Advancement of Learning i 23 



That this part of knowledge is wanting, to my judgment 

 standeth plainly confessed; for first, Logic doth not pretend 

 to invent sciences, or the axioms of sciences, but passeth it 

 over with a Cuique in sua arte credendum? And Celsus 

 acknowledgeth it gravely, speaking of the Empirical and 

 dogmatical sects of physicians, That medicines and cures 

 were first found out, and then after the reasons and causes were 

 discoursed ; and not the causes first found out, and by light 

 from them the medicines and cures discovered? And Plato, 

 in his Theaetetus, noteth well, That particulars are infinite, 

 and the higher generalities give no sufficient direction : and 

 that the pith of all sciences, which maketh the artsman differ 

 from the inexpert, is in the middle propositions, which in every 

 particular knowledge are taken from tradition and experience? 

 And therefore we see, that they which discourse of the 

 inventions and originals of things, refer them rather to 

 chance than to art, and rather to beasts, birds fishes, 

 serpents, than to men. 



Dictamnum genitrix Cretaea carpit ab Ida, 

 Puberibus caulem foliis et flore comantem 

 Purpureo; non ilia feris incognita capris 

 Gramina, cum tergo volucres haesere sagittae. 4 



So that it was no marvel, the manner of antiquity being to 

 consecrate inventors, that the Egyptians had so few human 

 idols in their temples, but almost all brute. 



Omnigenumque Deum monstra, et latrator Anubis, 

 Contra Neptunum, et Venerem, contraque Minervam, etc. 6 



And if you like better the tradition of the Grecians, and 

 ascribe the first inventions to men; yet you will rather 

 believe that Prometheus first struck the flints, and mar 

 velled at the spark, than that when he first struck the flints 

 he expected the spark : and therefore we see the West Indian 

 Prometheus 6 had no intelligence with the European, 



1 Ellis and Spedding refer to Arist. Anal. Pr. i. 30; Mr. Markby 

 to Eth. Mag. i. i. 17. Aristotle declares (Rhet. i. i. i) that neither 

 Rhetoric nor Logic has any proper subject-matter, both being 

 purely instrumental; accordingly neither can &quot; invent sciences.&quot; 



a De Re Med. i. i. 



3 Not in the Thecetetus certainly. As Bacon in the Latin intro 

 duces the quotation withs Plato non sentel innuit, he probably is 

 not quoting any exact passage. 



4 Virg. flLn, xii. 412. 6 Ibid. viii. 698. 



6 Refers, doubtless, to the rubbing of two sticks together to 

 produce fire. Cf. Nov. Org. u. ii. 16. 



