34 Bacon 



8. Another error is anjmpatience of doubt jmd_ haste to 

 assertion without due anfl mftfrire suspension nf judgment 



Tor 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 con 

 templation; 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 majm^r_^f_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 beT 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 know 

 ledge, men ought not to fall either on the one side into the 

 vein of Velleius the Epicurean: Nil tarn metuens, qudm ne 

 dubitare aliqua de re videretur ; l nor on the other side into 

 Socrates his ironical doubting of all things ; 2 but to pro 

 pound things sincerely with more or less asseveration, as 

 they stand in a man s own judgment 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 3 kind of professors 

 of any science ought to propound to themselves to make 

 some additions to their science, they convert their labours 

 to aspire to certain second prizes: as to be a profound 

 interpreter or commenter, to be a sharp champion or de 

 fender, to be a methodical compounder or abridger; and 

 so the patrimony of knowledge cometh to be sometimes 

 improved, but sejjlam_augmented. 



11. But the greatest error oFaH the rest is the mistaking 

 or mispla^in^_of_thejast or farthest endjof knowledge : for 

 inerTriave entered into~aT7Iesire of learning and knowledge, 

 sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite ; 

 sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and delight ; 

 sometimes for ornament and reputation ; and sometimes to 



1 Cic. De Nat. Dear. I. viii. 18. 



2 His Et/ocovfia. See Plato, Apol. (p. 21), for the best instance of 

 this. He there explains his superiority to consist in the knowledge 

 of his own ignorance. 3 So edition 1605. 



