THE Advancement of Learning was published in the year 1605. It is entitled

THE

TVVOO BOOKES OF
FRANCIS BACON,

Of the proficience and aduancement of Learning, diuine and humane.

TO THE KING.

AT LONDON,

¶ Printed for Henri Tomes, and are to be sould at his shop in Graies Inne Gate in Holborne. 1605 It is a small thin quarto of 119 pages, somewhat incorrectly printed, the subjects being distinguished by capitals and italics introduced into the text, with a few marginal notes in Latin. The following is an exact specimen :

"HISTORY is Natvrall, Civile, ECCLESIASTICALL & LITERARY, whereof the three first I allow as extant, the fourth I note as deficient. For no man hath propounded to himselfe the generall state of learning to bee described and represented from age to age, as many haue done the works of nature, & the State ciuile and Ecclesiastical; without which the History of the world seemeth to me, to be as the Statua of Polyphemus with his eye out, that part being wanting, which doth most shew the spirit, and life of the person."

Of this work he sent a copy, with a letter, to the king; to the university of Cambridge; to Trinity College, Cambridge; to the university of Oxford; to Sir Thomas Bodley; to Lord Chancellor Egerton; to the Earl of Salisbury; to the Lord Treasurer Buckhurst: and to Mr. Matthews. From these letters, which are all in existence, the letter to the lord chancellor, as a favourable specimen, is annexed:

" MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIP,

"I humbly present your lordship with a work, wherein, as you have much commandment over the author, so your lordship hath great interest in the argument: For to speak without flattery, few have like use of learning or like judgment in learning, as I have observed in your lordship. And again, your lordship hath been a great planter of learning, not only in those places in the church which have been in your own gift, but also in your commendatory vote, no man hath more constantly held; let it be given to the most deserving, detur digniori: And therefore, both your lordship is beholding to learning and learning beholding to you; which maketh me presume with good assurance that your lordship will accept well of these my labours; the rather because your lordship in private speech hath often begun to me in expressing your admiration of his majesty's learning, to whom I have dedicated this work; and whose virtue and perfection in that kind did chiefly move me to a work of this nature. And so with signification of my most humble duty and affection to your lordship, I remain.”

Some short time after the publication of this work, probably about the year 1608, Sir Francis Bacon was desirous that the Advancement of Learning should be translated into Latin; and, for this purpose, he applied to Dr. Playfer, the Margaret Professor of Divinity in the university of Cambridge."

Upon the subject of this application Archbishop Tennison says in his Baconiana :-"The doctor was willing to serve so excellent a person, and so worthy a design; and, within a while sent him a specimen of a latine translation. But men, generally, come short of themselves when they strive to out-doe themselves. They put a force upon their natural genius, and, by straining of it, crack and disable it. And so, it seems, it happened to that worthy and elegant man. Upon this great occasion, he would be over-accurate; and he sent a specimen of such superfine latinity, that the Lord Bacon did not encourage him to labour further in that work, in the penning of which, he desired not so much neat and polite, as clear, masculine, and apt expression."

On the 12th of October, 1620, in a letter to the king, presenting the Novum Organum to his majesty, Lord Bacon says, "I hear my former book of the Advancement of Learning, is well tasted in the universities here, and the English colleges abroad: and this is the same argument sunk deeper." An edition, in 8vo, was published in 1629; and a third edition, corrected from the original edition of 1605, was published at Oxford in 1633. These are the only editions of the Advancement of Learning, which were published before the year 1636, a period of ten years after the death of Lord Bacon.

The present edition is corrected from the first edition of 1605, and with the hope of making it more acceptable to the public, an Analysis of the whole work, with a table of contents, is prefixed.

This appears by the following letter, without any date:

"MR. DR. PLAY FER,

"A great desire will take a small occasion to hope and put in trial that which is desired. It pleased you a good while since, to express unto me the good liking which you conceived of my book of the Advancement of Learning; and that more significantly, (as it seemed to me) than out of courtesie, or civil respect. Myself, as I then took contentment in your approbation thereof; so I esteem and acknowledge, not onely my contentment encreased, but my labours advanced, if I might obtain your help in that nature which I desire. Wherein before I set down in plain terms my request unto you, I will open myself, what it was which I chiefly sought and propounded to myself in that work; that you may perceive that which I now desire, to be perusant thereupon. If I do not much err, for any judgment that a man maketh of his own doings had need be spoken with a Si nunquam fallit Imago, I have this opinion, that if I had sought mine own commendation, it had been a much fitter course for me to have done as gardeners used to do, by taking their seed and slips, and rearing them first into plants, and so uttering them in pots, when they are in flower, and in their best state. But for as much as my end was Merit of the State of Learning (to my power) and not Glory; and because my purpose was rather to excite other men's wits than to magnifie mine own; I was desirous to prevent the uncertainness of mine own life and times, by uttering rather seeds than plants: Nay and further, (as the proverb is,) by sowing with the basket, rather than with the hand: Wherefore, since I have onely taken upon me to ring a bell, to call other wits together, (which is the meanest office,) it cannot but be consonant to my desire, to have that bell heard as far as can be. And since they are but sparks which can work but upon matter prepared, I have the more reason to wish that those sparks may fly abroad, that they may the better find and light upon those minds and spirits which are apt to be kindled. And therefore the privateness of the language considered, wherein it is written, excluding so many readers; as on the other side, the obscurity of the argument, in many parts of it, excludeth many others; I must account it a second birth of that work, if it might be translated into Latin, without manifest loss of the sense and matter. For this purpose I could not represent to myself any man into whose hands I do more earnestly desire that work should fall than yourself; for by that I have heard and read, I know no man, a greater master in commanding words to serve matter. Nevertheless, I am not ignorant of the worth of your labours, whether such as your place and profession imposeth, or such as your own virtue may upon your voluntary election take in hand. But I can lay before you no other perswasions than either the work itself may affect you with; or the honour of his majesty, to whom it is dedicated, or your particular inclination to myself; who, as I never took so much comfort in any labours of my own, so I shall never acknowledge myself more obliged in any thing to the labours of another, than in that which shall assist it. Which your Jabour, if I can by my place, profession, means, friends, travel, work, deed, requite unto you, I shall esteem myself so streightly bound thereunto, as I shall be ever most ready both to take and seck occasion of thankfulness. So leaving it nevertheless, Salva Amicitia, as reason is to your good liking. I remain."

4. St. Paul warns us not to be spoiled through vain 3. It makes them irresolute by variety of reading 164 philosophy

ceals the stars and celestial globe: hence men 4. It makes them too peremptory by strictness of

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5. It makes them immoderate by greatness of example.....

164

It teacheth men the force of circumstances, the errors of comparisons, and all the cautions of application.

6. It makes them incompatible by dissimilitude of examples... 165

Let a man look into the errors of Clement the Seventh, so livelily described by Guicciar dine, who served under him, or into the errors of Cicero, painted out by his own pencil in his epistles to Atticus, and he will fly apace from being irresolute. Let him look into the errors of Phocion, and he will beware how he be obstinate or inflexible. Let him but read the fable of Ixion, and it will hold him from being vaporous or imaginative. Let him look into the errors of Cato the Second, and he will never be one of the Antipodes, to tread opposite to the present world.

into a new vessel, than into a vessel seasoned; and what mould they lay about a young plant, than about a plant corroborate: so as the weakest terms and times of all things use to have the best applications and helps.

SECONDLY.

OBJECTIONS TO LEARNING FROM THE MANNERS OF

1.

7. It disposes men to leisure and retirement..... 165 2.
It were strange if that, which accustometh
the mind to a perpetual motion and agitation,
should induce slothfulness: of all men they
are the most indefatigable, if it be towards
any business that can detain their minds.

The most active or busy men that hath been
or can be, hath, no question, many vacant times
of leisure, while he expecteth the tides and re-
turns of business. And then the question is,
but how those spaces and times of leisure shall
be filled and spent; whether in pleasures or
in studies: as was well answered by Demos- 3.
thenes, to his adversary Eschines, that was a
man given to pleasure, and told him, that his
orations did smell of the lamp : Indeed,"
said Demosthenes, "there is a great difference
between the things that you and I do by lamp
light."

8. It relaxes discipline by making men more ready to argue than to obey. 164

To say that a blind custom of obedience should be a surer obligation than duty taught and understood, is to affirm, that a blind man may tread surer by a guide than a seeing man can by a light. And it is without all controversy, that learning doth make the minds of men gentle, generous, maniable, and pliant to government; whereas ignorance makes them churlish, thwarting, and mutinous.

OBJECTIONS TO LEARNING FROM THE ERRORS OF
LEARNED MEN.

1. From their fortunes.

2. From their manners.

3. From the nature of their studies.

FIRST.

OBJECTIONS TO LEARNING FROM THE FORTUNES
OF LEARNED MEN.

1. Learned men are poor and live in obscurity.

Learned men forgotten in states, and not living in the eyes of men, are like the images of Cassius and Brutus in the Funeral of Junia: of which not being represented, as many others were, Tacitus saith, “Eo ipso præfulgebant, quod non visebantur."

LEARNED MAN.

Learned men endeavour to impose the laws of ancient severity upon dissolute times,

Solon, when he was asked whether he had given his citizens the best laws, answered wisely, "Yea, of such as they would receive;" and Plato, finding that his own heart could not agree with the corrupt manners of his country, refused to bear place or office: saying, “That a man's country was to be used as his parents were, that is, with humble persuasions, and not with contestations."

Learned men prefer the public good to their own

interest.

The corrupter sort of mere polititians, that have not their thoughts established by learning in the love and apprehension of duty, nor ever look abroad into universality, do refer all things to themselves, and thrust themselves into the centre of the world, as if all lines should meet in them and their fortunes; never caring, in all tempests, what becomes of the ship of state, so they may save themselves in the cockboat of Learned men fail sometimes in applying themselves their own fortune. to individuals.

The reasons of this:

1. The largeness of their minds, which cannot descend to particulars.

He that cannot contract the sight of his mind, as well as disperse and dilate it, wanteth a great faculty.

2. Learned men reject from choice and judgment.

The honest and just bounds of observation, by one person upon another, extend no farther but to understand him sufficiently, whereby not to give him offence, or whereby to be able to give him faithful counsel, or whereby to stand upon reasonable guard and caution in respect of a man's self; but to be speculative into another man, to the end to know how to work him, or wind him, or govern him, proceedeth from a heart that is double and cloven, and not entire and ingenuous.

4. Learned men are negligent in their behaviour. Learned men should not stoop to persons, although they ought to submit to occasions.

THIRDLY.

OBJECTIONS TO LEARNING FROM THE NATURE OF
THE STUDIES OF LEARNED MEN.

DISTEMPERS OF LEARNING.

1. Fantastical learning.

2. Contentious learning.

3. Delicate learning.

Vain imaginations: vain altercations: vain affectations.

Delicate learning.....

2. Learned men are engaged in mean employments, as 1. It is the study of words, and not of matter.

170

How is it possible but this should have an

See note (A) at the end of this Treatise

PECCANT HUMOURS OF LEARNING.

1. The extreme affecting either of antiquity or novelty 172