v. 



OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [TV. ?. 



oracle of God s works, and adored the deceiving and 

 deformed images which the unequal mirror of their own 

 minds, or a few received authors or principles, did re 

 present unto them. And thus much for the second 

 disease of learning. 



8. For the third vice ^y di gpaj y of learning, which 

 concerneth deceit or untruth, it is of all the rest the 

 foulest ; as that which doth destroy the essential form 



wledge, which is nothing but a representation of 

 ruth : ;for the truth of being and the truth of knowing 

 are one, xliffering no more than the direct beam and the 

 beam reflected. Xh^vjpetherefore brancheth itself into 

 two sorts ; delight in decetviiTg^ and &quot;aptne^^Q^J^fi-de- 

 ceiyed ^Jjgposture and credulity; which, although they 

 appear to be of a diverse nature, the one seeming to 

 proceed of cunning and the other of simplicity, yet 

 certainly they do for the most part concur : for, as the 

 verse noteth, 



Percontatorem fugito, nam garrulus idem est, 



an inquisitive man is a prattler ; so upon the like reason 

 a credulous man is a deceiver : as we see it in fame, that 

 he jhat will easily believe rumours, wiljjis easily augment 

 i^mey^and add solnewhat to them of his own ; which&quot; 

 Tacitus wisely noteth, when he saith, Fingunt simul cre- 

 duntque : so great an affinity hath fiction and belief. 



9. TJais facility of - edit and accepting or admitting 

 things weakly authorized or warranted, i^of two kinds 

 according to the subject : for it is either a jSlkf of __ 

 history, or, as the lawyers speak, matter of fact ; j^JLglse 

 of^jnatter of art and opinion. As to the former, we 

 see the experience and inconvenience of this error in 

 ecclesiastical history ; which hath too easily received and 

 registered reports and narrations of miracles wrought by 



