xii BACON 



almost too bold and astonishing to obtain credit, yet he thought 

 it not right to desert either the cause or himself, but to boldly 

 enter on the way and explore the only path which is pervious 

 to the human mind. For it is wiser to engage in an undertak- 

 ing that admits of some termination, than to involve one's self 

 in perpetual exertion and anxiety about what is interminable. 

 The ways of contemplation, indeed, nearly correspond to two 

 roads in nature, one of which, steep and rugged at the com- 

 mencement, terminates in a plain; the other, at first view 

 smooth and easy, leads only to huge rocks and precipices. Un- 

 certain, however, whether these reflections would occur to an- 

 other, and observing that he had never met any person disposed 

 to apply his mind to similar thoughts, he determined to publish 

 whatsoever he found time to perfect. Nor is this the haste of 

 ambition, but anxiety, that if he should die there might remain 

 behind him some outline and determination of the matter his 

 mind had embraced, as well as some mark of his sincere and 

 earnest affection to promote the happiness of mankind. 



