datur) debellandas & relevandas suscipiatur. Hoc epithalamii votum fit. Certe, filii, facultates, artium & fcientiarum omnium confenfu, aut empiricæ aut rationales funt. Has autem bene commistas & copulatas adhuc videre non licuit. Empirici enim, formicæ more, congerunt tantum & utuntur. Rationales autem, aranearum more, telas ex fe conficiunt. Apis ratio media est, quæ materiam ex floribus tam horti quam agri elicit, sed simul etiam eam propria facultate vertit & digerit. Neque absimile veræ philofophiæ opificium eft, quæ ex hiftoria naturali & experimentis mechanicis præbitam materiam, non in memoria integram, sed in intellectu mutatam & fubactam reponit. Itaque hujufmodi mellis cœleftia dona sperate: neque dicite cum pigro, Leo eft in via: sed vincla quæ vos premunt excutite, & vos recipite. Atque sane, post virtutem veftram propriam, nihil animos vobis magis addiderit, quam si industriam & felicitatem, & facinora ætatis nostræ cogitetis. Nos nostrum plus altra antiquorum non ultra haud vane oppofuimus: Nos iidem, contra antiquorum non imitabile fulmen esse ; imitabile fulmen esse, minime dementes, fed fobrii, ex novarum machinarum experimento & demonstratione pronuntiamus. Quin, & cælum ipsum imitabile fecimus. Cæli enim eft, circuire terram : quod & noftræ navigationes pervicerunt. Turpe autem nobis fit, si globi materiati tractus, terrarum videlicet & marium, noftris temporibus in immenfum aperti & illustrati fint: globi autem intellectualis fines, inter veterum inventa & anguftias steterint. Neque parvo inter se nexu devincta & conjugata funt ista ista duo, perlustratio regionum & fcientiarum. Plurima enim per longinquas navigationes & peregrinationes in natura patuerunt, quæ novam sapientiæ & fcientiæ humanæ lucem affundere poffint, & antiquorum opiniones & conjecturas experimento regere. Eadem duo non ratione folum fed etiam vaticinio conjuncta videntur. Nam eó prophetæ oraculum haud obscure spectare videtur: ubi de noviffimis temporibus loquutus, illud subjungit, Multi pertranfibunt, & multiplex erit fcientia: ac fi orbis terrarum pertranfitus five peragratio, & fcientiarum augmenta five multiplicatio, eidem ætati & fæculo deftinarentur. Præsto etiam est imprimendi artificium veteribus incognitum, cujus beneficio fingulorum inventa fulguris modo transcurrere poffint, & fubito communicari ad aliorum studia excitanda, & inventa miscenda. Quare utendum eft ætatis noftræ prærogativa, neque committendum, ut, cum hæc tanta vobis adfint, vobis ipfi defitis. Nos autem, filii, ab animorum veftrorum præparatione aufpicati, in reliquis vobis non deerimus. probe enim novimus tabellas mentis, a tabellis communibus differre. in iis non alia infcripferis nisi priora deleveris, in illis priora ægre deleveris, nifi nova inscripseris. Itaque rem in longum non differemus: illud itidem vos monentes, ne tanta vobis de noftris inventis polliceamini, quin meliora a vobis ipfis speretis. Nos enim Alexandri fortunam nobis spondemus, (neque vanitatis nos arguatis antequam rei exitum audiatis ;) illius enim res gestæ recenti memoria ut portentum accipiebantur. Ita enim loquitur unus ex æmulis oratoribus: Nos certe vitam humanam non degimus ; fed in id nati fumus, ut posteri Uuu pofteri de nobis portenta prædicent. Sed poftquam deferbuisset ita admiratio, atque homines rem attentius introspexiffent, operæ pretium eft animadvertere quale judicium de eo faciat scriptor Romanus, Nil aliud quàm bene aufus eft vana contemnere. Ita & nos fimile quiddam a pofteris audiemus; poftquam emancipati, & fui jam facti, & proprias vires experti initia nostra magnis intervallis superaverint. In quo sane judicio illud recte, nostra nil magni esse: illud non recte, fi aufis tribuant quæ humilitati debentur: humilitati (inquam) & privationi cuidam iftius humanæ fuperbiæ, quæ universa perdidit, quæque volucres quafdam meditationes loco divinæ in rebus fignaturæ confecravit. Hac enim ex parte revera nobis gratulamur, & eo nomine felices nos & bene de genere humano meritos esse exiftimamus, quod oftendimus quid vera & legitima spiritus humani humiliatio poffit. Verum quid nobis ab hominibus debeatur, ipfi viderint; nos certe nos noftraque vobis debemus. A Omnibus qui aderant digna magnitudine generis & nominis humani oratio visa est, & tamen libertati quam arrogantiæ propior. Ita autem inter fe colloquebantur: se instar eorum effe, qui ex locis opacis & umbrofis in lucem apertam subito exierint, cum minus videant quam prius; fed cum certa & læta spe facultatis melioris. 911 Tum ille qui hæc narrabat; tu vero quid ad ista dicis? inquit. Grata funt (inquam) quæ narrasti. Atque (inquit) fi funt ut dicis grata, si tu forte de his rebus aliquid scripseris, locum invenias ubi hæc inferas, neque peregrinationis nostræ fructus perire patiaris. Æquum poftulas, inquam, neque obliviscar. Mr. 1 Mr. FRANCIS BACON of the Colours of Good and Evil; to the Lord Mountjoye. : Send you the last part of the best book of Aristotle of Stagira, who (as your Lordship knoweth) goeth for the best author. But saving the civil respect which is due to a received estimation, the man being a Grecian, and of a hasty wit, having hardly a difcerning patience, much less a teaching patience, hath so delivered the matter, as I am glad to do the part of a good house-hen, which without any strangeness will fit upon pheasants eggs, And yet perchance, some that shall compare my lines with Aristotle's lines, will muse by what art, or rather by what revelation I could draw these conceits out of that place. But I that should know best, do freely acknowledge, that I had my light from him; for where he gave me not matter to perfect, at the least he gave me occasion to invent. Wherein as I do him right, being my self a man that am as free from envying the dead in contemplation, as from envying the living in action or fortune: so yet nevertheless still I say, and I speak it more largely than before, that in perusing the writings of this person so much celebrated, whether it were the impediment of his wit, or that he did it upon glory and affectation to be fubtile, as one that if he had seen ! his own conceits clearly and perfpicuously delivered, perhaps would have been out of love with them himself; or else upon policy, to keep himself close, as one that had been a challenger of all the world, and had raised infinite contradiction. To what cause soever it is to be ascribed, I do not find him to deliver and unwrap himfelf well of that he seemeth to conceive; nor to be a master of his own knowledge. Neither do I for my part alfo (though I have brought in a new manner of handling this argument to make it pleasant and lightsome) pretend so to have overcome the nature of the subject: but that the full understanding and use of it will be somewhat dark, and best pleasing the taste of fuch wits as are patient to stay the digefting and foluting unto themfelves of that which is sharp and fubtile. Which was the cause, joined with the love and honour which I bare to your Lordship, as the perfon I know to have many vertues, and an excellent order of them, which moved me to dedicate this writing to your Lordship, after the antient manner: choosing both a friend, and one to whom I conceived the argument was agreeable." 1 : |