The two books of Francis Bacon: of the proficience and advancement of learning [ed. by T. Markby].

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Page 35 - ... as if there were sought in knowledge a couch, whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit ; or a terrace, for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect ; or a tower of state, for a proud mind to raise itself upon ; or a fort or commanding ground, for strife and contention ; or a shop, for profit, or sale ; and not a rich storehouse, for the glory of the Creator, and the relief of man's estate.
Page 81 - Therefore, because the acts or events of true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the mind of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more heroical : because true history propoundeth the successes and issues of actions not so agreeable to the merits of virtue and vice, therefore poesy feigns them more just in retribution, and more according to revealed providence...
Page 80 - The use of this feigned history^ hath been to give some shadow of satisfaction to the mind of man in those points wherein the nature of things doth deny it...
Page 27 - For the wit and mind of man, if it work upon matter, which is the contemplation of the creatures of God, worketh according to the stuff, and is limited thereby; but if it work upon itself, as the spider worketh its web, then it is endless, and brings forth indeed cobwebs of learning, admirable for the fineness of thread and work, but of no substance or profit.
Page 36 - Neither is my meaning, as was spoken of Socrates, to call philosophy down from heaven to converse upon the earth; that is, to leave natural philosophy aside, and to apply knowledge only to manners and policy. But as both heaven and earth do conspire and contribute to the use and benefit of man...
Page 197 - I have passed through, this writing seemeth to me, " si nunquam fallit imago ''f as far as a man can judge of his own work, not much better than that noise or sound which musicians make while they are tuning their instruments; which is nothing pleasant to hear, but yet is a cause why the music is sweeter afterwards : so have I been content to tune the instruments of the muses, that they may play that have better hands.
Page 25 - It seems to me that Pygmalion's frenzy is a good emblem or portraiture of this vanity:* for words are but the images of matter; and except they have life of reason and invention, to fall in love with them is all one as to fall in love with a picture.
Page 25 - Here, therefore, is the first distemper of learning, when men study words and not matter; whereof, though I have represented an example of late times, yet it hath been and will be secundum majus et minus in all time.
Page 83 - For being as a plant that cometh of the lust of the earth, without a formal seed, it hath sprung up and spread abroad more than any other kind : but to ascribe unto it that which is due, for the expressing of affections, passions, corruptions, and customs, we are beholden to poets more than to the philosophers' works; and for wit and eloquence, not much less than to orators
Page 59 - But the images of men's wits and knowledges remain in books, exempted from the wrong of time and capable of perpetual renovation.

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