The two books of Francis, Lord Verulam. Of the proficience and advancement of learning.

  • Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The two books of Francis, Lord Verulam. Of the proficience and advancement of learning. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    should intend their beginnings, and do not take things in order of time as they come on, but marshal them according to greatness, and not ac- cording to instance ; not observing the good precept, “ Quod nunc instat agamus” (let us attend to the present business). Another precept of this knowledge is, not to embrace any matters which do occupy too great a quantity of time, but to have that sounding in a man’s ears, “ Sed fugit interea, fugit irreparabile tempus” (meanwhile time, irrecoverable time, flies away); and that is the cause why those which take their course of rising by professions of burden, as lawyers, orators, painful divines, and the like, are not commonly so politic for their own fortunes, otherwise than in their ordinary way, because they want time to learn particulars, to wait occasions, and to devise plots. Another precept of this knowledge is, to imitate nature, which doth nothing in vain ; which surely a man may do if he do well interlace his business, and bend not his mind too much upon that which he principally intendeth, For a man ought in every particular action so to carry the motions of his mind, and so to have one thing under another, as if he cannot have that he seeketh in the best degree, yet to have it in a second, or so in a third; and it he can have no part of that which he purposed, yet