i l6 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [Hook 



and dissolve into a number of subtle, idle, unwholesome, and, as I may 

 term them, vcrmiculate questions, which have indeed a kind of quick 

 ness, and life of spirit, but no soundness of matter, or goodness of 

 quality. This kind of degenerate learning did chiefly reign amongst 

 the schoolmen, who, having sharp and strong wits, and abundance of 

 leisure, and small variety of reading ; but their wits being shut up in 

 the cells of a few authors, chiefly Aristotle their dictator, as their per 

 sons were shut up in the cells of monasteries and colleges, and know 

 ing little history, either of nature or time, did, out of no great quantity 

 of matter, and infinite agitation of wit, spin out unto us those laborious 

 webs of learning, which are extant in their books. For the wit and 

 mind of man, if it work upon matter, which is the contemplation of 

 the creatures of God, worketh according to the stuff, and is limited 

 thereby : but if it work upon itself, as the spider worketh his web, then 

 it is endless, and brings forth indeed cobwebs of learning, admirable 

 for the fineness of thread and work, but of no substance or profit. 



This same unprofitable subtility or curiosity is of two sorts ; either 

 in the subject itself that they handle, when it isfruitless speculation or con 

 troversy, whereof there are no small number both of divinity and philo 

 sophy ; or in the manner or method of handling of a knowledge, which 

 amongst them was this ; upon every particular position or assertion to 

 frame objections, and to those objections, solutions ; which solutions 

 were for the most part not confutations, but distinctions : whereas 

 indeed the strength of all sciences is, as the strength of the old man s 

 faggot, in the band. For the harmony of a science, supporting each 

 part the other, is and ought to be the true and brief confutation and 

 suppression of all the smaller sorts of objections. But, on the other 

 side, if you take out every axiom, as the sticks of the faggot, one by 

 one, you may quarrel with them and bend them, and break them at 

 your pleasure : so that as was said of Seneca, &quot; Verborum minutiis 

 re rum frangit pondcra : &quot; so a man may truly say of the schoolmen, 

 &quot; Quaestionum minutiis scientiarum frangunt solid! tatcm.&quot; For were 

 it not better for a man in a fair room, to set up one great light, or 

 branching candlestick of lights, than to go about with a small watch 

 candle into every corner ? And such is their method, that rests not 

 so much upon evidence of truth proved by arguments, authorities, 

 similitudes, examples, as upon particular confutations and solutions of 

 every scruple, cavillation, and objection ; breeding for the most part 

 one question, as fast as it solvcth another ; even as in the former resem 

 blance, when you carry the light into one corner, you darken the rest : 

 so that the fable and fiction of Scylla seemcth to be a lively image of 

 this kind of philosophy or knowledge, which was transformed into a 

 comely virgin for the upper parts ; but then, &quot; Candida succinctam 

 latrantibus inguina monstris :&quot; so the generalities of the schoolmen 

 are for a while good and proportionable ; but then, when you descend 

 into their distinctions and decisions, instead of a fruitful womb, for the 

 use and benefit of man s life, they end in monstrous altercations, and 

 barking questions. So as it is not possible but this quality of know 

 ledge must fall under popular contempt, the people being apt to con- 



