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ESSAYS OR COUNSELS
CIVIL AND MORAL.
I. Of Truth.
What is Truth?[1] said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be that delight in giddiness; and count it a bondage to fix a belief;[2] affecting[3] free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing[4] wits which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labour which men take in finding out of truth; nor again that when it is found it imposeth[5] upon men's thoughts; that doth bring lies in favour; but a
- ↑ John xviii, 38.
- ↑ Bacon probably had in mind here the sceptical philosophy of Heraclitus of Ephesus, born about 535 B.C., died about 475 B.C. Pyrrho, 360(?)–270(?) B.C., and Carneades, 213(?)–129 B.C., maintained that certainty could not be affirmed about anything. The reference may be to Democritus, 'the Abderite', born about 460 B.C., died about 357 B.C., called 'the laughing philosopher.'
"Fleat Heraclitus, an rideat Democritus?...shall I laugh with Democritus or weep with Heraclitus?" Robert Burton. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Partition 3. Section 4. Member 1. Subsection 3. - ↑ Affect. To make a show of, be fond of.
- ↑ Discoursing. Possibly in the sense of discursive; i.e. roving, unsettled. But the word may mean debating, arguing.
- ↑ Impose. To exert and influence on.
