86 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGES 



had deliberated about, every fresh little consideration which 

 might occur to him every trifling impediment which he might 

 encounter, seemed enough to make him fall back into the same 

 state of confusion in which he had been before he began to 

 deliberate." E. Guicciardine was an Italian statesman and 

 historian, who lived 1483-1540. 



1.27. Cicero, Mommsen says of Cicero "As a statesman 

 without insight, opinion, or purpose, he figured successively as 

 democrat, as aristocrat, and as a tool of the monarchs, and was 

 never more than a short-sighted egotist." Vol. iv. p. 641. 

 painted out, depicted. Cf. painted forth, p. 53, 1. 1. 



1. 29. Phocion, an Athenian general, born B.C. 402. He took 

 part in the wars between the Athenians and Philip of Macedon, 

 but he opposed what seemed to him the extreme policy of the 

 great orator Demosthenes. He was condemned on a charge of 

 treachery and put to death B.C. 317. Thucydides, bk. 2, ch. 40, 

 makes Pericles say of the Athenians that they were lovers of 

 wisdom without being effeminate. 



1. 31. Ixion, see Bk. 2, p. 50 "Of this kind of learning the 

 fable of Ixion was a figure, who designed to enjoy Juno, the 

 goddess of power ; and instead of her had copulation with a 

 cloud, of which mixture were begotten centaurs and chimeras. 

 So whoever shall entertain high and vaporous imaginations shall 

 beget hopes and beliefs of strange and impossible shapes." 

 Jupiter took up a king named Ixion to heaven, to purify him 

 from a murder. For his attempted seduction of the wife of 

 Jupiter he was tied to a wheel that never ceased revolving. 



1. 31. vaporous, boastful. The word naturally signifies some 

 thing unsubstantial. Similarly Bacon uses the word fume 

 (smoke) to signify a foolish idea. 



1. 32. Cato, Marcus Cato, the last great champion of Repub 

 licanism in Rome. He committed suicide, B.C. 46, on hearing 

 that his party was destroyed by the victory of Caesar at Thapsus. 

 See Mommsen, vol. iv. p. 469. After a certain point, Bacon says, 

 it is useless to oppose the spirit of the age. 



Page 14. 1. 3. may be truly affirmed, etc. This is explained on 

 pp. 21-2. 



1. 6. it beareth them up, etc. The Latin tr. explains it 

 ' whilst they are in charge of affairs, they live in the eyes of 

 men. ' 



1. 8. wear, decrease. It means lit. to suffer from wear or 

 use. W. 



1. 9. giveth them occasion, etc., i.e., gives them opportunities 

 of rewarding their friends and punishing their enemies. 

 1. 14. are in the eyes of them that look on, i.e., a mere braggart 



