6-8.] NOTES. 77 



stantly distressing ourselves with the thought that, at some 

 time or other, we shall have to abandon it. The wise man and 

 the fool must alike submit to the conditions of human existence. 

 But the wise man will not undertake more than he can hope to 

 accomplish within the limits of a life-time. Instead of repining 

 at the shortness of life, he will show his wisdom in making a 

 good use of it. 



1. 29. merely, entirely. The Latin word merits means pure, or 

 unmixed : and in Elizabethan English mere and merely are used 

 in their literal sense. 



1. 30. wonder, Aristotle says that it was wonder which first led 

 men to seek for knowledge: and Plato says, "Wonder is the 

 feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder." 



1. 33. their particular, their own condition. 



1. 35. carefulness, anxiety. We may illustrate Bacon's re 

 marks by reference to the extravagant hopes entertained by the 

 alchemists. 



1.36. a dry light, Plutarch mentions the opinion of Heraclitus 

 that * the wisest mind is a Tlry light ' : and Bacon elsewhere says, 

 "HettlClllus the Obscure said -.The dry %//(! was (he bent soul: 

 meaning, when the faculties intellectual are in vigour, not wet, 

 nor, as it were, blooded by the affections." In the 27th Essay 

 too Bacon says, " Heraclitus saith well in one of his Enigmas ; 

 Dry light in ever the best. And certain it is that the light that a 

 man receiveth by counsel from another is drier and purer than 

 that which cometh from his own understanding and judgment, 

 which is ever infused and drenched in his affections and customs." 

 The word dry is used in the sense of 'clear' or 'pure.' The 

 meaning of the passage will be best understood by comparing it 

 with the 49th Aphorism of the first book of the Novum Organwn, 

 in which Bacon says, "The mind of man is not like a dry light, 

 but it receives from the will and affections a taint which pro 

 duces capricious or arbitrary sciences : for what a man wishes to 

 be true, that he is inclined to believe to be true." In working 

 out an arithmetical problem, we are not likely to be swayed by 

 passion, but in the study of economical, or political, or theological 

 doctrine, we are very apt to be biassed, and to start with pre 

 conceived opinions which make us overlook or misinterpret 

 evidence, and so vitiate our conclusions. 



Page 8, 1. 5. stood upon, dwelt upon. 



1. 13. broken, incomplete. Cf. abrupt, Bk. 2, p. 190. 



1. 14. one of Plato's school, Philo Judceus, who was born at 

 Alexandria about B.C. 20. He aimed at harmonizing the prin 

 ciples of the Greek philosophy of religion with the text of the 

 Mosaic writings. The more we study nature, the more we see 

 that the human intellect cannot attain to the knowledge of God. 



