76 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [BOOK II 



discipline the mind. This defect is sooner discovered by 

 scholars than by others, when they come to the practice of 

 the civil professions. We may conclude our observations 

 on university reform, with the expression of Caesar in his 

 letter to Oppius and Balbus : &quot; Hoc quemadmodum fieri 

 possit, nonnulla mini in mentem veniunt, et multa reperiri 

 possunt : de iis rebus rogo vos, ut cogitationem suscipiatis.&quot; 8 



The next want I discover is the little sympathy and cor 

 respondence which exists between colleges and universities, 

 as well throughout Europe as in the same state and kingdom. 

 In this we have an example in many orders and sodalities, 

 which, though scattered over several sovereignties and terri 

 tories, yet enter into a kind of contract, fraternity, and cor 

 respondence with one another, and are associated under com 

 mon provincials and generals. And, surely, as nature creates 

 brotherhood in families, and trades contract brotherhood in 

 communities, 11 and the anointment of God establishes a 

 brotherhood in kings and bishops, in like manner there 

 should spring up a fraternity in learning and illumination, 

 relating to that paternity which is attributed to God, who 

 is called the Father of lights. 



Lastly, T may lament that no fit men have been engaged 

 to forward those sciences which yet remain in an unfinished 

 state. To supply this want it may be of service to perform, 

 as it were, a lustrum of the sciences, and take account of 

 what have been prosecuted and what omitted. For the idea 

 of abundance is one of the causes of dearth ; and the multi 

 tude of books produces a deceitful impression of superfluity. 

 This, however, is not to be remedied by destroying the books 

 already written, but by making more good ones, which, like tho 

 serpent of Moses, may devour the serpents of the enchanters. i 

 The removal of the defects I have enumerated, except the 

 last, are indeed opera basilica, towards which the endeavours of 

 one man can be but as an image on a cross road, which points 

 out the way, but cannot tread it. But as the survey of the 

 sciences which we have proposed lies within the power of a 



* Cic. ad Att. ix. 7. 



h The original is sodality, or guild societies, which had their origin in 

 the middle ages, when members of the same calling formed a common 

 fund and joined in certain spiritual exercises, taking a saint for their 



Con out of tho Romai calendar. These institutions have *inot 

 me commercial. Ed. Exod. vii. 10. 



