ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 161 



time, it is proper to read the disagreeing philosophies, as so 

 many different glosses of nature. We could therefore wish 

 there were, with care and judgment, drawn up a work of the 

 ancient philosophies, 16 from the lives of old philosophers, 

 Plutarch s collection of their opinions, the citations of Plato, 

 the confutations of Aristotle, and the scattered relations of 

 other books, whether ecclesiastical or heathen; as Lactan- 

 tius, Philo, Philostratus, etc. For such a work is not yet 

 extant; and we would advise it to be done distinctly; so 

 that each philosophy be drawn out and continued separate, 

 and not ranged under titles and collections, as Plutarch has 

 done. For every philosophy, when entire, supports itself, 

 and its doctrines thus add light and strength to each other; 

 which, if separated, sound strange and harsh. Thus, when 

 we read in Tacitus the acts of Nero or Claudius, clothed 

 with the circumstances of times, persons, and occasions, 

 everything seems plausible; but when the same are read in 

 Suetonius, distributed under chapters and commonplaces, 

 and not described in the order of time, they look monstrous, 

 and absolutely incredible. And the case is the same with 

 philosophy proposed entire, and dismembered, or cut into 

 articles. Nor do we exclude from this calendar the modern 

 theories and opinions, as those of Paracelsus, elegantly re 

 duced by Severinus into a body and harmony of philosophy; 

 or of Telesius, who, in restoring the philosophy of Parmen- 

 ides, has turned their own weapons against the Peripatetics; 

 or of Gilbert, who revived the doctrines of Philolaus; or of 

 any other, provided he be worthy. But as there are whole 

 volumes of these authors extant, we would only have the 



15 The work here proposed is of vast extent, and a fit undertaking for a 

 society, as intended to include all the ancient and modern systems of philoso 

 phy, or the history of knowledge through all ages and countries. Considerable 

 progress has, however, been made in it, particularly by Vossius &quot;De Philoso- 

 phia, et Philosophorm Sectis,&quot; continued with a supplement by Russel, printed 

 at Jena, in the year 1705; by Pancirollus, &quot;De Rebus inventis et perditis&quot;; by 

 Paschius, &quot;De Novis Inventis, quibus facem prsetulit antiquitas&quot;; by Stanley 

 in his &quot;Lives of the Philosophers&quot;; by Herbelot in his &quot;Bibliotheque Univer- 

 selle&quot;; by M. Bayle in his &quot;Dictionary,&quot; etc. For more collections, histories, 

 and writings to this purpose, see &quot;Struvii Bibliotheca Philosophica, &quot; Morhof s 

 &quot;Polyhistor.&quot; and &quot;Stoltii Introductio in Historiam Literariam.&quot; Shaw. 



