36 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



men s marriages, had restrained them. So it seemeth 

 men doubt lest time is become past children and 

 generation ; wherein contrariwise we see commonly 

 the levity and unconstancy of men s judgements, which 

 till a matter be done, wonder that it can be done ; 

 and as soon as it is done, wonder again that it was no 

 sooner done : as we see in the expedition of Alexander 

 into Asia, which at first was prejudged as a vast and 

 impossible enterprise ; and yet afterwards it pleaseth 

 Livy to make no more of it than this, Nil aliud quam 

 bene ausus vana contemnere. And the same happened 

 to Columbus in the western navigation. But in in 

 tellectual matters it is much more common ; as may 

 be seen in most of the propositions of Euclid ; which 

 till they be demonstrate, they seem strange to our 

 assent ; but being demonstrate, our mind accepteth 

 of them by a kind of relation (as the lawyers speak) 

 as if we had known them before. 



3. Another error, that hath also some affinity with the 

 former, is a conceit that of former opinions or sects 

 after variety and examination the best hath still pre 

 vailed and suppressed the rest ; so as if a man should 

 begin the labour of a new search, he were but like to 

 light upon somewhat formerly rejected, and by rejec 

 tion brought into oblivion : as if the multitude, or 

 the wisest for the multitude s sake, were not ready to 

 give passage rather to that which is popular and super 

 ficial, than to that which is substantial and profound ; 

 for the truth is, that time seemeth to be of the nature 

 of a river or stream, which carrieth down to us that 

 which is light and blown up, and sinketh and drowneth 

 that which is weighty and solid. 



4. Another error, of a diverse nature from all the 

 former, is the over-early and peremptory reduction of 

 knowledge into arts and methods ; from which time 

 commonly sciences receive small or no augmentation. 

 But as young men, when they knit and shape perfectly, 

 do seldom grow to a further stature ; so knowledge, 

 while it is in aphorisms and observations, it is in growth 

 but when it once is comprehended in exact methods, it 



