90 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES 



occupatvm of a teacher as either unimportant or contemptible. 

 In & influence upon character, the tendency of learning w to 

 refine: the defects which it produces are unselfishness, verging 

 on imprudence, and an inclination to aim at too high a 

 standard in the attempts to reform public manners. These, 

 it mu*t be confessed, are faults which ' lean to virtue's side ' .- 

 and learning itself supplies an antidote to the second of them. 

 Again, it is said that in their intercourse with others learned 

 men are wanting in tact. This is not necessarily the case: 

 and, besides, what men praise as tact is often only another 

 name for interested obsequiousness. Mere awkwardness of 

 demeanour is not worth consideration. Bacon utterly condemns 

 all selfishness and meanness, but he says justly that there are 

 occasions on which scholars may, without loss of dignity, make 

 concessions to those ivho are great and powerful. 



1. 32. groweth to, attaches to. 



1. 34. fastest, closest. Cf. 



" Siloa's brook that flowed 



Fast by the Oracle of God." Paradise Lost, I. 11. 

 fortune, explained below to mean 'scarcity of means,' etc. 



1. 35. manners, the word includes both disposition and de 

 meanour. We use it now to denote only the latter. 



Page 17, 1. 2. we are not in hand with, we are not dealing with. 



1. 11. by reason, equivalent to because, i.e., by the cause. 



1. 13. common place, a subject for discussion. The word ' place' 

 is frequently used by Bacon in the sense of a 'topic,' on the 

 analogy of the Latin word 'locus,' (a place, or a topic) and the 

 word 'topic' is the Greek 'topos,' which signifies properly 'a 

 place. ' 



1. 13. friar ... to whom, a similar construction occurs, Bk. 2, p. 

 6, 1. 6. In the Latin translation it is ' mendicant friars,' a body 

 of men so called from the vow of poverty which they took. They 

 belonged to the Franciscan and Dominican orders of monks. For 

 an account of their life and work, see Green's History of the 

 Enyli*k People, vol. i. , p. 256. 



1. 17. borne out, compensated for. The Christian priesthood 

 would have been condemned long ago, if it had been judged by 

 the conduct of the members of its higher orders : it was tolerated 

 out of respect for the virtues of its humbler and poorer members. 

 We may notice, in connection with Bacon's remarks, the Defence 

 of Poverty, by William of Ockham. It was published in 1323, 

 and was a violent protest against the power, pride, and wealth 

 of the Pope and the Prelates of the Church. Machiavelli was a 

 Florentine of the 16th century. His books embody the principles 



