510 NATURAL HISTORY. 



first, his thought had been fixed ; but the other 

 imagining first, bound his thought.&quot; Which though 

 it did somewhat sink with me, yet I made it lighter 

 than I thought, and said ; I thought it was confede 

 racy between the juggler and the two servants : 

 though, indeed, I had no reason so to think, for they 

 were both my father s servants, and he had never 

 played in the house before. The juggler also did 

 cause a garter to be held up, and took upon him to 

 knoWj that such an one should point in such a place 

 of the garter, as it should be near so many inches to 

 the longer end, and so many to the shorter ; and 

 still he did it, by first telling the imaginer, and after 

 bidding the actor think. 



Having told this relation, not for the weight 

 thereof, but because it doth handsomely open the 

 nature of the question, I return to that I said, that 

 experiments of imagination must be practised by 

 others, and not by a man s self. For there be three 

 means to fortify belief : the first is experience ; the 

 second is reason ; and the third is authority : and 

 that of these which is far the most potent, is autho 

 rity ; for belief upon reason, or experience will 

 stagger. 



947. For authority, it is of two kinds, belief in 

 an art, and belief in a man. And for things of belief 

 in an art, a man may exercise them by himself; but 

 for belief in a man, it must be by another. Therefore 

 if a man believe in astrology, and find a figure pros 

 perous, or believe in natural magic, and that a ring 

 with such a stone, or such a piece of a living creature 



