Date: 1605

"For the wit and mind of man, if it work upon matter, which is the contemplation of the creatures of God, worketh according to the stuff and is limited thereby; but if it work upon itself, as the spider worketh his web, then it is endless, and brings forth indeed cobwebs of learning, admirable fo...

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

Date: 1605, 1640

"But the poets and writers of histories are the best doctors of this knowledge; where we may find painted forth, with great life, how affections are kindled and incited; and how pacified and refrained; and how again contained from act and further degree; how they disclose themselves; how they wor...

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

Date: 1605, 1640

"But yet, nevertheless, secundum majus et minus, a man may revisit and descend unto the foundations of his knowledge and consent; and so transplant it into another, as it grew in his own mind."

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

Date: 1605, 1640

"For it is in knowledges as it is in plants: if you mean to use the plant, it is no matter for the roots--but if you mean to remove it to grow, then it is more assured to rest upon roots than slips: so the delivery of knowledges (as it is now used) is as of fair bodies of trees without the roots;...

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

Date: 1605, 1640

"For as the wronging or cherishing of seeds or young plants is that that is most important to their thriving, and as it was noted that the first six kings being in truth as tutors of the state of Rome in the infancy thereof was the principal cause of the immense greatness of that state which foll...

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

Date: 1605, 1640

"Amongst the which this last is of special use in moral and civil matters; how, I say, to set affection against affection, and to master one by another; even as we used to hunt beast with beast, and fly bird with bird, which otherwise percase we could not so easily recover."

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

Date: 1605, 1640

"For as in the government of states it is sometimes necessary to bridle one faction with another, so it is in the government within."

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

Date: 1605, 1640

"Let us now pass on to the judicial place or palace of the mind, which we are to approach and view with more reverence and attention."

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

Date: 1605, 1640

"By which wordes he declares, not obscurely, that God hath framed the Mind of Man, as a Mirror or Glasse capable of the Image of the universall world, and as joyfull to receive the impressions thereof, as the eye joyeth to receave light; and not only delighted in the beholding, the variety of thi...

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

Date: 1605, 1640

"For the mind of man is far from the nature of a clear and equal glass, wherein the beams of things should reflect according to their true incidence; nay, it is rather like an enchanted glass, full of superstition and imposture, if it be not delivered and reduced."

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)