ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. CXX1H 



tude, and commanded them to respect his philosophical 

 seclusion. They forbore two or three days: at last one, 

 hardier than his fellows, ventured in to see how he did ; 

 he entered, and found him sitting in the midst of a rich 

 parmesan cheese. : 



In such familiar explanations did he indulge himself: it 

 being his object not to inflate trifles into marvels, but to 

 reduce marvels to plain things. Of these simple modes 

 of illustrating truth it appears, from a volume of Apo 

 thegms, published in the decline of his life, and a re 

 commendation of them, in this treatise, (b) as a useful 

 appendage to history, that he had formed a collection. 



When the subject required it, he, without departing from 

 simplicity, selected images of a higher nature ; as, when 

 explaining how the body acts upon the mind, and antici 

 pating the common senseless observation, that such investi 

 gations are injurious to religion, &quot; Do not,&quot; he says, 

 &quot; imagine that inquiries of this nature question the immor 

 tality of the soul, or derogate from its sovereignty over the 

 body. The infant in its mother s womb partakes of the 

 accidents of its mother, but is separable in due season.&quot; (e) 

 So, too, when explaining that the body is decomposed by 

 the depredation of innate spirit and of ambient air, and 

 that if the action of these causes can be prevented, the 

 body will defy decomposition : &quot; Have you never,&quot; he 

 says, &quot; seen a fly in amber, more beautifully entombed 

 than an Egyptian monarch ?&quot;(c) and, when speaking of 

 the resemblance in the different parts of nature, and calling 

 upon his readers to observe that truths are general, he 

 says, &quot; Is not the delight of the quavering upon a stop 



(6) See under Appendices to History, vol. ii. p. 118. 

 (e) Advancement of Learning, vol. ii. p. 157. 

 (r) Sylva Sylvarum, Cent. i. Art. 100. 



