ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 21 



Another error, proceeding from the former, is, a distrust 

 that anything should be discovered in later times that was not 

 hit upon before ; as if Lucian's objection against the gods lay 

 also against time. He pleasantly asks why the gods begot so 

 many children in the first ages, but none in his days; and 

 whether they were grown too old for generation, or were re- 

 strained by the Papian law, which prohibited old men from 

 marrying?* For thus we seem apprehensive that time is worn 

 out, and become unfit for generation. And here we have a 

 remarkable instance of the levity and inconstancy of man's 

 humor ; which, before a thing is effected, thinks is impossible, 

 and as soon as it is done, wonders it was not done before. So 

 the expedition of Alexander into Asia was at first imagined 

 a vast and impracticable enterprise, yet Livy afterwards makes 

 so light of it as to say, " It was but bravely venturing to despise 

 vain opinions."* And the case was the same in Columbus's 

 discovery of the West Indies. But this happens much more 

 frequently in intellectual matters, as we see in most of the 

 propositions of Euclid, which, till demonstrated, seem strange, 

 but when demonstrated, the mind receives them by a kind of 

 affinity, as if we had known them before. 



Another error of the same nature is an imagination that of 

 all ancient opinions or sects, the best has ever prevailed, and 

 suppressed the rest ; so that if a man begins a new search, he 

 must happen upon somewhat formerly rejected; and by re- 

 jection, brought into oblivion ; as if the multitude, or the wiser 

 sort to please the multitude, would not often give way to what 

 is light and popular, rather than maintain what is substantial 

 and deep. 



Another different error is, the over-early and peremptory re- 

 duction of knowledge into arts and methods, from which time 

 the sciences are seldom improved ; for as young men rarely grow 

 in stature after their shape and limbs are fully formed, so 

 knowledge, whilst it lies in aphorisms and observations, re- 

 mains in a growing state; but when once fashioned into 

 methods, though it may be further polished, illustrated, and 

 fitted for use, it no longer increases in bulk and substance. 



Another error is, that after the distribution of particular arts 

 and sciences, men generally abandon the study of nature, or 

 universal philosophy, which stops all further progress. For as 

 no perfect view of a country can be taken upon a flat, so it is 



