Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/280

 152 ANALYSIS OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. . Deficiencps: of rhetoric 216 . Want of a collection of the popular signs of good and evil ; of the defects of Aristotle s collection. . Want of a collection of commonplaces. 217 . Appendices to the art of delivery. . The art critical. . The art of instruction. The Art Critical. 217 Rules of criticism. The Art of Instruction 217 . It contains that difference of tradition which is proper for youth. . Different considerations. . The timing and seasoning of knowledges. . The judicious selection of difficulties and of easy studies. It is one method to practise swimming with bladders, and another to practise dancing with heavy shoes. . The application of learning according to the mind to be instructed. There is no defect in the faculties intellec tual, but seemeth to have a proper cure con tained in some studies: as, for example, if a child be bird-willed, that is, hath not the fa culty of attention, the mathematics giveth a remedy thereunto ; for in them, if the wit be caught away but a moment, one is to begin anew. . The continuance and intermission of exercises 218 As the wronging or cherishing of seeds or young plants is that that is most important to their thriving : so the culture and manurancel of minds in youth hath such a forcible, though unseen, operation, as hardly any length of time or contention of labour can countervail it afterwards. OF THE WILL 218 . Writers on this subject have described virtues with out pointing out the mode of attaining them. Those which have written seem to me to have done as if a man, that professeth to teach to write, did only exhibit fair copies of alpha bets and letters joined, without giving any precepts or directions for the carriage of the hand and framing of the letters. These Georglcs &amp;lt;f the mind, concerning the husbandry and tillage thereof, are no less worthy than the hero/cal descriptions of vir tue, duly, and felicity. . Division of moral philosophy 219 . The image of good. . The culture of the mind. THE IMAGE OF GOOD. . Describes the nature of good. . Division. . The kinds of good. . The degrees of good. a The ancients were defective in not examining the springs of good and evil. . Uoodis: 1. Private. 2. Public. There is formed in every th ng a double na ture i if good : the one, as every thing is a total or nubstantive in itself,- tfie oilier, as it is a part or member of a greater body, whereof the latter is in degree the greater and the wor thier, because it tendeth to the conservation of a more general form. Therefore we see the iron in particular sympathy nmvtth to the loadstone,- but yet if it exceed a en-tain quan tity, it forsake I h the affection to the loadstone, and like a good, patriot moveth to the earth, which is the region and country of massy bodies. . Public is more worthy than private good. Ponipeius Magnus, when being in commis sion of purveyance for a famine at Rome, and being dissuaded with great vehemency and instance by his friends about him, that he should not hazard himself to sea in an ex tremity of weather, he said only to them, &quot; Necesse eat ut earn, non ut vivam.&quot; The Degrees of Good. The questions respecting the supreme good are by Christianity disclosed. . An active is to be preferred to contemplative life. Pythagoras being asked what he was, an swered, &quot; That if Hiero were ever at the Olym pian games, he knew the manner, that some came to try their fortune for the prizes, and some came as merchants to utter their commo dities, and some came to make good cheer and meet their friends, and some came to luok on , and that he was one of them that came to look on.&quot; But men must know, that in this thea tre of man s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on. For contemplation which should be finished in itself, without casting beams upon society, assuredly divinity knoweth it not. . The ascendency of public good terminates many disputes of the ancient philosophers 220 . It decides the controversies between Zeno and Socrates, and the Cyrenaics and Epicureans, whether felicity consisted in virtue or pleasure, or serenity of mind 220 . It censures the philosophy of Epictetus, which placed felicity in things within our power. Gonsalvo said to his soldiers, showing them Naples, and protesting, He had rather die one foot forwards, than to have his life secured for long by one foot of retreat.&quot; The conscience of good intentions, howso ever succeeding, is a more continual joy to na ture, than all the provision which can be made for security and repose. . It censures the abuse of philosophy in Epictetus s time, in converting it into an occupation or profession 220 This philosophy introduces such a health of mind, as was that of Ilerodicus in body, who did nothing all his life, but intend his health. Sustine, and not Abstine, was the com mendation of Diogenes. . It censures the hasty retiring from bu siness. The resolution of mm truly moral right to be such as the same Gonsalvo said the honour of a soldier should be, &quot;e tela cra.tsiore,&quot; and not so fine as that every thing should caich in it and endanger it.