1 72 BACON 



pursuing that method which procures the greatest belief to his 

 doctrine, not that which most commodiously submits it to ex- 

 amination, whilst the learner desires present satisfaction with- 

 out waiting for a just inquiry, as if more concerned not to 

 doubt than not to mistake. Hence the master, through desire 

 of glory, never exposes the weakness of his own science, and 

 the scholar, through his aversion to labor, tries not his own 

 strength ; whereas knowledge, which is delivered to others as 

 a web to be further wove, should if possible be introduced into 

 the mind of another in the manner it was first procured ; and 

 this may be done in knowledge acquired by induction ; but for 

 that anticipated and hasty knowledge we have at present it is 

 not easy for the possessor to say by what road he came at it. 

 Yet in a greater or less degree any one might review his knowl- 

 edge, trace back the steps of his own thoughts, consent 

 afresh, and thus transplant his knowledge into the mind of 

 another as it grew up in his own. For it is in arts as in trees 

 if a tree were to be used, no matter for the root, but if it were to 

 be transplanted, it is a surer way to take the root than the slips. 

 So the transplantation now practised of the sciences makes a 

 great show, as it were, of branches, that without the roots may 

 be fit indeed for the builder, but not for the planter. He who 

 would promote the growth of the sciences should be less so- 

 licitous about the trunk or body of them, and bend his care 

 to preserve the roots, and draw them out with some little earth 

 about them. Of this kind of transplantation there is some re- 

 semblance in the method of mathematicians; but in general 

 we do not see that it is either used or inquired after ; we there- 

 fore place it among the deficiencies, under the name of the trad- 

 itive lamp, or a method for posterity. 



There is another difference of method, bearing some relation 

 to the former intention, though in reality almost opposite to it ; 

 both of them have this in common, that they separate the vulgar 

 audience from the select ; but herein they are opposite, that the 

 former introduces a more open and the other a more secret way 

 of instruction than the common; hence let them be distin- 

 guished, by terming the former plain or open, and the latter the 

 learned or concealed method, thus transferring to the manner 

 of delivery the difference made use of by the ancients, espe- 

 cially in publishing their books. This concealed or enigmatical 

 method was itself also employed by the ancients with prudence 



