books) ought to have no patrons but truth
and reason. And the ancient custom was to dedicate
them only to private and equal friends, or to entitle
the books with their names : or if to kings and great
persons, it was to some such as the argument of the
book was fit and proper for : but these and the like
courses may deserve rather reprehension than defence.
10. Not that I can tax or condemn the morigeration
or application of learned men to men in fortune. For
the answer was good that Diogenes made to one that
asked him in mockery, ' How it came to pass that
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
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 philo
sophy, reproved Aristippus that he would offer the
profession of philosophy such an indignity as for a
private suit to fall at a tyrant's feet : but he answered,
* 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

26 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

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 dis
allowed ; for though they may have some outward
baseness, yet in a judgement truly made they are to
be accounted submissions to the occasion and not to
the person.

IV. 1. 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 justifica
tion 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 advan
tage upon that which is corrupt and degenerate : as
the heathens in the primitive church used to blemish
and taint the Christians with the faults and corruptions
of heretics. But nevertheless I have no meaning at
this time to make any exact animadversion of the errors
and impediments in matters of learning, which are
more secret and remote from vulgar opinion, but only
to speak unto such as do fall under or near unto a
popular observation.

2. There be therefore chiefly three vanities in studies,
whereby learning hath been most traduced. For those
things we do esteem vain, which are either false or
frivolous, those which either have no truth or no use :
and those persons we esteem vain, which are either
credulous or curious ; and curiosity is either in matter
or words : so that in reason as well as in experience
there fall out to be these three distempers (as I may
term them) of learning : the first, fantastical learning ;
the second, contentious learning ; and the last, delicate
learning ; vain imaginations, vain altercations, and vain
affectations ; and with the last I will begin. Martin
Luther, conducted (no doubt) by an higher providence,

THE FIRST BOOK 27

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 hia
own solitude, being no ways aided by the opinions of
his own time, was enforced to awake all antiquity, and
to call former times to his succours to make a party
against the present time : so that the ancient authors,
both in divinity and in humanity, which had long time
slept in libraries, began generally to be read and re
volved. This by consequence did draw on a necessity
of a more exquisite travail in the languages original,
wherein those authors did write, for the better under
standing of those authors, and the better advantage of
pressing and applying their words. And thereof grew
again a delight in their manner of style and phrase,
and an admiration of that kind of writing ; which was
much furthered and precipitated by the enmity and
opposition that the propounders of those primitive but
seeming new opinions had against the schoolmen ; who
were generally of the contrary part, and whose writings
were altogether in a different style and form ; taking
liberty to coin and frame new terms of art to express
their own sense, and to avoid circuit of speech, without
regard to the pureness, pleasantness, and (as I may call
it) lawfulness of the phrase or word. And again,
because the great labour then was with the people (of
whom the Pharisees were wont to say, ' Execrabilis ista
turba, quae non novit legem '), for the winning and
persuading of them, there grew of necessity in chief
price and request eloquence and variety of discourse, as
the fittest and forciblest access into the capacity of the
vulgar sort : so that these four causes concurring, the
admiration of ancient authors, the hate of the school
men, the exact study of languages, and the efficacy
of preaching, did bring in an affectionate study of
eloquence and copie of speech, which then began to
nourish. 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

28 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

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 argu
ment, life of invention, or depth of judgement. Then
grew the flowing and watery vein of Osorius, the
Portugal bishop, to be in price. Then did Sturmius
spend such infinite and curious pains upon Cicero
the Orator, and Hermogenes the Rhetorician, besides
his own books of Periods and Imitation, and the like.
Then did Car of Cambridge and Ascham with their
lectures and writings almost deify Cicero and Demos
thenes, and allure all young men that were studious
unto that delicate and polished kind of learning. Then
did Erasmus take occasion to make the scoffing echo,
' Decem annos consurnpsi in legendo Cicerone ' ; and
the echo answered in Greek One, Asine. Then grew
the learning of the schoolmen to be utterly despised
as barbarous. In sum, the whole inclination and bent
of those times was rather towards copie than weight.

3. Here therefore is the first distemper of learning,
when men study words and not matter ; whereof,
though I have represented an example of late times,
yet it hath been and will be secundum majus et minus
in all time. And how is it possible but this should
have an operation to discredit learning, even with
vulgar capacities, when they see learned men's works
like the first letter of a patent, or limned book ; which
though it hath large nourishes, 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.

4. 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

THE FIRST BOOK 28

deep progress into philosophy, it is some hindrance ;
because it is too early satisfactory to the mind of man,
and quencheth the desire of further 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 con
ference, 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
BO justly contemptible, that as Hercules, when he saw
the image of Adonis, Venus' minion, in a temple, said
in disdain, * Nil sacri es ' ; so there is none of Hercules'
followers in learning, that is, the more severe and
laborious sort of inquirers into truth, but will despise
those delicacies and affectations, as indeed capable of
no divineness. And thus much of the first disease or
distemper of learning.

5. The second which followeth is in nature worse
than the former : for as substance of matter is better
than beauty of words, so contrariwise vain matter is
worse than vain words : wherein it seemeth the re
prehension 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 profanas vocum novitates, et
oppositiones falsi nominis scientiae.' For he assigneth
two marks and badges of suspected and falsified science :
the one, the novelty and strangeness of terms ; the
other, the strictness of positions, which of necessity
doth induce oppositions, and so questions and alterca
tions. Surely, like as many substances in nature which
are solid do putrify and corrupt into worms ; so it is the
property of good and sound knowledge to putrify and
dissolve into a number of subtle, idle, unwholesome,
and (as I may term them) vermiculate questions, which
have indeed a kind of quickness and life of spirit, but
no soundness of matter or goodness of quality. 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

30 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

(chiefly Aristotle their dictator) as their persons were
shut up in the cells of monasteries and colleges, and
knowing little history, either of nature or time, did
out of no great quantity of matter and infinite agitation
of wit spin 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 contempla
tion 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.

6. This same unprofitable subtility or curiosity is of
two sorts ; either in the subject itself that they handle,
when it is a fruitless speculation or controversy (whereof
there are no small number both in divinity and philo
sophy), or in the manner or method of handling of
a knowledge, which amongst them was this ; upon
every particular position or assertion to frame objec
tions, and to those objections, solutions ; which solu
tions were for the most part not confutations, but
distinctions : whereas indeed the strength of all
sciences, is as the strength of the old man's faggot, in
the bond. For the harmony of a science, supporting
each part the other, is and ought to be the true and
brief confutation and suppression of all the smaller
sort of objections. But, on the other side, if you take
out every axiom, as the sticks of the faggot, one by
one, you may quarrel with them and bend them and
break them at your pleasure : so that as was said of
Seneca, * Verborum minutiis rerum frangit pondera,'
so a man may truly say of the schoolmen, ' Quaes-
tionum minutiis scientiarum frangunt soliditatem.'
For were it not better for a man in a fair room to set
up one great light, or branching candlestick of lights,
than to go about with a small watch candle into every
corner ? And such is their method, that rests not so
much upon evidence of truth proved by arguments,
authorities, similitudes, examples, as upon particular

THE FIRST BOOK 31

confutations and solutions of every scruple, cavilla-
tion, and objection ; breeding for the most part one
question as fast as it solveth another ; even as in the
former resemblance, when you carr^ 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 inquina monstris ' :
so the generalities of the schoolmen are for a while
good and proportionable ; but then when you descend
into their distinctions and decisions, instead of a fruitful
womb for the use and benefit of man's life, they end
in monstrous altercations and barking questions. So
as it is not possible but this quality of knowledge must
fall under popular contempt, the people being apt to
contemn truth upon occasion of controversies and alter
cations, and to think they are all out of their way which
never meet ; and when they see such digladiation
about subtilties, and matter of no use or moment, they
easily fall upon that judgement of Dionysius of Syra-
cusa, ' Verba ista sunt senum otiosorum.'

7. Notwithstanding, certain it is that if those school
men to their great thirst of truth and unwearied travail
of wit had joined variety and universality of reading
and contemplation, they had proved excellent lights,
to the great advancement of all learning and know
ledge ; 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. And
thus much for the second disease of learning.

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

32 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

of knowledge, which is nothing but a representation of
truth : for the truth of being and the truth of knowing
are one, differing no more than the direct beam and the
beam reflected. This vice therefore brancheth itself
into two sorts ; delight in deceiving and aptness to be
deceived ; imposture and credulity ; which, although
they appear to be of a diverse nature, the one seeming
to proceed of cunning and the other of simplicity, yet
certainly they do for the most part concur : for, as
the verse noteth,

Percontatorem fugito, nam garrulus idem est,

an inquisitive man is a prattler ; so upon the like
reason a credulous man is a deceiver : as we see it in
fame, that he that will easily believe rumours, will as
easily augment rumours and add somewhat to them
of his own ; which Tacitus wisely noteth, when he
saith, ' Fingunt simul creduntque ' : so great an
affinity hath fiction and belief.

9. This facility of credit and accepting or admitting
things weakly authorized or warranted, is of two kinds
according to the subject : for it is either a belief of
history, or, as the lawyers speak, matter of fact ; or
else of matter of art and opinion. As to the former,
we see the experience and inconvenience of this error
in ecclesiastical history ; which hath too easily received
and registered reports and narrations of miracles
wrought by martyrs, hermits, or monks of the desert,
and other holy men, and their relics, shrines, chapels,
and images : which though they had a passage for
a time by the ignorance of the people, the superstitious
simplicity of some, and the politic toleration of others,
holding them but as divine poesies ; yet after a period
of time, when the mist began to clear up, they grew to
be esteemed but as old wives' fables, impostures of
the clergy, illusions of spirits, and badges of Antichrist,
to the great scandal and detriment of religion.

10. So in natural history, we see there hath not been
that choice and judgement used as ought to have been ;
as may appear in the writings of Plinius, Cardanus,

THE FIRST BOOK 33

Albertus, and divers of the Arabians, being fraught
with much fabulous matter, a great part not only un
tried, but notoriously untrue, to the great derogation
of the credit of natural 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 was to be built, was not to be mingled or
weakened with matter of doubtful credit ; and yet
again, that rarities and reports that seem uncredible
are not to be suppressed or denied to the memory of
men.

11. 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 them
selves, or to certain authors in any art. The sciences
themselves, which have had better intelligence and
confederacy with the imagination of man than with
his reason, are three in number ; astrology, natural
magic, and alchemy : of which sciences, nevertheless,
the ends or pretences are noble. For astrology pre-
tendeth to discover that correspondence or concatena
tion which is betwreen the superior globe and the in
ferior : 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 deriva
tions and prosecutions to these ends, both in the theories
and in the practices, are full of error and vanity ; which
the great professors themselves have sought to veil
over and conceal by enigmatical writings, and referring
themselves to auricular traditions and such other
devices, to save the credit of impostures. And yet
surely to alchemy this right is due, that it may be
c

34 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

compared to the husbandman whereof Aesop makes
the fable ; that, when he died, told his sons that he
had left unto them gold buried under ground in his
vineyard ; and they digged over all the ground, and
gold they found none ; but by reason of their stirring
and digging the mould about the roots of their vines,
they had a great vintage the year following : so as
suredly 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.

12. And as for the overmuch credit that hath been
given unto authors in sciences, in making them dic
tators, that their words should stand, and not consuls
to give advice ; the damage is infinite that sciences
have received thereby, as the principal cause that hath
kept them low at a stay without growth or advance
ment. For hence it hath cornen, that in arts mechanical
the first deviser comes shortest, and time addeth and
perfecteth ; but in sciences the first author goeth
furthest, and time leeseth and corrupteth. So we see,
artillery, sailing, printing, and the like, were grossly
managed at the first, and by time accommodated and
refined : but contrariwise, the philosophies and sciences
of Aristotle, Plato, Deinocritus, Hippocrates, Euclides,
Archimedes, of most vigour at the first and by time
degenerate and irnbased ; whereof the reason is no other,
but that in the former many wits and industries have
contributed in one ; and in the latter many wits and
industries have been spent about the wit of some one,
whom many times they have rather depraved than
illustrated. For as water will not ascend higher than
the level of the first springhead from whence it des-
cendeth, so knowledge derived from Aristotle, and
exempted from liberty of examination, will not rise
again higher than the knowledge of Aristotle. And
therefore although the position be good, * Oportet
discentem credere,' yet it must be coupled with this,
* Oportet edoctum judicare ' ; for disciples do owe
unto masters only a temporary belief and a suspension

THE FIRST BOOK 35

of their own judgement till they be fully instructed,
and not an absolute resignation or perpetual captivity :
and therefore, to conclude this point, I will say no
more, but so let great authors have their due, as time,
which is the author of authors, be not deprived of his
due, which is, further and further to discover truth.
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 passed over.

V. 1. The first of these is the extreme affecting of
two extremities : the one antiquity, the other novelty ;
wherein it seemeth the children of time do take after
the nature and malice of the father. For as he de-
voureth his children, so one of them seeketh to devour
and suppress the other ; while antiquity envieth there
should be new additions, and novelty cannot be content
to add but it must deface : surely the advice of the
prophet is the true direction in this matter, ' State
super vias antiquas, et videte quaenam sit via recta
et bona et ambulate in ea.' Antiquity deserveth that
reverence, that men should make a stand thereupon
and discover what is the best way ; but when the
discovery is well taken, then to make progression.
And to speak truly, ' Antiquitas saeculi juventus
mundi.' These times are the ancient times, when the
world is ancient, and not those which we account
ancient ordine retrograde, by a computation backward
from ourselves.

2. Another error induced by the former is a distrust
that anything should be now to be found out, which
the world should have missed and passed over so long
time ; as if the same objection were to be made to
time, that Lucian maketh to Jupiter and other the
heathen gods ; of which he wondereth that they begot
so many children in old time, and begot none in his
time ; and asketh whether they were become septua-
genary, or whether the law Papia, made against old

36 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

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 unconstancy of men's judgements, which
till a matter be done, wonder that it can be done ;
and as soon as it is done, wonder again that it was no
sooner done : as we see in the expedition of Alexander
into Asia, which at first was prejudged as a vast and
impossible enterprise ; and yet afterwards it pleaseth
Livy to make no more of it than this, ' Nil aliud quam
bene ausus vana contemnere.' And the same happened
to Columbus in the western navigation. But in in
tellectual matters it is much more common ; as may
be seen in most of the propositions of Euclid ; which
till they be demonstrate, they seem strange to our
assent ; but being demonstrate, our mind accepteth
of them by a kind of relation (as the lawyers speak)
as if we had known them before.

3. Another error, that hath also some affinity with the
former, is a conceit that of former opinions or sects
after variety and examination the best hath still pre
vailed 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 rejec
tion brought into oblivion : as if the multitude, or
the wisest for the multitude's sake, were not ready to
give passage rather to that which is popular and super
ficial, than to that which is substantial and profound ;
for the truth is, that time seemeth to be of the nature
of a river or stream, which carrieth down to us that
which is light and blown up, and sinketh and drowneth
that which is weighty and solid.

4. Another error, of a diverse nature from all the
former, is the over-early and peremptory reduction of
knowledge into arts and methods ; from which time
commonly sciences receive small or no augmentation.
But as young men, when they knit and shape perfectly,
do seldom grow to a further stature ; so knowledge,
while it is in aphorisms and observations, it is in growth
but when it once is comprehended in exact methods, it

THE FIRST BOOK 37

day perchance be further polished and illustrate and
accommodated for use and practice ; but it increaseth
no more in bulk and substance.

5. Another error which doth succeed that which we
last mentioned, is, that after the distribution of par
ticular arts and sciences, men have abandoned univers
ality, or philosophia prima : which cannot but cease
and stop all progression. For no perfect discovery
can be made upon a fiat or a level : neither is it possible
to discover the more remote and deeper parts of any
science, if you stand but upon the level of the same
science, and ascend not to a higher science.

6. Another error hath proceeded from too great
a reverence, and a kind of adoration of the mind and
understanding of man ; by means whereof, men have
withdrawn themselves too much from the contempla
tion of nature, and the observations of experience, and
have tumbled up and down in their own reason and
conceits. Upon these intellectualists, which are not-
withstanding commonly taken for the most sublime
and divine philosophers, Heraclitus gave a just censure,
Baying, ' Men sought truth in their own little worlds,
a,nd not in the great and common world ' ; for they
disdain to spell, and so by degrees to read in the volume ;
of God's works : and contrariwise by continual medita
tion and agitation of wit do urge and as it were invocate
their own spirits to divine and give oracles unto them,
whereby they are deservedly deluded.

7. Another error that hath some connexion with this
latter is, that men have used to infect their medita
tions, opinions, and doctrines, with some conceits which
they have most admired, or some sciences which they
have most applied ; and given all things else a tincture
according to them, utterly untrue and unproper. So
hath Plato intermingled his philosophy with theology,
and Aristotle with logic ; and the second school of
Plato, Proclus and the rest, with the mathematics.
For these were the arts which had a kind of primo
geniture with them severally. So have the alchemists
made a philosophy out of a few experiments of the

38 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

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, saith pleasantly, ' Hie ab arte
sua non recessit,' &c. But of these conceits Aristotle
speaketh seriously and wisely when he saith, * Qui
respiciunt ad pauca de facili pronunciant.'

8. Another error is an impatience of doubt, and
haste to assertion without due and mature suspension
of judgement. 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 he
will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in
certainties.

9. 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 ' ; nor on the other side into
Socrates his ironical doubting of all things ; but to
propound things sincerely with more or less assevera
tion, as they stand in a man's own judgement proved
more or less.

10. Other errors there are in the scope that men
propound to themselves, whereunto they bend their
endeavours ; for whereas the more constant and devote
kind of professors of any science ought to propound to
themselves to make some additions to their science,
they convert their labours to aspire to certain second
prizes : as to be a profound interpreter or commenter,

THE FIRST BOOK 39

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

11. But the greatest error of all the rest is the mis
taking or misplacing of the last or furthest end of
knowledge. For men have entered into a desire of
learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a natural
curiosity and inquisitive appetite ; sometimes to enter
tain 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 use of men : as if there were sought in
knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and
restless spirit ; or a terrace for a wandering and vari
able 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 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 conjunc
tion 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
profession ; for I am not ignorant how much that
divertcth and interrupteth the prosecution and advance
ment of knowledge, like unto the golden ball thrown
before Atalanta, which while she goeth aside and
Btoopeth to take up, the race is hindered,

Declinat cursus, aurumque volubile tollit.

Neither is my meaning, as was spoken of Socrates, to
call philosophy down from heaven to converse upon

40 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

the earth ; that is, to leave natural philosophy aside,
and to apply knowledge only to manners and policy.
But as both heaven and earth do conspire and con
tribute 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 cour
tesan, 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.

12. Thus have I described and opened, as by a kind
of dissection, those peccant humours (the principal of
them) which have not only given impediment to the
proficience of learning, but have given also occasion to
the traducement thereof : wherein if I have been too
plain, it must be remembered, ' fidelia vulnera amantis,
sed dolosa oscula malignantis.' 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
varnish or amplification justly to weigh the dignity
of knowledge in the balance with other things, and to
take the true value thereof by testimonies and argu
ments divine and human.

VI. 1. First therefore let us seek the dignity of
knowledge in the arch-type or first platform, which
is in the attributes 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 knowledge acquired, and all know
ledge in God is original : and therefore we must look
for it by another name, that of wisdom or sapience, as
the scriptures call it.

2. It is so then, that in the work of the creation we
see a double emanation of virtue from God ; the one

THE FIRST BOOK 41

referring more properly to power, the other to wisdom ;
the one expressed in making the subsistence of the
matter, and the other in disposing the beauty of the
form. This being supposed, it is to be observed that
for anything which appeareth in the history of the
creation, the confused mass and matter of heaven and
earth was made in a moment ; and the order and dis
position 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 ; bub actually,
that God made heaven and earth : the one carrying
the style of a manufacture, and the other of a law,
decree, or counsel.

3. To proceed to that which is next in order from
God to spirits ; we find, as far as credit is to be given
to the 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 cheru
bim ; and the third, and so following places, to thrones,
principalities, and the rest, which are all angels of
power and ministry ; so as the angels of knowledge
and illumination are placed before the angels of office
and domination.

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

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

6. After the creation was finished, it is set down unto
us that man was placed in the garden to work therein ;
which work, so appointed to him, could be no other
than work of contemplation ; that is, when the end of

42 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

work is but for exercise and experiment, not for neces
sity ; for there being then no reluctation of the creature,
nor sweat of the brow, man's employment must of con
sequence have been matter of delight in the experiment,
and not matter of labour for the use. Again, the first
acts which man performed in Paradise consisted of tho
two summary parts of knowledge ; the view of crea
tures, 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 knowledge of good and evil ; wherein the sup
position was, that God's commandments or prohibi
tions were not the originals of good and evil, but that
they had other beginnings, which man aspired to
know ; to the end to make a total defection from God
and to depend wholly upon himself.

7. To pass on : in the first event or occurrence after
the fall of man, we see (as the scriptures have infinite
mysteries, not violating at all the truth of the story or
letter) an image of the two estates, the contemplative
state and the active state, figured in the two persons
of Abel and Cain, and in the two simplest and most
primitive trades of life ; that of the shepherd (who, by
reason of his leisure, rest in a place, and living in view
of heaven, is a lively image of a contemplative life),
and that of the husbandman : where we see again the
favour and election of God went to the shepherd, and
not to the tiller of the ground.

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

9. To descend to Moyses the lawgiver, and God's
first pen : he is adorned by the scriptures with this
addition and commendation, ' That he was seen in all

THE FIRST BOOK 43

the learning of the Egyptians ' ; which nation we know
was one of the most ancient schools of the world : for
so Plato brings in the Egyptian priest saying unto
Solon, * You Grecians are ever children ; you have no
knowledge of antiquity, nor antiquity of knowledge.'
Take a view of the ceremonial law of Moyses ; you shall
find, besides the prefiguration of Christ, the badge or
difference of the people of God, the exercise and impres
sion of obedience, and other divine uses and fruits
thereof, that some of the most learned Rabbins have
travailed profitably and profoundly to observe, some
of them a natural, some of them a moral, sense or
reduction of many of the ceremonies and ordinances.
As in the law of the leprosy, where it is said, * If the
whiteness have overspread the flesh, the patient may
pass abroad for clean ; but if there be any whole flesh
remaining, he is to be shut up for unclean ' ; one of
them noteth a principle of nature, that putrefaction
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.

10. So likewise in that excellent book of Job, if it
be revolved with diligence, it will be found pregnant
and swelling with natural philosophy ; as for example,
cosmography, and the roundness of the world, ' Qui
extendit aquilonem super vacuum, et appendit terrain
super nihilum ' ; wherein the pensileness of the earth,
the pole of the north, and the finiteness or convexity
of heaven are manifestly touched. So again, matter
of astronomy ; ' Spiritus ejus ornavit caelos, et obstet-
ricante manu eius eductus est Coluber tortuosus.'
And in another place, * Nunquid conjungere valebis
micantes Stellas Pleiadas, aut gyrum Arcturi poteria
dissipare ? ' Where the fixing of the stars, ever
standing at equal distance, is with great elegancy
noted. And in another place, * Qui facit Arcturum.

44 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

et Oriona, et Hyadas, et interiora Austri ' ; 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 ; ' Armon sicut lac nmlsisti me,
et sicub caseum coagulasti me ? ' £c. Matter of
minerals ; ' Habet argentuin venarum suarum prin-
cipia : et auro locus est in quo conflatur, ferrum de
terra tollitur, et lapis solutus calore in aes vertitur ' ;
and so forwards in that chapter.

11. So likewise in the person of Salomon the king,
we see the gift or endowment of wisdom and learning,
both in Salomon's petition and in God's assent there
unto, preferred before all other terrene and temporal
felicity. By virtue of which grant or donative of God
Salomon became enabled not only to write those ex
cellent parables or aphorisms concerning 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 rudi
ment between putrefaction and an herb), and also of
all things that breathe or move. Nay, the same
Salomon the king, although he excelled in the glory
of treasure and magnificent buildings, of shipping and
navigation, of service and attendance, of fame and
renown, and the like, yet he maketh no claim to any
of those glories, but only to the glory of inquisition of
truth ; for so he saibh expressly, ' The glory of God is
to conceal a thing, but the glory of the king is to find
it out ' ; as if, according to the innocent play of children,
the Divine Majesty took delight to hide his works, to
the end to have them found out ; and as if kings could
not obtain a greater honour than to be God's play
fellows in that game ; considering the great command
ment of wits and means, whereby nothing needeth to
be hidden from them.

12. Neither did the dispensation of God vary in the
times after our Saviour came into the world ; for our
Saviour himself did first show his power to subdue
ignorance, by his conference with the priests and doctors

THE FIRST BOOK 45

of the law, before he showed his power to subdue nature
by his miracles. And the coming of the Holy Spirit
was chiefly figured and expressed in the similitude and
gift of tongues, which are but vehicula scientiae.

13. 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 knowledge ; yet never
theless that counsel of his was no sooner performed,
but in the next vicissitude and succession he did send
his divine truth into the world, waited on with other
learnings, as with servants or handmaids : for so we
see Saint Paul, who was only learned amongst the
Apostles, had his pen most used in the scriptures of
the New Testament.

14. 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 ; neither could the
emulation and jealousy of Gregory the first of that name,
bishop of Rome, ever obtain the opinion of piety or
devotion ; bub contrariwise received the censure of
humour, malignity and pusillanimity, even amongst
holy men ; in that he designed to obliterate a-nd ex
tinguish the memory of heathen antiquity and authors.
But contrariwise it was the Christian church, which,
amidst the inundations of the Scythians on the one
side from the north-west, and the Saracens from the
east, did preserve in the sacred lap and bosom thereof
the precious relics even of heathen learning, which
otherwise had been extinguished as if no such thing
had ever been.

15. And we see before our eyes, that in the age of

46 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

ourselves and our fathers, when it pleased God to call
the Church of Rome to account for their degenerate
manners and ceremonies, and sundry doctrines ob
noxious and framed to uphold the same abuses ; at
one and the same time it was ordained by the Divine
Providence, that there should attend withal a renova
tion and new spring of all other knowledges. And, on
the other side we see the Jesuits, who partly in them
selves 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.

16. Wherefore to conclude this part, let it be ob
served, that 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 ex
terior of them as they first offer themselves to our senses,
we should do a like injury unto the majesty of God, as
if we should judge or construe of the store of some
excellent jeweller, by that only which is set out toward
the street in his shop. The other, because they minister
a singular 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 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

THE FIRST BOOK 47

evidence concerning the true dignity and value of
learning.

VII. 1. As for human proofs, it is so large a field,
as in a discourse of this nature and brevity it is fit
rather to use choice of those things which we shall
produce, than to embrace the variety of them. 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, was the supreme honour which man could
attribute unto man : specially when it was given, not
by a formal decree or act of state, as it was used among
the Roman Emperors, but by an inward assent and
belief. Which honour, being so high, had also a degree
or middle term : for there were reckoned above human
honours, honours heroical and divine : in the attribu
tion 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, Romulus, and the like : on the other
side, such as were inventors and authors of new arts,
endowments, and commodities towards man's life,
were ever consecrated amongst the gods themselves ;
as was Ceres, Bacchus, Mercurius, Apollo, and others ;
and justly ; for the merit of the former is confined
within the circle of an age or a nation ; and is like
fruitful showers, which though they be profitable and
good, yet serve but for that season, and for a latitude
of ground where they fall ; but the other is indeed like
the benefits of heaven, which are permanent and
universal. The former again is mixed with strife and
perturbation ; but the latter hath the true character
of Divine Presence, coming in aura leni, without noise
or agitation.

48 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

2. Neither is certainly that other merit of learning,
in repressing the inconveniences which grow from man
to man, much inferior to the former, of relieving the
necessities which arise from nature ; which merit was
lively set forth by the ancients in that feigned relation
of Orpheus' theatre, where all beasts and birds assem
bled ; and forgetting their several appetites, some of
prey, some of game, some of quarrel, stood all sociably
together listening unto the airs and accords of tlie
harp ; the sound whereof no sooner ceased, or was
drowned by some louder noise, but every beast re
turned to his own nature : wherein is aptly described
the nature and condition of men, who are full of
savage and unreclaimed desires, of profit, of lust, of
revenge ; which as long as they give ear to precepts,
to laws, to religion, sweetly touched with eloquence
and persuasion of books, of sermons, of harangues, so
long is society and peace maintained ; but if these
instruments be silent, or that sedition and tumult
make them not audible, all things dissolve into anarchy
and confusion.

3. But this appeareth more manifestly, when kings
themselves, 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 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 imperfec
tions in their passions and customs ; yet if they be
illuminate by learning, they have those notions of
religion, policy, and morality, which do preserve them
and refrain them from all ruinous and peremptory
errors and excesses ; whispering evermore in their
ears, when counsellors and servants stand mute and
silent. And senators or counsellors likewise, which be
learned, do proceed upon more safe and substantial
principles, than counsellors which are only men of

THE FIRST BOOK 49

experience : the one sort keeping dangers afar off,
vhereas the other discover them not till they come
near hand, and then trust to the agility of their wit
to ward or avoid them.

4. Which felicity of times under learned princes (to
keep still the law of brevity, by using the most eminent
and selected examples) doth best appear in the age
which passed from the death of Domitianus the emperor
until the reign of Commodus ; comprehending a succes
sion 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 Roman empire (which then was a model of the
world) enjoyed ; a matter revealed and prefigured
unto Domitian in a dream the night before he was
slain ; for he thought there was grown behind upon
his shoulders a neck and a head of gold : which came
accordingly to pass in those golden times which suc
ceeded : of which princes we will make some com
memoration ; wherein although the matter will be
vulgar, and may be thought fitter for a declamation
than agreeable to a treatise infolded as this is, yet
because it is pertinent to the point in hand, * Neque
semper arcum tendit Apollo,' and to name them only
were too naked and cursory, I will not omit it altogether.
The first was Nerva ; the excellent temper of whose
government is by a glance in Cornelius Tacitus touched
to the life : ' Postquam divus Nerva res olim in-
sociabiles miscuisset, imperium et libertatem.' And in
token of his learning, the last act of his short reign left
to memory was a missive to his adopted son Trajan,
proceeding upon some inward discontent at the in
gratitude of the times, comprehended in a verse of
Homer's :

Teiis, Phoebe, tuis lacrymas ulciscere nostras.

5. Trajan, who succeeded, was for his person not
learned : but if we will hearken to the speech of our
Saviour, that saith, ' He that receiveth a prophet in
the name of a prophet shall have a prophet's reward,'

50 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

he deserveth to be placed amongst the most learned
princes : for there was not a greater admirer of learn
ing 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 lively set forth, than that legend tale of Gregoriua
Magnus, bishop of Rome, who was noted for the ex
treme envy he bare towards all heathen excellency :
and yet he is reported, out of the love and estimation
of Trajan's moral virtues, to have made unto God
passionate and fervent prayers for the delivery of his
soul out of hell : 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 Christiana
received intermission, upon the certificate of Plinius
Secundus, a man of excellent learning and by Trajan
advanced.

6. Adrian, his successor, was the most curious man
that lived, and the most universal inquirer ; insomuch
as it was noted for an error in his mind, that he desired
to comprehend all things, and not to reserve himself
for the worthiest things : falling into the like humour
that was long before noted in Philip of Macedon ; who,
when he would needs over-rule and put down an
excellent musician in an argument touching music,
was well answered by him again, ' God forbid, sir (saith
he), that your fortune should be so bad, as to know
these things better than I.' It pleased God likewise
to use the curiosity of this emperor as an inducement
to the peace of his Church in those days. For having
Christ in veneration, not as a God or Saviour but as
a wonder or novelty, andjiaving his picture in his gallery,
matched with Apollomus (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

THE FIRST BOOK 51

peace during his time. And for his government civil,
although he did not attain to that of Trajan's in glory
of arms or perfection of justice, yet in deserving of the
weal of the subject he did exceed him. For Trajan
erected many famous monuments and buildings ;
insomuch as Constantino 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 peruinbulation or survey of the
Roman empire ; giving order and making assignation
where he went, for re-edifying of cities, towns, and forts
decayed ; and for cutting of rivers and streams, and
for making bridges and passages, and for policing of
cities and commonalties with new ordinances and con
stitutions, and granting new franchises and incorpora
tions ; so tha-t his whole time was a very restoration
of all the lapses and decays of former times.

7. Antoninus Pius, who succeeded him, was a prince
excellently learned, and had the patient and subtle wit
of a schoolman ; insomuch as in common speech
(which leaves no virtue untaxed) he was called Cymini
Sector, a carver or a divider of cummin seed, wrhich is
one of the least seeds ; such a patience he had and
settled spirit, to enter into the least and most exact
differences of causes ; a fruit no doubt of the exceeding
tranquillity and serenity of his mind ; which being no
ways charged or incumbered, either with fears, re
morses, or scruples, but having been noted for a man
of the purest goodness, without all fiction or affecta
tion, that hath reigned or lived, made his mind con
tinually present and entire. He likewise approached
a degree nearer unto Christianity, and became, as
Agrippa said unto Saint Paul, ' half a Christian ' ;
holding their religion and law in good opinion, and not
only ceasing persecution, but giving way to the advance
ment of Christians.

8. There succeeded him the first Dim fratres, the
two adoptive brethren, Lucius Commodus Verus, son

52 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

to Aelius Verus, who delighted much in the softer kind
of learning, and was wont to call the poet Martial his
Virgil ; and Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ; whereof the
latter, who 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 intituled Caesares, being as
a pasquil or satire to deride all his predecessors, feigned
that they were all invited to a banquet of the gods,
and Silenus the jester s"at at the nether end of the table,
and bestowed a scoff on every one as they came in ;
but when Marcus Philosophus came in, Silenus was
gravelled and out of countenance, not knowing where
to carp at him ; save at the last he gave a glance at
his patience towards his wife. And the virtue of this
prince, continued with that of his predecessor, made
the name of Antoninus so sacred in the world, that
though it were extremely dishonoured in Commodus,
Caracalla, and Heliogabalus, who all bare the name,
yet when Alexander Severus refused the name because
he was a stranger to the family, the senate with one
acclamation said, * Quomodo Augustus, sic et Anto
ninus.' In such renown and veneration was the name
of these two princes in those days, that they would
have had it as a perpetual addition in all the emperors'
style. In this emperor's time also the Church for the
most part was in peace ; so as in this sequence of six
princes we do see the blessed effects of learning in
sovereignty, painted forth in the greatest table of the
world.

9. But for a tablet or picture of smaller volume (not
presuming to speak of your Majesty that liveth), in
my judgement the most excellent is that of Queen
Elizabeth, your immediate predecessor in this part of
Britain ; a prince that, if Plutarch were now alive to
write lives by 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 ; whether we speak of

THE FIRST BOOK 53

learning, of language, or of science, modern or ancient,
divinity or humanity : and unto the very last year of
her life she accustomed to appoint set hours for read
ing, scarcely any young student in an university more
daily or more duly. As for her government, I assure
myself, I shall not exceed, if I do affirm that this part
of the island never had forty-five years of better times ;
and yet not through the calmness of the season, but
through the wisdom of her regiment. For if there be
considered of the one side, the truth of religion estab
lished, the constant peace and security, the good
administration of justice, the temperate use of the
prerogative, not slackened, nor much strained, the
flourishing state of learning, sortable to so excellent
a patroness, the convenient estate of wealth and means,
both of crown and subject, the habit of obedience, and
the moderation of discontents ; and there be con
sidered on the other side the differences of religion,
the troubles of neighbour countries, the ambition of
Spain, and opposition of Rome ; and then that she
was solitary and of herself : these things I say con
sidered, as I could not have chosen an instance so
recent and so proper, so I suppose I could not have
chosen one more remarkable or eminent to the pur
pose now in hand, which is concerning the conjunc
tion of learning in the prince with felicity in the people.

10. Neither hath learning an influence and operation
only upon civil merit and moral virtue, and the arts
or temperature of peace and peaceable government ;
but likewise it hath no less power and efficacy in
enablement towards martial and military virtue and
prowess ; as may be notably represented in the ex
amples of Alexander the Great and Caesar 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
perfections in learning, it is pertinent to say some
what.

11. Alexander was bred and taught under Aristotle

54 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

the great philosopher, who dedicated divers of his books
of philosophy unto him : he was attended with Callis-
thenos 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 bare towards Achilles,
in this, that he had so good a trumpet of his praises as
Homer's verses : secondly, in the judgement or solution
he gave touching that precious cabinet of Darius, which
was found among his jewels ; whereof question was
made what thing was worthy to be put into it ; and
he gave his opinion for Homer's works : thirdly, in
his letter to Aristotle, after he had set forth his books
of nature, wherein he expostulate th with them for
publishing the secrets or mysteries of philosophy ;
and gave him to understand that himself esteemed it
more to excel other men in learning and knowledge
than in power and empire. And what use he had of
learning doth appear, or rather shine, in all his speeches
and answers, being full of science and use of science,
and that in all variety.

12. And herein again it may seem a thing scholas-
tical, and somewhat idle, to recite things that every
man knoweth ; but yet, since the argument I handle
leadeth me thereunto, I am glad that men shall perceive
I am as willing to flatter (if they will so call it) an
Alexander, or a Caesar, or an Antoninus, that are dead
many hundred years since, as any that now liveth :
for it is the displaying of the glory of learning in
sovereignty that I "propound to myself, and not an
humour of declaiming in any man's praises. Observe
then the speech he used of Diogenes, and see if it tend
not to the true state of one of the greatest questions
of moral 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 ;

THE FIRST BOOK 55

' Plus erat, quod hie nollet accipere, quam quod ille
posset dare. There were more things which Diogenes
would have refused, than those were which Alexander
could have given or enjoyed.'

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

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

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

16. But note again how well he could use the same
art, which he reprehended, to serve his own humour :
when bearing a secret grudge to Callisthenes, because
he was against the new ceremony of his adoration,
feasting one night where the same Callisthenes was at
the table, it was moved by some after supper, for
entertainment sake, that Callisthenes, who was an
eloquent man, might speak of some theme or purpose
at his own choice ; which Callisthenes did ; choosing
the praise of the Macedonian nation for his discourse,
and 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

56 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

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

17. Consider further, for tropes of rhetoric, that
excellent use of a metaphor or translation, wherewith
he taxed Antipater, who was an imperious and tyran
nous governor : for when one of Antipater' s friends
commended him to Alexander for his moderation, that
he did not degenerate, as his other lieutenants did,
into the Persian pride, in use of purple, but kept the
ancient habit of Macedon, of black ; * 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, specially as they appeared by the infinite
number of lights, as it had been a new firmament of
stars, and thereupon advised him to assail them by
night : whereupon he answered, * That he would not
steal the victory.'

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

19. Weigh also that excellent taxation of an error,
ordinary with counsellors of princes, that they counsel
their masters according to the model of their own mind
and fortune, and not of their masters' ; when upon
Darius' great offers Parmenio had said, ' Surely I would
accept these offers, were I as Alexander ' ; saith
Alexander, * So would I were I as Parmenio.'

20. Lastly, weigh that quick and acute reply, which
he made when he gave so large gifts to his friends
and servants, and was asked what he did reserve for

THE FIRST BOOK 57

himself, and he answered, ' Htipe ' : weigh, I say,
whether he had not cast up his account right, because
hope must be the portion of all that resolve upon great
enterprises. For this was Caesar's portion when he
went first into Gaul, his estate being then utterly over
thrown with largesses. And this was likewise the
portion of that noble prince, howsoever transported
with ambition, Henry Duke of Guise, of whom it was
usually said, that he was the greatest usurer in France,
because he had turned all his estate into obligations.

21. To conclude therefore : as certain critics are
used to say hyperbolically, ' That if all sciences were
lost they might be found in Virgil,' so certainly this
may be said truly, there are the prints and footsteps
of learning in those few speeches which are reported of
this prince : the admiration of whom, when I consider
him not as Alexander the Great, but as Aristotle's
scholar, hath carried me too far.

22. As for Julius Caesar, the excellency of his learn
ing needeth not to be argued from his education, or
his company, or his speeches ; but in a further degree
doth declare itself in his writings and works ; whereof
some are extant and permanent, and some unfortunately
perished. For first, we see there is left unto us that
excellent history of his own wars, which he intituled
only a Commentary, wherein all succeeding times have
admired the solid weight of matter, and the real passages
and lively images of actions and persons, expressed in
the greatest propriety of words and perspicuity of
narration that ever was ; which that it was not the
effect of a natural gift, but of learning and precept, is
well witnessed by that work of his intituled De Ana-
logia, being a grammatical philosophy, wherein he did
labour to make this same Vox ad placitum to become
Vox ad licitum, and to reduce custom of speech to con-
gruity of speech ; and took as it were the pictures of
words from the life of reason.

23. So we receive from him, as a monument both of
his power and learning, the then reformed computation
of the year ; well expressing that he took it to be as

58 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

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

24. So likewise in that book of his, 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.

25. So again in his book of Apophthegms which he
collected, we see that he esteemed it more honour to
make himself but a pair of tables, to take the wise and
pithy words of others, than to have every word of his
own to be made an apophthegm or an oracle ; as vain
princes, by custom of flattery, pretend to do. And
yet if I should enumerate divers of his speeches, as
I did those of Alexander, they are truly such as Salomon
noteth, when he saith, * Verba sapientum tanquam
aculei, et tanquam clavi in altum defixi ' : whereof
I will only recite three, not so delectable for elegancy,
but admirable for vigour and efficacy.

26. As first, it is reason he be thought a master of
words, that could with one word appease a mutiny in
his army, which was thus. The Romans, when their
generals did speak to their army, did use the word
Milites, but when the magistrates spake to the people,
they did use the word Quirites. The soldiers were in
tumult, and seditiously prayed to be cashiered ; not
that they so meant, but by expostulation thereof to
draw Caesar to other conditions ; wherein he being
resolute not to give way, after some silence, he began
his speech, 'Ego Quirites,' which did admit them already
cashiered; wherewith they were so surprised, crossed,
and confused, as they would not suffer him to go on
in his speech, but relinquished their demands, and
made it their suit to be again called by the name of
Milites.

27. The second speech was thus : Caesar did ex
tremely affect the name of king ; and some were set
on as he passed by, in popular acclamation to salute
him king. Whereupon, finding the cry weak and poor,
he put it off thus, in a kind of jest, as if they had mis-

THE FIRST BOOK 59

taken his surname ; ' Non Rex sum, sed Caesar ' ; a
speech, that if it be searched, the life and fullness of it
can scarce be expressed. For, first, it was a refusal of
the name, but yet not serious : again, it did signify an
infinite confidence and magnanimity, as if he presumed
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 toward his own purpose ; as if the
state did strive with him but for a name, whereof mean
families were vested ; for Rex was a surname with the
Romans, as well as King is with us.

28. The last speech which I will mention was used to
Metellus : when 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 accumu
late, Metellus being tribune forbade him. Whereto
Caesar said, ' That if he did not desist, he would lay
him dead in the place.' And presently taking himself
up, he added, ' Young man, it is harder for me to speak
it than to do it ; Adolescens, durius est mini hoc dicere
quam facere.' A speech compounded of the greatest
terror and greatest clemency that could proceed out
of the mouth of man.

29. But to return and conclude with him, it is
evident himself knew well his own perfection in learn
ing, 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 advantage, answered, ' That Sylla
could not skill of letters, and therefore knew not how
to dictate.'

30. And here it were fib to leave this point, touching
the concurrence of military virtue and learning (for
\\hab example should come with any grace after those
two of Alexander and Caesar ?), were it not in regard
of the rareness 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 Xeno-
phon the philosopher, who went from Socrates' school
into Asia, in the expedition of Cyrus the younger

60 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

against King Artaxerxes. This Xenophon at that
time was very young, and never had seen the wars
before ; neither had any command in the army, but
only followed the war as a voluntary, for the love
and conversation of Proxenus his friend. He was
present when Falinus came in message from the great
king to the Grecians, after that Cyrus was slain in the
field, and they a handful of men left to themselves in
the midst of the king's territories, cut off from their
country by many navigable rivers, and many hundred
miles. The message imported that they should deliver
up their arms and submit themselves to the king's
mercy. To which message before answer was made,
divers of the army conferred familiarly with Falinus ;
and amongst the rest Xenophon happened to say,
* Why, Falinus, we have now but these two things
left, our arms and our virtues ; and if we yield up our
arms, how shall we make use of our virtue ? ' Whereto
Falinus smiling on him said, ' If I be not deceived,
young gentleman, you are an Athenian : and I believe
you study philosophy, and it is pretty that you say :
but you are much abused, if you think your virtue can
withstand the king's power.' Here was the scorn ;
the wonder followed : which was, that this young
scholar, or philosopher, after all the captains were
murdered in parley by treason, conducted those ten
thousand foot, through the heart of all the king's high
countries, from Babylon to Grecia in safety, in despite
of all the king's forces, to the astonishment of the
world, and the encouragement of the Grecians in times
succeeding to make invasion upon the kings of Persia ;
as was after proposed by Jason the Thessalian, attempted
by Agesilaus the Spartan, and achieved by Alexander
the Macedonian, all upon the ground of the act of that
young scholar.

VIII. 1. 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.

THE FIRST BOOK 61

It taketh away the wildness and barbarism and fierce
ness of men's minds ; but indeed the accent had need
be upon fidditer : 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 weak
ness. 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 throughly,
but will find that printed in his heart, ' Nil novi super
terram.' 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, 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 he was advertised of the battles
of the frogs and the mice, that the old tales went of.'
So certainly, if a man meditate much upon the universal
frame of nature, the earth with men upon it (the divine-
ness of souls except) will not seem much other than an
ant-hill, whereas some ants carry corn, and some carry
their young, and some go empty, and all to and fro
a little heap of dust. It taketh away or 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 vidi fragilem
frangi, hodie vidi mortalem mori.' And therefore

62 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

Virgil did excellently and profoundly couple the know
ledge of causes and the conquests of all fears together,
as concomitantia.

Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,
Quique metus oranes, et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari.

2. It were too long to go over the particular remedies
which learning doth minister to all the diseases of the
mind ; sometimes purging the ill humours, sometimes
opening the obstructions, sometimes helping digestion,
sometimes increasing appetite, sometimes healing the
wounds and exulcerations thereof, and the like ; and
therefore I will conclude with that which hath rationem
totius ; 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 that suavissima vita,
indies sentire se fieri meliorem. The good parts he hath
he will learn to show to the full, and use them dex
terously, but not much to increase them. The faults
he hath he will learn how to hide and colour them, but
not much to amend them ; like an ill mower, that
mows on still, and never whets his scythe. Whereas
with the learned man it fares otherwise, that he doth
ever intermix the correction and amendment of his
mind with the use and employment thereof. Nay
further, in general and in sum, certain it is that Veritas
and Bonitas differ but as the seal and the print : for
Truth prints Goodness, and they be the clouds of
error which descend in the storms of passions and
perturbations.

3. From moral virtue let us pass on to matter of
power and commandment, and consider whether in
right season there be any comparable with that where
with knowledge investeth and crowneth man's nature.
We see the dignity of the commandment is according
to the dignity of the commanded : to have command-

THE FIRST BOOK 63

ment over beasts, as herdmen have, is a thing con
temptible : to have commandment over children, as
schoolmasters have, is a matter of small honour : to
have commandment over galley-slaves is a disparage
ment rather than an honour. Neither is the com
mandment of tyrants much better, over people which
have put off the generosity of their minds : and there
fore 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 services. And therefore, when Virgil putteth him
self 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.

But yet the commandment of knowledge is yet higher
than the commandment over the will : for it is a com
mandment over the reason, belief, and understanding
of man, which is the highest part of the mind, and
giveth law to the will itself. For there is no power on
earth which setteth up a throne or chair of estate in
the spirits and souls of men, and in their cogitations,
imaginations, opinions, and beliefs, but knowledge and
learning. And therefore we see the detestable and
extreme pleasure that arch -here tics, and false prophets,
and impostors are transported with, when they once
find in themselves that they have a superiority hi the
faith and conscience of men ; so great as if they have
once tasted of it, it is seldom seen that any torture or
persecution can make them relinquish or abandon it.
But as this is that which the author of the Revelation
calleth the depth or profoundness of Satan, so by
argument of contraries, the just and lawful sovereignty
over men's understanding, by force of truth rightly
interpreted, is that which approacheth nearest to the
similitude of the divine rule.

4. As for fortune and advancement, the beneficence
of learning is not so confined to give fortune only to

64 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

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

5. Again, for the pleasure and delight of knowledge
and learning, it far surpasseth all other in nature.
For, shall the pleasures of the affections so exceed the
pleasure of the sense, as much as the obtaining of desire
or victory exceedeth a song or a dinner ? and must not
of consequence the pleasures of the intellect or under
standing exceed the pleasures of the affections ? We
see in all other pleasures there is satiety, and after they
be used, their verdure departeth ; wilich showeth well
they be but deceits of pleasure, and not pleasures : and
that it was the novelty which pleased, and not the
quality. And therefore we see that voluptuous men
turn friars, and ambitious princes turn melancholy.
But of knowledge there is no satiety, but satisfaction
and 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 Lucretius describeth elegantly,

Suave mari magno, turbantibus aequora ventis, &c.

* It is a view of delight (saith he) to stand or walk
upon the shore side, and to see a ship tossed with
tempest upon the sea ; or to be in a fortified 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,

THE FIRST BOOK 65

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

6. Lastly, leaving the vulgar arguments, that by
learning man excelleth man in that wherein man
excelleth beasts ; that by learning man ascendeth to
the heavens and their motions, where in body he cannot
come ; and the like ; let us conclude with the dignity
and excellency of knowledge and learning in that
whereunto man's nature doth most aspire, which is
immortality or continuance ; for to this tendeth genera
tion, 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 learn
ing are more durable than the monuments of power or
of the hands. For have not the verses of Homer con
tinued twenty-five hundred years, or more, without the
loss of a syllable or letter ; during which time infinite
palaces, temples, castles, cities, have been decayed
and demolished ? It is not possible to have the true
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 leese of the life and truth. But the images
of men's wits and knowledges remain in books, ex
empted from the wrong of time and capable of perpetual
renovation. Neither are they fitly to be called images,
because they generate still, and cast their seeds in the
minds of others, provoking and causing infinite actions
and opinions in succeeding ages. So that if the in
vention 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 magni
fied, which as ships pass through the vast seas of time,
and make ages so distant to participate of the wisdom,
illuminations, and inventions, the one of the other ?
Nay further, we see some of the philosophers which
were least divine, and most immersed in the senses,
D

66 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

and denied generally the immortality of the soul, yet
came to this point, that whatsoever motions the spirit
of man could act and perform without the organs of
the body, they thought might remain after death ;
which were only those of the understanding, and not
of the affection ; so immortal and incorruptible a thing
did knowledge seem unto them to be. But we, that
know by divine revelation that not only the under
standing but the affections purified, not only the spirit
but the body changed, shall be advanced to immortality,
do disclaim in these rudiments of the senses. But it
must be remembered, both in this last point, and so it
may likewise be needful in other places, that in pro
bation 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.

7. Nevertheless I do not pretend, and I know it will
be impossible for me, by any pleading of mine, to
reverse the judgement, either of Aesop's cock, that pre
ferred the barley-corn before the gem ; or of Midas,
that being chosen judge between Apollo, president of
the Muses, and Pan, god of the flocks, judged for
plenty ; or of Paris, that judged for beauty and love
against wisdom and power ; or of Agrippina, * occidat
matrem, modo imperet,' that preferred empire with
any condition never so detestable ; or of Ulysses, * qui
vetulam praetulit immortalitati,' being a figure of
those which prefer custom and habit before all ex
cellency ; or of a number of the like popular judge
ments. For these things must continue as they have
been : but so will that also continue whereupon learning
hath ever relied, and which faileth not: * Justificata
est sapientia a filiis suis.'

THE

SECOND BOOK OF FRANCIS BACON;

OF THE PKOFICIENCE AND

ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING,

DIVINE AND HUMAN.

To the King.

1. It might seem to have more convenience, though
it come often otherwise to pass (excellent king), that
those which are fruitful in their generations, and have
in themselves the foresight of immortality in their
descendants, should likewise be more careful of the
good estate of future times, unto which they know
they must transmit and commend over their dearest
pledges. Queen Elizabeth was a sojourner in the
world in respect of her unmarried life, and was a bless
ing to her own times ; and yet so as the impression
of her good government, besides her happy memory,
'is not without some effect which doth survive her.
But to your Majesty, whom God hath already blessed
with so much royal issue, worthy to continue and
represent you for ever, and whose youthful and fruitful
bed doth yet promise many the like renovations, it is
proper and agreeable to be conversant not only in the
transitory parts of good government, but in those acts
also which are in their nature permanent and perpetual.
Amongst the which (if affection do not transport me)

68 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

there is not any more worthy than the further endow
ment of the world with sound and fruitful knowledge.
For why should a few received authors stand up like
Hercules' columns, beyond which there should be no
sailing or discovering, since we have so bright and
benign a star as your Majesty to conduct and prosper
us ? To return therefore where we left, it remaineth
to consider of what kind those acts are which have been
undertaken and performed by kings and others for the
increase and advancement of learning : wherein I pur
pose to speak actively without digressing or dilating.

2. Let this ground therefore be laid, that all worka
are overcommen by amplitude of reward, by soundness
of direction, and by the conjunction of labours. The
first multiplieth endeavour, the second preventeth
error, and the third supplieth the frailty of man. But
the principal of these is direction : for ' claudus in via
antevertit cursorem extra viam ' ; and Salomon ex
cellently setteth it down, ' If the iron be not sharp, it
requireth more strength ; but wisdom is that which
prevaileth ' ; signifying that the invention or election
of the mean is more effectual than any inforcement or
accumulation of endeavours. This I am induced to
speak, for that (not derogating from the noble inten
tion of any that have been deservers towards the state
of learning) I do observe nevertheless that their works
and acts are rather matters of magnificence and memory,
than of progression and proficience, and tend rather
to augment the mass of learning in the multitude
of learned men, than to rectify or raise the sciences
themselves.

3. The works or acts of merit towards learning are
conversant about three objects ; the places of learning,
the books of learning, and the persons of the learned.
For as water, whether it be the dew of heaven, or the
springs of the earth, doth scatter and leese itself in the
ground, except it be collected into some receptacle,
where it may by union comfort and sustain itself :
and for that cause the industry of man hath made and
framed spring-heads, conduits, cisterns, and pools,

THE SECOND BOOK 69

which men have accustomed likewise to beautify and
adorn with accomplishments of magnificence and state,
as well as of use and necessity : so this excellent liquor
of knowledge, whether it descend from divine inspira
tion, or spring from human sense, would soon perish
and vanish to oblivion, if it were not preserved in
books, traditions, conferences, and places appointed,
as universities, colleges, and schools, for the receipt
and comforting of the same.

4. The works which concern the seats and places of
learning are four ; foundations and buildings, endow
ments with revenues, endowments with franchises and
privileges, institutions and ordinances for government ;
all tending to quietness and privateness of life, and
discharge of cares and troubles ; much like the stations
which Virgil prescribeth for the hiving of bees :

Principio sedes apibus statioque petenda,
Quo neque sit ventis aditus, &c.

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

6. The works pertaining to the persons of learned
men (besides the advancement and countenancing of
them in general) are two : the reward and designation
of readers in sciences already extant and invented ;
and the reward and designation of writers and inquirers
concerning any parts of learning not sufficiently laboured
and prosecuted.

7. These are summarily the works and acts, wherein
the merits of many excellent princes and other worthy
personages have been conversant. As for any par
ticular commemorations, I call to mind what Cicero
said, when he gave general thanks ; ' Difficile non
aliquem, ingratum quenquam praeterire.' Let us
rather, according to the scriptures, look unto that part

70 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

of the race which is before us, than look back to that
which is already attained.

8. First therefore, amongst so many great founda
tions of colleges in Europe, I find strange that they
are all dedicated to professions, and none left free to
arts and sciences at large. For if men judge that
learning should be referred to action, they judge well ;
but in this they fall into the error described in the
ancient fable, in which the other parts of the body did
suppose the stomach had been idle, because it neither
performed the office of motion, as the limbs do, nor of
sense, as the head doth : but yet notwithstanding it is
the stomach that digesteth and distributeth to all the
rest. So if any man think philosophy and univers
ality to be idle studies, he doth not consider that all
professions are from thence served and supplied. And
this I take to be a great cause that hath hindered the
progression of learning, because these fundamental
knowledges have been studied but in passage. For if
you will have a tree bear more fruit than it hath used
to do, it is not anything you can do to the boughs,
but it is the stirring of the earth and putting new
mould about the roots that must work it. Neither is
it to be forgotten, that this dedicating of foundations
and dotations to professory learning hath not only had
a malign aspect and influence upon the growth of
sciences, but hath also been prejudicial to states and
governments. For hence it proceedeth that princes
find a solitude in regard of able men to serve them in
causes of estate, because there is no education collegiate
which is free ; where such as were so disposed mought
give themselves to histories, modern languages, books
of policy and civil discourse, and other the like enable-
ments unto service of estate.

9. And because founders of colleges do plant, and
founders of lectures do water, it followeth well in order
to speak of the defect which is in public lectures ;
namely, in the smallness and meanness of the salary or
reward which in most places is assigned unto them ;
whether they be lectures of arts, or of professions.

THE SECOND BOOK 71

For it is necessary to the progression of sciences that
readers be of the most able and sufficient men ; as
those which are ordained for generating and propagat
ing of sciences, and not for transitory use. This cannot
be, except their condition and endowment be such as
may content the ablest man to appropriate his whole
labour and continue his whole age in that function and
attendance ; and therefore must have a proportion
answerable to that mediocrity or competency of advance
ment, which may be expected from a profession or the
practice of a profession. So as, if you will have sciences
tiourish, you must observe David's military law, which
was, ' That those which staid with the carriage should
have equal part with those which were in the action ' ;
else will the carriages be ill attended. So readers in
sciences are indeed the guardians of the stores and pro
visions of sciences, whence men in active courses are
furnished, and therefore ought to have equal enter
tainment with them ; otherwise if the fathers in sciences
be of the weakest sort or be ill maintained,

Et patrum invalidi referent jejunia nati.

10. Another defect I note, wherein I shall need some
alchemist to help me, who call upon men to sell their
books, and to build furnaces ; quitting and forsaking
Minerva and the Muses as barren virgins, and relying
upon Vulcan. But certain it is, that unto the deep,
fruitful, and operative study of many sciences, specially
natural philosophy and physic, books be not only the
instrumentals ; wherein also the beneficence of men
hath not been altogether wanting. For we see spheres,
globes, astrolabes, maps, and the like, have been pro
vided as appurtenances to astronomy and cosmography,
as well as books. We see likewise that some places
instituted for physic have annexed the commodity of
gardens for simples of all sorts, and do likewise com
mand the use of dead bodies for anatomies. But these
do respect but a few things. In general, there will
hardly be any main proficience in the disclosing of
nature, except there be some allowance for expenses

72 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

about experiments ; whether they be experiments
appertaining to Vulcanus or Daedalus, furnace or
engine, or any other kind. And therefore as secre
taries and spials of princes and states bring in bills
for intelligence, so you must allow the spials and in
telligencers of nature to bring in their bills ; or else
you shall be ill advertised.

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

12. Another defect which I note, is an intermission
or neglect, in those which are governors in universities,
of consultation, and in princes or superior persons, of
visitation : to enter into account and consideration,
whether the readings, exercises, and other customs
appertaining unto learning, anciently began and since
continued, be well instituted or no ; and thereupon to
ground an amendment or reformation in that which
shall be found inconvenient. For it is one of your
Majesty's own most wise and princely maxims, ' That
in all usages and precedents, the times be considered
wherein they first began ; which if they were weak or
ignorant, it derogateth from the authority of the usage,
and leaveth it for suspect.' And therefore inasmuch
as most of the usages and orders of the universities
were derived from more obscure times, it is the more
requisite they be re-examined. In this kind I will give
an instance or two, for example sake, of things that are
the most obvious and familiar. The one is a matter,
which though it be ancient and general, yet I hold
to be an error ; which is, that scholars in universities
come too soon and too unripe to logic and rhetoric,
arts fitter for graduates than children and novices.
For these two, rightly taken, are the gravest of sciences,
being the arts of arts ; the one for judgement, the other
for ornament. And they be the rules and directions
how to set forth and dispose matter : and therefore
for minds empty and unfraught with matter, and which

THE SECOND BOOK 73

have not gathered that which Cicero calleth sylva and
supellex, stuff and variety, to begin with those arts (as
if one should learn to weigh, or to measure, or to paint
the wind) doth work but this effect, that the wisdom
of those arts, which is great and universal, is almost
made contemptible, and is degenerate into childish
sophistry and ridiculous affectation. And further, the
untimely learning of them hath drawn on by con
sequence the superficial and unprofitable teaching and
writing of them, as fitteth indeed to the capacity of
children. Another is a lack I find in the exercises
used in the universities, which do make too great
a divorce between invention and memory. For their
speeches are either premeditate, in verbis conceptis,
where nothing is left to invention ; or merely extern -
poral, where little is left to memory. Whereas in life
and action there is least use of either of these, but
rather of intermixtures of premeditation and invention,
notes and memory. So as the exercise fitteth not the
practice, nor the image the life ; and it is ever a true
rule in exercises, that they be framed as near as may
be to the life of practice ; for otherwise they do pervert
the motions and faculties of the mind, and not prepare
them. The truth whereof is not obscure, when scholars
come to the practices of professions, or other actions of
civil life ; which when they set into, this want is soon
found by themselves, and sooner by others. But this
part, touching the amendment of the institutions and
orders of universities, I will conclude with the clause
of Caesar's letter to Oppius and Balbus, ' Hoc quemad-
modum fieri possit, nonnulla mihi in mentem veniunt,
et multa reperiri possunt : de iis rebus rogo vos ut
cogitationem suscipiatis.'

13. Another defect which I note, ascendeth a little
higher than the precedent. For as the proficience of
learning consisteth much in the orders and institutions
of universities in the same states and kingdoms, so it
would be yet more advanced, if there were more in
telligence mutual between the universities of Europe
than now there is. We see there be many orders and

74 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OP LEARNING

foundations, which though they be divided under
several sovereignties and territories, yet they take
themselves to have a kind of contract, fraternity, and
correspondence one with the other, insomuch as they
have provincials and generals. And surely as nature
createth brotherhood in families, and arts mechanical
contract brotherhoods in communalties, and the anoint
ment of God supermduceth a brotherhood in kings and
bishops, so in like manner there cannot but be a frater
nity in learning and illumination, relating to that
paternity which is attributed to God, who is called
the Father of illuminations or lights.

14. The last defect which I will note is, that there
hath not been, or very rarely been, any public designa
tion of writers or inquirers, concerning such parts of
knowledge as may appear not to have been already
sufficiently laboured or undertaken ; unto which point
it is an inducement to enter into a view and examina
tion what parts of learning have been prosecuted and
what omitted. For the opinion of plenty is amongst
the causes of want, and the great quantity of books
maketh a show rather of superfluity than lack ; which
surcharge nevertheless is not to be remedied by making
no more books, but by making more good books, which,
as the serpent of Moses, mought devour the serpents of
the enchanters.

15. The removing of all the defects formerly enu
merate, except the last, and of the active part also of
the last (which is the designation of writers), are opera
basilica ; towards which the endeavours of a private
man may be but as an image in a crossway, that may
point at the way, but cannot go it. But the inducing
part of the latter (which is the survey of learning) may
be set forward by private travail. Wherefore I will
now attempt to make a general and faithful perambula
tion of learning, with an inquiry what parts thereof lie
fresh and waste, and not improved and converted by
the industry of man ; to the end that such a plot made
and recorded to memory, may both minister light to
any public designation, and also serve to excite volun-

THE SECOND BOOK 75

tary endeavours. Wherein nevertheless my purpose
is at this time to note only omissions and deficiencies,
and not to make any redargution of errors or incomplete
prosecutions. For it is one thing to set forth what
ground lieth unmanured, and another thing to correct
ill husbandry in that which is manured.

In the handling and undertaking of which work I am
not ignorant what it is that I do now move and attempt,
nor insensible of mine own weakness to sustain my
purpose. But my hope is, that if my extreme love to
learning carry me too far, I may obtain the excuse of
affection ; for that * It is not granted to man to love
and to be wise.' But I know well I can use no other
liberty of judgement than I must leave to others ; and
I for my part shall be indifferently glad either to per
form myself, or accept from another, that duty of
humanity; 'Nam qui erranti comiter monstrat viam,'
&c. I do foresee likewise that of those things which
I shall enter and register as deficiencies and omissions,
many will conceive and censure that some of them are
already done and extant ; others to be but curiosities,
and things of no great use ; and others to be of too
great difficulty, and almost impossibility to be com
passed and effected. But for the two first, I refer
myself to the particulars. For the last, touching
impossibility, I take it those things are to be held
possible which may be done by some person, though
not by every one ; and which may be done by many,
though not by any one ; and which may be done in
succession of ages, though not within the hourglass of
one man's life ; and which may be done by public
designation, though not by private endeavour. But
notwithstanding, if any man will take to himself rather
that of Salomon, * Dicit piger, Leo est in via,' than that
of Virgil, ' Possunt quia posse videntur,' I shall be con
tent that my labours be esteemed but as the better
sort of wishes : for as it asketh some knowledge to
demand a question not impertinent, so it requireth
some sense to make a wish not absurd.

I. 1. The parts of human learning have reference

76 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

to the three parts of man's understanding, which is
the seat of learning : history to his memory, poesy to
his imagination, and philosophy to his reason. Divine
learning receive th the same distribution ; for the
spirit of man is the same, though the revelation of
oracle and sense be diverse. So as theology consisteth
also of history of the church ; of parables, which is
divine poesy ; and of holy doctrine or precept. For as
for that part which seemeth supernumerary, which is
prophecy, it is but divine history ; which hath that
prerogative over human, as the narration may be before
the fact as well as after.

2. History is natural, civil, ecclesiastical, and literary ;

TT • . • whereof the three first I allow as extant,

Literarum the fourfch l note as deficient. For no
man hath propounded to himself the
general state of learning to be described and represented
from age to age, as many have done the works of
nature, and the state civil and ecclesiastical ; without
which the history of the world seemeth to me to be
as the statua of Polyphemus with his eye out ; that
part being wanting which doth most show the spirit
and life of the person. And yet I am not ignorant that
in divers particular sciences, as of the jurisconsults,
the mathematicians, the rhetoricians, the philosophers,
there are set down some small memorials of the schools,
authors, and books ; and so likewise some barren
relations touching the invention of arts or usages.
But a just story of learning, containing the antiquities
and originals of knowledges and their sects, their in
ventions, their traditions, their diverse administrations
and managings, their flourishings, their oppositions,
decays, depressions, oblivions, removes, with the causes
and occasions of them, and all other events concerning
learning, throughout the ages of the world, I may truly
affirm to be wanting. The use and end of which work
I do not so much design for curiosity or satisfaction
of those that are the lovers of learning, but chiefly for
a more serious and grave purpose, which is this in few
words, that it will make learned men wise in the use

THE SECOND BOOK 77

and administration of learning. For it is not Saint
Augustine's nor Saint Ambrose' works that will make
so wise a divine, as ecclesiastical history, throughly
read and observed ; and the same reason is of learning.

3. History of nature is of three sorts : of nature in
course ; of nature erring or varying ; and of nature
altered or wrought ; that is, history of creatures,
history of marvels, and history of arts. The first of
these no doubt is extant, and that in good perfection :
the two latter are handled so weakly and unprofitably,
as I am moved to note them as deficient. „ . .
For I find no sufficient or competent col- ^f^ae
lection of the works of nature which have Errantia

a digression and deflexion from the ordin
ary course of generations, productions, and motions ;
whether they be singularities of place and religion, or
the strange events of time and chance, or the effects
of yet unknown proprieties, or the instances of excep
tion to general kinds. It is true, I find a number of
books of fabulous experiments and secrets, and frivolous
impostures for pleasure and strangeness ; but a sub
stantial and severe collection of the heteroclites or
irregulars of nature, well examined and described,
I find not : specially not with due rejection of fables
and popular errors. For as things now are, if an
untruth in nature be once on foot, what by reason of the
neglect of examination, and countenance of antiquity,
and what by reason of the use of the opinion in simili
tudes and ornaments of speech, it is never called
down.

4. The use of this work, honoured with a precedent
in Aristotle, is nothing less than to give contentment
to the appetite of curious and vain wits, as the manner
of Mirabilaries is to do ; but for two reasons, both of
great weight ; the one to correct the partiality of
axioms and opinions, which are commonly framed only
upon common and familiar examples ; the other because
from the wonders of nature is the nearest intelligence
and passage towards the wonders of art : for it is no
more but by following, and as it were hounding nature

78 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

in her wanderings, to be able to lead her afterwards to
the same place again. Neither am I of opinion, in this
history of marvels, that superstitious narrations of
sorceries, witchcrafts, dreams, divinations, and the like,
where there is an assurance and clear evidence of the
fact, be altogether excluded. For it is not yet known
in what cases and how far effects attributed to super
stition do participate of natural causes : and therefore
howsoever the practice of such things is to be con
demned, yet from the speculation and consideration
of them light may be taken, not only for the discern
ing of the offences, but for the further disclosing of
nature. Neither ought a man to make scruple of
entering into these things for inquisition of truth, as
your Majesty hath showed in your own example ; who
with the two clear eyes of religion and natural philo
sophy have looked deeply and wisely into these shadows,
and yet proved yourself to be of the nature of the sun,
which passeth through pollutions and itself remains as
pure as before. But this I hold fit, that these narra
tions, which have mixture with superstition, be sorted
by themselves, and not to be mingled with the narra
tions which are merely and sincerely natural. But as
for the narrations touching the prodigies and miracles
of religions, they are either not true, or not natural ;
and therefore impertinent for the story of nature.

5. For history of nature wrought or mechanical,
Historia ^ ^ some collections made of agricul-
M cha^ca ^ure> an(^ likewise of manual arts ; but
commonly with a rejection of experiments
familiar and vulgar. For it is esteemed a kind of dis
honour unto learning to descend to inquiry or medita
tion upon matters mechanical, except they be such as
may be thought secrets, rarities, and special subtilties ;
which humour of vain and supercilious arrogancy is
justly derided in Plato ; where he brings in Hippias,
a vaunting sophist, disputing with Socrates, a true and
unfeigned inquisitor of truth ; where the subject being
touching beauty, Socrates, after his wandering manner
of inductions, put first an example of a fair virgin, and

THE SECOND BOOK 79

then of a fair horse, and then of a fair pot well glazed,
whereat Hippias was offended, and said, * More than
for courtesy's sake, he did think much to dispute with
any that did allege such base and sordid instances.'
Whereunto Socrates answereth, ' You have reason, and
it becomes you well, being a man so trim in your
vestiments, &c.', and so goeth on in an irony. But the
truth is, they be not the highest instances that give
the securest information ; as may be well expressed
in the tale so common of the philosopher, that while
he gazed upwards to the stars fell into the water ; for
if he had looked down he might have seen the stars
in the water, but looking aloft he could not see the
water in the stars. So it cometh often to pass, that
mean and small things discover great, better than great
can discover the small : and therefore Aristotle noteth
well, ' That the nature of everything is best seen in
his smallest portions.' And for that cause he inquireth
the nature of a commonwealth, first in a family, and
the simple conjugations of man and wife, parent and
child, master and servant, which are in every cottage.
Even so likewise the nature of this great city of the
world, and the policy thereof, must be first sought in
mean concordances and small portions. So we see
how that secret of nature, of the turning of iron touched
with the loadstone towards the north, was found out
in needles of iron, not in bars of iron.

6. But if my judgement be of any weight, the use
of history mechanical is of all others the most radical
and fundamental towards natural philosophy ; such
natural philosophy as shall not vanish in the fume of
subtile, sublime, or delectable speculation, but such as
shall be operative to the endowment and benefit of
man's life. For it will not only minister and suggest
for the present many ingenious practices in all trades,
by a connexion and transferring of the observations
of one art to the use of another, when the experiences
of several mysteries shall fall under the consideration
of one man's mind ; but further, it will give a more
true and real illumination concerning causes and

80 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

axioms than is hitherto attained. For like as a nun's
disposition is never well known till he be crossed, nor
Proteus ever changed shapes till he was straitened and
held fast ; so the passages and variations of nature
cannot appear so fully in the liberty of nature as in the
trials and vexations of art.

II. 1. For civil history, it is of three kinds ; not
unfitly to be compared with the three kinds of pictures
or images. For of pictures or images, we see some are
unfinished, some are perfect, and some are defaced.
So of histories we may find three kinds, memorials,
perfect histories, and antiquities ; for memorials are
history unfinished, or the first or rough draughts of
history ; and antiquities are history defaced, or some
remnants of history which have casually escaped the
shipwreck of time.

2. Memorials, or preparatory history, are of two
sorts ; whereof the one may be termed commentaries,
and the other registers. Commentaries are they which
set down a continuance of the naked events and actions,
without the motives or designs, the counsels, the
speeches, the pretexts, the occasions and other passages
of action : for this is the true nature of a commentary
(though Caesar, in modesty mixed with greatness, did
for his pleasure apply the name of a commentary to the
best history of the world). Registers are collections
of public acts, as decrees of council, judicial proceed
ings, declarations and letters of estate, orations and the
like, without a perfect continuance or contexture of
the thread of the narration.

3. Antiquities, or remnants of history, are, as was
said, ' tanquam tabula naufragii ' : when industrious
persons, by an exact and scrupulous diligence and
observation, out of monuments, names, words, pro
verbs, traditions, private records and evidences, frag
ments of stories, passages of books that concern not
story, and the like, do save and recover somewhat from
the deluge of time.

4. In these kinds of unpertect histories I do assign
no deficience, for they are tanquam imperfecte mista ;

THE SECOND BOOK 81

and therefore any deficience in them is but their
nature. As for the corruptions and moths of history,
which are epitomes, the use of them deserveth to be
banished, as all men of sound judgement have confessed,
as those that have fretted and corroded the sound
bodies of many excellent histories, and wrought them
into base and unprofitable dregs.

5. History, which may be called just and perfect
history, is of three kinds, according to the object
which it propoundeth, or pretendeth to represent : for
it either representeth a time, or a person, or an action.
The first we call chronicles, the second lives, and the
third narrations or relations. Of these, although the
first be the most complete and absolute kind of history,
and hath most estimation and glory, yet the second
excelleth it in profit and use, and the third in verity
and sincerity. For history of times representeth the
magnitude of actions, and the public faces and deport
ments of persons, and passeth over in silence the
smaller passages and motions of men and matters.
But such being the workmanship of God, as he doth
hang the greatest weight upon the smallest wires,
maxima & minimis suspendens, it comes therefore to
pass, that such histories do rather set forth the pomp
of business than the true and inward resorts thereof.
But lives, if they be well written, propounding to them
selves a person to represent, in whom actions both
greater and smaller, public and private, have a com
mixture, must of necessity contain a more true, native,
and lively representation. So again narrations and
relations of actions, as the war of Peloponnesus, the
expedition of Cyrus Minor, the conspiracy of Catiline,
cannot but be more purely and exactly true than
histories of times, because they may choose an argu
ment comprehensible within the notice and instructions
of the writer : whereas he that undertaketh the story
of a time, specially of any length, cannot but meet
with many blanks and spaces which he must be forced
to fill up out of his own wit and conjecture.

6. For the history of times (I mean of civil history),

82 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

the providence of God hath made the distribution. For
it hath pleased God to ordain and illustrate two exem
plar states of the world for arms, learning, moral virtue,
policy, and laws ; the state of Grecia and the state of
Rome ; the histories whereof, occupying the middle
part of time, have more ancient to them histories which
may by one common name be termed the antiquities
of the world : and after them, histories which may be
likewise called by the name of modern history.

7. Now to speak of the deficiencies. As to the
heathen antiquities of the world, it is in vain to note
them for deficient. Deficient they are no doubt, con
sisting most of fables and fragments ; but the deficience
cannot be holpen ; for antiquity is like fame, caput
inter nubila condit, her head is muffled from our sight.
For the history of the exemplar states it is extant in
good perfection. Not but I could wish there were
a perfect course of history for Grecia from Theseus to
Philopoemen (what time the affairs of Grecia drowned
and extinguished in the affairs of Rome), and for Rome
from Romulus to Justinianus, who may be truly said
to be ultimus Romanorum. In which sequences of
story the text of Thucydides and Xenophon in the one,
and the texts of Livius, Polybius, Sallustius, Caesar,
Appianus, Tacitus, Herodianus in the other, to be kept
entire without any diminution at all, and only to be
supplied and continued. But this is matter of magnifi
cence, rather to be commended than required : and we
speak now of parts of learning supplemental and not
of supererogation.

8. But for modern histories, whereof there are some
few very worthy, but the greater part beneath medi
ocrity, leaving the care of foreign stories to foreign
states, because I will not be curiosus in aliena republica,
I cannot fail to represent to your Majesty the un-
worthiness of the history of England in the main con
tinuance thereof, and the partiality and obliquity of
that of Scotland in the latest and largest author that
I have seen : supposing that it would be honour for
your Majesty, and a work very memorable, if this island

THE SECOND BOOK 83

of Great Brittany, as it is now joined in monarchy for
the ages to come, so were joined in one history for the
times passed ; after the manner of the sacred history,
which draweth down the story of the ten tribes and of
the two tribes as twins together. And if it shall seem
that the greatness of this work may make it less exactly
performed, there is an excellent period of a much
smaller compass of time, as to the story of England ;
that is to say, from the uniting of the Roses to the
uniting of the kingdoms ; a portion of time wherein,
to my understanding, there hath been the rarest
varieties that in like number of successions of any
hereditary monarchy hath been known. For it begin-
neth with the mixed adoption of a crown by arms and
title ; an entry by battle, an establishment by mar
riage ; and therefore times answerable, like waters
after a tempest, full of working and swelling, though
without extremity of storm ; but well passed through
by the wisdom of the pilot, being one of the most
sufficient kings of all the number. Then followeth the
reign of a king, whose actions, howsoever conducted,
had much intermixture with the affairs of Europe,
balancing and inclining them variably ; in whose
time also began that great alteration in the state
ecclesiastical, an action which seldom cometh upon
the stage. Then the reign of a minor : then an offer
of an usurpation (though it was but as febris ephemera).
Then the reign of a queen matched with a foreigner :
then of a queen that lived solitary and unmarried, and
yet her government so masculine, as it had greater
impression and operation upon the states abroad than
it any ways received from thence. And now last, this
most happy and glorious event, that this island of
Brittany, divided from all the world, should be united
in itself: and that oracle of rest given to Aeneas,
* antiquam exquirite rnatrem,' should now be per
formed, and fulfilled upon the nations of England and
Scotland, being now reunited in the ancient mother
name of Brittany, as a full period of all instability
and peregrinations. So that as it cometh to pass in

84 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

massive bodies, that they have certain trepidations
and waverings before they fix and settle, so it seemeth
that by the providence of God this monarchy, before
it was to settle in your majesty and your generations
(in which I hope it is now established for ever), it had
these prelusive changes and varieties.

9. For lives, I do find strange that these times have
so little esteemed the virtues of the times, as that the
writings of lives should be no more frequent. For
although there be not many sovereign princes or
absolute commanders, and that states are most collected
into monarchies, yet are there many worthy personages
that deserve better than dispersed report or barren
elogies. For herein the invention of one of the late
poets is proper, and doth well enrich the ancient fiction.
For he feigneth that at the end of the thread or web of
every man's life there was a little medal containing
the person's name, and that Time waited upon the
shears, and as soon as the thread was cut, caught the
medals, and carried them to the river of Lethe ; and
about the bank there were many birds flying up and
down, that would get the medals and carry them in
their beak a little while, and then let them fall into
the river. Only there were a few swans, which if they
got a name would carry it to a temple, where it was
consecrate. And although many men, more mortal
in their affections than in their bodies, do esteem
desire of name and memory but as a vanity and
ventosity,

Animi nil magnae laudis egentes ;

which opinion cometh from that root, ' Non prius
laudes contempsimus, quam laudanda facere desivi-
mus ' : yet that will not alter Salomon's judgement,
' Memoria justi cum laudibus, at impiorum nomen
putrescet ' : the one flourisheth, the other either con-
sumeth to present oblivion, or turneth to an ill odour.
And therefore in that style or addition, which is and
hath been long well received and brought in use,
'felicis memoriae, piae memoriae, bonae memoriae,'

THE SECOND BOOK 85

we do acknowledge that which Cicero saith, borrowing
it from Demosthenes, that ' bona fama propria possessio
defunctorum ' ; which possession I cannot but note
that in our times it lieth much waste, and that therein
there is a deficience.

10. For narrations and relations of particular
actions, there were also to be wished a greater diligence
therein ; for there is no great action but hath some
good pen which attends it. And because it is an
ability not common to write a good history, as may
well appear by the small number of them ; yet if
particularity of actions memorable were but tolerably
reported as they pass, the compiling of a complete
history of times mought be the better expected, when
a writer should arise that were fit for it : for the collec
tion of such relations mought be as a nursery garden,
whereby to plant a fair and stately garden, when time
should serve.

11. There is yet another partition of history which
Cornelius Tacitus maketh, which is not to be forgotten,
specially with that application which he accoupleth it
withal, annals and journals : appropriating to the
former matters of estate, and to the latter acts and
accidents of a meaner nature. For giving but a touch
of certain magnificent buildings, he addeth, * Cum ex
dignitate populi Romani repertum sit, res illustres
annalibus, talia diurnis urbis actis mandare.' So as
there is a kind of contemplative heraldry, as well as
civil. And as nothing doth derogate from the dignity
of a state more than confusion of degrees, so it doth
not a little imbase the authority of an history, to
intermingle matters of triumph, or matters of cere
mony, or matters of novelty, with matters of state.
But the use of a journal hath not only been in the
history of time, but likewise in the history of persons,
and chiefly of actions ; for princes in ancient time had,
upon point of honour and policy both, journals kept,
what passed day by day. For we see the chronicle
which was read before Ahasuerus, when he could not
take rest, contained matter of affairs indeed, but such

86 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

as had passed in his own time and very lately before.
But the journal of Alexander's house expressed every
small particularity, even concerning his person and
court ; and it is yet an use well received in enter
prises memorable, as expeditions of war, navigations,
and the like, to keep diaries of that which passeth
continually.

12. I cannot likewise be ignorant of a form of
writing which some grave and wise men have used,
containing a scattered history of those actions which
they have thought worthy of memory, with politic
discourse and observation thereupon : not incorporate
into the history, but separately, and as the more principal
in their intention ; which kind of ruminated history
I think more fit to place amongst books of policy,
whereof we shall hereafter speak, than amongst books
of history. For it is the true office of history to repre
sent the events themselves together with the counsels,
and to leave the observations and conclusions there
upon to the liberty and faculty of every man's judge
ment. But mixtures are things irregular, whereof no
man can define.

13. So also is there another kind of history mani
foldly mixed, and that is history of cosmography:
being compounded of natural history, in respect of
the regions themselves ; of history civil, in respect of
the habitations, regiments, and manners of the people ;
and the mathematics, in respect of the climates and
configurations towards the heavens: which part of
learning of all others in this latter time hath obtained
most proficience. For it may be truly affirmed to the
honour of these times, and in a virtuous emulation
with antiquity, that this great building of the world
had never through-lights made in it, till the age of
us and our fathers. For although they had knowledge
of the antipodes,

Nosque ubi primus equis Oriens afflavit anhelis,
Ulic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper,

yet that mought be by demonstration, and not in fact ;

THE SECOND BOOK 87

and if by travel, it requireth the voyage but of half
the globe. But to circle the earth, as the heavenly
bodies do, was not done nor enterprised till these
later times : and therefore these times may justly
bear in their word, not only plivs ultra, in precedence
of the ancient non ultra, and imitabile fulmen, in pre
cedence of the ancient non imitabile fulmen,

Demens qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen, &c.

but likewise imitabile caelum ; in respect of the many
memorable voyages after the manner of heaven about
the globe of the earth.

14. And this proficience in navigation and discoveries
may plant also an expectation of the further proficience
and augmentation of all sciences ; because it may seem
they are ordained by God to be coevals, that is, to
meet in one age. For so the prophet Daniel speaking
of the latter times foretelleth, * Plurimi pertransibunt,
et multiplex erit scientia ' : as if the openness and
through-passage of the world and the increase of know
ledge were appointed to be in the same ages ; as we
see it is already performed in great part : the learning
of these later times not much giving place to the
former two periods or returns of learning, the one of
the Grecians, the other of the Romans.

III. 1. History ecclesiastical receive th the same
divisions with history civil : but further in the pro
priety thereof may be divided into the history of the
church, by a general name ; history of prophecy ; and
history of providence. The first describeth the times
of the militant church, whether it be fluctuant, as the
ark of Noah, or movable, as the ark in the wilderness,
or at rest, as the ark in the temple : that is, the state
of the church in persecution, in remove, and in peace.
This part I ought in no sort to note as deficient ; only
I would the virtue and sincerity of it were according
to the mass and quantity. But I am not now in hand
with censures, but with omissions.

2. The second, which is history of prophecy, con-
sisteth of two relatives, the prophecy, and the accom-

88 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

plishment ; and therefore the nature of such a work
ought to be, that every prophecy of the scripture be
sorted with the event fulfilling the same, throughout
the ages of the world ; both for the better confirmation
of faith, and for the better illumination of the Church
touching those parts of prophecies which are yet un
fulfilled : allowing nevertheless that latitude which is
agreeable and familiar unto divine prophecies ; being
of the nature of their author, with whom a thousand
years are but as one day ; and therefore are not ful
filled punctually at once, but have springing and
germinant accomplishment throughout
prophSica. many a§es ; though the height or ful
ness of them may refer to some one
age. This is a work which I find deficient ; but is to
be done with wisdom, sobriety, and reverence, or not
at all.

3. The third, which is history of providence, con-
taineth that excellent correspondence which is between
God's revealed will and his secret will : which though
it be so secure, as for the most part it is not legible
to the natural man ; no, nor many times to those that
behold it from the tabernacle ; yet at some times it
pleaseth God, for our better establishment and the con
futing of those which are without God in the world,
to write it in such text and capital letters, that, as the
prophet saith, ' He that runneth by may read it ' ;
that is, mere sensual persons, which hasten by God's
judgements, and never bend or fix their cogitations
upon them, are nevertheless in their passage and race
urged to discern it. Such are the notable events and
examples of God's judgements, chastisements, deliver
ances, and blessings : and this is a work which hath
passed through the labour of many, and therefore
I cannot present as omitted.

4. There are also other parts of learning which are
appendices to history. For all the exterior proceed
ings of man consist of words and deeds ; whereof
history doth properly receive and retain in memory
the deeds, and if words, yet but as inducements and

THE SECOND BOOK 89

passages to deeds ; so are there other books and
writings, which are appropriate to the custody and
receipt of words only ; which likewise are of three
sorts ; orations, letters, and brief speeches or sayings.
Orations are pleadings, speeches of counsel, laudatives,
invectives, apologies, reprehensions, orations of form
ality or ceremony, and the like. Letters are according
to all the variety of occasions, advertisements, advices,
directions, propositions, petitions, commendatory, ex-
postulatory, satisfactory, of compliment, of pleasure,
of discourse, and all other passages of action. And
such as are written from wise men are of all the words
of man, in my judgement, the best ; for they are more
natural than orations, and public speeches, and more
advised than conferences or present speeches. So
again letters of affairs from such as manage them, or
are privy to them, are of all others the best instructions
for history, and to a diligent reader the best histories
in themselves. For apophthegms, it is a great loss of
that book of Caesar's ; for as his history, and those
few letters of his which we have, and those apoph
thegms which were of his own, excel all men's else, so
I suppose would his collection of apophthegms have
done. For as for those which are collected by others,
either I have no taste in such matters, or else their
choice hath not been happy. But upon these three
kinds of writings I do not insist, because I have no
deficiencies to propound concerning them.

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

IV. 1. Poesy is a part of learning in measure of
words for the most part restrained, but in all other
points extremely licensed, and doth truly refer to the
imagination ; which, being not tied to the laws of
matter, may at pleasure join that which nature hath
severed, and sever that which nature hath joined ;
and so make unlawful matches and divorces of things ;
* Pictoribus atque poetis,' &c. It is taken in two senses

90 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

in respect of words or matter. In the first sense it is
but a character of style, and belongeth to arts of
speech, and is not pertinent for the present. In the
latter it is (as hath been said) one of the principal
portions of learning, and is nothing else but feigned
history, which may be styled as well in prose as in
verse.

2. The use of this feigned history hath been to give
some shadow of satisfaction to the mind of man in
those points wherein the nature of things doth deny
it, the world being in proportion inferior to the soul ;
by reason whereof there is, agreeable to the spirit of
man, a more ample greatness, a more exact goodness,
and a more absolute variety, than can be found in the
nature of things. Therefore, because the acts or events
of true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth
the mind of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater
and more heroical. Because true history propoundeth
the successes and issues of actions not so agreeable to
the merits of virtue and vice, therefore poesy feigns
them more just in retribution, and more according to
revealed providence. Because true history representeth
actions and events more ordinary and less interchanged,
therefore poesy endueth them with more rareness, and
more unexpected and alternative variations. So as it
appeareth that poesy serveth and conferreth to mag
nanimity, morality, and to delectation. And therefore
it was ever thought to have some participation of
divineness, because it doth raise and erect the mind,
by submitting the shows of things to the desires of
the mind; whereas reason doth buckle and bow the
mind unto the nature of things. And we see that by
these insinuations and congruities with man's nature
and pleasure, joined also with the agreement and con
sort it hath with music, it hath had access and estima
tion in rude times and barbarous regions, where other
learning stood excluded.

3. The division of poesy which is aptest in the pro
priety thereof (besides those divisions which are common
unto it with history, as feigned chronicles, feigned lives,

THE SECOND BOOK 91

and the appendices of history, as feigned epistles,
feigned orations, and the rest) is into poesy narrative,
representative, and allusive. The narrative is a mere
imitation of history, with the excesses before re
membered ; choosing for subject commonly wars and
love, rarely state, and sometimes pleasure or mirth.
Representative is as a visible history ; and is an
image of actions as if they were present, as history
is of actions in nature as they are, (that is) past.
Allusive or parabolical is a narration applied only to
express some special purpose or conceit. Which latter
kind of parabolical wisdom was much more in use in
the ancient times, as by the fables of Aesop, and the
brief sentences of the seven, and the use of hiero
glyphics may appear. And the cause was, for that it
was then of necessity to express any point of reason
which was more sharp or subtile than the vulgar in
that manner, because men in those times wanted both
variety of examples and subtilty of conceit. And as
hieroglyphics were before letters, so parables were
before arguments : and nevertheless now and at all
times they do retain much life and vigour, because
reason cannot be so sensible, nor examples so fit.

4. But there remaineth yet another use of poesy
parabolical, opposite to that which we last mentioned :
for that tendeth to demonstrate and illustrate that
which is taught or delivered, and this other to retire
and obscure it : that is, when the secrets and mysteries
of religion, policy, or philosophy, are involved in fables
or parables. Of this in divine poesy we see the use is
authorized. In heathen poesy we see the exposition
of fables doth fall out sometimes with great felicity ;
as in the fable that the giants being overthrown in
their war against the gods, the earth their mother in
revenge thereof brought forth Fame :

Illam terra parens, ira irritata Deorum,

Extremam, ut perhibent, Coeo Enceladoque sororem

Progenuit.

Expounded that when princes and monarchs have
suppressed actual and open rebels, then the malignity

92 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

of people (which, is the mother of rebellion) doth bring
forth libels and slanders, and taxations of the states,
which is of the same kind with rebellion, but more
feminine. So in the fable that the rest of the gods
having conspired to bind Jupiter, Pallas called Briareus
with his hundred hands to his aid: expounded that
monarchies need not fear any curbing of their absolute
ness by mighty subjects, as long as by wisdom they
keep the hearts of the people, who will be sure to come
in on their side. So in the fable that Achilles was
brought up under Chiron the centaur, who was part
a man and part a beast, expounded ingeniously but
corruptly by Machiavel, that it belongeth to the educa
tion and discipline of princes to know as well how to
play the part of the lion in violence, and the fox in
guile, as of the man in virtue and justice. Neverthe
less, in many the like encounters, I do rather think
that the fable was first, and the exposition devised,
than that the moral was first, and thereupon the fable
framed. For I find it was an ancient vanity in Chry-
sippus, that troubled himself with great contention to
fasten the assertions of the Stoics upon the fictions of
the ancient poets ; but yet that all the fables and
fictions of the poets were but pleasure and not figure,
I interpose no opinion. Surely of those poets which
are now extant, even Homer himself (notwithstanding
he was made a kind of scripture by the later schools of
the Grecians), yet I should without any difficulty pro
nounce that his fables had no such inwardness in his
own meaning. But what they might have upon a
more original tradition, is not easy to affirm ; for he
was not the inventor of many of them.

5. In this third part of learning, which is poesy,
I can report no deficience. For being as a plant that
cometh of the lust of the earth, without a formal seed,
it hath sprung up and spread abroad more than any
other kind. But to ascribe unto it that which is due
for the expressing of affections, passions, corruptions,
and customs, we are beholding to poets more than to
the philosophers' works ; and for wit and eloquence,

THE SECOND BOOK 93

not much less than to orators' harangues. But it is
not good to stay too long in the theatre. Let us now
pass on to the judicial place or palace of the mind,
which we are to approach and view with more rever
ence and attention.

V. 1. The knowledge of man is as the waters,
some descending from above, and some springing
from beneath ; the one informed by the light of nature,
the other inspired by divine revelation. The light of
nature consisteth in the notions of the mind and the
reports of the senses : for as for knowledge which man
receiveth by teaching, it is cumulative and not original ;
as in a water that besides his own spring-head is fed
with other springs and streams. So then, according
to these two differing illuminations or originals, know
ledge is first of all divided into divinity and philo
sophy.

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

94 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

concernetli the principles, and of that other part of
natural philosophy which concerneth the soul or spirit ;
all these strangely commixed and confused ; but being
examined, it seemeth to me rather a depredation of
other sciences, advanced and exalted unto some height
of terms, than anything solid or substantive of itself.
Nevertheless I cannot be ignorant of the distinction
which is current, that the same things are handled but
in several respects. As for example, that logic con-
sidereth of many things as they are in notion, and this
philosophy as they are in nature ; the one in appearance,
the other in existence ; but I find this difference better
made than pursued. For if they had considered quan
tity, similitude, diversity, and the rest of those extern
characters of things, as philosophers, and in nature,
their inquiries must of force have been of a far other
kind than they are. For doth any of them, in handling
quantity, speak of the force of union, how and how
far it multiplieth virtue ? Doth any give the reason,
why some things in nature are so common, and in so
great mass, and others so rare, and in so small quan
tity ? Doth any, in handling similitude and diversity,
assign the cause why iron should not move to iron,
which is more like, but move to the load-stone, which
is less like ? Why in all diversities of things there
should be certain participles in nature, which are
almost ambiguous to which kind they should be re
ferred ? But there is a mere and deep silence touching
the nature and operation of those common adjuncts
of things, as in nature : and only a resuming and
repeating of the force and use of them in speech or
argument. Therefore, because in a writing of this
nature I avoid all subtility, my meaning touching this
original or universal philosophy is thus, in a plain and
gross description by negative : ' That it be a receptacle
for all such profitable observations and axioms as fall
not within the compass of any of the special parts of
philosophy or sciences, but are more common and of
a higher stage.'

3. Now that there are many of that kind need not

THE SECOND BOOK 95

be doubted. For example : is not the rule, ' Si
inaequalibus aequalia addas, omnia erunt inaequalia,'
an axiom as well of justice as of the mathematics ?
and is there not a true coincidence between commutative
and distributive justice, and arithmetical and geo
metrical proportion ? Is not that other rule, ' Quae
in eodem tertio conveniunt, et inter se conveniunt,'
a rule taken from the mathematics, but so potent in
logic as all syllogisms are built upon it ? Is not the
observation, ' Omnia mutantur, nil interit,' a con
templation in philosophy thus, that the quantum of
nature is eternal ? in natural theology thus, that it
requireth the same omnipotency to make somewhat
nothing, which at the first made nothing somewhat ?
according to the scripture, ' Didici quod omnia opera,
quae fecit Deus, perse verent in perpetuum ; non possu-
mus eis quicquam addere nee auferre.' Is not the
ground, which Machiavel wisely and largely discourseth
concerning governments, that the way to establish
and preserve them, is to reduce them ad principia,
a rule in religion and nature, as well as in civil adminis
tration ? Was not the Persian magic a reduction or
correspondence of the principles and architectures of
nature to the rules and policy of governments ? Is
not the precept of a musician, to fall from a discord or
harsh accord upon a concord or sweet accord, alike true
in affection ? Is not the trope of music, to avoid or
slide from the close or cadence, common with the trope
of rhetoric of deceiving expectation ? Is not the
delight of the quavering upon a stop in music the
same with the playing of light upon the water ?

Splendet tremulo sub lumine pontua.

Are not the organs of the senses of one kind with the
organs of reflection, the eye with a glass, the ear with
a cave or strait, determined and bounded ? Neither
are these only similitudes, as men of narrow observa
tion may conceive them to be, but the same footsteps
of nature, treading or printing upon several subjects
or matters. This science therefore (as I understand

96 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

it) I may justly report as deficient : for I see some
times the profounder sort of wits, in
ia handling some particular argument, will
i now an<^ t^aen <iraw a bucket of water out
sdentiarum. of this well for their present use : but the
spring-head thereof seemeth to me not
to have been visited ; being of so excellent use both
for the disclosing of nature and the abridgement
of art.

VI. 1. This science being therefore first placed as
a common parent like unto Berecynthia, which had
so much heavenly issue, ' omnes caelicolas, omnes
supera alta tenentes ' ; we may return to the former
distribution of the three philosophies, divine, natural,
and human. And as concerning divine philosophy or
natural theology, it is that knowledge or rudiment of
knowledge concerning God, which may be obtained by
the contemplation of his creatures ; which knowledge
may be truly termed divine in respect of the object,
and natural in respect of the light. The bounds of this
knowledge are, that it sufficeth to convince atheism,
but not to inform religion : and therefore there was
never miracle wrought by God to convert an atheist,
because the light of nature might have led him to con
fess a God : but miracles have been wrought to con
vert idolaters and the superstitious, because no light
of nature extendeth to declare the will and true worship
of God. For as all works do show forth the power and
skill of the workman, and not his image, so it is of the
works of God, which do show the omnipotency and
wisdom of the maker, but not his image. And there
fore therein the heathen opinion differeth from the
sacred truth ; for they supposed the world to be the
image of God, and man to be an extract or com
pendious image of the world ; but the scriptures never
vouchsafe to attribute to the world that honour, as to
be the image of God, but only * the work of his hands ' ;
neither do they speak of any other image of God, but
man. Wherefore by the contemplation of nature to
induce and enforce the acknowledgement of God, and

THE SECOND BOOK 97

to demonstrate his power, providence, and goodness,
is an excellent argument, and hath been excellently
handled by divers. But on the other side, out of the
contemplation of nature, or ground of human know
ledges, to induce any verity or persuasion concerning
the points of faith, is in my judgement not safe : * Da
fidei quae fidei sunt.' For the heathen themselves con
clude as much in that excellent and divine fable of
the golden chain : ' That men and gods were not able
to draw Jupiter down to the earth ; but contrariwise
Jupiter was able to draw them up to heaven.' So as
we ought not to attempt to draw down or to submit
the mysteries of God to our reason ; but contrariwise
to raise and advance our reason to the divine truth.
So as in this part of knowledge, touching divine philo
sophy, I am so far from noting any deficience, as I
rather note an excess : whereunto I have digressed
because of the extreme prejudice which both religion
and philosophy hath received and may receive by
being commixed together ; as that which undoubtedly
will make an heretical religion, and an imaginary and
fabulous philosophy.

2. Otherwise it is of the nature of angels and spirits,
which is an appendix of theology, both divine and
natural, and is neither inscrutable nor interdicted.
For although the scripture saith, ' Let no man deceive
you in sublime discourse touching the worship of angels,
pressing into that he knoweth not,' &c., yet notwith
standing if you observe well that precept, it may appear
thereby that there be two things only forbidden,
adoration of them, and opinion fantastical of them,
either to extol them further than appertaineth to the
iegree of a creature, or to extol a man's knowledge of
them further than he hath ground. But the sober
md grounded inquiry, which may arise out of the
passages of holy scriptures, or out of the gradations of
lature, is not restrained. So of degenerate and re
volted spirits, the conversing with them or the employ -
nent of them is prohibited, much more any veneration
Cowards them ; but the contemplation or science of

98 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

their nature, their power, their illusions, either by
scripture or reason, is a part of spiritual wisdom. For
so the apostle saith, ' We are not ignorant of his strata
gems.' And it is no more unlawful to inquire the
nature of evil spirits, than to inquire the force of poisons
in nature, or the nature of sin and vice in morality.
But this part touching angels and spirits I cannot note
as deficient, for many have occupied themselves in it ;
I may rather challenge it, in many of the writers
thereof, as fabulous and fantastical.

VII. 1. Leaving therefore divine philosophy or
natural theology (not divinity or inspired theology,
which we reserve for the last of all as the haven and
sabbath of all man's contemplations) we will now
proceed to natural philosophy. If then it be true that
Democritus said, ' that the truth of nature lieth hid
in certain deep mines and caves ' ; and if it be true
likewise that the alchemists do so much inculcate, that
Vulcan is a second nature, and imitateth that dex
terously and compendiously which nature worketh by
ambages and length of time ; it were good to divide
natural philosophy into the mine and the furnace, and
to make two professions or occupations of natural
philosophers, some to be pioneers and some smiths ;
some to dig, and some to refine and hammer. And
surely I do best allow of a division of that kind, though
in more familiar and scholastical terms ; namely, that
these be the two parts of natural philosophy, the in
quisition of causes, and the production of effects ;
speculative, and operative ; natural science, and
natural prudence. For as in civil matters there is
a wisdom of discourse, and a wisdom of direction ;
so is it in natural. And here I will make a request,
that for the latter (or at least for a part thereof) I
may revive and reintegrate the misapplied and abused
name of natural magic ; which in the true sense is
but natural wisdom, or natural prudence ; taken
according to the ancient acception, purged from vanity
and superstition. Now although it be true, and I know
it well, that there is an intercourse between causes and

THE SECOND BOOK 99

effects, so as both these knowledges, speculative and
operative, have a great connexion between themselves
yet because all true and fruitful natural philosophy
hath a double scale or ladder, ascendent and descendent,
ascending from experiments to the invention of causes,
and descending from causes to the invention of new
experiments ; therefore I judge it most requisite that
these two parts be severally considered and handled.
2. Natural science or theory is divided into physic
and metaphysic : wherein I desire it may be conceived
that I use the word metaphysic in a differing sense
rom that that is received. And in like manner,
I doubt not but it will easily appear to men of judge
ment, that in this and other particulars, wheresoever
my conception and notion may differ from the ancient,
yet I am studious to keep the ancient terms. For
hoping well to deliver myself from mistaking, by the
order and perspicuous expressing of that I do pro
pound ; I am otherwise zealous and affectionate to
recede as little from antiquity, either in terms or opinions,
as may stand with truth and the proficience of know
ledge. And herein I cannot a little marvel at the
philosopher Aristotle, that did proceed in such a spirit
of difference and contradiction towards all antiquity :
undertaking not only to frame new words of science at
pleasure, but to confound and extinguish all ancient
wisdom : insomuch as he never nameth or mentioneth
an ancient author or opinion, but to confute and re
prove ; wherein for glory, and drawing followers and
disciples, he took the right course. For certainly there
cometh to pass, and hath place in human truth, that
which was noted and pronounced in the highest truth :
' Veni in nomine patris, nee recipitis me ; si quis
renerit in nomine suo eum recipietis.' But in this
divine aphorism (considering to whom it was applied,
aamely to antichrist, the highest deceiver) we may
iiscern well that the coming in a man's own name,
srithout regard of antiquity or paternity, is no good
01r sign of truth, although it be joined with the fortune
Do md success of an eum recipietis. But for this excellent

100 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

person Aristotle, I will think of him that he learned
that humour of his scholar, with whom it seemeth he
did emulate ; the one to conquer all opinions, as the
other to conquer all nations. Wherein nevertheless,
it may be, he may at Some men's hands, that are of
a bitter disposition, get a like title as his scholar did :

Felix terrarum praedo, non utile mundo
Editus exemplum, &c.
So,

Felix doctrinae praedo.

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

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

THE SECOND BOOK 101

itself. It is therefore now a question what is left
remaining for metaphysic ; wherein I may without
prejudice preserve thus much of the conceit of an
tiquity, that physio should contemplate that which is
inherent in matter, and therefore transitory ; and
metaphysic that which is abstracted and fixed. And
again, that physic should handle that which supposeth
in nature only a being and moving ; and metaphysic
should handle that which supposeth further in nature
a reason, understanding, and platform. But the
difference, perspicuously expressed, is most familiar
and sensible. For as we divided natural philosophy
in general into the inquiry of causes, and productions
of effects : so that part which concerneth the inquiry
of causes we do subdivide according to the received
and sound division of causes. The one part, which is
physic, inquireth and handleth the material and
efficient causes ; and the other, which is metaphysic,
handleth the formal and final causes.

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

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

Fire is the cause of induration, but respective to clay ;
fire is the cause of colliquation, but respective to wax.
But fire is no constant cause either of induration or
colliquation : so then the physical causes are but the
efficient and the matter. Physic hath three parts,
whereof two respect nature united or collected, the
third contemplate th nature diffused or distributed.
Nature is collected either into one entire total, or else
into the same principles or seeds. So as the first
doctrine is touching the contexture or configuration of
things, as de mundo, de universitate rerum. The second

102 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

is the doctrine concerning the principles or originals
of things. The third is the doctrine concerning all
variety and particularity of things ; whether it be of
the differing substances, or their differing qualities
and natures ; whereof there needeth no enumeration,
this part being but as a gloss or paraphrase that
attendeth upon the text of natural history. Of these
three I cannot report any as deficient. In what truth
or perfection they are handled, I make not now any
judgement ; but they are parts of knowledge not
deserted by the labour of man.

5. For metaphysic, we have assigned unto it the
inquiry of formal and final causes ; which assignation,
as to the former of them, may seem to be nugatory
and void, because of the received and inveterate
opinion, that the inquisition of man is not competent
to find out essential forms or true differences : of which
opinion we will take this hold, that the invention of
forms is of all other parts of knowledge the worthiest
to be sought, if it be possible to be found. As for the
possibility, they are ill discoverers that think there is
no land, when they can see nothing but sea. But it is
manifest that Plato, in his opinion of ideas, as one
that had a wit of elevation situate as upon a cliff, did
descry that forms were the true object of knowledge ; but
lost the real fruit of his opinion, by considering of
forms as absolutely abstracted from matter, and not
confined and determined by matter ; and so turning
his opinion upon theology, wherewith all his natural
philosophy is infected. But if any man shall keep
a continual watchful and severe eye upon action,
operation, and the use of knowledge, he may advise
and take notice what are the forms, the disclosures
whereof are fruitful and important to the state of man*
For as to the forms of substances (man only except, of
whom it is said, ' Formavit hominem de h'mo terrae,
et spiravit in faciem eius spiraculum vitae,' and not as
of all other creatures, ' Producant aquae, producat
terra'), the forms of substances I say (as they are now
by compounding and transplanting multiplied) are so

THE SECOND BOOK 103

perplexed, as they are not to be inquired ; no more
than it were either possible or to purpose to seek in
gross the forms of those sounds which make words,
which by composition and transposition of letters are
infinite. But on the other side to inquire the form of
those sounds or voices which make simple letters is
easily comprehensible ; and being known induceth
and manifesto th the forms of all words, which consist
and are compounded of them. In the same manner
to inquire the form of a lion, of an oak, of gold ; nay,
of water, of air, is a vain pursuit : but to inquire the
forms of sense, of voluntary motion, of vegetation, of
colours, of gravity and levity, of density, of tenuity,
of heat, of cold, and all other natures and qualities,
which, like an alphabet, are not many, and of which
the essences (upheld by matter) of all creatures do
consist ; to inquire, I say, the true forms of these, is
that part of metaphysic which we now define of. Not
but that physic doth make inquiry and take considera
tion of the same natures : but how ? Only as to the
material and efficient causes of them, and not as to
the forms. For example, if the cause of whiteness in
snow or froth be inquired, and it be rendered thus,
that the subtile intermixture of air and water is the
cause, it is well rendered ; but nevertheless is this
the form of whiteness ? No ; but it is the efficient,
which is ever but vehiculum formae. This
part of metaphysic I do not find laboured Metaphysica
and performed : whereat I marvel not :
because I hold it not possible to be in-
vented by that course of invention which
hath been used ; in regard that men (which is the root
of all error) have made too untimely a departure and
too remote a recess from particulars.

6. But the use of this part of metaphysic, which
I report as deficient, is of the rest the most excellent
in two respects : the one, because it is the duty and
virtue of all knowledge to abridge the infinity of
individual experience, as much as the conception of
truth will permit, and to remedy the complaint of

104 OP THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

vita brevis, ars longa ; which is performed by uniting
the notions and conceptions of sciences. For know
ledges are as pyramides, whereof history is the basis.
So of natural philosophy, the basis is natural history ;
the stage next the basis is physic ; the stage next the
vertical point is metaphysic. As for the vertical
point, * opus quod operatur Deus a principio usque
ad finem,' the summary law of nature, we know not
whether man's inquiry can attain unto it. But these
three be the true stages of knowledge, and are to them
that are depraved no better than the giants' hills :

Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam,

Scilicet, atque Ossae frondosum involvere Olympum.

But to those which refer all things to the glory of
God, they are as the three acclamations, Sancte, sancte,
sancte I holy in the description or dilatation of his
works ; holy in the connexion or concatenation of
them ; and holy in the union of them in a perpetual
and uniform law. And therefore the speculation was
excellent in Parmenides and Plato, although but a
speculation in them, that all things by scale did ascend
to unity. So then always that knowledge is worthiest
which is charged with least multiplicity, which ap-
peareth to be metaphysic ; as that which considereth
the simple forms or differences of things, which are
few in number, and the degrees and co-ordinations
whereof make all this variety. The second respect,
which valueth and commendeth this part of meta
physic, is that it doth enfranchise the power of man
unto the greatest liberty and possibility of works and
effects. For physic carrieth men in narrow and re
strained ways, subject to many accidents of impedi
ments, imitating the ordinary flexuous courses of
nature. But * latae undique sunt sapientibus viae ' :
to sapience (which was anciently defined to be * rerum
divinarum et humanarum scientia ') there is ever choice
of means. For physical causes give light to new
invention in simili materiel. But whosoever knoweth
any form, knoweth the utmost possibility of super-

THE SECOND BOOK 105

inducing that nature upon any variety of matter ;
and so is less restrained in operation, either to the
basis of the matter, or the condition of the efficient ;
which kind of knowledge Salomon likewise, though in
a more divine sense, elegantly describeth ; ' non arcta-
buntur gressus tui, et currens non habebis offendiculum.'
The ways of sapience are not much liable either to
particularity or chance.

7. The second part of metaphysic is the inquiry of
final causes, which I am moved to report not as omitted
but as misplaced. And yet if it were but a fault in
order, I would not speak of it : for order is matter of
illustration, but pertaineth not to the substance of
sciences. But this misplacing hath caused a deficience,
or at least a great improficience in the sciences them
selves. For the handling of final causes, mixed with
the rest in physical inquiries, hath intercepted the
severe and diligent inquiry of all real and physical
causes, and given men the occasion to stay upon these
satisfactory and specious causes, to the great arrest
and prejudice of further discovery. For this I find
done not only by Plato, who ever anchoreth upon that
shore, but by Aristotle, Galen, and others which do
usually likewise fall upon these flats of discoursing
causes. For to say that ' the hairs of the eye-lids are
for a quickset and fence about the sight ' ; or that
* the firmness of the skins and hides of living creatures
is to defend them from the extremities of heat and cold ';
or that ' the bones are for the columns or beams, where
upon the frames of the bodies of living creatures are
built ' : or that ' the leaves of trees are for protecting of
the fruit ' ; or that * the clouds are for watering of the
earth ' ; or that ' the solidness of the earth is for the station
and mansion of living creatures,' and the like, is well
inquired and collected in metaphysic, but in physic they
are impertinent. Nay, they are indeed but remoraes
and hindrances to stay and slug the ship from further
sailing ; and have brought this to pass, that the search
of the physical causes hath been neglected and passed
ill silence. And therefore the natural philosophy of

106 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

Democritus and some others, who did not suppose
a mind or reason in the frame of things, but attributed
the form thereof able to maintain itself to infinite
essays or proofs of nature, which they term fortune,
seemeth to me (as far as I can judge by the recital and
fragments which remain unto us) in particularities of
physical causes more real and better inquired than that
of Aristotle and Plato ; whereof both intermingled
final causes, the one as a part of theology, and the other
as a part of logic, which were the favourite studies re
spectively of both those persons. Not because those
final causes are not true, and worthy to be inquired,
being kept within their own province ; but because
their excursions into the limits of physical causes hath
bred a vastness and solitude hi that tract. For other
wise, keeping their precincts and borders, men are
extremely deceived if they think there is an enmity
or repugnancy at all between them. For the cause
rendered, that ' the hairs about the eye-lids are for the
safeguard of the sight,' doth nob impugn the cause
rendered, that ' pilosity is incident to orifices of moisture ' ;
muscosi fontes, &c. Nor the cause rendered, that * the
firmness of hides is for the armour of the body against
extremities of heat or cold,' doth not impugn the cause
rendered, that ' contraction of pores is incident to the
outwardest parts, in regard of their adjacence to foreign
or unlike bodies ' : and so of the rest : both causes
being true and compatible, the one declaring an in
tention, the other a consequence only. Neither doth
this call in question, or derogate from divine providence,
but highly confirm and exalt it. For as in civil actions
he is the greater and deeper politique, that can make
other men the instruments of his will and ends, and
yet never acquaint them with his purpose, so as they
shall do it and yet not know what they do, than he
that imparteth his meaning to those he employeth ;
so is the wisdom of God more admirable, when nature
intendeth one thing, and providence draweth forth
another, than if he had communicated to particular
creatures and motions the characters and impressions

THE SECOND BOOK 107

of his providence. And thus much for metaphysic :
the latter part whereof I allow as extant, but wish it
confined to his proper place.

VIII. 1. Nevertheless there remaineth yet another
part of natural philosophy, which is commonly made
a principal part, and holdeth rank with physic special
and metaphysic, which is mathematic ; but I think it
more agreeable to the nature of things, and to the
light of order, to place it as a branch of metaphysic.
For the subject of it being quantity, not quantity in
definite, which is but a relative, and belongeth to
philosophia prima (as hath been said), but quantity
determined or proportionable, it appeareth to be one
of the essential forms of things, as that that is causa
tive in nature of a number of effects ; insomuch as
we see in the schools both of Democritus and of Pytha
goras, that the one did ascribe figure to the first seeds
of things, and the other did suppose numbers to be
the principles and originals of things. And it is true
also that of all other forms (as we understand forms)
it is the most abstracted and separable from matter,
and therefore most proper to metaphysic ; which hath
likewise been the cause why it hath been better laboured
and inquired than any of the other forms, which are
more immersed into matter. For it being the nature
of the mind of man (to the extreme prejudice of know
ledge) to delight in the spacious liberty of generalities,
as in a champain region, and not in the inclosures of
particularity, the mathematics of all other knowledge
were the goodliest fields to satisfy that appetite. But
for the placing of this science, it is not much material :
only we have endeavoured in these our partitions to
observe a kind of perspective, that one part may cast
light upon another.

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

108 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

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

3. For natural prudence, or the part operative of
natural philosophy, we will divide it into three parts,
experimental, philosophical, and magical : which three
parts active have a correspondence and analogy with
the three parts speculative, natural history, physic,
and metaphysic. For many operations have been
invented, sometime by a casual incidence and occur
rence, sometimes by a purposed experiment : and of
those which have been found by an intentional experi
ment, some have been found out by varying or ex
tending the same experiment, some by transferring
and compounding divers experiments the one into
the other, which kind of invention an empiric may
manage. Again by the knowledge of physical causes
there cannot fail to follow many indications and desig-

THE SECOND BOOK 109

nations of new particulars, if men in their speculation
•will keep one eye upon use and practice. But these
are but coastings along the shore premendo littus
iniquum : for it seemeth to me there can hardly be
discovered any radical or fundamental alterations and
innovations in nature, either by the fortune and essays
of experiments, or by the light and direction of physical
causes. If therefore we have reported
metaphysic deficient, it must follow that
we do the like of natural magic, which
hath relation thereunto. For as for the
natural magic whereof now there is men
tion in books, containing certain credulous and super
stitious conceits and observations of sympathies and
antipathies, and hidden proprieties, and some frivolous
experiments, strange rather by disguisement than in
themselves, it is as far differing in truth of nature
from such a knowledge as we require, as the story of
King Arthur of Britain, of Hugh of Bourdeaux, differs
from Caesar's Commentaries in truth of story. For it
is manifest that Caesar did greater things de vero than
those imaginary heroes were feigned to do. But he
did them not in that fabulous manner. Of this kind
of learning the fable of Ixion was a figure, who designed
to enjoy Juno, the goddess of power ; and instead of
her had copulation with a cloud, of which mixture were
begotten centaurs and chimeras. So whosoever shall
entertain high and vaporous imaginations, instead of
a laborious and sober inquiry of truth, shall beget
hopes and beliefs of strange and impossible shapes.
And therefore we may note in these sciences which hold
so much of imagination and belief, as this degenerate
natural magic, alchemy, astrology, and the like, that
in their propositions the description of the means is
ever more monstrous than the pretence or end. For it
is a thing more probable, that he that knoweth well
the natures of weight, of colour, of pliant and fragile
in respect of the hammer, of volatile and fixed in
respect of the fire, and the rest, may superinduce upon
some metal the nature and form of gold by such

110 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

mechanique as longeth to the production of the natures
afore rehearsed, than that some grains of the medicine
projected should in a few moments of time turn a sea
of quicksilver or other material into gold. So it is
more probable that he that knoweth the nature of
arefaction, the nature of assimilation of nourishment
to the thing nourished, the manner of increase and
clearing of spirits, the manner of the depredations
which spirits make upon the humours and solid parts,
shall by ambages of diets, bathings, anointings, medi
cines, motions, and the like, prolong life, or restore
some degree of youth or vivacity, than that it can be
done with the use of a few drops or scruples of a liquor
or receipt. To conclude therefore, the true natural
magic, which is that great liberty and latitude of
operation which dependeth upon the knowledge of
forms, I may report deficient, as the relative thereof
is. To which part, if we be serious and incline not to
vanities and plausible discourse, besides the deriving
and deducing the operations themselves from meta-
physic, there are pertinent two points of much purpose,
/nmntarium the one bv way of Preparation, the other
opumhum- by way of caution. The first is, that
anarum. there be made a kalendar, resembling an

inventory of the estate of man, containing all the
inventions (being the works or fruits of nature or
art) which are now extant, and whereof man is already
possessed ; out of which doth naturally result a note,
what things are yet held impossible, or not invented :
which kalendar will be the more artificial and service
able, if to every reputed impossibility you add what
thing is extant which cometh the nearest in degree to
that impossibility ; to the end that by these optatives
and potentials man's inquiry may be the more awake
in deducing direction of works from the speculation of
causes. And secondly, that those experiments be not
only esteemed which have an immediate and present
use, but those principally which are of most universal
consequence for invention of other experiments, and
those which give most light to the invention of causes.

THE SECOND BOOK 111

For the invention of the mariner's needle, which giveth
the direction, is of no less benefit for navigation than
the invention of the sails which give the motion.

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

Non canimus surdis, respondent omnia sylvae;

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

5. But there remaineth a division of natural philo
sophy according to the report of the inquiry, and
nothing concerning the matter or subject : and that is
positive and considerative ; when the inquiry reporteth
either an assertion or a doubt. These doubts or non
liquets are of two sorts, particular and total. For the
first, we see a good example thereof in Aristotle's
Problems, which deserved to have had a better con
tinuance ; but so nevertheless as there is one point
whereof warning is to be given and taken. The
registering of doubts hath two excellent uses : the
one, that it saveth philosophy from errors and false
hoods ; when that which is not fully appearing is not
collected into assertion, whereby error might draw
error, but reserved in doubt : the other, that the entry
of doubts are as so many suckers or sponges to draw
use of knowledge ; insomuch as that which, if doubts
had not preceded, a man should never have advised,
but passed it over without note, by the suggestion and
solicitation of doubts is made to be attended and
applied. But both these commodities do scarcely

112 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

countervail an inconvenience, which will intrude itself

if it be not debarred ; which is, that when a doubt is

once received, men labour rather how to keep it a

doubt still, than how to solve it ; and accordingly

bend their wits. Of this we see the familiar example

in lawyers and scholars, both which, if they have

once admitted a doubt, it goeth ever after authorized

for a doubt. But that use of wit and knowledge is

to be allowed, which laboureth to make doubtful things

certain, and not those which labour to make certain

things doubtful. Therefore these kalendars of doubts

I commend as excellent things ; so that there be this

caution used, that when they be thoroughly sifted

and brought to resolution, they be from thenceforth

omitted, decarded, and not continued to cherish and

encourage men in doubting. To which kalendar of

doubts or problems, I advise be annexed

Continuatio another kalendar, as much or more

tuminia" material, which is a kalendar of popular

natura. errors : I mean chiefly in natural history,

Catalogue such as pass in speech and conceit, and

^graswntium are nevertheless apparently detected and

in kistoria convicted of un truth ; that man's know-

naturae. ledge be not weakened nor imbased by

such dross and vanity. As for the doubts

or non liquets general or in total, I understand those

differences of opinions touching the principles of nature,

and the fundamental points of the same, which have

caused the diversity of sects, schools, and philosophies,

as that of Empedocles, Pythagoras, Democritus, Par-

menides, and the rest. For although Aristotle, as

though he had been of the race of the Ottomans,

thought he could not reign except the first thing he did

he killed all his brethren ; yet to those that seek truth

and not magistrality, it cannot but seem a matter of

great profit, to see before them the several opinions

touching the foundations of nature. Not for any exact

truth that can be expected in those theories ; for as

the same phenomena in astronomy are satisfied by the

received astronomy of the diurnal motion, and the

THE SECOND BOOK 113

jroper motions of the planets, with their eccentrics
and epicycles, and likewise by the theory of Copernicus,
wLo supposed the earth to move, and the calculations
are indifferently agreeable to both, so the ordinary face
and view of experience is many times satisfied by several
theories and philosophies ; whereas to find the real
truth requireth another manner of severity and atten
tion. For as Aristotle saith, that children at the first
will call every woman mother, but afterward they come
to distinguish according to truth ; so experience, if it
be in childhood, will call every philosophy mother, but
when it cometh to ripeness it will discern the true

mother. So as in the mean time it is
phtioavhiti g°°d to see the several glosses and opinions

upon nature, whereof it may be every one
in some one point hath seen clearer than his fellows,
therefore I wish some collection to be made painfully
and understandingly de antiquis philosophiis, out of all
the possible light which remaineth to us of them : which
kind of work I find deficient. But here I must give
warning, that it be done distinctly and severedly ; the
philosophies of every one throughout by themselves,
and not by titles packed and faggoted up together, as
hath been done by Plutarch. For it is the harmony
of a philosophy in itself which giveth it light and
credence ; whereas if it be singled and broken, it will
seem more foreign and dissonant. For as when I read
in Tacitus the actions of Nero or Claudius, with cir
cumstances of times, inducements, and occasions, I find
them not so strange ; but when I read them in Sue
tonius Tranquillus, gathered into titles and bundles
and not in order of time, they seem more monstrous
and incredible : so it is of any philosophy reported
entire, and dismembered by articles. Neither do I ex
clude opinions of latter times to be likewise represented
in this calendar of sects of philosophy, as that of
Theophrastus Paracelsus, eloquently reduced into an
harmony by the pen of Severinus the Dane ; and that
of Tilesius, and his scholar Donius, being as a pastoral
philosophy, full of sense, but of no great depth ; and

114 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

that of Fracastorius, who, though he pretended not to
make any new philosophy, yet did use the absolute
ness of his own sense upon the old ; and that of Gilbercus
our countryman, who revived, with some alterations
and demonstrations, the opinions of Xenophanes ; and
any other worthy to be admitted.

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

IX. 1. We come therefore now to that knowledge
whereunto the ancient oracle directeth us, which is the
knowledge of ourselves ; which deserveth the more
accurate handling, by how much it toucheth us more
nearly. This knowledge, as it is the end and term of
natural philosophy in the intention of man, so not
withstanding it is but a portion of natural philosophy
in the continent of nature. And generally let this be
a rule, that all partitions of knowledges be accepted
rather for lines and veins than for sections and separa
tions ; and that the continuance and entireness of
knowledge be preserved. For the contrary hereof hath
made particular sciences to become barren, shallow,
and erroneous, while they have not been nourished
and maintained from the common fountain. So we
see Cicero the orator complained of Socrates and his
school, that he was the first that separated philosophy
and rhetoric ; whereupon rhetoric became an empty
and verbal art. So we may see that the opinion of
Copernicus touching the rotation of the earth, which
astronomy itself cannot correct, because it is not
repugnant to any of the phainomena, yet natural philo
sophy may correct. So we see also that the science of
medicine if it be destituted and forsaken by natural
philosophy, it is not much better than an empirical
practice. With this reservation therefore we proceed
to human philosophy or humanity, which hath two
parts : the one considereth man segregate or dis-

THE SECOND BOOK 115

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

2. This knowledge hath two branches : for as all
leagues and amities consist of mutual intelligence and
mutual offices, so this league of mind and body hath
these two parts ; how the one discloseth the other, and
how the one worketh upon the other ; discovery and
impression. The former of these hath begotten two
arts, both of prediction or prenotion ; whereof the one
is honoured with the inquiry of Aristotle, and the other
of Hippocrates. And although they have of later time
been used to be coupled with superstitious and fan
tastical arts, yet being purged and restored to their
true state, they have both of them a solid ground in
nature, and a profitable use in life. The first is phy
siognomy, which discovereth the disposition of the
mind by the lineaments of the body. The second is
the exposition of natural dreams, which discovereth
the state of the body by the imaginations of the mind.
In the former of these I note a deficience. For Aristotle
hath very ingeniously and diligently
handled the factures of the body, but
not the gestures of the body, which are de gestu 'give
no less comprehensible by art, and of m°£cor~
greater use and advantage. For the

116 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

lineaments of the body do disclose the disposition and
inclination of the mind in general ; but the motions
of the countenance and parts do not only so, but do
further disclose the present humour and state of the
mind and will. For as your majesty saith most aptly
and elegantly, ' As the tongue speaketh to the ear so
the gesture speaketh to the eye.' And therefore a
number of subtile persons, whose eyes do dwell upon
the faces and fashions of men, do well know the advan
tage of this observation, as being most part of their
ability; neither can it be denied, but that it is a great dis
covery of dissimulations, and a great direction in business.
3. The latter branch, touching impression, hath not
been collected into art, but hath been handled dispers-
edly ; and it hath the same relation or antistrophe
that the former hath. For the consideration is double :
either, how and how far the humours and affects of the
body do alter or work upon the mind ; or again, how
and how far the passions or apprehensions of the mind
do alter or work upon the body. The former of these
hath been inquired and considered as a part and
appendix of medicine, but much more as a part of
religion or superstition. For the physician prescribeth
cures of the mind in frenzies and melancholy passions ;
and pretendeth also to exhibit medicines to exhilarate
the mind, to confirm the courage, to clarify the wits,
to corroborate the memory, and the like : but the
scruples and superstitions of diet and other regiment
of the body in the sect of the Pythagoreans, in the
heresy of the Manichees, and in the law of Mahomet,
do exceed. So likewise the ordinances in the cere
monial law, interdicting the eating of the blood and
the fat, distinguishing between beasts clean and un
clean for meat, are many and strict. Nay the faith
itself being clear and serene from all clouds of cere
mony, yet retaineth the use of fastings, abstinences,
and other macerations and humiliations of the body,
as things real, and not figurative. The root and life
of all which prescripts is (besides the ceremony) the
consideration of that dependency which the affections

THE SECOND BOOK 117

of the mind are submitted unto upon the state and dis
position of the body. And if any man of weak judge
ment do conceive that this suffering of the mind from
the body doth either question the immortality, or
derogate from the sovereignty of the soul, he may be
taught in easy instances, that the infant in the mother's
womb is compatible with the mother and yet separ
able ; and the most absolute monarch is sometimes
led by his servants and yet without subjection. As
for the reciprocal knowledge, which is the operation of
the conceits and passions of the mind upon the body,
we see all wise physicians, in the prescriptions of their
regiments to their patients, do ever consider accidentia
animi as of great force to further or hinder remedies
or recoveries : and more especially it is an inquiry of
great depth and worth concerning imagination, how
and how far it altereth the body proper of the imagi-
nant. For although it hath a manifest power to hurt,
it followeth not it hath the same degree of power to
help. No more than a man can conclude, that because
there be pestilent airs, able suddenly to kill a man in
health, therefore there should be sovereign airs, able
suddenly to cure a man in sickness. But the inquisi
tion of this part is of great use, though it needeth, as
Socrates said, ' a Delian diver,' being difficult and pro
found. But unto all this knowledge de communi
vinculo, of the concordances between the mind and
the body, that part of inquiry is most necessary, which
considereth of the seats and domiciles which the several
faculties of the mind do take and occupate in the organs
of the body ; which knowledge hath been attempted,
and is controverted, and deserveth to be much better
inquired. For the opinion of Plato, who placed the
understanding in the brain, animosity (which he did
unfitly call anger, having a greater mixture with pride)
in the heart, and concupiscence or sensuality in the
liver, deserveth not to be despised ; but much less to be
allowed. So then we have constituted (as in our own wish
and advice) the inquiry touching human nature entire,
as a just portion of knowledge to be handled apart.

118 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

X. 1. The knowledge that concerneth man's body
is divided as the good of man's body is divided, unto
which it referreth. The good of man's body is of four
kinds, health, beauty, strength and pleasure : so the
knowledges are medicine, or art of cure : art of decora
tion, which is called cosmetic ; art of activity, which is
called athletic ; and art voluptuary, which Tacitus
truly calleth eruditus luxus. This subject of man's
body is of all other things in nature most susceptible
of remedy ; but then that remedy is most susceptible
of error. For the same subtility of the subject doth
cause large possibility and easy failing ; and therefore
the inquiry ought to be the more exact.

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

Pur um quo reliquit
Aethereum sensum atque aurai simplicis ignem.

THE SECOND BOOK 119

So that it is no marvel though the soul so placed enjoy
no rest, if that principle be true, that ' Motus rerum
est rapidus extra locum, placidus in loco.' But to the
purpose : this variable composition of man's body
hath made it as an instrument easy to distemper ; and
therefore the poets did well to conjoin music and
medicine in Apollo, because the office of medicine is
but to tune this curious harp of man's body and to
reduce it to harmony. So then the subject being so
variable, hath made the art by consequent more con
jectural ; and the art being conjectural hath made so
much the more place to be left for imposture. For
almost all other arts and sciences are judged by acts
or masterpieces, as I may term them, and not by the
successes and events. The lawyer is judged by the
virtue of his pleading, and not by the issue of the cause.
The master in the ship is judged by the directing his
course aright, and not by the fortune of the voyage.
But the physician, and perhaps the politique, hath no
particular acts demonstrative of his ability, but is
judged most by the event ; which is ever but as it is
taken : for who can tell, if a patient die or recover, or
if a state be preserved or ruined, whether it be art or
accident ? And therefore many times the impostor is
prized, and the man of virtue taxed. Nay, we see [the]
weakness and credulity of men is such, as they will
often prefer a mountebank or witch before a learned
physician. And therefore the poets were clear-sighted
in discerning this extreme folly, when they made
Aesculapius and Circe brother and sister, both children
of the sun, as in the verses,

Ipse repertorem medicinae talis et artis
Fulmine Phoebigenam Stygias detrusit ad undas:

And again,

Dives inaccessos ubi Solis filia lucos, &c.

For in all times, in the opinion of the multitude, witches
and old women and impostors have had a competition
with physicians. And what folio we th ? Even this,

120 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

that physicians say to themselves, as Salomon ex-
presseth it upon an higher occasion, * If it befall to
me as befalleth to the fools, why should I labour to
be more wise ? ' And therefore I cannot much blame
physicians, that they use commonly to intend some
other art or practice, which they fancy, more than their
profession. For you shall have of them antiquaries,
poets, humanists, statesmen, merchants, divines, and
in every of these better seen than in their profes
sion ; and no doubt upon this ground, that they find
that mediocrity and excellency in their art maketh
no difference in profit or reputation towards their
fortune ; for the weakness of patients, and sweetness
of life, and nature of hope, maketh men depend upon
physicians with all their defects. But nevertheless
these things which we have spoken of are courses
begotten between a little occasion, and a great deal of
sloth and default ; for if we will excite and awake our
observation, we shall see in familiar instances what
a predominant faculty the subtilty of spirit hath over
the variety of matter or form. Nothing more variable
than faces and countenances : yet men can bear in memory
the infinite distinctions of them ; nay, a painter with
a few shells of colours, and the benefit of his eye, and
habit of his imagination, can imitate them all that ever
have been, are, or may be, if they were brought before
him. Nothing more variable than voices ; yet men
can likewise discern them personally : nay, you shall
have a buffon or pantomimus, will express as many as
he pleaseth. Nothing more variable than the differing
sounds of words ; yet men have found the way to
reduce them to a few simple letters. So that it is not
the insufficiency or incapacity of man's mind, but it
is the remote standing or placing thereof, that breedeth
these mazes and incomprehensions. For as the sense
afar off is full of mistaking, but is exact at hand, so is
it of the understanding : the remedy whereof is, not
to quicken or strengthen the organ, but to go nearer
to the object ; and therefore there is no doubt but if
the physicians will learn and use the true approaches

THE SECOND BOOK 121

and avenues of nature, they may assume as much as
the poet saith :

Et qnoniam variant morbi, variabimus artes;
Mille mali species, mille salutis erunt.

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

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

4. The first is the discontinuance of the ancient and
serious diligence of Hippocrates, which .
used to set down a narrative of the special ncdicinaie"
cases of his patients, and how they pro
ceeded, and how they were judged by recovery or
death. Therefore having an example proper in the
father of the art, I shall not need to allege an example
foreign, of the wisdom of the lawyers, who are careful
to report new cases, and decisions for the direction of
future judgements. This continuance of medicinal
history I find deficient ; which 1 understand neither
to be so infinite as to extend to every common case,
nor so reserved as to admit none but wonders : for

122 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

many things are new in the manner, which are not
new in the kind ; and if men will intend to observe,
they shall find much worthy to observe.

5. In the inquiry which is made by anatomy, I find
much deficience : for they inquire of the
Parts' and fcheir ^bstances, figures, and
collocations ; but they inquire not of
the diversities of the parts, the secrecies of the passages,
and the seats or nestling of the humours, nor much of
the footsteps and impressions of diseases. The reason
of which omission I suppose to be, because the first
inquiry may be satisfied in the view of one or a few
anatomies : but the latter, being comparative and
casual, must arise from the view of many. And as
to the diversity of parts, there is no doubt but the
facture or framing of the inward parts is as full of
difference as the outward, and in that is the cause
continent of many diseases ; which not being observed,
they quarrel many times with the humours, which are
not in fault; the fault being in the very frame and
mechanique of the part, which cannot be removed by
medicine alterative, but must be accommodate and pal
liate by diets and medicines familiar. And for the
passages and pores, it is true which was anciently
noted, that the more subtile of them appear not in
anatomies, because they are shut and latent in dead
bodies, though they be open and manifest in live :
which being supposed, though the inhumanity of
anatomia vivorum was by Celsus justly reproved, yet
in regard of the great use of this observation, the
inquiry needed not by him so slightly to have been
relinquished altogether, or referred to the casual
practices of surgery ; but mought have been well
diverted upon the dissection of beasts alive, which
notwithstanding the dissimilitude of their parts may
sufficiently satisfy this inquiry. And for the humours,
they are commonly passed over in anatomies as purga-
ments ; whereas it is most necessary to observe, what
cavities, nests, and receptacles the humours do find in
the parts, with the differing kind of the humour so

THE SECOND BOOK 123

lodged and received. And as for the footsteps of
diseases, and their devastations of the inward parts,
impostumations, exulcerations, discontinuations, putre
factions, consumptions, contractions, extensions, con
vulsions, dislocations, obstructions, repletions, together
with all preternatural substances, as stones, carnosities,
excrescences, worms and the like ; they ought to have
been exactly observed by multitude of anatomies, and
the contribution of men's several experiences, and care
fully set down both historically according to the
appearances, and artificially with a reference to the
diseases and symptoms which resulted from them, in
case where the anatomy is of a defunct patient ; whereas
now upon opening of bodies they are passed over slightly
and in silence.

6. In the inquiry of diseases, they do abandon the
cures of many, some as in their nature in- In uisitio
curable, and others as passed the period ulterior de

of cure ; so that Sylla and the Triumvirs "JjjJJj^J"
never proscribed so many men to die, as
they do by their ignorant edicts : whereof numbers do
escape with less difficulty than they did in the Roman
proscriptions. Therefore I will not doubt to note as
a deficience, that they inquire not the perfect cures of
many diseases, or extremities of diseases ; but pro
nouncing them incurable do enact a law of neglect, and
exempt ignorance from discredit.

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

to make a fair and easy passage. For it asiaexteri'
is no small felicity which Augustus Caesar "re? *'
was wont to wish to himself, that same
Euthanasia ; and which was specially noted hi the
death of Antoninus Pius, whose death was after the
fashion and semblance of a kindly and pleasant sleep.
So it is written of Epicurus, that after his disease was
judged desperate, he drowned his stomach and senses
with a large draught and ingurgitation of wine ; where-

124 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OP LEARNING

upon the epigram was made, * Hinc Stygias ebrius
hausit aquas ' ; he was not sober enough to taste any
bitterness of the Stygian water. But the physicians
contrariwise do make a kind of scruple and religion to
stay with the patient after the disease is deplored ;
whereas in my judgement they ought both to inquire
the skill, and to give the attendances, for the facili
tating and assuaging of the pains and agonies of
death.

8. In the consideration of the cures of diseases,
I find a deficience in the receipts of pro-
Medtdnae priety, respecting the particular cures of
meniaies. diseases : for the physicians have frus
trated the fruit of tradition and ex
perience by their magistralities, in adding and taking
out and changing quid pro quo in their receipts, at their
pleasures ; commanding so over the medicine, as the
medicine cannot command over the disease. For
except it be treacle and miihridatum, and of late
diascordium, and a few more, they tie themselves to
no receipts severely and religiously. For as to the
confections of sale which are in the shops, they are for
readiness and not for propriety. For they are upon
general intentions of purging, opening, comforting,
altering, and not much appropriate to particular
diseases. And this is the cause why empirics and old
women are more happy many times in their cures than
learned physicians, because they are more religious in
holding their medicines. Therefore here is the defi
cience which I find, that physicians have not, partly
out of their own practice, partly out of the constant
probations reported in books, and partly out of
the traditions of empirics, set down and delivered
over certain experimental medicines for the cure of
particular diseases, besides their own conjectural and
magistral descriptions. For as they were the men of
the best composition in the state of Rome, which either
being consuls inclined to the people, or being tribunes
inclined to the senate ; so in the matter we now handle,
they be the best physicians, which being learned incline

THE SECOND BOOK 125

to the traditions of experience, or being empirics incline
to the methods of learning.

9. In preparation of medicines I do find strange,
specially considering how mineral medi-

• i i A 11 j j J.I. j. o-i. Imitatio

cines have been extolled, and that they naturaein
are safer for the outward than inward laineis, et
parts, that no man hath sought to make
an imitation by art of natural baths and
medicinable fountains : which nevertheless are confessed
to receive their virtues from minerals : and not so only,
but discerned and distinguished from what particular
mineral they receive tincture, as sulphur, vitriol, steel,
or the like : which nature, if it may be reduced to com
positions of art, both the variety of them will be
increased, and the temper of them will be more com
manded.

10. But lest I grow to be more particular than is
agreeable either to my intention or to
proportion, I will conclude this part with

the note of one deficience more, which
seemeth to me of greatest consequence ;
which is, that the prescripts in use are too
compendious to attain their end : for, to my under
standing, it is a vain and nattering opinion to think
any medicine can be so sovereign or so happy, as that
the receipt or use of it can work any great effect upon
the body of man. It were a strange speech which
spoken, or spoken oft, should reclaim a man from
a vice to which he were by nature subject. It is
order, pursuit, sequence, and interchange of applica
tion, which is mighty in nature ; which although it
require more exact knowledge in prescribing, and more
precise obedience in observing, yet is recompensed with
the magnitude of effects. And although a man would
think, by the daily visitations of the physicians, that
there were a pursuance in the cure : yet let a man
look into their prescripts and ministrations, and he
shall find them but inconstancies and every day's
devices, without any settled providence or project.
Not that every scrupulous or superstitious prescript is

medicin<i-
rum.

126 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

effectual, no more than every straight way is the way
to heaven ; but the truth of the direction must precede
severity of observance.

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

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

13. For arts of pleasure sensual, the chief deficience
in them is of laws to repress them. For as it hath
been well observed, that the arts which flourish in
times while virtue is in growth, are military ; and
while virtue is in state, are liberal ; and while virtue
is in declination, are voluptuary: so I doubt that this
age of the world is somewhat upon the descent of the
wheel. With arts voluptuary I couple practices jocu-

THE SECOND BOOK 127

lary ; for the deceiving of the senses is one of the plea
sures of the senses. As for games of recreation, I hold
them to belong to civil life and education. And thus
much of that particular human philosophy which con
cerns the body, which is but the tabernacle of the
mind.

XI. 1. For human knowledge which concerns the
mind, it hath two parts ; the one that inquireth of
the substance or nature of the soul or mind, the other
that inquireth of the faculties or functions thereof.
Unto the first of these, the considerations of the original
of the soul, whether it be native or adventive, and how
far it is exempted from laws of matter, and of the
immortality thereof, and many other points, do apper
tain : which have been not more laboriously inquired
than variously reported ; so as the travail therein
taken seemeth to have been rather in a maze than in
a way. But although I am of opinion that this know
ledge may be more really and soundly inquired, even
in nature, than it hath been ; yet I hold that in the
end it must be bounded by religion, or else it will be
subject to deceit and delusion. For as the substance
of the soul in the creation was not extracted out of the
mass of heaven and earth by the benediction of a
producat, but was immediately inspired from God, so
it is not possible that it should be (otherwise than by
accident) subject to the laws of heaven and earth,
which are the subject of philosophy ; and therefore the
true knowledge of the nature and state of the soul
must come by the same inspiration that gave the sub
stance. Unto this part of knowledge touching the
soul there be two appendices ; which, as they have
been handled, have rather vapoured forth fables than
kindled truth ; divination and fascination.

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

128 OP THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

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

3. Fascination is the power and act of imagination
intensive upon other bodies than the body of the
imaginant, for of that we spake in the proper place.

THE SECOND BOOK 129

Wherein the school of Paracelsus, and the disciples of
pretended natural magic have been so intemperate,
as they have exalted the power of the imagination to
be much one with the power of miracle-working faith.
Others, that draw nearer to probability, calling to their
view the secret passages of things, and specially of the
contagion that passeth from body to body, do conceive
it should likewise be agreeable to nature, that there
should be some transmissions and operations from
spirit to spirit without the mediation of the senses ;
whence the conceits have grown (now almost made
civil) of the mastering spirit, and the force of confidence
and the like. Incident unto this is the inquiry how to
raise and fortify the imagination : for if the imagina
tion fortified have power, then it is material to know
how to fortify and exalt it. And herein comes in
crookedly and dangerously a palliation of a great part
of ceremonial magic. For it may be pretended that
ceremonies, characters, and charms do work, not by
any tacit or sacramental contract with evil spirits, but
serve only to strengthen the imagination of him that
useth it ; as images are said by the Roman church to
fix the cogitations and raise the devotions of them that
pray before them. But for mine own judgement, if it
be admitted that imagination hath power, and that
ceremonies fortify imagination, and that they be used
sincerely and intentionally for that purpose ; yet I
should hold them unlawful, as opposing to that first
idict which God gave unto man, * In sudore vultus
3omedes panem tuum.' For they propound those
loble effects, which God hath set forth unto man to
3e bought at the price of labour, to be attained by
i few easy and slothful observances. Deficiencies in
Jiese knowledges I will report none, other than the
general deficience, that it is not known how much of
hem is verity, and how much vanity.

XII. 1. The knowledge which respecteth the facul-
:ies of the mind of man is of two kinds ; the one respect-
ng his understanding and reason, and the other his
(ill, appetite, and affection ; whereof the former pro-
F

130 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

duceth position or decree, the latter action or execution.
It is true that the imagination is an agent or nuncius,
in both provinces, both the judicial and the ministerial.
For sense sendeth over to imagination before reason
have judged : and reason sendeth over to imagination
before the decree can be acted. For imagination ever
precedeth voluntary motion. Saving that this Janus
of imagination hath differing faces : for the face
towards reason hath the print of truth, but the face
towards action hath the print of good ; which never
theless are faces,

Quales decet esse sororum.

Neither is the imagination simply and only a messenger ;
but is invested with, or at leastwise usurpeth no small
authority in itself, besides the duty of the message.
For it was well said by Aristotle, * That the mind hath
over the body that commandment, which the lord hath
over a bondman ; but that reason hath over the
imagination that commandment which a magistrate
hath over a free citizen ' ; who may come also to rule
in his turn. For we see that, in matters of faith and
religion, we raise our imagination above our reason ;
which is the cause why religion sought ever access to
the mind by similitudes, types, parables, visions,
dreams. And again, in all persuasions that are wrought
by eloquence, and other impressions of like nature,
which do paint and disguise the true appearance of
things, the chief recommendation unto reason is from
the imagination. Nevertheless, because I find not any
science that doth properly or fitly pertain to the
imagination, I see no cause to alter the former division.
For as for poesy, it is rather a pleasure or play of
imagination, than a work or duty thereof. And if it
be a work, we speak not now of such parts of learning
as the imagination produceth, but of such sciences as
handle and consider of the imagination. No more
than we shall speak now of such knowledges as reason
produceth (for that extendeth to all philosophy), but
of such knowledges as do handle and inquire of the

THE SECOND BOOK 131

faculty of reason : so as poesy had his true place. As
for the power of the imagination in nature, and the
manner of fortifying the same, we have mentioned it
in the doctrine De Anima, whereunto most fitly it
belongeth. And lastly, for imaginative or insinuative
reason, which is the subject of rhetoric, we think it
best to refer to the arts of reason. So therefore we
! content ourselves with the former division, that human
philosophy, which respecteth the faculties of the mind
of man, hath two parts, rational and moral.

2. The part of human philosophy which is rational,
is of all knowledges, to the most wits, the least delight
ful, and seemeth but a net of subtility and spinosity.
; For as it was truly said, that knowledge is pabulum
\ animi ; so in the nature of men's appetite to this food,
most men are of the taste and stomach of the Israelites
4 in the desert, that would fain have returned ad ollas
} carnium, and were weary of manna ; which, though it
were celestial, yet seemed less nutritive and comfort
able. So generally men taste well knowledges that are
i drenched in flesh and blood, civil history, morality,
; policy, about the which men's affections, praises,
I fortunes do turn and are conversant. But this same
i ; lumen siccum doth parch and offend most men's watery
) : and soft natures. But to speak truly of things as they
: are in worth, rational knowledges are the keys of all
•• other arts : for as Aristotle saith aptly and elegantly,
j; * That the hand is the instrument of instruments, and
DJ the mind is the form of forms ' ; so these be truly said
*J to be the art of arts. Neither do they only direct, but
bf , likewise confirm and strengthen : even as the habit of
IB | shooting doth not only enable to shoot a nearer shoot,
but also to draw a stronger bow.

3. The arts intellectual are four in number ; divided
iccording to the ends whereunto they are referred : for
&: nan's labour is to invent that which is sought or pro-
,01 pounded ; or to judge that which is invented ; or to
so' 'etain that which is judged ; or to deliver over that
bn vhich is retained. So as the arts must be four : art
tfc )f inquiry or invention : art of examination or judge-

132 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

ment : art of custody or memory : and art of elocution
or tradition.

XIII. 1. Invention is of two kinds much differing :
the one of arts and sciences, and the other of speech
and arguments. The former of these I do report
deficient ; which seemeth to me to be such a deficience
as if, in the making of an inventory touching the state
of a defunct, it should be set down that there is no
ready money. For as money will fetch all other com
modities, so this knowledge is that which should pur
chase all the rest. And like as the West Indies had never
been discovered if the use of the mariner's needle had not
been first discovered, though the one be vast regions,
and the other a small motion ; so it cannot be found
strange if sciences be no further discovered, if the art
itself of invention and discovery hath been passed over.

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

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

THE SECOND BOOK 133

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

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

And if you like better the tradition of the Grecians,

and ascribe the first inventions to men, yet you will

rather believe that Prometheus first stroke the flints,

and marvelled at the spark, than that when he first

stroke the flints he expected the spark : and therefore

we see the West Indian Prometheus had no intelligence

svith the European, because of the rareness with them

}f flint, that gave the first occasion. So as it should

seem, that hitherto men are rather beholden to a wild

;oat for surgery, or to a nightingale for music, or to

! ;he ibis for some part of physic, or to the pot-lid that

{ lew open for artillery, or generally to chance or any-

j hing else than to logic for the invention of arts and

ciences. Neither is the form of invention which Virgil

if lescribeth much other :

Ut varias usus ineditando extunderet artes

Paulatim.
y

,'; "or if you observe the words well, it is no other method
•[. ban that which brute beasts are capable of, and do
r;e <ut in ure ; which is a perpetual intending or practis-
,;( ig some one thing, urged and imposed by an absolute
j; ecessity of conservation of being. For so Cicero saith
,'jj , ery truly, ' Usus uni rei deditus et naturam et artem
8' iepe vincit.' And therefore if it be said of men,

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

is likewise said of beasts, * Quis psittaco docuit suum
ilpf ? ' Who taught the raven in a drowth to throw
sbbles into an hollow tree, where she spied water, that
le water might rise so as she might come to it ? Who
,ught the bee to sail through such a vast sea of air,

134 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

and to find the way from a field in flower a great way
off to her hive ? Who taught the ant to bite every
grain of corn that she burieth in her hill, lest it should
take root and grow ? Add then the word extundere,
which importeth the extreme difficulty, and the word
paulatim, which importeth the extreme slowness, and
we are where we were, even amongst the Egyptians'
gods ; there being little left to the faculty of reason,
and nothing to the duty of art, for matter of inven
tion.

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

THE SECOND BOOK 135

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

4. Thirdly, allow some principles or axioms were
rightly induced, yet nevertheless certain it is that
middle propositions cannot be deduced from them in
subject of nature by syllogism, that is, by touch and
reduction of them to principles in a middle term. It
is true that in sciences popular, as moralities, laws, and
the like, yea, and divinity (because it pleaseth God to
apply himself to the capacity of the simplest), that
form may have use ; and in natural philosophy like
wise, by way of argument or satisfactory reason,
* Quae assensum parit, operis effoeta est ' : but the
subtilty of nature and operations will not be enchained
in those bonds. For arguments consist of propositions,
and propositions of words, and words are but the
current tokens or marks of popular notions of things ;
which notions, if they be grossly and variably collected
out of particulars, it is not the laborious examination
either of consequences or arguments, or of the truth
of propositions, that can ever correct that error, being
(as the physicians speak) in the first digestion. And
therefore it was not without cause, that so many
excellent philosophers became Sceptics and Academics,
and denied any certainty of knowledge or comprehen
sion ; and held opinion that the knowledge of man
extended only to appearances and probabilities. It is
true that in Socrates it was supposed to be but a form
of irony, ' Scientiam dissimulando simulavit ' : for he
used to disable his knowledge, to the end to enhance
his knowledge : like the humour of Tiberius in his
beginnings, that would reign, but would not acknow
ledge so much. And in the later Academy, which

136 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

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

5. This part of invention, concerning the invention
zvertorta ?f sciences, I purpose (if God give me
literata, and leave) hereafter to propound, having
interpretatio digested it into two parts ; whereof the

one I term experientia literata, and the
other interpretatio naturae : the former being but
a degree and rudiment of the latter. But I will not
dwell too long, nor speak too great upon a promise.

6. The invention of speech or argument is not pro
perly an invention : for to invent is to discover that we
know not, and not to recover or resummon that which
we already know : and the use of this invention is no
other but, out of the knowledge whereof our mind is
already possessed, to draw forth or call before us that
which may be pertinent to the purpose which we take
into our consideration. So as to speak truly, it is no

THE SECOND BOOK 137

invention, but a remembrance or suggestion, with an
application ; which is the cause why the schools do
place it after judgement, as subsequent and not prece
dent. Nevertheless, because we do account it a chase
as well of deer in an inclosed park as in a forest at
large, and that it hath already obtained the name, let
it be called invention : so as it be perceived and dis
cerned, that the scope and end of this invention is
readiness and present use of our knowledge, and not
addition or amplification thereof.

7. To procure this ready use of knowledge there are
two courses, preparation and suggestion. The former
of these seemeth scarcely a part of knowledge, con
sisting rather of diligence than of any artificial erudition.
And herein Aristotle wittily, but hurtfully, doth deride
the Sophists near his time, saying, ' They did as if one
that professed the art of shoe-making should not teach
how to make up a shoe, but only exhibit in a readiness
a number of shoes of all fashions and sizes.' But yet
a man might reply, that if a shoemaker should have
no shoes in his shop, but only work as he is bespoken,
he should be weakly customed. But our Saviour,
speaking of divine knowledge, saith, ' That the king
dom of heaven is like a good householder, that bringeth
forth both new and old store ' : and we see the ancient
writers of rhetoric do give it in precept, that pleaders
should have the places, whereof they have most con
tinual use, ready handled in all the variety that may
be ; as that, to speak for the literal interpretation of
the law against equity, and contrary ; and to speak for
presumptions and inferences against testimony, and
contrary. And Cicero himself, being broken unto it by
great experience, delivereth it plainly, that whatsoever
a man shall have occasion to speak of (if he will take the
pains), he may have it in effect premeditate and
handled in ihesi. So that when he cometh to a particu
lar he shall have nothing to do, but to put to names, and
times, and places, and such other circumstances of
individuals. We see likewise the exact diligence of
Demosthenes ; who, in regard of the great force that

138 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

the entrance and access into causes hath to make a
good impression, had ready framed a number of pre
faces for orations and speeches. All which authorities
and precedents may overweigh Aristotle's opinion, that
would have us change a rich wardrobe for a pair of
shears.

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

9. The other part of invention, which I term sugges
tion, doth assign and direct us to certain marks, or
places, which may excite our mind to return and pro
duce such knowledge as it hath formerly collected, to
the end we may make use thereof. Neither is this use
(truly taken) only to furnish argument to dispute
probably with others, but likewise to minister unto our
judgement to conclude aright within ourselves. Nei
ther may these places serve only to apprompt our in
vention, but also to direct our inquiry. For a faculty
of wise interrogating is half a knowledge. For as Plato
saith, * Whosoever seeketh, knoweth that which he
seeketh for in a general notion : else how shall he know
it when he hath found it ? ' And therefore the larger
your anticipation is, the more direct and compendious
is your search. But the same places which will help us
what to produce of that which we know already, will
also help us, if a man of experience were before us, what
questions to ask ; or, if we have books and authors to
instruct us, what points to search and revolve ; so as
I cannot report that this part of invention, which is that
which the schools call topics, is deficient.

10. Nevertheless, topics are of two sorts, general and
special. The general we have spoken to ; but the par
ticular hath been touched by some, but rejected gener
ally as inartificial and variable. But leaving the
humour which hath reigned too much in the schools
(which is, to be vainly subtile in a few things which
are within their command, and to reject the rest), I do

THE SECOND BOOK 139

receive particular topics, that is, places or directions of
invention and inquiry in every particular knowledge,
as things of great use, being mixtures of logic with the
matter of sciences. For in these it holdeth, ' ars in-
veniendi adolescit cum inventis ' ; for as in going of
a way, we do not only gain that part of the way which
is passed, but we gain the better sight of that part of the
way which remaineth : so every degree of proceeding
in a science giveth a light to that which followeth ; which
light if we strengthen by drawing it forth into questions
or places of inquiry, we do greatly advance our pursuit.
XIV. 1. Now we pass unto the arts of judgement,
which handle the natures of proofs and demonstrations ;
which as to induction hath a coincidence with invention.
For in all inductions, whether in good or vicious form,
the same action of the mind which inventeth, judgeth ;
all one as in the sense. But otherwise it is in proof by
syllogism ; for the proof being not immediate, but by
mean, the invention of the mean is one thing, and the
judgement of the consequence is another ; the one
exciting only, the other examining. Therefore, for the
real and exact form of judgement, we refer ourselves to
that which we have spoken of interpretation of nature.

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

3. So then this art of judgement is but the reduction

140 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

of propositions to principles in a middle term. The
principles to be agreed by all and exempted from argu
ment ; the middle term to be elected at the liberty of
every man's invention ; the reduction to be of two kinds,
direct and inverted ; the one when the proposition is
reduced to the principle, which they term a probation
ostensive ; the other, when the contradictory of the
proposition is reduced to the contradictory of the prin
ciple, which is that which they call per incommodum, or
pressing an absurdity ; the number of middle terms to
be as the proposition standeth degrees more or less
removed from the principle.

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

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

6. This part concerning denches is excellently handled
by Aristotle in precept, but more excellently by Plato
in example ; not only in the persons of the Sophists,
but even in Socrates himself, who, professing to affirm
nothing, but to infirm that which was affirmed by
another, hath exactly expressed all the forms of objec
tion, fallace, and redargution. And although we have

THE SECOND BOOK 141

said that the use of this doctrine is for redargution, yet
it is manifest the degenerate and corrupt use is for
caption and contradiction, which passeth for a great
faculty, and no doubt is of very great advantage : though
the difference be good which was made between orators
and sophisters, that the one is as the greyhound, which
hath his advantage in the race, and the other as the
hare, which hath her advantage in the turn, so as it is
the advantage of the weaker creature.

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

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

9. But lastly, there is yet a much more important
and profound kind of fallacies in the mind of man,
which I find not observed or inquired at all, and think
good to place here, as that which of all others appertain-
eth most to rectify judgement : the force whereof ia

142 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

such, as it does not dazzle or snare the understanding
in some particulars, but doth more generally and in
wardly infect and corrupt the state thereof. For the
mind of man is far from the nature of a clear and equal
glass, wherein the beams of things should reflect
according to their true incidence ; nay, it is rather like
an enchanted glass, full of superstition and imposture,
if it be not delivered and reduced. For this purpose,
let us consider the false appearances that are imposed
upon us by the general nature of the mind, beholding
them in an example or two ; as first, in that instance
which is the root of all superstition, namely, that to the
nature of the mind of all men it is consonant for the
affirmative or active to affect more than the negative
or privative. So that a few times hitting or presence,
countervails oft-times failing or absence ; as was well
answered by Diagoras to him that showed him in
Neptune's temple the great number of pictures of such
as had scaped shipwreck, and had paid their vows to
Neptune, saying, ' Advise now, you that think it folly
to invocate Neptune in tempest.' * Yea, but ' (saith
Diagoras) 'where are they painted that are drowned?'
Let us behold it in another instance, namely, that the
spirit of man, being of an equal and uniform substance,
doth usually suppose and feign in nature a greater
equality and uniformity than is in truth. Hence it
cometh, that the mathematicians cannot satisfy them
selves except they reduce the motions of the celestial
bodies to perfect circles, rejecting spiral lines, and labour
ing to be discharged of eccentrics. Hence it cometh,
that whereas there are many things hi nature, as it were
monodica, sui juris ; yet the cogitations of man do
feign unto them relatives, parallels, and conjugates,
whereas no such thing is ; as they have feigned an
element of fire, to keep square with earth, water, and
air, and the like. Nay, it is not credible, till it be opened,
what a number of fictions and fantasies the similitude
of human actions and arts, together with the making of
man communis mensura, have brought into natural
philosophy ; not much better than the heresy of the

THE SECOND BOOK 143

Anthropomorphites, bred in the cells of gross and
solitary monks, and the opinion of Epicurus, answerable
to the same in heathenism, who supposed the gods to
be of human shape. And therefore Velleius the
Epicurean needed not to have asked, why God should
have adorned the heavens with stars, as if he had been
an aedilis, one that should have set forth some magni
ficent shows or plays. For if that great work-master
had been of an human disposition, he would have cast
the stars into some pleasant and beautiful works and
orders, like the frets in the roofs of houses ; whereas
one can scarce find a posture in square, or triangle, or
straight line, amongst such an infinite number ; so
differing an harmony there is between the spirit of man
and the spirit of nature.

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

11. And lastly, let us consider the false appearances
that are imposed upon us by words, which are framed
and applied according to the conceit and capacities of
the vulgar sort : and although we think we govern
our words, and prescribe it well * loquendum ut vulgus
sentiendum ut sapientes ' ; yet certain it is that words,
as a Tartar's bow, do shoot back upon the understanding
of the wisest, and mightily entangle and pervert the
judgement. So as it is almost necessary, in all con
troversies and disputations, to imitate the wisdom of
the mathematicians, in setting down in the very

144 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

beginning the definitions of our words and terms, that
others may know how we accept and understand them,
and whether they concur with us or no. For it cometh
to pass, for want of this, that we are sure to end there
where we ought to have begun, which is, in questions
and differences about words. To conclude therefore,
it must be confessed that it is not possible to divorce
ourselves from these fallacies and false appearances,
because they are inseparable from our nature and con
dition of life ; so yet nevertheless the caution of them
(for all clenches, as was said, are but
SaHni^rive cauti°ns) doth extremely import the true
deidolisani. conduct of human judgement. The
mi humani particular elenches or cautions against
a'dventifiis. these three false appearances, I find

altogether deficient.

12. There remaineth one part of judgement of great
excellency, which to mine understanding is so slightly
touched, as I may report that also deficient ; which is
the application of the differing kinds of proofs to the
differing kinds of subjects. For there being but four
kinds of demonstrations, that is, by the immediate con
sent of the mind or sense, by induction, by syllogism, and
by congruity, which is that which Aristotle calleth
demonstration in orb or circle, and not a notioribus,
every of these hath certain subjects in the matter of
sciences, in which respectively they have chief est use ;
and certain others, from which respectively they ought
to be excluded ; and the rigour and curiosity in re
quiring the more severe proofs in some things, and
chiefly the facility in contenting ourselves with the
more remiss proofs in others, hath been amongst
the greatest causes of detriment and
hindrance to knowledge. The distribu-
fionu.ini'"' tions and assignations of demonstrations,
according to the analogy of sciences, I
note as deficient.

XV. 1. The custody or retaining of knowledge is
either in writing or memory ; whereof writing hath two
parts, the nature of the character, and the order of

THE SECOND BOOK 145

the entry. For the art of the characters, or other visible
notes of words or things, it hath nearest conjugation
with grammar ; and therefore I refer it to the due place.
For the disposition and collocation of that knowledge
which we preserve in writing, it consisteth in a good
digest of common-places ; wherein I am not ignorant
of the prejudice imputed to the use of common-place
books, as causing a retardation of reading, and some
sloth or relaxation of memory. But because it is but
a counterfeit thing in knowledges to be forward and
pregnant, except a man be deep and full, I hold the
entry of common-places to be a matter of great use and
essence in studying, as that which assureth copie of in
vention, and contracteth judgement to a strength.
But this is true, that of the methods of common-places
that I have seen, there is none of any sufficient worth :
all of them carrying merely the face of a school, and not
of a world ; and referring to vulgar matters and pe-
dantical divisions, without all life or respect to action.
2. For the other principal part of the custody of
knowledge, which is memory, I find that faculty in my
judgement weakly inquired of. An art there is extant
of it ; but it seemeth to me that there are better pre
cepts than that art, and better practices of that art
than those received. It is certain the art (as it is) may
be raised to points of ostentation prodigious : but in
use (as it is now managed) it is barren, not burdensome,
nor dangerous to natural memory, as it is imagined,
but barren, that is, not dexterous to be applied to the
serious use of business and occasions. And therefore
I make no more estimation of repeating a great number
of names or words upon once hearing, or the pouring
forth of a number of verses or rhymes ex tempore, or
the making of a satirical simile of everything, or the
turning of everything to a jest, or the falsifying or con
tradicting of everything by cavil, or the like (whereof
in the faculties of the mind there is great copie, and
such as by device and practice may be exalted to an
extreme degree of wonder), than I do of the tricks of
tumblers, funambuloes, baladines ; the one being the

146 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

same in the mind that the other is in the body, matters
of strangeness without worthiness.

3. This art of memory is but built upon two intentions ;
the one prenotion, the other emblem. Prenotion dis-
chargeth the indefinite seeking of that we would re
member, and directeth us to seek in a narrow compass,
that is, somewhat that hath congruity with our place
of memory. Emblem reduceth conceits intellectual to
images sensible, which strike the memory more ; out
of which axioms may be drawn much better practique
than that in use ; and besides which axioms, there are
divers moe touching help of memory, not inferior to
them. But I did in the beginning distinguish, not to
report those things deficient, which are but only ill
managed.

XVI. 1. There remaineth the fourth kind of
rational knowledge, which is transitive, concerning the
expressing or transferring our knowledge to others ;
which I will term by the general name of tradition or
delivery. Tradition hath three parts ; the first con
cerning the organ of tradition ; the second concerning
the method of tradition ; and the third concerning the
illustration of tradition.

2. For the organ of tradition, it is either speech or
writing : for Aristotle saith well, ' Words are the images
of cogitations, and letters are the images of words.'
But yet it is not of necessity that cogitations be ex
pressed by the medium of words. For whatsoever is
capable of sufficient differences, and those perceptible
by the sense, is in nature competent to express cogita
tions. And therefore we see in the commerce of bar
barous people, that understand not one another's lan
guage, and in the practice of divers that are dumb and
deaf, that men's minds are expressed in gestures, though
not exactly, yet to serve the turn. And we understand
further, that it is the use of China, and the kingdoms of
the High Levant, to write in characters real, which
express neither letters nor words in gross, but things or
nations ; insomuch as countries and provinces, which
understand not one another's language, can neverthe-

THE SECOND BOOK 147

less read one another's writings, because the characters
are accepted more generally than the languages do
extend ; and therefore they have a vast multitude of
characters, as many (I suppose) as radical words.

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

rerum.

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

4. Concerning speech and words, the consideration

148 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

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

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

Coenae fercula nostrae
Mallem convivis quam placuisse cocis.

And of the servile expressing antiquity in an unlike
and an unfit subject, it is well said, ' Quod temper e
antiquum videtur, id incongruitate est maxime novum.'

6. For ciphers, they are commonly in letters, or
alphabets, but may be in words. The kinds of ciphers

THE SECOND BOOK 149

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

7. In the enumeration of these private and retired
arts, it may be thought I seek to make a great muster-
roll of sciences, naming them for show and ostentation,
and to little other purpose. But let those which are
skilful in them judge whether I bring them in only for
appearance, or whether in that which I speak of them
(though in few words) there be not some seed of pro-
ficience. And this must be remembered, that as there
be many of great account in their countries and pro
vinces, which, when they come up to the seat of the
estate, are but of mean rank and scarcely regarded ; so
these arts, being here placed with the principal and
supreme sciences, seem petty things ; yet to such as
have chosen them to spend their labours and studies in
them, they seem great matters.

XVII. 1. For the method of tradition, I see it hath
moved a controversy in our time. But as in civil
business, if there be a meeting, and men fall at words,
there is commonly an end of the matter for that time,
and no proceeding at all ; so in learning, where there is
much controversy, there is many times little inquiry.

150 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

For this part of knowledge of method seemeth to me so
weakly inquired as I shall report it deficient.

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

3. The latter whereof seemeth to be via deserta et
inter dusa. For as knowledges are now delivered, there
is a kind of contract of error between the deliverer and
the receiver. For he that delivereth knowledge, desireth
to deliver it in such form as may be best believed, and
not as may be best examined ; and he that receiveth
knowledge, desireth rather present satisfaction, than
expectant inquiry ; and so rather not to doubt, than
not to err : glory making the author not to lay open his
weakness, and sloth making the disciple not to know
his strength.

4. But knowledge that is delivered as a thread to be
spun on, ought to be delivered and intimated, if it were
possible, in the same method wherein it was invented:
and so is it possible of knowledge induced. But in
this same anticipated and prevented knowledge, no
man knoweth how he came to the knowledge which he
hath obtained. But yet nevertheless, secundum majus
et minus, a man may revisit and descend unto the foun
dations of his knowledge and consent ; and so trans
plant it into another, as it grew in his own mind. For
it is in knowledges as it is in plants : if you mean to use

THE SECOND BOOK 151

the plant, it is no matter for the roots ; but if you mean
to remove it to grow, then it is more assured to rest
upon roots than slips ; so the delivery of knowledges (as
it is now used) is as of fair bodies of trees without the
roots ; good for the carpenter, but not for the planter.
But if you will have sciences grow, it is less matter for
the shaft or body of the tree, so you look well to the
taking up of the roots. Of which kind pemethodo
of delivery the method of the mathe- sincera, sin
matics, in that subject, hath some adfiiios
shadow : but generally I see it neither
put in ure nor put in inquisition, and therefore note it
for deficient.

5. Another diversity of method there is, which hath
some affinity with the former, used in some cases by
the discretion of the ancients, but disgraced since by
the impostures of many vain persons, who have made
it as a false light for their counterfeit merchandises ; and
that is, enigmatical and disclosed. The pretence
whereof is, to remove the vulgar capacities from being
admitted to the secrets of knowledges, and to reserve
them to selected auditors, or wits of such sharpness as
can pierce the veil.

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

7. For first, it trieth the writer, whether he be super
ficial or solid : for aphorisms, except they should be
ridiculous, cannot be made but of the pith and heart of
sciences ; for discourse of illustration is cut off ; recitals
of examples are cut off ; discourse of connexion and
order is cut off ; descriptions of practice are cut off.
So there remaineth nothing to fill the aphorisms but

152 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

some good quantity of observation : and therefore no
man can suffice, nor in reason will attempt, to write
aphorisms, but he that is sound and grounded. But in
methods,

Tantum series jtmcturaque pollet,
Tanturn. de medio sumptis accedit honoris,

as a man shall make a great show of an art, which, if it
were disjointed, would come to little. Secondly,
methods are more fit to win consent or belief, but less
fit to point to action ; for they carry a kind of demon
stration in orb or circle, one part illuminating another,
and therefore satisfy. But particulars being dispersed
do best agree with dispersed directions. And lastly,
aphorisms, representing a knowledge broken, do invite
men to inquire further ; whereas methods, carrying
the show of a total, do secure men, as if they were at
furthest.

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

9. Another diversity of methods is, according to the
subject or matter which is handled. For there is a
great difference in delivery of the mathematics, which
are the most abstracted of knowledges, and policy, which
is the most immersed. And howsoever contention hath
been moved, touching an uniformity of method in
multiformity of matter, yet we see how that opinion,

THE SECOND BOOK 153

besides the weakness of it, hath been of ill desert to
wards learning, as that which taketh the way to reduce
learning to certain empty and barren generalities ; being
but the very husks and shells of sciences, all the kernel
being forced out and expulsed with the torture and press
of the method. And therefore as I did allow well of
particular topics for invention, so I do allow Likewise of
particular methods of tradition.

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

11. There be also other diversities of methods vulgar
and received : as that of resolution or analysis, of con
stitution or systasis, of concealment or cryptic, &c.,
which I do allow well of, though I have stood upon those
which are least handled and observed. j)epruden-
All which I have remembered to this pur- tia tradi.
pose, because I would erect and constitute tioni3-

154 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

one general inquiry (which seems to me deficient)
touching the wisdom of tradition.

12. But unto this part of knowledge, concerning
method, doth further belong not only the architecture
of the whole frame of a work, but also the several beams
and columns thereof ; not as to their stuff, but as to
their quantity and figure. And therefore method con-
sidereth not only the disposition of the argument or
subject, but likewise the propositions : not as to their
truth or matter, but as to their limitation and manner.
For herein Ramus merited better a great deal in reviving
the good rules of propositions, Ka$oAou7rp<£roi/, Kara Tran-o?,
&c., than he did in introducing the canker of epitomes ;
and yet (as it is the condition of human things that,
according to the ancient fables, ' the most precious things
have the most pernicious keepers') it was so, that the
attempt of the one made him fall upon the other. For
he had need be well conducted that should design to
make axioms convertible, if he make them nob withal
circular, and non-promovent, or incurring into them
selves ; but yet the intention was excellent.

13. The other considerations of method, concerning
propositions, are chiefly touching the utmost proposi
tions, which limit the dimensions of sciences : for every
knowledge may be fitly said, besides the profundity
(which is the truth and substance of it, that makes it
solid), to have a longitude and a latitude ; accounting
the latitude towards other sciences, and the longitude
towards action ; that is, from the greatest generality to
the most particular precept. The one giveth rule how
far one knowledge ought to intermeddle within the
province of another, which is the rule they call Kadavro ;
the other giveth rule unto what degree of particularity
a knowledge should descend : which latter I find passed
over in silence, being in my judgement the more material.
For certainly there must be somewhat left to practice ;
but how much is worthy the inquiry. We see remote
and superficial generalities do but offer knowledge to
scorn of practical men ; and are no more aiding to
practice, than an Ortelius' universal map is to direct the

THE SECOND BOOK 155

way between London and York. The better sort of
rules have been not unfitly compared to glasses of steel
unpolished, where you may see the images of things,
but first they must be filed : so the rules will help, if
they be laboured and polished by practice. De pro^uc.
But how crystalline they may be made at tione axio-
the first, and how far forth they may be matum-
polished aforehand is the question ; the inquiry whereof
seemeth to me deficient.

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

XVIII. 1. Now we descend to that part which con-
cerneth the illustration of tradition, comprehended in
that science which we call rhetoric, or art of eloquence ;
a science excellent, and excellently well laboured. For
although in true value it is inferior to wisdom, as it is
said by God to Moses, when he disabled himself for
want of this faculty, ' Aaron shall be thy speaker, and
thou shalt be to him as God ' ; yet with people it is the
more mighty : for so Salomon saith, ' Sapiens corde
appellabitur prudens, seddulcis eloquio majora reperiet ' ;
signifying that profoundness of wisdom will help a man
to a name or admiration, but that it is eloquence that
prevaileth in an active life. And as to the labouring of
it, the emulation of Aristotle with the rhetoricians of
his time, and the experience of Cicero, hath made them
in their works of rhetorics exceed themselves. Again,
the excellency of examples of eloquence in the orations
of Demosthenes and Cicero, added to the perfection of

156 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

the precepts of eloquence, hath doubled the progression
in this art ; and therefore the deficiencies which I shall
note will rather be in some collections, which may as
handmaids attend the art, than in the rules or use of
the art itself.

2. Notwithstanding, to stir the earth a little about
the roots of this science, as we have done of the rest ;
the duty and office of rhetoric is to apply reason to imagi
nation for the better moving of the will. For we see
reason is disturbed in the administration thereof by
three means ; by illaqueation or sophism, which per
tains to logic ; by imagination or impression, which
pertains to rhetoric ; and by passion or affection, which
pertains to morality. And as in negotiation with others,
men are wrought by cunning, by importunity, and by
vehemency ; so in this negotiation within ourselves,
men are undermined by inconsequences, solicited and
importuned by impressions or observations, and trans
ported by passions. Neither is the nature of man so
unfortunately built, as that those powers and arts should
have force to disturb reason, and not to establish and
advance it. For the end of logic is to teach a form of
argument to secure reason, and not to entrap it. The
end of morality is to procure the affections to obey
reason, and not to invade it. The end of rhetoric is to
fill the imagination to second reason, and not to oppress
it : for these abuses of arts come in but ex obliquo, for
caution.

3. And therefore it was great injustice in Plato,
though springing out of a just hatred to the rhetoricians
of his time, to esteem of rhetoric but as a voluptuary art,
resembling it to cookery, that did mar wholesome meats,
and help unwholesome by variety of sauces to the plea
sure of the taste. For we see that speech is much more
conversant in adorning that which is good, than in
colouring that which is evil ; for there is no man but
speaketh more honestly than he can do or think : and
it was excellently noted by Thucydides in Cleon, that
because he used to hold on the bad side in causes of
estate, therefore he was ever inveighing against elo-

THE SECOND BOOK 157

quence and good speech ; knowing that no man can
speak fair of courses sordid and base. And therefore
as Plato said elegantly, ' That virtue, if she could be
seen, would move great love and affection ' ; so seeing
that she cannot be showed to the sense by corporal
shape, the next degree is to show her to the imagination
in lively representation : for to show her to reason only
in subtility of argument was a thing ever derided in
Chrysippus and many of the Stoics, who thought to
thrust virtue upon men by sharp disputations and con
clusions, which have no sympathy with the will of man.

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

Video meliora, proboque,
Deteriora sequor,

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

5. We conclude therefore that rhetoric can be no
more charged with the colouring of the worse part,
than logic with sophistry, or morality with vice. For
we know the doctrines of contraries are the same,
though the use be opposite. It appeareth also that logic
differeth from rhetoric, not only as the fist from the
palm, the one close, the other at large ; but much more

158 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

in this, that logic handleth reason exact and in truth,
and rhetoric handleth it as it is planted in popular
opinions and manners. And therefore Aristotle doth
wisely place rhetoric as between logic on the one side,
and moral or civil knowledge on the other, as partici
pating of both : for the proofs and demonstrators of
logic are toward all men indifferent and the same ; but
the proofs and persuasions of rhetoric ought to differ
according to the auditors :

Orpheus in sylvis, inter delphinas Arion.

Which application, in perfection of idea, ought to extend

so far, that if a man should speak of the same thing to

several persons, he should speak to them all respectively

and several ways : though this politic part of eloquence

in private speech it is easy for the greatest orators to

want : whilst, by the observing their

Deprudentia, well-graced forms of speech, they leese the

prhati* volubility of application : and therefore

it shall not be amiss to recommend this to

better inquiry, not being curious whether we place it

here, or in that part which concerneth policy.

6. Now therefore will I descend to the deficiencies,
„ , , . which (as I said) are but attendances :

Colores bom -_XT1 niji • i i

tt malt, and first, I do not find the wisdom and

rimpticiset diligence of Aristotle well pursued, who

comparati. began to make a collection of the popular

signs and colours of good and evil, both simple and

comparative, which are as the sophisms of rhetoric (as

I touched before). For example :

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

Redargutio.
Laudat venales qui vult extrudere merces.

* Malum est, malum est (inquit emptor) ; sed cum
recesserit, turn gloriabitur ! ' The defects in the labour
of Aristotle are three : one, that there be but a few of
many ; another, that their clenches are not annexed ;
and the third, that he conceived but a part of the use

THE SECOND BOOK 159

of them : for their use is not only in probation, but much
more in impression. For many forms are equal in
signification which are differing in impression ; as the
difference is great in the piercing of that which is sharp
and that which is flat, though the strength of the per
cussion be the same. For there is no man but will be
a little more raised by hearing it said, * Your enemies
will be glad of this,'

Hoc Ithacus velit, et magno mercentur Atridae,

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

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

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

but (in such as are able to do it) to avoid

prolixity of entry, I wish the seeds of the

several arguments to be cast up into some brief and

acute sentences, not to be cited, but to be as skeins or

bottoms of thread, to be unwinded at large when they

come to be used ; supplying authorities and examples

by reference.

Pro verbis legis.

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

Pro sententia legis.

Ex omnibus verbis est eliciendus sensus qui interpretatur
singula.

9. Formulae are but decent and apt passages or con
veyances of speech, which may serve indifferently for
differing subjects ; as of preface, conclusion, digression,
transition, excusation, &c. For as in buildings there
is great pleasure and use in the well casting of the

160 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

staircases, entries, doors, windows, and the like ; so
in speech, the conveyances and passages are of special
ornament and effect.

A conclusion in a deliberative.

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

XIX. 1. There remain two appendices touching the
tradition of knowledge, the one critical, the other
pedantical. For all knowledge is either delivered by
teachers, or attained by men's proper endeavours : and
therefore as the principal part of tradition of knowledge
concerneth chiefly writing of books, so the relative part
thereof concerneth reading of books ; whereunto apper
tain incidently these considerations. The first is con
cerning the true correction and edition of authors ;
wherein nevertheless rash diligence hath done great
prejudice. For these critics have often presumed that
that which they understand not is false set down : as
the priest that, where he found it written of Saint Paul
* Demissus est per sportain ', mended his book, and
made it ' Demissus est per portarn ' ; because sporta
was an hard word, and out of his reading : and surely
their errors, though they be not so palpable and ridicu
lous, yet are of the same kind. And therefore, as it hath
been wisely noted, the most corrected copies are com
monly the least correct.

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

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

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

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

2. For pedantical knowledge, it containeth that

THE SECOND BOOK 161

difference of tradition which is proper for youth ; where-
unto appertain divers considerations of great fruit.

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

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

A third is the application of learning according unto
bhe propriety of the wits ; for there is no defect in the
faculties intellectual, but seemeth to have a proper cure
contained in some studies : as, for example, if a child
be bird-witted, that is, hath not the faculty of attention,
the mathematics giveth a remedy thereunto ; for in
bhem, if the wit be caught away but a moment, one is
new to begin. And as sciences have a propriety towards
faculties for cure and help, so faculties or powers have

sympathy towards sciences for excellency or speedy
profiting : and therefore it is an inquiry of great wis
dom, what kinds of wits and natures are most apt and
proper for what sciences.

Fourthly, the ordering of exercises is matter of great
consequence to hurt or help : for, as is well observed
by Cicero, men in exercising their faculties, if they be
not well advised, do exercise their faults and get ill
tiabits as well as good ; so as there is a great judgement
to be had in the continuance and intermission of exer
cises. It were too long to particularize a number of
other considerations of this nature, things but of mean
appearance, but of singular efficacy. For as the
wronging or cherishing of seeds or young plants is that
that is most important to their thriving, and as it was
noted that the first six kings being in truth as tutors of
bhe state of Rome in the infancy thereof was the princi
pal cause of the immense greatness of that state which
Followed, so the culture and manurance of minds in
pouth had such a forcible (though unseen) operation,

162 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

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

3. But to return : we are now come to a period of
rational knowledges ; wherein if I have made the divi
sions other than those that are received, yet would I not
be thought to disallow all those divisions which I do not
use. For there is a double necessity imposed upon me
of altering the divisions. The one, because it differeth
in end and purpose, to sort together those things which
are next in nature, and those things which are next in
use. For if a secretary of estate should sort his papers,
it is like in his study or general cabinet he would sort

THE SECOND BOOK 163

together things of a nature, as treaties, instructions, &c.
But in his boxes or particular cabinet he would sort
together those that he were like to use together, though
of several natures. So in this general cabinet of know
ledge it was necessary for me to follow the divisions of
the nature of things ; whereas if myself had been to
handle any particular knowledge, I would have re
spected the divisions fittest for use. The other, because
the bringing in of the deficiencies did by consequence
alter the partitions of the rest. For let the knowledge
extant (for demonstration sake) be fifteen. Let the
knowledge with the deficiencies be twenty ; the parts
of fifteen are not the parts of twenty ; for the parts of
fifteen are three and five ; the parts of twenty are two,
four, five, and ten. So as these things are without con
tradiction, and could not otherwise be.

XX. 1. We proceed now to that knowledge which
considereth of the appetite and will of man : whereof
Salomon saith, ' Ante omnia, fiii, custodi cor tuum ;
nam inde procedunt actiones vitae.' In the handling of
this science, those which have written seem to me to
have done as if a man, that professed to teach to write,
did only exhibit fair copies of alphabets and letters
joined, without giving any precepts or directions for the
carriage of the hand and framing of the letters. So
have they made good and fair exemplars and copies,
carrying the draughts and portraitures of good, virtue,
duty, felicity ; propounding them well described as the
true objects and scopes of man's will and desires. But
how to attain these excellent marks, and how to frame
and subdue the will of man to become true and con
formable to these pursuits, they pass it over altogether,
or slightly and unprofi tably. For it is not the disputing,
that moral virtues are in the mind of man by habit and
not by nature ; or the distinguishing, that generous
spirits are won by doctrines and persuasions, and the
vulgar sort by reward and punishment ; and the like
scattered glances and touches, that can excuse the
absence of this part.

2. The reason of this omission I suppose to be that

164 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

hidden rock whereupon both this and many other barks
of knowledge have been cast away ; which is, that men
have despised to be conversant in ordinary and com
mon matters, the judicious direction whereof never
theless is the wisest doctrine (for life consisteth not in
novelties nor subtilities), but contrariwise they have
compounded sciences chiefly of a certain resplendent or
lustrous mass of matter, chosen to give glory either to
the subtility of disputations, or to the eloquence of dis
courses. But Seneca giveth an excellent check to elo
quence, * Nocet illis eloquentia, quibus non rerum cupi-
ditatem facit, sed sui.' Doctrine should be such as should
make men in love with the lesson, and not with the
teacher ; being directed to the auditor's benefit, and
not to the author's commendation. And therefore
those are of the right kind which may be concluded as
Demosthenes concludes his counsel, ' Quae si feceritis,
non o atorem duntaxat in praesentia laudabitis, sed
vosmetipsos etiam non ita multo post statu rerum
vestrarum meliore.'

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

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

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

THE SECOND BOOK 165

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

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

6. Notwithstanding, if before they had comen to the
popular and received notions of virtue and vice, pleasure
and pain, and the rest, they had stayed a little longer
upon the inquiry concerning the roots of good and evil,
and the strings of those roots, they had given, in my

166 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

opinion, a great light to that which followed ; and
specially if they had consulted with nature, they had
made their doctrines less prolix and more profound :
which being by them in part omitted and in part
handled with much confusion, we will endeavour to
resume and open in a more clear manner.

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

THE SECOND BOOK 167

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

8. This being set down and strongly planted, doth
judge and determine most of the controversies wherein
moral philosophy is conversant. For first, it decideth
the question touching the preferment of the contem
plative or active life, and decideth it against Aristotle.
For all the reasons which he bringeth for the contem
plative are private, and respecting the pleasure and
dignity of a man's self (in which respects no question
the contemplative life hath the pre-eminence), not much
unlike to that comparison, which Pythagoras made for
the gracing and magnifying of philosophy and contem
plation : who being asked what he was, answered, ' That
if Hiero were ever at the Olympian games, he knew the
manner, that some came to try their fortune for the
prizes, and some came as merchants to utter their com
modities, and some came to make good cheer and meet
their friends, and some came to look on ; and that he
was one of them that came to look on.' But men must
know, that in this theatre of man's life it is reserved only
for God and angels to be lookers on. Neither could the
like question ever have been received in the church,
notwithstanding their ' Pretiosa in oculis Domini mors
sanctorum ejus,' by which place they would exalt their
civil death and regular professions, but upon this defence,
that the monastical life is not simple contemplative, but
performeth the duty either of incessant prayers and
supplications, which hath been truly esteemed as an
office in the church, or else of writing or taking instruc
tions for writing concerning the law of God, as Moses
did when he abode so long in the mount. And so we
see Henoch the seventh from Adam, who was the first
contemplative and walked with God, yet did also endow
the church with prophecy, which Saint Jude citeth.
But for contemplation which should be finished in itself,
without casting beams upon society, assuredly divinity
knoweth it not.

9. It decideth also the controversies between Zeno

168 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

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

10. It censureth also the philosophy of Epictetus,
which presupposeth that felicity must be placed in those
things which are in our power, lest we be liable to for
tune and disturbance : as if it were not a thing much
more happy to fail in good and virtuous ends for the
public, than to obtain all that we can wish to ourselves
in our proper fortune ; as Consalvo said to his soldiers,
showing them Naples, and protesting he had rather die
one foot forwards, than to have his life secured for long
by one foot of retreat. Whereunto the wisdom of that
heavenly leader hath signed, who hath affirmed that
* a good conscience is a continual feast ' ; showing
plainly that the conscience of good intentions, howso
ever succeeding, is a more continual joy to nature, than
all the provision which can be made for security and
repose.

11. It censureth likewise that abuse of philosophy,
which grew general about the time of Epictetus, in con-

THE SECOND BOOK 169

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

12. Lastly, it censureth the tenderness and want of
application in some of the most ancient and reverend
philosophers and philosophical men, that did retire too
easily from civil business, for avoiding of indignities and
perturbations : whereas the resolution of men truly
moral ought to be such as the same Consalvo said the
honour of a soldier should be, e teld crassiore, and not so
fine as that everything should catch in it and endanger
it.

XXI. 1. To resume private or particular good, it
falleth into the division of good active and passive : for
the difference of good (not unlike to that which amongst
the Romans was expressed in the familiar or household
terms of promus and condus) is formed also in all things,
and is best disclosed in the two several appetites in
creatures ; the one to preserve or continue themselves,
and the other to dilate or multiply themselves ; where
of the latter seemeth to be the worthier ; for in nature
the heavens, which are the more worthy, are the agent ;
and the earth, which is the less worthy, is the patient.
In the pleasures of living creatures, that of generation is
greater than that of food. In divine doctrine, ' beatius est
dare quam accipere.' And in life, there is no man's spirit

170 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

so soft, but esteemeth the effecting of somewhat that he
hath fixed in his desire, more than sensuality ; which
priority of the active good, is much upheld by the con
sideration of our estate to be mortal and exposed to
fortune. For if we mought have a perpetuity and cer
tainty in our pleasures, the state of them would advance
their price. But when we see it is but ' magni aestimamua
mori tardius,' and ' ne glorieris de crastino, nescis par-
turn diei,' it maketh us to desire to have somewhat se
cured and exempted from time, which are only our deeds
and works : as it is said, * Opera eorum sequuntur eos.*
The pre-eminence likewise of this active good is upheld
by the affection which is natural in man towards variety
and proceeding ; which in the pleasures of the sense,
which is the principal part of passive good, can have no
great latitude. ' Cogita quamdiu eadem feceris ; cibus
somnus, ludus ; per hunc circulum curritur ; mori velle
non tantum fortis, aut miser, aut prudens, sed etiam
fastidiosus potest.' But in enterprises, pursuits, and
purposes of life, there is much variety ; whereof men are
sensible with pleasure in their inceptions, progressions,
recoils, reintegrations, approaches and attainings to their
ends. So as it was well said, ' Vita sine proposito languida
et vaga est.' Neither hath this active good any identity
with the good of society, though in some case it hath an
incidence into it. For although it do many times bring
forth acts of beneficence, yet it is with a respect private
to a man's own power, glory, amplification, continuance ;
as appeareth plainly, when it findeth a contrary subject.
For that gigantine state of mind which possesseth the
troublers of the world, such as was Lucius Sylla and
infinite other in smaller model, who would have all men
happy or unhappy as they were their friends or enemies,
and would give form to the world, according to their
own humours (which is the true theomachy), pretendeth
and aspireth to active good, though it recedeth furthest
from good of society, which we have determined to be
the greater.

2. To resume passive good, it receiveth a subdivision
of conservative and perfective. For let us take a brief

THE SECOND BOOK 171

review of that which we have said : we have spoken
first of the good of society, the intention whereof em-
braceth the form of human nature, whereof we are
members and portions, and not our own proper and
individual form : we have spoken of active good, and
supposed it as a part of private and particular good.
And rightly, for there is impressed upon all things a
triple desire or appetite proceeding from love to them
selves ; one of preserving and continuing their form ;
another of advancing and perfecting their form ; and
a third of multiplying and extending their form upon
other things : whereof the multiplying, or signature of
it upon other things, is that which we handled by the
name of active good. So as there remaineth the con
serving of it, and perfecting or raising of it ; which latter
is the highest degree of passive good. For to preserve
in state is the less, to preserve with advancement is the
greater. So in man,

Igneus est ollis vigor, et caelestis origo.

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

3. To resume the good of conservation or comfort,
which consisteth in the fruition of that which is agree
able to our natures ; it seemeth to be the most pure
and natural of pleasures, but yet the softest and the
lowest. And this also receiveth a difference, which
hath neither been well judged of, nor well inquired : for
the good of fruition or contentment is placed either in
the sincereness of the fruition, or in the quickness and

172 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

vigour of it ; the one superinduced by equality, the
other by vicissitude ; the one having less mixture of
evil, the other more impression of good. Whether of
these is the greater good is a question controverted ;
but whether man's nature may not be capable of both,
is a question not inquired.

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

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

THE SECOND BOOK 173

is no end of preparing. Better saith the poet :
Qui finem vitae extremum inter munera ponat
Naturae.

So have they sought to make men's minds too uniform
and harmonical, by not breaking them sufficiently
to contrary motions: the reason whereof I suppose to
be, because they themselves were men dedicated to
a private, free, and unapplied course of life. For as
we see, upon the lute or like instrument, a ground,
though it be sweet and have show of many changes,
yet breaketh not the hand to such strange and hard
stops and passages, as a set song or voluntary ; much
after the same manner was the diversity between a
philosophical and a civil life. And therefore men are
to imitate the wisdom of jewellers ; who, if there be
a grain, or a cloud, or an ice which may be ground
forth without taking too much of the stone, they help
it ; but if it should lessen and abate the stone too
much, they will not meddle with it : so ought men so
to procure serenity as they destroy not magnanimity.
6. Having therefore deduced the good of man
which is private and particular, as far as seemeth fit,
we will now return to that good of man which respecteth
and beholdeth society, which we may term duty ;
because the term of duty is more proper to a mind
well framed and disposed towards others, as the term
of virtue is applied to a mind well formed and com
posed in itself : though neither can a man understand
virtue without some relation to society, nor duty
without an inward disposition. This part may seem
at first to pertain to science civil and politic : but not
if it be well observed. For it concerneth the regiment
and government of every man over himself, and not
over others. And as in architecture the direction of
framing the posts, beams, and other parts of building,
is not the same with the manner of joining them and
erecting the building ; and in mechanicals, the direc
tion how to frame an instrument or engine, is not the
same with the manner of setting it on work and employ
ing it ; and yet nevertheless in expressing of the one

174 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

you incidently express the aptness towards the other ;
so the doctrine of conjugation of men in society differeth
from that of their conformity thereunto.

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

8. In which kind I cannot but mention, honoris
causa, your Majesty's excellent book touching the duty
of a king : a work richly compounded of divinity,
morality, and policy, with great aspersion of all other
arts ; and being in mine opinion one of the most sound
and healthful writings that I have read ; not distem
pered in the heat of invention, nor in the coldness of
negligence ; not sick of dizziness, as those are who
leese themselves in their order, nor of convulsions, as
those which cramp in matters impertinent ; not savour
ing of perfumes and paintings, as those do who seek to
please the reader more than nature beareth ; and chiefly

THE SECOND BOOK 175

well disposed in the spirits thereof, being agreeable to
truth and apt for action ; and far removed from that
natural infirmity, whereunto I noted those that write
in their own professions to be subject, which is, that
they exalt it above measure. For your Majesty hath
truly described, not a king of Assyria or Persia in their
extern glory, but a Moses or a David, pastors of their
people. Neither can I ever leese out of my remem
brance what I heard your Majesty in the same sacred
spirit of government deliver in a great cause of judi
cature, which was, ' That kings ruled by their laws,
as God did by the laws of nature ; and ought as rarely
to put in use their supreme prerogative, as God doth
his power of working miracles.' And yet notwith
standing, in your book of a free monarchy, you do well
give men to understand, that you know the plenitude
of the power and right of a king, as well as the circle
of his office and duty. Thus have I presumed to allege
this excellent writing of your Majesty, as a prime or
eminent example of tractates concerning special and
respective duties : wherein I should have said as much,
if it had been written a thousand years since. Neither
am I moved with certain courtly decencies, which esteem
it flattery to praise in presence. No, it is flattery to
praise in absence ; that is, when either the virtue is
absent, or the occasion is absent ; and so the praise
is not natural, but forced, either in truth or in time.
But let Cicero be read in his oration pro Marcello, which
is nothing but an excellent table of Caesar's virtue, and
made to his face ; besides the example of many other
excellent persons, wiser a great deal than such observers ;
and we will never doubt, upon a full occasion, to give
just praises to present or absent.

9. But to return : there belongeth further to the
handling of this part, touching the duties of professions
and vocations, a relative or opposite, touching the
frauds, cautels, impostures, and vices of every pro
fession, which hath been likewise handled : but how ?
rather in a satire and cynically, than seriously and
wisely : for men have rather sought by wit to deride

176 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

and traduce much of that which is good in professions,
than with judgement to discover and sever that which
is corrupt. For, as Salomon saith, he that cometh to
seek after knowledge with a mind to scorn and censure,
shall be sure to find matter for his humour, but no
De. cautdis matter for his instruction : * Quaerenti
et mails derisori scientiam ipsa se abscondit ; sed

artibus. studioso fit obviam.' But the managing

of this argument with integrity and truth, which I note
as deficient, seemeth to me to be one of the best forti
fications for honesty and virtue that can be planted.
For, as the fable goeth of the basilisk, that if he see
you first, you die for it ; but if you see him first, he
dieth : so is it with deceits and evil arts ; which, if
they be first espied they leese their life ; but if they
prevent, they endanger. So that we are much be
holden to Machiavel and others, that write what men
do, and not what they ought to do. For it is not
possible to join serpentine wisdom with the columbine
innocency, except men know exactly all the conditions
of the serpent ; his baseness and going upon his belly,
his volubility and lubricity, his envy and sting, and the
rest ; that is, all forms and natures of evil. For with
out this, virtue lieth open and unfenced. Nay, an honest
man can do no good upon those that are wicked, to
reclaim them, without the help of the knowledge of
evil. For men of corrupted minds presuppose that
honesty groweth out of simplicity of manners, and be
lieving of preachers, schoolmasters, and men's exterior
language. So as, except you can make them perceive
that you know the utmost reaches of their own corrupt
opinions, they despise all morality. ' Non recipit
stultus verba prudentiae, nisi ea dixeris quae versantur
in corde ejus.'

10. Unto this part, touching respective duty, doth
also appertain the duties between husband and wife,
parent and child, master and servant. So likewise the
laws of friendship and gratitude, the civil bond of com
panies, colleges, and politic bodies, of neighbourhood ;
and all other proportionate duties ; not as they are parts

THE SECOND BOOK 177

of government and society, but as to the framing of the
mind of particular persons.

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

Infelix, utcunque ferent ea fata minores.

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

XXII. 1. Now therefore that we have spoken of this
fruit of life, it remaineth to speak of the
husbandry that belongeth thereunto; fS"um
without which part the former seemeth
to be no better than a fair image, or statua, which
is beautiful to contemplate, but is without life and
motion; whereunto Aristotle himself subscribeth
in these words : ' Necesse est scilicet de virtute dicere,
et quid sit, et ex quibus gignatur. Inutile enim fere

178 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

fuerit virtutem quidem nosse, acquirendae autem ejus
modos et vias ignorare. Non enim de virtute tantum,
qua specie sit, quaerendum est,sedet quomodo suicopiam
faciat : utrumque enim volumus, et rem ipsam nosse,
et ejus compotes fieri : hoc autem ex voto non succedet,
nisi sciamus et ex quibus et quomodo.' In such full
words and with such iteration doth he inculcate this
part. So saith Cicero in great commendation of Cato
the second, that he had applied himself to philosophy,
' Non ita disputandi causa, sed ita vivendi.' And
although the neglect of our times, wherein few men do
hold any consultations touching the reformation of
their life (as Seneca excellently saith, ' De partibus
vitae quisque deliberat, de summa nemo '), may make
this part seem superfluous ; yet I must conclude with
that aphorism of Hippocrates, ' Qui gravi morbo cor-
repti dolores non sentiunt, iis mens aegrotat.' They
need medicine, not only to assuage the disease, but to
awake the sense. And if it be said, that the cure of
men's minds belongeth to sacred divinity, it is most
true : but yet moral philosophy may be preferred unto
her as a wise servant and humble handmaid. For as
the Psalm saith, ' That the eyes of the handmaid look
perpetually towards the mistress,' and yet no doubt
many things are left to the discretion of the handmaid,
to discern of the mistress' will ; so ought moral philo
sophy to give a constant attention to the doctrines of
divinity, and yet so as it may yield of herself (within
due limits) many sound and profitable directions.

2. This part therefore, because of the excellency
thereof, I cannot but find exceeding strange that it is
not reduced to written inquiry : the rather, because
it consisteth of much matter, wherein both speech and
action is often conversant ; and such wherein the com
mon talk of men (which is rare, but yet cometh some
times to pass) is wiser than their books. It is reason
able therefore that we propound it in the more par
ticularity, both for the worthiness, and because we
may acquit ourselves for reporting it deficient ; which
seemeth almost incredible, and is otherwise conceived

THE SECOND BOOK 179

and presupposed by those themselves that have written.
We will therefore enumerate some heads or points
thereof, that it may appear the better what it is, and
whether it be extant.

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

Vincenda est omnis fortuna ferendo:
and so likewise,

Vincenda est omnis Natura ferendo.

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

4. So then the first article of this knowledge is, to
set down sound and true distributions and descriptions
of the several characters and tempers of men's natures
and dispositions ; specially having regard to those
differences which are most radical in being the fountains
and causes of the rest, or most frequent in concur
rence or commixture ; wherein it is not the handling
of a few of them in passage, the better to describe
the mediocrities of virtues, that can satisfy this inten-

180 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

tion. For if it deserve to be considered, that there
are minds which are proportioned to great matters,
and others to small (which Aristotle handleth or ought
to have handled by the name of magnanimity), doth
it not deserve as well to be considered, that there are
minds proportioned to intend many matters, and others
to few ? So that some can divide themselves : others
can perchance do exactly well, but it must be but in
few things at once : and so there cometh to be a narrow
ness of mind, as well as a pusillanimity. And again,
that some minds are proportioned to that which may
be dispatched at once, or within a short return of time ;
others to that which begins afar off, and is to be won
with length of pursuit :

Jam turn tenditque fovetque.

So that there may be fitly said to be a longanimity,
which is commonly also ascribed to God as a magna
nimity. So further deserved it to be considered by
Aristotle, ' That there is a disposition in conversation
(supposing it in things which do in no sort touch or
concern a man's self) to soothe and please ; and a dis
position contrary to contradict and cross ' : and deserv-
eth it not much better to be considered, ' That there
is a disposition, not in conversation or talk, but in
matter of more serious nature (and supposing it still
in things merely indifferent), to take pleasure in the
good of another : and a disposition contrariwise, to take
distaste at the good of another ? ' which is that properly
which we call good nature or ill nature, benignity or
malignity : and therefore I cannot sufficiently marvel
that this part of knowledge, touching the several charac
ters of natures and dispositions, should be omitted both
in morality and policy ; considering it is of so great
ministry and suppeditation to them both. A man
shall find in the traditions of astrology some pretty and
apt divisions of men's natures, according to the pre
dominances of the planets ; lovers of quiet, lovers of
action, lovers of victory, lovers of honour, lovers of
pleasure, lovers of arts, lovers of change, and so forth.

THE SECOND BOOK 181

A man shall find in the wisest sort of these relations
which the Italians make touching conclaves, the natures
of the several cardinals handsomely and lively painted
forth. A man shall meet with in every day's con
ference the denominations of sensitive, dry, formal,
real, humorous, certain, ' huorno di prima impressione,
huomo di ultima impressione,' and the like : and yet
nevertheless this kind of observations wandereth in
words, but is not fixed in inquiry. For the distinctions
are found (many of them), but we conclude no precepts
upon them : wherein our fault is the greater ; because
both history, poesy, and daily experience are as goodly
fields where these observations grow ; whereof we
make a few posies to hold in our hands, but no man
bringeth them to the confectionary, that receipts
mought be made of them for use of life.

5. Of much like kind are those impressions of nature,
which are imposed upon the mind by the sex, by the
age, by the region, by health and sickness, by beauty
and deformity, and the like, which are inherent and
not extern ; and again, those which are caused by
extern fortune ; as sovereignty, nobility, obscure birth,
riches, want, magistracy, privateness, prosperity, ad
versity, constant fortune, variable fortune, rising per
scdtum, per gradus, and the like. And therefore we
Bee that Plautus maketh it a wonder to see an old man
beneficent, * benignitas hujus ut adolescentuli est.'
Saint Paul concludeth that severity of discipline was
to be used to the Cretans, * increpa eos dure,' upon the
disposition of their country, ' Cretenses semper men-
daces, malae bestiae, ventres pigri.' Sallust noteth
that it is usual with kings to desire contradictories : ' Sed
plerumque regiae voluntates, ut vehementes sunt, sic
mobiles, saepeque ipsae sibi adversae.' Tacitus ob-
serveth how rarely raising of the fortune mendeth the
disposition : * solus Vespasianus mutatus in melius.'
Pindarus maketh an observation, that great and sudden
fortune for the most part defeateth men ' qui magnam
felicitatem concoquere non possunt'. So the Psalm
showeth it is more easy to keep a measure in the enjoy-

182 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

ing of fortune, than in the increase of fortune : * Divi-
tiae si affluant, nolite cor apponere.' These observa
tions and the like I deny not but are touched a little by
Aristotle as in passage in his Rhetorics, and are handled
in some scattered discourses : but they were never in
corporate into moral philosophy, to which they do
essentially appertain ; as the knowledge of the diversity
of grounds and moulds doth to agriculture, and the
knowledge of the diversity of complexions and con
stitutions doth to the physician ; except we mean to
follow the indiscretion of empirics, which minister the
same medicines to all patients.

6. Another article of this knowledge is the inquiry
touching the affections ; for as in medicining of the
body, it is in order first to know the divers complexions
and constitutions ; secondly, the diseases ; and lastly,
the cures : so in medicining of the mind, after know
ledge of the divers characters of men's natures, it
followeth in order to know the diseases and infirmities
of the mind, which are no other than the perturbations
and distempers of the affections. For as the ancient
politiques in popular estates were wont to compare the
people to the sea, and the orators to the winds ; be
cause as the sea would of itself be calm and quiet, if
the winds did not move and trouble it ; so the people
would be peaceable and tractable, if the seditious orators
did not set them in working and agitation : so it may
be fitly said, that the mind in the nature thereof would
be temperate and stayed, if the affections, as winds, did
not put it into tumult and perturbation. And here
again I find strange, as before, that Aristotle should
have written divers volumes of Ethics, and never handled
the affections, which is the principal subject thereof ;
and yet in his Rhetorics, where they are considered,
but collaterally and in a second degree (as they may be
moved by speech), he findeth place for them, and hand-
leth them well for the quantity ; but where their true
place is, he pretermitteth them. For it is not his
disputations about pleasure and pain that can satisfy
this inquiry, no more than he that should generally

THE SECOND BOOK 183

handle the nature of light can be said to handle the
nature of colours ; for pleasure and pain are to the
particular affections, as light is to particular colours.
Better travails, I suppose, had the Stoics taken in this
argument, as far as I can gather by that which we have
at second hand. But yet it is like it was after their
manner, rather in subtilty of definitions (which in
a subject of this nature are but curiosities), than in
active and ample descriptions and observations. So
likewise I find some particular writings of an elegant
nature, touching some of the affections ; as of anger,
of comfort upon adverse accidents, of tenderness of
countenance, and other. But the poets and writers
of histories are the best doctors of this knowledge ;
where we may find painted forth with great life, how
affections are kindled and incited ; and how pacified
and refrained ; and how again contained from act and
further degree ; how they disclose themselves ; how
they work ; how they vary ; how they gather and
fortify ; how they are enwrapped one within another ;
and how they do fight and encounter one with another ;
and other the like particularities. Amongst the which
this last is of special use in moral and civil matters ;
how, I say, to set affection against affection, and to
master one by another ; even as we use to hunt beast
with beast, and fly bird with bird, which otherwise
percase we could not so easily recover ; upon which
foundation is erected that excellent use of praemium
and poena, whereby civil states consist : employing the
predominant affections of fear and hope, for the sup
pressing and bridling the rest. For as in the govern
ment of states it is sometimes necessary to bridle one
faction with another, so it is in the government within.
7. Now come we to those points which are within
our own command, and have force and operation upon
the mind, to affect the will and appetite, and to alter
manners : wherein they ought to have handled custom,
exercise, habit, education, example, imitation, emu
lation, company, friends, praise, reproof, exhortation,
fame, laws, books, studies : these as they have deter-

184 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

minate use in moralities, from these the mind suffereth ;
ami of these are such receipts and regiments com
pounded and described, as may serve to recover or
preserve the health and good estate of the mind,
as far as pertaineth to human medicine : of which
number we will insist upon some one or two, as an
example of the rest, because it were too long to prose
cute all ; and therefore we do resume custom and
habit to speak of.

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

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

THE SECOND BOOK 185

10. Another precept is, to practise all things chiefly
at two several times, the one when the mind is best dis
posed, the other when it is worst disposed ; that by the
one you may gain a great step, by the other you may
work out the knots and stonds of the mind, and make
the middle times the more easy and pleasant.

11. Another precept is, that which Aristotle men-
tioneth by the way, which is to bear ever towards the
contrary extreme of that whereunto we are by nature
inclined ; like unto the rowing against the stream, or
making a wand straight by bending him contrary to
his natural crookedness.

12. Another precept is, that the mind is brought to
anything better, and with more sweetness and happi
ness, if that whereunto you pretend be not first in the
intention, but tanquam aliud agenda, because of the
natural hatred of the mind against necessity and con
straint. Many other axioms there are touching the
managing of exercise and custom ; which being so
conducted, doth prove indeed another nature ; but
being governed by chance, doth commonly prove but
an ape of nature, and bringeth forth that which is lame
and counterfeit.

13. So if we should handle books and studies, and
what influence and operation they have upon manners,
are there not divers precepts of great caution and direc
tion appertaining thereunto ? Did not one of the
fathers in great indignation call poesy vinum daemonum,
because it increaseth temptations, perturbations, and
vain opinions ? Is not the opinion of Aristotle worthy
to be regarded, wherein he saith, That young men are
no fit auditors of moral philosophy, because they are
not settled from the boiling heat of their affections, nor
attempered with time and experience ? And doth it
not hereof come, that those excellent books and dis
courses of the ancient writers (whereby they have
persuaded unto virtue most effectually, by representing
her in state and majesty, and popular opinions against
virtue in their parasites' coats fit to be scorned and
derided), are of so little effect towards honesty of life,

186 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

because they are not read and revolved by men in their
mature and settled years, but confined almost to boys
and beginners ? But is it not true also, that much
less young men are fit auditors of matters of policy,
till they have been thoroughly seasoned in religion and
morality ; lest their judgements be corrupted, and made
apt to think that there are no true differences of things,
but according to utility and fortune, as the verse de
scribes it, ' Prosperum et felix scelus virtus vocatur ' ;
and again, ' Ille crucem pretium sceleris tulit, hie
diadema ' : which the poets do speak satirically, and
in indignation on virtue's behalf ; but books of policy
do speak it seriously and positively ; for so it pleaseth
Machiavel to say, ' That if Caesar had been overthrown,
he would have been more odious than ever was Catiline' ;
as if there had been no difference, but in fortune, be
tween a very fury of lust and blood, and the most ex
cellent spirit (his ambition reserved) of the world ?
Again, is there not a caution likewise to be given of the
doctrines of moralities themselves (some kinds of them),
lest they make men too precise, arrogant, incompatible ;
as Cicero saith of Cato, ' In Marco Catone haec bona
quae videmus divina et egregia, ipsius scitote esse pro-
pria ; quae nonnunquam requirimus, ea sunt omnia
non a natura, sed a magistro ? ' Many other axioms
and advices there are touching those proprieties and
effects, which studies do infuse and instil into manners.
And so likewise is there touching the use of all those
other points, of company, fame, laws, and the rest,
which we recited in the beginning in the doctrine of
morality.

14. But there is a kind of culture of the mind that
seemeth yet more accurate and elaborate than the rest,
and is built upon this ground ; that the minds of all
men are at some times in a state more perfect, and at
other times in a state more depraved. The purpose
therefore of this practice is to fix and cherish the good
hours of the mind, and to obliterate and take forth the
evil. The fixing of the good hath been practised by
two means, vows or constant resolutions, and observ-

THE SECOND BOOK 187

ances or exercises ; which are not to be regarded so
much in themselves, as because they keep the mind in
continual obedience. The obliteration of the evil hath
been practised by two means, some kind of redemption
or expiation of that which is past, and an inception or
account de novo for the time to come. But this part
seemeth sacred and religious, and justly ; for all good
moral philosophy (as was said) is but an handmaid to
religion.

15. Wherefore we will conclude with that last point,
which is of all other means the most compendious and
summary, and again, the most noble and effectual to
the reducing of the mind unto virtue and good estate ;
which is, the electing and propounding unto a man's
self good and virtuous ends of his life, such as may be
in a reasonable sort within his compass to attain. For
if these two things be supposed, that a man set before
him honest and good ends, and again, that he be
resolute, constant, and true unto them ; it will follow
that he shall mould himself into all virtue at once.
And this is indeed like the work of nature ; whereas
the other course is like the work of the hand. For as
when a carver makes an image, he shapes only that
part whereupon he worketh ; as if he be upon the face,
that part which shall be the body is but a rude stone
still, till such time as he comes to it. But contrariwise
when nature makes a flower or living creature, she
formeth rudiments of all the parts at one time. So
in obtaining virtue by habit, while a man practiseth
temperance, he doth not profit much to fortitude, nor
the like : but when he dedicateth and applieth himself
to good ends, look, what virtue soever the pursuit and

rsage towards those ends doth commend unto him,
is invested of a precedent disposition to conform
himself thereunto. Which state of mind Aristotle doth
excellently express himself, that it ought not to be
called virtuous, but divine : his words are these : * Im-
manitati autem consentaneum est opponere earn, quae
supra humanitatem est, heroicam sive divinam virtu-
tern ' : and a little after, ' Nam ut ferae neque vitium

188 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

neque virtus est, sic neque Dei : sed hie quidem status
altius quiddam virtute est, ille aliud quiddam a vitio.'
And therefore we may see what celsitude of honour
Plinius Secundus attributeth to Trajan in his funeral
oration ; where he said, ' That men needed to make no
other prayers to the gods, but that they would continue
as good lords to them as Trajan had been ' ; as if he
had not been only an imitation of divine nature, but
a pattern of it. But these be heathen and profane
passages, having but a shadow of that divine state of
mind, which religion and the holy faith doth conduct
men unto, by imprinting upon their souls charity, which
is excellently called the bond of perfection, because it
comprehendeth and fasteneth all virtues together. And
as it is elegantly said by Menander of vain love, which
is but a false imitation of divine love, ' Amor melior
Sophista laevo ad humanam vitam,' that love teacheth
a man to carry himself better than the sophist or pre
ceptor, which he calleth left-handed, because, with all
his rules and preceptions, he cannot form a man so
dexteriously, nor with that facility to prize himself and
govern himself, as love can do : so certainly, if a man's
mind be truly inflamed with charity, it doth work him
suddenly into greater perfection than all the doctrine
of morality can do, which is but a sophist in comparison
of the other. Nay further, as Xenophon observed truly,
that all other affections, though they raise the mind,
yet they do it by distorting and uncomeliness of ecstasies
or excesses ; but only love doth exalt the mind, and
nevertheless at the same instant doth settle and com
pose it : so in all other excellencies, though they ad
vance nature, yet they are subject to excess. Only
charity admitteth no excess. For so we see, aspiring
to be like God in power, the angels transgressed and
fell ; * Ascendam, et ero similis altissimo ' : by aspiring
to be like God in knowledge, man transgressed and
fell ; ' Eritis sicut Dii, scientes bonum et malum ' :
but by aspiring to a similitude of God in goodness or
love, neither man nor angel ever transgressed, or shall
transgress. For unto that imitation we are called :

THE SECOND BOOK 189

* Diligite inimicos vestros, benefacite eis qui oderunt
vos, et orate pro persequentibus et calumniantibus
vos, ut sitis filii Patris vestri qui in coelis est, qui solem
suum oriri facit super bonos et malos, et pluit super
justos et injustos.' So in the first platform of the
divine nature itself, the heathen religion speaketh thus,

* Optinius Maximus ' : and the sacred scriptures thus,

* Misericordia ejus super omnia opera ejus.'

16. Wherefore I do conclude this part of moral know
ledge, concerning the culture and regiment of the mind ;
wherein if any man, considering the parts thereof which
I have enumerated, do judge that my labour is but to
collect into an art or science that which hath been pre-
termitted by others, as matter of common sense and
experience, he judge th well. But as Philocrates sported
with Demosthenes, ' You may not marvel (Athenians)
that Demosthenes and I do differ ; for he drinketh
water, and I drink wine ' ; and like as we read of an
ancient parable of the two gates of sleep.

Sunt geminae somni portae: quarum altera fertur
Cornea, qua veris facilis datur exitus umbris:
Altera candenti perfecta nitens elephanto,
Sed falsa ad coelum mittunt insomnia manes:

so if we put on sobriety and attention, we shall find it
a sure maxim in knowledge, that the more pleasant
liquor (of wine) is the more vaporous, and the braver
gate (of ivory) sendeth forth the falser dreams.

17. But we have now concluded that general part
of human philosophy, which contemplateth man segre
gate, and as he consisteth of body and spirit. Wherein
we may further note, that there seemeth to be a rela
tion or conformity between the good of the mind and
the good of the body. For as we divided the good of
the body into health, beauty, strength, and pleasure ;
so the good of the mind, inquired in rational and moral
knowledges, tendeth to this, to make the mind sound,
and without perturbation ; beautiful, and graced with
decency ; and strong and agile for all duties of life.
These three, as in the body, so in the mind, seldom meet,

190 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

and commonly sever. For it is easy to observe, that
many have strength of wit and courage, but have
neither health from perturbations, nor any beauty or
decency in their doings : some again have an elegancy
and fineness of carriage, which have neither soundness
of honesty, nor substance of sufficiency : and some
again have honest and reformed minds, that can neither
become themselves nor manage business : and some
times two of them meet, and rarely all three. As for
pleasure, we have likewise determined that the mind
ought not to be reduced to stupid, but to retain plea
sure ; confined rather in the subject of it, than in the
strength and vigour of it.

XXIII. 1. Civil knowledge is conversant about
a subject which of all others is most immersed in matter,
and hardliest reduced to axiom. Nevertheless, as Cato
the Censor said, ' That the Romans were like sheep, for
that a man were better drive a flock of them, than one
of them ; for in a flock, if you could get but some few
go right, the rest would follow ' : so in that respect
moral philosophy is more difficile than policy. Again,
moral philosophy propoundeth to itself the framing of
internal goodness ; but civil knowledge requireth only
an external goodness ; for that as to society sufficeth.
And therefore it cometh oft to pass that there be evil
times in good governments : for so we find in the holy
story, when the kings were good, yet it is added, ' Sed
adhuc populus non direxerat cor suum ad Dorninum
Deum patrum suorum.' Again, states, as great engines,
move slowly, and are not so soon put out of frame :
for as in Egypt the seven good years sustained the
seven bad, so governments for a time well grounded,
do bear out errors following ; but the resolution of
particular persons is more suddenly subverted. These
respects do somewhat qualify the extreme difficulty of
civil knowledge.

2. This knowledge hath three parts, according to the
three summary actions of society ; which are conver
sation, negotiation, and government. For man seeketh
in society comfort, use, and protection : and they be

THE SECOND BOOK 191

three wisdoms of divers natures, which do often sever :
wisdom of the behaviour, wisdom of business, and
wisdom of state.

3. The wisdom of conversation ought not to be over
much affected, but much less despised ; for it hath not
only an honour in itself, but an influence also into
business and government. The poet saith, ' Nee vultu
destrue verba tuo ' : a man may destroy the force of
his words with his countenance : so may he of his
deeds, saith Cicero, recommending to his brother affa
bility and easy access ; ' Nil interest habere ostium
apertum, vultum clausum ' ; it is nothing won to admit
men with an open door, and to receive them with a shut
and reserved countenance. So we see Atticus, before
the first interview between Caesar and Cicero, the war
depending, did seriously advise Cicero touching the
composing and ordering of his countenance and gesture.
And if the government of the countenance be of such
effect, much more is that of the speech, and other
carriage appertaining to conversation; the true model
whereof seerneth to me well expressed by Livy, though
not meant for this purpose : * Ne aut arrogans videar,
aut obnoxius ; quorum alterum est alienae libertatis
obliti, alterum suae ' : the sum of behaviour is to retain
a man's own dignity, without intruding upon the liberty
of others. On the other side, if behaviour and outward
carriage be intended too much, first it may pass into
affectation, and then ' Quid deformius quam scenam
in vitam transferre,' to act a man's life ? But
although it proceed not to that extreme, yet it con-
sumeth time, and employeth the mind too much. And
therefore as we use to advise young students from com
pany keeping, by saying, ' Amici fures temporis ' : so
certainly the intending of the discretion of behaviour
is a great thief of meditation. Again, such as are
accomplished in that form of urbanity please them
selves in it, and seldom aspire to higher virtue ; whereas
those that have defect in it do seek comeliness by repu
tation ; for where reputation is, almost everything be-
cometh ; but where that is not, it must be supplied

192 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

by puntos and compliments. Again, there is no greater
impediment of action than an over-curious observance
of decency, and the guide of decency, which is time and
season. For as Salomon saith, ' Qui respicit ad ventos,
non seminat ; et qui respicit ad nubes, non metet ' : a
man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it. To
conclude, behaviour seemeth to me as a garment of the
mind, and to have the conditions of a garment. For it
ought to be made in fashion ; it ought not to be too
curious ; it ought to be shaped so as to set forth any
good making of the mind and hide any deformity ; and
above all, it ought not to be too strait or restrained for
exercise or motion. But this part of civil knowledge
hath been elegantly handled, and therefore I cannot
report it for deficient.

4. The wisdom touching negotiation or business hath
DenefjotUs not been hitherto collected into writing,
gerendis. to the great derogation of learning, and

the professors of learning. For from this root springeth
chiefly that note or opinion, which by us is expressed
in adage to this effect, that there is no great concur
rence between learning and wisdom. For of the three
wisdoms which we have set down to pertain to civil
life, for wisdom of behaviour, it is by learned men for
the most part despised, as an inferior to virtue and an
enemy to meditation ; for wisdom of government, they
acquit themselves well when they are called to it, but
that happeneth to few ; but for the wisdom of business,
wherein man's life is most conversant, there be no books
of it, except some few scattered advertisements, that
have no proportion to the magnitude of this subject.
For if books were written of this as the other, I doubt
not but learned men with mean experience, would far
excel men of long experience without learning, and
outshoot them in their own bow.

5. Neither needeth it at all to be doubted, that this
knowledge should be so variable as it falleth not under
precept ; for it is much less infinite than science of
government, which we see is laboured and in some part
reduced. Of this wisdom it seemeth some of the ancient

THE SECOND BOOK 193

Romans in the saddest and wisest times were professors ;
for Cicero reporteth, that it was then in use for senators
that had name and opinion for general wise men, as
Coruncanius, Curius, Laelius, and many others, to walk
at certain hours in the Place, and to give audience to
those that would use their advice ; and that the par
ticular citizens would resort unto them, and consult
with them of the marriage of a daughter, or of the em
ploying of a son, or of a purchase or bargain, or of an
accusation, and every other occasion incident to man's
life. So as there is a wisdom of counsel and advice even
in private causes, arising out of an universal insight into
the affairs of the world ; which is used indeed upon
particular cases propounded, but gathered by general
observation of cases of like nature. For so we see in
• the book which Q. Cicero writeth to his brother, De
I petitione consulatus (being the only book of business
j that I know written by the ancients), although it con-
i cerned a particular action then on foot, yet the sub
stance thereof consisteth of many wise and politic
axioms, which contain not a temporary, but a perpetual
direction in the case of popular elections. But chiefly
we may see in those aphorisms, which have place
amongst divine writings, composed by Salomon the king,
of whom the scriptures testify that his heart was as the
sands of the sea, encompassing the world and all twor Idly
matters, we see, I say, not a few profound and excellent
cautions, precepts, positions, extending to much variety
of occasions ; whereupon we will stay a while, offering
to consideration some number of examples.

6. ' Sed et cunctis sermonibus qui dicuntur ne accom-
modes aurem tuam, ne forte audias servum tuum male-
dicentem tibi.' Here is commended the provident stay
of inquiry of that which we would be loath to find : as it
was judged great wisdom in Pompeius Magnus that he
burned Sertorius' papers unperused.

* Vir sapiens, si cum stulto contenderit, sive irascatur,
Jive rideat, non inveniet requiem.' Here is described
bhe great disadvantage which a wise man hath in under-
baking a lighter person than himself ; which is such an
H

194 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

engagement as, whether a man turn the matter to jest,
or turn it to heat, or howsoever he change copy, he can
no ways quit himself well of it.

* Qui delicate a pueritia nutrit servum suum, postea
sentiet eum contumacem.' Here is signified, that if
a man begin too high a pitch in his favours, it doth
commonly end in unkindness and unthankfulness.

' Vidisti virum velocem in opere suo ? coram regibus
stabit, nee erit inter ignobiles.' Here is observed, that
of all virtues for rising to honour, quickness of despatch
is the best ; for superiors many times love not to have
those they employ too deep or too sufficient, but ready
and diligent.

' Vidi cunctos viventes qui ambulant sub sole, cum
adolescente secundo qui consurgit pro eo.' Here is ex
pressed that which was noted by Sylla first, and after
him by Tiberius ; * Plures adorant solem orientem quam
occidentem vel meridianum.'

* Si spiritus potestatem habentis ascendent super te,
locum tuum ne dimiseris ; quia curatio faciet cessare
peccata maxima.' Here caution is given, that upon
displeasure, retiring is of all courses the unfittest ; for
a man leaveth things at worst, and depriveth himself
of means to make them better.

* Erat civitas parva, et pauci in ea viri : venit contra
earn rex magnus, et vallavit earn, instruxitque muni-
tiones per gyrum, et perfecta est obsidio ; inventusque
est in ea vir pauper et sapiens, et liberavit earn per
sapientiam suam ; et nullus deinceps recordatus est
hominis illius pauperis.' Here the corruption of states
is set forth, that esteem not virtue or merit longer than
they have use of it.

' Mollis responsio frangit iram.' Here is noted that
silence or rough answer exasperateth ; but an answer
present and temperate pacifieth.

* Iter pigrorum quasi sepes spinarum.' Here is lively
represented how laborious sloth proveth in the end:
for when things are deferred till the last instant, and
nothing prepared beforehand, every step findeth a brier
or impediment, which catcheth or stoppeth.

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THE SECOND BOOK 195

' Melior est finis orationis quam principium.' Here
is taxed the vanity of formal speakers, that study more
about prefaces and inducements, than upon the con
clusions and issues of speech.

* Qui cognoscit in judicio faciem, non bene facit; iste
et pro buccella panis deseret veritatem.' Here is noted,
that a judge were better be a briber than a respecter of
persons ; for a corrupt judge offendeth not so lightly
as a facile.

' Vir pauper calumnians pauperes similis est imbri
vehement!, in quo paratur fames.' Here is expressed
the extremity of necessitous extortions, figured in the
ancient fable of the full and the hungry horseleech.

' Fons turbatus pede, et vena corrupta, est Justus
cadens coram impio.' Here is noted, that one judicial
and exemplar iniquity in the face of the world doth
trouble the fountains of justice more than many par
ticular injuries passed over by connivance.

' Qui subtrahit aliquid a patre et a matre, et dicit hoo
non esse peccatum, particeps est homicidii.' Here is
noted, that whereas men in wronging their best friends
use to extenuate their fault, as if they mought presume
or be bold upon them, it doth contrariwise indeed aggra
vate their fault, and turneth it from injury to impiety.

' Noli esse amicus homini iracundo, nee ambulato
cum homine furioso.' Here caution is given, that in the
election of our friends we do principally avoid those
which are impatient, as those that will espouse us to
many factions and quarrels.

* Qui conturbat domum suam, possidebit ventum.'
Here is noted, that in domestical separations and
breaches men do promise to themselves quieting of their
mind and contentment ; but still they are deceived of
their expectation, and it turneth to wind.

' Filius sapiens laetificat patrem : films vero stultug
moestitia est matri suae.' Here is distinguished, that
fathers have most comfort of the good proof of their
sons ; but mothers have most discomfort of their ill
proof, because women have little discerning of virtue,
but of fortune.

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196 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

' Qui celat delictum, quaerit amicitiam ; sed qui
altero sermone repetit, separat foederatos.' Here cau
tion is given, that reconcilement is better managed by
an amnesty, and passing over that which is past, than
by apologies and excusations.

' In omni opere bono erit abundantia ; ubi autem
verba sunt plurima, ibi frequenter egestas.' Here is
noted, that words and discourse aboundeth most where
there is idleness and want.

' Primus in sua causa Justus ; sed venit altera pars, et
inquiret in eum.' Here is observed, that in all causes
the first tale possesseth much ; in sort, that the preju
dice thereby wrought will be hardly removed, except
some abuse or falsity in the information be detected.

' Verba bilinguis quasi simplicia, et ipsa perveniunt
ad interiora ventris.' Here is distinguished, that flat
tery and insinuation, which seemeth set and artificial,
sinketh not far ; but that entereth deep which hath
show of nature, liberty, and simplicity.

' Qui erudit derisorem, ipse sibi injuriam facit ; et
qui arguit impium, sibi maculum generat. Here caution
is given how we tender reprehension to arrogant and
scornful natures, whose manner is to esteem it for
contumely, and accordingly to return it.

' Da sapienti occasionem, et addetur ei sapientia.'
Here is distinguished the wisdom brought into habit,
and that which is but verbal and swimming only in
conceit ; for the one upon the occasion presented is
quickened and redoubled, the other is amazed and
confused.

' Quomodo in aquis resplendent vultus prospicientium,
sic corda hominum manifesta sunt prudentibus.' Here
the mind of a wise man is compared to a glass, wherein
the images of all diversity of natures and customs are
represented ; from which representation proceedeth
that application,

Qui sapit, innumeris moribus aptus erit.

7. Thus have I stayed somewhat longer upon these
sentences politic of Salomon than is agreeable to the

THE SECOND BOOK 197

proportion of an example ; led with a desire to give
authority to this part of knowledge, which I noted as
deficient, by so excellent a precedent ; and have also
attended them with brief observations, such as to my
understanding offer no violence to the sense, though
I know they may be applied to a more divine use : but
it is allowed, even in divinity, that some interpretations,
yea, and some writings, have more of the eagle than
others ; but taking them as instructions for life, they
mought have received large discourse, if I would have
broken them and illustrated them by deducements and
examples.

8. Neither was this in use only with the Hebrews,
but it is generally to be found in the wisdom of the
more ancient times ; that as men found out any ob
servation that they thought was good for life, they
would gather it and express it in parable or aphorism
or fable. But for fables, they were vicegerents and
supplies where examples failed : now that the times
abound with history, the aim is better when the mark
is alive. And therefore the form of writing which of
all others is fittest for this variable argument of nego
tiation and occasions is that which Machiavel chose
wisely and aptly for government ; namely, discourse
upon histories or examples. For knowledge drawn
freshly and in our view out of particulars, knoweth the
way best to particulars again. And it hath much
greater life for practice when the discourse attendeth
upon the example, than when the example attendeth
upon the discourse. For this is no point of order, as it
seemeth at first, but of substance. For when the ex
ample is the ground, being set down in an history at
large, it is set down with all circumstances, which may
sometimes control the discourse thereupon made, and
sometimes supply it, as a very pattern for action ;
whereas the examples alleged for the discourse's sake
are cited succinctly, and without particularity, and carry
a servile aspect towards the discourse which they are
brought in to make good.

9. But this difference is not amiss to be remembered.

198 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

that as history of times is the best ground for discourse
of government, such as Machiavel handleth, so histories
of lives is the most proper for discourse of business,
because it is more conversant in private actions. Nay,
there is a ground of discourse for this purpose fitter
than them both, which is discourse upon letters, such
as are wise and weighty, as many are of Cicero ad Atti-
cum, and others. For letters have a great and more
particular representation of business than either chron
icles or lives. Thus have we spoken both of the matter
and form of this part of civil knowledge, touching nego
tiation, which we note to be deficient.

10. But yet there is another part of this part, which
differeth as much from that whereof we have spoken
as sapere and sibi sapere, the one moving as it were to
the circumference, the other to the centre. For there
is a wisdom of counsel, and again there is a wisdom of
pressing a man's own fortune ; and they do sometimes
meet, and often sever For many are wise in their own
ways that are weak for government or counsels ; like
ants, which is a wise creature for itself, but very hurtful
for the garden. This wisdom the Romans did take
much knowledge of : ' Nam pol sapiens ' (saith the
comical poet) ' fingit fortunam sibi ' ; and it grew to
an adage, ' Faber quisque fortunae propriae ' ; and
Livy attributed it to Cato the first, ' In hoc viro tanta
vis animi et ingenii inerat, ut quocunque loco natua
esset sibi ipse fortunam facturus videretur.'

11. This conceit or position, if it be too much declared
and professed, hath been thought a thing impolitic and
unlucky, as was observed in Timotheus the Athenian,
who, having done many great services to the estate in
his government, and giving an account thereof to the
people as the manner was, did conclude every particular
with this clause, * And in this fortune had no part.'
And it came so to pass, that he never prospered hi any
thing he took in hand afterward. For this is too high
and too arrogant, savouring of that which Ezekiel saith
of Pharaoh, ' Dicis, Fluvius eat meus et ego feci memet
ipsum ' : or of that which another prophet speaketh

THE SECOND BOOK 199

that men offer sacrifices to their nets and snares ; and
that which the poet expresseth,

Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro,
Nunc adsint !

For these confidences were ever unhallowed, and un
blessed : and therefore those that were great politiques
indeed ever ascribed their successes to their felicity, and
not to their skill or virtue. For so Sylla surnamed him
self Felix, not Magnus. So Caesar said to the master
of the ship, ' Caesarem portas et fortunam ejus.'

12. But yet nevertheless these positions, ' Faber quis-
que fortunae suae ' : ' Sapiens dominabitur astris :
Invia virtuti nulla est via,' and the like, being taken
and used as spurs to industry, and not as stirrups to
insolency, rather for resolution than for the presump
tion or outward declaration, have been ever thought
sound and good ; and are no question imprinted in the
greatest minds, who are so sensible of this opinion, as
they can scarce contain it within. As we see in Augus
tus Caesar (who was rather diverse from his uncle than
inferior in virtue), how when he died he desired his
friends about him to give him a plaudite, as if he were
conscient to himself that he had played his part well
upon the stage. This part of knowledge we do report
also as deficient : not but that it is practised too much,
but it hath not been reduced to writing. And therefore
lest it should seem to any that it is not comprehensible
by axiom, it is requisite, as we did in the Faierfor.
former, that we set down some heads or tunae, sive de
passages of it.

13. Wherein it may appear at the first a new and un
wonted argument to teach men how to raise and make
their fortune ; a doctrine wherein every man perchance
will be ready to yield himself a disciple, till he see the
difficulty : for fortune layeth as heavy impositions as
virtue ; and it is as hard and severe a thing to be a true
politique, as to be truly moral. But the handling
hereof concerneth learning greatly, both in honour and
in substance. In honour, because pragmatical men

200 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

may not go away with an opinion that learning is like
a lark, that can mount, and sing, and please herself, and
nothing else ; but may know that she holdeth as well
of the hawk, that can soar aloft, and can also descend
and strike upon the prey. In substance, because it is
the perfect law of inquiry of truth, that nothing be in
the globe of matter, which should not be likewise in
the globe of crystal, or form ; that is, that there be
not any thing in being and action, which should not be
drawn and collected into contemplation and doctrine.
Neither doth learning admire or esteem of this archi
tecture of fortune, otherwise than as of an inferior work :
for no man's fortune can be an end worthy of his being ;
and many times the worthiest men do abandon their
fortune willingly for better respects : but nevertheless
fortune as an organ of virtue and merit deserveth the
consideration.

14. First therefore the precept which I conceive to
be most summary towards the prevailing in fortune,
is to obtain that window which Momus did require :
who seeing in the frame of man's heart such angles and
recesses, found fault there was not a window to look
into them ; that is, to procure good informations of
particulars touching persons, their natures, their desires
and ends, their customs and fashions, their helps and
advantages, and whereby they chiefly stand : so again
their weaknesses and disadvantages, and where they
lie most open and obnoxious ; their friends, factions,
dependences ; and again their opposites, enviers, com
petitors, their moods and times, ' Sola viri molles aditus
et tempora noras ' ; their principles, rules, and ob
servations, and the like : and this not only of persons,
but of actions ; what are on foot from time to time,
and how they are conducted, favoured, opposed, and
how they import, and the like. For the knowledge of
present actions is not only material in itself, but with
out it also the knowledge of persons is very erroneous :
for men change with the actions ; and whiles they are
in pursuit they are one, and when they return to their
nature they are another. These informations of par-

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THE SECOND BOOK 201

ticulars, touching persons and actions, are as the minor
propositions in every active syllogism ; for no excel
lency of observations (which are as the major propo
sitions) can suffice to ground a conclusion, if there be
error and mistaking in the minors.

15. That this knowledge is possible, Salomon is our
surety, who saith, ' Consiliurn hi corde viri tanquam
aqua profunda ; sed vir prudens exhauriet illud.' And
although the knowledge itself falleth not under precept,
because it is of individuals, yet the instructions for the
obtaining of it may.

16. We will begin therefore with this precept, accord
ing to the ancient opinion, that the sinews of wisdom
are slowness of belief and distrust ; that more trust be
given to countenances and deeds than to words ; and in
words rather to sudden passages and surprised words
than to set and purposed words. Neither let that be
feared which is said, ' Fronti nulla fides,' which is meant
of a general outward behaviour, and not of the private
and subtile motions and labours of the countenance and
gesture ; which, as Q. Cicero elegantly saith, is 'Animi
janua, the gate of the mind.' None more close than
Tiberius, and yet Tacitus saith of Gallus, * Etenim vultu
offensionern conjectaverat.' So again, noting the differ
ing character and manner of his commending Germanicus
and Drusus in the senate, he saith, touching his fashion
wherein he carried his speech of Germanicus, thus ;
* Magis in speciem adornatis verbis, quam ut penitus
eentire crederetur ' : but of Drusus thus ; * Paucioribus
sed intentior, et fida oratione ' : and in another place,
speaking of his character of speech, when he did any
thing that was gracious and popular, he saith, that in
other things he was ' velut eluctantium verborum ' ;
but then again, ' solutius loquebatur quando subveniret.'
So that there is no such artificer of dissimulation, nor
no such commanded countenance (vultus jussus), that
can sever from a feigned tale some of these fashions,
either a more slight and careless fashion, or more set
and formal, or more tedious and wandering, or coming
from a man more drily and hardly.

202 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

17. Neither are deeds such assured pledges, as that
they may be trusted without a judicious consideration
of their magnitude and nature : * Fraus sibi in parvis
fidem praestruit ut ma j ore emolumento fallat ' ; and
the Italian thinketh himself upon the point to be bought
and sold, when he is better used than he was wont to
be without manifest cause. For Email favours, they do
but lull men asleep, both as to caution and as to in
dustry; and are, as Demosthenes calleth them, 'Ali-
menta socordiae.' So again we see how false the
nature of some deeds are, in that particular which
Mutianus practised upon Antonius Primus, upon that
hollow and unfaithful reconcilement which was made
between them ; whereupon Mutianus advanced many
of the friends of Antonius, ' Simul amicis ejus prae-
fecturas et tribunatus largitur ' : wherein, under pre
tence to strengthen him, he did desolate him, and won
from him his dependences.

18. As for words, though they be like waters to phy
sicians, full of flattery and uncertainty, yet they are
not to be despised, specially with the advantage of
passion and affection. For so we see Tiberius, upon
a stinging and incensing speech of Agrippina, came a
step forth of his dissimulation, when he said, ' You are
hurt because you do not reign ; ' of which Tacitus saith,
* Audita haec raram occulti pectoris vocem elicuere ;
correptamque Graeco versu admonuit, ideo laedi quia
non regnaret.' And therefore the poet doth elegantly
call passions tortures, that urge men to confess their
secrets :

Vino tortus et ira.

And experience showeth, there are few men so true
to themselves and so settled, but that, sometimes upon
heat, sometimes upon bravery, sometimes upon kind
ness, sometimes upon trouble of mind and weakness,
they open themselves ; specially if they be put to ifc
with a counter-dissimulation, according to the proverb
of Spain, Di mentira, y sacaras verdad : * Tell a lie
and find a truth.'

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19. As for the knowing of men which is at second
hand from reports ; men's weaknesses and faults are
best known from their enemies, their virtues and abilities
from their friends, their customs and times from their
servants, their conceits and opinions from their familiar
friends, with whom they discourse most. General fame
is light, and the opinions conceived by superiors or
equals are deceitful ; for to such men are more masked :
' Verior fama e domesticis emanat.'

20. But the soundest disclosing and expounding of
men is by their natures and ends, wherein the weakest
sort of men are best interpreted by their natures, and
the wisest by their ends. For it was both pleasantly
and wisely said (though I think very untruly) by a nuncio
of the pope, returning from a certain nation where he
served as lidger ; whose opinion being asked touching
the appointment of one to go in his place, he wished
that in any case they did not send one that was too
wise ; because no very wise man would ever imagine
what they in that country were like to do. And cer
tainly it is an error frequent for men to shoot over, and
to suppose deeper ends, and more compass reaches than
are : the Italian proverb being elegant, and for the
most part true :

Di danari, di senno, e di fede,
C'6 ne manco che non credi :

There is commonly less money, less wisdom, and less
good faith than men do account upon.

21. But princes, upon a far other reason, are best
interpreted by their natures, and private persons by
their ends. For princes being at the top of human
desires, they have for the most part no particular ends
whereto they aspire, by distance from which a man
mought take measure and scale of the rest of their
actions and desires ; which is one of the causes that
maketh their hearts more inscrutable. Neither is it
sufficient to inform ourselves in men's ends and natures
of the variety of them only, but also of the predomi
nancy, what humour reigneth most, and what end is

204 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

principally sought. For so we see, when Tigellinus saw
himself outstripped by Petronius Turpilianus in Nero's
humours of pleasures, ' metus ejus rimatur,' he wrought
upon Nero's fears, whereby he brake the other's neck.

22. But to all this part of inquiry the most com
pendious way resteth in three things : the first, to have
general acquaintance and inwardness with those which
have general acquaintance and look most into the world ;
and specially according to the diversity of business, and
the diversity of persons, to have privacy and conver
sation with some one friend at least which is perfect
and well intelligenced in every several kind. The
second is to keep a good mediocrity in liberty of speech
and secrecy ; in most things liberty : secrecy where
it importeth ; for liberty of speech inviteth and pro-
voketh liberty to be used again, and so bringeth much
to a man's knowledge ; and secrecy on the other side
induceth trust and inwardness. The last is the re
ducing of a man's self to this watchful and serene habit,
as to make account and purpose, in every conference
and action, as well to observe as to act. For as Epic-
tetus would have a philosopher in every particular
action to say to himself, ' Et hoc volo, et etiam insti-
tutum servare ' ; so a politic man in everything should
say to himself, ' Et hoc volo, ac etiam aliquid addiscere.'
I have stayed the longer upon this precept of obtaining
good information, because it is a main part by itself,
which answereth to all the rest. But, above all things,
caution must be taken that men have a good stay and
hold of themselves, and that this much knowing do not
draw on much meddling ; for nothing is more unfor
tunate than light and rash intermeddling in many
matters. So that this variety of knowledge tendeth
in conclusion but only to this, to make a better and
freer choice of those actions which may concern us, and
to conduct them with the less error and the more
dexterity.

23. The second precept concerning this knowledge is,
for men to take good information touching their own
person, and well to understand themselves : knowing

THE SECOND BOOK 205

that, as Saint James saith, though men look oft in
t glass, yet they do suddenly forget themselves ; wherein
as the divine glass is the word of God, so the politic
glass is the state of the world, or times wherein we live,
in the which we are to behold ourselves.

24. For men ought to take an unpartial view of their
own abilities and virtues ; and again of their wants and
impediments ; accounting these with the most, and
those other with the least ; and from this view and
examination to frame the considerations following.

25. First, to consider how the constitution of their
nature sorteth with the general state of the times ; which
if they find agreeable and fit, then in all things to give
themselves more scope and liberty ; but if differing and
dissonant, then in the whole course of their life to be
more close retired, and reserved : as we see in Tiberius,
who was never seen at a play, and came not into the
Senate in twelve of his last years ; whereas Augustus
Caesar lived ever in men's eyes, which Tacitus ob-
serveth, * alia Tiberio morum via.'

26. Secondly, to consider how their nature sorteth
with professions and courses of life, and accordingly to
make election, if they be free ; and, if engaged, to make
the departure at the first opportunity : as we see was
done by Duke Valentine, that was designed by his
father to a sacerdotal profession, but quitted it soon
after in regard of his parts and inclination ; being such,
nevertheless, as a man cannot tell well whether they
were worse for a prince or for a priest.

27. Thirdly, to consider how they sort with those
whom they are like to have competitors and concur
rents ; and to take that course wherein there is most
solitude, and themselves like to be most eminent : as
Caesar Julius did, who at first was an orator or pleader ;
but when he saw the excellency of Cicero, Hortensius,
Catulus, and others, for eloquence, and saw there was
no man of reputation for the wars but Pompeius, upon
whom the state was forced to rely, he forsook his course
begun toward a civil and popular greatness, and trans
ferred his designs to a martial greatness.

206 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

28. Fourthly, in the choice of their friends and de
pendencies, to proceed according to the composition of
their own nature : as we may see in Caesar, all whose
friends and followers were men active and effectual, but
not solemn, or of reputation.

29. Fifthly, to take special heed how they guide
themselves by examples, in thinking they can do as
they see others do ; whereas perhaps their natures and
carriages are far differing. In which error it seemeth
Pompey was, of whom Cicero saith, that he was wont
often to say, * Sylla potuit, ego non potero ? ' Wherein
he was much abused, the natures and proceedings of
himself and his example being the unlikest in the world ;
the one being fierce, violent, and pressing the fact ; the
other solemn, and full of majesty and circumstance,
and therefore the less effectual.

But this precept touching the politic knowledge of
ourselves hath many other branches, whereupon we
cannot insist.

30. Next to the well understanding and discerning of
a man's self, there followeth the well opening and reveal
ing a man's self ; wherein we see nothing more usual
than for the more able man to make the less show. For
there is a great advantage in the well setting forth of
a man's virtues, fortunes, merits ; and again, in the
artificial covering of a man's weaknesses, defects, dis
graces ; staying upon the one, sliding from the other ;
cherishing the one by circumstances, gracing the other
by exposition, and the like. Wherein we see what
Tacitus saith of Mutianus, who was the greatest poli-
tique of his time, ' Omnium quae dixerat feceratque
arte quadam ostentator ' : which requireth indeed some
art, lest it turn tedious and arrogant ; but yet so, as
ostentation (though it be to the first degree of vanity)
seemeth to me rather a vice in manners than in policy :
for as it is said, ' Audacter calumniare, semper aliquid
haeret ' : so, except it be in a ridiculous degree of de
formity, * Audacter te vendita, semper aliquid haeret.'
For it will stick with the more ignorant and inferior sort
of men, though men of wisdom and rank do smile at it

THE SECOND BOOK 207

fcnd despise it ; and yet the authority won with many
doth countervail the disdain of a few. But if it be
carried with decency and government, as with a natural,
pleasant, and ingenious fashion ; or at times when it is
mixed with some peril and unsafe ty (as in military
persons) ; or at times when others are most envied ;
or vith easy and careless passage to it and from it,
without dwelling too long, or being too serious ; or
with an equal freedom of taxing a man's self, as well
as gracing himself ; or by occasion of repelling or put
ting down others' injury or insolency ; it doth greatly
add to reputation : and surely not a few solid natures,
that want this ventosity and cannot sail in the height
of the winds, are not without some prejudice and dis
advantage by their moderation.

31. But for these flourishes and enhancements of
virtue, as they are not perchance unnecessary, so it is
at least necessary that virtue be not disvalued and
imbased under the just price ; which is done in three
manners : by offering and obtruding a man's self ;
wherein men think he is rewarded, when he is accepted ;
by doing too much, which will not give that which is
well done leave to settle, and in the end induceth
satiety ; and by finding too soon the fruit of a man's
virtue, in commendation, applause, honour, favour ;
wherein if a man be pleased with a little, let him
hear what is truly said ; ' Cave ne insuetus rebus
majoribus videaris, si haec te res parva sicuti magna
delectat.'

32. But the covering of defects is of no less im
portance than the valuing of good parts ; which may be
done likewise in three manners, by caution, by colour,
and by confidence. Caution is when men do inge
niously and discreetly avoid to be put into those things
for which they are not proper : whereas contrariwise
bold and unquiet spirits will thrust themselves into
matters without difference, and so publish and proclaim
all their wants. Colour is when men make a way for
themselves to have a construction made of their faults
or wants, as proceeding from a better cause or intended

208 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING
for some other purpose. For of the one it is well said,
Saepe latet vitium proximitate boni,

and therefore whatsoever want a man hath, he must
see that he pretend the virtue that shadoweth it ; as
if he be dull, he must affect gravity ; if a coward, mild
ness ; and so the rest. For the second, a man must
frame some probable cause why he should not do his
best, and why he should dissemble his abilities ; and
for that purpose must use to dissemble those abilities
which are notorious in him, to give colour that his true
wants are but industries and dissimulations. For con
fidence, it is the last but the surest remedy ; namely,
to depress and seem to despise whatsoever a man cannot
attain ; observing the good principle of the mer
chants, who endeavour to raise the price of their own
commodities, and to beat down the price of others.
But there is a confidence that passeth this other ; which
is to face out a man's own defects, in seeming to con
ceive that he is best in those things wherein he is failing ;
and, to help that again, to seem on the other side that
he hath least opinion of himself in those things wherein
he is best : like as we shall see it commonly in poets,
that if they show their verses, and you except to any,
they will say, ' That that line cost them more labour
than any of the rest ' ; and presently will seem to
disable and suspect rather some other line, which they
know well enough to be the best in the number. But
above all, in this righting and helping of a man's
self in his own carriage, he must take heed he show not
himself dismantled and exposed to scorn and injury,
by too much dulceness, goodness, and facility of
nature ; but show some sparkles of liberty, spirit, and
edge. Which kind of fortified carriage, with a ready
rescussing of a man's self from scorns, is sometimes of
necessity imposed upon men by somewhat in their
person or fortune ; but it ever succeedeth with good
felicity.

33. Another precept of this knowledge is by all
possible endea four to frame the mind to be pliant and

THE SECOND BOOK 209

obedient to occasion ; for nothing hindereth men's
fortunes so much as this : * Idem manebat, neque idem
decebat,' men are where they were, when occasions
turn : and therefore to Cato, whom Livy maketh such
an architect of fortune, he addeth that he had versatile
inqenium. And thereof it cometh that these grave
solemn wits, which must be like themselves and cannot
make departures, have more dignity than felicity. But
in some it is nature to be somewhat viscous and in-
wrapped, and not easy to turn. In some it is a conceit
that is almost a nature, which is, that men can hardly
make themselves believe that they ought to change their
course, when they have found good by it in former
experience. For Machiavel noted wisely, how Fabius
Maximus would have been temporizing still, according
to his old bias, when the nature of the war was altered
and required hot pursuit. In some other it is want of
point and penetration in their judgement, that they
do not discern when things have a period, but come in
too late after the occasion ; as Demosthenes compareth
the people of Athens to country fellows, when they play
in a fence school, that if they have a blow, then they
remove their weapon to that ward, and not before. In
some other it is a loathness to leese labours passed, and
a conceit that they can bring about occasions to their
ply ; and yet in the end, when they see no other remedy,
then they come to it with disadvantage ; as Tarquinius,
that gave for the third part of Sibylla's books the treble
price, when he mought at first have had all three for
the simple. But from whatsoever root or cause this
restiveness of mind proceedeth, it is a thing most pre
judicial ; and nothing is more politic than to make the
wheels of our mind concentric and voluble with the
wheels of fortune.

34. Another precept of this knowledge, which hath
some affinity with that we last spake of, but with differ
ence, is that which is well expressed, ' Fatis accede
deisque,' that men do not only turn with the occasions,
but also run with the occasions, and not strain their
credit or strength to over-hard or extreme points ; but

210 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

choose in their actions that which is most passable :
for this will preserve men from foil, not occupy them
too much about one matter, win opinion of moderation,
please the most, and make a show of a perpetual felicity
in all they undertake ; which cannot but mightily in
crease reputation.

35. Another part of this knowledge seemeth to have
some repugnancy with the former two, but not as I
understand it ; and it is that which Demosthenes
uttereth in high terms ; * Et quemadmodum receptum
est, ut exercitum ducat imperator, sic et a cordatis viris
res ipsae ducendae ; ut quae ipsis videntur, ea gerantur,
et non ipsi eventus persequi cogantur.' For if we ob
serve we shall find two differing kinds of sufficiency in
managing of business : some can make use of occasions
aptly and dexterously, but plot little ; some can urge
and pursue their own plots well, but cannot accommo
date nor take in ; either of which is very unperfect with
out the other.

36. Another part of this knowledge is the observing
a good mediocrity in the declaring, or not declaring
a man's self : for although depth of secrecy, and making
way (' qualis est via navis in mari,' which the French
calleth sourdes menees, when men set things in work
without opening themselves at all), be sometimes both
prosperous and admirable ; yet many times ' dissimu-
latio errores parit, qui dissimulatorem ipsum illaqueant.'
And therefore we see the greatest politiques have in
a natural and free manner professed their desires, rather
than been reserved and disguised in them. For so we
see that Lucius Sylla made a kind of profession, ' that
he wished all men happy or unhappy, as they stood his
friends or enemies.' So Caesar, when he went first into
Gaul, made no scruple to profess * That he had rather
be first in a village than second at Borne.' So again,
as soon as he had begun the war, we see what Cicero
saith of him, ' Alter ' (meaning of Caesar) * non recusat,
sed quodammodo postulat, ut (ut est) sic appelletur
tyrannus.' So we may see in a letter of Cicero to
Atticus, that Augustus Caesar, in his very entrance into

THE SECOND BOOK 211

affairs, when he was a darling of the senate, yet in his
harangues to the people would swear, ' Ita parentis
honores consequi liceat ' (which was no less than the
tyranny), save that, to help it, he would stretch forth
his hand towards a statua of Caesar's that was erected
in the place : and men laughed, and wondered, and
said, Is it possible ? or, Did you ever hear the like ?
and yet thought he meant no hurt ; he did it so hand
somely and ingenuously. And all these were prosperous :
whereas Pompey, who tended to the same ends, but in
a more dark and dissembling manner, as Tacitus saith
of him, ' Occultior non melior,' wherein Sallust con-
curreth, ' Ore probo, animo inverecundo,' made it his
design, by infinite secret engines, to cast the state into
an absolute anarchy and confusion, that the state
mought cast itself into his arms for necessity and pro
tection, and so the sovereign power be put upon him,
and he never seen in it : and when he had brought it
(as he thought) to that point, when he was chosen consul
alone, as never any was, yet he could make no great
matter of it, because men understood him not ; but
was fain in the end to go the beaten track of getting
arms into his hands, by colour of the doubt of Caesar's
designs : so tedious, casual, and unfortunate are these
deep dissimulations : whereof it seemeth Tacitus made
this judgement, that they were a cunning of an inferior
form in regard of true policy ; attributing the one to
Augustus, the other to Tiberius ; where, speaking of
Livia, he saith, ' Et cum artibus mariti simulatione
filii bene composita ' : for surely the continual habit of
dissimulation is but a weak and sluggish cunning, and
not greatly politic.

37. Another precept of this architecture of fortune
is to accustom our minds to judge of the proportion or
value of things, as they conduce and are material to
our particular ends : and that to do substantially, and
not superficially. For we shall find the logical part
(as I may term it) of some men's minds good, but the
mathematical part erroneous ; that is, they can well
judge of consequences, but not of proportions and com-

212 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

parison, preferring things of show and sense before
things of substance and effect. So some fall in love
with access to princes, others with popular fame and
applause, supposing they are things of great purchase,
when in many cases they are but matter of envy, peril,
and impediment. So some measure things according to
the labour and difficulty or assiduity which are spent
about them ; and think, if they be ever moving, that
they must needs advance and proceed ; as Caesar saith
in a despising manner of Cato the second, when he de-
scribeth how laborious and indefatigable he was to no
great purpose, ' Haec omnia magno studio agebat.' So
in most things men are ready to abuse themselves in
thinking the greatest means to be best, when it should
be the fittest.

38. As for the true marshalling of men's pursuits
towards their fortune, as they are more or less material,
I hold them to stand thus. First the< amendment of
their own minds. For the remove of the impediments
of the mind will sooner clear the passages of fortune,
than the obtaining fortune will remove the impediments
of the mind. In the second place I set down wealth
and means ; which I know most men would have placed
first, because of the general use which it beareth towards
all variety of occasions. But that opinion I may con
demn with like reason as Machiavel doth that other,
that moneys were the sinews of the wars ; whereas
(saith he) the true sinews of the wars are the sinews of
men's arms, that is, a valiant, populous, and military
nation : and he voucheth aptly the authority of Solon,
who, when Croesus showed him his treasury of gold, said
to him, that if another came that had better iron, he
would be master of his gold. In like manner it may be
truly affirmed, that it is not moneys that are the sinews
of fortune, but it is the sinews and steel of men's minds,
wit, courage, audacity, resolution, temper, industry,
and the like. In the third place I set down reputation,
because of the peremptory tides and currents it hath ;
which, if they be not taken in their due time, are seldom
recovered, it being extreme hard to play an after game

THE SECOND BOOK 213

of reputation. And lastly I place honour, which is
more easily won by any of the other three, much more
by all, than any of them can be purchased by honour.
To conclude this precept, as there is order and priority
in matter, so is there in time, the preposterous placing
whereof is one of the commonest errors : while men fly
to their ends when they should intend their beginnings,
and do not take things in order of time as they come
on, but marshal them according to greatness and not
according to instance ; not observing the good precept,
* Quod nunc ins tat agamus.'

39. Another precept of this knowledge is not to em
brace any matters which do occupy too great a quantity
of time, but to have that sounding in a man's ears,
' Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus ' : and that
is the cause why those which take their course of rising
by professions of burden, as lawyers, orators, painful
divines, and the like, are not commonly so politic for
their own fortune, otherwise than in their ordinary
way, because they want time to learn particulars, to
wait occasions, and to devise plots.

40. Another precept of this knowledge is to imitate
nature which doth nothing in vain ; which surely a man
may do if he do well interlace his business, and bend
not his mind too much upon that which he principally
intendeth. For a man ought in every particular action
so to carry the motions of his mind, and so to have one
thing under another, as if he cannot have that he
seeketh in the best degree, yet to have it in a second,
or so in a third ; and if he can have no part of that
which he purposed, yet to turn the use of it to somewhat
else ; and if he cannot make anything of it for the
present, yet to make it as a seed of somewhat in time to
come ; and if he can contrive no effect or substance
from it, yet to win some good opinion by it, or the like.
So that he should exact an account of himself of every
action, to reap somewhat, and not to stand amazed
and confused if he fail of that he chiefly meant : for
nothing is more impolitic than to mind actions wholly
one by one. For he that doth so leeseth infinite occa-

214 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

sions which intervene, and are many times more proper
and propitious for somewhat that he shall need after
wards, than for that which he urgeth for the present ;
and therefore men must be perfect in that rule, ' Haeo
oportet facere, et ilia non omittere.'

41. Another precept of this knowledge is, not to
engage a man's self peremptorily in any thing, though
it seem not liable to accident ; but ever to have a win
dow to fly out at, or a way to retire : following the
wisdom in the ancient fable of the two frogs, which
consulted when their plash was dry whither they should
go ; and the one moved to go down into a pit, because
it was not likely the water would dry there ; but the
other answered, True, but if it do, how shall we get out
again ?

42. Another precept of this knowledge is that ancient
precept of Bias, construed not to any point of perfidious-
ness, but only to caution and moderation, ' Et ama
tanquam inimicus futurus et odi tanquam amaturus.'
For it utterly betrayeth all utility for men to embark
themselves too far into unfortunate friendships, trouble
some spleens, and childish and humorous envies or emu
lations.

43. But I continue this beyond the measure of an
example ; led, because I would not have such know
ledges, which I note as deficient, to be thought things
imaginative or in the air, or an observation or two
much made of, but things of bulk and mass, whereof
an end is hardlier made than a beginning. It must
be likewise conceived, that in these points which I men
tion and set down, they are far from complete tractates
of them, but only as small pieces for patterns. And
lastly, no man I suppose will think that I mean for
tunes are not obtained without all this ado ; for I know
they come tumbling into some men's laps ; and a num
ber obtain good fortunes by diligence in a plain way,
little intermeddling, and keeping themselves from gross
errors.

44. But as Cicero, when he setteth down an idea of
a perfect orator, doth not mean that every pleader

THE SECOND BOOK 215

should be such ; and so likewise, when a prince or
a courtier hath been described by such as have handled
those subjects, the mould hath used to be made accord
ing to the perfection of the art, and not according to
common practice : so I understand it, that it ought
to be done in the description of a politic man, I mean
politic for his own fortune.

45. But it must be remembered all this while, that
the precepts which we have set down are of that kind
which may be counted and called Bonae Artes. As for
evil arts, if a man would set down for himself that prin
ciple of Machiavel, ' That a man seek not to attain
virtue itself, but the appearance only thereof ; because
the credit of virtue is a help, but the use of it is cumber ':
or that other of his principles, * That he presuppose,
that men are not fitly to be wrought otherwise but by
fear ; and therefore that he seek to have every man
obnoxious, low, and in strait,' which the Italians call
seminar spine, to sow thorns : or that other principle,
contained in the verse which Cicero citeth, ' Cadant
amici, dummodo inimici intercidant,' as the triumvirs,
which sold every one to other the lives of their friends
for the deaths of their enemies : or that other protesta
tion of L. Catilina, to set on fire and trouble states,
to the end to fish in droumy waters, and to unwrap
their fortunes, ' Ego si quid in fortunis meis excitatum,
sit incendium, id non aqua sed ruina restinguam ' : or
that other principle of Lysander, * That children are to
be deceived with comfits, and men with oaths ' : and
the like evil and corrupt positions, whereof (as in all
things) there are more in number than of the good :
certainly with these dispensations from the laws of
charity and integrity, the pressing of a man's fortune
may be more hasty and compendious. But it is in life
as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the
foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

46. But men, if they be in their own power, and do
bear and sustain themselves, and be not carried away
with a whirlwind or tempest of ambition, ought in the
pursuit of their own fortune to set before their eyes not

216 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

only that general map of the world, ' That all things
are vanity and vexation of spirit,' but many other
more particular cards and directions : chiefly that,
that being without well-being is a curse, and the greater
being the greater curse ; and that all virtue is most
rewarded, and all wickedness most punished in itself :
according as the poet saith excellently :

Quae vobis, quae digna, viri, pro laudibus istis
Praemia posse rear solvi ? pulcherrima primum
Dii moresque dabunt vestri.

And so of the contrary. And secondly they ought to
look up to the eternal providence and divine judgement,
which often subverteth the wisdom of evil plots and
imaginations, according to that scripture, * He hath
conceived mischief, and shall bring forth a vain thing.*
And although men should refrain themselves from
injury and evil arts, yet this incessant and Sabbathless
pursuit of a man's fortune leaveth not tribute which
we owe to God of our time ; who (we see) demandeth
a tenth of our substance, and a seventh, which is more
strict, of our time : and it is to small purpose to have
an erected face towards heaven, and a perpetual grovel
ing spirit upon earth, eating dust as doth the serpent,
* Atque affigit humo divinae particulam aurae.' And
if any man flatter himself that he will employ his for
tune well, though he should obtain it ill, as was said
concerning Augustus Caesar, and after of Septimius
Severus, ' That either they should never have been
born, or else they should never have died,' they did so
much mischief in the pursuit and ascent of their great
ness, and so much good when they were established ;
yet these compensations and satisfactions are good to
be used, but never good to be purposed. And lastly,
it is not amiss for men in their race toward their fortune,
to cool themselves a little with that conceit which is
elegantly expressed by the Emperor Charles the Fifth,
in his instructions to the king his son, ' That fortune
hath somewhat of the nature of a woman, that if she
be too much wooed she is the farther off.' But this

THE SECOND BOOK 217

last is but a remedy for those whose tastes are corrupted :
let men rather build upon that foundation which is as
a corner-stone of divinity and philosophy, wherein they
join close, namely that same Primum quaerite. For
divinity saith, ' Primum quaerite regnum Dei, et ista
omnia adiicientur vobis ' : and philosophy saith, ' Pri
mum quaerite bona animi ; caetera aut aderunt, aut
non oberunt.' And although the human foundation
hath somewhat of the sands, as we see in M. Brutus,
when he brake forth into that speech,

Te colui (Virtus) ut rem ; ast tu nomen inane es;

yet the divine foundation is upon the rock. But this
may serve for a taste of that knowledge which I noted
as deficient.

47. Concerning government, it is a part of knowledge
secret and retired in both these respects in which things
are deemed secret ; for some things are secret because
they are hard to know, and some because they are not
fit to utter. We see all governments are obscure and
invisible :

Totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miseet.

Such is the description of governments. We see the
government of God over the world is hidden, insomuch
as it seemeth to participate of much irregularity and
confusion. The government of the soul in moving the
body is inward and profound, and the passages thereof
hardly to be reduced to demonstration. Again the
wisdom of antiquity (the shadows whereof are in the
poets) in the description of torments and pains, next
unto the crime of rebellion, which was the giants'
offence, doth detest the offence of futility, as in Sisyphus
and Tantalus. But this was meant of particulars :
nevertheless even unto the general rules and discourses
of policy and government there is due a reverent and
reserved handling.

48. But contrariwise in the governors towards the
governed, all things ought as far as the frailty of man

218 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

permitteth to be manifest and revealed. For so it is
expressed in the scriptures touching the government of
God, that this globe, which seemeth to us a dark and
shady body, is in the view of God as crystal : * Et in
conspectu sedis tanquam mare vitreum simile crystallo.'
So unto princes and states, and specially towards wise
senates and councils, the natures and dispositions of
the people, their conditions and necessities, their fac
tions and combinations, their animosities and dis
contents, ought to be, in regard of the variety of their
intelligences, the wisdom of their observations, and the
height of their station where they keep sentinel, in
great part clear and transparent. Wherefore, consider
ing that I write to a king that is a master of this science,
and is so well assisted, I think it decent to pass over
this part in silence, as willing to obtain the certificate
which one of the ancient philosophers aspired unto ;
who being silent, when others contended to make demon
stration of their abilities by speech, desired it mought
be certified for his part, * That there was one that knew
how to hold his peace.'

49. Notwithstanding, for the more public part of
government, which is laws, I think good to note only
one deficience ; which is, that all those which have
written of laws, have written either as philosophers or
aa lawyers, and none as statesmen. As for the philo
sophers, they make imaginary laws for imaginary com
monwealths, and their discourses are as the stars, which
give little light because they are so high. For the
lawyers, they write according to the states where they
live what is received law, and not what ought to be law :
for the wisdom of a lawmaker is one, and of a lawyer is
another. For there are in nature certain fountains of
justice, whence all civil laws are derived but as streams :
and like as waters do take tinctures and tastes from the
soils through which they run, so do civil laws vary
according to the regions and governments where they
are planted, though they proceed from the same foun
tains. Again, the wisdom of a lawmaker consisteth
not only in a platform of justice, but in the application

THE SECOND BOOK 219

thereof ; taking into consideration by what means laws
may be made certain, and what are the causes and
remedies of the doubtfulness and incertainty of law ;
by what means laws may be made apt and easy to be
executed, and what are the impediments and remedies
in the execution of laws ; what influence laws touching
private right of meum and tuum have into the public
state, and how they may be made apt and agreeable ;
how laws are to be penned and delivered, whether in
texts or in acts, brief or large, with preambles, or with
out ; how they are to be pruned and reformed from
time to time, and what is the best means to keep them
from being too vast in volumes, or too full of multi
plicity and crossness ; how they are to be expounded,
when upon causes emergent and judicially discussed,
and when upon responses and conferences touching
general points or questions ; how they are to be pressed,
rigorously or tenderly ; how they are to be mitigated
by equity and good conscience, and whether discretion
and strict law are to be mingled in the same courts, or
kept apart in several courts ; again, how the practice,
profession, and erudition of law is to be censured and
governed ; and many other points touching the ad
ministration, and (as I may term it) animation of laws.
Upon which I insist the less, because
I purpose (if God give me leave), having £$JSjS£
begun a work of this nature in aphorisms, oria, sive, de
to propound it hereafter, noting it in the f^ibu» juris.
meantime for deficient.

50. And for your Majesty's laws of England, I could
say much of their dignity, and somewhat of their defect ;
but they cannot but excel the civil laws in fitness for
the government : for the civil law was ' non hos quae-
situm munus in usus ' ; it was not made for the coun
tries which it governeth. Hereof I cease to speak,
because I will not intermingle matter of action with
matter of general learning.

XXIV. Thus have I concluded this portion of learn
ing touching civil knowledge ; and with civil knowledge
have concluded human philosophy ; and with human

220 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

philosophy, philosophy in general. And being now at
some pause, looking back into that I have passed
through, this writing seerneth to me ('si nunquam
fallit imago '), as far as a man can judge of his own
work, not much better than that noise or sound
which musicians make while they are in tuning their
instruments : which is nothing pleasant to hear, but
yet is a cause why the music is sweeter afterwards.
So have I been content to tune the instruments of the
Muses, that they may play that have better hands.
And surely, when I set before me the condition of these
times, in which learning hath made her third visitation
or circuit in all the qualities thereof ; as the excellency
and vivacity of the wits of this age ; the noble helps
and lights which we have by the travails of ancient
writers ; the art of printing, which communicateth
books to men of all fortunes ; the openness of the world
by navigation, which hath disclosed multitudes of ex
periments, and a mass of natural history ; the leisure
wherewith these times abound, not employing men so
generally in civil business, as the states of Grecia did,
in respect of their popularity, and the state of Rome,
in respect of the greatness of their monarchy f the
present disposition of these times at this instant to
peace ; the consumption of all that ever can be said in
controversies of religion, which have so much diverted
men from other sciences ; the perfection of your
Majesty's learning, which as a phoenix may call whole
vollies of wits to follow you ; and the inseparable pro
priety of time, which is ever more and more to disclose
truth ; I cannot but be raised to this persuasion that
this third period of time will far surpass that of the
Grecian and Roman learning : only if men will know
their own strength, and their own weakness both ; and
take, one from the other, light of invention, and not fire
of contradiction ; and esteem of the inquisition of truth
as of an enterprise, and not as of a quality or ornament ;
and employ wit and magnificence to things of worth
and excellency, and not to things vulgar and of popular
estimation. As for my labours, if any man shall please

THE SECOND BOOK 221

himself or others in the reprehension of them, they
shall make that ancient and patient request, ' Verbera,
sed audi ' ; let men reprehend them, so they observe
and weigh them. For the appeal is lawful (though it
may be it shall not be needful) from the first cogitations
of men to their second, and from the nearer times to the
times further off. Now let us come to that learning,
which both the former times were not so blessed as to
know, sacred and inspired divinity, the Sabbath and
port of all men's labours and peregrinations.

XXV. 1. The prerogative of God extendeth as well
to the reason as to the will of man ; so that as we are to
obey his law, though we find a reluctation in our will, so
we are to believe his word, though we find a reluctation
in our reason. For if we believe only that which is
agreeable to our sense, we give consent to the matter,
and not to the author ; which is no more than we would
do towards a suspected and discredited witness ; but that
faith which was accounted to Abraham for righteous
ness was of such a point as whereat Sarah laughed, who
therein was an image of natural reason.

2. Howbeit (if we will truly consider of it) more
worthy it is to believe than to know as we now know.
For in knowledge man's mind suffereth from sense ;
but in belief it suffereth from spirit, such one as it
holdeth for more authorized than itself, and so suffereth
from the worthier agent. Otherwise it is of the state
of man glorified ; for then faith shall cease, and we
shall know as we are known.

3. Wherefore we conclude that sacred theology (which
in our idiom we call divinity) is grounded only upon
the word and oracle of God, and not upon the light of
nature : for it is written, * Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei ' ;
but it is not written, ' Coeli enarrant voluntatem Dei ' ;
but of that it is said, * Ad legem et testimonium :
si non fecerint secundum verbum istud, &c.' This
holdeth not only hi those points of faith which concern
the great mysteries of the Deity, of the creation, of the
redemption, but likewise those which concern the law
moral truly interpreted : ' Love your enemies : do

222 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

good to them that hate you : Be like to your heavenly
Father, that suffereth his rain to fall upon the just and
unjust.' To this it ought to be applauded, ' Nee vox
hominem sonat ' : it is a voice beyond the light of
nature. So we see the heathen poets, when they fall
upon a libertine passion, do still expostulate with laws
and moralities, as if they were opposite and malignant
to nature ; ' Et quod natura remittit, invida jura ne-
gant.' So said Dendamis the Indian unto Alexander's
messengers, that he had heard somewhat of Pythagoras,
and some other of the wise men of Grecia, and that he
held them for excellent men : but that they had a fault,
which was that they had in too great reverence and
veneration a thing they called law and manners. So
it must be confessed, that a great part of the law moral
is of that perfection, whereunto the light of nature
cannot aspire : how then is it that man is said to have
by the light and law of nature, some notions and con
ceits of virtue and vice, justice and wrong, good and
evil ? Thus, because the light of nature is used in two
several senses ; the one, that which springeth from
reason, sense induction, argument, according to the laws
of heaven and earth ; the other, that which is imprinted
upon the spirit of man by an inward instinct, according
to the law of conscience, which is a sparkle of the purity
of his first estate ; in which latter sense only he is par
ticipant of some light and discerning touching the per
fection of the moral law : but how ? sufficient to check
the vice, but not to inform the duty. So then the
doctrine of religion, as well moral as mystical, is not
to be attained but by inspiration and revelation from
God.

4. The use notwithstanding of reason in spiritual
things, and the latitude thereof, is very great and
general : for it is not for nothing that the apostle calleth
religion ' our reasonable service of God ' ; insomuch as
the very ceremonies and figures of the old law were full
of reason and signification, much more than the cere
monies of idolatry and magic, that are full of non-
significants and surd characters. But most specially

THE SECOND BOOK 223

the Christian faith, as in all things so in this, deserveth
to be highly magnified ; holding and preserving the
golden mediocrity in this point between the law of the
heathen and the law of Mahumet, which have embraced
the two extremes. For the religion of the heathen had
no constant belief or confession, but left all to the
liberty of argument ; and the religion of Mahumet on
the other side interdicteth argument altogether : the
one having the very face of error, and the other of
imposture : whereas the Faith doth but admit and
reject disputation with difference.

5. The use of human reason in religion is of two sorts :
the former, in the conception and apprehension of the
mysteries of God to us revealed ; the other, in the in
ferring and deriving of doctrine and direction there
upon. The former extendeth to the mysteries them
selves ; but how ? by way of illustration, and not by
way of argument. The latter consisteth indeed of pro
bation and argument. In the former we see God
vouchsafeth to descend to our capacity, in the expres
sing of his mysteries in sort as may be sensible unto
us ; and doth grift his revelations and holy doctrine
upon the notions of our reason, and applieth his
inspirations to open our understanding, as the form
of the key to the ward of the lock. For the latter,
there is allowed us an use of reason and argument,
secondary and respective, although not original and
absolute. For after the articles and principles of religion
are placed and exempted from examination of reason, it
is then permitted unto us to make derivations and in
ferences from and according to the analogy of them,
for our better direction. In nature this holdeth not ;
for both the principles are examinable by induction,
though not by a medium or syllogism ; and besides,
those principles or first positions have no discordance
with that reason which draweth down and deduceth
the inferior positions. But yet it holdeth not in religion
alone, but in many knowledges, both of greater and
smaller nature, namely, wherein there are not only
posiia but placita ; for in such there can be no use of

224 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

absolute reason. We see it familiarly in games of wit,
as chess, or the like. The draughts and first laws of
the game are positive, but how ? merely ad placitum,
and not examinable by reason ; but then how to direct
our play thereupon with best advantage to win the game,
is artificial and rational. So in human laws there be
many grounds and maxims which are placita juris,
positive upon authority, and not upon reason, and
therefore not to be disputed : but what is most just,
not absolutely but relatively, and according to those
maxims, that affordeth a long field of disputation.
Such therefore is that secondary reason, which hath
place in divinity, which is grounded upon the placets
of God.

6. Here therefore I note this deficience, that there
De usu it it nath not been, to my understanding, suf-
imorationis ficiently inquired and handled the true
humanae in limits and use of reason in spiritual things,

as a kind of divine dialectic : which for
that it is not done, it seemeth to me a thing usual, by
pretext of true conceiving that which is revealed, to
search and mine into that which is not revealed ; and
by pretext of enucleating inferences and contradic
tories, to examine that which is positive. The one sort
falling into the error of Nicodemus, demanding to have
things made more sensible than it pleaseth God to
reveal them, ' Quomodo possit homo nasci cum sit
eenex ? ' The other sort into the error of the disciples,
which were scandalized at a show of contradiction,
* Quid est hoc quod dicit nobis ? Modicum, et non
videbitis me ; et iterum, modicum, et videbitis me, &c.'

7. Upon this I have insisted the more, in regard of
the great and blessed use thereof ; for this point well
laboured and defined of would in my judgement be an
opiate to stay and bridle not only the vanity of curious
speculations, wherewith the schools labour, but the fury
of controversies, wherewith the church laboureth. For
it cannot but open men's eyes, to see that many contro
versies do merely pertain to that which is either not
revealed or positive ; and that many others do grow

THE SECOND BOOK 225

upon weak and obscure inferences or derivations :
which latter sort, if men would revive the blessed style
of that great doctor of the Gentiles, would be carried
thus, ego, non dominus ; and again, secundum con-
silium meum, in opinions and counsels, and not in posi
tions and oppositions. But men are now over-ready
to usurp the style, non ego, sed dominus ; and not so
only, but to bind it with the thunder and denunciation
cf curses and anathemas, to the terror of those which
have not sufficiently learned out of Salomon, that ' The
causeless curse shall not come.'

8. Divinity hath two principal parts ; the matter
informed or revealed, and the nature of the information
or revelation : and with the latter we will begin, be
cause it hath most coherence with that which we have
now last handled. The nature of the information con-
sisteth of three branches ; the limits of the information,
the sufficiency of the information, and the acquiring
or obtaining the information. Unto the limits of the
information belong these considerations ; how far forth
particular persons continue to be inspired ; how far
forth the church is inspired ; and how far forth reason
may be used : the last point whereof I have noted as
deficient. Unto the sufficiency of the information be
long two considerations ; what points of religion are
fundamental, and what perfective, being matter of
further building and perfection upon one and the same
foundation ; and again, how the gradations of light
according to the dispensation of times are material to
the sufficiency of belief.

9. Here again I may rather give it in advice than
note it as deficient, that the points funda- D& gradibus
mental, and the points of further perfec- unitatis in
tion only, ought to be with piety and dvitateDei.
wisdom distinguished : a subject tending to much like
end as that I noted before ; for as that other were likely
to abate the number of controversies, so this is like to
abate the heat of many of them. We see Moses when
he saw the Israelite and the Egyptian fight, he did not
Bay, ' Why strive you ? ' but drew his sword and slew

I

226 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

the Egyptian : but when he saw the two Israelites fight,
he said, ' You are brethren, why strive you ? ' If the
point of doctrine be an Egyptian, it must be slain by
the sword of the spirit, and not reconciled ; but if it
be an Israelite, though in the wrong, then, * Why strive
you ? ' We see of the fundamental points, our Saviour
penneth the league thus, * He that is not with us is
against us ' ; but of points not fundamental, thus, ' He
that is not against us is with us.' So we see the coat of
our Saviour was entire without seam, and so is the
doctrine of the scriptures in itself ; but the garment of
the church was of divers colours and yet not divided.
We see the chaff may and ought to be severed from the
corn in the ear, but the tares may not be pulled up from
the corn in the field. So as it is a thing of great use well
to define what, and of what latitude those points are,
which do make men merely aliens and disincorporate
from the Church of God.

10. For the obtaining of the information, it resteth
upon the true and sound interpretation of the scriptures,
which are the fountains of the water of life. The inter
pretations of the scriptures are of two sorts ; methodi
cal, and solute or at large. For this divine water, which
excelleth so much that of Jacob's well, is drawn forth
much in the same kind as natural water useth to be out
of wells and fountains ; either it is first forced up into
a cistern, and from thence fetched and derived for use ;
or else it is drawn and received in buckets and vessels
immediately where it springeth. The former sort where
of, though it seem to be the more ready, yet in my
judgement is more subject to corrupt. This is that
method which hath exhibited unto us the scholastical
divinity ; whereby divinity hath been reduced into an
art, as into a cistern, and the streams of doctrine or
positions fetched and derived from thence.

11. In this men have sought three things, a summary
brevity, a compacted strength, and a complete perfec
tion ; whereof the two first they fail to find, and the last
they ought not to seek. For as to brevity, we see in all
summary methods, while men purpose to abridge, they

THE SECOND BOOK 227

give cause to dilate. For the sum or abridgement
by contraction becometh obscure ; the obscurity re-
quireth exposition, and the exposition is deduced into
large commentaries, or into common places and titles,
which grow to be more vast than the original writings,
whence the sum was at first extracted. So we see the
volumes of the schoolmen are greater much than the
first writings of the fathers, whence the Master of the
Sentences made his sum or collection. So in like manner
the volumes of the modern doctors of the civil law ex
ceed those of the ancient jurisconsults, of which Tri-
bonian compiled the digest. So as this course of sums
and commentaries is that which doth infallibly make the
body of sciences more immense in quantity, and more
base in substance.

12. And for strength, it is true that knowledges re
duced into exact methods have a show of strength, in
that each part seemeth to support and sustain the other ;
but this is more satisfactory than substantial : like unto
buildings which stand by architecture and compaction,
which are more subject to ruin than those which are
built more strong in their several parts, though less com
pacted. But it is plain that the more you recede from
your grounds, the weaker do you conclude : and as in
nature, the more you remove yourself from particulars,
the greater peril of error you do incur : so much more
in divinity, the more you recede from the scriptures by
inferences and consequences, the more weak and dilute
are your positions.

13. And as for perfection or completeness in divinity,
it is not to be sought ; which makes this course of arti
ficial divinity the more suspect. For he that will reduce
a knowledge into an art, will make it round and uniform :
but in divinity many things must be left abrupt, and
concluded with this : ' O altitude sapientiae et scientiae
Dei ! quam incomprehensibilia sunt judicia ejus, et non
investigabiles viae ejus.' So again the apostle saith, ' Ex
parte scimus ' : and to have the form of a total, where
there is but matter for a part, cannot be without sup
plies by supposition and presumption. And therefore

228 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

I conclude, that the true use of these sums and methods
hath place in institutions or introductions preparatory
unto knowledge : but in them, or by deducement from
them, to handle the main body and substance of a
knowledge, is in all sciences prejudicial, and in divinity
dangerous.

14. As to the interpretation of the scriptures solute
and at large, there have been divers kinds introduced
and devised ; some of them rather curious and unsafe
than sober and warranted. Notwithstanding, thus much
must be confessed, that the scriptures, being given by
inspiration and not by human reason, do differ from all
other books in the author : which by consequence doth
draw on some difference to be used by the expositor.
For the inditer of them did know four things which no
man attains to know ; which are, the mysteries of the
kingdom of glory, the perfection of the laws of nature,
the secrets of the heart of man, and the future succession
of all ages. For as to the first it is said, ' He that pres-
seth into the light, shall be oppressed of the glory.' And
again, * No man shall see my face and live.' To the
second, ' When he prepared the heavens I was present,
when by law and compass he inclosed the deep.' To the
third, ' Neither was it needful that any should bear wit
ness to him of man, for he knew well what was in man.'
And to the last, ' From the beginning are known to the
Lord all his works.'

15. From the former two of these have been drawn
certain senses and expositions of scriptures, which had
need be contained within the bounds of sobriety ; the
one anagogical, and the other philosophical. But as to
the former, man is not to prevent his time : * Videmus
nunc per speculum in aenigmate, tune autem facie ad
faciem ' : wherein nevertheless there seemeth to be a
liberty granted, as far forth as the polishing of this glass,
or some moderate explication of this aenigma. But to
press too far into it, cannot but cause a dissolution and
overthrow of the spirit of man. For in the body there
are three degrees of that we receive into it, aliment,
medicine, and poison : whereof aliment is that which

THE SECOND BOOK 229

the nature of man can perfectly alter and overcome ;
medicine is that which is partly converted by nature,
and partly converteth nature ; and poison is that
which worketh wholly upon nature, without that,
that nature can in any part work upon it. So in
the mind, whatsoever knowledge reason cannot at
all work upon and convert is a mere intoxication,
and endangereth a dissolution of the mind and under
standing.

16. But for the latter, it hath been extremely set on
foot of late time by the school of Paracelsus, and some
others, that have pretended to find the truth of all
natural philosophy in the scriptures ; scandalizing and
traducing all other philosophy as heathenish and pro
fane. But there is no such enmity between God's word
and his works ; neither do they give honour to the
scriptures, as they suppose, but much imbase them.
For to seek heaven and earth in the word of God, where
of it is said, * Heaven and earth shall pass, but my word
shall not pass,' is to seek temporary things amongst
eternal : and as to seek divinity in philosophy is to seek
the living amongst the dead, so to seek philosophy in
divinity is to seek the dead amongst the living : neither
are the pots or lavers, whose place was in the outward
part of the temple, to be sought in the holiest place of
all, where the ark of the testimony was seated. And
again, the scope or purpose of the spirit of God is not to
express matters of nature in the scriptures, otherwise
than in passage, and for application to man's capacity
and to matters moral or divine. And it is a true rule,
* Auctoris aliud agentis parva auctoritas.' For it were
a strange conclusion, if a man should use a similitude
for ornament or illustration sake, borrowed from nature
or history according to vulgar conceit, as of a basilisk,
an unicorn, a centaur, a Briareus, an hydra, or the like,
that therefore he must needs be thought to affirm the
matter thereof positively to be true. To conclude there
fore these two interpretations, the one by reduction or
aenigmatical, the other philosophical or physical, which
have been received and pursued in imitation of the rab-

230 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

bins and cabalists, are to be confined with a noli altum
sapere, sed time.

17. But the two latter points, known to God and un
known to man, touching the secrets of the heart and the
successions of time, doth make a just and sound differ
ence between the manner of the exposition of the scrip
tures and all other books. For it is an excellent observa
tion which hath been made upon the answers of our
Saviour Christ to many of the questions which were
propounded to him, how that they are impertinent to
the state of the question demanded ; the reason whereof
is, because not being like man, which knows man's
thoughts by his words, but knowing man's thoughts
immediately, he never answered their words, but their
thoughts. Much in the like manner it is with the scrip
tures, which being written to the thoughts of men, and
to the succession of all ages, with a foresight of all
heresies, contradictions, differing estates of the church,
yea and particularly of the elect, are not to be inter
preted only according to the latitude of the proper sense
of the place, and respectively towards that present occa
sion whereupon the words were uttered, or in precise
congruity or contexture with the words before or after,
or in contemplation of the principal scope of the place ;
but have in themselves, not only totally or collectively,
but distributively in clauses and words, infinite springs
and streams of doctrine to water the church in every
part. And therefore as the literal sense is, as it were,
the main stream or rivet ; so the moral sense chiefly,
and sometimes the allegorical or typical, are they where
of the church hath most use : not that I wish men to be
bold in allegories, or indulgent or light in allusions ; but
that I do much condemn that interpretation of the
scripture which is only after the manner as men use to
interpret a profane book.

18. In this part touching the exposition of the scrip
tures, I can report no deficience ; but by way of remem
brance this I will add. In perusing books of divinity, I
find many books of controversies, and many of common
places and treatises, a mass of positive divinity, as it is

THE SECOND BOOK 231

made an art : a number of sermons and lectures, and
many prolix commentaries upon the scriptures, with
harmonies and concordances. But that form of writing
in divinity which in my judgement is of all others most
rich and precious, is positive divinity, collected upon
particular texts of scriptures in brief observations ; not
dilated into commonplaces, not chasing after contro
versies, not reduced into method of art ; a thing abound
ing in sermons, which will vanish, but defective in books
which will remain, and a thing wherein this age excel-
leth. For I am persuaded, and I may speak it with an
absit invidia verbo, and no ways in derogation of anti
quity, but as in a good emulation between the vine and
the olive, that if the choice and best of those observa
tions upon texts of scriptures, which have been made
dispersedly in sermons within this your Majesty's island
of Brittany by the space of these forty
years and more (leaving out the largeness f^tura^
of exhortations and applications there- mmindoc-
upon) had been set down in a continuance, t.nnas posit-
it had been the best work in divinity which
had been written since the Apostles' times.

19. The matter informed by divinity is of two kinds ;
matter of belief and truth of opinion, and matter of ser
vice and adoration ; which is also judged and directed
by the former : the one being as the internal soul of
religion, and the other as the external body thereof.
And therefore the heathen religion was not only a wor
ship of idols, but the whole religion was an idol in itself ;
for it had no soul, that is, no certainty of belief or con
fession : as a man may well think, considering the chief
doctors of their church were the poets : and the reason
was, because the heathen gods were no jealous gods, but
were glad to be admitted into part, as they had reason.
Neither did they respect the pureness of heart, so they
mought have external honour and rites.

20. But out of these two do result and issue four main
branches of divinity ; faith, manners, liturgy, and go
vernment. Faith containeth the doctrine of the nature
of God, of the attributes of God, and of the works of

232 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

God. The nature of God consisteth of three persons in
unity of Godhead. The attributes of God are either
common to the Deity, or respective to the persons. The
works of God summary are two, that of the creation and
that of the redemption ; and both these works, as in
total they appertain to the unity of the Godhead, so in
their parts they refer to the three persons : that of the
creation, in the mass of the matter, to the Father ; in
the disposition of the form, to the Son ; and in the con
tinuance and conservation of the being, to the Holy
Spirit. So that of the redemption, in the election and
counsel, to the Father ; in the whole act and consum
mation, to the Son ; and in the application, to the
Holy Spirit ; for by the Holy Ghost was Christ
conceived in flesh, and by the Holy Ghost are the
elect regenerate in spirit. This work likewise we
consider either effectually, in the elect ; or privately,
in the reprobate ; or according to appearance, in the
visible church.

21. For manners, the doctrine thereof is contained in
the law, which discloseth sin. The law itself is divided,
according to the edition thereof, into the law of nature,
the law moral, and the law positive ; and according to
the style, into negative and affirmative, prohibitions and
commandments. Sin, in the matter and subject thereof,
is divided according to the commandments ; in the form
thereof, it referreth to the three persons in Deity : sins
of infirmity against the Father, whose more special at
tribute is power ; sins of ignorance against the Son,
whose attribute is wisdom ; and sins of malice against
the Holy Ghost, whose attribute is grace or love. In the
motions of it, it either moveth to the right hand or to the
left ; either to blind devotion, or to profane and liber
tine transgression ; either in imposing restraint where
God granteth liberty, or in taking liberty where God
imposeth restraint. In the degrees and progress of it, it
divideth itself into thought, word, or act. And in this
part I commend much the deducing of the law of God to
cases of conscience ; for that I take indeed to be a break
ing, and not exhibiting whole of the bread of life. But

THE SECOND BOOK 233

that which quickeneth both these doctrines of faith and
manners, is the elevation and consent of the heart ;
whereunto appertain books of exhortation, holy medi
tation, Christian resolution, and the like.

22. For the liturgy or service, it consisteth of the re
ciprocal acts between God and man ; which, on the part
of God, are the preaching of the word, and the sacra
ments, which are seals to the covenant, or as the visible
word ; and on the part of man, invocation of the name
of God ; and under the law, sacrifices ; which were as
visible prayers or confessions : but now the adoration
being in spiritu et veritate, there remaineth only vituli
Idbiorum ; although the use of holy vows of thankful
ness and retribution may be accounted also as sealed
petitions.

23. And for the government of the church, it con
sisteth of the patrimony of the church, the franchises
of the church, and the offices and jurisdictions of the
church, and the laws of the church directing the whole ;
all which have two considerations, the one in themselves,
the other how they stand compatible and agreeable to
the civil estate.

24. This matter of divinity is handled either in form
of instruction of truth, or in form of confutation of
falsehood. The declinations from religion, besides the
privative, which is atheism and the branches thereof,
are three ; heresies, idolatry, and witchcraft : heresies,
when we serve the true God with a false worship ; idola
try, when we worship false gods, supposing them to be
true ; and witchcraft, when we adore false gods, know
ing them to be wicked and false. For so your Majesty
doth excellently well observe, that witchcraft is the
height of idolatry. And yet we see though these be true
degrees, Samuel teacheth us that they are all of a nature,
when there is once a receding from the word of God ; for
so he saith, ' Quasi peccatum ariolandi est repugnare, et
quasi scelus iclololatriae nolle acquiescere.'

25. These things I have passed over so briefly because
I can report no deficience concerning them : for I can
find no space or ground that lieth vacant and unsown in

234 OP THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING

the matter of divinity : so diligent have men been,
either in sowing of good seed, or in sowing of tares.

Thus have I made as it were a small globe of the in
tellectual world, as truly and faithfully as I could dis
cover ; with a note and description of those parts which
seem to me not constantly occupate, or not well con
verted by the labour of man. In which, if I have in any
point receded from that which is commonly received, it
hath been with a purpose of proceeding in melius, and
not in aliud ; a mind of amendment and proficience, and
not of change and difference. For I could not be true
and constant to the argument I handle, if I were not
willing to go beyond others ; but yet not more willing
than to have others go beyond me again : which may
the better appear by this, that I have propounded my
opinions naked and unarmed, not seeking to preoccu-
pate the liberty of men's judgements by confutations.
For in anything which is well set down, I am in good
hope, that if the first reading move an objection, the
second reading will make an answer. And in those
things wherein I have erred, I am sure I have not pre
judiced the right by litigious arguments ; which cer
tainly have this contrary effect and operation, that they
add authority to error, and destroy the authority of that
which is well invented. For question is an honour and
preferment to falsehood, as on the other side it is a re
pulse to truth. But the errors I claim and challenge to
myself as mine own. The good, if any be, is due tanquam
adeps sacrificii, to be incensed to the honour, first of the
Divine Majesty, and next of your Majesty, to whom on
earth I am most bounden.

NEW ATLANTIS

TO THE READER

THIS Fable my Lord devised, to the end that he
might exhibit therein, a model or description of
a College, instituted for the interpreting of Nature,
and the producing of great and marvellous works for
the benefit of men; under the name of Salomon's
House, or the College of the Six Days Works. And
even so far his Lordship hath preceded, as to finish
• that part. Certainly, the model is more vast, and high,
than can possibly be imitated in all things ; Notwith
standing most things therein are within men's power
to effect. His Lordship thought also in this present
fable, to have composed a frame of laws, or of the best
state or mould of a Common-wealth ; but foreseeing it
would be a long work, his desire of collecting the
Natural History diverted him, which he preferred
many degrees before it.

This work of the New Atlantis (as much as concerneth
the English Edition) his Lordship designed for this
place; in regard it hath so near affinity (in one part
of it) with the preceding Natural History.

W: RAWLEY.

[From the First Edition (1627)]

NEW ATLANTIS

WE sailed from Peru (where we had continued by the
space of one whole year) for China and Japan, by the
South Sea, taking with us victuals for twelve months ;
and had good winds from the east, though soft and
weak, for five months' space and more. But then the
wind came about, and settled in the west for many
days, so as we could make little or no way, and were
sometimes in purpose to turn back. But then again
there arose strong and great winds from the south,
with a point east ; which carried us up, for all that we
could do, towards the north : by which time our vic
tuals failed us, though we had made good spare of them.
So that finding ourselves, in the midst of the greatest
wilderness of waters in the world, without victual, we

five ourselves for lost men, and prepared for death,
et we did lift up our hearts and voices to God above,
who ' showeth His wonders in the deep ' ; beseeching
Him of His mercy, that as in the beginning He dis
covered the face of the deep, and brought forth dry
land, so He would now discover land to us, that we
mought not perish.

And it came to pass, that the next day about evening
we saw within a kenning before us, towards the north,
as it were thick clouds, which did put us in some hope
of land ; knowing how that part of the South Sea was
utterly unknown ; and might have islands or conti
nents that hitherto were not come to light. Wherefore
we bent our course thither, where we saw the appear
ance of land, all that night ; and in the dawning of the
next day, we might plainly discern that it was a land,
237

238 NEW ATLANTIS

flat to our sight, and full of boscage, which made it
show the more dark. And after an hour and a half's
sailing, we entered into a good haven, being the port
of a fair city : not great indeed, but well built, and that
gave a pleasant view from the sea. And we thinking
every minute long till we were on land, came close to
the shore and offered to land. But straightways we
saw divers of the people, with bastons in their hands,
as it were, forbidding us to land : yet without any cries
or fierceness, but only as warning us off, by signs that
they made. Whereupon being not a little discomforted,
we were advising with ourselves what we should do.

During which time there made forth to us a small boat,
with about eight persons in it, whereof one of them
had in his hand a tipstaff of a yellow cane, tipped at
both ends with blue, who came aboard our ship, with
out any show of distrust at all. And when he saw
one of our number present himself somewhat afore the
rest, he drew forth a little scroll of parchment (some
what yellower than our parchment, and shining like
the leaves of writing tables, but otherwise soft and
flexible), and delivered it to our foremost man. In,
which scroll were written in ancient Hebrew, and in
ancient Greek, and in good Latin of the School, and in
Spanish, these words : ' Land ye not, none of you, and
provide to be gone from this coast within sixteen days,
except you have further time given you. Meanwhile,
if you want fresh water, or victual, or help for your
sick, or that your ship needeth repair, write down your
wants, and you. shall have that which belongeth to
mercy.' This scroll was signed with a stamp of cheru-
bin's wings, not spread, but hanging downwards ; and
by them a cross. This being delivered, the officer re
turned, and left only a servant with us to receive our
answer.

Consulting hereupon amongst ourselves, we were
much perplexed. The denial of landing, and hasty
warning us away, troubled us much : on the other side,
to lind that the people had languages, and were so full
of humanity, did comfort us not a little. And above

FORBIDDEN TO LAND 239

all, the sign of the Cross to that instrument, was to us
a great rejoicing, and as it were a certain presage of
good. Our answer was in the Spanish tongue, ' That
for our ship, it was well ; for we had rather met with
calms and contrary winds, than any tempests. For our
sick, they were many, and in very ill case ; so that if
they were not permitted to land, they ran in danger
of their lives.' Our other wants we set down in par
ticular, adding, ' That we had some little store of mer
chandize, which if it pleased them to deal for, it might
supply our wants, without being chargeable unto them.'
We offered some reward in pistolets unto the servant,
and a piece of crimson velvet to be presented to the
officer : but the servant took them not, nor would
scarce look upon them ; and so left us, and went back
in another little boat which was sent for him.

About three hours after we had dispatched our answer
there came towards us a person (as it seemed) of place.
He had on him a gown with wide sleeves, of a kind of
water chamolet, of an excellent azure colour, far more
glossy than ours : his under apparel was green, and so
was his hat, being in the form of a turban, daintily
made, and not so huge as the Turkish turbans ; and
the locks of his hair came down below the brims of it.
A reverend man was he to behold. He came in a boat,
gilt in some parts of it, with four persons more only in
that boat ; and was followed by another boat, wherein
were some twenty. When he was come within a flight
shot of our ship, signs were made to us that we should
send forth some to meet him upon the water, which we
presently did in our ship-boat, sending the principal
man amongst us save one, and four of our number with
him.

When we were come within six yards of their boat,
they called to us to stay, and not to approach farther,
which we did. And thereupon the man, whom I before
described, stood up, and with a loud voice, in Spanish,
asked, * Are ye Christians ? ' We answered, we were ;
fearing the less, because of the Cross we had seen in the
subscription. At which answer the said person lift up

240 NEW ATLANTIS

his right hand towards Heaven, and drew it softly to
his mouth (which is the gesture they use, when they
thank God), and then said : ' If ye will swear, all of you,
by the merits of the Saviour, that ye are no pirates,
nor have shed blood, lawfully nor unlawfully, within
forty days past, you may have license to come on land.'
We said, we were all ready to take that oath. Where
upon one of those that were with him, being (as it
seemed) a notary, made an entry of this act. Which
done, another of the attendants of the great person,
which was with him in the same boat, after his lord had
spoken a little to him, said aloud : ' My lord would
have you know, that it is not of pride, or greatness, that
he cometh not aboard your ship : but for that, in your
answer, you declare that you have many sick amongst
you, he was warned by the Conservator of Health of the
city that he should keep a distance.' We bowed our
selves towards him, and answered, we were his humble
servants ; and accounted for great honour and singular
humanity towards us, that which was already done :
but hoped well, that the nature of the sickness of our
men was not infectious. So he returned ; and a while
after came the notary to us aboard our ship, holding
in his hand a fruit of that country, like an orange, but
of colour between orange-tawney and scarlet : which
cast a most excellent odour. He used it (as it seemed)
for a preservative against infection. He gave us our
oath, ' By the name of Jesus, and His merits ' : and
after told us, that the next day, by six of the clock in
the morning, we should be sent to, and brought to the
Strangers' House (so he called it), where we should be
accommodated of things, both for our whole and for
our sick. So he left us ; and when we offered him some
pistolets, he smiling, said, he must not be twice paid
for one labour : meaning (as I take it) that he had
salary sufficient of the State for his service. For (as
I after learned) they call an officer that taketh rewards,
twice-paid.

The next morning early, there came to us the same
officer that came to us at first with his cane, and told

THE STRANGERS' HOUSE 241

us : * He came to conduct us to the Strangers' House :
and th^t he had prevented the hour, because we might
have the whole day before us for our business. For
(said he) if you will follow my advice, there shall first
go with me some few of you, and see the place, and how
it may be made convenient for you ; and then you may
send for your sick, and the rest of your number, which
ye will bring on land.' We thanked him, and said, that
this care which he took of desolate strangers, God would
reward. And so six of us went on land with him ; and
when we were on land, he went before us, and turned
to us, and said, he was but our servant, and our guide.
He led us through three fair streets ; and all the way
we went there were gathered some people on both sides,
standing in a row ; but in so civil a fashion, as if it had
been, not to wonder at us, but to welcome us ; and
divers of them, as we passed by them, put their arms
a little abroad, which is their gesture when they bid
any welcome.

The Strangers' House is a fair and spacious house,
built of brick, of somewhat a bluer colour than our
brick ; and with handsome windows, some of glass,
some of a kind of cambric oiled. He brought us first
into a fair parlour above stairs, and then asked us,
what number of persons we were ? and how many sick ?
We answered, we were in all (sick and whole) one and
fifty persons, whereof our sick were seventeen. He
desired us to have patience a little, and to stay till he
came back to us, which was about an hour after ; and
then he led us to see the chambers which were provided
for us, being in number nineteen. They having cast
it (as it seemeth) that four of those chambers, which
were better than the rest, might receive four of the
principal men of our company ; and lodge them alone
by themselves ; and the other fifteen chambers were
to lodge us, two and two together. The chambers were
handsome and cheerful chambers, and furnished civilly.
Then he led us to a long gallery, like a dorture, where
he showed us all along the one side (for the other side
was but wall and window) seventeen cells, very neat

242 NEW ATLANTIS

ones, having partitions of cedar wood. Which gallery
and cells, being in all forty (many more than we needed),
were instituted as an infirmary for sick persons. And
he told us withal, that as any of our sick waxed well,
he might be removed from his cell to a chamber : for
which purpose there were set forth ten spare chambers,
besides the number we spake of before. This done, he
brought us back to the parlour, and lifting up his cane
a little (as they do when they give any charge or com
mand), said to us, ' Ye are to know that the custom of
the land requireth, that after this day and to-morrow
(which we give you for removing your people from your
ship), you are to keep within doors for three days. But
let it not trouble you, nor do not think yourselves re
strained, but rather left to your ease and rest. You
shall want nothing, and there are six of our people
appointed to attend you for any business you may have
abroad.' We gave him thanks with all affection and
respect, and said, ' God surely is manifested in this
land.' We offered him also twenty pistolets ; but he
smiled, and only said : * What ? twice paid ! ' And
so he left us.

Soon after our dinner was served in ; which was right
good viands, both for bread and meat : better than any
collegiate diet that I have known in Europe. We had
also drink of three sorts, all wholesome and good ; wine
of the grape ; a drink of grain, such as is with us our ale,
but more clear ; and a kind of cider made of a fruit of
that country ; a wonderful pleasing and refreshing
drink. Besides, there were brought in to us great store
of those scarlet oranges for our sick ; which (they said)
were an assured remedy for sickness taken at sea. There
was given us also a box of small grey or whitish pills,
which they wished our sick should take, one of the pills
every night before sleep ; which (they said) would
hasten their recovery.

The next day, after that our trouble of carriage and
removing of our men and goods out of our ship was
somewhat settled and quiet, I thought good to call our
company together, and when they were assembled, said

THREE DAYS INDOORS 243

unto them, * My dear friends, let us know ourselves,
and how it standeth with us. We are men cast on
land, as Jonas was out of the whale's belly, when we
were as buried in the deep ; and now we are on land,
we are but between death and life, for we are beyond
both the Old World and the New ; and whether ever
we shall see Europe, God only knoweth. It is a kind
of miracle hath brought us hither, and it must be little
less that shall bring us hence. Therefore in regard of
our deliverance past, and our danger present and to
come, let us look up to God, and every man reform his
own ways. Besides we are come here amongst a Chris
tian people, full of piety and humanity : let us not
bring that confusion of face upon ourselves, as to show
our vices or unworthiness before them. Yet there is
more, for they have by commandment (though in form
of courtesy) cloistered us within these walls for three
days : who knoweth whether it be not to take some
taste of our manners and conditions ? And if they find
them bad, to banish us straightways ; if good, to give
us further time. For these men that they have given
us for attendance, may withal have an eye upon us.
Therefore, for God's love, and as we love the weal of
our souls and bodies, let us so behave ourselves, as we
may be at peace with God, and may find grace in the
eyes of this people.' Our company with one voice
thanked me for my good admonition, and promised me
to live soberly and civilly, and without giving any the
least occasion of offence. So we spent our three days
joyfully, and without care, in expectation what would
be done with us when they were expired. During which
time, we had every hour joy of the amendment of our
sick, who thought themselves cast into some divine pool
of healing, they mended so kindly and so fast.

The morrow after our three days were past, there
came to us a new man, that we had not seen before,
clothed in blue as the former was, save that his turban
was white with a small red cross on the top. He had
also a tippet of fine linen. At his coming in, he did
bend to us a little, and put his arms abroad. We of

244 NEW ATLANTIS

our parts saluted him in a very lowly and submissive
manner ; as looking that from him we should receive
sentence of life or death. He desired to speak with
some few of us. Whereupon six of us only stayed, and
the rest avoided the room. He said, ' I am by office
Governor of this House of Strangers, and by vocation
I am a Christian priest ; and therefore am come to you
to offer you my service, both as strangers, and chiefly
as Christians. Some things I may tell you, which
I think you will not be unwilling to hear. The State
hath given you licence to stay on land for the space of
six weeks : and let it not trouble you, if your occasions
ask further time, for the law in this point is not precise ;
and I do not doubt but myself shall be able to obtain
for you such further time as shall be convenient. Ye
shall also understand, that the Strangers' House is at
this time rich, and much aforehand ; for it hath laid up
revenue these thirty-seven years : for so long it is since
any stranger arrived in this part : and therefore take
ye no care ; the State will defray you all the time you
stay. Neither shall you stay one day the less for that.
As for any merchandize ye have brought, ye shall be
well used, and have your return, either in merchandise
or in gold and silver : for to us it is all one. And if you
have any other request to make, hide it not ; for ye
shall find we will not make your countenance to fall
by the answer ye shall receive. Only this I must tell
you, that none of you must go above a karan (that is
with them a mile and a half) from the walls of the city,
without especial leave.'

We answered, after we had looked awhile one upon
another, admiring this gracious and parent-like usage,
that we could not tell what to say, for we wanted words
to express our thanks ; and his noble free offers left
us nothing to ask. It seemed to us, that we had before
us a picture of our salvation in Heaven ; for we that
were* a while since in the jaws of death, were now
brought into a place where we found nothing but con
solations. For the commandment laid upon us, we
would not fail to obey it, though it was impossible but

A LAND OF ANGELS 245

our hearts should be inflamed to tread further upon this
happy and holy ground. We added, that our tongues
should first cleave to the roofs of our mouths, ere we
should forget, either his reverend person, or this whole
nation, in our prayers. We also most humbly besought
him to accept of us as his true servants, by as just a right
as ever men on earth were bounden ; laying and pre
senting both our persons and all we had at his feet. He
said he was a priest, and looked for a priest's reward ;
which was our brotherly love, and the good of our souls
and bodies. So he went from us, not without tears of
tenderness in his eyes, and left us also confused with
joy and kindness, saying amongst ourselves that we
were come into a land of angels, which did appear to us
daily, and prevent us with comforts, which we thought
not of, much less expected.

The next day, about ten of the clock, the Governor
came to us again, and after salutations, said familiarly,
that he was come to visit us ; and called for a chair,
and sat him down ; and we, being some ten of us (the
rest were of the meaner sort, or else gone abroad), sat
down with him ; and when we were set, he began thus :
* We of this island of Bensalem (for so they called it in
their language) have this : that by means of our solitary
situation, and of the laws of secrecy, which we have for
our travellers, and our rare admission of strangers, we
know well most part of the habitable world, and are our
selves unknown. Therefore because he that knoweth
least is fitted to ask questions, it is more reason, for the
entertainment of the time, that ye ask me questions,
than that I ask you.'

We answered, that we humbly thanked him, that he
would give us leave so to do : and that we conceived,
by the taste we had already, that there was no worldly
thing on earth more worthy to be known than the state
of that happy land. But above all (we said) since that
we were met from the several ends of the world, and
hoped assuredly that we should meet one day in the
kingdom of Heaven (for that we were both part Chris
tians), we desired to know (in respect that land was

246 NEW ATLANTIS

BO remote, and so divided by vast and unknown seas
from the land where our Saviour walked on earth) who
was the apostle of that nation, and how it was converted
to the faith ? It appeared in his face, that he took
great contentment in this our question ; he said, ' Ye
knit my heart to you, by asking this question in the
first place : for it showeth that you first seek the king
dom of Heaven : and I shall gladly, and briefly, satisfy
your demand.

' About twenty years after the Ascension of our
Saviour it came to pass, that there was seen by the
people of Renfusa (a city upon the eastern coast of
our island), within sight, (the night was cloudy and
calm), as it might be some mile in the sea, a great pillar
of light ; not sharp, but in form of a column, or cylinder,
rising from the sea, a great way up towards Heaven ;
and on the top of it was seen a large cross of light, more
bright and resplendent than the body of the pillar.
Upon which so strange a spectacle the people of the
city gathered apace together upon the sands, to wonder ;
and so after put themselves into a number of small
boats to go nearer to this marvellous sight. But when
the boats were come within about sixty yards of the
pillar they found themselves all bound, and could go
no further, yet so as they might move to go about, but
might not approach nearer : so as the boats stood all as
in a theatre, beholding this light, as an heavenly sign.
It so fell out, that there was in one of the boats one of
our wise men, of the Society of Salomon's House ;
which house or college, my good brethren, is the very
eye of this kingdom, who having awhile attentively and
devoutly viewed and contemplated this pillar and cross,
fell down upon his face ; and then raised himself upon
his knees, and lifting up his hands to Heaven, made
his prayers in this manner :

' " Lord God of Heaven and Earth ; Thou hast vouch
safed of Thy grace, to those of our order, to know Thy
works of creation, and the secrets of them ; and to
discern (as far as appertaineth to the generations of men)
between divine miracles, works of Nature, works of art,

A MIRACLE 247

and impostures and illusions of all sorts. I do here
acknowledge and testify before this people, that the
thing which we now see before our eyes is Thy linger, and
a true miracle. And forasmuch as we learn in our books
that Thou never workest miracles, but to a divine and
excellent end (for the laws of nature are Thine own
laws, and thou exceedest them not but upon great
cause), we most humbly beseech thee to prosper this
great sign, and to give us the interpretation and use of
it in mercy ; which Thou dost in some part secretly
promise, by sending it unto us."

' When he had made his prayer, he presently found
the boat he was in movable and unbound ; whereas
all the rest remained still fast ; and taking that for an
assurance of leave to approach, he caused the boat to
be softly and with silence rowed towards the pillar.
But ere he came near it, the pillar and cross of light
broke up, and cast itself abroad, as it were, into a firma
ment of many stars, which also vanished soon after,
and there was nothing left to be seen but a small ark,
or chest of cedar, dry, and not wet at all with water,
though it swam. And in the fore-end of it, which was
towards him, grew a small green branch of palm ; and
when the wise man had taken it with all reverence into
his boat, it opened of itself, and there were found in it
a book and a letter, both written in fine parchment,
and wrapped in sindons of linen. The book contained
all the canonical books of the Old and New Testament,
according as you have them (for we know well what
the Churches with you receive), and the Apocalypse
itself ; and some other books of the New Testament,
which were not at that time written, were nevertheless
in the book. And for the letter, it was in these
words :

' " I Bartholomew, a servant of the Highest, and
apostle of Jesus Christ, was warned by an angel that
appeared to me in a vision of glory, that I should commit
this ark to the floods of the sea. Therefore I do testify
and declare unto that people where God shall ordain
this ark to come to land, that in the same day is come

243 NEW ATLANTIS

unto them salvation and peace, and goodwill, from the
Father, and from the Lord Jesus."

* There was also hi both these writings, as well the
book as the letter, wrought a great miracle, conform
to that of the apostles, in the original gift of tongues.
For there being at that time, in this land, Hebrews,
Persians and Indians, besides the natives, every one read
upon the book and letter, as if they had been written
in his own language. And thus was this land saved
from infidelity (as the remain of the Old World was
from water) by an ark, through the apostolical and
miraculous evangelism of St. Bartholomew.' And here
he paused, and a messenger came, and called him forth
from us. So this was all that passed in that con
ference.

The next day, the same Governor came again to us,
immediately after dinner, and excused himself, saying,
that the day before he was called from us somewhat
abruptly, but now he would make us amends, and
spend time with us, if we held his company and con
ference agreeable. We answered, that we held it so
agreeable and pleasing to us, as we forgot both dangers
past, and fears to come, for the time we heard him
speak ; and that we thought an hour spent with him
was worth years of our former life. He bowed himself
a little to us, and after we were set again, he said, ' Well,
the questions are on your part.'

One of our number said, after a little pause, that
there was a matter we were no less desirous to know
than fearful to ask, lest we might presume too far.
But encouraged by his rare humanity towards us (that
could scarce think ourselves strangers, being his vowed
and professed servants), we would take the hardness to
propound it ; humbly beseeching him, if he thought
it not fit to be answered, that he would pardon it,
though he rejected it. We said, we well observed those
his words, which he formerly spake, that this happy
island, where we now stood, was known to few, and yet
knew most of the nations of the world, which we found
to be true, considering they had the languages of

A FURTHER QUESTION 249

Europe, and knew much of our state and business ;
and yet we in Europe (notwithstanding all the remote
discoveries and navigations of this last age) never heard
any of the least inkling or glimpse of this island. This
we found wonderful strange ; for that all nations have
interknowledge one of another, either by voyage into
foreign parts, or by strangers that come to them ; and
though the traveller into a foreign country doth com
monly know more by the eye than he that stayeth at
home can by relation of the traveller ; yet both ways
suffice to make a mutual knowledge, in some degree, on
both parts. But for this island, we never heard tell
of any ship of theirs that had been seen to arrive upon
any shore of Europe ; no, nor of either the East or
West Indies, nor yet of any ship of any other part of the
world, that had made return from them. And yet the
marvel rested not in this ; for the situation of it (as
his lordship said) in the secret conclave of such a vast
sea mought cause it. But then, that they should have
knowledge of the languages, books, affairs, of those that
lie such a distance from them, it was a thing we could
not tell what to make of; for that it seemed to us
a condition and propriety of divine powers and beings,
to be hidden and unseen to others, and yet to have
others open, and as in a light to them.

At this speech the Governor gave a gracious smile and
said, that we did well to ask pardon for this question
we now asked, for that it imported, as if we thought
this land a land of magicians, that sent forth spirits of
the air into all parts, to bring them news and intelli
gence of other countries. It was answered by us all,
in all possible humbleness, but yet with a countenance
taking knowledge, that we knew he spake it but merrily ;
that we were apt enough to think there was somewhat
supernatural in this island, but yet rather as angelical
than magical. But to let his lordship know truly what
it was that made us tender and doubtful to ask this
question, it was not any such conceit, but because we
remembered he had given a touch in his former speech
that this land had laws of secrecy touching strangers.

250 NEW ATLANTIS

To this he said, * You remember it aright ; and there
fore in that I shall say to you, I must reserve some
particulars, which it is not lawful for me to reveal, but
there will be enough left to give you satisfaction.

' You shall understand (that which perhaps you will
scarce think credible) that about three thousand years
ago, or somewhat more, the navigation of the world
(especially for remote voyages) was greater than at this
day. Do not think with yourselves, that I know not
how much it is increased with you, within these six-
score years ; I know it well, and yet I say, greater then
than now ; whether it was, that the example of the
Ark, that saved the remnant of men from the universal
deluge, gave men confidence to adventure upon the
waters, or what it was ; but such is the truth. The
Phoenicians, and specially the Tyrians, had great fleets ;
so had the Carthaginians their colony, which is yet
further west. Toward the east the shipping of Egypt,
and of Palestine, was likewise great. China also, and
the great Atlantis (that you call America), which have
now but junks and canoes, abounded then in tall ships.
This island (as appeareth by faithful registers of those
times) had then fifteen hundred strong ships, of great
content. Of all this there is with you sparing memory,
or none ; but we have large knowledge thereof.

* At that time, this land was known and frequented
by the ships and vessels of all the nations before named.
And (as it cometh to pass) they had many times men
of other countries, that were no sailors, that came with
them ; as Persians, Chaldeans, Arabians, so as almost
all nations of might and fame resorted hither ; of whom
we have some stirps and little tribes with us at this
day. And for our own ships, they went sundry voyages,
as well to your straits, which you call the Pillars of
Hercules, as to other parts in the Atlantic and Mediter
ranean Seas ; as to Paguin (which is the same with
Cambaline) and Quinzy, upon the Oriental Seas, as far
as to the borders of the East Tartary.

' At the same time, and an age after or more, the
inhabitants of the great Atlantis did flourish. For

EARLY VOYAGES 251

though the narration and description which is made by
a great man with you, that the descendants of Neptune
planted there, and of the magnificent temple, palace,
city, and hill ; and the manifold streams of goodly
navigable rivers (which as so many chains environed
the same site and temple) ; and the several degrees of
ascent, whereby men did climb up to the same, as if it
had been a Scala Caeli ; be all poetical and fabulous ;
yet so much is true, that the said country of Atlantis,
as well that of Peru, then called Coya, as that of Mexico,
then named Tyrambel, were mighty and proud king
doms, in arms, shipping, and riches : so mighty as at
one time (or at least within the space of ten years),
they both made two great expeditions ; they of Ty
rambel through the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea ;
arid they of Coya, through the South Sea upon this our
island ; and for the former of these, which was into
Europe, the same author amongst you (as it seemeth)
had some relation from the Egyptian priest, whom he
citeth. For assuredly such a thing there was. But
whether it were the ancient Athenians that had the
glory of the repulse and resistance of those forces, I can
Bay nothing ; but certain it is there never came back
either ship or man from that voyage. Neither had the
other voyage of those of Coya upon us had better for
tune, if they had not met with enemies of greater
clemency. For the king of this island, by name Altabin,
a wise man and a great warrior, knowing well both his
own strength and that of his enemies, handled the
matter so, as he cut off their land forces from their
ships, and entoiled both their navy and their camp,,
with a greater power than theirs, both by sea and land,
and compelled them to render themselves without
striking stroke ; and after they were at his mercy, con
tenting himself only with their oath, that they should no
more bear arms against him, dismissed them all in safety.
But the divine revenge overtook not long after those
proud enterprises. For within less than the space of
one hundred years the Great Atlantis was utterly lost
and destroyed ; not by a great earthquake, as your

252 NEW ATLANTIS

man saith (for that whole tract is little subject to
earthquakes), but by a particular deluge or inundation,
those countries having at this day far greater rivers
and far higher mountains to pour down waters, than
any part of the Old World. But it is true that the
same inundation was not deep, not past forty foot in
most places from the ground, so that although it de
stroyed man and beast generally, yet some few wild
inhabitants of the wood escaped. Birds also were saved
by flying to the high trees and woods. For as for men,
although they had buildings in many places higher than
the depth of the water, yet that inundation, though it
were shallow, had a long continuance, whereby they of
the vale that were not drowned perished for want of
food, and other things necessary.

' So as marvel you not at the thin population of
America, nor at the rudeness and ignorance of the
people ; for you must account your inhabitants of
America as a young people, younger a thousand years
at the least than the rest of the world, for that there
was so much time between the universal flood and their
particular inundation. For the poor remnant of human
seed which remained in their mountains peopled the
country again slowly, by little and little, and being
simple and savage people (not like Noah and his sons,
which was the chief family of the earth) they were not
able to leave letters, arts, and civility to their posterity ;
and having likewise in their mountainous habitations
been used (in respect of the extreme cold of those
regions) to clothe themselves with the skins of tigers,
bears, and great hairy goats, that they have in those
parts ; when after they came down into the valley, and
found the intolerable heats which are there, and knew
no means of lighter apparel, they were forced to begin
the custom of going naked, which continueth at this
day. Only they take great pride and delight in the
feathers of birds, and this also they took from those
their ancestors of the mountains, who were invited
unto it, by the infinite flight of birds that came up to
the high grounds, while the waters stood below. So

KING SOLAMONA 253

you see; by this main accident of time, we lost our traffic
with the Americans, with whom of all others, in regard
they lay nearest to us, we had most commerce.

As for the other parts of the world, it is most manifest
that in the ages following (whether it were in respect of
wars, or by a natural revolution of time) navigation did
everywhere greatly decay, and specially far voyages
(the rather by the use of galleys, and such vessels as
could hardly brook the ocean) were altogether left and
omitted. So then, that part of intercourse which could
be from other nations, to sail to us, you see how it hath
long since ceased ; except it were by some rare accident,
as this of yours. But now of the cessation of that other
part of intercourse, which mought be by our sailing to
other nations, I must yield you some other cause. For
I cannot say, if I shall say truly, but our shipping, for
number, strength, mariners, pilots, and all things that
appertain to navigation, is as great as ever ; and there
fore why we should sit at home, I shall now give you
an account by itself ; and it will draw nearer, to give you
satisfaction, to your principal question.

' There reigned in this island, about 1,900 years ago,
a king, whose memory of all others we most adore ; not
superstitiously, but as a divine instrument, though
a mortal man : his name was Solamona ; and we
esteem him as the lawgiver of our nation. This king
had a large heart, inscrutable for good, and was wholly
bent to make his kingdom and people happy. He
therefore taking into consideration how sufficient and
substantive this land was, to maintain itself without
any aid at all of the foreigner ; being 5,600 miles in
circuit, and of rare fertility of soil, in the greatest part
thereof ; and finding also the shipping of this country
mought be plentifully set on work, both by fishing and
by transportations from port to port, and likewise by
sailing unto some small islands that are not far from
us, and are under the crown and laws of this State;
and recalling into his memory the happy and flourishing
estate wherein this land then was, so as it mought be
a thousand ways altered to the worse, but scarce any

254 NEW ATLANTIS

one way to the better ; though nothing wanted to his
noble and heroical intentions, but only (as far as human
foresight mought reach) to give perpetuity to that which
was in his time so happily established. Therefore
amongst his other fundamental laws of this kingdom
he did ordain the interdicts and prohibitions which we
have touching entrance of strangers ; which at that time
(though it was after the calamity of America) was fre
quent ; doubting novelties and commixture of manners.
It is true, the like law against the admission of strangers
without licence is an ancient law in the kingdom of
China, and yet continued in use. But there it is a poor
thing ; and hath made them a curious, ignorant, fear
ful, foolish nation. But our lawgiver made his law of
another temper. For first, he hath preserved all points
of humanity, in taking order and making provision for
the relief of strangers distressed ; whereof you have
tasted.'

At which speech (as reason was) we all rose up, and
bowed ourselves. He went on :

* That king also still desiring to join humanity and
policy together ; and thinking it against humanity, to
detain strangers here against their wills ; and against
policy, that they should return, and discover their know
ledge of this estate, he took this course : he did ordain,
that of the strangers that should be permitted to land,
as many (at all times) mought depart as would ; but as
many as would stay, should have very good conditions,
and means to live from the State. Wherein he saw so
far, that now in so many ages since the prohibition, we
have memory not of one ship that ever returned, and
but of thirteen persons only, at several times, that chose
to return in our bottoms. What those few that returned
may have reported abroad I know not. But you must
think, whatsoever they have said, could be taken where
they came but for a dream. Now for our travelling
from hence into parts abroad, our lawgiver thought fit
altogether to restrain it. So is it not in China. For
the Chinese sail where they will, or can ; which showeth,
that their law of keeping out strangers is a law of pusil-

SALOMON'S HOUSE 255

lanimity and fear. But this restraint of ours hath one
only exception, which is admirable ; preserving the good
which cometh by communicating with strangers, and
avoiding the hurt: and I will now open it to you.
And here I shall seem a little to digress, but you will
by and by find it pertinent.

* Ye shall understand, my dear friends, that amongst
the excellent acts of that king, one above all hath the
pre-eminence. It was the erection and institution of
an order, or society, which we call Salomon's House ;
the noblest foundation, as we think, that ever was upon
the earth, and the lantern of this kingdom. It is dedi
cated to the study of the works and creatures of God.
Some think it beareth the founder's name a little cor
rupted, as if it should be Solamona's House. But the
records write it as it is spoken. So as I take it to be
denominate of the king of the Hebrews, which is famous
with you, and no stranger to us ; for we have some
parts of his works which with you are lost ; namely,
that Natural History which he wrote of all plants, from
the cedar of Libanus to the moss that groweth out of
the wall ; and of all things that have life and motion.
This maketh me think that our king finding himself to
symbolize, in many things, with that king of the He
brews (which lived many years before him) honoured
him with the title of this foundation. And I am the
rather induced to be of this opinion, for that I find in
ancient records, this order or society is sometimes called
Salomon's House, and sometimes the College of the Six
Days' Works ; whereby I am satisfied that our excellent
king had learned from the Hebrews that God had created
the world, and all that therein is, within six days : and
therefore he instituting that house, for the finding out
of the true nature of all things (whereby God mought
have the more glory in the workmanship of them, and
men the more fruit in the use of them), did give it also
that second name.

But now to come to our present purpose. When the
king had forbidden to all his people navigation into any
part that was not under his crown, he made nevertheless

256 NEW ATLANTIS

this ordinance : that every twelve years there should
be set forth out of this kingdom two ships, appointed
to several voyages ; that in either of these ships there
should be a mission of three of the fellows or brethren
of Salomon's House, whose errand was only to give us
knowledge of the affairs and state of those countries to
which they were designed ; and especially of the
sciences, arts, manufactures, and inventions of all the
world ; and withal to bring unto us books, instruments,
and patterns in every kind : that the ships, after they
had landed the brethren, should return ; and that the
brethren should stay abroad till the new mission. These
ships are not otherwise fraught than with store of vic
tuals, and good quantity of treasure to remain with the
brethren, for the buying of such things, and rewarding
of such persons, as they should think fit. Now for me
to tell you how the vulgar sort of mariners are contained
from being discovered at land, and how they that must
be put on shore for any time, colour themselves under
the names of other nations, and to what places these
voyages have been designed, and what places of rendez
vous are appointed for the new missions, and the like
circumstances of the practice, I may not do it, neither
is it much to your desire. But thus you see we maintain
a trade, not for gold, silver, or jewels, nor for silks, nor
for spices, nor any other commodity of matter ; but
only for God's first creature, which was light : to have
light, I say, of the growth of all parts of the world.'

And when he had said this, he was silent, and so were
we all ; for indeed we were all astonished to hear so
strange things so probably told. And he perceiving
that we were willing to say somewhat, but had it not
ready, in great courtesy took us off, and descended to
ask us questions of our voyage and fortunes, and in the
end concluded that we mought do well to think with
ourselves, what time of stay we would demand of the
State, and bade us not to scant ourselves ; for he would
procure such time as we desired. Whereupon we all
rose up and presented ourselves to kiss the skirt of his
tippet, but he would not suffer us, and so took his leave.

VOYAGES OF INQUIRY 257

But when it came once amongst our people, that the
State used to offer conditions to strangers that would
stay, we had work enough to get any of our men to look
to our ship, and to keep them from going presently to
the Governor, to crave conditions ; but with much ado
we restrained them, till we mought agree what course to
take.

We took ourselves now for free men, seeing there was
no danger of our utter perdition, and lived most joyfully,
going abroad and seeing what was to be seen in the city
and places adjacent, within our tedder ; and obtaining
acquaintance with many of the city, not of the meanest
quality, at whose hands we found such humanity, and
such a freedom and desire to take strangers, as it were,
into their bosom, as was enough to make us forget all
that was dear to us in our own countries ; and con
tinually we met with many things, right worthy of
observation and relation ; as indeed, if there be a mirror
in the world, worthy to hold men's eyes, it is that
country.

One day there were two of our company bidden to
a feast of the family, as they call it ; a most natural,
pious, and reverend custom it is, showing that nation
to be compounded of all goodness. This is the manner
of it. It is granted to any man that shall live to see
thirty persons descended of his body, alive together,
and all above three years old, to make this feast, which
is done at the cost of the State. The father of the family,
whom they call the Tirsan, two days before the feast,
taketh to him three of such friends as he liketh to
choose, and is assisted also by the Governor of the city
or place where the feast is celebrated, and all the per
sons of the family, of both sexes, are summoned to
attend him. These two days the Tirsan sitteth in con
sultation, concerning the good estate of the family.
There, if there be any discord or suits between any of
the family, they are compounded and appeased. There,
if any of the family be distressed or decayed, order is
taken for their relief, and competent means to live.
There, if any be subject to vice, or take ill courses, they
K

258 NEW ATLANTIS

are reproved and censured. So likewise direction is
given touching marriages, and the courses of life which
any of them should take, with divers other the like
orders and advices. The Governor assisteth, to the end
to put in execution, by his public authority, the decrees
and orders of the Tirsan, if they should be disobeyed,
though that seldom needeth ; such reverence and
obedience they give to the order of Nature. The Tirsan
doth also then ever choose one man from amongst his
sons, to live in house with him ; who is called ever after
the Son of the Vine. The reason will hereafter appear.

On the feast day, the father or Tirsan cometh forth
after divine service into a large room where the feast
is celebrated ; which room hath an half-pace at the
upper end. Against the wall, in the middle of the half-
pace, is a chair placed for him, with a table and carpet
before it. Over the chair is a state, made round or
oval, and it is of ivy ; an ivy somewhat whiter than
ours, like the leaf of a silver asp, but more shining ; for
it is green all winter. And the state is curiously wrought
with silver and silk of divers colours, broiding or binding
in the ivy ; and is ever of the work of some of the daugh
ters of the family, and veiled over at the top, with a fine
net of silk and silver. But the substance of it is true
ivy ; whereof, after it is taken down, the friends of the
family are desirous to have some leaf or sprig to keep.

The Tirsan cometh forth with all his generation or
lineage, the males before him, and the females following
him ; and if there be a mother from whose body the
whole lineage is descended, there is a traverse placed
in a loft above, on the right hand of the chair, with
a privy door, and a carved window of glass, leaded with
gold and blue ; where she sitteth, but is not seen.
When the Tirsan is come forth, he sitteth down in the
chair ; and all the lineage place themselves against the
wall, both at his back, and upon the return of the half -
pace, in order of their years, without difference of sex,
and stand upon their feet. When he is set, the room
being always full of company, but well kept and without
disorder, after some pause there cometh in from the

A FEAST OF THE FAMILY 259

lower end of the room a Taratan (which is as much as
an herald), and on either side of him two young lads :
whereof one carrieth a scroll of their shining yellow
parchment, and the other a cluster of grapes of gold,
with a long foot or stalk. The herald and children are
clothed with mantles of sea-water green satin ; but the
herald's mantle is streamed with gold, and hath a train.

Then the herald with three curtsies, or rather inclin
ations, cometh up as far as the half-pace, and there first
taketh into his hand the scroll. This scroll is the king's
charter, containing gift of revenue, and many privileges,
exemptions, and points of honour, granted to the father
of the family ; and it is ever styled and directed, * To
such an one, our well-beloved friend and creditor,' which
is a title proper only to this case. For they say, the
king is debtor to no man, but for propagation of his
subjects. The seal set to the king's charter is the king's
image, embossed or moulded in gold ; and though such
charters be expedited of course, and as of right, yet they
are varied by discretion, according to the number and
dignity of the family. This charter the herald readeth
aloud ; and while it is read, the father or Tirsan standeth
up, supported by two of his sons, such as he chooseth.
Then the herald mounteth the half -pace, and delivereth
the charter into his hand ; and with that there is an
acclamation, by all that are present, in their language,
which is thus much, ' Happy are the people of Ben-
ealem.'

Then the herald taketh into his hand from the other
child the cluster of grapes, which is of gold ; both the
stalk and the grapes. But the grapes are daintily
enamelled ; and if the males of the family be the greater
number, the grapes are enamelled purple, with a little
sun set on the top ; if the females, then they are enam
elled into a greenish yellow, with a crescent on the top.
The grapes are in number as many as there are de
scendants of the family. This golden cluster the herald
delivereth also to the Tirsan ; who presently delivereth
it over to that son that he had formerly chosen to be
in house with him ; who beareth it before his father,
K2

260 NEW ATLANTIS

as an ensign of honour, when he goeth in public ever
after ; and is thereupon called the Son of the Vine.

After this ceremony ended the father or Tirsan re-
tireth ; and after some time cometh forth again to
dinner, where he sitteth alone under the state, as before ;
and none of his descendants sit with him, of what degree
or dignity so ever, except he hap to be of Salomon's
House. He is served only by his own children, such as
are male ; who perform unto him all service of the
table upon the knee, and the women only stand about
him, leaning against the wall. The room below the
half-pace hath tables on the sides for the guests that
are bidden ; who are served with great and comely
order ; and towards the end of dinner (which in the
greatest feasts with them lasteth never above an hour
and a half) there is a hymn sung, varied according to
the invention of him that composeth it (for they have
excellent poesy) ; but the subject of it is always the
praises of Adam, and Noah, and Abraham ; whereof
the former two peopled the world, and the last was the
father of the faithful : concluding ever with a thanks
giving for the nativity of our Saviour, in whose birth
the births of all are only blessed.

Dinner being done, the Tirsan retireth again ; and
having withdrawn himself alone into a place, where he
maketh some private prayers, he cometh forth the third
time, to give the blessing, with all his descendants, who
stand about him as at the first. Then he calleth them
forth by one and by one, by name as he pleaseth, though
seldom the order of age be inverted. The person that
is called (the table being before removed) kneeleth down
before the chair, and the father layeth his hand upon
his head, or her head, and giveth the blessing in these
words : * Son of Bensalem (or daughter of Bensalem),
thy father saith it ; the man by whom thou hast breath
and life speaketh the word ; the blessing of the ever
lasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and the Holy Dove,
be upon thee, and make the days of thy pilgrimage good
and many.' This he saith to every of them ; and
that done, if there be any of his sons of eminent merit

JOABIN THE JEW 261

and virtue (so they be not above two), he calleth for them
again, and saith, laying his arm over their shoulders,
they standing : * Sons, it is well ye are born, give God
the praise, and persevere to the end.' And withal de-
livereth to either of them a jewel, made in the figure
of an ear of wheat, which they ever after wear in the
front of their turban, or hat. This done, they fall to
music and dances, and other recreations, after their
manner, for the rest of the day. This is the full order
of that feast.

By that time six or seven days were spent, I was fallen
into straight acquaintance with a merchant of that city,
whose name was Joabin. He was a Jew and circum
cised ; for they have some few stirps of Jews yet re
maining amongst them, whom they leave to their own
religion. Which they may the better do, because they
are of a far differing disposition from the Jews in other
parts. For whereas they hate the name of Christ, and
have a secret inbred rancour against the people amongst
whom they live ; these, contrariwise, give unto our
Saviour many high attributes, and love the nation of
Bensalem extremely. Surely this man of whom I speak
would ever acknowledge that Christ was born of a Virgin
and that He was more than a man ; and he would tell
how God made Him ruler of the seraphim, which guard
His throne ; and they call Him also the Milken Way,
and the Eliah of the Messiah, and many other high
names, which though they be inferior to His divine
majesty, yet they are far from the language of other
Jews.

And for the country of Bensalem, this man would
make no end of commending it, being desirous by tradi
tion among the Jews there to have it believed that the
people thereof were of the generations of Abraham, by
another son, whom they call Nachoran ; and that Moses
by a secret cabala ordained the laws of Bensalem which
they now use ; and that when the Messiah should come,
and sit in His throne at Jerusalem, the King of Bensa
lem should sit at His feet, whereas other kings should
keep a great distance. But yet setting aside these

262 NEW ATLANTIS

Jewish dreams, the man was a wise man and learned,
and of great policy, and excellently seen in the laws
and customs of that nation.

Amongst other discourses one day I told him, I was
much affected with the relation I had from some of the
company of their custom in holding the feast of the
family, for that, methought, I had never heard of a so
lemnity wherein Nature did so much preside. And
because propagation of families proceedeth from the
nuptial copulation, I desired to know of him what laws
and customs they had concerning marriage, and whether
they kept marriage well, and whether they were tied
to one wife ? For that where population is so much
affected, and such as with them it seemed to be, there
is commonly permission of plurality of wives.

To this he said : ' You have reason for to commend
that excellent institution of the feast of the family ; and
indeed we have experience, that those families that are
partakers of the blessings of that feast, do flourish and
prosper ever after in an extraordinary manner. But
hear me now, and I will tell you what I know. You
shall understand that there is not under the heavens
so chaste a nation as this of Bensalem, nor so free from
all pollution or foulness. It is the virgin of the world'. . .

I have not read of any such chastity in any people as
theirs. And their usual saying is, that whosoever is
unchaste cannot reverence himself ; and they say that
the reverence of a man's self, is, next religion, the
chief est bridle of all vices.'

And when he had said this the good Jew paused
a little ; whereupon I, far more willing to hear him
speak on than to speak myself, yet thinking it decent
that upon his pause of speech I should not be alto
gether silent, said only this ; that I would say to him,
as the widow of Sarepta said to Elias, that he was
come to bring to memory our sins ; and that I confess
the righteousness of Bensalem was greater than the
righteousness of Europe. At which speech he bowed
his head, and went on this manner.

' They have also many wise and excellent laws touch-

LAWS TOUCHING MARRIAGE 263

ing marriage. They allow no polygamy. They have
ordained that none do intermarry, or contract, until
a month be past from their first interview. Marriage
without consent of parents they do not make void, but
they mulct it in the inheritors ; for the children of such
marriages are not admitted to inherit above a third
part of their parents' inheritance.

And as we were thus in conference, there came one
that seemed to be a messenger, in a rich huke, that
spake with the Jew ; whereupon he turned to me, and
said, * You will pardon me, for I am commanded away
in haste.' The next morning he came to me again,
joyful as it seemed, and said, ' There is word come to
the Governor of the city, that one of the fathers of Salo
mon's House will be here this day seven-night ; we
have seen none of them this dozen years. His coming
is in state ; but the cause of his coming is secret. I will
provide you and your fellows of a good standing to see
his entry.' I thanked him, and told him I was most
glad of the news.

The day being come he made his entry. He was
a man of middle stature and age, comely of person, and
had an aspect as if he pitied men. He was clothed in
a robe of fine black cloth, with wide sleeves, and a cape :
his under garment was of excellent white linen down to
the foot, girt with a girdle of the same ; and a sindon or
tippet of the same about his neck. He had gloves that
were curious, and set with stone ; and shoes of peach-
coloured velvet. His neck was bare to the shoulders.
His hat was like a helmet, or Spanish montero ; and
his locks curled below it decently : they were of colour
brown. His beard was cut round and of the same
colour with his hair, somewhat lighter. He was carried
in a rich chariot, without wheels, litter-wise, with two
horses at either end, richly trapped in blue velvet em
broidered ; and two footmen on each side in the like
attire. The chariot was all of cedar, gilt, and adorned
with crystal ; save that the fore-end had panels of
sapphires, set in borders of gold, and the hinder-end
the like of emeralds of the Peru colour. There was also

264 NEW ATLANTIS

a sun of gold, radiant upon the top, in the midst ; and
on the top before, a small cherub of gold, with wings
displayed. The chariot was covered with cloth of gold
tissued upon blue. He had before him fifty attendants,
young men all, in white satin loose coats to the mid-
leg ; and stockings of white silk, and shoes of blue
velvet ; and hats of blue velvet, with fine plumes of
divers colours, set round like hat-bands. Next before
the chariot went two men, bare-headed, in linen gar
ments down to the foot, girt, and shoes of blue velvet,
who carried the one a crosier, the other a pastoral staff
like a sheep-hook : neither of them of metal, but the
crosier of balm-wood, the pastoral staff of cedar.
Horsemen he had none, neither before nor behind his
chariot : as it seemeth, to avoid all tumult and trouble.
Behind his chariot went all the officers and principals
of the companies of the city. He sat alone, upon
cushions, of a kind of excellent plush, blue ; and under
his foot curious carpets of silk of divers colours, like the
Persian, but far finer. He held up his bare hand, as
he went, as blessing the people, but in silence. The
street was wonderfully well kepb ; so that there was
never any army had their men stand in better battle-
array than the people stood. The windows likewise
were not crowded, but every one stood in them, as if
they had been placed.

When the show was passed, the Jew said to me,
' I shall not be able to attend you as I would, in regard
of some charge the city hath laid upon me for the enter
taining of this great person.' Three days after the Jew
came to me again, and said, * Ye are happy men ; for
the father of Salomon's House taketh knowledge of
your being here, and commanded me to tell you, that
he will admit all your company to his presence, and
have private conference with one of you, that ye shall
choose ; and for this hath appointed the next day after
to-morrow. And because he meaneth to give you his
blessing, he hath appointed it in the forenoon.'

We came at our day and hour, and I was chosen by
my fellows for the private access. We found him in

A FATHER OF SALOMON'S HOUSE 265

a fair chamber, richly hanged, and carpeted under foot,
without any degrees to the state. He was set upon
a low throne richly adorned, and a rich cloth of state
over his head, of blue satin embroidered. He was alone,
save that he had two pages of honour, on either hand
one, finely attired in white. His under garments were
the like that we saw him wear in the chariot ; but in
stead of his gown, he had on him a mantle with a cape,
of the same fine black, fastened about him. When we
came in, as we were taught, we bowed low at our first
entrance ; and when we were come near his chair, he
stood up, holding forth his hand ungloved, and in pos
ture of blessing ; and we every one of us stooped down,
and kissed the hem of his tippet. That done, the rest
departed, and I remained. Then he warned the pages
forth of the room, and caused me to sit down beside
him, and spake to me thus in the Spanish tongue :

' God bless thee, my son ; I will give thee the greatest
jewel I have. For I will impart unto thee, for the love
of God and men, a relation of the true state of Salomon's
House. Son, to make you know the true state of Salo
mon's House, I will keep this order. First, I will set
forth unto you the end of our foundation. Secondly,
the preparations and instruments we have for our works.
Thirdly, the several employments and functions whereto
our fellows are assigned. And fourthly, the ordinances
and rites which we observe.

' The end of our foundation is the knowledge of
causes, and secret motions of things ; and the enlarging
of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all
things possible.

' The preparations and instruments are these. We
have large and deep caves of several depths : the deepest
are sunk six hundred fathoms ; and some of them are
digged and made under great hills and mountains ; so
that if you reckon together the depth of the hill, and
the depth of the cave, they are, some of them, above
three miles deep. For we find that the depth of a hill,
and the depth of a cave from the flat, is the same thing ;
both remote alike from the sun and heaven's

266 NEW ATLANTIS

and from the open air. These caves we call the lower
region, and we use them for all coagulations, indura
tions, refrigerations, and conservations of bodies. We
use them likewise for the imitation of natural mines,
and the producing also of new artificial metals, by com
positions and materials which we use, and lay there for
many years. We use them also sometimes (which may
seem strange) for curing of some diseases, and for pro
longation of life, in some hermits that choose to live
there, well accommodated of all things necessary, and
indeed live very long ; by whom also we learn many
things.

' We have burials in several earths, where we put
divers cements, as the Chinese do their porcelain. But
we have them in greater variety, and some of them
more fine. We also have great variety of composts
and soils, for the making of the earth fruitful.

* We have high towers, the highest about half a mile
in height, and some of them likewise set upon high
mountains, so that the vantage of the hill, with the
tower, is in the highest of them three miles at least.
And these places we call the upper region, accounting
the air between the high places and the low as a middle
region. We use these towers, according to their several
heights and situations, for insulation, refrigeration,
conservation, and for the view of divers meteors — as
winds, rain, snow, hail ; and some of the fiery meteors
also. And upon them, in some places, are dwellings
of hermits, whom we visit sometimes, and instruct what
to observe.

* We have great lakes, both salt and fresh, whereof
we have use for the fish and fowl. We use them also
for burials of some natural bodies, for we find a differ
ence in things buried in earth, or in air below the earth,
and things buried in water. We have also pools, of
which some do strain fresh water out of salt, and others
by art do turn fresh water into salt. We have also
some rocks in the midst of the sea, and some bays upon
the shore for some works, wherein is required the air
and vapour of the sea. We have likewise violent streams

INSTRUMENTS OP KNOWLEDGE 267

and cataracts, which serve us for many motions ; and
likewise engines for multiplying and enforcing of winds
to set also on divers motions.

' We have also a number of artificial wells and foun
tains, made in imitation of the natural sources and
baths, as tincted upon vitriol, sulphur, steel, brass,
lead, nitre, and other minerals ; and again, we have
little wells for infusions of many things, where the
waters take the virtue quicker and better than in vessels
or basins. And amongst them we have a water, which
we call Water of Paradise, being by that we do to it
made very sovereign for health and prolongation of life.

* We have also great and spacious houses, where we
imitate and demonstrate meteors — as snow, hail, rain,
some artificial rains of bodies, and not of water, thun
ders, lightnings ; also generations of bodies in air — as
frogs, flies, and divers others.

' We have also certain chambers, which we call cham
bers of health, where we qualify the air as we think good
and proper for the cure of divers diseases, and preserva
tion of health.

' We have also fair and large baths, of several mix
tures, for the cure of diseases, and the restoring of man's
body from arefaction ; and others for the confirming
of it in strength of sinews, vital parts, and the very juice
and substance of the body.

* We have also large and various orchards and gar
dens, wherein we do not so much respect beauty as
variety of ground and soil, proper for divers trees and
herbs, and some very spacious, where trees and berries
are set, whereof we make clivers kinds of drinks, besides
the vineyards. In these we practise likewise all con
clusions of grafting and inoculating, as well of wild-
trees as fruit-trees, which produceth many effects.
And we make by art, in the same orchards and gardens,
trees and flowers, to come earlier or later than their
seasons, and to come up and bear more speedily than
by their natural course they do. We make them also
by art greater much than their nature ; and their fruit
greater and sweeter, and of differing taste, smell, colour,

268 NEW ATLANTIS

and figure, from their nature. And many of them wo
so order as they become of medicinal use.

' We have also means to make divers plants rise by
mixtures of earths without seeds, and likewise to make
divers new plants, differing from the vulgar, and to
make one tree or plant turn into another.

* We have also parks, and enclosures of all sorts, of
beasts and birds ; which we use not only for view or
rareness, but likewise for dissections and trials, that
thereby we may take light what may be wrought upon
the body of man. Wherein we find many strange
effects : as continuing life in them, though divers parts,
which you account vital, be perished and taken forth ;
resuscitating of some that seem dead in appearance,
and the like. We try also all poisons, and other medi
cines upon them, as well of chirurgery as physic. By
art likewise we make them greater or taller than their
kind is, and contrariwise dwarf them and stay their
growth ; we make them more fruitful and bearing than
their kind is, and contrariwise barren and not genera
tive. Also we make them differ in colour, shape, ac
tivity, many ways. We find means to make com
mixtures and copulations of divers kinds, which have
produced many new kinds, and them not barren, as
the general opinion is. We make a number of kinds,
of serpents, worms, flies, fishes, of putrefaction, whereof
some are advanced (in effect) to be perfect creatures,
like beasts or birds, and have sexes, and do propagate.
Neither do we this by chance, but we know beforehand
of what matter and commixture, what kind of those
creatures will arise.

* WTe have also particular pools where we make trials
upon fishes, as we have said before of beasts and birds.

'We have also places for breed and generation of
those kinds of worms and flies which are of special use ;
such as are with you your silkworms and bees.

' I will not hold you long with recounting of our
brew-houses, bake-houses, and kitchens, where are
made divers drinks, breads, and meats, rare and of
special effects. Wines we have of grapes, and drinks

INSTRUMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE 269

of other juice, of fruits, of grains, and of roots, and of
mixtures with honey, sugar, manna, and fruits dried
and decocted ; also of the tears or woundings of trees,
and of the pulp of canes. And these drinks are of
several ages, some to the age or last of forty years. We
have drinks also brewed with several herbs, and roots
and spices ; yea, with several fleshes and white-meats ;
whereof some of the drinks are such as they are in effect
meat and drink both, so that divers, especially in age,
do desire to live with them with little or no meat or
bread. And above all we strive to have drinks of ex
treme thin parts, to insinuate into the body, and yet
without all biting, sharpness, or fretting ; insomuch
as some of them, put upon the back of your hand, will
with a little stay pass through to the palm, and taste
yet mild to the mouth. We have also waters, which
we ripen in that fashion, as they become nourishing,
so that they are indeed excellent drinks, and many will
use no other. Bread we have of several grains, roots,
and kernels ; yea, and some of flesh, and fish, dried ;
with divers kinds of leavenings and seasonings ; so that
some do extremely move appetites, some do nourish
so, as divers do live of them, without any other meat,
who live very long. So for meats, we have some of
them so beaten, and made tender, and mortified, yet
without all corrupting, as a weak heat of the stomach
will turn them into good chilus, as well as a strong heat
would meat otherwise prepared. We have some meats
also, and breads, and drinks, which taken by men,
enable them to fast long after ; and some other, that
used make the very flesh of men's bodies sensibly more
hard and tough, and their strength far greater than
otherwise it would be.

' We have dispensatories or shops of medicines ;
wherein you may easily think, if we have such variety
of plants, and living creatures, more than you have in
Europe (for we know what you have), the simples, drugs
and ingredients of medicines, must likewise be in so
much the greater variety. We have them likewise of
divers ages, and long fermentations. And for their

270 NEW ATLANTIS

preparations, we have not only all manner of exquisite
distillations and separations, and especially by gentle
heats, and percolations through divers strainers, yea,
and substances ; but also exact forms of composition,
whereby they incorporate almost as they were natural
simples.

' We have also divers mechanical arts, which you
have not ; and stuffs made by them, as papers, linen,
silks, tissues, dainty works of feathers of wonderful
lustre, excellent dyes, and many others : and shops
likewise, as well for such as are not brought into vulgar
use amongst us, as for those that are. For you must
know, that of the things before recited, many of them
are grown into use throughout the kingdom, but yet,
if they did flow from our invention, we have of them
also for patterns and principles.

* We have also furnaces of great diversities, and that
keep great diversity of heats : fierce and quick, strong
and constant, soft and mild ; blown, quiet, dry, moist,
and the like. But above all we have heats, in imitation
of the sun's and heavenly bodies' heats, that pass divers
inequalities, and (as it were) orbs, progresses, and
returns, whereby we produce admirable effects. Besides,
we have heats of dungs, and of bellies and maws of
living creatures and of their bloods and bodies, and of
hays and herbs laid up moist, of lime unquenched, and
such like. Instruments also which generate heat only
by motion. And farther, places for strong insulations ;
and again, places under the earth, which by nature or
art yield heat. These divers heats we use as the nature
of the operation which we intend requireth.

* We have also perspective houses, where we make
demonstrations of all lights and radiations, and of all
colours ; and out of things uncoloured and transparent,
we can represent unto you all several colours, not in
rainbows (as it is in gems and prisms), but of them
selves single. We represent also all multiplications of
light, which we carry to great distance, and make so
sharp, as to discern small points and lines. Also all
colourations of light ; all delusions and deceits of the

INSTRUMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE 271

sight, in figures, magnitudes, motions, colours ; all
demonstrations of shadows. We find also divers means
yet unknown to you, of producing of light, originally
from divers bodies. We procure means of seeing objects
afar off, as in the heaven and remote places ; and repre
sent things near as afar off, and things afar off as near ;
making feigned distances. We have also helps for the
sight, far above spectacles and glasses in use. We
have also glasses and means to see small and minute
bodies, perfectly and distinctly ; as the shapes and
colours of small flies and worms, grains, and flaws in
gems which cannot otherwise be seen, observations in
urine and blood not otherwise to be seen. We make
artificial rainbows, halos, and circles about light. We
represent also all manner of reflections, refractions, and
multiplications of visual beams of objects.

' We have also precious stones of all kinds, many of
them of great beauty and to you unknown ; crystals
likewise, and glasses of divers kinds ; and amongst them
some of metals vitrificated, and other materials, besides
those of which you make glass. Also a number of fossils
and imperfect minerals, which you have not. Likewise
loadstones of prodigious virtue : and other rare stones,
both natural and artificial.

4 We have also sound-houses, where we practise and
demonstrate all sounds and their generation. We have
harmonies which you have not, of quarter-sounds and
lesser slides of sounds. Divers instruments of music
likewise to you unknown, some sweeter than any you
have ; together with bells and rings that are dainty and
sweet. We represent small sounds as great and deep ;
likewise great sounds, extenuate and sharp ; we make
divers tremblings and warblings of sounds, which in
their original are entire. We represent and imitate all
articulate sounds and letters, and the voices and notes
of beasts and birds. We have certain helps, which set
to the ear do further the hearing greatly. We have
also divers strange and artificial echoes, reflecting the
voice many times, and as it were tossing it ; and some
that give back the voice louder than it came, some

272 NEW ATLANTIS

shriller and some deeper ; yea, some rendering the
voice, differing in the letters or articulate sound from
that they receive. We have also means to convey
sounds in trunks and pipes, in strange lines and
distances.

' We have also perfume-houses, wherewith we join
also practices of taste. We multiply smells, which may
seem strange : we imitate smells, making all smells to
breathe out of other mixtures than those that give
them. We make divers imitations of taste likewise, so
that they will deceive any man's taste. And in this
house we contain also a confiture-house, where we make
all sweetmeats, dry and moist, and divers pleasant
wines, milks, broths, and salads, far in greater variety
than you have.

* We have also engine-houses, where are prepared
engines and instruments for all sorts of motions. There
we imitate and practise to make swifter motions than
any you have, either out of your muskets or any engine
that you have ; and to make them and multiply them
more easily and with small force, by wheels and other
means, and to make them stronger and more violent
than yours are, exceeding your greatest cannons and
basilisks. We represent also ordnance and instruments
of war and engines of all kinds ; and likewise new
mixtures and compositions of gunpowder, wild-fires
burning in water and unquenchable, also fire-works of
all variety, both for pleasure and use. We imitate also
flights of birds ; we have some degrees of flying in the
air. We have ships and boats for going under water
and brooking of seas, also swimming -girdles and sup
porters. We have divers curious clocks, and other like
motions of return, and some perpetual motions. We
imitate also motions of living creatures by images of
men, beasts, birds, fishes, and serpents ; we have also
a great number of other various motions, strange for
equality, fineness, and subtilty.

' We have also a mathematical-house, where are
represented all instruments, as well of geometry as
astronomy, exquisitely made

EMPLOYMENTS AND FUNCTIONS 273

* We have also houses of deceits of the senses, where
vre represent all manner of feats of juggling, false
apparitions, impostures and illusions, and their fallacies.
And surely you will easily believe that we, that have
BO many things truly natural which induce admiration,
could in a world of particulars deceive the senses if we
would disguise those things, and labour to make them
seem more miraculous. But we do hate all impostures
and lies, insomuch as we have severely forbidden it to
all our fellows, under pain of ignominy and fines, that
they do not show any natural work or thing adorned
or swelling, but only pure as it is, and without all
affectation of strangeness.

' These are, my son, the riches of Salomon's House.

' For the several employments and offices of our
fellows, we have twelve that sail into foreign countries
under the names of other nations (for our own we
conceal), who bring us the books and abstracts, and
patterns of experiments of all other parts. These we
call Merchants of Light.

' We have three that collect the experiments which
are in all books. These we call Depredators.

' We have three that collect the experiments of all
mechanical arts, and also of liberal sciences, and also of
practises which are not brought into arts. These we
call Mystery-men.

' We have three that try new experiments, such as
themselves think good. These we call Pioneers or
Miners.

' We have three that draw the experiments of the
former four into titles and tables, to give the better
light for the drawing of observations and axioms out of
them. These we call Compilers.

' We have three that bend themselves, looking into
the experiments of their fellows, and cast about how
to draw out of them things of use and practice for man's
life and knowledge, as well for works as for plain
demonstration of causes, means of natural divinations,
and the easy and clear discovery of the virtues and parts
of bodies. These we call dowry-men or Benefactors.

274 NEW ATLANTIS

' Then after divers meetings and consults of our whole
number, to consider of the former labours and collec*
tions, we have three that take care out of them to direct
new experiments, of a higher light, more penetrating
into Nature than the former. These we call Lamps.

' We have three others that do execute the experi
ments so directed, and report them. These we call
Inoculators.

' Lastly, we have three that raise the former dis
coveries by experiments into greater observations,
axioms, and aphorisms. These we call Interpreters of
Nature.

' We have also, as you must think, novices and ap
prentices, that the succession of the former employed
men do not fail ; besides a great number of servants
and attendants, men and women. And this we do
also : we have consultations, which of the inventions
and experiences which we have discovered shall be
published, and which not : and take all an oath of
secrecy for the concealing of those which we think fit
to keep secret : though some of those we do reveal
sometimes to the State, and some not.

* For our ordinances and rites, we have two very long
and fair galleries : in one of these we place patterns
and samples of all manner of the more rare and excellent
inventions : in the other we place the statues of all
principal inventors. There we have the statue of your
Columbus, that discovered the West Indies : also the
inventor of ships : your Monk that was the inventor
of ordnance and of gunpowder : the inventor of music :
the inventor of letters : the inventor of printing :
the inventor of observations of astronomy : the in
ventor of works in metal : the inventor of glass : the
inventor of silk of the worm : the inventor of wine :
the inventor of corn and bread : the inventor of sugars :
and all these by more certain tradition than you have.
Then we have divers inventors of our own, of excellent
works, which since you have not seen, it were too long
to make descriptions of them ; and besides, in the right
understanding of those descriptions you might easily

ORDINANCES AND RITES 275

err. For upon every invention of value we erect a statue
to the inventor, and give him a liberal and honourable
reward. These statues are some of brass, some of
marble and touchstone, some of cedar and other special
woods gilt and adorned ; some of iron, some of silver,
some of gold.

' We have certain hymns and services, which we say
daily, of laud and thanks to God for His marvellous
works. And forms of prayer, imploring His aid and
blessing for the illumination of our labours, and the
turning of them into good and holy uses.

' Lastly, we have circuits or visits, of divers principal
cities of the kingdom ; where, as it cometh to pass,
we do publish such new profitable inventions as we
think good. And we do also declare natural divinations
of diseases, plagues, swarms of hurtful creatures, scarcity,
tempests, earthquakes, great inundations, comets, tem
perature of the year, and divers other things ; and we
give counsel thereupon, what the people shall do for
the prevention and remedy of them.'

And when he had said this he stood up ; and I, as
I had been taught, knelt down ; and he laid his right
hand upon my head, and said, ' God bless thee, my son,
and God bless this relation which I have made. I give
thee leave to publish it, for the good of other nations ;
for we here are in God's bosom, a land unknown.' And
so he left me ; having assigned a value of about two
thousand ducats for a bounty to me and my fellows.
For they give great largesses, where they come, upoo
all occasions.

The rest was not perfected

PRINTED IN
GREAT BRITAIN

AT THE

UNIVERSITY PRESS
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BY

JOHN JOHNSON
PRINTER

TO THE
UNIVERSITY

B 1190 1906 SMC

Bacon, Franc is,-

1561-1626.
The advancement of

learning and New
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