BOOK 1. 377 



Cardanus . We had almost forgot Jeronimus Cardanus, that famous 

 physician of Milan, a great enquirer of truth, but too greedy a receiver 

 of it. He hath left many excellent discourses, Medical, Natural, and 

 Astrological; the most suspicious are those two he wrote by admonition 

 in a dream, that is, De subtilitate et varietate rerum Ibid. p. 36. [14] 

 Albertus : Albertus Bishop of Ratisbone ; for his great learning and 

 latitude of knowledge sirnamed Magnus. Besides Divinity, he hath 

 written many Tracts in Philosophy ; what we are chiefly to receive with 

 caution, are his natural tractates, more especially those of Minerals, 

 Vegetables and animals, which are indeed chiefly Collections out of 

 Aristotle, jElian, and Pliny, and respectively contain many of our popular 

 Errors. Ibid. p. 35. [22] side: The edd. of 1605, 1629, 1633, read 

 sake. The book De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus, to which Bacon 

 refers, is not Aristotle s. See p. 87. [26] was for were. See p. 34, 

 1. 25, note. 



P. 36. [l] Lat. qua plus habent ex phantasia et fide quam ex ratione et 

 demonstrationibus. [12] the derivations and prosecutions to these ends: 

 That is, the subsidiary channels leading to these ends and the modes in 

 which they have been followed. The Latin has, via atque rationes qua 

 diicere pulantur ad hos fines. [19] ./Esop, Fab. 33; comp. Nov. Org. i. 

 85. [32] consuls: counsels in ed. 1605, corrected to consulh in Errata. 

 Mr. Spedding conjectured that Bacon probably wrote counsell rt , and his 

 conjecture is adopted by Mr. Kitchin. The Latin has, dictatoria quadam 

 potesfate munivit ut edicant, non senatoria ut consulant, which again looks 

 as if the translator had the uncorrected copy before him. 



P. 37. [2-20] For hence . . . Aristotle : The original form of this 

 passage is seen in the book Of the Interpretation of Nature (Works, iii. 

 226, 227). [3] deviser: device* (Interpretation of Nature). [6] 

 artillery, sailing, printing: painting, artillery, sailing* (Interpretation of 

 Nature). [i6--jo] For as ... Aristotle : For knowledge is like a water 

 that will never rise again higher than the level from which it fell ; and 

 therefore to go beyond Aristotle by the light of Aristotle is to think that 

 a borrowed light can increase the original light from which it is taken 

 (Interpretation of Nature). [21] Aristot. Soph. El. i. 2. [28-30] Lat. 

 ut authori authorum et veritatis parenti, Tempori, non derogetur. [32] 

 peccant humours : Lat. vitiosi humores. 



P. 38. [6] Alluding to the old fable of Kronos. [n] Jer. vi. 16; 

 quoted again in Ess. xxiv. p. 100. [16] Comp. Nov. Org. i. 84 : Mundi 

 enim senium et grandcevitas pro antiquitate vere habenda sunt; qua 

 tetnporibus nostris tribui debent, non juniori &amp;lt;ztati mundi, qualis aptid 

 antiques fuit. Ilia, enim (Etas, respectu nostri antiqua et major, resf ectu 

 mundi ipsius nova et minor fuit. The observation is quoted by Fuller in 

 his chapter on The true Church Antiquary (Holy State, ii. 6). [25] 

 Not Lucian but Seneca. See Lactantius, Ue Falsa Keligione, i. 16. 



