36 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



men's marriages, had restrained them. So it seemeth 

 men doubt lest time is become past children and 

 generation ; wherein contrariwise we see commonly 

 the levity and unconstancy of men's judgements, which 

 till a matter be done, wonder that it can be done ; 

 and as soon as it is done, wonder again that it was no 

 sooner done : as we see in the expedition of Alexander 

 into Asia, which at first was prejudged as a vast and 

 impossible enterprise ; and yet afterwards it pleaseth 

 Livy to make no more of it than this, ' Nil aliud quam 

 bene ausus vana contemnere.' And the same hajipened 

 to Columbus in the western navigation. But in in- 

 tellectual matters it is much more common ; as may 

 be seen in most of the propositions of Euclid ; which 

 till they be demonstrate, they seem strange to our 

 assent ; but being demonstrate, our mind accepteth 

 of them by a kind of relation (as the lawyers speak) 

 as if we had known them before. 



3. Another error, that hath also some affinity with the 

 former, is a conceit that of former opinions or sects 

 after variety and examination the best hath still pre- 

 vailed and suppressed the r6st ; so as if a man should 

 begin the labour of a new search, he were but like to 

 light upon somewhat formerly rejected, and by rejec- 

 tion brought into oblivion : as if the multitude, or 

 the wisest for the multitude's sake, were not ready to 

 give passage rather to that which is popular and super- 

 ficial, than to that which is substantial and profound ; 

 for the truth is, that time seemeth to be of the nature 

 of a river or stream, which carrieth down to us that 

 which is light and blown up, and sinketh and di'owneth 

 that which is weighty and solid. 



4. Another error, of a diverse nature from all the 

 iormer, is the over-early and peremptory reduction of 

 knowledge into arts and methods ; from which time 

 commonly sciences receive small or no augmentation. 

 But as young men, when they knit and shape perfectly, 

 do seldom grow to a further stature ; so knowledge, 

 while it is in aphorisms and observations, it is in growth 

 but when it once is comprehended in exact methods, it 



