208 Bacon 



THUS have I concluded this portion of learning touching 

 civil knowledge ; and with civil knowledge have concluded 

 human philosophy; and with human philosophy, philo 

 sophy in general. And being now at some pause, looking 

 back into that I have passed through, this writing seemeth 

 to me, si nunquam fallit imago, 1 (as far as a man can judge 

 of his own work,) not much better than that noise or 

 sound which musicians make while they are tuning their 

 instruments : which is nothing pleasant to hear, but yet is 

 a cause why the music is sweeter afterwards: so have I 

 been content to tune the instruments of the Muses, that they 

 may play that have better hands. And surely, when I set 

 before me the condition of these times, in which learning 

 hath made her third visitation or circuit in all the qualities 

 thereof as the excellency and vivacity of the wits of this 

 age; the noble helps and lights which we have by the 

 travails of ancient writers; the art of printing, which 

 communicateth books to men of all fortunes ; the openness 

 of the world by navigation, which hath disclosed multi 

 tudes of experiments, and a mass of natural history; the 

 leisure wherewith these times abound, not employing men 

 so generally in civil business, as the states of Graecia did, 

 in respect of their popularity, and the state of Rome, in 

 respect of the greatness of their monarchy; the present 

 disposition of these times at this instant to peace; the 

 consumption of all that ever can be said in controversies 

 of religion, which have so much diverted men from other 

 sciences; the perfection of your Majesty s learning, which 

 as a Phoenix may call whole vollies of wits to follow you; 

 and the inseparable propriety of time, which is ever more 

 and more to disclose truth I cannot but be raised to this 

 persuasion that this third period of time will far surpass 

 that of the Grecian and Roman learning : only if men will 

 know their own strength, and their own weakness both; 

 and take one from the other, light of invention, and not 

 fire of contradiction ; and esteem of the inquisition of truth 

 as of an enterprise, and not as of a quality or ornament; 

 and employ wit and magnificence to things of worth and 

 excellency, and not to things vulgar and of popular estima 

 tion. As for my labours, if any man shall please himself 

 or others in the reprehension of them, they shall make 



1 Virg. Eel. ii. 27. 



