102 INTERPRETATION OF NATURE. 



wouldst those therefore imagine that sheJcould write out a 

 whole tragedy as one letter? Of a far different sort is the 

 truth revealed from the analogy of knowledge, and the 

 truth from the section of an idol. The former is constant 

 and indefinitely germinous, the latter discordant and soli 

 tary. Which happens also in works. Gunpowder, if it 

 had been invented by conduct, not chance (as they speak) 

 and accident, would not have come forth solitary, but with 

 great frequence of noble inventions (which fall under the 

 same meridian). So also the rest both works and princi 

 ples. Wherefore I admonish thee, if perhaps any idol of 

 any of these hath in any point determined my truth, that 

 is, the truth of things, not to think more highly of them, 

 or less of me, since it is sufficiently apparent from their 

 ignorance of the rest, that those things themselves they 

 have not said from the analogy of knowledge. But thou 

 still urgest, my son : would you therefore order all their 

 writings to be converted into wrappings for incense and 

 perfumes ? That I should not have said. For there remains 

 yet a short while some use of them, slight and narrow, and 

 far different from that which they were destined for, and 

 now usurp, but still some. Add to this that there are 

 many other writings obscurer in fame, but more excellent 

 in use. The morals of Aristotle and of Plato many admire ; 

 yet Tacitus breathes more living observations of manners. 

 But at length in the proper place I shall say, what utility 

 can be derived from writings, and which are superior in 

 utility to the rest, and which smallest part of them are 

 gifts of those things which contribute to the interpretation 

 of nature. Lastly, my son, I hear thee inquiring: dost 

 thou suffice thyself in place of all these? I shall reply, 

 and that not dissemblingly, but from my inmost sense. I, 

 dearest son, will confirm to thee a sacred, chaste, and legi 

 timate marriage with things themselves. From which in 

 tercourse (above all wishes of marriage songs) thou shalt 

 beget a most blessed progeny of heroes, who shall subdue 

 the infinite necessities of man, more fatal than all giants, 

 and monsters, and tyrants ; and for your affairs procure a 

 placid and festal security and plenteousness. But were I, 

 my son, to commit thee to the giddy intricacies of experi 

 ence with a mind unpurged of idols, verily thou wouldst 

 soon desire a leader. Yet by my simple precepts without 

 the knowledge of things, thou canst not, however much 

 thou mayest wish it, divest thyself of idols. In tables, 

 unless you erase what has before been written, you can 

 write nothing else. But in the mind, on the contrary, im- 



