286 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



fable how the fox bragged to the cat what a number of de 

 vices and stratagems he had to get from the hounds, when 

 the cat said she had one, and that was to climb a tree, which 

 in fact was better than all the shifts of reynard; whence the 

 proverb, &quot;Malta novit vulpes, sed felis unum magnum.&quot; 8 * 

 And the moral of the fable is this, that it is better to rely 

 upon an able and trusty friend in difficulty than upon all 

 the fetches and contrivances of one s own wit. 



It were easy to collect a large number of this kind of 

 sophisms which we collected in our youth, but without 

 their illustrations and solutions. These at last we have 

 found time to digest, and think the performance of con 

 siderable service whereto if their fallacies and detections 

 were annexed, it might be a work of considerable service, 

 as launching into primary philosophy and politics as well 

 as rhetoric. And so much for the popular marks or colors 

 of apparent good and evil, both simple and comparative. 



A second collection wanting to the apparatus of rhetoric 

 is that intimated by Cicero, when he directs a set of com 

 monplaces, suited to both sides of the question, to be had 

 in readiness: such are, &quot;pro verbis legis,&quot; et &quot;pro sententia 

 legis.&quot; But we extend this precept further, so as to include 

 not only judicial, but also deliberate and demonstrative 

 forms. Our meaning is, that all the places of common 

 use, whether for proof, confutation, persuasion, dissuasion, 

 praise, or dispraise, should be ready studied, and either 

 exaggerated or degraded with the utmost effort of genius, 

 or, as it were, perverse resolution beyond all measure of 

 truth. And the best way of forming this collection, both 

 for conciseness and use, we judge to be that of contracting 

 and winding up these places into certain acute and short 

 sentences; as into so many clews, which may occasionally 

 be wound off into larger discourses. And something of this 

 kind we find done by Seneca; 35 but only in the way of sup 

 positions or cases. The following examples will more fully 

 illustrate our intention: 



34 The fox had many shifts, but the cat a capital one. 35 Controversia. 



