And like as the West
Indies had never been discovered if the use of the mariner's needle
had not been first discovered, though the one be vast regions, and
the other a small motion; so it cannot be found strange if sciences
be no further discovered, if the art itself of invention and
discovery hath been passed over.
(2) That this part of knowledge is wanting, to my judgment standeth
plainly confessed; for first, logic doth not pretend to invent
sciences, or the axioms of sciences, but passeth it over with a
cuique in sua arte credendum. And Celsus acknowledgeth it gravely,
speaking of the empirical and dogmatical sects of physicians, "That
medicines and cures were first found out, and then after the reasons
and causes were discoursed; and not the causes first found out, and
by light from them the medicines and cures discovered." And Plato
in his "Theaetetus" noteth well, "That particulars are infinite, and
the higher generalities give no sufficient direction; and that the
pith of all sciences, which maketh the artsman differ from the
inexpert, is in the middle propositions, which in every particular
knowledge are taken from tradition and experience.
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