And, therefore, as I did allow well of particular
topics for invention, so I do allow likewise of particular methods
of tradition.
(10) Another diversity of judgment in the delivery and teaching of
knowledge is, according unto the light and presuppositions of that
which is delivered. For that knowledge which is new, and foreign
from opinions received, is to be delivered in another form than that
that is agreeable and familiar; and therefore Aristotle, when he
thinks to tax Democritus, doth in truth commend him, where he saith
"If we shall indeed dispute, and not follow after similitudes," &c.
For those whose conceits are seated in popular opinions need only
but to prove or dispute; but those whose conceits are beyond popular
opinions, have a double labour; the one to make themselves
conceived, and the other to prove and demonstrate. So that it is of
necessity with them to have recourse to similitudes and translations
to express themselves. And therefore in the infancy of learning,
and in rude times when those conceits which are now trivial were
then new, the world was full of parables and similitudes; for else
would men either have passed over without mark, or else rejected for
paradoxes that which was offered, before they had understood or
judged.
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