138 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



the entrance and access into causes hath to make a 

 good impression, had ready framed a number of pre 

 faces for orations and speeches. All which authorities 

 and precedents may overweigh Aristotle s opinion, that 

 would have us change a rich wardrobe for a pair of 

 shears. 



8. But the nature of the collection of this provision 

 or preparatory store, though it be common both to logic 

 and rhetoric, yet having made an entry of it here, where 

 it came first to be spoken of, I think fit to refer over the 

 further handling of it to rhetoric. 



9. The other part of invention, which I term sugges 

 tion, doth assign and direct us to certain marks, or 

 places, which may excite our mind to return and pro 

 duce such knowledge as it hath formerly collected, to 

 the end we may make use thereof. Neither is this use 

 (truly taken) only to furnish argument to dispute 

 probably with others, but likewise to minister unto our 

 judgement to conclude aright within ourselves. Nei 

 ther may these places serve only to apprompt our in 

 vention, but also to direct our inquiry. For a faculty 

 of wise interrogating is half a knowledge. For as Plato 

 saith, * Whosoever seeketh, knoweth that which he 

 seeketh for in a general notion : else how shall he know 

 it when he hath found it ? And therefore the larger 

 your anticipation is, the more direct and compendious 

 is your search. But the same places which will help us 

 what to produce of that which we know already, will 

 also help us, if a man of experience were before us, what 

 questions to ask ; or, if we have books and authors to 

 instruct us, what points to search and revolve ; so as 

 I cannot report that this part of invention, which is that 

 which the schools call topics, is deficient. 



10. Nevertheless, topics are of two sorts, general and 

 special. The general we have spoken to ; but the par 

 ticular hath been touched by some, but rejected gener 

 ally as inartificial and variable. But leaving the 

 humour which hath reigned too much in the schools 

 (which is, to be vainly subtile in a few things which 

 are within their command, and to reject the rest), I do 



