ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 281 



extremest indigence, may be serviceable, not only to excite 

 our industry, but to command our patience. 



The second part of this sophism stands upon the same 

 foundation, or the degrees between something and nothing; 

 whence the commonplace of extolling the beginnings of 

 everything, Well begun is half done, etc. 



&quot;Dimidium facti, qui ccepit, habet.&quot; 26 



And hence the superstition of the astrologers, who judge 

 the disposition and fortune of a man from the instant of his 

 nativity or conception. 



This color deceives 1. Because many beginnings are 

 but imperfect offers and essays, which vanish and come 

 to nothing without repetition and further advancement; so 

 that here the second degree seems more worthy and power 

 ful than the first, as a body-horse in a team draws more 

 than the fore- horse: whence it is not ill said, The second 

 word makes the quarrel; for the first might perhaps have 

 proved harmless if it had not been retorted; therefore the 

 first gives the occasion indeed, but the second makes recon 

 ciliation more difficult. 2. This sophism deceives by weari 

 ness, which makes perseverance of greater dignity than 

 inception; for chance or nature may give a beginning, but 

 only settled affection and judgment can give continuance. 



3. It deceives in things whose nature and common course 

 carries them contrary to the first attempt, which is therefore 

 continually frustrated, and gets no ground unless the force 

 be redoubled: hence the common forms Not to go forward 

 is to go backward running up hill rowing against the 

 stream, etc. But if it be with the stream, or with the hill, 

 then the degree of inception has by much the advantage. 



4. This color not only reaches to the degree of inception 

 from power to action, compared with the degree from action 

 to increase, but also to the degree from want of power to 

 power, compared with the degree from power to action; 



26 Hor. Epist. 1, ii. 40. 



