30 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 



was said of Seneca, Verborum minutiis rerum frangit pondera ; 

 [He breaks up the weight of the matter by his verbal subtleties ;] 

 so a man may truly say of the schoolmen, Qucestionum 

 minutiis, scientiarum frangunt soliditatem, [ They break up the 

 solidity and coherency of the sciences by the minuteness of their 

 questions.] For were it not better for a man in a fair room 

 to set up one great light, or branching candlestick of lights, 

 than to go about with a small watch-candle into every 

 corner ? And such is their method, that rests not so much 



10 upon evidence of truth proved by arguments, authorities, 

 similitudes, examples, as upon particular confutations and 

 solutions of every scruple, cavillation, and objection ; breed 

 ing for the most part one question, as fast as it solveth 

 another ; even as in the former resemblance, when you carry 

 the light into one corner, you darken the rest ; so that the 

 fable and fiction of Scylla seemeth to be a lively image of 

 this kind of philosophy or knowledge ; which was trans 

 formed into a comely virgin for the upper parts ; but then 

 Candida succinctam latrantibus inguina monstris : [there were 



20 barking monsters all about her loins:] so the generalities of 

 the schoolmen are for a while good and proportionable ; but 

 then, when you descend into their distinctions and decisions, 

 instead of a fruitful womb, for the use and benefit of man's 

 life, they end in monstrous altercations and barking ques 

 tions. So as it is not possible but this quality of knowledge 

 must fall under popular contempt, the people being apt 

 to contemn truth upon occasion of controversies and alter 

 cations, and to think they are all out of their way which 

 never meet : and when they see such digladiation about 



30 subtilties, and matters of no use or moment, they easily fall 

 upon that judgment of Dionysius of Syracuse, Verba ista 

 aunt senum otiosorum: [Those are the words of old men who 

 have nothing to do.] 



Notwithstanding, certain it is that if those schoolmen, 

 to their great thirst of truth and unwearied travail of wit, 

 had joined variety and universality of reading and contem- 



