, and so goeth on in an irony.
But the truth is, they be not the highest instances that give the
securest information, as may be well expressed in the tale so common
of the philosopher that, while he gazed upwards to the stars, fell
into the water; for if he had looked down he might have seen the
stars in the water, but looking aloft he could not see the water in
the stars. So it cometh often to pass that mean and small things
discover great, better than great can discover the small; and
therefore Aristotle noteth well, "That the nature of everything is
best seen in his smallest portions." And for that cause he
inquireth the nature of a commonwealth, first in a family, and the
simple conjugations of man and wife, parent and child, master and
servant, which are in every cottage. Even so likewise the nature of
this great city of the world, and the policy thereof, must be first
sought in mean concordances and small portions. So we see how that
secret of Nature, of the turning of iron touched with the loadstone
towards the north, was found out in needles of iron, not in bars of
iron.
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