CHAf. III.J ttHfil'OttlCAL SOMltSMS fiXEMt'LtFIElJ. 245 



be without, because then their industry would be excited to 

 procure other remedies. So a blunt physician whom I knew, 

 when the delicate ladies complained to him, they were they 

 could not tell how, yet could not endure to take physic, he 

 would tell them their way was to be sick, for then they 

 would be glad to take anything. 3. Nay, the degree of priva- 

 tion itself, or the extremest indigence, may be serviceable, not 

 only to excite our industry, but to command our patience. 



The second part ot this sophism stands upon the same 

 foundation, or the degrees betwixt something and nothing ; 

 whence the common-place of extolling the beginnings ol 

 everything, Well-begun is half-done, &c. 



" Dimidium facti, qui coepit, habet."*^ 

 And hence the superstition of the astrologers, who judge the 

 disposition and fortune of a man from the instant of his 

 nativity or conception. 



This colour deceives, — 1. because many beginnings are but 

 imperfect offers and essays, which vanish and come to 

 nothing without repetition and farther advancement ; so that 

 here the second degree seems more worthy and powerful 

 than the first, as a body-horse in a team draws more than 

 the fore-horse : Avhence it is not ill said, The second word 

 makes the quarrel ; for the first might perhaps have proved 

 harmless it it had not been retorted ; therefore the first gives 

 the occasion indeed, but the second makes reconciliation 

 more difficult. 2. This sophism deceives by weariness, which 

 makes perseverance of greater dignity than inception ; for 

 chance or nature may give a beginning, but only settled 

 afiection and judgment can give continuance. 3. It deceives 

 in things whose nature and common course carries them 

 contrary to the first attempt, which is therefore continually 

 frustrated, and gets no ground unless the force be redoubled : 

 hence the common forms — Not to go forwards is to go back- 

 wards — running up hill — rowing against the stream, &c. 

 But if it be with the stream, or with the hill, then the de- 

 gi'ee of inception has by much the advantage. 4. This colour 

 not only reaches to the degree of inception from power to 

 action, compared with the degree from action to increase, 

 but also to the degree from want of power to power, com* 



• Hor. Epist. 1, ii. 40. 



