Advancement of Learning i i i 



brother and sister, both children of the sun, as in the verses, 



Ipse repertorem medicinae tails et artis 



Fulmine Phaebigenam Stygias detrusit ad undas : l 



And again, 



Dives inaccessos ubi Solis filia lucos, etc. 2 



For in all times, in the opinion of the multitude, witches and 

 old women and impostors have had a competition with 

 physicians. And what followeth ? Even this, that physi 

 cians say to themselves as Salomon expresseth it upon a 

 higher occasion ; // it befall to me as befalleth to the fools, 

 why should I labour to be more wise ? 3 And therefore I can 

 not 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 anti 

 quaries, poets, humanists, statesmen, merchants, divines, 

 and in every of these better seen than in their profession ; 

 and no doubt upon this ground, that they find that medio 

 crity 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 pre 

 dominant 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 imagina 

 tion, 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 buffoon or pantomimus* who will 

 express as many as he pleaseth. Nothing more variable 

 than the differing sounds of words; yet men have found 



1 Virg. JEn. vii. 772. a Ibid. vii. n. 8 Eccles. ii. 15. 



* Buffon, or pantomimus, in the original ; showing that the words 

 were newly imported into the English tongue. The pantomime 

 was then a person, not a play. 



