86 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



as had passed in his own time and very lately before. 

 But the journal of Alexander s house expressed every 

 small particularity, even concerning his person and 

 court ; and it is yet an use well received in enter 

 prises memorable, as expeditions of war, navigations, 

 and the like, to keep diaries of that which passeth 

 continually. 



12. I cannot likewise be ignorant of a form of 

 writing which some grave and wise men have used, 

 containing a scattered history of those actions which 

 they have thought worthy of memory, with politic 

 discourse and observation thereupon : not incorporate 

 into the history, but separately, and as the more principal 

 in their intention ; which kind of ruminated history 

 I think more fit to place amongst books of policy, 

 whereof we shall hereafter speak, than amongst books 

 of history. For it is the true office of history to repre 

 sent the events themselves together with the counsels, 

 and to leave the observations and conclusions there 

 upon to the liberty and faculty of every man s judge 

 ment. But mixtures are things irregular, whereof no 

 man can define. 



13. So also is there another kind of history mani 

 foldly mixed, and that is history of cosmography: 

 being compounded of natural history, in respect of 

 the regions themselves ; of history civil, in respect of 

 the habitations, regiments, and manners of the people ; 

 and the mathematics, in respect of the climates and 

 configurations towards the heavens: which part of 

 learning of all others in this latter time hath obtained 

 most proficience. For it may be truly affirmed to the 

 honour of these times, and in a virtuous emulation 

 with antiquity, that this great building of the world 

 had never through-lights made in it, till the age of 

 us and our fathers. For although they had knowledge 

 of the antipodes, 



Nosque ubi primus equis Oriens afflavit anhelis, 

 Ulic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper, 



yet that mought be by demonstration, and not in fact ; 



