160 OF THE ADVANCEI>IENT OF LEARNING 



staircases, entries, doors, windows, and the like ; st> 

 in speech, the conveyances and passages are of special 

 ornament and eflEect. 



A conclusion in a deliberative. 

 So may we redeem the faults passed, and prevent 

 the inconveniences future. 



XIX. 1. There remain two appendices touching tho 

 tradition of knowledge, the one critical, the other 

 pedantical. For all knowledge is either delivered bv 

 teachers, or attained by men's proper endeavours : and 

 therefore as the principal part of tradition of knowledge 

 concerneth chiefly writing of books, so the relative part 

 thereof concerneth reading of books ; whereunto apper- 

 tain incidently these considerations. The first is con- 

 cerning the true correction and edition of authors ; 

 wherein nevertheless rash diligence hath done great 

 prejudice. For these critics have often presumed that 

 that which they understand not is false set down : as 

 the priest that, where he found it written of Saint Paul 

 ' Demissus est per sportam ', mended his book, and 

 made it ' Demissus est per portam ' ; because sforta- 

 was an hard word, and out of his reading : and surely 

 their errors, though they be not so palpable and ridicu- 

 lous, yet are of the same kind. And therefore, as it hath 

 been wisely noted, the most corrected copies are com- 

 monly the least correct. 



The second is concerning the exposition and explica- 

 tion of authors, which resteth in annotations and com- 

 mentaries : v/herein it is over usual to blanch tho 

 obscure places and discourse upon the plain. 



The third is concerning the times, which in many 

 cases give great light to true interpretations. 



The fourth is concerning some brief censure and 

 judgement of the authors ; that men thereby may make 

 some election unto themselves what books to read. 



And the fifth is concerning the syntax and disposition 

 of studies ; that men may know in what order or pursuit 

 to read. 



2. For pedantical knowledge, it containeth that 



