L I B. I. Of the Advancement of Learning, 47 



ther <?/ Vulcan or c/Dxdalus 5 / mean of Furnace, or of Engine, or any o- 

 therkjnd: And thetefore as Secretaries and Spials of State, are allow- 

 ed to bring in Bills for their diligence in the inquiry and di(covery of 

 New Occurrences and Secrets in Foreign Eftates 5 fojiou tnuji allow In- 

 telligencers and Spiah of Nature fheir bills of Expences ^ elle you (hall ne- 

 ver be advertiled of many things moft worthy to be known. For ify^- 

 lexaader ntadefuch a liberal Afftgnation of Treafure unto Arijiotle, for 

 "Hunters, Fowlers, FiQiers, and the like, that he might compile a Hi- 

 ftory of living Creatures, certainly much more is their merit, who 

 \vander not in wild forrefts of Nature, but make themfelves a way 

 through the Labyrinths of Arts. 1 /,. ^ ^^ ,, .. ; ,: . , 



§ Another Defeft to be obfervedtiy us (indeeii of great ittfpcirt) is, 

 A negleB^ in thofe vohich are Governours in ZJniverftties, of Confutation j 

 and in Princes andfuperior Terfons, of vifitation 5 to this end, that it 

 way with all diligence be conftdered and conjulted of, whether the Readings, 

 Dijptftations and other Scholajiical exercifes, anciently injiituted, will be 

 good to continue, or rather to antiquate andfubfiitute others more effe&H' 

 al: For amongft Your Majefties moft wife maxims, I find this, That in j^,^i„i'^l 

 mil ufages and Prafidents, the times be conftdered wherein they firji began 3 

 fphich if they were wea^or ignorant, it derogateth from the Authority of 

 the ufage and leaves itforfuJpe£f. Therefore in as much as the ulages 

 and orders of Univerfities, were for moft part derived from times more 

 obicure and unlearned than our own, it is the more reafon that they be 

 re-examined. In this kind I will give an inftance or two for examples 

 lake, in things that feem moft obvious and familiar. // is an ufu- 

 al pra&ice ( but in my opinion fomewhat prepofierous ) that Scholars 

 in the Vniverfities , are too early entred in Logick^ and Rhetorich, > 

 Arts indeed fitter for Graduats than Children and Novices. For thefe 

 two (if the matter be well weighed) aire in the number of the grav- 

 cft Sciences, being the^rirj of Arts, the one for Judgment , the other 

 for Ornament, So likewife they contain Rules and Diredlions,either for 

 the Difpofition orlUuftration of any fubjeft or material Circumftance 

 thereof 5 and therefore for minds empty and unfraught with matter, 

 and which have not as yet gathered that which Cicero calls Syha^Lnd 

 SupeUex, that is ftuft and variety of things, to begin with thofe Arts, 

 (as if one would learn to weigh, of meafure, or paint the wind) doth 

 work but this effed, that the virtue and ftrength ofthele Arts, which 

 are great and Univerfal, are almoft made contemptible, and have de- 

 generated either intoChildifi Sophijiry or ridiculous Ajfe&ation 5 or at 

 leaft have been embafed in their reputation. And farther, the untime- 

 ly and unripe acceffion to thefe Arts, hath drawn on^by nece0ary con- 

 lequence, a watery and fiiperficiary delivery and handling thereof^ as 

 is fitted indeed to the capacities of Children. Another inftance which 

 I willfet down as an Error now grown inveterate, long agoe in the Uni- 

 verfities, and it is this , That in Scholafiical exercifes, there ufeth to be 

 a divorce, very prejudicious, between Invention and Memory : for there 

 the moji of their fpeeches are either, altogether premeditate, fo as they are ut- 

 tered in the very precife form of words they were conceived in, and nothing 

 left to invention j or meerly extemporal,fo as very little is left to Memory^ 

 Whereas in Life and A(Sion, there is very little ufe of either of thefc a~ 

 part, butrather of their intermixture 5 that is, of notes or memorials} 



