250. Scientia inflat, charitas edificat.-1 Cor. viii. 1. (Knowledge puffeth up, charity edifieth.)

The quality of knowledge, . . . be it in quantity more or less, if it be taken without the true corrective thereof, hath in it some nature of venom or malignity, and some effects of that venom, which is ventosity or swelling. This corrective spice, the mixture whereof maketh knowledge so sovereign, is charity, which the

apostle immediately addeth to the former clause; for so he saith, Knowledge bloweth up, but charity edifieth. (Advt. L. i.)

to

Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation
Figures pedantical: these summer-flies
Have blown me full of maggot ostentation.

(L. L. L. v. 2.)

[See at the end of the same scene how Biron is condemned pass twelve months in visiting the groaning sick in an hospital, in order that he may weed this wormwood of a gibing spirit from his fruitful brain and learn charity or mercy in his wit.]

The self-same metal whereof arrogant man is puffed.
(Tim. Ath. iv. 3.)
(Per. v. Gower.)

The worth that learned charity aye wears.
Charity fulfils the law. (L. L. L. iv. 3, rep.)

251. Eadem vobis scribere mihi non pigrum vobis autem necessarium.-Phil. iii. 1. (To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is 'safe'-lit. necessary).

252. Hoc autem dico ut nemo vos decipiat in sublimitate sermonis. (Let no man deceive you (with vain words), Eph. v. 6; with excellency of speech, 1 Cor. ii. 1, Vulgate. This is an instance of Bacon's manner of making incorrect or mixed quotations. The mixture of ideas reappears in the following.)

Prin. He speaks not like a man of God's own making.

Arm. I protest the schoolmaster is exceeding fantastical; too, too vain; too, too vain, &c. (L. L. L. v. 5.)

Kath. Your Majesté have fausse French enough to deceive de most sage demoiselle dat is en France. (Hen. V. v. 2.)

He will lie, sir, with such volubility, you would think truth were a fool. (All's W. iv. 5.)

Thus, with the formal vice Iniquity,

I moralise two meanings in one word. (R. III. iii. 1.)

Bring forth this counterfeit model: he hath deceived me like a double-meaning prophesier. (All's W. iv. 3.)

(See this scene, where Parolles, whose name is descriptive of his characteristic utterance of 'vain words' and of 'excellency of speech,' is examined by the French lords.)

253. Omnia probate, quod bonum est tenete.—Rom. xii. 9. (Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.) Approved warriors. (Tit. And. v. 1.) Approved friend. (Tam. Sh. i. 2.)

Approved good masters. (Oth. i. 3.)

The friends thou hast and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel. (Ham. i. 3.)

254. Fidelis sermo.-1 Tim. iv. 9.

Thy love's faithful vow. (Rom. Jul. ii. 2.)

If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully. (16.)

As I am a faithful Christian man, I would not. (R. III. i. 4.)
I am bound by oath. (Ib. iv. 1.)

I take the like unfeigned oath. (Tam. Sh. iv. 2.)
Lady F. Hast thou denied thyself a Faulconbridge?
Bast. As faithfully as I deny the devil. (John, ii. 1.)
By this hand I swear. (Ib. ii. 2.)

By my fidelity, this is not well! (Mer. Wiv. iv. 2.)
There's an oath of credit.

This is a faithful verity.

(Mer. Ven. v. 1.)

(M. M. iv. 3.)

I here take mine oath. (Lear, iii. 6.)

Faith, we hear faithful news. (Cor. iv. 6.)

Circumstances whose strength I will confirm by oath.

Swear it.

Swear [rep.] (Ham. i. 5.)

(Cymb. ii. 5.)

(Upwards of 500 passages on taking oaths, vowing, and

swearing.)

255. Semper discentes et nunquam ad scientiam veritatis pervenientes.-2 Tim. iii. 7. (Always learning and never coming to the knowledge of truth.)

Glad that you thus continue your resolve
To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy.
Only, good master, while we do admire
This virtue and this moral discipline,
Let's be no Stoics, nor no stocks, I pray ;

Or so devote to Aristotle's checks,

As Ovid be an outcast quite abjured.

No profit grows where there's no pleasure ta'en.

(See fol. 86, 191.)

(Tam. Sh. i. 1.)

256. Proprius ipsorum propheta.-Titus i. 12. (A prophet of their own.)

My other self, my counsel's consistory,

My oracle, my prophet. (R. III. ii. 2.)

O my prohetic soul! (Ham. i. 5.)

Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul

Of the wide world dreaming on things to come. (Son. cvii.)

257. Testimonium hoc verum est.-Tit. i. 13. (This witness is true.)

'Tis true. Witness my knife's sharp point. (Tit. And. v. 3.) My stars can witness. . . that my report is full of truth. (Ib.) He is alive to witness this is true. (Ib.)

Witnessing the truth on our side. (1 Hen. VI. ii. 5.)

(Upwards of 120 passages on witnesses.)

258. Tantam nubem testium.-Hebrews xii. 1. (So great a cloud of witnesses.)

Doth not the crown of England prove the king?

If not that, I bring you witnesses

Twice fifteen thousand hearts of English breed. (John, ii. 1.)
Dor. Is it true. think you ?

Ant. Five justices' hands at it, and witnesses more than my pack can well hold. (W. T. iv. 4.)

259. Sit omnis homo velox ad audiendúm tardus ad loquendum.-Jam. i. 19. (Let every man be swift to hear and slow to speak.)

If we did but know the virtue of silence and slowness to speak commended by St. James, our controversies would of themselves close up. (Con. of the Church.)

Men of few words are best. (Hen. v. iii. 2.)

Be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech.

(All's Well, i. 3.)

Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice.
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.

(Ham. i. 3.)

260. Error novissimus pejor priori.-Matt. xxvii. 64. (So the last error (shall be) worse than the first.)

That one error fills him with faults, makes him run through all the sins. (Tw. G. Ver. v. 4.)

O Jove, a beastly fault! and then another fault. on it, Jove, a foul fault! (Mer. Wiv. v. 1.)

If I could add a lie unto a fault I would deny it.

In religion,

Think

(Mer. Ven. v. 1.)

(7b. iii. 2.)
(M. M. v. 1.)

(Oth. iv. 3.)
(M. N. D. v. 1.)

What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it, and approve it with a text.
I have bethought me of another fault.
Is it frailty that thus errs? It is so too.
This is the greatest error of all the rest.
What error leads must err. (Tr. Cr. v. 2.)
What faults he made before the last, I think,
Might have found easy fines: but.

this admits no excuse. (Cor. v. 5.)

261. Quæcumque ignorant blasphemant. Jude 10. (They speak evil of those things which they know not.)

(See 2 H. VI. iv. 2, where Jack Cade orders the execution of the clerk because he can read, write, and cast accompt'; and ib. iv. 7, where he proposes to pull down the Inns of Court, burn

the records, and behead Lord Say because he has most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school.)

You do blaspheme the good in mocking me.
Disparage not the faith thou dost not know.

(M. M. i. 5.)

(M. N. D. iii. 2.)

262. Non credimus quia non legimus. (We do not believe because we do not read-or have not read.) See Eph. iii. 4, or our Lord's frequent expostulations, 'Have ye never read ?'

Leon. Hast thou read truth?
Off.

Ay, my Lord; even so

As it is here set down. (Win. T. iii. 1.)

Give me leave to read philosophy. (Tam. Sh. iii. 1.)
O! 'tis a verse in Horace; I know it well.

I read it in the grammar long ago. (Tit. And. iv. 3.)
Achilles. What are you reading?

Ulysses.

A strange fellow here

Writes me: That man, how dearly ever parted.
Cannot make boast to have that which he hath,
Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection. (Tr. Cr. iii. 3.)
She hath been reading late

The tale of Tereus; here the leaf's turn'd down

Where Philomel gave up. (Cymb. ii. 2.)

Pol. What do you read, my lord?

Ham. Slanders, sir: for the satirical slave says here that old men have grey beards, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit. (Ham. ii. 2, and see Tit. And. iv. 1, 42–51.)

(Note that in the last five instances-the only ones in the plays which exhibit a person reading a book-the matter is such as it concerns the person addressed, or spoken of, to believe.)

263. Facile est ut quis Augustinum vincat, videant utrum veritate an clamore. (It is easy for any one to [get the better of] refute Augustine, but let them look to it whether they do so by truth or clamour.)

"Tis not the bitter clamour of two eager tongues
Can arbitrate this cause. (R. II. i. 1.)

M