ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 63 



before a thing is effected, thinks it impossible, and as soon 

 as it is done, wonders it was not done before. So the ex 

 pedition of Alexander into Asia was at first imagined a 

 vast and impracticable enterprise, yet Livy afterward 

 makes so light of it as to say, &quot;It was but bravely ven 

 turing to despise vain opinions.&quot; 64 And the case was the 

 same in Columbus s discovery of the West Indies. But this 

 happens much more frequently in intellectual matters, as we 

 see in most of the propositions of Euclid, which, till dem 

 onstrated, seem strange, but when demonstrated, the mind 

 receives them by a kind of affinity, as if we had known 

 them before. 



Another error of the same nature is an imagination that 

 of all ancient opinions or sects, the best has ever prevailed, 

 and suppressed the rest; so that if a man begins a new search, 

 he must happen upon somewhat formerly rejected; and by 

 rejection, brought into oblivion; as if the multitude, or the 

 wiser sort to please the multitude, would not often give way 

 to what is light and popular, rather than maintain what is 

 substantial and deep. 



Another different error is, the over-early and peremp 

 tory reduction of knowledge into arts and methods, from 

 which time the sciences are seldom improved; for as young 

 men rarely grow in stature after their shape and limbs are 

 fully formed, so knowledge, while it lies in aphorisms and 

 observations, remains in a growing state; but when once 

 fashioned into methods, though it may be further polished, 

 illustrated, and fitted for use, it no longer increases in bulk 

 and substance. 



Another error is, that after the distribution of particular 

 arts and sciences, men generally abandon the study of na 

 ture, or universal philosophy, which stops all further prog 

 ress. For as no perfect view of a country can be taken 

 upon a flat, so it is impossible to discover the remote and 

 deep parts of any science by standing upon the level of the 

 same science, or without ascending to a higher. 



64 &quot;Nihil aliud quam bene ausus est, vana contemnere. &quot; Livy, b. 10, c. 17. 



