The Advancement of Learning Page #59

The Advancement of Learning, published by Francis Bacon in 1605, is a foundational text in the history of science and philosophy. In this work, Bacon advocates for empirical research and the systematic organization of knowledge, laying the groundwork for the scientific method. The book critiques existing scholarly practices and proposes a new approach to learning based on observation and experimentation. It marks a significant shift towards modern scientific inquiry.

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abound with history, the aim is better when the mark is alive.  And
therefore the form of writing which of all others is fittest for this
variable argument of negotiation and occasions is that which Machiavel
chose wisely and aptly for government; namely, discourse upon histories
or examples.  For knowledge drawn freshly and in our view out of
particulars, knoweth the way best to particulars again.  And it hath much
greater life for practice when the discourse attendeth upon the example,
than when the example attendeth upon the discourse.  For this is no point
of order, as it seemeth at first, but of substance.  For when the example
is the ground, being set down in a history at large, it is set down with
all circumstances, which may sometimes control the discourse thereupon
made, and sometimes supply it, as a very pattern for action; whereas the
examples alleged for the discourse’s sake are cited succinctly, and
without particularity, and carry a servile aspect towards the discourse
which they are brought in to make good.

(9) But this difference is not amiss to be remembered, that as history of
times is the best ground for discourse of government, such as Machiavel
handleth, so histories of lives is the most popular for discourse of
business, because it is more conversant in private actions.  Nay, there
is a ground of discourse for this purpose fitter than them both, which is
discourse upon letters, such as are wise and weighty, as many are of
Cicero ad Atticum, and others.  For letters have a great and more
particular representation of business than either chronicles or lives.
Thus have we spoken both of the matter and form of this part of civil
knowledge, touching negotiation, which we note to be deficient.

(10) But yet there is another part of this part, which differeth as much
from that whereof we have spoken as sapere and sibi sapere, the one
moving as it were to the circumference, the other to the centre.  For
there is a wisdom of counsel, and again there is a wisdom of pressing a
man’s own fortune; and they do sometimes meet, and often sever.  For many
are wise in their own ways that are weak for government or counsel; like
ants, which is a wise creature for itself, but very hurtful for the
garden.  This wisdom the Romans did take much knowledge of: Nam pol
sapiens (saith the comical poet) fingit fortunam sibi; and it grew to
an adage, Faber quisque fortunæ propriæ; and Livy attributed it to Cato
the first, In hoc viro tanta vis animi et ingenii inerat, ut quocunque
loco natus esset sibi ipse fortunam facturus videretur.

(11) This conceit or position, if it be too much declared and professed,
hath been thought a thing impolitic and unlucky, as was observed in
Timotheus the Athenian, who, having done many great services to the state
in his government, and giving an account thereof to the people as the
manner was, did conclude every particular with this clause, “And in this
fortune had no part.”  And it came so to pass, that he never prospered in
anything he took in hand afterwards.  For this is too high and too
arrogant, savouring of that which Ezekiel saith of Pharaoh, Dicis,
Fluvius est neus et ego feci memet ipsum; or of that which another
prophet speaketh, that men offer sacrifices to their nets and snares; and
that which the poet expresseth,

    “Dextra mihi Deus, et telum quod missile libro,
    Nunc adsint!”

For these confidences were ever unhallowed, and unblessed; and,
therefore, those that were great politiques indeed ever ascribed their
successes to their felicity and not to their skill or virtue.  For so
Sylla surnamed himself Felix, not Magnus.  So Cæsar said to the master of
the ship, Cæsarem portas et fortunam ejus.

(12) But yet, nevertheless, these positions, Faber quisque fortunæ suæ:
Sapiens dominabitur astris: Invia virtuti null est via, and the like,
being taken and used as spurs to industry, and not as stirrups to
insolency, rather for resolution than for the presumption or outward
declaration, have been ever thought sound and good; and are no question
imprinted in the greatest minds, who are so sensible of this opinion as
they can scarce contain it within.  As we see in Augustus Cæsar (who was
rather diverse from his uncle than inferior in virtue), how when he died
he desired his friends about him to give him a plaudite, as if he were
conscious to himself that he had played his part well upon the stage.
This part of knowledge we do report also as deficient; not but that it is
practised too much, but it hath not been reduced to writing.  And,
therefore, lest it should seem to any that it is not comprehensible by
axiom, it is requisite, as we did in the former, that we set down some
heads or passages of it.

(13) Wherein it may appear at the first a new and unwonted argument to
teach men how to raise and make their fortune; a doctrine wherein every
man perchance will be ready to yield himself a disciple, till he see the
difficulty: for fortune layeth as heavy impositions as virtue; and it is
as hard and severe a thing to be a true politique, as to be truly moral.
But the handling hereof concerneth learning greatly, both in honour and
in substance.  In honour, because pragmatical men may not go away with an
opinion that learning is like a lark, that can mount and sing, and please
herself, and nothing else; but may know that she holdeth as well of the
hawk, that can soar aloft, and can also descend and strike upon the prey.
In substance, because it is the perfect law of inquiry of truth, that
nothing be in the globe of matter, which should not be likewise in the
globe of crystal or form; that is, that there be not anything in being
and action which should not be drawn and collected into contemplation and
doctrine.  Neither doth learning admire or esteem of this architecture of
fortune otherwise than as of an inferior work, for no man’s fortune can
be an end worthy of his being, and many times the worthiest men do
abandon their fortune willingly for better respects: but nevertheless
fortune as an organ of virtue and merit deserveth the consideration.

(14) First, therefore, the precept which I conceive to be most summary
towards the prevailing in fortune, is to obtain that window which Momus
did require; who seeing in the frame of man’s heart such angles and
recesses, found fault there was not a window to look into them; that is,
to procure good informations of particulars touching persons, their
natures, their desires and ends, their customs and fashions, their helps
and advantages, and whereby they chiefly stand, so again their weaknesses
and disadvantages, and where they lie most open and obnoxious, their
friends, factions, dependences; and again their opposites, enviers,
competitors, their moods and times, Sola viri molles aditus et tempora
noras; their principles, rules, and observations, and the like: and this

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