I. 5 .] THE SECOND BOOK. #9 



irony. But the truth is, they be not the highest instances 

 that give the securest information ; as may be well ex 

 pressed in the tale so common of the philosopher, that 

 while he gazed upwards to the stars fell into the water ; 

 for if he had looked down he might have seen the stars 

 in the water, but looking aloft he could not see the water 

 in the stars. So it cometh often to pass, that mean and 

 small things discover great, better than great can discover 

 the small : and therefore Aristotle noteth well, That the 

 nature of everything is best seen in his smallest portions. 

 And for that cause he inquireth the nature of a common 

 wealth, first in a family, and the simple conjugations of 

 man and wife, parent and child, master and servant, which 

 are in every cottage. Even so likewise the nature of this 

 great city of the world, and the policy thereof, must be 

 first sought in mean concordances and small portions. 

 So we see how that secret of nature, of the turning of 

 iron touched with the loadstone towards the north, was 

 found out in needles of iron, not in bars of iron. 



6. But if my judgement be of any weight, the use of 

 history mechanical is of all others the most radical and 

 fundamental towards natural philosophy ; such natural 

 philosophy as shall not vanish in the fume of subtile, 

 sublime, or delectable speculation, but such as shall be 

 operative to the endowment and benefit of man s life. 

 For it will not only minister and suggest for the present 

 many ingenious practices in all trades, by a connexion 

 and transferring of the observations of one art to the use 

 of another, when the experiences of several mysteries 

 shall fall under the consideration of one man s mind; 

 but further, it will give a more true and real illumination 

 concerning causes and axioms than is hitherto attained. 

 For like as a man s disposition is never well known till 



