ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



191 



as are represented in confusion not only appear more in num- 

 ber, but leave a suspicion of many more behind. 



This color deceives i. If the mind entertain too great an 

 opinion of anything; for then the breaking of it will destroy 

 that false notion, and show the thing really as it is, without am- 

 plification. Thus if a man be sick or in pain, the time seems 

 longer without a clock than with one ; for though the irksome- 

 ness of pain makes the time seem longer than it is, yet the 

 measuring it corrects the error, and shows it shorter than that 

 false opinion had conceived it. And so in a naked plain, con- 

 trary to what was just before observed, though the way to the 

 eye may seem shorter when undivided, yet the frustration of 

 that false expectation will afterwards cause it to appear longer 

 than the truth. Therefore, if a man design to encourage the 

 false opinion of another as to the greatness of a thing, let him 

 not divide and split it, but extol it in the general. This color 

 deceives 2. if the matter be so far divided and dispersed as 

 not all to appear at one view. So flowers growing in separate 

 beds show more than if they grow in one bed, provided all the 

 beds are in the same plot, so as to be viewed at once ; other- 

 wise they appear more numerous when brought nearer than 

 when scattered wider; and hence landed estates that lie con- 

 tiguous are usually accounted greater than they are ; for if they 

 lie in different counties, they could not so well fall within no- 

 tice. 3. This sophism deceives through the excellence of unity 

 above multitude ; for all composition is an infallible sign of de- 

 ficiency in particulars 



" Et quae non prosunt singula, multa juvant." Ovid.* 



For if one would serve the turn, it were best ; but defects and 

 imperfections require to be pieced and helped out. So Mar- 

 tha, employed about many things, was told that one was suf- 

 ficient.o And upon this foundation ^sop invented the fable 

 how the fox bragged to the cat what a number of devices and 

 stratagems he had to get from the hounds, when the cat said she 

 had one, and that was to climb a tree, which in fact was better 

 than all the shifts of Reynard ; whence the proverb, " Multa 

 novit vulpes, sed felis unum magnum." b And the moral of 

 the fable is this, that it is better to rely upon an able and trusty 

 friend in difficulty than upon all the fetches and contrivances of 

 one's own wit. 



