22 Bacon 



cation of learnedmen to men in fortune. For the answer 

 was~~good that &amp;gt;iogenes made to one that asked him in 

 mockery, How it came to pass that philosophers were the fol 

 lowers of rich men, and not rich men of philosophers ? He 

 answered soberly, and yet sharply, Because the one sort knew 

 what they had n:ed of, and the other did not. 1 And of the like 

 nature was the answer which Aristippus made, when having 

 a petition to Dionysius, and no ear given to him, he fell 

 down at his feet ; whereupon Dionysius staid, and gave him 

 the hearing, and granted it; and afterward some person, 

 tender on the behalf of philosophy, reproved Aristippus that 

 he would offer the profession of philosophy such an indignity 

 as for a private suit to fall at a tyrant s feet: but he 

 answered, It was not his fault, but it was the fault of Dionysius 

 that had his ears in his feet. 2 Neither was it accounted 

 weakness, but discretion in him that would not dispute his 

 best with Adrianus Caesar; excusing himself, That it was 

 reason to yield to him that commanded thirty legions? These 

 and the like applications,^a.nd 



sity_and convenience._jcannot be disallowed: for though 

 they may have some ojitwa^baseriess, yet in a judgment 

 truly made they are to be accounted submissions to. the 

 occasion, and not to the person. 



3. Now I proceed to those errors and vanities which have 

 intervened amongst the studies themselves of the learned, 

 which is that which is prrnripaLand proper_lQj:he present 

 argjmiejitj wherein my purpose is not to make a justifica- 

 tionofthe errors, but by a censure and separation of the 

 errors to make a justification of that which is good and 

 sound, and to deliver that from the aspersion of the other. 

 For we see thatjt is the manner_ol men_jo scandalize and 

 deprave that jwhich_j-etaineth,tlie_, stat.e_fandjrtue. by 



taking jdantage 



&quot;&quot; 



jite : as&quot;&quot;t he heathens in the primitive church used to 

 blemish and taint the Christians with the faults and 

 corruptions of heretics. But nevertheless I have no 



1 Diog. Laert. Vit. Aristippi, ii. 69; the answer was given by 

 Aristippus. * Ibid. ii. 79. 



3 Spartianus, Vit. Adriani, 15. The excuse was made by 

 Favorinus. 



4 Had Bacon been accustomed to use the then modern word its, 

 it is probable he would have used it here. As it is &quot; the state and 

 virtue &quot; must mean its pure and right condition. 



