32 The Advancement of Learning 



wherein, contrariwise, we see commonly the levity and in- 

 constancy of men's judgments, which till a matter be done, 

 wonder that it can be done ; and as soon as it is done, wonder 

 again that it was no sooner done : as we see in the expedition 

 of Alexander into Asia, which at first was prejudged as a 

 vast and impossible enterprise; and yet afterwards it 

 pleaseth Livy to make no more of it than this: Nil aliud 

 quant bene ausus vana contemnere; ^ and the same happened 

 to Columbus in the western navigation. But in intellectual 

 matters it is much more common ; as may be seen in most 

 of the propositions of EucUd ; which till they be demonstrate, 

 they seem strange to our assent; but being demonstrate, 

 our mind accepteth of them by a kind of relation (as the 

 lawyers speak), as if we had known them before. 



3. Another error, that hath also some affinity with the 

 former, is a conceit that of former opinions or sects, after 

 variety and examination, the best hath still prevailed and 

 suppressed the rest ; so as, if a man should begin the labour 

 of a new search, he were but like to hght somewhat formerly 

 rejected, and by rejection brought into obhvion: as if the 

 multitude, or the wisest for the multitude's sake, were not 

 ready to give passage rather to that which is popular and 

 superficial than to that which is substantial and profound ; 

 for the truth is that time seemeth to be of the nature of a 

 river or stream, which carrieth down to us that which is 

 light and blown up, and sinketh and drowneth that which 

 is weighty and solid. 



4. Another error, of a diverse nature from all the former, 

 is the over early and peremptory reduction of knowledge 

 into arts and methods ; from which time commonly sciences 

 receive small or no augmentation. But as young men, 

 when they knit and shape perfectly, do seldom grow to a 

 further stature ; so knowledge, while it is in aphorisms and 

 observations, it is in growth: but when it once is compre- 

 hended in exact methods, it may perchance be further 

 polished and illustrate ^ and accommodated for use and 

 practice; but it increaseth no more in bulk and substance. 



5. Another error, which doth succeed that which we last 

 mentioned, is that after the distribution of particular arts 



' and sciences, men have abandoned universality, or philo- 



Sophia prima ; which cannot but cease and stop all progres- 



* Liv. ix. 17, ■ So in edition 1605. 



