310 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



confutation in the delivery of sciences ought to be very 

 sparing ; and to serve to remove strong preoccupations 

 and prejudgments, and not to minister and excite disputa- 

 tions and doubts. 



Another diversity of Methods is according to the sub- 

 ject or matter which is handled ; for there is a great 

 difference in delivery of the Mathematics, which are the 

 most abstracted of knowledges, and Policy, which is the 

 most immersed : and howsoever contention hath been 

 moved touching an uniformity of method in multiformity 

 of matter, yet we see how that opinion, besides the weak- 

 ness of it, hath been of ill desert towards learning, as that 

 which taketh the way to reduce learning to certain empty 

 and barren generalities ; being but the very husks and 

 shells of sciences, all the kernel being forced out and 

 expulsed with the torture and press of the method ; and 

 therefore as I did allow well of particular Topics for 

 invention, so I do allow likewise of particular Methods 

 of tradition. 



Another diversity of Judgment in the delivery and teach- 

 ing of knowledge is according unto the light and pre- 

 suppositions of that which is delivered ; for that knowledge 

 which is new and foreign from opinions received, is to be 

 delivered in another form than that that is agreeable and 

 familiar ; and therefore Aristotle, when he thinks to tax 

 Democritus, doth in truth commend him, where he saith, 

 * If we shall indeed dispute, and not follow after simili- 

 tudes/ etc. For those whose conceits are seated in 

 popular opinions, need only but to prove or dispute ; but 

 those whose conceits are beyond popular opinions, have a 

 double labour ; the one to make themselves conceived, and 

 the other to prove and demonstrate ; so that it is of 

 necessity with them to have recourse to similitudes and 

 translations to express themselves. And therefore in the 

 infancy of learning, and in rude times, when those conceits 

 which are now trivial were then new, the world was full of 

 Parables and Similitudes ; for else would men either have 

 passed over without mark or else rejected for paradoxes 

 that which was offered, before they had understood or 



