[643] De Augmentis Scientiarum, sec. xxviii. and supplem. xv.
[644] An allusion which, in Plato’s writings, is applied to the rapid succession of generations, through which the continuity of human life is maintained from age to age; and which are perpetually transferring from hand to hand the concerns and duties of this fleeting scene. Γεννῶντες τε καὶ ἐκτρέφοντες παῖδας, κάθαπερ λαμπάδα τὸν βίον παραδιδόντες ἄλλοις ἐξ ἄλλων—Plato, Leg. b. vi. Lucretius also has the same metaphor:—
“Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt.”
[645] Eccles. xii. 11.
[646] This is what the author so frequently inculcates in the Novum Organum, viz: that knowledge and power are reciprocal; so that to improve in knowledge is to improve in the power of commanding nature, by introducing new arts, and producing works and effects.
“Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento:
Hæ tibi erunt artes.”
Æneid, vi. 851.