II.] ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 185 



cept that pleaders should have the places whereof they have most 

 continual use, ready handled in all the variety that maybe ; as that, to 

 speak for the literal interpretation of the law against equity, and con 

 trary ; and to speak for presumptions and inferences against testimony, 

 and contrary. And Cicero himself, being broken unto it by great ex 

 perience, dclivcrcth it plainly ; that whatsoever a man shall have occa 

 sion to speak of, if he will take the pains, may have it in effect pre 

 meditate, and handled in thcsi : so that when he Cometh to a particular, 

 he shall have nothing to do, but to put to names, and times, and places, 

 and such other circumstances of individuals. We sec likewise the 

 exact diligence of Demosthenes, who in regard of the great force that 

 the entrance and access into causes hath to make a good impression, 

 had ready framed a number of prefaces for orations and speeches. 

 All which authorities and precedents may ovcrwcigh Aristotle s opinion, 

 that would have us change a rich wardrobe for a pair of shears. 



But the nature of the collection of this provision or preparatory 

 store, though it be common both to logic and rhetoric, yet having 

 made an entry of it here, where it came first to be spoken of, I think 

 fit to refer over the farther handling of it to rhetoric. 



The other part of invention, which I term suggestion, doth assign 

 and direct us to certain marks or places, which may excite our mind 

 lo return and produce such knowledge, as it hath formerly collected, 

 to the end we may make use thereof. Neither is this use, truly taken, 

 only to furnish argument to dispute probably with others, but likewise 

 to minister unto our judgment to conclude aright within ourselves. 

 Neither may these places serve only to prompt our invention, but also 

 to direct our inquiry. For a faculty of wise interrogating is half a know 

 ledge. For as Plato saith, &quot; Whosoever seekcth, knoweth that which 

 hcseeketh for in a general notion, else how shall he know it when he 

 hath found it?&quot; And therefore the larger your anticipation is, the 

 more direct and compendious is your search. But the same places 

 which will help us what to produce of that which we know already, will 

 also help us, if a man of experience were before us, what questions to 

 ask : or, if we have books and authors to instruct us, what points to 

 search and revolve : so as I cannot report, that this part of invention, 

 which is that which the schools call topics, is deficient. 



Nevertheless topics are of two sorts, general and special. The 

 general we have spoken to, but the particular hath been touched by some, 

 but rejected generally as inartificial and variable. But leaving the 

 humour which hath reigned too much in the schools, which is, to be 

 vainly subtile in a few things, which are within their command, and to 

 reject the rest, I do receive particular topics, that is, places or direc 

 tions of invention and inquiry in every particular knowledge, as things 

 of great use, being mixtures of logic with the matter of sciences : for 

 in these it holdcth, &quot; Ars inveniendi adolescit cum inventis;&quot; for as 

 in going of a way, we do not only gain that part of the way which is 

 passed, but we gain the better sight of that part of the way which re- 

 maincth ; so every degree of proceeding in a science giveth a light to 

 that which followeth, which light if we strengthen, by drawing it forth 



