1 88 ADVA NCEMENT OF LEA RNING. [Book 



as first in that instance which is the root of all superstition, namely, 

 that to the nature of the mind of all men it is consonant for the affir 

 mative or active to effect, more than the negative or privative. So 

 that a few times hitting, or presence, countervails oft-times failing, or 

 absence ; as was well answered by Diagoras to him that showed him, 

 in Neptune s temple, the great number of pictures of such as had 

 escaped shipwreck, and had paid their vows to Neptune, saying, 

 &quot; Advise now, you that think it folly to invocate Neptune in tempest. 

 Yea, but, saith Diagoras, where are they painted that are drowned?&quot; 

 Let us behold it in another instance, namely, &quot; That the spirit of man, 

 being of an equal and uniform substance, doth usually suppose and 

 feign in nature a greater equality and uniformity than is in truth.&quot; 

 Hence it comcth, that the mathematicians cannot satisfy themselves, 

 except they reduce the motions of the celestial bodies to perfect circles, 

 rejecting spiral lines, and labouring to be discharged of eccentrics. 

 Hence it cometh, that whereas there are many things in nature, as it 

 were, jnonodica, sui juris j yet the cogitations of man do feign unto 

 them relatives, parallels, and conjugates, whereas no such thing is ; 

 as they have feigned an element of fire to keep square with earth, 

 water, and air, and the like ; nay, it is not credible, till it be opened, 

 what a number of fictions and fantasies, the similitude of human 

 actions and arts, together with the making of man communis mensura, 

 have brought into natural philosophy, not much better than the heresy 

 of the Anthropomorphites, bred in the cells of gross and solitary 

 monks, and the opinion of Epicurus, answerable to the same in 

 heathenism, who supposed the gods to be of human shape. And 

 therefore Velleius the Epicurean needed not to have asked why God 

 should have adorned the heavens with stars, as if he had been an 

 yEdilis ; one that should have set forth some magnificent shows or 

 plays. For if that great work-master had been of an human disposi 

 tion, he would have cast the stars into some pleasant and beautiful 

 works and orders, like the frets in the roofs of houses ; whereas one 

 can scarce find a posture in square, or triangle, or straight line, 

 amongst such an infinite number ; so differing an harmony there is 

 between the spirit of man, and the spirit of nature. 



Let us consider, again, the false appearances imposed upon us by 

 every man s own individual nature and custom, in that feigned suppo 

 sition that Plato maketh of the cave ; for certainly, if a child were 

 continued in a grot or cave under the earth until maturity of age, and 

 came suddenly abroad, he would have strange and absurd imagina 

 tions. So in like manner, although our persons live in the view of 

 heaven, yet our spirits are included in the caves of our own com 

 plexions and customs, which minister unto us infinite errors and vain 

 opinions, if they be not recalled to examination. But hereof we have 

 given many examples in one of the errors, or peccant humours, which 

 we ran briefly over in our first book. 



And lastly, let us consider the false appearances that are imposed 

 upon us by words, which are framed and applied according to the 

 conceit and capacities of the vulgar sort ; and although we think WQ 



