312 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



intermeddle within the province of another, which is the 

 rule they call KaOavro^ the other giveth rule unto what 

 degree of particularity a knowledge should descend : which 

 latter I find passed over in silence, being in my judgment 

 the more material ; for certainly there must be somewhat 

 left to practice ; but how much is worthy the inquiry. We 

 see remote and superficial generalities do but offer know- 

 ledge to scorn of practical men ; and are no more aiding 

 to practice, than an Ortelius' universal map is to direct 

 the way between London and York. The better sort of 

 rules have been not unfitly compared to glasses of steel 

 unpolished, where you may see the images of things, but 

 first they must be filed : so the rules will help, if they be 

 _ ^ . laboured and polished by practice. But how 



De produc- ... ' i * f 



tione Axio- chrystallme they may be made at the first, and 



how far forth they may be polished aforehand, is 



the question ; the inquiry whereof seemeth to me deficient. 



There hath been also laboured and put in practice a 

 method, which is not a lawful method, but a method of 

 imposture; which is to deliver knowledges in such manner, 

 as men may speedily come to make a show of learning who 

 have it not : such was the travail of Raymundus Lullius, 

 in making that art which bears his name ; not unlike to 

 some books of Typocosmy which have been made since; 

 being nothing but a mass of words of all arts, to give men 

 countenance that those which use the terms might be 

 thought to understand the art ; which collections are much 

 like a fripper's or broker's shop, that hath ends of every 

 thing, but nothing of worth. 



Now we descend to that part which concerneth the 

 Illustration of Tradition, comprehended in that science 

 which we call Rhetoric, or Art of Eloquence ; a science 

 excellent, and excellently well laboured. For although in 

 true value it is inferior to wisdom, as it is said by God to 

 Moses, when he disabled himself for want of this faculty, 

 'Aaron shall be thy speaker, and thou shalt be to him as 

 God'; yet with people it is the more mighty: for so 

 Solomon saith, Sapiens corde appellabitur prudens^ sed dulcis 

 majora reperiet^ signifying that profoundness of 



