184 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



minate use in moralities, from these the mind sufEereth ; 

 and of these are such receipts and regiments com- 

 pounded and described, as may serve to recover or 

 preserve the health and good estate of the mind, 

 as far as pertaineth to human medicine : of which 

 number we will insist upon some one or two, as an 

 example of the rest, because it were too long to prose- 

 cute all ; and therefore we do resume custom and 

 habit to speak of. 



8. The opinion of Aristotle seemeth to me a negligent 

 opinion, that of those things which consist by nature, 

 nothing can be changed by custom ; using for example, 

 that if a stone be thrown ten thousand times up, it will 

 not learn to ascend ; and that by often seeing or hearing, 

 we do not learn to see or hear the better. For though 

 this principle be true in things wherein nature is per- 

 emptory (the reason whereof we cannot now stand to 

 discuss), yet it is otherwise in things wherein nature 

 admitteth a latitude. For he mought see that a strait 

 glove will come more easily on with use ; and that a 

 wand will by use bend otherwise than it grew ; and 

 that by use of the voice we speak louder and stronger ; 

 and that by use of enduring heat or cold, we endure it 

 the better, and the like : which latter sort have a nearer 

 resemblance unto that subject of manners he handleth, 

 than those instances which he allegeth. But allowing 

 his conclusion, that virtues and vices consist in habit, 

 he ought so much the more to have taught the manner 

 of superinducing that habit : for there be many pre- 

 cepts of the wise ordering the exercises of the mind, 

 as there is of ordering the exercises of the body ; whereof 

 we will recite a few. 



9. The first shall be, that we beware we take not at 

 the first, either too high a strain, or too weak : for if 

 too high, in a diffident nature you discourage, in a con- 

 fident nature you breed an opinion of facility, and so 

 a sloth ; and in all natures you breed a further ex- 

 pectation than can hold out, and so an insatisfaction 

 in the end : if too weak, of the other side, you may not 

 look to perform and overcome any great task. 



