NOTES. 



Morall Historic of the East and West Indies, lib. vi. chap. v. (Eng. tr. 

 1604), is an account Of the fashion of Letters, and Bookes, the Chinois 

 vsed. They have no Alphabet, neither write they any letters, but all 

 their writing is nothing else but painting and ciphering : and their letters 

 signifie no partes of distinctions, as ours do, but are figures and 

 representations of things, as of the Sunne, of fire, of a man, of the sea, 

 and of other things. The which appears plainely, for that their writings 

 and Chapas, are vnderstood of them all, although the languages the 

 Chinois speake, are many and very different ... So as things being of 

 themselves innumerable, the letters likewise or figures which the Chinois 

 vse to signifie them by, are in a maner infinite. Of the Japanese, to 

 whom probably Bacon refers as the people of the High Levant or far 

 East, Acosta says in the same chapter, I have had some of their 

 writings shewed me, whereby it seemes that they should have some 

 kinde of letters, although the greatest part of their writings, be by the 

 characters and figures, as hath bin saide of the Chinois Acosta is in all 

 probability the source of Bacon s information, for, from the expression 

 And we understand further/ which in the Latin is rendered Quinetiam 

 notissimum fieri jam ccepit, it was clearly but recently acquired, and 

 there is other evidence that he had read his book. 



P. 167. [u] The story of Thrasybulus sending to consult Periander is 

 told by Aristotle (Polit. iii. 13). In Herodotus (v. 92) it is Periander 

 who sends to Thrasybulus. Compare with this Livy s version (i. 54), 

 where it is applied to Tarquinius Superbus. The form of the tale as it 

 appears in Herodotus is adopted by Plutarch (Sept. Sap. Conv. 2). [16] 

 grandees: In ed. 1605 grandes, which probably represents the early 

 pronunciation of the word, with the accent on the first syllable. In 

 Burton s Anat. of Mel. (Democritus to the Reader, p. 34, ed. 1628), it is 

 found in the form grandy : For in a great person, right worshipfull Sir, 

 a right honourable Grandy, tis not a veniall sinne. In the first edition 

 of the Advancement the word is printed in italics, an indication that it 

 was not yet naturalised, but had been adopted from the Spanish or 

 Italian. [28] words are the tokens current and accepted for conceits : 

 See p. 153; words are but the current tokens or marks of popular 

 notions of things. [31] Perhaps Bacon had in his mind the paper money 

 of the Chinese, of which an account had been given by Rubruquis and 

 confirmed by Marco Polo (Travels, Bk. ii. c. 18, trans. Marsden; ii. 24, 

 ed. Yule). Colonel Yule in his edition of Marco Polo (i. pp. 380-385) 

 says it was in use as early as the Qth cent. 



P. 168. [4] the first general curse: Gen. iii. 16-19. [ 6 ] the second 

 general curse : Gen. xi. 6-8. [7,8] in a mother tongue: in another 

 tongue ed. 1605, corrected to in mother tongue in the Errata and in 

 edd. 1629, 1633. The Latin has linguis quibusque vernaculis. [32] Mart. 

 ix. 83. 



