114 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES 



(xi.) Men hare mistaken the end of knowledge. The student 

 should woo knowledge as a spouse, the fruit of whose womb shall 

 be benefits for mankind. . . . 



Lastly , says Bacon, as I have not been sparing in my criticism 

 of learning, I hope that due weight will be given to what I shall 

 urge in its favour. 



1. 31. affecting of, liking for. 



1. 34. the father, Bacon refers to the Greek myth, according 

 to which Kronos, i.e., time, devoured his children as soon as 

 they were born. The myth expressed the passage of time, 

 which cannot be recalled. Bacon says that the children are 

 imitating the father ; the old days wishing to destroy the later, 

 and the later to destroy the older. 



Page 35, 1. 1. while antiquity, etc. Conservatives hate all 

 changes : radicals insist on destroying, instead of merely reform 

 ing, what is old. 



1. 3. surely, etc. A man, says Bacon, should dwell upon what 

 has been already discovered, only until he has hit upon the path 

 of further discoveries, which he must then follow. Cf. Essay xxiv. 



1. 9. when the discovery is well taken, when he is certain that 

 he has discovered it. 



L 11. old times, etc. Elsewhere Bacon says "the present time 

 is the real antiquity, for the world has now grown old. And, 

 indeed, as we expect greater knowledge and riper judgment from 

 an old man than from a youth, because of his wider experience, 

 so it is natural to expect far greater things from our own age 

 than from ancient times ; for the world has now grown old, and 

 has been enriched with countless experiments and observations. " 

 A 7 oy. Org. 1. 84. Ellis quotes the same idea from a dialogue 

 by the Italian Giordano Bruno, who was contemporary with 

 Bacon. Similar reflexions, he says, occur in the writings of 

 several of the scientific reformers. He also quotes from 2 

 Esdras, xiv. 10, " The world has lost its youth, and the times 

 begin to grow old." 



1. 15. induced, used in its literal sense of 'brought on.' 



1. 19. Lucian, the remark is really Seneca's. It is a satire on 

 the popular mythology. 



1. 22. septuagenary, too old to beget children : literally, seventy 

 years old. the Papian law, the Lex Papia Poppcea, which was 

 passed in the reign of Augustus, did not actually forbid old men 

 to marry. Its object was to induce all men, who had not 

 reached a certain age, to marry, by granting them political 

 privileges. 



L 24. doubt, fear, past children and generation, past produc 

 ing children, i.e., new discoveries. 



