BOOK L] APHORISMS. 409 



etitious), did not (that we are aware) open schools, but betook 

 themselves to the investigation of truth with greater silence and 

 with more severity and simplicity, that is, with less affectation 

 and ostentation. Hence in our opinion they acted more ad 

 visedly, however their works may have been eclipsed in course 

 of time by those lighter productions which better correspond 

 with and please the apprehensions and passions of the vulgar ; 

 for time, like a river,* bears down to us that which is light and 

 inflated, and sinks that which is heavy and solid. Nor wero 

 even these more ancient philosophers free from the national 

 defect, but inclined too much to the ambition and vanity of 

 forming a sect, and captivating public opinion, and we must 

 despair of any inquiry after truth whe&quot;n it condescends to such 

 trifles. Nor must we omit the opinion, or rather prophecy, of 

 an Egyptian priest with regard to the Greeks, that they would 

 for ever remain children, without any antiquity of knowledge or 

 knowledge of antiquity; for they certainly have this in common 

 with children, that they are prone to talking, and incapable of 

 generation, their wisdom being loquacious and unproductive of 



Academy, that the senses, the imagination, and the understanding fre 

 quently deceive us, and therefore cannot be infallible judges of truth, 

 but that from the impressions produced on the mind by means of the 

 senses, we infer appearances of truth or probabilities. Nevertheless, 

 with respect to the conduct of life, Carneades held that probable opinions 

 are a sufficient guide. 



Xenophanes, a Greek philosopher, of Colophon, born in 556, the 

 founder of the Eleatic school, which owes its fame principally to Parme- 

 nides. Wild in his opinions about astronomy, lie supposed that the 

 stars were extinguished every morning, and rekindled at night ; that 

 eclipses were occasioned by the temporary extinction of the sun, and 

 that there were several suns for the convenience of the different 

 climates of the earth. Yet this man held the chair of philosophy at 

 Athens for seventy years. 



Philolaus, a Pythagorian philosopher of Crotona, B.C. 374. He 

 first supported the diurnal motion of the earth round its axis, and its 

 annual motion round the sun. Cicero (Acad. iv. 39), has ascribed this 

 opinion to the Syracusan philosopher Nicetas, and likewise to Plato. 

 From this passage, it is most probable that Copernicus got the idea of 

 the system he afterwards established. Bacon, in the Advancement of 

 Human Learning, charges Gilbert with restoring the doctrines of Philo 

 laus, because he ventured to support the Copernican theory. Ed. 



D Bacon is equally conspicuous for the use and abuse of analogical 

 illustrations. The levity, as Stuart Mi) 1 very properly observes, by 

 which substances float on a stream, and the levity which is synonymous 

 with worthlessness, have nothing beside the name in common ; and to 

 show how little value there is in the figure, we need only change the 

 word into buoyancy, to turn the semblance of Bacon s argument 



W, 



