34-36.] NOTES. 115 



1. 34. Columbus, writing in 1503 to Ferdinand and Isabella, 

 says " I was seven years at your court, and for seven years I 

 was told that my plan was an absurdity : and now the very 

 tailors ask leave to go to discover new countries." E. 



Page 36, 1. 1. they, see on p. 2, 1. 17. seem strange to our assent, 

 i.e., we hesitate to assent to them. For the form demonstrate, 

 cf. p. 16, 1. 15. 



1. 2. relation, lit. carrying backward, a technical term in law, 

 denoting that effect is given to an action from a date preceding 

 that on which it was performed. For example, letters of 

 administration, though issued after a man's decease, take effect 

 from the day of his death. In the case of simple truths, Bacon 

 says, we appear to ourselves to have known them before the 

 time at which we actually acquired them. 



1. 3. speak, p. 31, 1. 36. 



1. 5. after variety and examination, i.e., when a number of 

 different opinions have been propounded and examined. Cf. The 

 Interpretation of filature, " It is sensible to think that when men 

 first enter into search and inquiry, according to the several 

 frames and compositions of their understanding they light upon 

 different conceits, and so all opinions and doubts are beaten over, 

 and then men having made a taste of all wax weary of variety, 

 and so reject the worst and hold themselves to the best." Then, 

 after repeating the metaphor of the river, Bacon says: "The 

 state of knowledge is ever a Democratic, and that prevaileth 

 which is most agreeable to the senses and conceits of people. " 



1. 6. still, always. 



1. 8. he were but like, etc. , he would probably only light. 



1. 10. for the multitude's sake, to please the multitude. 



1. 11. to give passage to, to accept. 



1. 15. blown up, filled with air. This image of a river is a 

 false analogy which Bacon often employs. Cf. Essay liii. : 

 " Fame is like a river that beareth up things light and swollen, 

 and drowns things weighty and solid." 



1. 17. Another error, etc. Cf. The Interpretation of Nature : 

 " Men have used of a few observations upon any subject to make 

 a solemn and formal art, by filling it up with discourse, accom 

 modating it with some circumstances and directions to practice, 

 and digesting it into method, whereby men grow satisfied and 

 secure, as if no more inquiry were to be made of that matter." 

 See Bk. 2, p. 100. 



1. 18. peremptory, ai^bitrary. 



1. 21. knit and shape, when the limbs are firmly set and the 

 body is fully formed. 



1. 24. methods, by a method Bacon means a formal treatise 



