The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

BooK 1. ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 171
worketh his web, then itis endless and brings forth universality of reading and contemplation, they
indeed cobwebs of learning, admirable for the fine- had proved excellent lights, to the great advanceness of thread and work, but of no substance or ment of all learning and knowledge; but as they
profit. are, they are great undertakers indeed, and fierce
This same unprofitable subtilty or curiosity is with dark keeping: but as in the inquiry of the
of two sorts; either in the subjectitself that they divine truth, their pride inclined to leave the
handle, when it is a fruitless speculation or con- oracle of God's word, and to vanish in the mixture
troversy, whereof there are no small number both of their own inventions; so in the inquisition of
in divinity and philosophy, or in the manner or nature, they ever left the oracle of God's works,
method of handling of a knowledge, which and adored the deceiving and deformed images,
amongst them was this; upon every particular which the unequal mirror of their own minds, or
position or assertion to frame objections, and to a few received authors or principles, did reprethose objections, solutions; which solutions sent unto them. And thus much for the second
were for the most part not confutations but dis- disease of learning.
tinctions; whereas indeed the strength of all For the third vice or disease of learning, which
sciences is, as the strength of the old man's fag- concerneth deceit or untruth, it is of all the rest
got, ill the band. For the harmony of a science, the foulest; as that which doth destroy the essensupporting each part the other, is and ought to be tial form of knowledge, which is nothing but a
thle true and brief confutation and suppression of representation of truth: for the truth of being
all the smaller sort of objections. But, on the and the truth of knowing are one, differing no
other sidle, if you take out every axiom, as the more than the direct beam and the beam reflected.
stic;ls of the faggot, one by one, you may quarrel This vice therefore brancheth itself into two sorts;
with them, and bend them, and break them at delight in deceiving, and aptness to be deceived;
your pleasure: so that, as was said of Seneca, imposture and credulity; which, although they
", Verborum minutiis rerum frangit pondera;" so appear to be of a diverse nature, the one seeming
a man may truly say of the schoolmen, ", Quees- to proceed of cunning, and the other of simplicity,
tionuin ninutiis, scientiarem frangunt solidita- yet certainly they do for the most part concur: for
tem." For were it not better for a man in a fair as the verse noteth,
room to set up one great light, or branching can- 4' Percontatorenl fugito, nam garrulus idem est;"
dlestick of lights, than to go about with a small an inquisitive man is a prattler; so, upon the like
watch candle into every corner l And such is their reason, a credulous man is a deceiver: as we see
method, that rests not so much upon evidence of it in fame, that he that will easily believe rumours,
truth proved by arguments, authorities, simili- will as easily augment rumours, and add sometudes, examples, as upon particular confutations what to them of his-own: which Tacitus wisely
and solutions of every scruple, cavillation, and noteth, when he saith, "6Fingunt simul creduntobjection; breeding for the most part one question que:" so great an affinity hath fiction and belief.
as fast as it solveth another; even as in the former This facility of credit, and accepting or admitresemblance, when you carry the light into one ting things weakly authorized or warranted, is of
corner, you darken the rest: so that the fable and two kinds, according to the subject: for it is either
fiction of Scylla seemeth to be a lively image of a belief of history, or, as the lawyers speak, matthis kind of philosophy or knowledge: who was ter of fact; or else of matter of art and opinion.
transformed into a comely virgin for the upper As to the former, we see the experience and inconparts: but then "6 Candida succinctamlatrantibus venience of this error in ecclesiastical history;
inguina monstris:" so the generalities of the which hath too easily received and registered reschoolmen are for a while good and proportion- ports and narrations of miracles wrought by marable; but then, when you descend into their dis- tyrs, hermits, or monks of the desert, and other
tinctions and decisions, instead of a fruitful womb, holy men, and their relies, shrines, chapels, and
for the use and benefit of man's life, they end in images: which though they had a passage for a
monstrous altercations and barking questions. So time, by the ignorance of the people, the superstias it is not possible but this quality of knowledge tious simplicity of some, and the politic toleration
m -st fall under popular contempt, the people being of others, holding them but as divine poesies; yet
apt to contemn truth upon occasion of controver- after a period of time, when the mist began to
sies and altercations, and to think they are all out clear up, they grew to be esteemed but as old
of their way which never meet: and when they wives' fables, impostures of the clergy, illusions
see such digladiation about subtilties, and mat- of spirits, and badges of antichrist, to the great
ters of no use or moment, they easily fall upon scandal and detriment of religion.
that judgment of Dionysius of Syracuse, ",Verba So in natural history, we see there hath not
ista sunt senum otiosorum." been that choice and judgment used as ought to
Notwithstanding, certain it is that if those have been; as may appear in the writings of
schoolmen, to their great thirst of truth and un- Plinius, Cardanus, Albertus, and divers of the
wearied travail of wit, had joined variety and Arabians, being fraught with much fabulous