ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 59 



proportionable; but to descend into their distinctions and 

 decisions, they end in monstrous altercations and barking 

 questions. Whence this kind of knowledge must neces 

 sarily fall under popular contempt; for the people are ever 

 apt to contemn truth, upon account of the controversies 

 raised about it; and so think those all in the wrong way, 

 who never meet. And when they see such quarrels about 

 subtilties and matters of no use, they usually give in to the 

 judgment of Dionysius, &quot;That it is old men s idle talk.&quot; 58 

 But if those schoolmen, to their great thirst of truth, and 

 unwearied exercise of wit, had joined variety of reading 

 and contemplation, they would have proved excellent 

 lights to the great advancement of all kinds of arts 

 and sciences. And thus much for the second disease of 

 learning. 



The third disease, which regards deceit or falsehood, 

 is the foulest; as destroying the essential form of knowl 

 edge, which is nothing but a representation of truth; for 

 the truth of existence and the truth of knowledge are the 

 same thing, or differ no more than the direct and reflected 

 ray. This vice, therefore, branches into two; viz., delight 

 in deceiving and aptness to be deceived; imposture and 

 credulity, which, though apparently different, the one 

 seeming to proceed from cunning, and the other from 

 simplicity, yet they generally concur. For, as in the 

 verse, 



&quot;Percontatorem fugito; nam garrulus idem est,&quot; 



Hor. lib. i. epis. xviii. v. 69. 



an inquisitive man is a prattler; so a credulous man 

 is a deceiver; for he who so easily believes rumors will 

 as easily increase them. Tacitus has wisely expressed 

 this law of our nature in these words, &quot;Fingunt simul cre- 

 duntque.&quot; 69 This easiness of belief, and admitting things 

 upon weak authority, is of two kinds, according to the sub 

 ject; being either a belief of history and matter of fact, or 



58 Diog. Laert. iii. 18, Life of Plato. M Tacit. Hist. b. I 51. 



