ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 159 



I. by immediate consent and common notions ; 2. by induction ; 

 3. by syllogism; and 4. by congruity, which Aristotle justly 

 calls demonstration in circle, each of these demonstrations has 

 its peculiar subjects, and parts of the sciences, wherein they 

 are of force, and others, again, from which they are excluded ; 

 for insisting upon too strict proofs in some cases, and still more 

 the facility and remissness in resting upon slight proofs in oth- 

 ers, is what has greatly prejudiced and obstructed the sciences. 

 And so much for the art of judgment. 



CHAPTER V 



Division of the Retentive Art into the Aids of the Memory and the 

 Nature of the Memory itself. Division of the Doctrine of Memory 

 into Prenotion and Emblem 



We divide the art of memory, or the keeping and retaining 

 of knowledge, into two parts ; viz., the doctrine of helps for the 

 memory, and the doctrine of the memory itself. The help for 

 the memory is writing ; and we must observe, that the memory, 

 without this assistance, is unequal to things of length and accu- 

 racy, and ought not otherwise to be trusted. And this holds 

 particularly in inductive philosophy, and in the interpretation 

 of nature ; for one might as well undertake to make an almanac 

 by the memory, without writing, as to interpret nature by bare 

 contemplation. Scarce anything can be more useful in the 

 ancient and popular sciences than a true and solid help for the 

 memory, that is, a just and learned digest of common-places. 

 Some, indeed, condemn this method as prejudicial to erudition, 

 hindering the course of reading, and rendering the memory 

 indolent ; but, as it is a wrong procedure in the sciences to be 

 over-hasty and quick, we judge it is of great service in studies, 

 unless a man be solid, and completely instructed, to bestow dili- 

 gence and labor in setting down common-places ; as it affords 

 matter to invention, and collects and strengthens the judgment. 

 But among all the methods and common-place -books we have 

 hitherto seen, there is not one of value ; as savoring of the school 

 rather than the world, and using rather vulgar and pedantical 

 divisions than such as any way penetrate things. 



And for the memory itself, it seems hitherto to have been 

 negligently and superficially inquired into. There is, indeed, 



