1 2 The Advancement of Learning 



For if by a secret operation it make men perplexed and 

 irresolute, on the other side by plain precept it teacheth 

 them when and upon what ground to resolve; yea, and 

 how to carry things in suspense without prejudice, till 

 they resolve; if it make men positive and regular, it 

 teacheth them what things are in their nature demonstra- 

 1 tive, and what are conjectural, and as well the use of 

 / distinctions and exceptions, as the latitude of principles 

 V and rules. If it mislead by disproportion or dissimih- 

 tude of examples, it teacheth men the force of circum- 

 stances, the errors of comparisons, and all the cautions 

 of apphcation; so that in all these it doth rectify more 

 effectually than it can pervert. And these medicines it 

 conveyeth into men's minds much more forcibly by the 

 quickness and penetration of examples. For let a man 

 look into the errors of Clement the seventh, so lively de- 

 scribed by Guicciardine,^ who served under him, or into the 

 errors of Cicero, painted out by his own pencil in his Epistles 

 to Atticus, and he will fly apace from being irresolute. Let 

 him look into the errors of Phocion, and he will beware how 

 he be obstinate or inflexible. Let him but read the fable of 

 Ixion,^ and it will hold him from being vaporous or imagina- 

 tive. Let him look into the errors of Cato the second, and 

 he will never be one of the Antipodes, to tread opposite to 

 the present world.^ 

 5. And for the conceit that Learning should dispose men 

 to leisure and privateness, and make men slothful ; it were 

 a strange thing if that which accustometh the mind to a 

 perpetual motion and agitation should induce slothfulness: 

 * whereas contrariwise it may be truly affirmed, that no kind 

 ) of men love business for itself but those that are learned : 

 ^ for other persons love it for profit, as a hireling, that loves 

 the work for the wages ; or for honour, as because it beareth 

 them up in the eyes of men, and refresheth their reputation, 

 which otherwise would wear; or because it putteth them 

 in mind of their fortune, and giveth them occasion to 

 pleasure and displeasure; or because it exerciseth some 

 faculty wherein they take pride, and so entertaineth them 

 in good humour and pleasing conceits towards themselves; 

 or because it advanceth any other their ends. So that, as 



^ Guicciard. xvi. 5. • Pind. Pyth. ii. 21, seq. 



•Cic. ad Att. ii. i. 



