96 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [PAGI 



so much to himself, had been a grave and wise censure applied at 

 large to others. Desired at a feast to touch a lute, he said he 

 could not fiddle, but yet he could make a small town a great 

 city. " Essay xxix. A man may be wanting in small accomplish 

 ments, and yet be a very able man. 



1. 23. well seen in the passages, well versed in the transactions. 

 The Latin participle spectatus, lit. seen, is also used in the sense 

 of tried or proved. 



1. 24. to seek in, p. 12, 1. 23. 



1. 25. punctual, minute. 



1. 27. gallipots, glazed earthen pots. 



1. 28. antiques, fanciful figures. The word used in the Latin 

 translation is ' Satyrs. ' Alcibiades, in the Symposium, one of 

 the dialogues of Plato, compares Socrates to the masks of the god 

 Silenus, the faces of which were hideous : but when they were 

 opened, images of the gods were found inside. Spedding sup 

 poses that Bacon was thinking of the following passage in the 

 French humourist Rabelais : " Silenuses formerly were small 

 boxes, such as we see at present in apothecaries' shops, with 

 merry and grotesque figures painted on the top." For sovereign, 

 see p. 6, 1. 33. 



1. 29. confections, medicines. It means lit. ' something made 

 up,' Latin conficere. The words comfit, confection, etc., are from 

 the same root, to an external report, to those who judged by 

 appearances. 



1. 34. in the meantime, i.e., before preceding further, I must 

 warn my readers that, etc. allowance, p. 18, 1. 29. 



1. 36. wronged themselves, disgraced themselves. 



Page 24, 1. 1. trencher philosophers, hangers-on at the 

 tables of the great. A trencher is a dish or plate on which 

 food is placed. It is from the French word Trencher, to 

 cut. 



1. 4. A parasite means literally ' one who eats with another ' : 

 ' a guest.' It is used to denote those who by flattery manage to 

 live at the expense of others. The satire of Lucian, referred to 

 below, is directed against Greek scholars, who practised the arts 

 of the parasite in the houses of wealthy Romans, and so brought 

 disgrace both on themselves and their calling. 



1. 4. Lucian, a satirist and humourist, was a native of Samosata 

 on the Euphrates. He was born about 125 A.D. 



1. 6. would needs, etc. , insisted on his carrying. Needs is the 

 old genitive used adverbially. 



1. 7. uncomely, adv., awkwardly. We use the word as an 

 adjective. 



