II.] ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. r 3 



rules of judgment upon that which is invented, so the doctrine of 

 method containeth the rules of judgment upon that which is to be 

 delivered; for judgment precedeth delivery, as it followeth invention. 

 Neither is the method or the nature of the tradition material only to 

 the use of knowledge, but likewise to the progression of knowledge : 

 for since the labour and life of one man cannot attain to perfection of 

 knowledge, the wisdom of the tradition is that which inspireth the 

 felicity of continuance and proceeding. And therefore the most real 

 diversity of method, is of method referred to use, and method referred 

 to progression, whereof the one may be termed magistral, and the 

 other of probation. 



The latter whereof seemeth to be via dcserta et interdnsa. For as 

 knowledges are now delivered, there is a kind of contract of error, 

 between the deliverer and the receiver ; for he that dclivereth know 

 ledge, desireth to deliver it in such form as may be best believed, and 

 not as may be best examined : and he that receiveth knowledge, des reth 

 rather present satisfaction, than expectant inquiry : and so rather not 

 to doubt, than not to err; glory making the author not to lay open his 

 weakness, and sloth making the disciple not to know his strength. 



Hut knowledge, that is delivered as a thread to be spun on, ought 

 to be delivered and intimated, if it were possible, in the same method 

 wherein it was invented, and so is it possible of knowledge induced. 

 But in this same anticipated and prevented knowledge, no man 

 knoweth how he came to the knowledge which he hath obtained. But 

 yet nevertheless, secundnm inajits et minus, a man may revisit and 

 descend unto the foundations of his knowledge and consent ; and so 

 transplant it into another as it grew in his own mind. For it is in 

 knowledges, as it is in plants, if you mean to use the plant, it is no 

 matter for the roots ; but if you mean to remove it to grow, then it is 

 more assured to rest upon roots than slip* : so the delivery of know 

 ledges, as it is now used, is as of fair bou. es of trees without the roots; 

 good for the carpenter, but not for the planter. But if you will have 

 sciences grow, it is less matter for the shaft or body of the tree, so you 

 look well to the taking up of the roots : of which kind of delivery the 

 method of the mathematics, in that subject, hath some shadow ; but 

 generally I see it neither put in use nor put in inquisition, and there 

 fore note it for deficient. 



Another diversity of method there is, which hath some affinity with 

 the former, used in some cases by the discretion of the ancients, but 

 disgraced since by the impostures of many vain persons, who have 

 made it as a false light for their counterfeit merchandizes ; and that 

 is, enigmatical and disclosed, The pretence whereof is to remove the 

 vulgar capacities from being admitted to the secrets of knowledges, 

 and to reserve them to selected auditors, or wits of such sharpness as 

 can pierce the veil. 



Another diversity of method, whereof the consequence is great, is 

 the delivery of knowledge in aphorisms, or m methods ; wherein we 

 may observe, that it hath been too much taken into custom, out of a 

 few axioms or observations upon any subject to make a solemn and 



