THE SECOND BOOK. 127 



off; discourse of connection and order is cut off; descriptions 

 of practice are cut off. So there remaineth nothing to fill Z 

 aphorisms but some good quantity of observation; and there 

 fore no man can suffice, nor in reason wiU attempt to 

 write aphorisms, but he that is sound and grounded But 



&quot; Tantum series juncturaque pollct 

 turn de medio sumptis accedit honoris, 



as a man shall make a great show of an art, which, if it were 

 disjointed, would come to little. Secondly, methods are more 

 fit to win consent or belief, but less fit to point to actTon for 

 they carry a kind of demonstration in orb or circle o 

 illuminating another, and therefore satisfy. But particu r 

 being dispersed do best agree with dispersed directions And 

 lastly aphorisms, representing a knowledge broken do invite 

 men to inquire further; whereas methods? carrying the show 

 of a total, do secure men as if they were at furthest. 



W Another diversity of method, which is likewise of great 

 Sfs or&quot; f 6 h ^ dHng f , ^^edge by assertions and fheir 

 proofs, or by questions and their determinations. The latter 

 kind whereof if it be immoderately followed, is as prSudicial 

 to the proceeding of learning as it is to the proceeding of an 

 th?fi l^V ? Ut *? ^ Siege evef y little for * or h ld- For 3 



JS f V kep V nd th * sum of the enterprise pursued, those 

 smaller things will come in of themselves : indeed a man would 



J 6aVe +r me im P rtant P iece enemy at his back. iTlike 

 manner, the use of confutation in the delivery of sciences 

 oc a h beve 7 s P ar ^ and to serve to remove slang 



S^^StT 611 * 8 and not to minister and 



(9) Another diversity of method is, according to the s 



Se v er of W the Ch iS tb andl , ed \ r th ^ 6 is a ^at t0 differ S en 

 knowled^ ^ a ^ematics which are the most abstracted of 

 toowledges, and policy, which is the most immersed And 



of mSd r m ft? ^ &quot;T m Ved *&amp;lt;4Ta uny 

 oi metnod in multiformity of matter, vet we SPP hnw tf 

 opinion, besides the weakness of it, hath bTen of m deser 

 towards learning, as that which taketh the way to reduce 

 earning to Certain empty and bai-ren generaHties^ bei^g but 

 forced I^/ and 1 sh ? lls of ^iences, all the kernefbein 

 l A A^ l x P ulsed ^ith the torture and press of the 

 method. And, therefore, as I did allow well of mrticul^ 



l d aI1 W likewise of Par 



