308 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



best examined ; and he that receiveth knowledge desireth 

 rather present satisfaction than expectant inquiry ; and so 

 rather not to doubt than not to err : glory making the 

 author not to lay open his weakness, and sloth making the 

 disciple not to know his strength. 



But knowledge that is delivered as a thread to be spun 

 on, ought to be delivered and intimated, if it were pos- 

 sible, in the same, method wherein it was invented ; and so 

 is it possible of knowledge induced. But in this same 

 anticipated and prevented knowledge, no man knoweth 

 how he came to the knowledge which he hath obtained. 

 But yet nevertheless, secundum majus et minus, a man may 

 revisit and descend unto the foundations of his knowledge 

 and consent ; and so transplant it into another as it grew 

 in his own mind. For it is in knowledges as it is in 

 plants : if you mean to use the plant, it is no matter for 

 the roots ; but if you mean to remove it to grow, then it 

 is more assured to rest upon roots than slips. So the deli- 

 very of knowledges (as it is now used) is as of fair bodies 

 of trees without the roots ; good for the carpenter, but not 

 for the planter ; but if you will have sciences grow, it is 

 less matter for the shaft or body of the tree, so you look 

 DeMetkodo well to the taking up of the roots. Of which 

 s adfi r iios si sci- kind of delivery the method of the mathema- 

 entiarum. tiques, in that subject, hath some shadow ; but 

 generally I see it neither put in ure nor put in inquisition, 

 and therefore note it for deficient. 



Another diversity of Method there is, which hath some 

 affinity with the former, used in such cases by the dis- 

 cretion of the ancients, but disgraced since by the 

 impostures of many vain persons, who have made it as 

 a false light for their counterfeit merchandises ; and that 

 is, Enigmatical and Disclosed. The pretence whereof is 

 to remove the vulgar capacities from being admitted to 

 the secrets of knowledges, and to reserve them to selected 

 auditors, or wits of such sharpness as can pierce the veil. 



Another diversity of Method, whereof the consequence 

 is great, is the delivery of knowledge in Aphorisms, or in 

 Methods ; wherein we may observe that it hath been too 



