Sixthly, We urge Authorities in points that need not, and introduce the testimony of ancient Writers, to confirm things evidently believed, and whereto no reasonable hearer but would assent without them; such as are, _Nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit. Virtute nil præastantius, nil pulchrius. Omnia vincit amor. Prœclarum quiddam veritas_. All which, although things known and vulgar, are frequently urged by many men, and though trivial verities in our mouths, yet, noted from _Plato_, _Ovid_, or _Cicero_, they become reputed elegancies. For many hundred to instance but in one we meet with while we are writing. _Antonius Guevara_ that elegant _Spaniard_, in his Book entituled, _The Dial of Princes_, beginneth his Epistle thus. _Apolonius Thyancus_, disputing with the Scholars of _Hiarchas_, said, that among all the affections of nature, nothing was more natural, then the desire all have to preserve life. Which being a confessed Truth, and a verity acknowledged by all, it was a superfluous affectation to derive its Authority from _Apolonius_, or seek a confirmation thereof as far as _India_, and the learned Scholars of _Hiarchas_. Which whether it be not all one to strengthen common Dignities and Principles known by themselves, with the Authority of Mathematicians; or think a man should believe, the whole is greater then its parts, rather upon the Authority of _Euclide_, then if it were propounded alone; I leave unto the second and wiser cogitations of all men. 'Tis sure a Practice that savours much of Pedantry; a reserve of Puerility we have not shaken off from School; where being seasoned with Minor sentences, by a neglect of higher Enquiries, they prescribe upon our riper ears, and are never worn out but with our Memories. [Sidenote: _Some remarkable mistakes among the Ancients._] Lastly, While we so devoutly adhere unto Antiquity in some things, we do not consider we have deserted them in several others. For they indeed have not onely been imperfect, in the conceit of some things, but either ignorant or erroneous in many more. They understood not the motion of the eighth sphear from West to East, and so conceived the longitude of the Stars invariable. They conceived the torrid Zone unhabitable, and so made frustrate the goodliest part of the Earth. But we now know 'tis very well empeopled, and the habitation thereof esteemed so happy, that some have made it the proper seat of Paradise; and been so far from judging it unhabitable, that they have made it the first habitation of all. Many of the Ancients denied the _Antipodes_, and some unto the penalty of contrary affirmations; but the experience of our enlarged navigations, can now assert them beyond all dubitation. Having thus totally relinquisht them in some things, it may not be presumptuous, to examine them in others; but surely most unreasonable to adhere to them in all, as though they were infallible, or could not err in any way. CHAPTER VII Of Authority.