THE SECOND BOOK 79 



then of a fair horse, and then of a fair pot well glazed, 

 whereat Hippias was offended, and said, * More than 

 for courtesy s sake, he did think much to dispute with 

 any that did allege such base and sordid instances. 

 Whereunto Socrates answereth, You have reason, and 

 it becomes you well, being a man so trim in your 

 vestiments, &c. , and so goeth on in an irony. But the 

 truth is, they be not the highest instances that give 

 the securest information ; as may be well expressed 

 in the tale so common of the philosopher, that while 

 he gazed upwards to the stars fell into the water ; for 

 if he had looked down he might have seen the stars 

 in the water, but looking aloft he could not see the 

 water in the stars. So it cometh often to pass, that 

 mean and small things discover great, better than great 

 can discover the small : and therefore Aristotle noteth 

 well, That the nature of everything is best seen in 

 his smallest portions. And for that cause he inquireth 

 the nature of a commonwealth, first in a family, and 

 the simple conjugations of man and wife, parent and 

 child, master and servant, which are in every cottage. 

 Even so likewise the nature of this great city of the 

 world, and the policy thereof, must be first sought in 

 mean concordances and small portions. So we see 

 how that secret of nature, of the turning of iron touched 

 with the loadstone towards the north, was found out 

 in needles of iron, not in bars of iron. 



6. But if my judgement be of any weight, the use 

 of history mechanical is of all others the most radical 

 and fundamental towards natural philosophy ; such 

 natural philosophy as shall not vanish in the fume of 

 subtile, sublime, or delectable speculation, but such as 

 shall be operative to the endowment and benefit of 

 man s life. For it will not only minister and suggest 

 for the present many ingenious practices in all trades, 

 by a connexion and transferring of the observations 

 of one art to the use of another, when the experiences 

 of several mysteries shall fall under the consideration 

 of one man s mind ; but further, it will give a more 

 true and real illumination concerning causes and 



