ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 51 



short memoirs, and jejune relations of sects, schools, books, 

 authors, and the successions of this kind of sciences, as well as 

 some trivial accounts of the inventors of things and arts ; but 

 we say, that a just and universal literary history has not hitherto 

 been published. 



The design of this work should be, to relate from the earliest 

 accounts of time i. what particular kinds of learning and arts 

 flourished, in what ages, and what parts of the world ; 2. their 

 antiquities, progress, and travels on the globe ; 3. their decline, 

 disappearance, and restoration. In each art should be ob- 

 served, 4. its origin and occasion of invention ; 5. the manner 

 and form of its delivery ; and 6. the means of its introduction, 

 exercise and establishment. Add to these, 7. the most famous 

 sects and controversies of learned men ; 8. the calumnies they 

 suffered, and the praises and honors they received ; 9. all along 

 let the best authors and books be noted ; with 10. the schools, 

 successions, academies, societies, colleges, orders, and what- 

 ever regards the state of learning: but n. principally let events 

 be throughout coupled with their causes (which is the soul, as it 

 were, of civil history), in relating the nature of countries and 

 people, and 12. their disposition and indisposition to different 

 kinds of learning; 13. the accidents of time, whether favorable 

 or destructive to the sciences; 14. the zeal and mixture of 

 religion ; 15. the severity and lenity of laws ; 16. the remarkable 

 patronage, efforts, and endowments of illustrious men, for the 

 promotion of learning and the like. All which we would have 

 handled, not in the manner of critics, who barely praise and 

 censure ; but historically, or in the way of a naked delivery of 

 facts, with but a sparing use of private judgment. 



For the manner of writing this history, we particularly advise 

 the materials of it to be drawn, not only from histories and 

 critical works, but also that the principal books of every century 

 be regularly consulted downwards ; so far we mean, as that a 

 taste may be had, or a judgment formed, of the subject, style, 

 and method thereof; whence the literary genius of every age 

 may at pleasure be raised, as it were, from the dead. 



The use and end of this work is not to derive honor and 

 pomp to learning, nor to gratify an eager curiosity and fondness 

 of knowing and preserving whatever may relate thereto ; but 

 chiefly to make learned men wise, in the prudent and sober 

 exercise and administration of learning, and by marking out 



