CHAP. III.] RHETORICAL SOPHISMS EXEMPLIFIED. 249 



shorter than that false opinion had conceived it. And so in 

 a naked plain, contrary to what was just before observed, 

 though the way to the eye may seem shorter when undivided, 

 yet the frustration of that false expectation will afterwards 

 cause it to appear longer than the truth. Therefore, if a 

 man design to encourage the false opinion of another as to 

 the greatness of a thing, let him not divide and split it, but 

 extol it in the general. This colour deceives, — 2. if the 

 matter be so far divided and dispersed as not all to appear 

 at one view. So flowers growing in separate beds show 

 more than if they grow in one bed, provided all the beds are 

 in the same plot, so as to be viewed at once ; otherwise they 

 appear more numerous when brought nearer than when 

 scattered wider; and hence landed estates that lie contiguous 

 are usually accounted greater than they are ; for if they lie in 

 different counties, they could not so well fall within notice. 

 3. This sophism deceives through the excellence of unity 

 above multitude ; for all composition is an infallible sign of 

 deficiency in particulars, — 



" Et quae non prosunt singula, multa juvant."* 

 For if one would serve the turn, it were best ; but defects 

 and imperfections require to be pieced and helped out. So 

 Martha, employed about many things, was told that one was 

 sufficient.'^ And upon this foundation ^sop invented the 

 fable how the fox bragged to the cat what a number of 

 devices and stratagems he had to get from the hounds, when 

 the cat said she had one, and that was to climb a tree, which 

 ill fact was better than all the shifts of reynard ; whence the 

 proverb, " Multa novit vulpes, sed felis unum magnum." * 

 And the moral of the fable is this, that it is better to rely 

 upon an able and trusty friend in difficulty than upon all 

 the fetches and contrivances of one's own wit. 



It were easy to collect a large number of this kind ol 

 sophisms, — which we collected in our youth, but without 

 their illustrations and solutions. These at last we have 

 found time to digest, and think the performance of con- 

 siderable service, — whereto if their fallacies and detections 

 were annexed, it might be a work of considerable service, 

 as launching into primary philosophy and politics as well aa 

 * Ovid, Rernedia Amoris, 429. ^ Luke x. 41. 



* Thfi fox had many shifts, but the cat a capital one. 



