BOOK II. 287 



Labours. For which cause, the inhabitants of those parts call them, 

 The two pillars of that God ; and doe verily beleeve, that by certaine 

 draines and ditches digged within the Continent, the maine Ocean, before 

 excluded, made way and was let in, to make the MecHteranean seas, 

 where before was firme land : and so by that meanes the very face of 

 the whole earth is cleane altered. The origin of the legend is probably 

 to be sought in the fact that the Phoenicians were the great navigators 

 of the ancient world, and that Melkarth, the Greek Hercules, was their 

 tutelary deity. In any case the pillars of Hercules, which, like the 

 ultima Thule of a later period, once denoted the extreme limit of geo 

 graphical discovery in one direction, are used metaphorically by Bacon 

 to denote the limit of any investigation whatever. [10] Lat. sermone 

 quodam activo et masculo. [12] ground : the foundation or basis of an 

 argument. [16] supplieth: Lat. succurrit. [17] direction: Perhaps we 

 should read soundness of direction, as before. Lat. consilii prudentia et 

 sanitas. [Ib.] S. Augustine, Serm. clxix. (vol. v; p. 569, ed. Ant. 1700): 

 Melior it claudus in via, quam cursor prater viam. See Nov. Org. i. 6l. 

 In the Promus (vii. p. 200) it stands, Melior claudus in via quam cursor 

 extra viam. Ben Jonson, in his Sylva, quotes it in a different form, 

 Aegidius cursu superatA cripple in the way out-travels a footman, or 

 a post out of the way: St. Giles being the patron saint of cripples. 

 [19] Eccl. x. 10. Quoted again in a modified form in the treatise Of 

 the Interpretation of Nature (iii. p. 223): for as Salomon saith excel 

 lently, The fool putteth to more strength, but the wise man considered which 

 way, signifying the election of the mean to be more material than the 

 multiplication of endeavour. 



P- 77- [7] accomplishments: Lat. ornamentis. [20] discharge of 

 cares: Lat. vacationem a curis. [23] Virg. Georg. iv. 8. [27] and that 

 without delusion or imposture : Omitted in the translation. See note to 

 p. 21, 1. 16. 



P. / [9] Cic. Orat. post reditum in Senatu, xii. 30: Nam difficile est 

 non aliyuem, nefas quemquam prceterire. [n] Phil. iii. 13. [14] I find 

 strange: Lat. demiror. [18] the ancient fable: The fable of the belly 

 and the members told by Menenius Agrippa, Livy, ii. 32. See Shake 

 speare, Cor. i. i. 99, &c. [24] universality: the study of general princi 

 ples. Lat. contemplationibus universalibus. 



P. 79. [r] professory learning: the teaching which has for its object 

 one special branch of study. [2] malign aspect and influence: This 

 metaphor is derived from the old astrology, in which the planets were 

 supposed to exercise control over human destinies. See Trench, English 

 Past and Present, Lect. iv. p. 180, ed. 4. [15] The Lat. adds prasertim 

 apud nos. [17] Readers: i.e. lecturers. [22, 23] to appropriate his 

 whole labour, and to continue his whole age in that function and at 

 tendance : i. e. to devote his whole energy and to spend his whole life in 



