CCCclx LIFE OF BACON. 



nature in detail and in mass: he contracted the sight 



o 



of his mind and dilated it. (b) He saw differences in 



which it is averse, that, by wearing out the knots and stonds of the mind, 

 it may become pliant on other occasions. 



Bear ever toward the contrary of that whereunto you are by nature 

 inclined, that you may bring the mind straight from its warp. Like as 

 when we row against the stream, or when we make a crooked wand straight, 

 by bending it the contrary way. 



Fixedness of mind, or mental attention to a particular subject, will not, 

 of course, be mistaken for fixedness of studies, or ability to attend only to 

 particular pursuits. 



(b} To contemplate nature and bodies in their simplicity, breaks and 

 grinds the understanding, and to consider them in their compositions and 

 configurations, blunts and relaxes; as appears plainly from comparing the 

 school of Leucippus and Democritus with the other philosophies. For the 

 former is so taken up with the particles of things, as almost to neglect their 

 structure, while the other views the fabrication of things with such astonish 

 ment as not to enter into the simplicity of nature. Both these contempla 

 tions, therefore, are to be taken up by turns, that the understanding may at 

 once be rendered more piercing and capacious, and the inconveniences 

 prevented. 



He who cannot contract his sight should consider as an oracle the saying 

 of the poor woman to the haughty prince, who rejected her petition, as a 

 thing below his dignity to notice &quot;then cease to reign :&quot; for it is certain 

 that whoever will not attend to matters because they are too minute or 

 trifling shall never obtain command or rule over nature. The nature of 

 every thing is best seen in its smallest portions. The philosopher, while 

 he gazed upwards to the stars, fell into the water; but if he had looked 

 down, he might have seen the stars in the water. The property of the 

 loadstone was dicovered in needles of iron, and not in bars of iron. 



He who cannot dilate the sight of his mind should consider whether it is 

 not better for a man in a fair room to set up one great light or branching 

 candlestick of lights, than to go about with a small watch-candle into 

 every corner. 



The true strong and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally 

 great things and small. I am told the King of Prussia will say to a servant, 

 bring me a bottle of such a wine, which came in such a year, it lies in 

 such a corner of the cellar. I would have a man great in great things, and 

 elegant in little things. Dr. Johnson. 



&quot; That servant has committed twenty-one faults since we sat down to 

 dinner,&quot; said Swift to Lord Orrery. Johnson s Life. 



