82 Bacon 



tion 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. 



Thus much therefore concerning history; which is that 

 , part of learning which answereth to one of the cells, domi- 

 . t ciles, or offices of the mind of man : which is that of 

 \memory. 



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, etc. 1 It is taken in two 

 senses 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. 



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 trite history have not that magnitude which 

 satisfieth the mind of man, poesy feigneth acts and events 

 greater and more heroical : because true history propound- 

 eth 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 unex 

 pected and alternative variations: so as it appeareth that 

 poesy serveth and conferreth to magnanimity, morality, 

 and to delectation. And therefore it was ever thought to 

 1 Hor. Ep. ad Pis. 9. 



