That paves the brooks, the stationary rocks,
The moving waters and the invisible air.
Whate'er exists hath properties that spread
Beyond itself, communicating good,
A simple blessing or with evil mixed:
Spirit that knows no insulated spot,
No chasm, no solitude, from link to link
It circulates the soul of all the worlds."
Excursion, page 387.
Note F.
Referring to page 140.
To this tendency to hasty assent, which is one of the idols of the understanding, originating in a love of truth, (see ante note E) it may seem that Bacon ought to have traced the evils of credulity, which he has classed under Fantastical Learning, (page 171.) Bacon, also says, "The mind of man doth wonderfully endeavour and extremely covet that it may not be pensile: but thai it may light upon something fixed and immoveable, on which, as on a firmament, it may support itself in its swift motions and disquisitions. Aristotle endeavours to prove that in all motions of bodies, there is some point quiescent: and very elegantly expounds the fable of Atlas, who stood fixed and bare up the heavens from falling, to be meant of the poles of the world, whereupon the conversion is accomplished. In like manner, men do earnestly seek to have some atlas or axis of their cogitations within themselves, which may, in some measure, moderate the fluctuations and wheelings of the understanding, foaring it may be the falling of their heaven."
He says also,
"We are not so eager as to reap moss for corn: or the tender blade for ears: but wait with patience the ripeness of the harvest."
And again,
Beware of too forward maturation of knowledge, which makes man hold and confident, and rather wants great proceeding than causeth it."
"Such a rash impotency and intemperance doth possess and infatuate the whole race of man: that they do not only presume upon and promise to themselves what is repugnant in nature to be performed: but also are confident that they are able to conquer, even at their pleasure, and that by way of recreation, the most difficult passages of nature without trouble or travail."
"Stay a little, that you may make an end the sooner," was a favourite maxim of Sir Nicholas Bacon.
In Locke's Conduct of the Understanding, there are some observations upon the evils of haste in the acquisition of knowledge, in departing from the old maxim that "the sinews of wisdom are slowness of belief." So true it is,
"We must take root downwards, if we would bear fruit upwards; if we would bear fruit and continue to bear fruit, when the foodful plants that stand straight, only because they grew in company; or whose slender service-roots owe their whole steadfastness to their entanglement, have been beaten down by the continued rains, or whirled aloft by the sudden hurricane."—Coleridge.
So true is it, that
"The advances of nature are gradual. They are scarce discernible in their motions, but only visible in their issue. Nobody perceives the grass grow or the shadow move upon the dial till after some time and leisure we reflect upon their progress."—South.
Note G.
Referring to page 140.
This peccant humour of learning, "the delivering knowledge too peremptorily, ought, it seems, to have been referred to delivery of knowledge, where it is more copiously treated."—See page 213.
Note H.
Referring to page 140.
This most important part of the conduct of the understanding, a consideration of the motives by which we are actuated in the acquisition of knowledge, may, as in this beautiful passage, and in other parts of Bacon's works, be separated into
1. A love of excelling.
2. A love of excellence.
Although the love of excelling is ihe motive by which in our public schools, and our universities, youth is stimulated, and is in the common world a very common motive of action, yet this intellectual gladiatorship does not and never did influence the noblest minds: it is only a temporary motive, and fosters bad passion. The love of excellence on the other hand, is powerful and permanent, and constantly generates good feeling. That the love of excelling does not influence philosophy, an opinion so prevalent that, aassuming it to be the motive by which men are generally induced to engage in public life, it has been urged by politicians as an objection to learning, "that it doth divert men's travails from action and business, and bringeth them to a love of leisure and privateness."[1] The error of the supposition that the love of excelling can influence philosophy, may be seen in the nature of the passion, in the opinions of eminent moralists, and in the actions of those illustrious men, who, without suffering worldly distinctions to have precedence in their thoughts, are content without them, or with them, when following in the train of their duty.
With respect to the nature of the passion, it is difficult to sup pose that it can influence any mind, which lets its hopes and fears wander towards future and far distant events. "If a man," says Bacon, "meditate much upon the universal frame of nature, the earth with men upon it, (the divineness of souls except,) will not seem much other than an ant-hill, where as some ants carry corn, and some curry their young, and some go empty, and all to-and-fro a little heap of dust." So says Bishop Taylor, "Whatsoever tempts the pride and vanity of ambitious persons is not so big as the smallest star which we see scattered in disorder and unregarded upon the pavement and floor of heaven. And if we would suppose the pismires had but our understanding, they also would have the method of a man's greatness, and divide their little mole-hills into provinces and exarchats: and if they also grew as vitious and as miserable, one of their princes would lead an army out, and kill his neighbour ants, that he might reign over the next handful of a turf."
The same lesson may be taught by a moment's self-reflection.
"I shall entertain you," Bishop Taylor, in the preface to his Holy Dying, says, "in a charnel-house, and carry your meditation a while into the chambers of death, where you shall find the rooms dressed up with melancholick arts, and fit to converse with your most retired thoughts, which begin with a sigh, and proceed in deep consideration, and end in a holy resolution. The sight that St. Augustin most noted in that house of sorrow was the body of Cæsar clothed with all the dishonours of corruption that you can suppose in six months burial."
"I have read of a fair young German gentleman, who living, often refused to be pictured, but put off the importunity of his friends desire, by giving way that after a few days burial, they might send a painter to his vault, and, if they saw cause for it, draw the image of his death unto the life. They did so, and found his face half eaten, and his midriff and backbone full of serpents; and so he stands pictured amongst his armed ancestours."
With respect to the opinions and actions of eminent men, Bacon says, "It is commonly found that men have views to fame and ostentation, sometimes in uttering, and sometimes in circulating the knowledge they think they have acquired. But for our undertaking, we judge it of such a nature, that it were highly unworthy to pollute it with any degree of ambition or affectation; as it is an unavoidable decree with us ever to retain our native candour and simplicity, and not attempt a passage to truth under the conduct of vanity; for, seeking real nature with all her fruits about her, we should think it a betraying of our trust to infect such a subject either with an ambitious, an ignorant, or any other faulty manner of treating it."
So John Milton says,
"I am not speaking to the mercenary crew of false pretenders to learning, but the free and ingenuous sort of such as evidently were born to study, and love learning for itself, not for lucre, or any other end, but the service of God and of truth, and perhaps that lasting fame and perpetuity of praise, which God and good men have consented shall be the reward of those whose published labours advance the good of mankind."
- ↑ See Page 164 ante.
