(4) But knowledge that is delivered as a thread to be spun on ought
to be delivered and intimated, if it were possible, in the same
method wherein it was invented: and so is it possible of knowledge
induced. But in this same anticipated and prevented knowledge, no
man knoweth how he came to the knowledge which he hath obtained.
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. 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; good for the carpenter, but not for the
planter. But if you will have sciences grow, it is less matter for
the shaft or body of the tree, so you look well to the taking up of
the roots. Of which kind of delivery the method of the mathematics,
in that subject, hath some shadow: but generally I see it neither
put in use nor put in inquisition, and therefore note it for
deficient.
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