38 JOF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [IV. 12. 



it they fall under a popular observation and traduce- 

 ment, and therefore are not to be passed over. 



V. i. The first of these is the extreme affecting of 

 two extremities : the one antiquity, the other novelty ; 

 wherein it seemeth the children of time do take after the 

 nature and malice of the father. For as he devoureth 

 his children, so one of them seeketh to devour and 

 suppress the other ; while antiquity envieth there should 

 be new additions, and novelty cannot be content to add 

 but it must deface : surely the advice of the prophet is 

 the true direction in this matter, State super mas antiquas, 

 /et videte quanam sit via recta et bona et ambulate in ea. 

 Antiquity deserveth that reverence, that men should make 

 i I I a stand thereupon and discover what is the best way ; 

 *,but when the discovery is well taken, then to make pro 

 gression. And to speak truly, Antiquitas s&culi juventus 

 lundi. These times are the ancient times, when the 

 is ancient, and not those which we account ancient 

 ^rdine relrogrado, by a computation backward from our- 

 ilves. 



2. Another error induced by the former is a distrust 

 that anything should be now to be found &quot;out, which 

 the world should have missed and passed over so long 

 time ; as if the same objection were to be made to time, 

 that Lucian maketh to Jupiter and other the heathen 

 gods ; of which he wondereth that they begot so many 

 children in old time, and begot none in his time; and 

 asketh whether they were become septuagenary, or 

 whether the law Papia, made against old men s mar 

 riages, had restrained them. So it seemeth men doubt 

 lest time is become past children and generation; 

 wherein contrariwise we see commonly the levity and 

 unconstancy of men s judgements, which till a matter 



