THE FIRST BOOK 201 



qttam ne dubitare aliqua de re videretur, nor on the other 

 side into Socrates his ironical doubting of all things ; hut 

 to propound things sincerely,, with more or less assevera- 

 tion, as they stand in a man's own judgment proved more 

 or less. 



Other errors there are in the scope that men propound 

 to themselves, whereunto they bend their endeavours ; for 

 whereas the more constant and devote kind of professors 

 of any science ought to propound to themselves to make 

 some additions to their science, they convert their labours 

 to aspire to certain second prizes ; as to be a profound 

 interpreter or commenter, to be a sharp champion or 

 defender, to be a methodical compounder or abridger ; 

 and so the patrimony of knowledge cometh to be some- 

 times improved, but seldom augmented. 



But the greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or 

 misplacing of the last or furthest end of knowledge. For 

 men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, 

 sometimes upon a natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; 

 sometimes to entertain their minds with variety and de- 

 light ; sometimes for ornament and reputation ; and some- 

 times to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction ; 

 and most times for lucre and profession ; and seldom 

 sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason, to 

 the benefit and use of men : as if there were sought in 

 knowledge a couch, whereupon to rest a searching and 

 restless spirit ; or a terrace, for a wandering and variable 

 mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect ; or a 

 tower of state, for a proud mind to raise itself upon ; or a 

 fort or commanding ground, for strife and contention ; or 

 a shop, for profit or sale ; and not a rich storehouse, for 

 the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate. 

 But this is that which will indeed dignify and exalt know- 

 ledge, if contemplation and action may be more nearly 

 and straitly conjoined and united together than they have 

 been ; a conjunction like unto that of the two highest 

 planets, Saturn the planet of rest and contemplation, and 

 Jupiter the planet of civil society and action. Howbeit, I 

 do not mean, when I speak of use and action, that end 



