PREFACE. 423 



another he tries to disguise himself under a style of 

 assumed superiority, quite unlike his natural style ; as 

 in the Temporis Partus Masculus, where again the very 

 same argument (for it is but another version of the 

 Redargutio Philosophiarum) is set forth in a spirit of 

 scornful invective poured out upon all the popular rep 

 utations in the annals of philosophy ; a spirit not 

 only alien from all his own tastes and habits moral and 

 intellectual, but directly at variance with the policy 

 which he was actually pursuing in this very matter ; 

 which was to avoid as much as possible all contradic 

 tion and collision, and to treat popular prejudices of 

 all kinds with the greatest courtesy and tenderness : 

 an inconsistency which I know not how to account for, 

 except by supposing that he had been trying experi 

 ments as to the various ways in which popular opinion 

 may be conciliated ; and knowing that many a man 

 had enjoyed great authority in the world by no better 

 title than that of boldly assuming it, had a mind to try 

 how he could act that part himself, and so wrote this 

 exercise to see the effect of it ; and finding the effect 

 bad, laid it by. Another thought which he had, 

 still probably with the same view of avoiding the con 

 trast between the lofty pretensions of the project and 

 the small reputation of the author, was to publish it 

 in a distant place. In July, 1608, remembering that 

 a prophet is not without honour except in his own 

 country, he was considering the expediency of begin 

 ning to print in France. 1 And about the same time 

 the idea of shadowing himself under the darkness of 

 antiquity seems to have occurred to him: for I am 

 much inclined to think that it was some such consid- 

 1 Commentarius solutus. 



