142 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



such, as it does not dazzle or snare the understanding 

 in some particulars, but doth more generally and in- 

 wardly infect and corrupt the state thereof. For the 

 mind of man is far from the nature of a clear and equal 

 glass, wherein the beams of things should reflect 

 according to their true incidence ; nay, it is rather like 

 an enchanted glass, full of superstition and imposture, 

 if it be not delivered and reduced. For this purpose, 

 let us consider the false appearances that are imposed 

 upon us by the general nature of the mind, beholding 

 them in an example or two ; as first, in that instance 

 which is the root of all superstition, namely, that to the 

 nature of the mind of all men it is consonant for the 

 affirmative or active to affect more than the negative 

 or privative. So that a few times hitting or presence, 

 countervails oft-times failing or absence ; as was well 

 answered by Diagoras to him that showed him in 

 Neptune's temple the great number of pictures of such 

 as had scaped shipwreck, and had paid their vows to 

 Neptune, saying, ' Advise now, you that think it folly 

 to invocate Neptune in tempest.' ' Yea, but ' (saith 

 Diagoras) 'where are they painted that are drowned?' 

 Let us behold it in another instance, namely, that the 

 spirit of man, being of an equal and uniform substance, 

 doth usually suppose and feign in nature a greater 

 equality and uniformity than is in truth. Hence it 

 cometh, that the mathematicians cannot satisfy them- 

 selves except they reduce the motions of the celestial 

 bodies to perfect circles, rejecting spiral lines, and labour- 

 ing to be discharged of eccentrics. Hence it cometh, 

 that whereas there are many things in nature, as it were 

 monodica, sui juris ; yet the cogitations of man do 

 feign unto them relatives, parallels, and conjugates, 

 whereas no such thing is ; as they have feigned an 

 element of fire, to keep square ^vith earth, water, and 

 air, and the like. Nay, it is not credible, till it be opened, 

 what a number of fictions and fantasies the similitude 

 of human actions and arts, together with the making of 

 man communis mensura, have brought into natural 

 philosophy ; not much better than the heresy of the 



