The First Book 3 1 



yet it must be coupled with this, Oportet edoctum judicare ; 

 for disciples do owe unto masters only a temporary belief 

 and a suspension of their own judgment until they be fully 

 instructed, and not an absolute resignation or perpetual 

 captivity: and therefore, to conclude this point, I will say 

 no more, but so let great authors have their due, as time, 

 which is the author of authors, be not deprived of his due, 

 which is, further and further to discover truth. 



Thus have I gone over these three diseases of learning; 

 besides the which there are some other rather peccant 

 h umours that formed di<;pa<;p<^ - which nevertheless are not 

 55^cret and mtrinsic but that they fall under a popular 

 observation and traducement, and therefore are not to be 

 passed over. 



. I. The first of these is the extreme affecting of two ex- 

 tremities : the one a ntiqui ty, the other novelty; wherein 

 it seemeth the children of time do take after the nature and 

 malice of the father. For as he devoureth his children, so 

 one of them seeketh to devour and suppress the other; 

 while antiquity envieth there should be new additions, and 

 novelty cannot be content to add but it must deface. 

 Surely the advice of the prophet is the true direction in this 

 matter. State super vias antiquas, et videte qucenam fit via 

 recta et bona et ambulate in ea} Antiquity deserveth thatj 

 reverence, that men. should make a stand thereupon and! 

 discover what is the best way; but when the discovery isl 

 well taken, then to make progression. And to speak truly, 

 Antiquitas scbcuU juventus mundi.^ These times are the 

 ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those 

 which we account ancient ordine retrograde, by a computa- 

 tion backward from ourselves. 



2. Another error induced by the former is a distrust thj it 

 anything should be now to be found _out, which the world 

 should have missed and passed over so long time ; as if the 

 same objection were to be made to time, that Lucian maketh 

 to Jupiter and other the heathen gods; of which he won- 

 dereth that they begot so many children in old time, and 

 begot none in his time ; and asketh whether they were be- 

 come septuagenary, or whether the law Papia, made against 

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

 men doubt lest time is become past children and generation ; 

 ^ Jerem. vi. i6. • See Nov. Org. i. 84. 



