XX PREFACE. 



&quot; and refined : but contrariwise, the philosophies and 



&quot; sciences of Aristotle, Plato, Democritus, Hippo- 



&quot; crates, Euclides, Archimedes, of most vigour at 



&amp;lt;( the first, and by time degenerate and imbased ; 



&quot; whereof the reason is no other, but that in the 



&quot; former many wits and industries have contributed 



&quot; in one ; and in the latter many wits and industries 



&quot; have been spent about the wit of some one, whom 



&quot; many times they have rather depraved than illus- 



&quot; trated. For as water will not ascend higher than 



&quot; the level of the first spring-head from whence it 



&quot; descendeth, so knowledge derived from Aristotle, 



&quot; and exempted from liberty of examination, will not 



&quot; rise again higher than the knowledge of Aristotle.&quot; 



This wa& the reason why the Sylva Sylvarum was 



published in Aphorisms, as &quot; he knew well, that there 



&quot; was no other way open to unloose men s minds, 



&quot; being bound, and, as it were, maleficiate, by the 



&quot; charms of deceiving notions and theories, and 



&quot; thereby made impotent for generation of works.&quot; 



With respect to some of the experiments being 

 vulgar and trivial, Lord Bacon says in the Novum Or- 

 ganum*, &quot;Quod vero ad rerum utilitatem attinet, vel 

 * etiam turpitudinem, quibus (ut ait Plinius) honos 

 &quot; praefandus est ; ea? res, non minus quam latissimae 

 &quot; et pretiosissimae, in Historian! Naturalem recipi- 

 &quot; endse sunt. Neque propterea polluitur Naturalis 

 &quot; Historia : Sol enirn aeque palatia et cloacas ingre- 

 &quot; ditur, neque tamen polluitur. Nos autem non 

 &quot; Capitolium aliquod aut Pyramidem hominum 



* Article 112. 



