516 DE AUGMENTIS SCIENTIARUM 



Dei, ut homini animali sint penitus inscrutabilia ; quinetiam 

 saepius eorum oculis qui prospiciunt e tabernaculo se subdu- 

 cant; divina9 tamen sapientiae visum aliquando per vices, ad 

 suorum confirmationem et confusionem eorum qui tanquam 

 sine Deo sunt in mundo, ea, quasi majoribus characteribus 

 descripta, sic proponere conspicienda, ut (sicuti loquitur Pro- 

 pheta) quivis etiam in cursu ea perlegere possit ! ; hoc est, ut 

 homines mere sensuales et voluptarii, qui judicia ilia divina 

 praetervehi festinant neque cogitationes suas in ea unquam 

 defigunt, tamen quamvis propere currant et aliud agant, ipsa 

 agnoscere cogantur. Talia sunt vindictae serae et inopinaB; 

 salutes subito affulgentes et insperatae ; consilia divina per 

 ambages rerum tortuosas et stupendas spiras tandem se mani- 

 festo expedientia ; et similia ; quae valent non solum ad con- 

 solandos animos fidelium, sed ad percellendas et convincendas 

 conscientias improborum. 



CAPUT XII. 



De Appendicibus Histories ; qua circa Verba Hominum (quem- 

 admodum Historia ipsa circa Facto) versantur : Partitio 

 earum in Orationes, Epistolas, et Apoplithegmata. 



AT non Factorum solummodo humani generis, verum etiam 

 Dictorum, memoria servari debet. Neque tamen dubium quin 

 Dicta ilia quandoque historiae ipsi inserantur, quatenus ad res 

 gestas perspicue et graviter narrandas faciant et deserviant. 

 Sed Dicta sive Verba Humana proprie custodiunt libri Oratio- 

 num 9 Epistolarum, et Apophthegmatum. Atque Orationes sane 

 virorum prudentium, de negotiis et causis gravibus et arduis 

 habitae, turn ad rerum ipsarum notitiam turn ad eloquentiam 



1 Habbakuk, ii. 2. Bacon seems to have misunderstood the meaning of the passage, 

 the English translation of which is quite in accordance both with the Vulgate and 

 with the Septuagint version. The meaning may be thus paraphrased : " Write so as 

 that the message may be quickly read, in order that the reader may run at once and 

 without loss of time." The idea of quick reading seems to have suggested that of a 

 hasty and careless reader. 



In my copy of Acosta's sermons for Advent, which has Bacon's autograph on the fly- 

 leaf, and for which I am indebted to the kindness of the Rev. P. La Trobe, the follow- 

 ing words are underlined: "Sed explanari in tabulis visio pi'ophetica jubetur, ut 

 possit celeriter a legente percipi." Acostcs Condones de Adventu, (Col. Agrip. 1609) 

 p. 178. Bacon perhaps connected celeriter with legente instead of with percipi, and 

 was thus led to suppose that the passage was to be understood in the way in which 

 he has taken it. 



