CENTURY X. o! 



others : as if you should prescribe a servant about a 

 sick person, whom you have possessed that his master 

 shall recover, when his master is fast asleep, to use 

 such a root, or such a root. For imagination is like 

 to work better upon sleeping men, than men awake ; 

 as we shall shew when we handle dreams. 



956. We find in the art of memory, that images 

 visible work better than other conceits : as if you 

 would remember the word philosophy, you shall more 

 surely do it, by imagining, that such a man, for men 

 are best places, is reading upon Aristotle s Physics ; 

 than if you should imagine him to say, &amp;lt;c I ll go 

 study philosophy.&quot; And therefore this observation 

 would be translated to the subject we now speak of: 

 for the more lustrous the imagination is, it filleth and 

 fixeth the better. And therefore I conceive, that 

 you shall, in that experiment whereof we spake 

 before, of binding of thoughts, less fail, if you tell 

 one that such an one shall name one of twenty men, 

 than if it were one of twenty cards. The experi 

 ment of binding of thoughts would be diversified and 

 tried to the full : and you are to note, whether it 

 hit for the most part, though not always. 



957. It is good to consider, upon what things 

 imagination hath most force : and the rule, as I con 

 ceive, is, that it hath most force upon things that 

 have the lightest and easiest motions. And therefore 

 above all, upon the spirits of men : and in them, upon 

 such affections as move lightest ; as upon procuring 

 of love ; binding of lust, which is ever with imagina 

 tion ; upon men in fear ; or men in irresolution ; and 



