CENTURY X. 145 



work better upon sleeping men than men awake ; aa 

 we shall shew when we handle dreams. 



956. We find in the art of memory, that images 

 visible work better than other conceits : as if you 

 would remember the word philosophy, you shall more 

 surely do it by imagining that such a man (for men 

 are best places) is reading upon Aristotle s Physics ; 

 than if you should imagine him to say, I^ll go study 

 philosophy. And therefore this observation would be 

 translated to the subject we now speak of: for the 

 more lustrous the imagination is, it filleth and fixeth 



~ 



the better. And therefore I conceive that you shall, 

 in that experiment (whereof we spake before) of bind 

 ing of thoughts, less fail, if you tell one that such an 

 one shall .name one of twenty men, than if it were 

 one of twenty cards. The experiment of binding of 

 thoughts would be diversified and tried to the full : 

 and you are to note whether it hit for the most part, 

 though not always. 



957. It is good to consider upon what things imag 

 ination hath most force : and the rule (as I conceive) 

 is, that it hath most force upon things that have the 

 lightest and easiest motions. And therefore above all, 

 upon the spirits of men ; and in them, upon such af 

 fections as move lightest ; as upon procuring of love ; 

 binding of lust, which is ever with imagination ; upon 

 men in fear ; or men in irresolution ; and the like. 

 Whatsoever is of this kind would be thoroughly in 

 quired. Trials likewise would be made upon plants, 

 and that diligently : as if you should tell a man, that 

 such a tree would die this year ; and will him at these 

 and these times to go unto it, to see how it thriveth. 

 As for inanimate things, it is true that the motions of 



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