310 -. MoTES. 
Morall Historie of the East and West Indies, lib. vi. chap. v. (Eng. tr. 
1604), is an account ‘Of the fashion of Letters, and Bookes, the Chinois 
vsed.’ ‘They have no Alphabet, neither write they any letters, but all 
their writing is nothing else but painting and ciphering: and their letters 
signifie no partes of distinctions, as ours do, but are figures and 
representations of things, as of the Sunne, of fire, of a man, of the sea, 
and of other things. The which appears plainely, for that their writings 
and Chapas, are vnderstood of them all, although the languages the 
Chinois speake, are many and very different ...So as things being of 
themselves innumerable, the letters likewise or figures which the Chinois 
vse to signifie them by, are in a maner infinite” Of the Japanese, to 
whom probably Bacon refers as the people of the High Levant or far 
East, Acosta says in the same chapter, ‘I have had some of their 
writings shewed me, whereby it seemes that they should have some 
kinde of letters, although the greatest part of their writings, be by the 
characters and figures, as hath bin saide of the Chinois.’ Acosta is in all 
probability the source of Bacon’s information, for, from the expression 
« And we understand further,’ which in the Latin is rendered ‘ Quinetiam 
notissimum fieri jam ccepit,’ it was clearly but recently acquired, and 
there is other evidence that he had read his book. 
P. 167. [11] The story of Thrasybulus sending to consult Periander is 
told by Aristotle (Polit. iii. 13). In Herodotus (v. 92) it is Periander 
who sends to Thrasybulus. Compare with this Livy’s version (i. 54), 
where it is applied to Tarquinius Superbus. The form of the tale as it 
appears in Herodotus is adopted by Plutarch (Sept. Sap. Conv. 2). [16] 
grandees: In ed. 1605 grandes, which probably represents the early 
pronunciation of the word, with the accent on the first syllable. In 
Burton’s Anat. of Mel. (Democritus to the Reader, p. 34, ed. 1628), it is 
found in the form grandy: ‘ For in a great person, Tight worshipfull Sir, 
a right honourable Grandy, ’tis not a veniall sine.’ In the first edition 
of the Advancement the word is printed in italics, an indication that it 
was not yet naturalised, but had been adopted from the Spanish or 
Italian. [28] words are the tokens current and accepted for conceits: 
See p. 153; ‘words are but the current tokens or marks of popular 
notions of things.’ [31] Perhaps Bacon had in his mind the paper money 
of the Chinese, of which an account had been given by Rubruquis and 
confirmed by Marco Polo (Travels, Bk. ii. c. 18, trans. Marsden; ii. 24, 
ed. Yule). Colonel Yule in his edition of Ma:co Polo (i. pp. 380-385) 
says it was in use as early as the oth cent. 
P. 168. [4] the first general curse: Gen. iii. 16-19. [6] the second 
general curse: Gen. xi. 6-8. [7,8] in a mother tongue: ‘in another 
tongue’ ed. 1605, corrected to ‘in mother tongue’ in the Errata and in 
edd. 1629, 1633. The Latin has linguis quibusque vernaculis. [32] Mart. 
ix, 83. 
