NOTE XOV. 



Bacon, in his Novum Organum, says, &quot; Among prerogative instances, we 

 assign the twenty-fifth place to intimating instances : that is, such as hint or 

 point out the advantages or conveniences of mankind ; for bare power and 

 knowledge only enlarge, but do not enrich human nature, and therefore such 

 things as principally appertain to the uses of life, are to be selected, or culled 

 out from the general mass of things.&quot; Again, &quot; As a further ground of expec 

 tation men may please to consider the infinite expense of genius, time, and 

 treasure that has been bestowed upon things and studies of very little use and 

 value ; whilst, if but a part thereof were employed upon sound and serviceable 

 matters, every difficulty might be conquered.&quot; 



The angel in the Paradise Lost says, 



&quot; But whether thus these things or whether not, 

 Whether the sun predominant in heaven 

 Rise on the eaith, or earth rise on the sun, 

 He from the east his flaming road begin, 

 Or she from west her silent course pursue 

 With inoffensive pace, that spinning sleeps 

 On her soft axle, while she paces even 

 And bears thee soft with the smooth air along. 

 Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid, 

 Leave them to God above. 



-but to know 



That which before us lies in daily life 



Js the prime wisdom, what is more is fume,, 



Or emptiness, or fond impertinence. 



Joy thou 



In what he gives to thee, this paradise 

 And thy fair Eve ; heaven is for thee too high 

 To know what passes there ; be lowly wise : 

 Think only what concerns thee and thy being.&quot; 



Les hommes ne sont pas nes pour employer leur temps a mesurer des lignes, 

 si examiner les rapports des angles, a consid6rer les divers mouvemens de la 

 inatiere : leur esprit est trop grand, leur vie trop courte, leur temps trop 

 precieux pour 1 occuper a de si petits objets ; mais ils sont obliges d etre 

 justes, 6quitables, judicieux dans tous leurs discours, dans toutes leur actions, 

 et dans toutes les affaires qu ils manient, et c est a quoi ils doivent particu- 

 Jierement s exercer et se former. 



&quot; Quid fas optare, quid asper 



Utile nummus habet, patriae charisque propinquis 

 Quantum elargiri deceat, quern te Deus esse 

 Jussit, et humana qua parte locatus es in re, 

 Quid sumus, aut quidnam victuri gignimus.&quot; 



Curiosity in things of little use is either in words or in matter ; the first 

 distemper of learning is when men study words, not matter ; a vanity which 

 more or less will ever exist. 



Pygmalion frenzy is a good emblem of this vanity, for what are words but 

 the images of matter 1 and except they be animated with the spirit of reason, to 

 fall in love with them, is all one as to fall in love with a picture. 



Demetrius the grammarian finding in the temple of Delphos a knot of 

 philosophers chatting together, said to them, Either I am much deceived, or 

 by your cheeiful and pleasant countenance, you are engaged in no very deep 

 discourse. To which one of them, Heraclean the magician, replied, Tis 

 for such as are puzzled about inquiring whether the future tense of the verb 

 jSdXXw be spelt with a double X, or that hunt after the derivation of the com 

 paratives xtipiov, j3i\Ttov, and the superlatives %iipi&amp;lt;zov, fltXn^ov, to knit 

 their brows whilst discouring of their science. 



