458 DE AUGMENTIS SCIENTIARUM 



promanat 3 ita doctrina ab Aristotele deducta supra doctrinam 

 Aristotelis nunquam assurget. 1 Ideoque etsi non displiceat 

 regula, Oportet discentem credere 2 ; huic tamen conjungendum 

 est, Oportet jam edoctum judicio suo uti. Discipuli enim debeni 

 magistris temporariam solum fidem, judiciique suspensionem, 

 donee penitus imbiberint artes ; non autem plenam libertatis 

 ejurationem, perpetuamque ingenii servitutem. Quare, ut 

 absolvam hanc partem, hoc tantum adjiciam ; magnis authoribus 

 suus sic constet honos, ut author! authorum et veritatis parenti, 

 Tempori, non derogetur. 



Explicavimus tandem tres doctrinae intemperies, sive morbos ; 

 praeter quos nonnulli sunt, non tarn morbi confirmati quam 

 vitiosi humores ; qui tamen non adeo occulti sunt aut latentes, 

 quin in multorum sensum et reprehensionem incurrant, ideoque 

 neutiquam praetermittendi. 



Horum primus est immodicum studmm duorum extremorum, 

 Antiquitatis et Novitatis ; qua in re Temporis filiae male patris- 

 sant. Ut enim Tempus prolem devorat, sic haec se invicem ; 

 dum Antiquitas novis invideat augmentis, et Novitas non sit 

 contenta recentia adjicere, nisi vetera prorsus eliminet et re- 

 jiciat. Certe consilium Prophetae vera in hac re norma est: 

 State super vias antiquas, et videte qu&nam sit via recta et bona, 

 et ambulate in ea.* Antiquitas earn meretur reverentiam, ut 

 homines aliquamdiu gradum sistere et supra earn stare debeant, 

 atque undequaque circumspicere quae sit via optima; quum 

 autem de via bene constiterit, tune demum non restitandum, sed 

 alacriter progrediendum. Sane, ut verum dicamus, Antiquitas 

 sceculi juventus mundi.* Nostra profecto sunt antiqua tempera, 



1 Happy as this image is, it is perhaps less so than that of Descartes with reference 

 to the same subject He compares the servile followers of Aristotle to " le Kerre qui 

 ne tend point a monter plus haut que les arbres qui le soutiennent, et meme souvent 

 qui redescend apres qu'il est parvenu jusques a leur faite." De la Methode, i. 202. of 

 Cousin's edition. 



2 Arist. De Sophist. Eeprehens. li. 

 * Jerem. vi. 16. 



4 This remark is not, I think, given by Bacon as a quotation, and it is probable 

 that he did not derive it from any earlier writer. But in the works of several of the 

 scientific reformers we find similar reflexions. Of writers earlier than Bacon or con- 

 temporary with him, we may refer to Gilbert, to Galileo, to the Apologia pro Galileo 

 of Campanella, and particularly to the Cena di Cenere of Giordano Bruno. The 

 following passage from the last-named writer, in which he appears to have anticipated 

 Bacon, has been referred to by Dr. Whewell in the Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. 

 " Sia come la si vuole," says one of the interlocutors in Bruno's dialogue, ' io non 

 voglio discostar mi dal parer degli antichi, perche dice il saggio, Ne 1'antiquita e 

 la sapienza." To which another replies : "Esoggiunge 'In molti anni la prudenza.' 

 Se voi intendeste bene qualche dite, vedreste che dal vostro fondamento s'inferisce 



