vir] ——s—i*s«STHE- FIRST’ BOOK. cA at 
most applied ; and given all things else a tincture accord- 
ing to them, utterly untrue and unproper. So hath Plato 
intermingled his philosophy with theology, and Aristotle 
with logic; and the second es Proclus and 
the rest, with the mathematics.“ For these were the arts 
which had a kind of primogeniture with them severally. 
So have the alchemists made a philosophy out of a few 
experiments of the furnace ; and Gilbertus our country- 
man hath made a philosophy out of the observations of a 
loadstone. So Cicero, when, reciting the several opinions 
of the nature of the soul, he found a musician that held 
the soul was but a harmony, saith pleasantly, Ae ab arte 
sua non recesstt, &c. But of these conceits Aristotle speak- 
eth seriously and wisely when he saith, Qu¢ respiciunt 
ad pauca de facili pronunciant. 
8. Another error is an impatience of doubt, and haste 
to assertion without due and mature suspension of judge- 
ment. For 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 trouble- 
some in the entrance, but after a while fair and even : so 
it is in contemplation ; if a man will begin with certain- 
ties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to 
begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. 
g. Another error is in the manner of the tradition and 
delivery of knowledge, which is for the most part magis- 
tral and peremptory, and not ingenuous and _ faithful ; 
in a sort as may be 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 knowledge, men ought not to fall either 
on the one side into the vein of Velleius the Epicurean, 
